Chapter 63 |
"What?!"
"Have they already made their move?!!"
The S-Class heroes were struck with shock and disbelief upon hearing Sitch's announcement that the Hero Association headquarters had been attacked.
Puri-Puri Prisoner and several other S-Class heroes bolted upright from their seats.
"No... fortunately, it wasn't them..."
Sitch clenched his fists tight. "The culprit is a man named Garou, who calls himself a monster! Not only did he break into the headquarters, but he also severely wounded two A-Class heroes! To pull a stunt like that while we were all away... that damn bastard!!"
Puri-Puri Prisoner and the rest of the S-Class heroes let out a collective sigh of relief once they realized the headquarters hadn't been targeted by Boros or the One-Eyed God.
But in that same moment, Bang slammed his fist onto the table, his expression turning grim as he stared at Sitch. "What did you say... his name was? Garou?!"
"Yes."
Bang slowly lowered himself back into his seat. After a few seconds of heavy silence, he spoke. "To call himself a monster... that ungrateful brat..."
Child Emperor looked over, surprised. "Is Mr. Bang familiar with the attacker?"
"Sigh... he was once a disciple of this old man, but I have already expelled him from my dojo."
Bang sighed deeply before turning back to Sitch. "Rest assured, I will handle this matter personally."
"Very well."
Sitch gave a small nod.
Although Garou had been a student of Silver Fang, since he had already been cast out and Bang was taking responsibility for the cleanup, the Hero Association had no grounds to blame Bang for the incident.
"Garou... why would he go so far as to call himself a monster? What is his endgame? This doesn't seem like the behavior of an ordinary criminal..."
Zombieman directed his question to Sitch.
Beads of cold sweat formed on the director's forehead. "From what we can gather... his targets are specifically heroes."
"To challenge all of us? That guy certainly has some nerve! I'll crush Garou's skull myself if he dares to show his face in front of me."
Metal Bat snorted coldly, resting his weapon across his shoulder.
With the One-Eyed God and Boros—two God-level monsters—already causing such a massive headache for the Association and the S-Class heroes, they were naturally irritated by some upstart causing unnecessary trouble.
"If we're done here, I'm leaving."
Flashy Flash rose from his seat, his voice flat and indifferent to the whole Garou situation. Right now, his only focus was to keep training relentlessly, pushing his limits so that one day he could surpass both the One-Eyed God and Boros.
Sitch nodded. "Fine... this isn't the best time to continue the meeting anyway. This incident only proves that the Hero Association headquarters truly needs a constant S-Class presence."
As Flashy Flash headed for the exit, the other S-Class heroes exchanged glances and began to follow suit, leaving the room one by one. Tatsumaki, however, remained in her chair.
She looked away from Yeruashi, who was sitting beside her, but a second later, her eyes drifted back toward him involuntarily. She repeated this several times until Yeruashi finally turned his gaze toward her.
"What is it?" Yeruashi asked.
Tatsumaki froze for a split second before shooting toward the window, enveloped in an emerald-green aura. "I'm going to find this Garou character!"
With that, her figure vanished through the window in a streak of green light.
Yeruashi glanced at the window and chuckled.
It was obvious that Tatsumaki suffered every time she tried to pick a fight with him, yet lately, it seemed she didn't harbor any real hatred toward him at all.
'Sigh...'
'Women are strange creatures.'
'Is it really just because I'm too handsome?'
Truth be told, Garou's actions were actually worth his attention.
Aside from Saitama, Garou was the only known being capable of breaking his limiter and evolving multiple times in rapid succession.
Garou's journey of evolution—from an ordinary human to a monster capable of trading blows with Saitama—was far more interesting to Yeruashi as a case study than an alien like Boros.
While Garou's ultimate stage of evolution was certainly lower than Saitama's, his ability to transcend the Dragon-level through repeated breakthroughs would likely serve as a perfect example for Yeruashi's own goals.
Yeruashi craved further evolution.
