Villain Retirement

"Hm, it would seem it does not work, Aerith."

"Thank the gods it doesn't!"

"...But it should."

"Well, it doesn't."

Alas, Riley was truly confident that his portal would work. But as he stepped inside the Portal he created, the only thing that happened was him stepping out the other side; almost as if the Portal was just… an illusion. Which it is, but it shouldn't be for Riley.

"It should work," Riley's eyebrows began to lower as he stared at the Portal in front of him.

"You're inching closer and closer to a god, Riley—I don't think the universe is going to like it if you can freely move through the multiverse," Aerith let out a huge sigh of relief as her eyes reflected the portal Riley summoned. The reflection wouldn't be a big deal in most cases, but not with Paige's abilities.

Being able to interact with the illusion aside from just visually seeing it meant only one thing, Aerith could actually be affected by the power. And if she could be affected by it…

…that would mean Riley could actually just kill him with a snap of his fingers at any time. Once again, another leash on her. But what sort of leash, exactly?

She met Paige almost at the same time as Riley. And her abilities were, in a way, probably one of the most shocking powers Aerith had seen on Earth. Of course, the people of Earth were probably already the weirdest of the species due to their seemingly random abilities, but Paige's power takes it up a notch.

She had never seen anything like it before.

The ability to make anything a reality, even if you are the only one affected by it is… still godly. The only limit would be Paige's imagination, and of course, as is proven throughout time, her mental state. Paige could make herself immortal, even undying if she wanted to. She could create a ship that could travel in lightspeeds in the blink of an eye if she wanted to.

Could she give herself abilities? Perhaps not, as that would bypass the fact that she couldn't affect anyone with her powers. It has limitations, as also proven by the fact that Riley was not able to connect a portal traveling to another universe.

Aerith couldn't really imagine what could have happened if the ability was bestowed to someone else—no, she didn't even have to imagine.

Riley Ross now has the same power. And unlike Paige, Riley was not afraid to push it to its limits.

But why… does he not use it that much? Was he aware of something dangerous? He did say that his mental state began declining with the use of Paige's abilities. Perhaps…

…they could actually use the ability to change Riley?

"..." Aerith just stared at Riley as he tried to figure out what was wrong with the portal he made. He even created two smaller portals, putting his hand on one of the holes and expecting it to come out of the other—but it didn't happen.

"Perhaps I should ask Paige more about her abilities," Riley finally gave up; waving his hand as he removed all the portals he summoned. He remained standing like that with a blank expression on his face, before finally looking at Aerith and smiling,

"I suppose we are stuck here alone for now, Aerith."

"Stuck, yes. Alone, no," Aerith raised both her hands, before kneeling on the ground and turning his head up. As for Riley, he only tilted his head to the side before suddenly raising his hand in the air.

"Riley, no!" Aerith quickly punched him in the face, slamming his head down and ruining the already ruined land. As soon as she did that, however, a barrage of obsidian spears suddenly rained down on them from above.

"Damn it, Riley…" Aerith did not really do anything and just stood there, allowing the spears to bounce off her skin. The spears that bounced off on her, plunging and piercing through Riley's body instead.

"...Seriously?" And as Riley exaggeratingly squirmed on the ground, Aerith just once again kneeled down, rolling her eyes as she raised both her hands. And soon, all of the spears floated back into the sky and onto the hazy cloud that suddenly covered it.

And once again, Riley's body exaggeratedly moved as the spear was pulled from his body, causing Aerith to shake her head.

The owner of the spears soon revealed themselves, all of them landing in a circle surrounding Aerith and Riley. They spoke in a different language, as they should as they weren't humans at all. Aerith, however, could not help but squint her eyes as she heard a hint of human language in their words.

"Khan laox sbri stuupi kan?" Aerith's eyebrows began to lower at the same time as she decided to stand up; her eyes, scanning the people that surrounded her. She knew the language of these people, of course, she had encountered them before—but their planet should be hundreds of thousands of lightyears from Earth. Truly, the multiverse holds many possibilities.

And in this possibility… the humans were probably conquered by them.

Did this world have no Megawoman at all? In the universes that Aerith visited when they were trying to find Riley, there had always been a Megawoman—either her or Diana. Well, mostly her.

"Are you not human?" One of the tall blue-skinned aliens stepped forward, pointing his spear at Aerith as his 3 eyes looked at her from head to toe, "I… sense a different energy from you."

"I am not a human, and neither is my companion," Aerith squinted her eyes as she expected the people to be more aggressive.

"Not human…?" There was an audible gasp that escaped the alien's mouth, "I… I apologize, we thought you were humans. We… we killed your companion, we have no excuse but—"

"Don't," Aerith sighed, "He's just pretending to be dead. Riley, come on. Stop with this, you're not a child."

But alas, Riley remained still on the ground; blood, even spurting out from his still-opened wounds. One of his thumbs, however, was raised toward Aerith as if he was doing her a favor.

"...He's alive," Aerith groaned in frustration as she focused on the blue-skinned alien moving closer to her, "Did you invade this planet, Hokran?"

"In…vade?" This time, it was the hokran's turn to squint his eyes as he once again looked at Aerith from head to toe, "From which galaxy are you?"

"I am from the planet Theran, and my companion is… well, he lives close to mine."

"Theran, I have not heard of that planet—but I would assume that is from very far away as you seemed to have no idea what is going on in this part of the universe," the horkan lowered his spear, and as he did so, his comrades did the same; placing their spears beside them all at the same time, synchronized to a tee,

"I am Shehard, Lieutenant Commander of the Common Alliance. And we did not invade this planet, we won it from those monsters."

"...Monsters?"

"The humans. You truly do not know anything?" Shehard grunted as he looked to the side, "You should not have come here. This galaxy and its neighbors are in a war…

…against The King and his people."

"King… as in Whiteking? Again?"