Villain Retirement

Holy.

There are only a few places left that could actually be called that on the entire planet — The Vatican City was one of them. It was said to be the site where St. Reacher was buried, it was supposed to be his grave and his grave alone.

But now, he just gained more companions… a lot more.

The Vatican City was already tattered and ruined even before Angela and Riley arrived, no doubt because of the House of Super trying to scour and find the Pope. But now, with the square literally filled with a pool of blood that almost covered the sole of one's foot, it completely became… ominous.

Holy?

No, perhaps not anymore as several corpses now littered the square — all of them, skewered through a pole and raised meters from the ground like a flag. If someone of faith were to describe hell, then this would probably be it… even the sky is red from the cloud of blood that fogged the air.

And the one responsible for painting this scenery… was still standing on top of the obelisk; his eyes closed and head slightly swaying with the little wind that wafted through the bloodied air, almost as if he was listening to music that only he could hear.

—And everyone could see this.

His phone was rotating around him, streaming live for all the people to see. Initially, half of the people in his stream would be complaining about his brutality; his executions, his ruthlessness, and blatant homicide as Paragon was something that irked some people since he was supposed to be a hero.

But now, everyone was just asking for the blood of the House of Super. And with the revelation that Paragon was actually Riley, they didn't even care that he was supposedly dead — the people just laughed at the irony that the banner that the House of Super used to gather was now the one slowly erasing them from the map.

Everyone supported him.

Why would they not?

The House of Super has killed a billion of the population — that was way worse than what any villain has done combined, including Darkday. And what's worse, is that they didn't even consider themselves villains.

And with Riley actually doing it in a holy place, people could not help but think that this was an act of god.

Riley Ross resurrects from the dead to rid the world of the evil that festered it. A devil, an angel? It no longer matters what he is — he is the end.

And soon, Riley finally opened his eyes. He then turned them to the skies, only to see a dot of a silhouette headed his way. The people watching his stream were the first to see what it is, as Riley propelled his phone towards it at a speed that caused everyone's screen to almost glitch out.

And there, they saw what it was — a missile. It was large — perhaps as large as a car, but those that know what it is quickly widened their eyes and grabbed whatever screen was in front of them. After all… they have seen shells and samples of it in a museum.

A hydrogen bomb from the past, unused in a war that almost happened.

Once again, the scenery shifted as Riley's phone returned to him even faster than the speed of the missile — now giving them a view of Riley's back as well as the incoming missile.

All of them tried spamming the chat and asking for Riley to get out of there — Riley, however, just remained standing on the obelisk. And instead of flying away… he turned around to look at the camera.

"You like bombs?" He then said; his words, clearly targeted at the House of Super, "That is quite paradoxical, don't you think? For an organization that claims they are superior, you use the weapons of those you deem inferior. Do you know what that makes you?"

The chat became crazy, still asking Riley to leave as the missile was already only clearly kilometers away from him.

"A joke," Riley then calmly muttered as a smile slowly crawled on his face, "Your organization is a joke."

And with the missile now only meters away from directly hitting him, some of the viewers could really only close their eyes; expecting the live stream to cut after a loud and visceral explosion.

But it never came. Instead, there was only a thud.

And very slowly, they opened their eyes, only to see Riley holding the tip of the missile with one hand… and he didn't even look at it.

No, he didn't even fully turn around. And those that didn't close their eyes, clearly saw what happened.

Riley caught the missile from behind like it was some sort of baseball — it didn't even explode.

They could hear it purring almost like a cat on steroids and hum like a Siberian husky on sedatives, but it didn't explode. It just stayed there, almost as still as the smile on Riley's face as he still looked at the camera.

"You think I've never had nuclear weapons thrown at me before?" Riley then said before suddenly letting go of the missile, causing the viewers to slightly flinch. The missile, however, just remained floating in the air.

And very subtly, a chuckle could be heard whispering in the air as Riley rested his cheek on the tip of the nuclear warhead.

He then once again stared at the camera and whispered,

"Boom."

And with that word, the bomb finally exploded.

Everyone was expecting the entire screen to turn white — and it did. But only momentarily and only like a flash… as very slowly, the wash of their screens faded away and coalesced in what seemed like a white dot in the very center of their view.

And this white dot… was hovering above Riley's palm.

And on Riley's face, out of nowhere, was a pair of sunglasses reflecting this white dot.

"..."

"..."

And with a sigh, he took off the sunglasses and hid them in one of his pockets,

"It… doesn't even tickle anymore," and with those words, Riley pinched the white dot… making it disappear almost as if it was just candlelight.

"Honestly," Riley then once again sighed as he looked at the camera, "You could have just used it on yourselves."

"..."

"..."

And then, almost as if a nuclear weapon was not just thrown at him, Riley once again closed his eyes in silence. The chat in his live stream, however, is anything but.

Millions of people were watching it — a fraction of them bombarding the chat with all sorts of messages. Riley, however, did not bother reading any of them as he just once again started slowly bobbing his head.

Now, however, they knew what he was listening to — death.

The sound of the deaths that have come and were coming for the House of Super. And very soon, it was almost as if they could hear it too as some of them started bobbing their heads with Riley.

Soon, however… The chat was bombarded by a weird message.

[Riley Ross is Darkday.]

Hundreds of them, filling the entire chat and drowning any other messages. Over and over again, several people typed the same thing — but one message stopped them completely.

[So what?]

The people didn't care. An angel, a devil — they would take anyone that led to their path of revenge. Of course, most of them didn't believe it and just told them to 'GTFO'.

As for Riley, he was just… still standing there — standing on top of the giant cross above the obelisk.

"R… Riley Ross!"

And soon, the silence was broken as a scream could be heard — the pool of blood that remained peaceful, now disturbed by several ripples as people soon started arriving at the square…

…trying their best to walk their way to Riley and avoid the thousand corpses that were staked on the ground.

"..." The camera panned towards the steps, only for the viewers to see dozens of people from the House of Super; evident from the red scarves and armbands they were wearing.

"R… Riley Ross! Please… please stop!"

"We… we were doing this for the betterment of the Supers!"

"We stand by you! Whatever your decision is, we stand by you!"

And soon, some of them started removing their scarves — ripping off anything that even resembled the color red from their person.

"The… The House of Super was built because of you! They… they told us this is what you would have wanted!"

"Please! We don't care about the House of Super!"

"..."

Riley then stopped bobbing his head, slowly opening his eyes as he looked at the hundreds of people now surrounding the obelisk — some of them, kneeling on the blood-filled ground.

"..." Riley then glanced straight at the camera's lens for several seconds, before once again turning his attention to the people below him. And with a small sigh, he uttered,

"No."

Stakes. Once again, stakes raised from the ground as the people watching Riley's stream could only avert their eyes as the members of the House of Super were skewered one by one.

Some managed to dodge, only for their backs to be littered with several more spikes.

Some of them managed to fly away… only for them to explode into a mist of blood; not even leaving any of their guts.

And that's when the people knew.

Run, hide — it doesn't matter.

Riley's words weren't a threat or an ultimatum, it was judgment.

The House of Super will be wiped out from the face of the Earth.