Villain's Rising

'Did he just…' Starsuper saw a faint grin on Sam's face. But it vanished as soon as it came, making him think he saw wrong.

Sam, more focused than ever, stood up on his feet with his eyes fixed on Starsuper, making sure the caped superhero wouldn't be able to close in like the last time.

Starsuper, on the other hand, had no fear in the world. He knew all he had to do was connect one punch.

Just one single punch and Sam's body would be reduced to fine particles, leaving him incapable of regenerating back.

Sam was immortal, but he wasn't invincible. Killing him would be hard but not impossible.

Hence, Starsuper flew at Sam at a speed incomprehensible to the human eye.

-Swoosh

This time, Sam was able to follow Starsuper's movement faintly. He was fast, extremely fast.

Well, that's to be expected from someone who crossed the distance between the moon and earth in mere minutes.

Without any delay, Sam moved his body and barely avoided Starsuper's charge.

But like a raging bull who had seen a red cloth, Starsuper changed his direction mid-charge and followed Sam.

This time, Sam barely dodged him.

'Is he getting faster?!' Sam thought in his mind. Every time Sam would dodge Starsuper's tackle, the next time, he'd come faster.

It was almost as if Starsuper was getting faster by the second.

(Yes. According to my estimation, he hasn't even reached half his full potential strength yet. He would only get faster from here.)

'What?!' Sam widened his eyes at the voice's reply. 'Half his full potential strength? That means he would get two times faster by the end of it?!'

As each second passed, the golden aura around Starsuper kept on growing bigger and brighter.

At one point, Sam lost his eyes off Starsuper.

'He disappeared!' Sam panicked.

(Behind you!) The voice in his mind alerted Sam.

Without even confirming whether Starsuper was really behind him or not, Sam shot up into the sky like a fired arrow.

-Kaboooooom!

In the background, Sam saw yet another huge crater appearing on the moon's surface.

It was Starsuper. He was standing in the epicenter of the crater.

Had Sam not flown up in time, his body would've gotten wrecked.

Once again, Sam was reminded of the fact that he was fighting a battle that was way out of his league.

But instead of despairing in the face of a hopeless situation, Sam formulated a plan in his mind.

He activated [Concealment] ability.

He had given this ability to Lucas along with White Walker's ability when he went to face Lightbringer. But knowing that he would need this ability during his battle against Starsuper if something were to go wrong, Sam took it back.

Using [Concealment] at its fullest, Sam momentarily erased his existence from this world.

Erasing one's existence is akin to hanging on the border of life and death. If one were to lose their focus even for a moment, their existence would permanently be erased.

But of course, Sam wasn't going to make such a rookie mistake.

On the other hand, from Starsuper's point of view, Sam had instantly disappeared after flying up.

'Tsk, he's using some kind of ability to mask his presence,' Starsuper released an exasperated mental sigh. 'It's probably the same one that Lucas used during the battle of Los Angeles.'

After taking a mental note, Starsuper nodded.

He can't use his divine sight on Sam, so he can't deactivate his ability cast. But that didn't mean Starsuper had no way to deal with such a situation.

With a frustrated look on his face, Starsuper balled his fists.

The golden aura that was shrouding Starsuper's figure started accumulating around his clenched right fist.

[Overdrive active… 70%]

Starsuper looked at the golden screen in his vision intently. He then looked over his shoulder to ensure the earth was at a relatively safer distance behind him.

Although with the kind of force he would be placing behind his next punch, the moon was sure to get busted, but earth should be safe.

With determination, Starsuper yelled in his mind

'Atomic smash!' As soon as he did so, he threw his fist forward.

There was a few seconds' delay at first. The space was enveloped in its usual silence.

After a few seconds, a bright, blinding white light flashed, illuminating the darkness of space.

From the earth's inhabitants' view, it looked like a star had appeared in the evening sky.

-Thwoooom!

After another few seconds, an immensely powerful and majestic shockwave of energy started washing over the vacuum of space.

The force that the Starsuper used to throw his last punch was around 2 billion tons of TNT.

It was comparable to the force of a white dwarf!

'The fuck is that?!' as Sam saw the sheer magnitude of the shockwave heading toward him, he couldn't help but drench in a cold sweat.

A shiver ran down his spine as a feeling of dread took over his senses. Instead of floating in space, it felt like he was standing in a graveyard.

(Sam, quick! Use [Phasing] ability!)

Right! Sam had to act quickly!

Even if Sam's existence were momentarily erased, he would die if the area his physical body had supposed to be was destroyed.

Protecting his body was the priority!

But using [Phasing] ability would mean discarding [Concealment] ability! And by extension, that would mean revealing his location to Starsuper!

However, Sam had barely any time left to think about that.

Although the speed of his thought process was heightened, it wasn't like he had all the time in the world to spare.

Barring his teeth, Sam called off his active ability and used [Phasing].

Instantly, his body became intangible, and the majestic energy shockwave that was about to hit him passed through him instead.

-Thwaaam!!!

However, when the shockwave hit the moon, the vast majority of the earth's natural satellite's body was destroyed!

Almost 70% of the moon was destroyed in an instant by a punch that didn't even connect it, no less! All that remaining of the destroyed moon's body were huge chunks of white rocks floating in the space.

'Is this the power of a god…?' it wasn't even terror at this point. Sam was genuinely surprised beyond belief.

He was stunned.

A punch of this caliber?! A celestial body was destroyed in an instant?!

(Sam! Above you!)

At the sudden call, Sam looked up only to come face to face with Starsuper.

'When did he come here?!' He widened his eyes.

'Found you!' Starsuper was grinning victoriously. He had his right hand pulled back, almost as if he was ready to send Sam to the afterlife.

As if all the stars were against Sam at that moment, suddenly, his [Phasing] ability shut down.

No, it wasn't because of something that Starsuper did.

Instead, the [Phasing] ability that Sam stole had a limit. The more mass he had to phase through, the longer the ability would go on cooldown– that was its countdown.

And just moments earlier, Sam phased through 2 billion tons of TNT worth of energy!

God knows how long the cooldown will last!

Starsuper could not believe his luck!

From the start of all this, he had very little confidence in winning this war.

It was almost as if something inside of him was telling him, alerting him, that he would lose.

That feeling only grew more when Starsuper met Hiya.

When she told him that in all the timelines, they'd faced defeat, Starsuper almost lost hope for the time in his long life.

After that, when Sam's minions managed to kill several members of the hero council and even Lightbringer, Starsuper questioned his own strength. He felt so weak.

However, now, in this very second, when the boy Progenitor was in his striking range, vulnerable and defenseless, at his mercy, Starsuper couldn't help but feel hopeful for the first time since this war started!

Starsuper couldn't savor the look on Sam's face enough. His eyes were shot wide, and his mouth was gaped open in shock.

In slow motion, Starsuper saw the look of despair finally appearing on Sam's face.

The color started draining off his face, and beads of tears formed at the corner of his eyes. His lips quivered, and his pupils trembled.

Fun isn't something one considers while saving the world, but watching the Progenitor despair did put a smile on Starsuper's face.

Finally, he let this long second end and guided his fist at Sam with instantaneous speed.

This was it! This was Starsuper's perfect victory!