Solo Cultivating in Superhero Academy
Chapter 131: I despise him

Chapter 131: I despise him

Elius stared at Keith, eyes glowing faintly beneath the darkened lights of the fractured dome.

Then, without warning, he leaned back and spoke—not with force, but with a strange softness, like someone whispering to a reflection on water.

"Let me tell you a story," he said.

Keith furrowed his brows but remained silent.

"It starts with a boy," Elius continued. "Just a boy. No powers. No legacy. No cult of followers whispering about divine blood. No system screens blinking in front of his eyes. Just... a boy. And his mother."

His voice took on a nostalgic lilt.

"They lived in a tiny apartment. The walls were cracked. The ceilings leaked. The lights flickered when the rain was heavy. They didn’t have much, but the boy didn’t care.

"He had warm rice in his bowl and warm arms wrapped around him every night. His mom always smiled. She sang off-key while cleaning, she danced while folding clothes, and she always, always, looked at her son like he was the whole damn universe."

Keith’s expression softened.

"She was... enough," Elius said. "She didn’t talk about the past much. Just said that she had him, and that was what mattered. And the boy? He never asked. Why should he?

"They were happy. They had their little routines. Burnt toast in the morning, sitting on the rooftop every evening. Laughing at pigeons trying to steal leftovers."

A distant smile touched Elius’s lips—but it wasn’t happiness in his eyes. It was pain. Deep and hollow.

"But then... one day, a man appeared."

Elius’s smile vanished.

"A man glowing with light. Standing tall. Gleaming armor. Radiant eyes. He walked into their life like he owned it. Like he belonged there more than the boy ever did."

Keith’s jaw clenched.

"He looked at the boy and said, ’You are my son.’ Just like that. Like he was delivering groceries. Like he was bestowing something."

Elius’s voice was sharper now.

"And the mother? She smiled. She wept with joy. She kissed the man’s feet. Said she’d been waiting for him. She didn’t even hesitate."

Keith’s voice was low. "She didn’t know?"

"She knew," Elius said coldly. "But she was happy to be fooled. She wanted to believe it. She wanted the story to be true. Even if the man didn’t love her. Even if he didn’t stay. Even if he only came to make a claim and leave with a flourish."

Keith looked down, his fingers tightening into his palm.

"I hated it," Elius whispered. "I hated watching her smile at him. I hated seeing her eyes glow again for someone who didn’t deserve it. I hated being pushed aside in our own home. She started acting like he had always been part of our lives. She wanted to rewrite the past."

Keith looked up. "But... didn’t you want her to be happy?"

"I did," Elius said. "I do. But not like that. Not with a lie. Not with a man who sees people as tools and genes and experiments."

Silence again. It hung like heavy dust in the air.

Then, Keith murmured, "Prove to me that we’re the same."

Elius looked at him sharply.

"I don’t want to," he said. "I don’t like using the Solarion bloodline. I despise everything it stands for."

Keith’s eyes narrowed. "Then what do you want to do with me?"

Elius’s lips curved into a small, tired smile. "That’s the real question, isn’t it?"

He stood up slowly, brushing his coat off, eyes glinting under the broken ceiling light.

"It’s simple," he said. "I want you to be favored by Radiant Man too."

Keith’s eyes widened in disbelief.

"That way," Elius continued, "he’ll stop focusing all his damn attention on me. If he has two sons to deal with, he’ll be distracted. Split. Conflicted. Weakened."

Keith stood as well, fists trembling. "You want to use me?"

Elius tilted his head. "I want to include you."

Keith clenched his jaw. "I want to kill him."

Elius’s gaze didn’t waver. "Why?"

Keith looked away, voice raw. "Because of what he did to my mom. She’s... broken. She gave up. She needed him."

"And I’ll fix her," Elius said simply.

Keith turned to him. "What?"

Elius raised one hand. A gleaming sword of silver-blue light appeared beside him. He took it and, without flinching, sliced a shallow wound across his own arm.

Blood dripped.

Then, with a flick of his finger, the sword glowed golden, shifted shape like liquid, and passed over the wound. Flesh knit itself. The injury vanished.

"I’ve got a lot of abilities," Elius said. "Too many, probably. Once were free of this dungeon, I’ll heal your mother. I’ll return her mind, her heart. I’ll rebuild her. Better than before."

Keith stared, his lips parted slightly.

"You’d do that?" he whispered.

Elius nodded. "Yes."

There was a long silence.

Then Keith finally spoke again. "What do I have to do?"

Elius smiled. "First, become a hero."

Keith blinked. "A hero?"

"Yes," Elius said. "It’s the fastest way to grow stronger. To access the dungeons."

"But—why the dungeons?"

Elius took a deep breath, then looked toward the sky.

"Because they’re not natural," he said. "They’re appearing because of our father. The Radiant Man didn’t just become what he is by chance. His technology... his bloodline... it’s from the Solarion Empire."

Keith’s eyes widened. "What?"

"They’re importing them," Elius said. "Bringing the tech here. The dungeons are byproducts. Failures. Or, maybe, tests."

He looked Keith in the eye.

"And when you enter them, they recognize you. Your genes. Your soulprint. You’ll improve faster inside them than anywhere else."

Keith was dumbstruck. "But I thought they were... anomalies."

"They’re experiments," Elius said. "Puzzles from a civilization that sees Earth as a farm for cultivation potential."

Keith staggered back a step, overwhelmed.

"So you’re saying," he said slowly, "if I become a hero... I can use those dungeons to become stronger?"

"Yes," Elius said. "Faster than you ever thought possible."

Keith’s breath shook.

Elius stepped closer, calm but firm. "You can save your mom. You can surpass him. You can become something more. But you have to stop being a villain. It’s a dead end. You’ll always be hunted. You’ll never rise."

Keith looked uncertain. "Are you sure?"

Elius’s eyes burned bright.

"Of course."

"How sure?"

Elius just smiled. "You’ll have to trust me."

Keith stared at him for a long moment.

His jaw tightened.

His eyes flicked to the glowing sand dunes around them—where Fraven, Zhark, and Shania were still trapped in spiraling golden tombs, half-submerged, unmoving.

Then, he slowly lifted a finger and pointed toward them.

"Since I’ll become a hero..." he said hesitantly.

"...what about them?"

Keith’s face turned grave.

He didn’t speak for a long moment.

His lips thinned, and his eyes glinted with something unreadable. His finger was still raised toward the trio buried under the glowing sand tombs, their unconscious bodies twitching now and then under the grip of Elius’s technique.

Zhark’s spark light weakly. Shania’s ghost arms trembled. Fraven’s telekinetic aura hissed and sizzled against the golden grains.

Elius tilted his head.

"No way..." he said slowly, almost disbelieving. "Don’t tell me—you’ve got affection for these shitbags?"

Keith frowned, his jaw tightening.

Elius took a single step forward, sneering with a sarcastic grin.

"You’re telling me you care about them? About those three? You want to free them?" He raised his voice, letting it echo off the dungeon’s metallic stone walls. "You want to make your mother happy? Or let these garbage fires go free and keep being a villain?"

His voice turned sharp. Brutal.

"Choose, Keith."