Villain's Rising

“You made this lab all by yourself?”

“Yes, I mean my clones did most of the work and I just instructed them but yes.”

“I see. It’s a marvel. So many latest state-of-the-art equipment and a chamber made of Hyper Glass. How much money did you throw to make this?”

“Couple of billions. Nothing I can’t afford with a little mind control.”

“Hahaha! True.”

Right now, Sam was showing his basement lab to Marcel. They were talking about random things when Marcel suddenly decided to ask.

“Whose house is this anyway?” Marcel asked with a frown.

“A guy I mind controlled to leave this city. Then I took his house and used this basement to torture Rebekah Willburn.” Sam replied, shrugging casually.

“Rebekah Willburn? As in Starsuper’s daughter?” Surprised by the revelation, Marcel asked.

“Yes,” again Sam replied casually. “I tortured her to find some kind of weakness. I did tests and experiments on her body. I acquired data but no solid weakness.”

“Why hasn’t she killed you yet then?” Marcel asked the most obvious question.

“I don’t know,” Sam replied honestly. “When I confronted her about that, she told me that I didn’t do anything that her father hadn’t already done to her.”

“What does that mean?” Confused, Marcel questioned.

“Who knows?” Sam shrugged again. “All I know is, she is planning to use me to kill her father.”_.

“Wait what?” Marvel’s frown only grew deeper as he heard that. “She wants to kill her father? She wants to kill Starsuper?”

“Shocking right?” Sam nodded. “She even had a plan set up for it. Of course, I’m forced to do all the killing.”

“Oof, it sucks to be you~,” Marcel remarked with a laugh before commenting. “Killing Starsuper is no easy feat. I myself had tried it more than twice but miserably failed every time.”

“I’m not you. You have so much power yet you just want to keep your city safe. Many people would kill to have the power you have. In my opinion, you got the closest to killing him.” Sam remarked. “Besides, as I said, I’m not you. I will kill him and end this story once and for all.”

“Haha! Really now? Yeah, I guess you can do it since you know, you’re the Progenitor and all.” Marcel replied before shamelessly asking. “What’s the plan by the way? Share it with this old man.”

“Old who? You look younger than the last time I saw you.” Sam scoffed.

Marcel is one of the Immortals. He can kill people by absorbing their shadows. Once a person’s shadow is extracted from them and sucked in by Marcel’s shadow, that person will turn to ashes.

Not only is it an extremely offensive and difficult to counter move, but it will also add the remaining life force of that person to Marcel.

That means all Marcel needs to do is keep killing and he will live forever.

The very nature of Marcel’s ability is downright evil.

“Aww, can’t a man stay young forever?” Marcel joked in reply. “Anyway, do answer my question, what is her plan?”

“You know the dragons?”

“Dragons of Dragonheart family? What about it?”

“Yeah, we plan to revive those dragons and unleash a Dragon Army on Starsuper.”

“…”

Marcel was too stunned to reply. He couldn’t understand whether these kids have lost their mind or they are that desperate.

In all honesty, the plan wasn’t half bad. It’s written in history that Dragonhearts were the only people who were capable of standing up to Starsuper with the aid of their Dragons.

10 Dragons were enough to match Starsuper’s might. So an army of them could actually kill him.

But, there’s always a but, it wasn’t that easy.

First, Sam can only revive the dead in a few hours. That means if someone has been dead for more than a few hours he won’t be able to revive them.

Second, even if he did raise an army before he could create the number that could kill Starsuper, the latter would notice it and kill him.

Third, that would take a major toll on Sam even if he decides to remove his limiters.

Before Marcel could let his imagination run any more wild, Sam finally decided to speak up and clear up things.

“I know what you’re thinking old man,” Sam closed his eyes and arched his eyebrows. “I know I can’t revive the dead after more than a few hours.”

“Then how? How do you plan to revive the dragons-” Marcel didn’t complete his question as it hit him.

He understood what Sam meant.

Sam doesn’t need to revive the Dragons themselves! He just needs to revive their race.

“I see you understood what I meant,” as if reading his mind, Sam commented. “I’ll recreate the Dragon race and make an army. That’s not all, however, I’ll create a second army, my Demon army!”

Marcel was left stunned again. He didn’t know whether to appreciate Sam for his vision or scold him.

“Sam, do you really think that will be enough to kill him?” Dropping his usual casual behavior, Marcel asked in a serious tone.

