[Invincible POV]
It felt like the universe was just taking turns kicking the shit out of me. First, it was the twenty-year lie my dad called a life.
The supersonic boom trailed miles behind me as I ripped through the clouds over New Chicago. I thought the cold air and the rebuilt skyline would clear my head. Maybe wash away the suffocating, white-hot anger, or the sickening guilt of beating my own father till he bled.
But it didn't help at all.
Instead, I just flew slower and slower until I was barely moving, drifting over the new skyline at maybe thirty feet as I looked down at the agro-utopia John Kaisen had somehow pulled out of thin air.
Kids were laughing, actually making a game out of picking ripe fruits from massive, twisted trees growing right out of the sidewalks. Residents were out on their balconies, just… enjoying the day, actually touching the grass that grew on the sides of the metallic skyscrapers.
It was a paradise. And it confused the fuck out of me.
My mind was a mess. My dad was a monster who tried to cave my skull in. John Kaisen was a guy with a billion-dollar bounty who rebuilt my face and somehow magically enslaved my dad to my mom.
Who were the good guys? What was I even supposed to do with all this goddman power?
Panic started crawling up my throat, choking me, until a voice sliced right through the wind howling past my ears.
"Invincible."
I killed my momentum, floating mid-air, scanning the streets below.
Sitting on a park bench right in the middle of a crowded plaza was an old man. He had pristine white hair, a perfectly trimmed white beard, and was wearing a remarkably sharp, tailored suit. He smiled up at me, casually waving his hand and signalling for me to come down and sit beside him.
I was about to ignore him and just fly away, since I wasn't in the mood for an autograph session.
But then I felt it.
A sudden, paralyzing dread spiked my heart right into my throat. The air around the park suddenly felt heavy, like the gravity had been dialled up by a thousand.
When I looked back down, trying to find the source of the oppressive pressure, I saw the old man. He was still smiling, still waving, but a faint, sickeningly dark purple aura was starting to form around his outline.
I looked at the kids playing in the park less than fifty feet from him.
If this guy was a threat, I couldn't just leave them in the crossfire.
Swallowing the bitter taste of fear, I dropped from the sky, cracking the pavement as I landed. Dropping into a low crouch, I coiled every muscle in my body tight like a spring, ready to grab him and fly him as far away from the city as possible.
"What do you want?" I demanded, my voice tight.
"Come, Mark," the old man said. His voice was a barely audible whisper, but it carried perfectly over the noise of the city. "I've wanted to meet you for quite some time now."
I snapped my mouth shut, shooting frantic looks at the pedestrians. A few people were pointing at my suit, but thankfully keeping a wide berth.
Closing the distance, I leaned in, my voice dropping to a harsh hiss. "How the hell do you know my real name?"
The old man kept his warm smile and patted the empty space next to him on the bench.
I gritted my teeth, staying exactly where I was. "Tell me how you know my name. Now."
"Ah, how rude of me," the old man chuckled, placing his left hand over his heart and offering a slight bow while remaining seated. "Let me introduce myself. I am Sebas Tian. And ever since my master told me about the story of this world, I've been itching to meet you, Invincible."
"Sebas?" I narrowed my eyes. "I don't know anyone by that name. And who the hell is your master?"
"Ah, such impatience," Sebas sighed softly, shaking his head. "And here I thought we could connect. Halfling to halfling."
"Halfling? Wait a minute, are you also..."
"Oh, no," Sebas corrected gently. "You are half-human, half-Viltrumite. And I am half-human, and half—"
"DRAGON!!!"
A chorus of terrified screams suddenly erupted all around us as the plaza broke into panic.
I whipped around, following the pointed fingers of the fleeing civilians, and my jaw practically hit the pavement.
Bursting out of a nearby underground subway tunnel was a literal dragon. He was easily the size of a city block, his serpentine body crushing a hot dog stand as he coiled into the plaza. I recognized him instantly from one of Dad's fights.
'Mister Liu.'
"It's such a shame to be interrupted so early in our talks," Sebas sighed, sounding genuinely disappointed. He stood up smoothly and started to wear speckless white gloves. "But I suppose it doesn't mean I can't show you what I wanted to teach you."
"Teach—?"
Before I could finish the question, Sebas moved. He vanished, appearing right beside me, then grabbed me by the ankle, and threw me.
The throw was so strong, I broke the sound barrier as I flew through the air, flying directly toward the massive, open jaws of Mister Liu.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I screamed, the wind tearing the words from my mouth.
Twisting violently mid-air, I brought both boots up, planting them squarely into the dragon's scaled snout. The shockwave shattered every window in the plaza, forcing the monster to reel back with an ear-splitting roar.
Pushing off the beast, I hovered furiously, glaring down at Sebas, who was just watching me with a polite, infuriating smile.
