"A cosmic overlord?" Metal Bat, dressed like a delinquent youth, whistled.
"Sounds exciting! Worth rushing over from my sister's precious piano recital!"
"Young man, don't be careless!" Bang stroked the white beard at the corner of his lips, his brows tightly furrowed as he glanced toward Saitama, who sat quietly at the far end.
A foe with the power to destroy the planet's surface… perhaps only Saitama, the man who once obliterated a meteor with a single punch, had even the slightest chance of facing such an enemy.
Saitama, however, didn't seem overly concerned. Instead, he turned to the person next to him.
"Excuse me, who is Shibabawa? Is she a hero?"
Prisoner Sexy, seated beside him, turned with fluttering lashes.
"You don't know? She's a fortune teller! A Grand Fortune Teller!"
He spread his arms dramatically.
"Her predictions about earthquakes and monster outbreaks have never been wrong. She's an irreplaceable treasure to humanity."
Saitama nodded slowly.
"Oh… that's a shame."
Just then, the entire Hero Association headquarters shuddered violently!
The chandeliers above swayed like pendulums, while the large wall displays flickered erratically.
A mechanical voice rang out:
[Activating emergency backup power.]
"What's going on?!"
"An earthquake?!"
"No… it's an attack!"
Agoni's face turned pale, beads of sweat sliding down his forehead.
He whispered, almost to himself, "Calamity… has it already arrived?"
Kaito suddenly rose to his feet. The faint, rumbling growl of the Emperor Engine echoed from his chest.
His perception tore past the reinforced alloy walls of the Association building, allowing him to see—
A colossal spaceship blotting out the sky, descending over A City in a way that seemed to warp space itself.
Its massive, obsidian hull bristled with monstrous cannons—like the maw of some cosmic beast preparing to swallow the Earth.
With a single blast, most of A City had already been reduced to rubble.
Seeing Kaito's expression, Agoni quickly asked, "King… what have you sensed?"
As one of the few executives who had once glimpsed the Emperor Engine's dread-inducing might, Agoni knew exactly what it meant when the so-called Strongest Man on Earth wore such a grave expression.
The conference room fell utterly silent. Every S-Class Hero turned their gaze toward Kaito.
The air seemed to freeze—breathing itself became audible.
Kaito folded his arms, his voice low and heavy.
"Everyone… Boros's spaceship has arrived."
He paused—then dropped an even greater bombshell.
"Just now, that spaceship… only fired a single volley."
The silence was suffocating.
Kaito's final words crashed like thunder:
"Most of A City… has disappeared."
"What?!" Metal Bat shot to his feet, eyes blazing.
"Are you kidding me?! A City is the largest urban zone, stretching over a hundred kilometers! Did you see it yourself?"
Superalloy Darkshine raised a massive hand, stopping him.
"Bat. Calm yourself. Mr. King is known as the Strongest Man on Earth. His words are never without weight."
"I'll confirm it with satellite imaging right now!" Agoni rushed to the control console, his fingers blurring across the keys.
When the data appeared on the main display, his pupils constricted violently. His entire body went rigid, as if lightning had struck him.
"No… this can't be… Impossible…"
He swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he forced out the words.
"Damage rate… ninety-nine point eight percent!"
The conference room froze in horror.
99.8%.
The cold number stabbed into every heart like an icicle, cruel and merciless.
Agoni turned toward Kaito, his eyes full of raw emotion—fear, disbelief, the fragile relief of survival… and a deep, unshakable awe.
Only now did he truly understand how restrained Kaito's words had been when he'd said, "Most of A City has disappeared."
How could that be called most?
This wasn't partial destruction.
This was complete, merciless, erasure—tens of millions of lives, an entire metropolis, wiped clean from the Earth's map.
A bone-chilling cold crept up Agoni's spine.
He realized with absolute clarity that if not for the man before him—the one who, after the Deep Sea King disaster, had been branded a "tyrant," enduring endless internal questioning from the Hero Association and a tidal wave of online abuse…
Accusations like "History's First Tyrant," "Abusing Privileges to Create Panic," "Sacrificing the Economy for Greed"—all spat at him without mercy.
And yet, with the soul-shaking roar of the Emperor Engine, he had silenced every dissenting voice, overruled every objection, and—no matter the cost—forced through the unprecedented evacuation of tens of millions from A City…
Then at this moment, behind that 99.8% damage rate, there would not only be ruins of steel and concrete, but mountains of charred corpses.
Tens of millions of lives would have been snuffed out in an instant. Civilization itself might have collapsed under the weight of despair.
Kaito's foresight, his unflinching courage, his willingness to shoulder the hatred of the masses…
Those merits were so immense they would be etched into history forever.
Agoni's heart surged. Despite his age, he was nearly moved to tears.
But this was not the time for sentiment—or for vindicating Kaito.
He drew in a steadying breath, turned to face the assembled heroes, and bowed deeply.
"Everyone! The fate of Earth, the survival of humanity itself, rests in your hands. Please—I beg you—repel this enemy!"
"Hmph! Just some alien small fry!" Tornado floated into the air, her green hair whipping around her.
"Watch me rip their tin can apart and scatter the pieces!"
Atomic Samurai slid his thumb across the hilt of his katana, smirking.
"Alien pirates? I'll slice them all to ribbons."
"For my sister's smile!" Metal Bat growled, gripping his bat tighter.
"Protect!" Superalloy Darkshine's muscles swelled like mountains.
"…" Watchdog Man rose silently, his canine eyes glinting with predatory sharpness.
"Understood! Teacher, let's go together—" Genos's engines flared, but he stopped mid-sentence. He glanced over—only to realize Saitama was gone.
Stunned, he saw the evidence above: the thick alloy ceiling had been punched through.
A massive hole gaped overhead, smoke curling from its shattered edges.
Saitama, humanity's absurd trump card, had already blasted into the sky with nothing but raw strength—launching himself directly toward the burning heavens where Boros awaited.
"I can't miss this classic battle…" Kaito murmured.
Without hesitation, he slipped on the holographic visor that the Child Emperor had painstakingly crafted after sleepless nights of design.
The lenses glowed faint blue as intricate neural connections locked into place.
"Consciousness synchronization… complete."
[Mech—Shadow of the Emperor… activating!]
In the Association's plaza, the massive black machine—Child Emperor's masterpiece—suddenly roared to life.
Its plated armor unfolded, its engines thundered, and twin jets of flame blasted from its feet.
Like an arrow fired from a bowstring, the mech rocketed skyward—following Saitama into the crimson battlefield above.
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