Chapter 213 - Another Monster

"...What did you say?"

"We… we're going to kill your family if you try to escape!"

And with the words being repeated in his ears, Riley's eyes started to twitch– along with some of the fingers of his hands as the air in the large holding bay suddenly became heavy. No; perhaps describing it as heavy was a huge understatement, as everyone in the hall felt like they were breathing underground… in a coffin.

"Where… is my sister?" Riley then said as he took a small step towards Christopher. His step, however, caused the floor around his feet to disintegrate… no, to compress to the point a square meter of what could only be assumed as reinforced steel to turn into a pebble. The only part of the floor left around him was the part touching his feet as he continued to walk forward; the pebbles he was collecting along the way, whistling as they rotated around him at an incredible speed.

"Where is my sister!?" Riley's face then twisted as the transparent wall he was confined in slowly floated in the air; his voice, almost cracking as he let out an almost piercing scream that made every guard, soldier, and even Bulwark to slightly freeze on their spots.

"You…" Christopher fell fist on his butt as he stared at the giant transparent cube floating in the air. He then took in a small gulp, before turning his head towards the super guards and pointing towards Riley, "E… Execute him!"

"No!" Bulwark raised his hand to summon a golden barrier to block Riley from the rest of the guards as they rushed towards him. Bulwark was successful in stopping all of their advances… all but one, however.

There was a guard capable of projecting lasers from his fingers– which went straight towards Riley's left eye.

"I… I got him!"

The guard with the laser fingers let out a small smile as he saw Riley's head tilting back. His smile was so wide that his jaw reached his collar bones.

"Eh?" The guard then blinked a couple of times as he looked down; his jaw, already dangling as the sides of his mouth was slit open all the way to his ears. And before he could utter another mangled word, all of the teeth on his dislocated jaw cracked open… before all shooting straight towards the insides of his mouth.

"W… what?" Christopher and the other guards all stared at their colleague as his knee touched the ground; and with a light thud, his head hit the floor like a watermelon, its insides completely blended in a smoothie.

All of them, not only the guards, then looked at Riley who still had his head tilted back. He then slowly took another step forward Christopher even with his head tilted back, and with each step, his body straightened; his eyes, already staring deep into Christopher's eyes.

"Where is my sister?" Riley then once again asked; this time, however, his voice was oddly calm.

"She–"

But before Christopher could speak, the super soldiers in the room all surrounded Riley even with the golden barrier separating them.

"Sir Bulwark! In accordance with the treaty between Superheroes and World Military, we order you to remove this barrier!"

"No!" Bulwark once again let out a roar, "Stop provoking him any further!"

"We will not tell you again! Withdraw your powers or we will treat this as abetting and aiding the criminal known as Riley Ross! He already killed one of our own, we don't need any other proof!"

"You attacked him first!" Bulwark screamed as the barrier he summoned thickened even further.

Riley then turned his eyes towards Bulwark, before straying towards all the soldiers at the other side of the barrier.

"Mr. Bulwark," Riley then said, "Leave the room."

"Stop this, Riley Ross! Going any further would make you a criminal even if you're not Darkday!"

"A criminal?" Riley muttered as he turned to face Bulwark; his eyebrows, almost twisted in a frown, "I have waited, complied, cooperated to all of your demands without complaining. I only wanted to ask where my sister is and you can't even give me that. Darkday this, Darkday that…"

"..." Bulwark could only squint his eyes in bewilderment as he heard Riley's words. Throughout the course of him knowing Riley and from all the stories he heard from Bernard, Riley has not once let out this kind of outburst. It was almost as if…

…he was a little child wanting to see his mommy.

"You are not going to see Darkday here, you are not going to get what you want… No, not what you want," Riley Ross then folded both his index finger, pinching it with his thumbs as he started repeating his words,

"Not what you want!" Riley once again let out a roar as the pebbles surrounding once again let out whistles as they… went straight towards the heads of the soldiers surrounding him– treating Bulwark's golden barrier as if parchment paper.

"Avoid it!"

