Villain's Rising

'Initiate self-destruct!' As the torrent of blue flame neared Starsuper, the caped superhero yelled in his mind.

Instantly, a translucent screen shot open in front of him.

[Host, are you sure you want to-]

Before the golden screen could even finish announcing its warning, Starsuper yelled, 'Yes!'

[Initiating self-destruction…

Akashic Records thank you for your service. Goodbye.]

As soon as the golden screen disappeared from Starsuper's vision, his whole body was entrapped in a scintillating golden light.

'What?! I thought he used up all his strength?!' Perplexed, Sam voiced his confusion in his head.

(I– Uh… I think he's self-destructing!) The voice answered with hesitation clear in its voice.

'What?! What is he, some kind of nuclear reactor?!'

(Sam! Stop breathing fire and run back- I mean fly back and secure some distance from him!)

Doing what he was told, Sam closed his giant dragon maw, stopped breathing fire, and flapped his wings. He twisted his gigantic body and started retreating in the distance.

What Sam deducted wasn't so far from the truth.

Starsuper's body was indeed closer to a nuclear reactor than a human's.

It is a widely known fact that energy can't be created, nor can it be destroyed.

However, the very existence of Starsuper and Willburns is a contradiction to this fact. They are an exception.

Their body generates energy from seemingly nothing. That energy is then used to enhance their bodily functions and regenerate them.

Their regeneration is strong enough to recreate their body back from a single atom.

Meanwhile, their bodies are strong enough to destroy planets and durable enough to withstand the heat from the sun's core.

They are very powerful creatures.

They are nigh god-like beings. After all, they can create energy.

Now, although they can't be killed by normal means, they can still die.

Starsuper's civilization killed each other. So that means they can be killed.

Then if someone were to possess the power of [Existence Erasure], they could kill them.

Lastly, they could kill themselves. However, doing so would cause an immensely powerful energy blast to erupt.

The stronger they are, the stronger the energy blast erupts upon their death.

If Starsuper had to guess, the energy blast that would erupt upon his death would be equivalent to the strength of an exploding sun.

Of course, before initiating self-destruction, Starsuper made sure to angle himself in a way that would direct all the destruction away from earth and its solar system.

Without wasting any more time, Starsuper clutched his chest with both hands. Grinding his teeth together, he dug his hand deeper into his flesh.

He continued to dig deeper into his flesh. The blood started coursing down his chest, but he didn't stop.

'Arghhhhhhhh!'

Ghastly, he slowly started tearing his upper chest apart. As he did so, the radiant golden light coming off his body started flickering before growing brighter and brighter.

Although he was experiencing agonizing pain, Starsuper ensured to aim at the colossus black dragon.

Sam, on the other hand, stopped entertaining the idea of getting away.

The ever-growing intensity of the golden light coming from behind his back made it clear to him that he would be caught by the blast no matter how far he may try to fly.

So instead, he abruptly twisted his titanic body and faced Starsuper, who was looking more like a star from the amount of dazzling light his body was emitting.

Sam opened his maw and readied himself to let out his dragon breath.

(What are you doing?!) The voice in his mind shot.

'I can't run, so I'm trying to fight head-on!' Sam replied.

Before they could continue their chitter chatter any further, however…

-Booom!

In the next second, a forward-facing beam of golden energy was discharged forth from Starsuper's upper torso toward Sam.

The ferocity of the explosion was comparable to a small supernova.

As the blast of destructive energy shot at Sam in a beam, the Progenitor used all the strength he had in him to spit forth a torrent of blazing blue flames.

The energy beam and the tide of blue flame collided with great impact. A bright ring bulged out from the point of collision.

At first, it seemed like the black dragon's fiery breath was enough to match the intensity of Starsuper's energy beam; however, after a few seconds, the torrent of blue flames started getting shoved back.

(Sam! We will die! Fly off!)

'I can't!' Sam yelled in his mind. 'If I stop, the energy beam will vaporize us!'

(But-)

Before the voice in Sam's mind could put a point to argue, the potency of the energy beam increased, and it cut through the torrent of blue flame like a knife to paper.

(Sam!)

