It Was Just Rain

Sparta hovered above the city, expressionlessly watching the soldiers' every move below.

The soldiers noticed him the moment he appeared.

They all looked up at the sky, gripping their weapons tightly as their pupils suddenly contracted.

"He's here! Right above us!"

"What do we do? Are we really going to fight a Viltrumite with divine powers?"

"Damn it, this isn't the time to think about that. It's either he dies or we do. If we want to keep living, then... fight!"

"I never thought I'd get to fight a Viltrumite in my lifetime. Even if I die, it'll be worth it."

"..."

An officer stood beside a tank, staring up at Sparta with terror in his eyes.

The other man was merely floating in midair without doing anything, yet the officer's breathing had already grown rapid, cold sweat streaming down his forehead.

Cold sweat?

Rumble—!

The previously clear sky was covered by dark clouds, and a blinding bolt of lightning tore through the heavens before striking an open field in the distance.

The officer raised his right hand, and raindrops fell from the sky onto his palm.

It was just rain.

That made sense. After all, they had 300,000 troops here, with reinforcements still on the way.

How could a mere Viltrumite possibly make him sweat?

The adjutant walked through the rain to the officer's side.

He first looked toward the figure in the sky, his throat bobbing, before shifting his gaze to the officer.

"Will we win?"

"We will."

At that moment, the motionless Sparta moved.

Under the gaze of every soldier, Sparta crashed down from the sky like a nuclear bomb.

Bang!!!

A thunderous boom rang out, and every building within a kilometer of Sparta's landing point instantly collapsed.

The blast wave drove billowing dust in every direction, blotting out the sky.

Trees lining both sides of the road were uprooted, while parked vehicles were flipped over and sent tumbling through the air like toys.

The officer stood more than ten kilometers away. A few seconds later, an invisible blast wave struck his face.

He stared blankly at the dust cloud in the distance. This was not a fair fight at all.

Elsewhere, Sparta shot out of the dust cloud. Flying above the street between towering buildings on both sides, he charged rapidly toward the Big Mouth Star army.

Along his path, every window in the buildings on both sides shattered, while tables and chairs inside were overturned by an invisible force. Documents and loose sheets of paper spewed from the broken windows.

Sparta was unbelievably fast. By the time the soldiers reacted, he had already closed in on the army's forward position dozens of kilometers away.

When he saw the armored units preparing to aim their cannons, Sparta suddenly accelerated in midair and dove into the very center of the formation.

Bang!!

Sparta landed in a one-knee kneel, his right fist braced against the ground.

The hard asphalt spread with spiderweb cracks, and the shockwave hurled the surrounding tanks and armored vehicles into the air.

Before the soldiers could even scream, they were crushed into pulp by the flying tanks and armored vehicles.

Every soldier and armored unit that had recovered aimed their guns and cannons at Sparta, who was still crouching on the ground in his pose.

Sparta slowly rose from the ground and looked at the soldiers around him.

The soldiers clenched their weapons, their bodies trembling slightly from tension or fear, but not a single one dared to fire.

Bang!

A sudden gunshot shattered the silence. A copper bullet struck Sparta directly in the eye.

Sparta's eye was completely unharmed. Instead, the bullet bounced off his eye with a sharp metallic clang.

Sparta instantly vanished from where he stood and appeared before the soldier who had fired.

He snatched the gun from the man's hand and shoved the barrel into his head.

Blood flowed down the barrel. The soldier's pupils dilated and his lips trembled slightly before he fell dead to the ground.

"Open fire!!"

The soldiers finally reacted. They all pulled their triggers, flames erupting from their muzzles as countless bullets struck Sparta's body.

Clang... clang... clang... clang...

The bullets could not pierce Sparta's defenses at all, producing only the sounds of impact.

"RPG!"

At that moment, a soldier shouldered a rocket launcher and dropped to one knee.

Boom!

The rocket streaked toward Sparta with a trail of flame.

One second before it could hit him, Sparta reached out and caught it in his hand. With a twist of both hands, he twisted the rocket into a metal spiral.

Sparta threw the twisted mass of metal forward. It pierced through the chests of several soldiers in succession before finally embedding itself inside a tank.

Sparta lifted his feet from the ground and floated in the air, allowing bullets to strike his body.

Before anyone could realize what was happening, Sparta unleashed Viltrumite Charge.

His body tore through the ranks of soldiers, raising a storm of blood and flesh everywhere he passed.

The soldiers could not see his movements. They only felt a violent gust sweep past, and the comrades beside them turned into fragments and bloody mist.

This continued for several minutes.

In just a few minutes, an army of 20,000 had been reduced to barely a dozen surviving soldiers.

And all of those survivors were missing arms or legs.

"Save... save me."

A soldier's entire lower body was gone, leaving only his upper half as organs spilled from the severed wound.

He lay on the ground, reaching toward a soldier missing one arm, his eyes filled with despair and pleading.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!"

The one-armed soldier finally broke down as he looked at the severed limbs and organs scattered all over the ground.

He cried bitterly, tears streaming uncontrollably from his eyes.

"Save... save..."

Tears flowing down his face, the one-armed soldier turned to look at his comrade who had lost half his body.

He did not choose to save him. Instead, he picked up the pistol beside his foot and raised it toward him.

His lone arm trembled as he aimed at his comrade's head. Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, he pulled the trigger.

After a gunshot, the bullet struck the man's head, and his cries for help ceased.

Sparta slowly descended from the sky, landing in front of the one-armed soldier.

His bodysuit had been dyed red with blood, and fragments of the soldiers' organs still clung to it.

The soldier raised his pistol with a trembling arm and struggled to aim it at Sparta.

Sparta quietly watched him without saying a word or making any move.

Two seconds later, the soldier suddenly lowered his arm, and the pistol fell from his hand to the ground.

Because he knew that even shells could not hurt Sparta, much less a pistol.

The soldier gave up struggling, because no matter what he did, his chances of surviving were zero.

He even ignored Sparta standing before him and instead began searching through his comrades' shattered corpses for something.

Only after searching several bodies did he finally find what he wanted.

"You bastard, that stuff is forbidden in the military district."