Somewhere in the barren lands of Antarctica.
"Ahhhhh!"
Screams echoed through the icy lands. A muscular bald man was running with all of his might. On his back was a young girl who was holding on to him for dear life.
"Run Baldy run!"
Iron Rain's strategist, Kiara, shouted while tears flowed from her eyes.
"Shut up and get off! You're slowing me down!"
Iron Rain's Defence Commander, Bastion, shouted while his feet cut through the snow.
"How am I slowing you down?! I don't even weigh 40kg!"
Kiara looked behind her. There was a pack of man-sized polar bears chasing them down. Normally, a situation like this wouldn't be a problem for someone like Bastion....
"Shit, they're gaining on us!"
Kiara screamed in panic. A robotic hum was emitting from the bears as they chased their prey.
"Wait....What if I throw the deadweight at them to slow them down?"
Bastion shook his head.
"What am I thinking? She's skinny, it will only make them hungrier."
Kiara slapped the back of his head.
"Hey, don't damage my charm point!"
Kiara slapped him again without saying anything. Meanwhile, the polar bears opened their mouths and a charging noise came from inside them.
"Oh, shit!"
The bears fired beams from their mouths. Bastion accelerated and evaded the beams with agile movements. Kiara's face paled as if she were sick.
"You bald bastard...Ugh....Your zigzagging is making me sick."
"Get off me and die then!"
Bastion continued to run with the polar bears chasing them for nearly an hour before they were spared.
"Dammit...I'm a strategist. Why do I have to go through this training too?"
Kiara lay on the ground trying to catch her breath.
"Are you complaining, Jessica?"
A shadow cast over her and her eyes peeled open as she noticed Chinara looking down on her.
"If you have energy to complain, then you haven't really given it your all."
Kiara's terrified expression reflected in Chinara's blue eyes.
"Should I call back the Murder Bears?"
"No no no!"
Kiara flipped on her stomach and started doing push-ups.
"I'll do some strength training after a good cardio session to finish the job!"
Her small body went up and down like a jackhammer. Chinara nodded and looked to her side. Bastion was doing handstand push-ups without saying a word. Chinara sighed and looked down at Kiara.
"Jessica, the reason why you're being trained so hard despite being primarily a strategist is simple."
Kiara looked up at Chinara.
"You need to be strong enough not to be a burden, because if you become too much to bear for Amadi, I'll get rid of you myself."
Kiara's jaw dropped.
(She didn't even try to sugarcoat it!)
She subconsciously stopped doing push-ups as Chinara continued.
"Amadi adopted you as his little sister, because of that, he tends to spoil you even after you became an adult. However, I'm different."
Chinara's voice was void of warmth.
"My first priority is Amadi and I will flood this world with oceans of blood if it will keep him safe. I have killed actual siblings for him and my mother, that's how serious I am. If you wish to stay with him, then you must be able to pull your weight."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Otherwise, I will have to destroy Iron Rain."
"Huh?!"
Bastion lost his balance and fell on his face. He sat up and looked at Chinara in shock.
"I'm serious. That was the condition I gave Amadi when he decided to create this group. If it becomes a threat to him, I will destroy it."
Kiara and Bastion looked at Chinara in disbelief. She looked them in the eyes.
"Did that answer your question?"
The two nodded.
"Great. Then get stronger quickly and stay strong. Or..."
She pointed behind her with her thumb.
"You'll end up like that idiot."
Behind her was an ice mountain, the mountain was slowly moving up and down. The reason was that there was someone lifting the mountain on their backs. This was Amadi. Lifting the mountain was shocking, but it was nothing compared to how it was being lifted.
"No hand push-ups, I didn't think it was possible. With a mountain much less."
Bastion mumbled in shock. Amadi was lifting his body and the mountain with the sheer force of him blowing out of his mouth.
"I call them Air-ups. It's good for training your lung capacity and endurance."
"Ma'am, why are you acting like it's a thing?"
Bastion pointed at Amadi.
"This should be impossible!"
"That's how the weak think."
"?!"
Bastion's jaw dropped as he looked at Chinara.
"Wait, can you do that too?"
