Villain Retirement

Somewhere in the multiverse, King was currently in front of a Common Council. His visage was not that of a conqueror, however — he was wearing only a set of overly casual clothes; white shirt and a pair of pants, not even a suit or a shoe. He was there with bare feet, his arms open as he addressed the Elders of the Common Council of the universe he was in.

"I will give all of you the same choice as I have given the thousands before you. Kneel, or be our enemy and die," King said very calmly with a smile on his face as if he was just asking the Common Council for a… common request.

"What sort of madness is this? Why is our time being wasted on something as ludicrous as this!?" A pink-skinned humanoid with 6 eyes raised his voice; quiet a wonder, as he really only had eyes on his head — not a single lip moving or a mouth opening to let out a voice,

"Sol Queen Xra, how could you call a meeting just for another madman!?"

"You should watch your tone whenever you address me, Arivuk," a variant of Xra stood up from her seat as she looked each of her fellow council Elders in the eyes one by one, "All of you have called meetings with purposes of nothing but leisure and utter uselessness. This is the first time I have ever asked all of you to gather, and yet you prattle on. The threat this man brings is very real, listen to him."

"Threat?" A slightly translucent humanoid with a head similar to a jellyfish raised her hand, "In order for one to be considered a threat, one must show that he is one. And as the Sol Queen Xra considers him as such, then I believe, my brothers and sisters, that we truly are in grave danger from this Eartherner…

…I vote to kneel."

"If that is your decision, then I too will kneel."

"You do not have knees, Gnulo."

"...Figuratively."

"Hm," the smile on King's face slightly grew wider as he saw everyone raising their hands; physically and figuratively. His smile, however, slightly twitched as he saw the 6-eyed humanoid, Arivuk, just shaking his head.

"I don't what you are capable of, madman," Arivuk said as he stood up, "But there are many before you that have attempted to conquer the universe. But all of them have died before they could even conquer a percent of the Known Universe — what you are is a fool…

…I and the people of my quadrant will not submit to you."

"That is understandable," King nodded before turning his head to the other Elders, "Is there no one else who would rebel against me?"

The other Elders just kept quiet.

"That is too bad, then," King let out a sigh as he clapped his hands… but nothing really happened. Everyone was just left wondering what he did… but they did not need to wonder long as soon, they started receiving all sorts of alerts and calls from all of their communication devices.

"What is the meaning of this, King!?" Sol Queen Xra raised her voice as she waved her hand; sending the images from her device to project above the council — and there, the view of Earth being crushed by a colossal norinlad flashed in all of their eyes. No one seemed to care, however, as the other Elders just focused on the notifications being sent to them. How could they care, when their own planets were in the same situation?

"All of us but one surrendered to you!"

"True," King chuckled, "But what we did was simply just an exercise of free thought and will, I only wished to see what choice all of you will make. Because you see, Earth and those who have the freedom of choice tend to rebel sooner or later — I just pruned that possibility from existence. And also…

…I am but a single man. Do you truly think that I could watch over thousands of different civilizations? Control and servitude must be implemented from the start. An old dog does not learn new tricks, after all."

"You will not be forgiven for this!"

"I know," King nodded, "That is why I will erase the traces of my sin by erasing all of you…

…and then reaching out to those who will truly only see me as their ruler, not their conqueror."

"I will end you myself!"

"Try," King stretched his hands to the side as he suddenly burst out in laughter, "Others have tried before you…

…and others are already trying as we speak."

What King said was not a lie at all. As he was conquering this planet, many other of his fellow clones were doing the same. The more universes he conquers, the faster it gets to conquer the next universe as he adds more to his arsenal with each conquer.

If there was a unique race that King had not seen before, then they were abducted.

If there was a unique super from Earth, then they were abducted.

Everything and everyone that could prove to be useful was taken and sent to the universe…

…where the original King decides what to do with them.

"Her power will be useful, open his brain and put it with the others."

And while his clones were just wearing a casual set of clothes, King was sitting on a throne at the end of a dead universe. Settled on a colossal asteroid that was reshaped and compressed into a small floating island. The island was smooth, almost like the floors were made with luxurious and high-quality granite.

King was wearing a white thin armor that fitted and lined up to his slightly lean but muscular body. A large white crown filled which seemed to have runes written on it, rotating and floating above his immaculate silver hair.

He was surrounded by people from other universes; all of them standing on the side as they watched as King's clones emerge from a portal to bring in more people for King to experiment on.

"Have we still not found someone that would make me immortal?" King's words traveled throughout the floating island.

"You are already immortal, my Creator." His clone that was about to return to the universe he was stationed to rule took a step back from the portal.

"No," King shook his head, "True immortality."

"Xra's abilities mixed with the themarian's physiology have already given us that, my Creator."

"...Us?"

"I meant you, my Creator," the clone smiled as he bowed his head, "You have already been given true immortality."

"I was not given anything, I earned it," King waved his hand, erasing the clone in front of him from existence, "And what I have is not yet true immortality. The one that Riley Ross has is different."

"Should we make plans to capture him, my Creator?" And almost as if it wasn't erased at all, another clone emerged kneeling in front of King.

"No, doing so is suicide," King shook his head, "The moment has to be right, and the right moment can not be planned. You may go."

"At once, my Creator," the clone stood up and walked toward the portal a few steps behind him. It then bowed to King, before finally entering the portal and leaving.

"Next," King raised his hand, and another portal popped up. And once again, it was another clone pushing a person that King had never really seen before, with a power he had also never seen before.

This time, however, King did not seem impressed and just shook his head — and as soon as he did so, his clone placed its hand on the person's head… and the person just disintegrated there and then in front of everyone.

"Although I have limited your intelligence, you should be wise enough to know what powers interest me, and what powers do not," King let out a short but very deep sigh, "I'll reset you."

"Wait, I—" And before the clone could even say anything, it also melted to the ground… before just instantly springing up not even a second later with a smile on its face. And without even saying a word, the clone stepped into the portal it came from.

"Next!" King stomped his foot on the ground, "This better be—!!!"

And before King could finish his words, he found himself gripping the armrests of his throne as an abnormally tall themarian princess suddenly rushed toward him in less than a blink of an eye. Before Princess Esme's hand could reach King, however, she was blocked… by another tall themarian princess.

King did not relax, however, as the crown floating above his head dived down; almost instantly merging with the rest of his armor and turning into a helmet while reinforcing everything else. And before King could raise his hands to block his face, a quiet wave suddenly burst forth in front of him.

This quiet wave, however, destroyed everything else around him instantly — leaving only him and the two strongest themarians of their respective universes left floating in the dead universe.

King did not waste any time, however, as he immediately placed his hand on the Princess Esme variant's shoulder, who quickly grabbed and took him as far away as possible from Princess Esme.

Surprisingly, Princess Esme did not follow and just looked at them from a distance. King could really only lower his eyebrows, as soon, several portals suddenly emerged around Princess Esme.

"So, you went with this approach..." King let out a small but very deep breath as a small smile crawled on his face, "...Activate Hero Link."

And as those words whispered from his lips, portals also instantly opened up behind him — some, the size of an entire planet as a handful of colossal norinlads emerged from them.

"Finally…" King said,

"...a battle worthy of a king."