Villain's Rising

"Rejoice, for I, Kale won Godhand, the Progenitor, honor you with the title of the Prince Of Heaven's Fall for your valiant efforts up until now! And rejoice for you shall be granted death by my hands!"

Stomping his feet harder on Sam's chest, Kale raised his hand over his head. From his arm, a crimson blade of blood extended out.

However, before Kale could swing it down, Sam activated [Ability Negation] instantly, making his eyes glow white.

-Thud!

Almost immediately, cracks started forming on the blood armor that Kale had all around his body. In no time, the crimson armor shattered like a piece of glass.

"Oh?" Kale raised an eyebrow. "I almost forgot you had that troublesome ability. Well, I need no ability to end you. But if you had used that ability sooner, perhaps you would've had a chance."

"Ple-Please…" Sam choked out a mouthful of blood and uttered weakly.

Seeing this, Kale couldn't help but laugh maniacally, "Ahahaha! Are you begging? Man, you're pathetic! You act tough in front of the weak and resort to begging as soon as you're faced with someone stronger than you?! You thought of doing the same against Starsuper! Boy, all the respect I had for you since your childhood went down the drain just now!"

"No– Please…."

Losing interest, Kale pulled back his right arm and balled his fist, intending to finish Sam off with one punch. "Goodbye, Sam. For what it's worth, I really did enjoy the time we spent together. Talking to you, watching you grow up, and guiding you in life, I enjoyed these last 18 years a lot!"

"Ple-Please…" Sam shook his head, his eyes begging for mercy. "Please, I b-beg you…."

Seeing him like this, Kale felt his heart stung. He really did enjoy his time with Sam. He grew attached to him.

But in the end, he was just a vassal. Kale knew this day would come. The day when he had to kill Sam in order to revive himself.

Ironing his resolve, Kale prepared himself to end this fight.

However….

"Please…."

Slowly, the look in Sam's eyes started changing. A look of mercy to a gleam of insanity. His fear-stricken quivering lips began to curl upward in a deranged smile.

With an estranged look formed on his face, Sam yelled, "Please I beg you! Can you just shut up?!"

"...Huh?" Kale was visibly confused. He thought that this boy had gone insane.

"You keep talking and talking and talking! Oh god! How much can a dead guy talk?! And who the fuck do you think you are to honor me with a title?! I mean, don't get me wrong, 'Prince Of Heaven's Fall' does sound good, so I'll take it, but who the fuck gave you the authority to honor me, a god, with a title?!

"Dude, I get it. You've been dead for so long, and you wanted someone to talk to in person, so you're happy to see me, but god, can you just keep your mouth shut for a moment?! Even during our fight, you kept talking! And no offense, but your dialogues and one-liners are outdated as fuck! You've been watching me for all these years. Haven't you picked up a thing or two, you dead old man?!"

Kale, by now, had his jaw dropped so hard that it was touching the ground. He was confused.

Why was Sam not scared? He was about to die! Did he not understand the severity of the situation? Or maybe he just lost his sanity in the face of certain death…

No, never mind, Sam never had any sanity, to begin with, for him to be losing it now.

But then, why was he not panicking?

This carefree attitude of his gave Kale a feeling of dread. His instincts yelled at him to finish Sam off right now and end the battle.

So that's what he did. Or at least, he tried to….

He shot his pulled-back arm forward and threw a powerful fist, putting immense strength behind it.

But…

"...Huh?!"

His arm didn't budge. It was like his arm joins were glued in place! No, in fact, his whole body was stuck! His entire body felt like it was cemented.

"...What is going on?!" Freaked out, Kale yelled.

"Ho? The great, almighty, self-proclaimed god, the first Progenitor, doesn't know what's going on?" Sam grabbed the foot stomping down on him in place and flicked it aside with force, freeing his body and allowing him to move again.

Wincing in pain from moving his beaten and bruised body, Sam used his hands as support to stand up on his feet.

After standing back up, Sam took a good look at Kale's still mannequin-like figure. The poor guy couldn't even move a muscle.

He tried activating one of his many abilities but that didn't work out either. He looked back to Sam and yelled

"What did you do…? WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!"

Thankfully, at least he was able to move his mouth and speak.

"Oh, you poor soul. To think that you suffered all these years, waited all this time in this god-forsaken realm alone, only to end up dying such a pathetic death." Sam shook his head while circling around Kale like a tiger eying a rabbit.

Kale wanted to yell and scream again, but suddenly he felt a sudden rush of weakness washing over his body.

He lost strength in his knees and fell down to the ground.

His eyes shook and his lips trembled as the fear of the unknown settled in. Weakly, he muttered in a hushed tone, "W-What is going on…?"

"Hmm? You still don't understand?" Sam cocked his head to the side in confusion before he started explaining,

"It is, as you said, that the Tree Of Life is both a living and non-living thing. That means, in theory, my ability to manipulate biology should work on it. So by extension, if I can manipulate that Tree which is apparently the physical manifestation of all life in the universe, I can manipulate all life in the universe. Yours included. So that's what I'm doing. I'm manipulating life itself. I'm draining your life."

