Hero Regresses with Villain System-Chapter 27: Hunger

Finally, they’ve come,

The blessed new race.

An endless wonder

Wanders to their grave.

Anger, hatred, deceit,

These are all of the things

That define those she eats.

Purity and power, what are those?

Forgotten woes already devoured;

They were simply a grain in the Endless White,

Or an abyss within that Gentle Dark.

No matter, for when Mother is in your sight,

It is anger that makes your soul depart.

...

Adam couldn’t begin to move as the tendrils took him into the highest reaches of the Temple. He was simply suffocating, to the point that even the slightest movement was beyond impossible.

Somewhere, he knew that the others shared this pain. Just like him, they were being dragged through this endless dark to an unfathomable evil. He couldn’t help but feel a little bad for them. At the same time, extreme anger grew in his heart.

It was their fault they were in this situation to begin with. If they had just continued walking instead of giving a fuck about dead people...

Adam wondered for a second if that was true. If they could have really escaped such a monster.

Yes, if they set aside their moral compass for survival, they’d be out of the Temple by now. Instead, they were meeting the same threat as Shadow and Red-Hair.

’All because of some stupid fucking set of morals,’ Adam thought as anger encompassed his being. At the same time, another emotion took hold: determination.

Whatever it was that waited for him in the darkness, he was going to survive it. Whether or not the others did couldn’t concern him now.

He had to survive. For Faye, Cynthia, Mom, Dad, and himself.

As if his mind was trying to strengthen that resolve, the fateful day his sister died played over and over in his mind. The smoke, fears, cries of despair... the false hope that the Exalted would save her.

He felt her tender, departing touch underneath him once again. Her barely audible breaths becoming even weaker.

The endless steps played over and over in his mind; the desperate attempt at survival. How, even after all hope was lost, he still tried to save her.

And the resulting death that happened all the same.

As the faces of those 2 Exalted crept into his mind, Adam couldn’t help but feel a boundless rage taking over. It was like a ferocious wave at sea, constantly rocking him back and forth as it threatened to take him under.

However, Adam was determined to kill Enjiro and avenge his sister. Instead of letting the wave crash into him, he channeled the anger into a focused weapon. It wasn’t a tsunami he wanted to send after Enjiro, killing millions in the process.

Instead, it was more so a poison. A small, focused application that would give the bastard his comeuppance without damaging any innocent people.

As he thought this, a new vision showed in his head.

This time, he was back to the first days of the apocalypse, where Faye died.

...

[10 years ago in the future]

Unimaginable terror spread across the populace as hell itself rose to the earth.

3 giant beasts rampaged across New York, demolishing the city and killing millions. Hiding in the subway, Adam looked over at Faye, both of them shuddering every time rubble fell from the ceiling.

Disbelief was evident on both of their faces, as they never imagined something like this being real in their wildest dreams. Those movies were fiction; they were just fun stories to watch when bored.

They were supposed to be taking Cynthia to her dance lessons, not experiencing hell firsthand. She was supposed to be enjoying her hobby, not sobbing into his shirt.

Tenderly hugging her, Adam whispered, "It’ll be ok." He didn’t really believe that, but he figured it might help her calm down.

Stupid.

She only dug deeper into him, burrowing her face as she sobbed, "We’re going to die! We’re all going to die!"

It was a sickening sight, to see his normally energetic sister reduced to a sniveling ball of despair. What was even worse was his inability to do anything to help.

Then again, what the fuck was he supposed to do? The fucking military tried their best, and just one of the beasts was enough to destroy an entire squad of fighter pilots. Just one, and there were fucking 3 of them!!!

"Adam..." A gentle but tender voice called out to him as Faye placed her hand on his shoulder. He hadn’t realized it, but fear had caused him to violently shake. Which would only worsen Cynthia’s fear.

But maybe that was good? Maybe they should feel fear. If they kept hiding, maybe they’d survi—

Crack!

Boom!

Screams tore through the air as a giant slab of rock fell from the ceiling, instantly flattening a group of people. Multiple more rocks fell, effectively sealing the entrances they had come through. As Faye and Adam sat there, too petrified to move, the thousands of other civilians taking refuge in the subway began running.

"We’re going to die!"

"We’re all going to fucking die!"

Adam watched the new hole in the subway, a gate between their safe underground world and the surface, dominated by those beasts. Gazing straight through the hole, Adam was looking directly at the sun. Light flooded the subway now, but for the first time in his life, Adam preferred darkness.

Darkness meant that the roof was still intact, that they were safe.

Light meant that the beasts could come through.

"W-what’s that?" Faye stammered.

Adam was too stunned to speak, though he knew exactly what she was talking about. After all, he had been staring at the hole this entire time.

5 tentacles came through the opening, twitching sporadically. As more and more people saw them, their screams intensified.

’Leading the beasts right to them...’ Adam realized.

The next second, his fear was confirmed. The people who were running and screaming gave the beast their exact location. All it had to do then was pluck them up and eat them.

Clutching Cynthia tighter with one hand as he gripped Faye’s thigh with the other, Adam whispered, "Don’t move. Don’t speak."

He could feel trembling in both of his hands, but he couldn’t tell if it was because he was shaking or they were. Most likely, all of them were.

Who wouldn’t when they saw humans being herded into safety just the same as cattle. How could they have ever thought they’d be safe here?

Now that Adam was staring at carnage firsthand yet again, he couldn’t help but wonder that. Why would they think they were safe?

Looking at the thousands of people dying one at a time, as if it was a game, Adam realized the truth. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

As long as those beasts existed, there would be no safety. There would be only death.

...

It had taken a few hours of silent watching until the last few screamers had died. Luckily, they weren’t the only insane people who stayed still and breathless.

There were 12 others, and together they had found a subway tunnel that hadn’t been closed off by fallen rubble. Now, the trio was walking through that tunnel, following the others.

The entire time, Adam wondered what the point was. Subways were designed to get you around the city, right? So, exploring it would only lead them to the beasts. To death.

Maybe they could start a new life underground. Design some plan to sneak into stores (the ones not smashed, anyway) when they needed food. It would be hard, but it would be plausible.

However, short of a nuke, he wondered what could even kill those beasts. In fact, he wondered if even a nuke could kill them. Everything else had failed: fighter pilots, regular ICBMs, even orbital lasers.

All the weapons of mass destruction that leveled entire cities during the last Great War were completely ineffective so far.

If the government thought nukes could do anything, wouldn’t they have sent them by now?

"Hey, what is it?" Faye asked, as Adam had stopped walking when he became lost in his thoughts.

’Besides the fact we’re all going to die...’

"Nothing," Adam said as he shook his head, trying to instill some sense of confidence.

Faye attempted to provide a smile, but it fell extremely short even for her. Instead, she simply nodded as she took his hand.

"Don’t fall behind on me, ok?" she asked, giving a gentle look in her eyes.

Nodding, Adam said, "OK."

Cynthia remained silent beside him, a look of pure fear permanently etched into her face now. He wondered if she’d ever recover.

’As long as I find some way for her to survive... she will.’

As soon as Adam thought that, one of the people in the front fell to the ground, crying in pain. The others quickly knelt around her, and Adam saw it was the pregnant lady.

Keeping his distance from her, he looked over at Faye and realized she had the same idea. None of the 3 tried to move forward, as they were too busy watching the ceiling.

Waiting for death to come.