"Hey! What's the big idea?!" I yelled down at him. "One second you say you want to talk, and the next second you throw me into the literal jaws of death!"
"You exaggerate, child," Sebas called back effortlessly. "As for the reason... you see, my master is tired… No, 'burdened' would be a more apt description. Yes, burdened."
Sebas adjusted his cuffs. "The thing is, Mark, this is supposed to be your world. The problems and chaos of this world are supposed to be your responsibility. Yet, you and the other defenders of this planet are so remarkably weak, it's almost laughable."
My blood boiled. I had just survived an invasion… I had just barely survived my own father beating me to a bloody pulp.
"So," Sebas continued, "I've decided I am going to whip you all into proper shape. I will mold you into capable defenders and lessen my master's worries. Wouldn't you say that makes a rather excellent gift?"
"Alright, old man, enough of your crazy nonsense—!"
"Lesson one," Sebas interrupted, still perfectly calm, "You are using forty percent of your speed and calling it full effort. Your body is protecting itself from its own power because you have not made peace with what you are. Stop negotiating with your own strength."
Sebas had now appeared inches from my face. He moved faster than my Viltrumite eyes could even track, holding in his hands a small, rectangular metal sheet with serrated edges between his index and middle fingers.
'An attack?'
"Ah, excellent," Sebas murmured, glancing over my shoulder toward the street where the civilians had just fled. "The practice dummies have arrived."
I looked back and saw two supervillains charging down the street.
One was a brute covered head-to-toe in magnetic metal sheets. The other was a guy in a purple suit with a number '1' on his chest, running right alongside him.
Metal guy roared, launching a barrage of sharpened steel I-beams directly at Sebas.
The attack didnt phase him. Sebas flicked his wrist, casually redirecting the magnetic beams towards me.
"Hey!" I shouted, trying to swat the steel beams out of the air, only for them to shatter against my forearms.
The other guy in a purple suit didn't waste any time. He fractured into a dozen clones, swarming me in a tight circle of purple suits, all throwing wild haymakers. It was a chaotic nightmare trying to shield the fleeing civilians while batting away his clones. Dealing with a baseline human as a Viltrumite was a terrifying balancing act. I threw a backhand, trying to just push one away, but the force caved the clone's ribcage in with a sickening CRUNCH. The clone gasped, blood bursting from its mouth, but it didn't matter. Three more clones popped up in its place, swinging crowbars and brass knuckles.
Suddenly, Mister Liu reared back, his massive serpentine body casting a shadow over the entire plaza.
"Magnattack! Multi-Paul!" the dragon roared, his voice shaking the glass of the skyscrapers. "What are you doing playing around?! Find me that Dragon Man!"
'Dragon Man?' I thought, smashing a Multi-Paul clone into a fire hydrant. 'Didn't the Dragon Man die fighting Battle Beast in Chicago?'
My thoughts were interrupted by a blinding yellow light. The dragon's massive maw hinged open, supercharging a devastating breath attack. He was aiming dead at the plaza corner, right where dozens of screaming civilians were trapped behind a collapsed bus.
"No!" I roared, ditching the clones.
I rocketed down, planting my boots firmly into the asphalt right in front of the huddled crowd, crossing my forearms. I braced for the searing heat, gritting my teeth to take the full brunt of the plasma blast straight to the face.
But the blast never came.
"Tch, tch, tch. What a terribly poor decision, boy," Sebas's voice echoed above me.
I looked up.
Sebas had flown and appeared right beside the dragon's massive, open jaw. With a fluid motion, he delivered a devastating upward kick directly under Mister Liu's chin.
The impact sounded like thunder as the dragon's jaw snapped violently upwards, sending the massive column of yellow energy blasting harmlessly into the stratosphere.
"This is how you prevent collateral damage, Invincible," Sebas instructed, drifting gracefully back down. "You don't stand there and act as a meat shield. You must learn to redirect the threat's momentum. We certainly don't want the beautiful city my master built going to waste."
I stared at him. The pristine black suit was torn as purple, leathery wings ripped out of the back of his suit.
'Sebas was the Dragon Man! And his master was that Kaisen guy?!'
Mister Liu shook the dizziness from his head, his massive reptilian eyes locking onto Sebas.
"You!!" Mister Liu roared in fury as it steamed fire from his nostrils. "I finally found you, Dragon Man! Not only do you creep into my domain of power, but you resurrect, too?! No. I cannot accept this. There can only be one true Dragon!"
Mister Liu lunged, but I didn't get many chances to witness their battle. Magnaattack and Multi-Paul had made their way to the plaza. They were ruthless in their attacks, always aiming at the fleeing civilians and even if it meant they could land a few hits, I was more than willing to act as a meat shield.