Kale's eyes stopped shaking for a moment before they widened in disbelief. He instantly threw an accusation,

"You're lying!" He yelled. "It's not even been an hour since you entered this realm! To use your ability on the Tree, you should be able to know its biology! But you didn't study the Tree at all! You were fighting with me! And I didn't give you enough time to study the anchor! I made you immediately touch that sapling as soon as we found it!"

Sam put a hand over his face and shook his head with a smile. After a second, he took off his hand and spoke, "Isn't it obvious by now? Should I spell it out for you? Fine, let's do it.

"You see, Kale, you're right. Since I got here, I've been fighting with you. Before that, when I found the Branch Of The Tree Of Life, I didn't possibly have enough time to study it. So when did I study the Tree Of Life's biology? The answer is, I didn't."

Through quivering lips, Kale managed to blurt out his confusion, "Th-Then how?"

"You see, I've killed many scientists on my way here. One of them was Rick, one of the most brilliant minds of this and the last few centuries. Rick had thoroughly studied the Branch's molecular build, atomic structure, and stimuli reaction. In simple words, he and the other scientists had done all the research for me beforehand. When I killed them, I just secretly took a look at their memories. Doing so told me all about what I wanted to know since that Branch is the part of this Tree Of Life, I assumed their build would be the same. And it was indeed the same."

Kale was left stunned at this point. He had no idea that Sam had taken a look at his victims' memories.

But there was one thing bothering him.

"Did you not trust me?" Kale asked.

Since Sam looked at their memories 'secretly' and didn't confront the voice in his head about it, that only meant one thing… Sam didn't trust the voice in his head.

"Pftt," a short chuckle escaped from Sam's mouth after hearing that question. "You betrayed me, and yet you dare talk about trust? No, I didn't trust you."

"...Since when?" Kale asked. He had to know this. He had to at least know when he messed it all up. "Since when did you stop trusting me?"

"Ha! Since when? It's very bold of you to assume I ever trusted you in the first place," Sam shot a mocking smirk. "Ever since you first talked to me when I was eight years old, I knew something was wrong.

"Over the years, my suspicions only grew stronger. You always claimed to be my 'inner voice' or my 'friend,' but you always made me act without reason and told me things I never knew. I mean, if you were really my inner voice, you shouldn't have known the things I don't, right?

"You thought you were manipulating me all this time, but instead, I was learning from you. And the best thing you taught me was how to play the game of hunt. You taught me to give your prey a false sense of security until the very last moment you leap out on him from the cover.

"So that's what I did. I gave you a false sense of security while I used you! Yes, that's right -I- was using you! I wanted you to feel safe until the end— until I was ready to slit your throat. So thank you for your teachings and thank you for all the pointers. As talkative as you were, you were indeed very useful….

"Or at least that's what I wanted to say…. But actually, somewhere in the back of my mind, I had always believed in you. Even before I touched the Branch, I asked if you were on my side. You know why? Because I wanted my suspicions to be wrong. Unfortunately, that was not the case. You were not on my side."

A severe feeling of dread took over Kakes senses as his heart stomped. His mind went blank and his eyes shook uncontrollably.

He was played. There was no better way to put it. Sam read him like a book and played him.

All this time, he thought he was the one in control. Somehow, this sense of defeat was even more devastating when Kale came to know that he never had a chance at victory from the start.

Dropping his head, he accepted his fate.

Seeing the hollow look in his eyes and his dropped head, Sam asked, "What are your last words?"

After a long moment of silence, Kake said, "I have no last words. Here's a piece of advice, though, don't get relaxed after you win. Search for Akashic Records."

"Akashic Records, huh?" Sam murmured with a frown. He then shot a wry smile and said, "Fine, I'll remember it. Goodbye… my only friend."

-Snap

Soon as he said that, Sam snapped his fingers and Kale's body instantly started emitting a dazzling white light.

In a span of a few seconds, the light started breaking down into small, fine snow-like particles and Kale's body dissipated into nothingness.

"Well, time to go back, huh?"

After Kale was gone, Sam turned to look at the giant Tree that seemed to have been made up of light itself. Every branch that branched out from this pillar of light indicated life in this universe. That's why there were an infinite number of branches.

"I did it."

He did it. He had acquired it. The greatest power he could've gotten his hands on—the power to manipulate life itself.

It goes beyond the power to manipulate nature or its forces. It was even stronger than the power to manipulate universal forces.

He was truly a god now. He could kill immortals and he himself couldn't be killed now, ever.

This was truly the birth of a new god.

Satisfied with himself, Sam took a deep breath and looked up at the night sky that was painted with auroras all over.

Since he was dead in the physical world, all he had to do was manipulate the Tree Of Life and give himself his life back.

So he closed his eyes and thought about being alive in the real world and sure enough, in the next moment he opened his eyes back in the dungeon he last was.