Malphegor

PIG V3 Ch. 12

"Oh, nice. Prosciutto with melon."

Marco speared a slice and popped it into his mouth. The salty richness of the cured ham cut perfectly against the sweetness of the fruit, and for a moment, all the bullshit socializing felt worth it. This was good food.

At the front of the banquet hall, the stage lights gradually focused as the emcee announced that the charity donation ceremony was officially beginning. The crowd, which had been scattered throughout the hall in small conversation...

PIG V3 Ch. 11

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"An elite individual with an international perspective."

Marco stared at the invitation in his hand, then looked up at the hotel manager standing in his doorway with the kind of smile that could sell ice to penguins.

International perspective? The only thing he'd done internationally lately was lose twenty grand at a Vegas poker table to what he was pretty sure were Russian mobsters pretending to be investment bankers. That counted as inte...

MoP: Ch. 187

---Third POV---

Viktor fell silent for two seconds.

"I think I've figured out what's going on."

The players were thinking way too far ahead. No need to worry about that right now. He chose to change the subject.

"The school can be built slowly over winter. How are the literacy classes I asked you to set up?"

Before tackling mage education, he wanted to solve the natives' illiteracy problem first. He didn't expect everyone to become scholars, just being able to re...

GSiN: Ch. 209

The two raced and chased, and with what could be called their respective last-ditch modes bolstering them, their speeds had already skyrocketed to an unimaginable level. In less than just a few minutes, they came to a halt in the vast, boundless open sea.

Above the wave-tossed azure surface, Jigen and Ryouma's figures turned into two blurred streaks of light, crossing paths and colliding at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.

Every dodge and strike carried whistling gusts of fo...

HSU: Ch. 352

The news that the Fire Daimyō would be coming to Konoha to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Fifth Hokage stirred up a whirlwind throughout the village.

Without exaggeration, in a world where clan politics run from top to bottom, the daimyō families are first-rate aristocratic houses. Konoha is the odd one out for having come up with an electoral system. Even in other ninja villages, clan politics are out in the open. So-called ninja clans, before the era of the nation-village s...

Arcane: TTB: Ch. 161

"Piltover's been quite lively lately," Emystan said, her voice breaking the silence in the council chamber. "Nobody wants to tell me what's going on?"

She'd called another meeting of Piltover's elite. Every major family was represented, crammed into the space. Her intelligence network had confirmed that today was the day, the citizens of Piltover would finally try to push back.

Perfect timing.

She was going to break this city's spine right in front of its nobles, and show th...

NYP Ch. 114

"Daiki, hurry up! You're going to be late!"

Honoka stood in the doorway, arms crossed, staring at her son's bedroom door. She'd been waiting for five minutes already and her patience was wearing thin.

"Coming! I'm coming! Don't rush me!"

Daiki's voice came from inside, followed by the sound of frantic movement. A moment later the door burst open and he stumbled out, clutching his jacket in one hand while trying to shove his arm through a sleeve with the other. His red hair s...

NYP Ch. 113

At the Hokage Building, Minato and Shikaku sat across from each other reviewing the latest intelligence reports. The document detailed troop movements from both Iwa and Suna, coordinated deployments heading toward the Land of Lightning's borders.

Minato set down the report and leaned back in his chair.

"I honestly didn't expect things to develop like this."

The whole situation had an almost comedic quality to it. Kumo had tried to force Konoha into paying compensation, and i...

OP: AMP Ch. 223

The rooftop was quiet except for the wind whistling between the tiles. Robin stood across from Scarlet. She wore a serious expression as she sized up the massive gorilla. Sanji had warned her before the fight, this thing's body was tough as hell. Even his strongest kick had only managed to injure it. It couldn't even break a bone.

With that kind of durability, unless you were packing bladed weapons, going toe-to-toe in a straight brawl was asking for trouble.

Robin had been carefu...

OP: AMP Ch. 222

"Looks like we've got no choice. Time for the ultimate move!"

Goliath watched the goatmen descend into complete frenzy, then turned toward Usopp with a look that said everything. Usopp's eyes lit up immediately. He spun around to do a headcount and figure out the formation, but stopped short when he realized how few of them were left standing together.

"Where are Shira and Robin?"

Only then did he notice that two members of their group had gone missing.

"I don't want t...

MCIM Ch. 152

"An experiment? Oscorp?"

