The villainess shall be mine

:::[Third Person Pov]:::

The Emperor, the one who seemed to know it all, tried to test Adam. He knew about Adam's determination, but like he always did, in order to understand human nature, or so he described the purpose of it all, he was pushed it the extreme.

Adam's regret, fear, and the things he had sacrificed—everything, his entire being was now put to test. Was he just pretending? What lies deep inside his heart?

"…" This was clearly a provocation, an ultimatum, Adam knew. He had already made up his mind; he decided that he wouldn't regret anything because the future he had his eyes set upon was not a utopia built on top of regrets and losses. He hadn't lost anything, he convinced himself. The only thing that was real was the existence of people who loved him, and people whom he cared about. As long as this fact remained, nothing else mattered. Nothing was lost… Yet…

Adam's eyes widened. He didn't show any excessive expression on his face, but he was not perfectly calm either.

The reason for this was the content that was preserved inside the black boxes.

They had partied together once; they fought side by side…

"You shouldn't have done this," Adam muttered, his voice sounding almost mechanical.

She was also there. Her limbs looked like they were somehow stitched together after being torn apart. Her once, cold and yet beautiful expression was gone. Her eyes were blank, devoid of life—the same as the others.

There were various metallic wires plugged into their back, and they made a hissing noise as they came off one by one from their make body and black liquids gushed out of them. This view would freak anyone out.

"I like that expression… Show me what can you do." This time, the Emperor used Timothy's body to talk to Adam. No, all of them—Liu, Elena, Timothy, Brandon—were controlled like lifeless marionettes.

"Even if I need to destroy this entire universe, I will make sure that you will never be able to return to existence again after a erase you," Adam said, his voice devoid of emotion. He just said these words as if it was an inevitable outcome.

"Mmm… Do entertain me…" This time, the Emperor talked through Liu, as if answering Adam's threat with a provocation.

Swoosh! Tssss! Before Adam could even react, Timothy was already in front of him.

Boom! Then, a blow in his gut sent Adam flying backward.

Timothy's body was coated with lightning energy, and Adam was hit with a huge amount of energy, a literal lightning strike.

The thunderous noises created by the impact echoed throughout the whole area.

"Are you surprised? You thought that the attack would be nullified?" The Emperor said mockingly through Timothy, seeing that Adam was not dead. Adam had still not shown emotion on his face, but the Emperor, who could read his mind, knew that Adam wondered about how his nullification didn't work in this situation.

Moreover, it looked like Timothy was several times more powerful than before. Almost as if his full potential was unlocked.

The other three had also risen in the air, facing Adam. Crystal-like wings grow on Liu's back, while fiery flames in the shape of wings on Elaina's. Brandon, on the other hand, had half of his body turning into dust particles. All of them had unlocked the hidden power of their gift.

"Yes, that's it. I gave them this power. They are powerful now, and free from any kind of emotional restraint. Let me also answer your other question," reading Adam's mind, the Emperor said, from Liu's mouth."You think about finding me so that they would be released, but that's not how it works. They will still continue to destroy everything even if I don't do anything. Until their flesh breaks apart, and their born melt… They will destroy everything in their path. You need to destroy them yourself! If you say that you can kill me, this should be easy, right?!"

Adam didn't say anything, and he also attempted to suppress his thoughts.

"I already know everything. Indeed, if you discard everything that is holding you back, you may make that dream of yours a reality. But only, if you are the strongest… Only the strongest don't need any trick or plan… But, you are still not the strongest. Yet, you try to act like you are the strongest by thinking that you will just destroy me for now," the emperor continued.

As he did, the moisture in the air within a hundred meters of Adam's surroundings began to freeze. The temperature dropped to almost -100 degrees Celsius all of sudden.

Adam was not affected by this because he could now manipulate the atoms around him, using fire particles to generate heat around him.

"…That ultimate plan of yours, that perfect answer—How exactly are you going to turn it into a reality? Because, look in front of you, everything else is under my control—even you. I will now destroy everything that you have a connection with or attachment to in this world, and you will watch, thinking that it's the right thing, that it's inevitable, right? But Aren't you just trying to delude yourself because you couldn't accept the reality, convincing yourself that you can't fail? But apart from using multiple tricks what else can you do? Everything that you have lost, and are about to lose, can you bring them back?"

Boom! After the Emperor said these words, Elena created an explosion of heat, reaching 3000 degrees Celsius. This caused a destructive phenomenon that could annihilate any kind of living being around.

The Emperor knew that this would be not enough to deal with Adam. No, he wasn't trying to get rid of Adam, in the first place. It was as if he was testing Adam's limit.

"You think that you are different than everyone else, don't you? You feel special. You think that everything would somehow work in your favor in the end… All you need to do was to work harder, right? If you do that, you will become a God," mockingly, the Emperor, from Elena's mouth, remarked. "Everyone else does that, yet they don't succeed, they still die miserably. But you, you are special, so that doesn't apply to you."

"Shut up." Adam didn't react to the Emperor's provocation. To protect himself from the attack, he surrounded himself with the Darkmatter.

"That illogical confidence. Is it because you have that ability? Even if you aren't even aware of how to use it? Well, you won't be able to unlock its full potential the way you are now, and you are aware of that. Yet, you are confident? This must be advanced from insanity, don't you think so? Because, here I am, capable of controlling this whole universe as you guessed, yet I am nig a God. What does that make you?"

Liu and the three others surrounded Adam from all directions, while the Emperor continued to throw these words at his face as if it was also some kind of weapon in itself.

"I knew this would happen," Adam added, unshaken by the situation. Even after Liu, the woman that he considered someone important, was in front of him. Her beautiful skin had now become greyish, like rotten flesh that was held together from falling apart by some kind of chemical product.

K

"Don't lie. I can read your mind," the Emperor rebuked, and the one-sided attack on Adam continued.

Chains of lightning, a scorching sea of flame, frost tempest, rain of mercury—all of these came at Adam at the same time.

"I knew you would try to stop me if I had the plan ready in my mind. That was why I stopped thinking after I reached the answer I needed. I have all I need to destroy you, and I can think about a plan while doing that," Adam added, using the Darkmatter to protect himself, but the attacks were too powerful, and Adam would get tired sooner or later. "I decided that it was enough to deal with you."

"Hahaha, so funny! It's so funny!"

In the middle of the battle, the four puppets begin to break up in laughter, holding their stomach as they ached from laughing too hard. It was, of course, to make fun of Adam in the most disturbing way possible.

"I haven't had this much fun in a long time. It's not every day to find a subject of an experiment that can make me laugh like this…Hahaha…Haha… Wait a little bit, I am out of breath," Liu looked like she couldn't breathe anymore as the Emperor used her to say these words. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come at me with everything you got. For now, you haven't even managed to enter the rank of things that I consider threats. There are a lot of stronger beings out there, you know."

Adam didn't say anything. Nothing would change even if he did. What he had to do was the same. He wouldn't this kind of reality become permanent and unchanging.