Villain's Rising

"Any last words, brother?"

Sam didn't reply to that question immediately. Instead, he smirked as if being pinned down by the strongest Superhero was the most normal thing that was happening to him.

After a brief moment of silence, Sam's lips parted. "Do you know why I told you about your friend– the girl who was the traitor?"

Michael, visibly confused at the sudden question, kept his silence.

Seeing this, Sam's lips curled.

"It's so that I can get you away from the campus where the blast occurred," Sam revealed.

"Bullshit! You didn't know there would be a blast!" Starsuper interrupted.

"I didn't?" Sam questioned rhetorically. "I knew Eve would see through my plan. I knew he would be involved. I knew he would unleash his signature move, Dragon's Judgement."

Starsuper, stunned by those words, wanted to argue, but he couldn't seem to find the words.

After a short pause, he looked at Micheal and spoke, "Kill him, boy. We can't let him play with our minds!"

"Y-Yes," nodding, Micheal said before activating his ability.

"Do you know why I did that?" Sam, ignoring Starsuper, said to Micheal.

"Boy, don't let him play with you!" Starsuper tried to interrupt, but Michael gestured to him to stop.

He needed closure before killing him.

"Why?" Micheal asked.

"Because I wanted you to live," Sam replied with a warm smile.

"Don't act as if you care about your brother now, Sam!" Anthony joined in. "He could've lost his life just for being related to you!"

Sam couldn't help but sigh at that statement. "When did I say I cared for him?"

"Okay, that's enough," losing his interest in Sam's words, Micheal spoke, and his eyes started glowing in the shade of midnight blue.

Starsuper was crushing Sam's ribs, so his body was actively healing, thus rendering him unable to use his [Biology Manipulation] to control or kill Micheal.

It looked as if it was truly the end for him. But even in his last moments, Sam was smiling.

The area around Micheal's open palm– pointed at Sam and Starsuper– started distorting.

"Spatial Distorti-" however, before he could finish using his ability, Starsuper sensed a shadow speeding toward them.

Without wasting any time, Starsuper grabbed Micheal and flew in the air– disrupting his ability cast.

Anthony, too, followed his father's lead even though he didn't sense anything.

"Wh-What?!" Micheal squeaked in surprise as he found himself in the sky out of nowhere.

"Yes, father, what happened?!" Anthony questioned with a deep frown on his face.

Why did they stop? That was a perfect chance to kill Sam!

"Damn it," Starsuper cursed, looking down at the ground where they were standing a moment ago.

When Anthony and Micheal followed his gaze, they saw that the shadows on the ground were erupting out like spikes.

It could've seriously injured them and probably killed Michael had they been any late in evading them.

"What's that?!" Anthony, lost for what was going on, looked at his father.

"That's a Calamity Rank villain…." Starsuper said in disdain. "Marcel is here."

"I hope you don't mind bringing me my backup!" Sam, who was on his feet by now, shouted from the ground. Shadow spikes sticking out from the ground all around him.

"I mean, you can't really complain, right?" Sam smirked. "I'm going up against the world's strongest Hero. I would be foolish not to bring any help."

As if waiting for that cue, out of one of the shadow spikes, a figure of a man stepped out.

When the light fell on him, a tall man with silver hair and glowing red eyes was revealed. His skin was darkened, and a black aura was oozing out of his body.

"No!" Seeing his appearance, Starsuper's eyes widened. "You monster!"

"Yeah, neat, right? He's my strongest Demon." Sam proudly stated. "I called him for backup, and he came to me without any suspicions. Why would a father doubt his son, right? Unfortunately for him, I never saw him as my father. I turned him."

Starsuper gritted his teeth in annoyance.

When the news about the Progenitor's return was spreading through the Hero community, Arthur asked one of the elite heroes to communicate with Marcel and ask him about it.

Marcel was the ruler of the underworld. And even though he was a villain, Starsuper knew he wouldn't be foolish enough to hide any information on the Progenitor.