There was choas all over. Women and children screaming, the disgusting sound of clones crashing onto walls whenever I failed to control my strength, Liu and Sebas's booming blows raining overhead…I was overwhelmed. But this was the life I had signed up for.
Somehow, in the middle of this 2v3 brawl, Sebas was literally giving me a tutorial.
Every time I threw a wild, angry punch at a clone, relying on pure Viltrumite brute strength. Sebas would seamlessly parry a dragon bite, claw swipe, or tail sweep, appear next to me, and casually sweep my leg.
"You fight like a brawler, Mark! You rely entirely on your invulnerability and brute force!" Sebas scolded, ducking another tail whip before blurring back to punch Mister Liu in the eye. "Your speed is not your primary asset," he said, catching Liu's tail and redirecting the force sideways so it took out an empty planter instead of the building behind me. "Your durability is. Stop trying to avoid every hit. Let the ones that don't matter land. Save your movement for the ones that do."
When a Multi-Paul clone split off and went for the civilians while twenty others dog piled on me, Sebas deflected a stream of fire breath, then kicked the clone's back, he was bent forward like a folded blanket.
"Speed means nothing without situational awareness, boy! Stop tunneling on the man in front of you. Map the entire battlefield!"
It was humiliating and frustrating. But... it wasn't bad.
I was actually learning something. I started dodging the clones to observe their numbers and placements instead of just tanking the hits. I started angling my punches to throw Magnattack away from the crowd to minimize the collateral damage.
But then, the tone shifted.
Mister Liu, bleeding and panting, sneered down at Sebas. "You are strong, Dragon Man... but your master must be truly weak if he has to sacrifice you again just to stall me! Maybe Battle Beast should've gutted him and done you the favour of freeing you from that weakling."
Sebas froze.
The elegant aura surrounding the butler vanished and the air dropped ten degrees as the purple aura flared, thick and suffocating with murderous intent.
"You..." Sebas hissed, his voice dropping into a demonic, guttural rumble. "...dare speak ill of the Supreme One?"
Sebas just stepped forward, pulling his right arm back.
He threw a single punch.
The air pressure alone shattered every remaining pane of glass in a three-block radius. His fist connected with the center of Mister Liu's massive chest, and he just kept pushing. Sebas punched a literal, gaping hole straight through the dragon's torso, ripping out scales, muscle, and bone in a massive spray of gore.
Mister Liu's eyes rolled back. The massive beast let out a pathetic, bubbling wheeze before collapsing into a dead, bleeding heap over the ruined fountain.
Magnattack and Multi-Paul stopped fighting me instantly. They took one look at the dead dragon, looked at the furious butler wiping blood off his glove, and turned to run.
They didn't make it two steps.
Sebas appeared directly in front of Magnattack. With a casual swipe of his hand, he cleaved right through the magnetic armor, severing the villain's head from his shoulders. A geyser of blood erupted from the stump as the metal-clad body dropped like a stone.
"Hey!" I yelled, the horror snapping me out of my shock.
"Another lesson, Mark," Sebas said coldly, his golden eyes narrowing. "Do not hesitate to kill your enemies. If you leave them breathing, they will simply return to kill you, or worse, your loved ones."
"No!" I roared, flying forward and putting my body squarely between Sebas and the terrified Multi-Paul. "I'm a hero! We don't fucking murder people on the street!"
Sebas looked at me and just slowly shook his head in bitter disappointment.
He reached past me, moving too fast for me to block, and grabbed Multi-Paul by the throat, lifting the struggling villain off the ground.
"This boy," Sebas said, his voice entirely devoid of warmth, "will be a perfect tool to get you used to the reality of murder."
The terrifying aura was back as Sebas tightened his grip, listening to the villain's windpipe creak. "Listen closely, parasite," Sebas hissed into Multi-Paul's terrified eyes. "You are going to recall every single one of your clones right now. If I see so much as a shadow duplicate remaining, I will tear your head from your spine and mount it on this fountain. Choose carefully: live as a coward, or die as a stain."
Multi-Paul scrambled, frantically snapping his fingers. Every purple clone in the plaza ran and merged with him. Satisfied, Sebas casually tossed the gasping villain into a pile of rubble.
He walked calmly over to me, raising a glowing green hand, and pressed it against my chest.
Instantly, a wave of warmth flooded my body. The bruises, the cuts from the dragon's teeth, the bone-deep exhaustion, vanished in a second.
I was miraculously healed to perfection. Again.
Sebas stepped back, the purple wings retracting into his spine as he smoothed out his ruined black suit. He looked at me, a dangerous glint returning to his eyes.
"What say you, Invincible?" Sebas asked. "Are you finally ready to stand true to your name?"
[A/N]: Alright, to clear confusion, the chapter with the title What-If is the only non-canon chapter and the rest are canon. Hope this helps.
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