Villain's Rising

“Mmmmh! Anhhh!” A silver-haired girl was tied to a chair. She was trying to scream, but the gag prevented any sound escape.

“Calm down, Kiara,” in front of her was a figure standing in the shadows. “I won’t kill you. Not right now, at least.”

The figure slowly stepped out from the shadow area and revealed himself. It was Sam, of course.

His eyes were glowing white, indicating that he was using White Walker’s ability constantly to keep Kiara’s ability suppressed.

“That’s not to say I won’t hurt you.”

“Mhhhh! Nnhhhh!” The girl tried her best to shout for help, but her screams were muffled.

Rolling his eyes at the apparent stupidity to express his disappointment, Sam spoke again. “It’s no use. No one will be coming to save you.”

As soon as he said that, Sam switched on the T.V. in the room. The dark room was instantly brightened up by the light that came from its screen.

[Academy City was hit by a criminal attack?]

[Is Progenitor back?]

[Starsuper and Eve found out coming out of the explosion site. 500 Hero students died, and several civilians were injured. Who is behind this?]

Those were only some of the headlines being displayed on the news channel.

It was apparent that the talk about Progenitor’s return was reaching the ears of the general public.

How could it not? An attack this big was never recorded in the history of Heroes.

It was only a matter of time until the media confirmed the news of the Progenitor’s return. Either that or the Heroes will do it themselves._.

“Mmnhhh!” To Sam’s annoyance, her silver-haired captive was still trying her best to scream or escape.

“Shut up!” Sam yelled, his patience at his limit.

For some reason, he still didn’t want to use his ability on her if necessary. He was ready to give her a second chance to take his hand.

However, if she declined her offer again, then he would turn her.

He thought about killing her, but the idea of losing an ability like hers was too much of a loss for Sam.

She was, after all, a Calamity Rank user.

There was also an option of seizing her powers. However, even if you can take one’s ability, what you can not take is one’s experience of using their ability.

Sam knew very little about mythologies itself, let alone mythological serpents.

And he was certainly not going to start studying now when a war was hovering over his head.

That was one of the reasons he didn’t seize [Vector Manipulation] or [Inertia Manipulation] even when he had the chance.

Now, one might argue that Sam can manipulate biology, so why can’t he just extract information off the people’s brains.

The reason is simple. If he did that, he would have to fight alone.

No one can conquer the world alone. Not because they are not strong enough, but because they would need baits and sacrifices.

Only a stupid person would use himself as bait or sacrifice.

Sam experiences a little amount of pain when his clones get killed. That little amount of pain can hinder his movements in a life or death battle.

That was the reason he needed an army.

-“What do you think, Jamn? Is the news Progenitor coming back true?”

-“I don’t know, Annie, but I can tell that something big is about to happen….”

Shaking his head, Sam turned off the T.V. The light that the screen was emitting disappeared along with it.

“Mnnhh! Mnhhh!”

“Tsk!” Clicking his tongue, Sam walked up to his captive and removed the cloth that was gagging her mouth.

“Help! Someone help!”

Although Sam had expected her to start screaming, her voice still annoyed him.

-Slap!

An open palm landed on the side of the silver-haired girl, making her shut her mouth.

“Shut up.” Sam slowly and irritatingly uttered those words. His eyes were cold and uncaring towards his former crush.

“I’ll give you one last chance, join me by your will, or I’ll break your mind,” Sam threatened and gave her a choice. “Either way, you will be joining my army.”

Although, what he gave her could hardly be called a choice. It was like ‘jump off the cliff, or I will push you down’ scenario.

Beads of sweat started forming on Kiara’s forehead. Her eyes started shaking as her instincts told her to get away from this boy.

“Why will it be?” Sam asked before turning and walking out of the room. “I’ll give you five minutes.”

Before he walked out of the door, however, Sam turned his left index finger into a blade, and using it, he cut off his right thumb.

Sam simply walked out of the door as his regeneration kicked in and recovered his severed thumb.