When those words connected in Mario's mind, alarm bells started ringing. If he'd had anime-style hair, a single strand would've stood straight up in warning.

Is the plot starting already?

Peter jumped to his feet, panic written all over his face as he tried to leave, but Mario grabbed his arm.

"I'm about to be late. Dr. Octavius' experiment is dangerous. I have to get there and help."

"You think running is faster than my driving?...

MCIM Ch. 151

After seeing Max and Caroline off, Mario continued wandering through New York with Skye, hitting spots they hadn't explored yet. Maybe it was because of the daylight, but Spider-Man's distinctive red-and-blue figure never made another appearance. Hours ticked by, and the sky gradually darkened into evening. Dark clouds rolled in from the ocean, heavy and oppressive, turning the atmosphere thick and charged.

Mario led Skye to the Brooklyn Bridge, where they sat together feeling the salt-...

PIG V3 Ch. 10

The air in the alley seemed to freeze.

The figure in dark green crouched on the fire escape, those sharp eyes hidden beneath the shadow of his hood, and for a moment he just stopped. He'd prepared himself for a lot of things: begging, excuses, maybe even a desperate counterattack from some street thug hopped up on adrenaline. What he hadn't prepared for was getting called out by his own victim.

His whole entrance had been choreographed. First drop down from the rooftops, then deli...

PIG V3 Ch. 09

The Apex Hotel was exactly what Marco had expected from a four-star establishment: spacious rooms, floor-to-ceiling windows with a view of downtown Star City, a bed large enough to fit three people comfortably.

He dropped his duffel on the luggage rack, kicked off his boots, and collapsed face-first onto the mattress. It was soft. Too soft, actually, like sleeping on a cloud made of marshmallows. But despite the comfort, something felt wrong.

Gotham's chaos was a boiling pot of po...

PIG V3 Ch. 08

Country music crackled through the radio in broken fragments, lyrics about heartbreak and pickup trucks that somehow matched the scenery rolling past outside the window. Vast fields stretched to the horizon, dense forests climbed distant mountains, and the occasional small town flashed by in a blur of gas stations and diners. Even the air felt drier out here than it had in Metropolis or Central City.

Originally, Marco hadn't had much motivation to undertake a cross-country road trip. Bu...

PIG V3 Ch. 07

Barry felt like he'd been stuffed into an industrial centrifuge and spun for hours before being violently ejected. The world snapped from a dizzying blur of color and light back into familiar reality. He didn't stick the landing, his feet hit the pavement wrong, and he stumbled forward several steps. The soles of his shoes scraped against asphalt, kicking up thin wisps of smoke before he finally caught his balance.

"Whoa..."

He bent over, hands on his knees. His heart hammered in ...

PIG V3 Ch. 06

Honestly, Marco couldn't quite wrap his head around how these people's brains worked. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud right there at the table.

In Gotham, gangsters showing up with bags of cash to bribe cops? Normal.

Spraying down a police cruiser with an AK during a breakout? Monday.

But some random criminal openly inviting a cop to help him rob a bank? What the fuck kind of wiring do you need for that?

Central City seemed to have...

PIG V3 Ch. 05

The grey loop of Metropolis' ring highway disappeared in the rearview mirror as the Cherokee headed west on I-76. Outside the window, the scenery shifted gradually from Metropolis' forest of glass and steel to the rolling hills and farmland of Pennsylvania. Country music came through the radio in broken snippets, and Marco felt like he was driving out of a world so bright it seemed fake and into something more resembling normal America.

After crossing most of the state, road signs beari...

PIG V3 Ch. 04

The restaurant's head waiter led the procession personally, followed by four burly servers. Working in pairs, they carried platters bearing tomahawk steaks of astonishing size. Every diner in the restaurant stopped eating. Conversations died mid-sentence. Silverware was set down with soft clinks. All eyes followed the servers as they moved.

The head waiter's gaze swept across the table before finally settling on the only person who looked capable of conquering such a monstrous creation:...

PIG V3 Ch. 03

Dusk settled over Metropolis. The city lights flickered on one by one, draping the steel and glass skyline in a shimmering coat. Following the directions Clark had texted him, Marco pulled the Cherokee up in front of a restaurant called Morton's Steakhouse.

The dark wood exterior gleamed under warm lighting, giving off that classic, upscale vibe. Marco checked his watch. Right on time. He grabbed the bouquet of deep pink carnations from the passenger seat, opened the door, and stepped o...

