Villain's Rising

"You… will, will never… succeed!"

"Yeah yeah, if I were you, I'd try to save my breath, brother. After all, you never know. It might be your last."

"Sire, are you sure you shouldn't put him in mind control? Or better yet, turn him into a demon too?"

At the moment, Sam was standing in front of a massive body of a dead winged reptile.

The reptile had black obsidian-looking scales covering it from head to toe. That, coupled with its two giant wings and curved horns on its forehead, made it look like a harbinger of destruction.

That was a dragon. A corpse of a dragon, to be precise.

While standing there with almost sparkling eyes, Sam couldn't help but admire the creature in front of him.

During his years of studying Earth's specimens, he had never come across such a marvelous creature.

Behind Sam was standing a boy with strikingly similar facial features to his. Yes, he was Sam's brother, Micheal Godwill.

Micheal was all battered up from the looks of it. It seemed like he had gone through one hell of a beating. His clothes were tattered, and his body was all bruised up. It was a miracle he was even conscious.

Since Sam decided not to put him in mind control, nor did he turn him into a demon, Lucas was making a fuss.

However, Sam was cool as a cucumber with nothing to worry about. It was almost as if he was certain that his victory was inevitable.

"Sire! Are you listening to me? Turn him into a demon so that he may be of some use to us!" Lucas said in a hurried tone.

"Lucas, why are you panicking? His mind is not under my control, but his body is. He won't be able to use his ability so that he won't present any trouble to us." Sam replied in an assuring tone.

"B-But, sire! Why risk it after coming this close to your victory?" Lucas questioned, still unable to understand why Sam refused to turn Micheal.

"That's because before I revive the Dragons and conquer the world to achieve my goal, I have something to confirm," Sam replied with a mysterious look on his face.

"Confirm? Confirm what, sire?"

Without bothering to answer Lucas' question, Sam turned towards Micheal and asked

"During our earlier confrontation, do you remember what you said to me?" Sam inquired.

However, Micheal only gave him a scornful look.

"What are you on about now?" Micheal snorted out a question.

"You said something along the lines of, I am not like this, and it wasn't my fault that I turned out to be like this," Sam answered with heavy eyes.

Seeing the serious look on Sam's and considering his solemn tone, Micheal believed that whatever Sam was talking about was important to him.

Maybe this was an opportunity. Maybe there was still a chance to talk things out with Sam. Maybe Sam wasn't too far gone.

Seeing this and hoping to grasp this glimmer of hope, Micheal too turned serious and replied

"Yes, I believe that you only turned out the way you turned out because of the influence of your father. Had he not been a part of your life, you would've turned out to be normal."

After listening to Micheal's theory, Sam stayed silent for a few minutes.

The sound of silence was deafening to both Lucas and Michael as neither of them knew what was going through the black-haired boy's head.

"Sire, why are you even entertaining yourself with this bullshit? Let's just get to work before the Hero association tracks us down!"

Unable to bear the silence any longer, Lucas spoke up his mind, but Sam, like usual, just ignored him.

After a few more seconds of staying still, Sam morphed his right hand into a blade and cut all the fingers of his left hand.

-Kingg! -Splurt

The fingers fell down and began convulsing, almost as if they were coming to life.

As if to prove that point, in the next moment, the severed fingers started enlarging.

And soon enough, four clones of Sam stood tall before him.

"Put some clothes on," Sam ordered before turning to Micheal.

Confused by his half-brother's sudden actions, Micheal couldn't help but voice the question in his mind.

"Wh-What are you doing?"

There was a tinge of uncertainty and even fear hidden in Micheal's voice. That was understandable since Sam was, after all, the biggest threat to all of humanity.

Any normal person wouldn't even be able to bear the pressure Sam was emanating right now. Fearing such a monster was obvious.

"I, my little brother, am creating clones to study the carcass of this Dragon while you and I go on a little side trip."

"Sire?"

"What?!"

Both Lucas and Micheal were surprised by the sudden reveal of events, yet Sam stayed calm as ever.

"Sire, where do you even want to go at this time of crisis? Going out is not safe even for you!" Lucas tried to reason with his sire, but Sam had already set his mind on something.

"I'm not going to go outside, Lucas," Sam replied while waving his hand. "I'm merely going to get the answers to some of my questions."

"Questions, sire?" Lucas looked at Sam with a questioning look. "What questions do you seek after coming this close to your goal?"

Instead of replying, Sam simply grabbed Micheal by the hand and started dragging him out of the lair.

"W-Wait! Where are we going?" Michael tried to resist, but it was as if he had no control over his own body.

"Sire-" As Lucas was about to interrupt Sam, the black-haired boy spoke

"Lucas, stay here and monitor the clones. Help them with studying the biology of this Dragon if needed. He and I will be on the top floor."

Lucas wanted to stop Sam, but his sire had already given him orders. So the poor read-headed boy could not help but now his head.