Viltrumite, Is Your Mightiest Chat Group Fake? Chapter 36

"I don't know how to explain this. It wasn't my intention; the situation is just a little complicated."

"He—"

"He's that distant Viltrum relative you mentioned?"

Seeing Nolan's blue eyes widen, Debbie knew she had guessed right.

After sharing a bed for more than a decade, how could she not understand her husband? If Leon were merely their daughter's ambiguous romantic interest, why would he react like this?

So Leon had to be special in some way.

Thinking of recent events, the only possibility was that distant relative her husband had mentioned.

But Debbie still could not understand why he was so resistant.

"Then, honey, do you think this was a coincidence?"

"I think so. I never told him where I lived."

Nolan folded his arms and leaned against the wall.

He was confident Leon could not keep up with him. There was no way Leon had found him after every training session.

And finding someone through Omni-Man's identity? That would be a joke to the Global Defense Agency. If they could not even keep superheroes' real identities secret, Cecil might as well resign.

"Since it wasn't intentional, why are you so opposed to it? Can you tell me?"

Could he tell her?

Tell her about the bloody responsibilities of Viltrumites, tell her that he had been a lie from beginning to end, tell her what he would do to this world in the future.

Nolan chose to lie once again:

"I just don't want Marcia to date a Viltrumite... as her boyfriend."

He racked his brain for an excuse.

"Debbie, Leon was sent here by the committee. Like me, he has a mission. He'll definitely choose to become a superhero.

"And you know how hard it is to be a superhero's lover. Missing countless dates, being absent when you need them most, and all kinds of potential dangers."

His wife interrupted him, pressing her index finger to his lips.

"But we made it through together, didn't we? We got married, built a home, and even had a little baby—"

She wrapped her arms around Nolan and had him turn to look at Marcia in the living room.

"Look at how healthy and happy she is now."

Then she gave Nolan a push, just as she had done countless times while helping him fit into this world.

"What you need to do now, whether as his elder or as Marcia's father, is go talk to him."

Well done. I really should follow the old king's corn.

Sitting on the sofa, Leon quietly listened to everything happening on Nolan's end.

All he could say was, old man, you really were stubborn as steel.

Facing such a sensible, gentle, and considerate wife, he had still managed to hold out for twenty years and keep throwing himself into action for the Empire.

No matter what, it seemed he would survive this time.

"You heard that, kid. Come out and talk?"

Leon nodded at Nolan as he approached.

But just as he stood, Marcia stepped in front of him protectively.

"Dad, don't be so harsh on Leon. He didn't leave on purpose before."

Oh, hell. I'm done for.

The next instant, Nolan switched back to his battle face. They had known each other for less than a month, and she was already standing up to her father of eighteen years for this brat?

Viltrumite brat, you've chosen death!

"Follow me."

He left behind those words and walked out the front door, leaving Leon frowning behind him.

Am I still going to die?

Meanwhile, at Global Defense Agency headquarters.

Donald, wearing glasses and sporting a crew cut, reported to Cecil.

"Sir, we still failed to stop Leon and Nolan from meeting. They've already gone out."

Yes, the Defense Agency had been monitoring Leon all along.

Cecil suspected Leon was a Viltrumite. Before the two came into contact, he wanted to dig up as much intelligence as possible.

Nolan leaving for a meeting that morning had been their doing.

Although Cecil had come to trust Nolan personally, major matters allowed no room for carelessness.

When it came to an unknown alien civilization, suspicion, then more suspicion—that was what they should do.

When Nolan rushed back later, they pulled another move on Leon's side.

In the end, fate seemed determined to make them meet today.

"Then let them meet."

Cecil leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other.

"I'm also curious whether Nolan will introduce this kid to us again afterward, or hide him away."

He watched the two figures slowly leaving the neighborhood on the screen.

"Relax, Donald. Nolan knows where the line is. I don't believe he'd really smash his daughter's crush to pieces."

He waved Donald over to sit and watch with him.

