Villain's Rising

The explosion itself wasn\'t that huge. It was more like two or three grenades going off.

What killed the people inside was Sam\'s [Biology Manipulation] instead.

Everyone was laying on the floor. There was no blood anyway, nor any signs of struggle. Everyone looked like they were peacefully put to sleep….

Eternal sleep.

Sam looked at the white-haired boy in front of him and spoke warmly, "You\'ll be a great catch."

-Slash!

Cutting off his fingers, Sam created five clones.

As soon as they were created, he spoke coldly, in contrast to before, "Two of you will stay here. One of you revives this white-haired boy and any other useful ones you can find. The rest of you, come with me."

"Yes!" The clones replied in unison.

*

-Slam!

-Slam!

-SLAM!

Slamming open every door one by one in such a large building was a drag. But Sam had no way of searching through the tower.

Occasionally, he would come across a hero or a Martian soldier, but they all would drop dead as soon as they tried to approach Sam.

Why were they approaching him?

Because in the narrow hallways, they had no other option other than blowing up the entire building.

And blowing up the building would not do much good to themselves anyway since that would only make Sam\'s work of searching for the relic easier.

Sam tried mind-controlling the heroes and the Martian soldiers he\'d come across for directions, but they all knew nothing.

"Tsk," Sam clicked his tongue while slamming the doors open.

(Why don\'t you just go to the basement?)

"The basement?" Sam frowned.

(A building as big as this one ought to have a basement. Take a lift and go down)

"What makes you so sure?"

(Huh? What? Because they are heroes! Of course, they would hide the most important thing in the world right now in the most clichèd place!)

Try as he may, Sam found no words to argue with that logic.

"There\'s a point in that, sir."

"We should try the basement, sir."

"I\'ll stay back and guard the entrance of the basement. That way, you can thoroughly search the basement, sir."

The clones spoke one by one as if they were reciting a nursery rhyme.

-Slam

Before deciding to go down, Sam slammed open one last door.

"...Oh ho, what do we have here?"

He was expecting nothing of value to him inside, but fate proved him wrong.

No, he didn\'t find the relic. Rather, what he found inside the room was….

"Kiara, you\'re alive!"

Yup, she was.

Tied to an electric chair, several tubes were going in her, injecting all kinds of sedatives to keep her barely conscious.

Since Kiara had toxin immunity and Sam had increased her immune system when he turned her into a demon, the sedatives she was being injected with were clearly the creation of someone\'s ability.

Not only that, but her body was sickly thin and frail. Her cheeks were sunk in, and her eyes were baggy.

And to top it off, she was gagged and her legs were nailed to the ground.

Seems like they first weakened her to the point where she couldn\'t physically activate her ability and then started experimenting on her.

"What happened to you? You used to be… not this ugly." Sam shot a grin.

"Mhmmm! Mmm! Mrmmm!" Kiara mumbled something through her gag.

"You want me to save you?" Sam asked, still grinning wide.

"Mmmm mmm!" Kiara nodded so fast that her head was about to fall off.

"Sure, sure, I will do that. But first, I need to find a relic and conquer the world, you know? Do the shit villains do."

"Mrhhh! Mrmmm! Myhhmmm! Mmmm!" At that response, Kiara started letting out incoherent angry noises.

"Fine, fine! Good grief, you\'re a handful," Sam shook his head. He turned to his clones and ordered, "Go release her."

*

"I thought I would die!"

"Yeah"

"It took so long for you to come! I really thought I would die!"

"Yeah"

"That fucking Starsuper disabled my ability, and they tortured me so I couldn\'t even fight back! I thought I would die!"

"Yeah"

"Then they started experimenting on me, saying something like they\'ll make a serum that\'ll strip you of your ability and stuff! I thought I would definitely die!"

"Kiara…"

"...Yeah?"

"Shall I kill you myself?"

"Sowwy."

"Don\'t act cute."

"Yessir."

After one-sidedly catching up on the things that happened till now, Kiara and Sam started talking about a more serious topic.

"Did you watch that anime I told you about?"

"It was trash. Your taste is trash."

Okay, not so serious topic.

When a person is turned into a demon by Sam, they retain their memories and thus keep most of their personality.

In fact, not much changes in them personality-wise aside from succumbing to complete loyalty toward Sam.

More than loyalty, it could be said they experience undying affection from him. They long for his acknowledgment and his praise.

However, as it\'s been established, they do retain their memories.

So since Kiara, too, retained her memories, there was an awkward silence between them in the lift. A silence that was not there due to the absence of words spoken.

"What is it?" Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Sam inquired in a cold tone.

"I\'m sorry," Kiara muttered.

"Hmm?" Sam frowned. "Sorry for what?"

"You were right. I was always jealous of you since my father stood up for you. I… hated you. Why is it that he is getting everything I deserve? I used to think.

"When I came to know of your feelings for me, I felt happy. Not because I felt the same way, but because I thought finally, finally, I had something on you.

"But sire… Sam… I want you to know even when I used you, even when I threw you around, even when I hated you, somewhere deep inside, I did care for you….

"I loved the way you used to look at me. I adored the little gestures you used to do for me. And I enjoyed every goddamn moment we spent together.

"I know it\'s too late to apologize, but I really am sorry. I\'m not saying this because of these feelings you implanted in me. I genuinely looked back on my life in the last few days when I thought I would die. And by doing so, I realized when there was no one with me, not even my siblings or my own father, you gave me a shoulder.

"I\'m sorry I refused to stand with you when you were alone. I\'m sorry I never said this before. That Kiara is dead. I know this, and I also know that the Sam who loved me is dead too. I\'m sorry… for killing him."

Wow, that was heavy, was what Sam wanted to reply. But instead, he felt the words he wanted to speak stuck in his throat.

His heart felt heavy, and his chest wrenched for some reason. Sam could tell these feelings were genuine, but it was already far too late.

All his life, Sam wanted to form a genuine bond with someone.

His mother left him when he was young. His father abused him throughout his childhood. The man who took him in wanted to use his powers and the girl he loved hated him.

If Sam had wanted, he would have \'fixed\' everything by controlling them. But that would\'ve been artificial… not real… not genuine.

Even now, Sam had turned Kiara into a demon. He knew he had changed her personality. Whatever he would have with her won\'t be… real.

It was as she said. It was too late.

But even then, Sam found himself nodding his head. "It\'s fine. I forgive you."

There was nothing for him in holding grudges since, as Kiara said, both of them from the past were now dead.

"Your taste in things is still trash, though."