The thumb that had fallen onto the ground started moving on its own. Like it had a life of its own, it started convulsing on the ground.

Slowly, its mass started expanding. As if it was a balloon of flesh and blood, it started taking shape.

In front of Kiara’s eyes and under her terrified gaze, slowly but surely, a whole body of flesh was formed.

The humanoid body of flesh stood up on its newly formed feet as a mouth appeared on its face. Not long after, eyes and hair were also formed.

The body that was now created was someone Kiara was very familiar with. It was Sam’s body. That was his clone.

“Aww, man, I’m a clone!” In disappointment with himself, the clone complained.

He then half-heartedly walked up to the closet and took out a pair of clothes to cover his new naked body.

“Well, whatever,” shrugging as if coming to terms with his destiny as a clone, he turned to face Kiara. “Now then, love, decide your fate.”

*

In a tall skyscraper’s VIP room, two figures sat face to face while leaning back on their respective sofas.

They both were tired and exhausted. Their tiredness wasn’t physical but mental.

They both had their eyes closed and appeared to be deep in thoughts. The future of humankind rested on their shoulders, after all.

While they were recovering from their mental exhaustion, they were also thinking about their next move and predicting what Sam would do next.

“Is he going to be alright?” Starsuper asked before pointing to a boy lying beside Eve.

The boy was none other than Eve’s son, Drake. Although he was unconscious, his cheeks were still wet from the tears.

“You tell me, you knocked him out,” Eve replied with a bit of sarcasm hidden in his voice.

“I-I’m sorry!” Earnestly dropping his head, Arthur apologized.

“Don’t worry about it! Haha!” Eve laughed while waving his hand.

-Slam!

“Dad! Are you alright?!” Slamming open the room’s door, Anthony entered while calling out to his father.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Arthur answered and nodded his head at his son.

“What happened?! Did you find him?” With concern and worry, Anthony walked up to them and looked at his father.

“Yeaa, we did. It’s some guy named-” before Arthur could complete his sentence, Anthony spoke up.

“Is that Drake?! What happened to him?!” The worry in his voice only increased further as he noticed Drake’s unconscious figure lying on the sofa.

“He’s fine. Your father knocked him out cold.” With a smirk, Eve replied. It was as if he was enjoying making Starsuper feel guilty.

“It wasn’t even wholly my fault-” Starsuper couldn’t finish his defense as Anthony cut him off again.

“You hit him?! Why would you do that, father?! Why?!” Frowning and demanding answers, Anthony said.

With a short sigh, Starsuper tried defending him once again. “Because Eve was about to perform his signature move and the whole place was about to blast off.”

“Wait, that was you?!” Turning to face Eve, Anthony questioned. “Why did you do that? Do you know how many students died?”

Eve just averted his gaze and didn’t say anything. He knew what he had done, and although he told himself that there was no other way, it didn’t make it easier.

Eve’s hands weren’t unstained of blood. In fact, Eve’s kill count was the most out of every other Superhero in the world.

But killing children– how was Sam ready to do it so easily? Eve couldn’t help but ask that question.

The conclusion was simple. Sam was a monster by birth. No one made him this way. He didn’t choose to be this. He was born like this.

Seeing Eve avoiding the question, Starsuper answered Anthony’s question and informed him everything about what happened.

“I see… I’m sorry, Eve.” Anthony said before continuing. “Wait, father, who did you say the Progenitor was?”

“He is called Samael Gracefell. He was in your class. He is the Progenitor.”

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[Information Available On]

Clone Creation

• Users can instantly and perfectly replicate themselves and/or targets, which can be objects or entities, numerous times, while usually being able to recombine the clones. Most users have both of these abilities (if subconsciously), copying their clothes/equipment along with their body. Original user will normally be able to maintain control over all copies.

In case of living/sentient clones, mental/physical properties are exactly the same as the original one’s, although each copy will have different experiences and may gain independent personalities over time.

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