PIG V3 Ch. 02

After promising Clark he'd keep his mouth shut about the whole Superman thing, Marco stood up and headed out. It was still work hours, after all. He couldn't exactly expect someone to babysit him on company time. He walked out of the Daily Planet building with his hands in his pockets, taking his time on the sidewalk. The crowds around him moved with an easy flow. It felt good.

Nothing like walking the streets of Gotham, where you could feel eyes on your back and half-expected a stray b...

PIG V3 Ch. 01

The ring road along the bay ran straight through the landscape, and ended abruptly here. Marco pulled the Cherokee onto the roadside, killed the engine, and stepped out. The moment his boots hit the pavement, it felt as though he had crossed into a different world.

Bright sunlight poured down without restraint, so intense it made him squint. He raised a hand to shade his eyes and found himself staring at a massive billboard.

Welcome to Metropolis.

The cheerfulness radiating ...

PIG V2 Ch. 52

Behind the thick glass of the ICU, Barnes lay motionless on the hospital bed. Tubes ran from his arms, chest, and throat. The ventilator breathed for him. His face, which had always been set in that hard, uncompromising expression, was slack now.

He wasn't a threat anymore. Just a body, slowly withering, trapped in a shell that refused to die.

Marco and Bob stood side by side outside the observation window, watching in silence for several minutes. The machines beeped steadily. Nur...

PIG V2 Ch. 51

Rain had been falling for three days straight, turning Gotham into a cold, grey mess. The kind of weather that seeped into your clothes and stayed there, no matter how many layers you wore.

Three black Cadillacs moved in a slow convoy along the road leading out of the city. The route took them past warehouses and loading docks that had once paid tribute to the Roman. Now they were just empty buildings watching him leave.

Falcone sat in the back seat of the middle car, eyes closed ...

MoP: Ch. 186

---Third POV---

Creak.

Cobb opened the doors of the town hall, exhausted in both body and mind. Gazing at the orange glow of the evening clouds on the horizon, he let out a long sigh.

"Another night already."

After watching Abel spend his days eating, drinking, and enjoying himself, Cobb had only now truly understood, after sitting in that very chair himself, just how hard it was to be a good mayor. Especially during a transition of city-state power, when ever...

MoP: Ch. 185

---Third POV---

Hedgehog chimed in from the side.

"Even if the game map really is that big, wouldn't you spend several months just traveling on the road?"

"More than that," Lux said as she sat on the steps of the Magicians Guild. "There are vast wastelands along the way, monster territories where hardly anyone ever goes. A year might not even be enough."

NeverShowOff looked at the two wagons packed to the brim.

"It's not too late to regret it now."

From the...

GSiN: Ch. 208

Jigen was extremely confident in his own power. Faced with Ryouma descending from the sky, he reacted instantly, releasing a row of black rods in front of himself, intending to forcibly withstand the impact and then counterkill.

Unfortunately for him, he made a classic mistake born of experience.

In their previous exchanges, Ryouma's attacks had mostly targeted Jigen's vital points. Both sides relied on technique to counter each move as it came. But this time, Ryouma abandoned tec...

GSiN: Ch. 207

Black spikes closed in on Ryouma from all directions. In the blink of an eye, the space around him was transformed into a thorn-filled death zone.

Earlier, while Jigen was speaking, he had taken advantage of the upwind position to silently scatter these extremely tiny spikes around Ryouma. All he needed to do afterward was use Sukunahikona to restore them to their original size, thereby creating the perfect conditions for an instant kill upon first contact. This move had almost no start...

HSU: Ch. 351

The election for the Fifth Hokage of Konoha finally kicked off in a lively fashion. The one in the best mood about this was Minato, who greeted everyone he met.

Fugaku was also in quite good spirits. The smell of ink on him was even stronger than usual, to the point that there were signs that "Fugaku scripts" were about to circulate on the black market again.

Don't misunderstand, none of that merchandise came from him. All of his precious originals were safely stored away. Those g...

HSU: Ch. 350

"Masashi, everything is already prepared. Tomorrow, when the villagers vote, even by the most conservative estimate, about sixty percent will vote for you."

The one who said this was Shikaku. He said it with confidence, and for good reason.

Konoha is not an agricultural village. In essence, it is a commercial village, and the vast majority of its residents belong to the commercial population. Although there is agriculture, the annual agricultural output still falls short of comple...