Even with this sudden attack, the captain of the soldiers raised his voice; commanding his platoon to all move away, and all of them managed to avoid it either by using their powers, or just their sheer speed.

"Bulwark! This is the last time I am going to ask you, remove–"

"!!!"

And before the captain could finish his words, Bulwark saw his blood scatter in almost a flat splatter as… the vertex of the gigantic transparent cube shattered his body completely. Surprisingly, though– no blood reached Bulwark as it stopped just an inch away from him, slowly trailing and dropping to the floor.

"Ril–" And as soon as Bulwark turned towards Riley, Riley once again let out a scream as the gigantic transparent cube started mowing through the soldiers surrounding him– almost like ticks being squished, their blood all spurting out everywhere… they even sounded like one.

Christopher, who was still sprawled on the floor, could no longer utter any words as he watched as the people in the room all get pinched to death one by one– most not even being able to use their abilities.

And so, without even seconds later… the only living things left in the room were Riley, Bulwark, and Christopher.

"..." Bulwark could only look at the once transparent cube, which was now almost covered in blood.

And seeing this, the only thing that circled in Bulwark's mind was that they were wrong.

Riley Ross is not Darkday.

Those whose deaths were caused by Darkday are always, without fail, creative. Even when he was battling to the death with Megawoman, the citizens that were unfortunate enough to be within range of his onslaught all died in the most colorful ways possible– artistic, in a sense.

However, this…

…This was a child throwing a tantrum and using the first thing he got his hand on to wreak havoc. One could argue that he was like this because he was angry– but Bulwark could feel it through his thousands of years of existence.

Darkday was too different from Riley– the only thing they had in common was the strength of their telekinetic abilities. Seeing him now, Darkday was not the entity Bulwark was thinking of…

…It was Ms. Phoenix.

This uncontrollable rage that just mows down anything within its path; the strands of air that were filled with all the emotions one could think of… this is what made Ms. Phoenix the most powerful telekinetic in the world– and the most dangerous.

They were wrong.

Riley Ross is not Darkday… but something much much worse– he is a child that has the ability to ravage the entire planet… and he might do so just for the simple fact that he doesn't get the flavor of the candy he wants.

Whoever tried to frame Riley probably knew who and what he is… and wanted to unleash him to the world. There, of course, was still a good chance that Riley is Darkday.

But what if he was not?

Then wouldn't they be releasing two monsters in the world?

"..." Bulwark then remembered Tempo saying something about a blonde young man fighting with Riley before he got to London… Did… he have something to do with this?

"Riley, stop!" Bulwark then once again screamed as he erected several golden barriers between him and Christopher, "If you kill Christopher, then you would go beyond the scope of self-defense! We… we can still argue that you killed the people here because they threatened you! There are cameras all over the room, you can't escape jail anymore but we can still reduce your punishment!"

"..." Riley's steps then finally stopped as he heard Bulwark's words. And as soon as Christopher saw this, he could not help but let out a gasp of relief; the pee that was trying to escape from his bottom, successfully halted.

"T… that's right, Riley Ross!" Christopher then muttered.

"You shut your mouth, child!" Bulwark then encased Christopher's head in a golden box, completely shutting him up,

"Riley… please stop this!"

"..." Riley looked at Bulwark for a few more seconds, before his eyebrows once again furrowed,

"No," Riley then muttered as he looked at all the cameras in the room,

"They should all be watching this, right Mr. Bulwark?" Riley then said as his feet slowly left the floor, along with him… the rest of the holding bay.

"!!!" Bulwark tried to reinforce the walls as they cracked… only for his golden brackets to split as the entire holding bay lifted– revealing the rooms beside it that also held one or two prisoners. The prisoners saw this as a chance to escape… their heads, however, exploded without even the chance to move.

"If they like watching this much..." Riley Ross then breathed out as the walls of the holding bay unfolded almost like a blossoming flower, finally revealing the light of day that awaited them outside,

"....Then let them watch as I kill everyone in this prison until I see my sister."