Solo Cultivating in Superhero Academy
Chapter 67: Who will stop me?

Chapter 67: Who will stop me?

Elius tilted his head ever so slightly, his arms crossed lazily as if this entire situation was little more than background noise.

He let the silence stretch, the tension in the air simmering just beneath the surface of every breath and glance exchanged.

Then he exhaled like he was bored.

"They’re all sidekicks," he said flatly.

Silence.

And then—

"WHAT?!"

The crowd erupted like a bomb detonated in a greenhouse.

The wave of noise was deafening.

Gasps and shouting collided in a hurricane of disbelief, confusion, and raw, unfiltered curiosity.

Dozens of heads snapped back toward the Dream Team—if they could even be called that now—with wide eyes and slack jaws.

"No way!"

"You’re kidding, right?!"

"Sidekicks? All of them?!"

"Even the creepy floating guy?!"

"How the hell did he pass the Rift check with four sidekicks?!"

"Isn’t that illegal?!"

The chatter snowballed, growing louder and more chaotic, rippling through the entire group of waiting Superheroes and sidekicks alike.

Some started pulling out their wrist terminals to double-check regulations.

Others gawked at Jiro, Clint, Balkan, and Monkaar like they had suddenly grown horns.

"Did the Rift system malfunction?!"

"Are they registered as Superheroes?"

"I swear, I saw them at the side of the sidekick part of the city"

"Hey, are those guys the ones from the news?"

"No? I don’t think so..."

"What? He brought new sidekicks?"

The noise grew even louder when someone shouted, "Wait—wasn’t he the guy who defeated Lava Scissor yesterday?! The one on the news?!"

Someone would reply, "We already knew, your brain is lagging!"

"Hahahaha!"

That was when the Vanguard Justice Juniors started to shift uncomfortably, especially Star-Spangled himself, who narrowed his eyes and took a step forward.

"Listen here," he said, pointing a firm finger at Elius. "I don’t know what sort of flex you’re trying to pull right now, but this isn’t like yesterday’s trial dimensional rifts.

"That was part of the welcoming ceremony. That was a scripted, staged, soft-core dimensional rifts setup specifically designed to let sidekicks participate alongside entry-level Superheroes."

He gestured behind him, toward the Rift hub’s looming metal gate and humming power core. "This is an unexplored dimensional rifts."

He took another step forward, now standing just a few feet from Elius, nose slightly flared, voice hardening like stone as he continued.

"There are no systems in place inside. No safeties. No monitoring. No one’s mapped it, no one’s survived it, no one’s marked it as cleared or even surveyed.

"These dimensional riftss are dimensional tears into the unknown. The Rift AI only lets us in because the last scans show it might be within our rank range. But that doesn’t mean it’s safe. That doesn’t mean it’s fair."

He jabbed a thumb at his own chest. "We’ve spent the last three months preparing for this dive. Simulations. Team drills. Loadout rotations. Strategic callouts.

"We adjusted our DNA-pairing to Rift harmonics. You get what that means? That’s serious calibration. We even cross-verified energy burst patterns from twenty past F-class Rift clears."

He scoffed. "And you waltz in here with sidekicks like this is a game?"

Jiro swallowed thickly. Clint stared at the floor. Balkan shifted from foot to foot. Even if Monkaar’s floating slowed, his floating body would be slightly more imbalanced than earlier, like he was folding in on himself.

They were terrified now.

Not just from the crowd, or the accusations, but the dawning realization that Elius had dragged them into something far deeper than they’d expected.

Clint, voice hoarse, muttered, "Why’d you bring us here...?"

"We’re just sidekicks..." Jiro said, his sand-gloved hands trembling.

"This... can we go back?" Balkan mumbled.

Monkaar didn’t speak, but the heavy swirl of his form conveyed all the panic he didn’t voice.

But Elius didn’t flinch.

He turned his eyes to the Vanguard Justice Juniors’ leader and asked, voice low and cool, "Why? You got experience bringing sidekicks inside a dimensional rifts?"

The entire crowd gasped as if the words themselves had slapped them.

The arrogance. The sheer disrespect. The audacity.

Elius wasn’t just standing his ground—he was provoking.

Even some bystanders who had been skeptical of the Vanguard team started whispering again.

"Holy crap... did he just say that?"

"He’s got no chill."

"He’s got a death wish."

"Or he’s just cracked."

But it was also true—everyone knew it.

Yesterday had been the first time in Academy High’s recorded history where sidekicks were allowed to participate in a Rift run during orientation.

It had been a massive deal.

News headlines all over the school intranet. Debate threads burning with comments about the implications.

And this guy—Elius—had somehow not only done it, but had won, defeating Lava Scissor, one of the most hyped-up F-Ranked villains known in the southern district circuit.

He’d done what even peak-level F-Ranked Superheroes had failed to do.

He made the impossible look casual.

And now here he was, treating an unexplored Rift like it was just another stroll through the welcome gates.

Star-Spangled’s face twitched. He opened his mouth to respond but the tactical one—Stealth Juggernaut—cut in first, stepping beside him.

"You really don’t get it, do you?" he said. His voice was deeper, more composed. "You think because you scored one flashy victory in a sandbox dimensional rifts that you’re untouchable. You think because the cameras are on you, you’re safe."

He stepped forward again, closer to Elius now. "This isn’t an Unfinished Rift. This isn’t a cleared route with mapped paths and known enemy types. This is an unexplored zone. There could be anything in there.

"Maybe it’ll be a ghost zone. Maybe it’ll be a hyper compressed time loop hell with parasite hive entities. Maybe a baby C-Class guardian that was misranked by the scanners. Do you even know what happened last semester? Huh?"

Elius said nothing.

Stealth Juggernaut continued.

"One of the top ten F-Ranked Superhero teams in Academy High history—team Reignfire—walked into an unexplored Rift thinking they were ready. They had three peak-tier Supers and two sidekicks who were built like B-Ranks. What happened?"

He paused. Let it sink in.

"They never came back."

The crowd fell silent again.

"You’re not even a peak F-Rank," he added, tone sharp now. "You’re a new Superhero. Green as grass. No backup. No veteran. No escape spell. No comms tether. And you brought sidekicks. What are you trying to do? Kill them?"

He pointed at Monkaar. "You think that thing is gonna survive an energy-plague rift?!"

He pointed at Balkan. "You think bugs help in lava-type zones?!"

He pointed at Clint. "You think bullets work on ethereal entities?!"

He pointed at Jiro. "What’s your superpower?"

Jiro would hesitate and look at Elius but Elius doesn’t seem to care and he would show his little sand control, but only that.

Stealth Juggernaut was shocked, "that’s all?" He paused, "And sand manipulation? Sand? That stuff gets countered by wind, ice, magnetic pulse, water spirits, and half the known Rift anomalies."

He turned back to Elius, voice final.

"Be smart. Go home. Get actual teammates. Superheroes. Because if you step into that Rift with them, you’re walking into your death."

A long silence.

And then...

Elius raised his head slightly.

His voice was soft. Quiet. Almost gentle.

"And who," he said, "is going to stop me?"

Shiiing.

Metal hummed.

Floating swords unsheathed from the void behind him—one, two, five, then ten—hanging in the air with gleaming spiritual light like fangs from a phantom beast.

The crowd gasped again.

The Rift began to pulse.

The dimensional rifts awaited.