NOLAN'S POV
Where did things go wrong?
One moment I was so close to my goal, the Guardians bleeding out around me, and the next I'm trapped for days in this castle that bends and shifts in ways I didn't think possible.
When I found out Mark had awakened his Viltrumite heritage despite being a late bloomer, I knew Earth's humans were the answer. The best genetic compatibility for Viltrumite DNA we'd found in centuries. This planet could finally propagate our numbers back from the edge of extinction, restore what the Scourge Virus had taken from us.
With all my mission criteria matched, I needed to prepare Earth for Viltrum rule and weaken its defenses. Among all these superpowered anomalies flying around, the Guardians were the priority threat.
I'd made all the preparations.
Hacked their communication devices to send an emergency signal, gathered them all at their base in one convenient location. I'd even disabled all monitoring and surveillance in the facility so there'd be no witnesses, no recordings.
It should have been clean.
But there was that unknown variable.
The bug wasn't supposed to be there.
I was about to crush his throat when War Woman's mace struck my head from behind, cracking my skull, my grip loosened for just a second, and then that insect produced some kind of energy blade that extended and sliced across my ribs.
A Viltrumite's skin.
Pierced by a lowly bug.
The humiliation burned worse than the wound itself.
And the rage, that irrational rage, it consumed everything. My training, my discipline, my mission priorities, all of it drowning in the need to kill that vermin.
After that, everything went wrong. Even in combat, that vermin kept catching my attention. Every deadly punch I landed missed or I made a mistake at the last moment because of his wound that wouldn't stop bleeding, because of that cursed gate that appeared and disappeared around me.
I should have ignored him. Focus on the mission and execute the Guardians.
But I couldn't stop thinking about brutally killing him.
It doesn't make sense. I'm a Viltrumite. We don't lose control like this. We don't become consumed by irrational hatred for insects beneath our notice.
But I did.
The only ones I managed to kill were Aquarus and the Immortal, and the last one was known to come back from death, so I ripped him in half before decapitating him to make sure he stayed dead this time.
I'd mortally wounded the rest, disfigured them despite my own injuries piling up. Friction burns covering my chest from Red Rush's attacks, cracked ribs and skull from War Woman's mace, and a concussion that made my vision swim.
But I was still pulled toward the bug.
This rage bubbling up inside me like I needed to kill that boy more than I needed to breathe.
I've killed thousands, slaughtered armies and conquered planets.
But I've never felt this before.
This need.
So I moved toward him, already lying on the ground, when suddenly a gate started materializing beneath him.
No.
I couldn't let that vermin escape. I had to kill any and all witnesses. Needed to rip his tongue out, burn the body and erase any evidence.
I stumbled forward, broke into a run, then flew at full speed.
My mind took a backseat to the rage.
Another gate appeared directly in front of me and the distance was too short to cancel my momentum.
I flew straight through.
Into this castle.
Before I could even process where I was, I wheeled around to get out, but the wall with the gate shifted itself, rearranging into a Japanese-style room with sliding doors and wooden floors.
That's when I knew.
That vermin had trapped me.
It's been more than fifty hours since then. I know because I've been counting the seconds, one hundred eighty-one thousand and climbing, each one adding to my fury.
This place looks ornate, regal, like some Asian emperor's castle, but it's actually a hell house. The den of that demoness controlling it.
I first heard her talking to someone she called Master, probably that bug, and I was about to tear her apart when I got close enough. Even nicked her single eye.
Then she plucked that godawful string.
The place shifted.
I hate that sound.
Every shuffle and transformation of this cursed castle happens when that biwa string is plucked, and in these two days, I've heard it one hundred thirteen thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven times.
Each pluck drills into my skull like a spike, echoing in my bones, rattling through my cracked ribs. The sound reverberates through my teeth, sets my nerves on fire, and makes my concussion throb with renewed agony.
I can't escape it. My Viltrumite hearing picks up every cursed note.
No matter how much I tried, the injuries were weakening me slowly but surely. The cut on my ribs kept bleeding, refusing to close properly no matter how much time passed. The friction burns made every breath feel like inhaling fire. Even my Viltrumite physique needed rest, but the rage I had for that insect kept me tearing through walls, smashing through rooms, destroying everything I could reach.
I've tried nearly everything.
Dive-bombing the castle from above. Flying up to where space should be. Digging down to find a foundation.
It's either truly infinite or infinite from my perspective.
I think I'm going mad. Lost in this place, hearing that string over and over, the same corridors appearing again and again, the same rooms rearranging themselves, mocking me with their endless repetition.
Then suddenly I heard a voice from the east, or whatever passed for east in this shifting maze.
This time directly addressing me.
"Ara ara, is the great Nolan of Viltrum already tired from punching a few wooden walls?"
I flew toward the voice, tearing through everything in my path.
That godawful string noise came again.
Now the voice was distant, to my north this time.
