Solo Cultivating in Superhero Academy
Chapter 140: Trap him

Chapter 140: Trap him

Meanwhile, far from the blazing chaos of the dungeon, in the soft twilight shadow of a quiet and unsuspecting city, something stirred.

The golden glow of streetlamps flickered calmly over the stone pavement near the city gates.

The guards were relaxed, yawning under their helmets, never imagining that reality itself would warp just meters away from them.

FZZZTT!

With a surge of distortion and a ripple of mana, a cube blinked into existence. It was black, spinning with eerie, geometrical pulses of energy.

From it, Keith emerged.

His boots touched the ground with a quiet clink, and the cube folded in on itself, vanishing into thin air.

He stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, as if the journey had drained more from him than expected. His eyes—usually light, confident, even smug—were grim now. Weighted.

"Keith!" a voice called out.

From the shadows under the gateway arch, three figures stepped forward.

First was Zhark the Thunder—his left arm wrapped in multiple bands of energy tape, still sparking with unstable electricity.

His jagged, cybernetic eye glowed faintly as he scanned Keith, and his usually cocky smile was replaced with something closer to concern.

Beside him stood Fraven the Telekinetic, pale, sharp-eyed, with his robes floating gently as if gravity was an optional suggestion.

His arms were crossed, but the way his fingers tapped on his sleeves betrayed anxiety. Despite his power, his breathing was uneven.

And lastly, Shania—tall, lithe, radiant in dark red armor. Her scarlet eyes immediately softened when she saw Keith, and in one fluid motion, she was at his side.

Without hesitation, she wrapped her arms around him in a deep, wordless hug.

"You made it out!" she whispered, pressing her head to his chest. "Are you alright?"

Keith, still looking at the ground, lifted one arm and hugged her back with quiet finality. His fingers curled slightly, the weight of everything heavy on his shoulders.

"Yes," he said, his voice low. "I am fine..." he would say, with a frown. And then, with a serious look on his face, he would add, "By the way, that guy we fought—the reason he can harm us," he would pause and grimly say, "is because he’s my older brother."

Zhark and Fraven blinked in unison.

Zhark took an instinctive step back. "Wait... that guy? The guy who cut down my Thunder Gorilla Suit in half without blinking... the guy that trapped us in that Tomb, and if it weren’t for the cubes, we won’t be able to get is because... he’s your older brother?!"

Fraven looked as if someone had slapped him with a live wire. "You never told us you had a brother like that! We could’ve make a plan to avoid him."

"I didn’t know," Keith said quietly. "Not until recently."

"No wonder he could hurt you like that," Zhark muttered. "You’re practically unbreakable. But he—he cracked you."

Keith nodded slowly. "He’s stronger than he knows. And he’s getting stronger still."

Fraven’s brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Keith took a slow breath. Then another. And then, he began to speak.

"At first," he said, voice growing steady, "he was all defense. He used his floating swords—so clean, so fast—to control the field. Like a spider spinning a web while already knowing which corner you’d try to escape through. You think he’s passive, until you realize you’ve been checkmated ten steps ago."

The others exchanged glances.

"But that wasn’t what scared me," Keith continued, eyes distant now. "What scared me was that... he learned. Rapidly. Instinctively. He didn’t just react—he absorbed. Adapted. Transformed."

He looked up.

"Do you know how many mechanical monsters we fought in that dungeon? Dozens. All of them stronger than anything I’d send rookies against. And Elius? He tore through them. At first, it took him time. I could see him thinking. Calculating.

"Then—bam. He’d change tactics. His swords would dance in new patterns. He’d split one sword into three, or spin them like drills, or anchor them mid-air to create footholds."

Zhark opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out.

"He didn’t just fight," Keith said. "He taught. While battling, he coached me. Me! Told me where to strike, how to redirect momentum, how to shift my breathing to conserve aura. And the worst part?"

He stared at them.

"He was right. Every time."

Shania gripped his arm tighter, her eyes wide.

"He uses the environment like a living extension of himself," Keith went on. "When we were ambushed by a pack of flamethrower sentries—he made the metal floor buckle. Tripped the enemies. Buried them in sand pillars, invoked a tomb technique, and crushed them with a superpowers that I’ve never even seen in my whole life."

Fraven’s mouth twitched.

"He did all that?"

"That’s not all," Keith said. "He discovered a powerful technique. Just a glimpse of it. He tried to keep that from me. But even that was enough to adapt his style mid-battle. He laughed. He laughed, Fraven. He looked at a robot that fired plasma cannons the size of our car—and he laughed."

"He’s insane..." Zhark muttered. "You’re saying your brother is basically..."

"He’s a monster," Keith said. "But not like us. We were engineered. Honed. Polished by training, missions, failures. But him?"

He clenched a fist.

"He was born for it. Like he didn’t need training. Like it’s just... who he is."

The silence stretched for several seconds.

Zhark finally broke it, his voice soft. "No wonder he destroyed us like we were nothing. I thought we were ambushed, caught off guard. But he wasn’t even serious."

Fraven swallowed. "We got off lucky."

Shania was still pressed against Keith. Her voice was almost a whisper now.

"What... do we do?"

Keith looked at all three of them.

He remembered how Elius had stared down the boss room. Alone. Betrayed. Furious.

He remembered how Elius’s face didn’t fall into despair, or sadness.

He had smiled.

The same smile Keith once saw in the mirror, years ago, when he first unlocked his true power.

He realized now that the dungeon wasn’t a trap for Elius.

Elius had made it his training ground.

A forge.

A crucible.

A stage for ascension.

And now, his brother was standing in front of a boss that would annihilate most A-rank teams without breaking a sweat.

Alone.

And smiling.

Keith exhaled slowly.

"...We trap him inside," he said at last.

Zhark blinked. "Trap him?"

"We use the remaining cubes. Lock the chamber. Reroute the dungeon control spell. Convert the entry gate into a recursive time loop. One hour inside becomes one second outside."

"But—" Fraven began.

"He can’t die in there," Keith said. "Not unless the boss kills him faster than he can adapt. But if he does survive, if he grows even stronger..."

He stared at them.

"...we won’t stand a chance later. He’ll be too much."

The three nodded slowly.

They understood.

This wasn’t vengeance.

This was containment.

Shania stepped back. Her expression was conflicted, but firm.

Fraven lifted his cube.

Zhark summoned the program interface from his bracer.

Keith turned toward the dungeon, the last flicker of guilt burning out in his eyes.

"I’m sorry, brother," he said under his breath. "But you will be going against our plans if you make it out alive."

And the sky above them shimmered.