After all, the Progenitor was a threat to their existence. Why would they be foolish enough to hide someone or something that could threaten them?

But apparently, Starsuper underestimated a human's foolishness. Not only does Marcel know the real identity of the Progenitor, but he is also stupid enough to trust him.

"Micheal, I want you to teleport yourself away," Starsuper said, still holding Micheal in his hands like a puppy.

"But-" before Micheal could argue, Starsuper cut him off.

"This is not a child's play now! I don't think I can handle Marcel while protecting you!" Starsuper said. "I'm sorry, but I will be the one to kill Samael now."

-Swoosh!

Before any of them could speak any further, a black spike whistled through the air and shot at them.

Starsuper instantly used his Heat Vision and shot down the incoming shadow spike.

"Micheal! Go!" Starsuper yelled, and Micheal hesitantly activated his ability.

Before Micheal could teleport himself away to safety, a black hand shot out from his shadow that was forming on Starsuper's body.

Before Starsuper could react, the dark hand grabbed Micheal and pulled him into the shadow. It looked like Micheal was phasing through Starsuper.

Wide-eyed, Starsuper looked at the ground and saw Marcel pulling out Micheal from one of his large shadow spikes.

Micheal, visibly shocked, tried to space wrap, but before he could do that, Sam chopped off his right leg with his arm blade.

"Arghhhhh!" Micheal screamed in clear pain. His expressions twisted, and his focus shifted to the pain, rendering him unable to use his ability momentarily.

"Fuck!" Starsuper cursed again. "So what will you do? Take your brother hostage?!"

"Of course," Sam conceded shamelessly. "But before that, can I do my monologue?"

"Father, let's rush him! Even if he is taking his brother hostage, we can't put one life before countless others!" Anthony was the one to suggest that.

However, Arthur didn't reply. He, not even for once, entertained the idea of rushing Sam.

Because even if they do rush him, Sam could use Marcel's shadows to teleport himself away somewhere safe. There was no point.

That is unless Starsuper uses his Divine Sight. But there was just a slight problem.

Divine Sight's ability suppression feature doesn't work on Sam. And it doesn't work on someone close to his body either.

And right now, as if he knew that somehow, Sam was standing too close to Marcel.

So instead, Starsuper decided to stall for time and wait for a moment for Sam to get a little far from Marcel.

Without waiting for Starsuper to speak, Sam began, "Do you know everything that you did until now was not out of your free will?"

"What do you mean?" Starsuper, still stalling, asked, indulging in Sam's villain plan revelation monologue.

"The reason I got Micheal away from the campus site was so that he could survive the explosion created by Eve's Dragon's Judgement," Sam repeated his earlier said words.

"Now, why did I do that? That's because I wanted him here. Here right now." Sam said, pointing at Micheal, who was on the ground, still in pain.

Starsuper knitted his brows in a furrow, but he didn't say anything. He simply let Sam speak.

"I knew when the news about my identity would spread, Micheal would be arrested because of his blood connection to him," Sam said and paused for a moment.

"I trusted Micheal to escape and come to you as he did. Then I predicted you would formulate a plan requiring Micheal to use his rare Spatial ability to teleport you and your forces from one potential attack site to another as you did.

"Now, I could've mind controlled him to go to you, but in that case, you would've used your eyes on him, which would've revealed that he was mind controlled by me.

"Not to mention, if I had mind controlled him, you had made a different plan. But I didn't want that. I wanted you to feel safe. I wanted you to think that your plan was working. This little plan of yours is not actually yours. I set this up for you!

"Thus, I didn't mind control him. I let him come to you thinking what he was doing was his own free will, and I let you make him a part of your plan while I made you think the same." Sam, who was practically grinning in the excitement by now, finished.

Starsuper was neither shocked nor in disbelief at the reveal. He was just annoyed.

But there was still one thing he didn't understand.

"Why?"

"Hmm? Why what?"

"Why did you want him here?"

Sam smirked and took a few steps toward them. "Come down and find out!"