Villain Retirement

"I heard the fate of the universe was at stake again, but it's not Riley?"

"The multiverse, Empress. The multiverse."

And very slowly, the Council of Ross was filled with all sorts of people… except for the people whom it actually belongs to, Bernard Ross. They were all seated in the auditorium, which was now only the size of a large class hall since most of the Hera variants were already gone.

"I do not get it, why is our priority still retrieving the people we have lost?"

The Queen of Evaniels was also there, and had already explored every nook and cranny of the space station more than a thousand times; just in case they were missing something,

"If we really need the brain of the architect of all this mess, then why do we not just pull one from a random universe?" Queen Vania raised her hand as she shared her thoughts, "I know all of you are thinking that there is a chance that that variant might join or have already joined forces with this man all of you call King, but at least we keep our enemies closer."

"No," Diana raised her hand to talk, "Aside from the fact you have already laid out — like most variants, the variants of Bernard Ross are not created equal."

"Hm," Empress nodded her head and agreed, "Our Bernard Ross was the best of all of them, it… is truly a demerit to the entire universe that we lost him."

"..." If anyone else said that, Diana would probably also be nodding her head and thanking them. But it left a weird taste in her mouth that it was her husband's mistress who said those words. And so, the only thing she could really do was project the hologram of Bard in front of all of them,

"This is the Bernard Ross variant who goes by the name Bard. He created Council of Ross…"

And while Diana and the others discuss the situation with the newcomers, the search for Hannah and the others continued in the same room, causing Queen Vania to look at Riley and all the clones who are stepping in and out of the portals.

In a way, perhaps unbeknownst to most of the people here, she felt… extreme guilt with the current situation. She was not apologetic for Hanna and the others, not at all. How could she, when they were part of Riley Ross's circle?

She was, however, extremely guilty for not listening to Van's words. After all, at the time, those words did not really come from Van's mouth, but from Riley's. He already told all of them not to open portals, and yet she was one of the people who spearheaded the research and even allocated enough budget to completely turn it into reality.

And now, this was the result — not only their universe but others realities have been dragged with her sins.

"I know what you are thinking, Queen Vania."

"!!!" Queen Vania could really only look to the side, as all of a sudden, Riley was sitting beside her. She couldn't even feel him arriving there at all.

"I canceled my presence completely," Riley raised his palm as he looked at Queen Vania, "Also, if you are thinking that this is somehow your fault for sponsoring the creation of portal, then do not be."

"..." Is Riley Ross actually comforting right now?

"Your actions are irrelevant and useless in the grand scheme of things," Riley sighed, "Multiversal travel had already been discovered by Bard more than a decade before our universe discovered it."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Queen Vania raised an eyebrow.

"I was not trying to make you feel better, Queen Vania — I was doing the opposite and trying to make you feel useless." And with those words, Riley stood up and just casually left the discussion; leaving Queen Vania completely lost in thought as to what Riley even wanted to achieve by doing that.

"You'll get used to it," Empress, who was seated on her other side just waved her hand and sighed, "The kid lives to create chaos."

"Well, that kid is planning on ending all of us," Queen Vania raised her voice and stood up, "King may be the immediate threat now, but make no mistake — he is still the biggest threat in the entire multiverse. While we are here, we should start planning on how to truly get rid of him, because unlike with King, we can plan, and need to plan."

"But he is not our problem for now."

"He has always been the problem."

And as the discussion soon turned into an argument, Riley was not standing in front of a portal; nodding his head as he watched the chaos he left very slowly turn louder by the second. And with a smile on his face, he tugged the rope he was holding — once again entering a portal and bringing alone the undead princess with him in a cage.

Riley was once again expecting nothing but darkness, as the last universes he had traversed to were all already completely dead. But the view in front of him right now could not be even more alive.

He was in the center of what seemed to be New York, but it looked old and the buildings seemed completely abandoned; there were cracks, shattered glass, and the smell of rusted metal everywhere.

But it was alive — there were people there all wearing thick coats and jackets; carrying everything they could as they seemed to help each other with whatever it was they were doing. There was also a certain piercing cold that seemed to chill the water and vapor, but not enough to truly turn them into ice.

If there was anything different on this Earth, it is that it had two suns — one almost white in color, while the other yellow. Riley did not even bother acknowledging the people who were slowly gathering around him and looking at him as well as the cage floating close to him, he just quickly flew up into the sky and toward the white sun.

Before he could even get far, however, he noticed something different. The closer he got to the white sun, the lower the temperature became — even lower than normal when one finds themselves trapped in the expanse of space; the chill was even starting to form around his telekinetic barrier.

"..." Riley squinted his eyes for a few seconds, before he turned toward the yellow sun. And without even any hesitation, he flew toward it; his speed, increasing by the millisecond as everything around him just turned into a dark and streaking blur; even leaving the undead princess' cage just floating in the expanse of the solar system.

And very soon, he reached the yellow sun. And even with him completely immune to heat, Riley could still feel a soothing warmth starting to veil around his entire body; wrapping him gently. But he knew that even if it wasn't him, everyone else would still feel a soothing warmth, no heat at all.

And as he got even closer, he found that the sun was not a sun at all.

But two people, two people holding each other's hands as they seemed to peacefully sleep.

"Hm…" Riley stared at these two silhouettes for a few seconds, before a smile very slowly crawled on his face. He then very gently raised his palm and pointed it toward the two — but as soon as he did so, one of the silhouettes turned her head at him.

"Riley… no."

"Sister."

It was Hannah. Her body, completely white; almost ethereal as Riley could see the universe through her, literally. And the other silhouette she was holding hands with; almost like a mirror, was Nannah.

And perhaps in the simplest of forms, and in the simplest of sense, and in the simplest of words — there were giving this universe life.

"I have come to bring you back, Sister," Riley turned his palm up and tried to reach for Hannah, but Hannah just shook her head, causing some sort of delay after image as the warmth emitting from her body seemed to leave a print on the universe.

"You can't, Riley. Whatever you do, promise me that you will not try anything," Hannah's voice seemed distant, not metaphorically — but her voice seemed to travel across the entire universe at once, "If you do…"

"...This universe dies," Nannah was the one to complete Hannah's words, "I have always imagined what my purpose truly is — and perhaps it is this. I have destroyed the lives of many in the chance that they will become a threat to their universe, but now it is truly time to save a universe while not sacrificing any lives."

"Leave us here, brother…" Hannah let out a sigh which almost pushed Riley back, "...This is what our powers are for. And even if you try to do something, it will not be enough as our mortal forms have already departed this plane. We are—"

"No."

And before Hannah could even finish her words, Riley suddenly grabbed both their hands… before pulling them apart.

"Riley, no!"

And as soon as he did so, a ripple exploded; almost instantly moving across the entire universe. And very soon, Riley could feel even the darkness of the expanse of space to crack as a murdering chill menacingly crawled everywhere… everywhere except the minuscule space where the three of them were floating.

"See, Sister?" Riley then pointed at Hannah and Nannah as their bodies very slowly materialized in front of him, "You still have your bodies."

"Riley, you… you promised me you won't do that…" Hannah and Nannah started grabbing their arms as they seemingly felt everything and everyone dies around them, "We… they relied on us and—"

"The only thing I promised you is not to abandon you, Sister," Riley shook his head, "And also…

…I am starting to feel a little selfish lately."