Sam took a short pause before answering: “Of course not. That’s nearly not enough to kill Starsuper is it? And I can’t expect my plan to go smoothly either. That’s why I have another plan in back-up.”

Surprised by his answer, Marcel frowned. “Another plan? What’s it?”

“That’s my dear old man, I can’t tell you,” Sam replied with a smirk. A smirk very similar to Marcel’s.

“Sigh,” heaving a sigh, Marcel accepted his answer. “Now, my turn.”

“Yes, tell me why have you come here?” Sam questioned, curious.

“Well, my main reason was to ask you about the two missions I gave you two.” Marcel answered.

“Two missions? You mean to kill Phoenix and acquire the relic of Los Angeles?” Sam questioned in understanding.

“Wow, at least one of you remembers what you were sent here to do.” Marcel scoffed after remembering Kiara’s reply.

After nodding, he continued. “Yes, I wanted to ask why you both have not acquired the relic of Los Angeles. But Kiara told me the reason.”

“I see, we will get that relic soon.” Sam spoke in an assuring tone.

“I know you will. I have more faith in you than I have in my useless daughter.” Marcel shook his head helplessly.

“Yes well, your useless daughter tried to kill me when I revealed my real identity to her.” Sam disclosed with a sigh.

“…I don’t even know what to say.” Marcel could only helplessly shake his head again at his daughter’s stupidity.

If Sam really did reveal his identity to her, then she attacked knowing full well that she was attacking the Progenitor. Just how stupid can someone be?

“Don’t kill her though, stupid as she may be, she is my daughter.” Marcel said.

He wasn’t requesting or ordering Sam around, he was just simply telling him to not do it. Like a parent asking his child to not hit the weakest sibling.

Sam, however, had other plans but he still pretended to agree. “I know, I won’t kill her.”

“Sigh, anyway, as I was saying, although I’m not trying to put any pressure on you but I would appreciate it if you acquire that relic soon. I’ve waited for far too long, I don’t think I can wait anymore.”

Sam wanted to sigh at Marcel’s request but he held himself off.

The relic of Los Angeles that Marcel was asking for Sam and Kiara to acquire was ‘The Branch of Tree of Life’.

As its name suggests, the relic was a branch that’s said to be formally the part of ‘Tree of Life’. Although its origin is still unknown, it’s said that the relic can resurrect the dead.

Unlike Sam who can only revive the dead person if he/she had been dead for a few hours, that branch can resurrect the dead regardless of their time of death.

Another difference is Sam needs the body of the dead person for him to revive, the holder of that ‘branch’ can revive the person just from memory. In simple words, the ‘branch’ doesn’t need a body to resurrect the dead.

Why does Marcel want to acquire it then? Because he wants to resurrect his dead sister.

Marcel was an orphan, he had faced many hardships in his life but he at least had his little sister to accompany him. He thought with his sister by his side, he could face the world.

But fate was cruel to them. His sister was killed in an accident. At least that’s what they told the world.

The ‘accident’ was just a cover-up story the media told to the world to hide the mess a hero created. In short, his sister died because a Hero couldn’t do his job.

Marcel grew up to become the mafia lord and killed that hero. However, even killing that Hero didn’t fill the void that was left by his sister’s death.

So when Marcel heard about ‘The Branch of the Tree Of Life’, he did everything to acquire it.

However, he was given a warning from the Hero Association. The warning was if he didn’t stop pursuing his quest for the ‘Branch’ then his city would pay the price.

Marcel didn’t want any harm to befall on his city. But he couldn’t just forfeit his quest and give up on his sister.

That’s when he met Sam. That’s when he met the Progenitor.

He raised the child who had the powers of Progenitor. He hid him from the world and protected him.

Although initially he just wanted to use Sam as his pawn, somewhere along the line he started seeing Sam as his own son.

But that didn’t mean he gave up on his quest. He taught Sam many things and asked him to acquire that relic for him.

…However, even though Marcel started seeing Sam as his son, Sam never once thought of him as his father.

For Sam, everyone is a tool. As long as he gets what he wants in the end, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters to him. Not his love, not the man who sees him as his son, nothing.

So although Sam did kill White Walker and he did plan to acquire the relic of Los Angeles, Sam had plans to acquire it for himself. He had other plans.

Smiling brightly, Sam answered. “You raised me when my own mother abandoned me, of course, I will fulfill your wish. Just give me the time till the Academy’s annual function and I will get you the relic.”