Sam could only widen his eyes in shock as the destructive energy beam neared him, ready to send him to his demise….

*

After a few minutes of the explosion caused by the energy blast from Starsuper, the light from the spectacular explosion subsided, and the space returned to its deafening silence.

The battle has come to an end.

In the endless void of eternal darkness were floating the two perpetrators of the destruction of the moon.

Both of them were unmoving and presumably dead.

-Crackle

Or at least that's how it was supposed to be….

The black dragon, who was hit by the energy beam discharged by Starsuper, had most of his left body vaporized.

His heartbeat ceased, and although his eyes were wide open, there was no light in them… instead, only a lifeless look was present.

However, the black dragon– Samael Gracefell, was not dead yet….

-Kzzzzz

Steam was rising from the dragon's half-vaporized body, and embers were crackling as his body started to heal itself.

-Thud!

-Ba-dump! Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

In a matter of mere minutes, the dragon's body was fully healed. Light returned to his eyes, and his heart started beating again.

The black dragon blinked his eyes for a second or two as if making sure he was really alive.

After a while, he thought in his head, 'I survived… Ha! Samael Gracefell evaded yet another inevitable death!'

(Sam! Look for him!)

Shaking him out of his triumphant thoughts was the voice in his head. Sam, too realized this was not the time to let his guard down.

He instantly jerked his dragon head from left to right in hopes of spotting the person responsible for almost killing him.

At a distance, he finally saw a silhouette of a man floating still in space.

Sam's first instinct was to fly back and create some gap. However, the next moment when he realized that the man's figure was not moving, a frown appeared on his giant forehead.

Reluctantly, he flapped his wings and flew toward the floating man.

Appearing over him, Sam carefully eyed the figure of the man….

'Am I seeing things?' Sam could not believe what he was watching. He had to get close to the man's figure to confirm his eyes.

After a second or two, steam started rising from all over the black dragon's body again.

In the next moment, a bright violet light flashed out of nowhere, akin to a lightning bolt.

Tendrils of violet energy wrapped all over the black dragon's body as it began shrinking and distorting in shape.

In the span of a few minutes, the black dragon, which was as big as the size of moon, shrunk and changed shape to match the size of a six feet tall human.

(Wow, you're naked in space. You're probably the first human ever to do that!)

When Sam reverted back to his human form, the voice in his head didn't forget to remind him that he was in his birthday suit.

'Shut up,' Sam retorted and used [Neither Manipulation] to fly toward the floating figure of the man.

…After coming close enough, Sam couldn't help but quiver at sight before him

He wasn't scared; rather, he was trembling from shock.

'I… did it?'

In front of Sam was the body of Starsuper… well, calling it a dead body would be more precise.

Arthur Willburn, aka, Starsuper's figure, was incredibly thinned up, almost as if he'd died from starvation.

He had sunken cheeks and two hollow holes instead of eyes. His skin was all black and burnt up, charcoal-like in texture, while his figure resembled a skeleton. The once massive muscles that he had were now gone.

His golden hair, which once resembled a lion's mane, was reduced so greatly in numbers that they could be counted on one hand.

He had his hands on his chest while the flesh of his upper torso was torn apart by him.

It was a gruesome sight, capable of sending even the most strong-willed people to the edge of throwing up.

However, the 18-year-old boy who was witnessing the said sight was still… not moving even a single muscle.

(Sam, his heart is not beating. He's not in a hibernating state… he's truly dead… Starsuper is dead! You did it! You killed him!)

'I did it…?'

While the voice in his head started exulting in the joy of triumphing over Starsuper, Sam stood still.

'If that energy beam had lasted just five more seconds, I'd be dead right now… My body would've been vaporized…' Sam thought with empty, unfocused eyes.

(Huh? Why are you thinking about that?! Look what you've done! Look what's in front of you right now! We have won, Sam! We did it!)

Only after the voice in his head reminded him of his victory did Sam put aside his useless worries.

He didn't die. He survived! And he won against the strongest superhero in existence!

Now there was no thorn in his path! He had already won!

When he recalled all that, his lips curled up into a one-sided smile.

'Yeah… I won… I've crushed the biggest obstacle in my path! This is my victory!'