"Tell me something, is your son also as much of a disappointment as you? I mean, you're technically his sperm donor, so he won't fare any better than you! Does he know you're using him as a breeding experiment?"
I roared, a guttural sound that tore from my throat as I flew too fast, my healing flesh wounds ripping open again.
With another pluck of the string, the voice's distance and direction changed.
"Oh, and Debbie. Sweet, naive Debbie. Does she know you've been rawdogging her for eugenics? I wonder what she'd do if she found out you think of her as your breeding pet? Would she cry? Or would she just finally understand what a pathetic little cuck you are for the Empire?"
The words dug deeper than any weapon.
I've endured torture, interrogation and psychological warfare from species far older than this demoness.
But she was hitting every insecurity. Every doubt I've buried for twenty years.
And that makes it worse.
The insults continued.
"My Master finds it tragically hilarious. You're out here playing house, pretending to be a hero, and you can't even complete the one job they gave you. Kill seven capes. That's it. That was the assignment. And you fucked it up so badly that a random human with a glowstick bitch-slapped you into my house. Tell me, does the Empire even remember your name? Or are you just another disposable agent sent to die on some backwater planet?"
I knew this was a trap. She was trying to agitate me, make me lose control. I was trained for psychological warfare, interrogation resistance, and mental fortitude under stress.
But my condition, the mental torture of that string noise, being lost in this castle, the failure to kill that bug, this irrational obsession that I couldn't understand, it was too much.
I lost my calm again and again.
With a final sentence that sent shivers down my spine, a Tatami Door opened in front of me.
"You know, I've been listening to you rage for two days now, Nolan. You scream about Viltrum's glory, about your Empire's destiny." Her voice dropping cold, "Hmm, I suddenly remember less than fifty of you Neanderthals remain in the entire universe, aren't I right? Maybe that Scourge Virus needs to be upgraded to wipe out the rest of you roaches."
How does she know?
The Scourge Virus was supposed to be our most guarded secret, known only to the highest levels of Viltrum command.
Whoever or whatever she was, I needed to kill her along with that bug before they became too dangerous for the Empire.
"Go on, failure of Viltrum. Enjoy the freedom my master has presented you. Take that useless pride and show my master how great it is to be a dog for Viltrum."
I felt a connection, a pull from the other side of the door, as if a chain was yanking my very soul to go out and find the outlet to my rage.
Blinded by urgency and rage, I crossed through the door.
Air.
Fresh air.
I didn't know it could taste so good after days in that stale castle. Sunlight on my skin, ambient sounds that weren't that cursed string, even screams were soothing compared to the biwa.
Wait.
Screams?
Where was I?
I took notice of my surroundings, looked below and saw those green aliens I'd dealt with before. The Flaxans, back for another invasion attempt. Some human heroes scattered across the battlefield, normal humans running for cover.
But their expressions weren't fear.
Awe and shock, staring up at something above me.
I turned to look up and my eyes widened from the sheer impossibility of what I was seeing.
A man covered in medieval armor with white metal wings sprouting from his back and a helmet reminiscent of a dragon's head.
No.
Not a man.
That bug.
What caught my attention was his posture, the sword extending behind his head, ready to strike.
Before I could even twitch to dodge, my injuries, exhaustion, rage, the mental trauma and sudden change of environment, all compounded.
I couldn't react in time.
I heard that vermin's voice, sharp against my ear despite the chaos.
"Get fucked, you inbred Viltrum! And that's a promise from John Kaisen!"
Kaisen.
The name burned itself into my mind like a brand.
John Kaisen.
The bug who ruined everything
As he yelled.
"DRACONIC EXCALIBUR!"
An energy beam of blue lightning struck me.
First cutting through my already-burned flesh, the weakened tissue offering almost no resistance, as it carved deeper into the wound on my ribs.
And then the lightning hit.
My muscles seized as every nerve fired at once, paralysed by the electrical current coursing through my body.
I couldn't do anything but feel the attack pushing me backwards.
Toward those red portals where the green aliens came from.
I was being forced from one dimension to another, the attack's kinetic force launching me like I weighed nothing.
Anger, rage and almost some excitement, all these emotions burst from my lungs as I yelled back, the only response I could give as the attack consumed me.
"CURSE YOU, KAISEN!!!"
The energy attack engulfed me completely, lightning searing through my body, pushing me through the portal.
The gate of the green aliens collapsed in front of me, the dimensional gate destroyed by absurd lightning coursing through it.
And then I was getting dragged through the aliens' barracks, wounded and furious, with nothing but that name burning in my mind.
John Kaisen.
The bug who'd ruined everything. Who'd humiliated me. Who'd ruined my mission.
The insect I would kill even if it took me centuries to find.
I am Nolan Grayson.
Omni-Man.
Soldier of Viltrum.
And I will have my revenge.
[A/N]: If you don't want Nolan visiting you midnight - Drop those stones and reviews
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