"But no matter how strong Leon is, we should pray for him now. After all, when it comes to their daughter's boyfriend, fathers are—"

INVINCIBLE

An Astonishing Punch

At first, the two merely walked along the paths of the neighborhood.

Then, once they reached a secluded place with no one around, Nolan took flight.

The two flew far away and landed in an empty forest.

Through the leaves, Leon gazed at the sun overhead. He felt like this was the perfect time for an afternoon execution.

That meal earlier had probably been his last meal before the beheading. It had been quite delicious.

"Sir, ma'am's cooking is really good."

He looked at Nolan as Intelligent Atom began turning at the same time. Everything was a continuation of what had happened before the Grayson home.

With no third person here, neither of them had any more reservations.

Their breaths disrupted the wind flowing through the forest. Their heartbeats made pebbles on the ground jump. Birds scattered in alarm, and deer fled into the distance.

Until Nolan spoke before Leon did.

"Enough nonsense. Grit your teeth."

"I should be saying that to you, Nolan."

Nolan drew back his fist for an uppercut, and Leon responded with the same motion.

Everything in the forest was instantly drawn toward them by the pull of their cocked fists.

The sea of trees that had been swaying in the breeze bowed toward where they stood.

Due to the overwhelming gap in strength, Leon himself was dragged forward, his feet carving trenches into the ground.

The moment he reached range—

Nolan moved!

His uppercut shot straight for Leon's chin, while Leon answered with a downward smash.

At that instant, the world fell silent.

The next second, Leon seemed to vanish. When his figure was caught again, he had become a white streak shooting toward the sky.

To keep his head from being punched clean off along with his spine, he continuously used Intelligent Atom to match his upward speed.

He shattered cloud bank after cloud bank, his body heating rapidly from the intense friction.

Even the Intelligent Atom in his clothes could not protect much of them. He gradually became a meteor blazing out of Earth's atmosphere.

At the original site, the gale caused by the impact directly cleared out the entire forest.

Trees snapped and tumbled through the air before being swallowed by wind and sand.

The lake was drained clean, revealing a car embedded in the mud.

Even farther out, cracks spread from the battlefield in every direction.

In an instant, the elevation of the entire area sank by nearly ten meters.

Even though their bodies had each absorbed most of the impact, the aftershock was still terrifying.

"Pah!"

Nolan, who had been punched into the ground, shoved aside chunks of earth and spat out blood.

"You've improved again."

He stared at the fiery meteor in the sky, raised both hands, and shot after it.

Only the ruptured Mach ring remained behind, slowly fading away.

At the Global Defense Agency, Cecil stared at the unbelievable scene on the screen and held up his jaw before it could hit the floor.

He wondered if he had messed up by allowing these two Viltrumites to fight near Earth.

Donald added from beside him, "Sir, it looks like we've lost another nature reserve."

"Shut up. You don't need to tell me that."

At the same time, the Grayson family had moved their gathering to the backyard.

"Leon?"

While eating snacks, Marcia suddenly thought of that name.

Debbie guessed what was on her daughter's mind and covered her hand with her own.

"Don't worry. Your father isn't that inflexible, and there's no need to worry that he'll use his fists."

"I'm sure he's having a good talk with Leon right now in that stern, gentle, and uniquely Nolan way of his."

Bang!

In space, Leon and the pursuing Nolan exchanged another punch.

Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. The floating droplets shattered from the shock as he grazed past a satellite and flew backward toward the Moon.

He had a feeling that the adaptation he had gotten from Mahoraga would be fully charged again before long.

Nolan was still accelerating. The star-filled sky in his vision stretched into lines rushing backward.

He caught up to Leon, who was flying backward, and threw another punch.

He caught up again, then threw another punch!

However, on the fourth punch, Leon, who had long been waiting for the chance, instantly grabbed Nolan's wrist with the web of his right hand.

He yanked it toward himself, then seized the offered nape of Nolan's neck with his left hand.

In a grappling hold, the two of them crashed into a lunar crater together.

Immediately afterward, Leon kept Nolan pinned down, smashing through a mountainside as they flew out of the crater.