Pain needed to go through one or perhaps two more evolutions to reach the level of the main body before they could finally merge. It would be a fusion of human and monster power, a breakthrough to the next stage of existence.
Even though it might seem like he was already unfathomably powerful, the reality was that he was still far from the level of a star-destroyer. Right now, his strongest strike would, at most, cause a significant disturbance on the surface of the sun; actually destroying a star was still out of reach, let alone obliterating one with a single blow.
In the world of Dragon Ball, the mere shockwaves from a battle between divine beings could make the entire universe tremble! Not just a galaxy, but the whole universe!!
Even putting Dragon Ball's absurd power scaling aside, there were plenty of other worlds with beings capable of star-shattering feats.
Achieving that level of power was now his primary objective.
'Show me true evolution, Garou.'
Yeruashi smiled and stepped forward, vanishing instantly and leaving nothing behind but crackling arcs of lightning.
...
A couple of weeks later.
In the middle of a gloomy, overcast sky over City X, a massive, semi-illusory shadow hovered ominously.
"I am the Great Void King, born from the abyss! Bow before my might! Tremble in fear before my power, you insignificant creatures of this world! Your fear shall become my strength!!"
The monster's roar thundered across the city, loud and malicious.
Countless civilians reflexively covered their ears as sharp pain shot through their eardrums, their eyes wide with terror as they stared at the colossal black shadow dominating the sky.
Following that terrifying roar, the massive ephemeral shadow extended a giant claw toward the city, large enough to block out the sun.
Down in the city streets.
Amidst a crowd of panicking civilians, a single man stood perfectly still, showing not a single hint of fear. He stood with his hands in his pockets, looking up at the sky with a sense of excitement and anticipation as he watched the ethereal monster.
It was Garou.
Since his attack on the Hero Association, Garou had challenged numerous S-Class heroes and powerful monsters. By now, he had already defeated three S-Class heroes—Metal Bat, Tanktop Master, and Puri-Puri Prisoner—and had single-handedly slaughtered a significant number of Demon-level monsters.
Now, Garou was ready for the next step: challenging a Dragon-level threat and higher-ranking S-Class heroes.
"So this is what a Dragon-level threat looks like?"
Garou looked at the giant hand in the sky and smirked coldly. He pulled his hands from his pockets and shifted into a confident combat stance.
But just as he was about to launch himself toward the monster's massive limb, he suddenly aborted his movement. He noticed a brilliant flash of lightning in the sky, streaking from the horizon to the center of City X in the blink of an eye.
Crackle!!
A human figure appeared in the sky above the city, wreathed in countless arcs of blinding lightning. The figure calmly looked at the approaching monstrous claw and threw a simple, straightforward punch.
As the fist moved, intense bolts of lightning concentrated around it.
Boom!!!
Upon impact, the monster's ephemeral hand froze mid-air, distorted violently, and then shattered into pieces with a deafening explosion. Following the arm, the rest of the Void King's massive body twisted and exploded in a thunderous burst of energy.
"Aaaaaagh!!!"
Accompanied by a horrific death rattle, the Void King's colossal form was torn to shreds by a single punch from Yeruashi, clearing the very clouds from the sky along with it!
A true one-shot kill!
Witnessing this breathtaking scene, Garou's body went stiff, and cold sweat poured down his face.
He forced a grin as he got a better look at the figure bathed in lightning. "Heh... that guy is one of the few I'd rather not run into just yet... The Thunder God... Rank 3 of the S-Class..."
Over the last two weeks, since his promotion to the 6th rank of S-Class, the Thunder God's hero activity had equaled the combined efforts of every other S-Class hero put together!
During this period of unprecedented activity, the Thunder God had neutralized countless threats, including several Demon-level monsters and even three Dragon-level disasters!!
With the unwavering support and active promotion of the Hero Association, Yeruashi had climbed to the third spot in the S-Class rankings in just a couple of weeks!
Now, he trailed only behind the Tornado of Terror and Blast, and he was widely considered to be among the strongest heroes in existence!
Such a man was, of course, one of Garou's ultimate goals!!