"Of course. I can't teach what I don't know. I gave it a try to see if it was possible and did it. Amadi caught on after I showed him once too."
"........"
Bastion and Kiara silently dropped to the ground and continued their push-ups.
(These siblings are monsters!)
Sometime later, Chinara was satisfied with the results and decided to end the tortu—the training for the day.
"Ugh, I thought I was going to die."
Bastion groaned while lying in the snow. Kiara lay next to him, desperately catching her breath.
"Come on, you guys are overexaggerating."
Amadi stood next to them with a grin.
"We just did some light workouts. The real thing starts tomorrow."
"You...You're trying to kill us aren't you?"
Bastion tried to sit up but failed.
"Don't worry. Your regeneration will make you good as new in a bit."
"You fucker...I'm a Pseudo-Superhuman; my regenerative abilities aren't as good as you Superhumans."
"Ah, you're right. I forgot."
Amadi bit his bottom lip to hold his laughter from escaping.
"I swear you better not die before me because the things I'll do to your grav—"
"Sis, it looks like Bastion wants another round!"
Amadi cut Bastion off with a joyful tone. Chinara was sitting on a boulder, looking at her smartwatch. It was projecting a holographic screen in front of her. She tapped the watch and the projection was deactivated.
"Sadly, we don't seem to have time for that."
She stood up.
"It seems the twins from Kismet were attacked in Yugoslavia."
"Really? Which villain did it?"
Amadi asked with a nonchalant tone.
"...Dollmaker. Did you make him do it?"
"Who knows?"
Chinara's eyes narrowed.
"I'm not being cheeky. I honestly don't know if it's because of our schemes or something else."
Amadi picked up Kiara and she started glowing. Her breathing stabilised and colour returned to her face.
"Kiara, explain the plan to Iron Rain's Vice Leader."
Kiara nodded and began to explain. Some minutes later—
"So you've been using the internet and media to create a false narrative that would encourage Villains and criminals to act out?"
Kiara nodded to Chinara's question.
"We used bots to manipulate those watching, with mob mentality in mind. We make it look like a lot of people no longer fear the Calamities because they haven't killed Kismet yet. We make them think the Calamities can't defeat them so they aren't undefeatable. We then slowly ingrained the idea that others can do what Kismet is doing. Basically, we stripped away the terror of Sinvula and Alala."
"Bots alone aren't enough to diffuse the fear around those two."
"True, but the longer Kismet lives, the more confident people will become in our narrative. However, this only works with the average person. Experienced fighters like yourself will realise Kismet is only being allowed to live by the Calamities."
Amadi put Kiara down and she stooped down to draw in the snow.
"My plan has several steps that all happen simultaneously."
She drew Sinvula and Alala's Insignias along with GHF's.
"The first phase is Kismet's weekly battles. This is being broadcast around the world every week and since it's so important, Billions watch it. In this phase, we take advantage of the viewership to subtly push our agenda. This agenda will become more engraved in the viewers' minds as the fights continue and Kismet grows stronger."
She drew a skull and gun, wrote "Villains" and "Soldiers" underneath them.
"The second phase is to get those who figured out the Calamities are allowing Kismet to exist to act out."
She drew lines connecting the villains and soldiers to Alala and Sinvula's insignias.
"To achieve this, we need Iron Rain and the Bellum Company to seem weaker. This is not actually that hard to do. We just need to take some losses and have Alala and Sinvula not retaliate."
"Wait, when did we take losses?"
"We didn't."
Kiara looked at Chinara with a sly smile.
"But as long as everybody else believes we did, it's alright."
Kiara drew a blank face and connected it with Sinvula and Alala's insignia.
"We created dummy stories of our members being attacked and killed by random criminal organisations who "got too cocky" and attacked us. We then attacked like we were furious and destroyed these gangs in retaliation."
"Is this why Bastion ran amok in South America?"
"Yeah. We were meant to get rid of some criminal organisations down there anyway."
Bastion finally sat up.
"We repeated this process several times, slowly increasing the amount of "casualties" Iron Rain suffered. When I felt enough people were paying attention to this, we "failed" to avenge a few comrades."
"You lost on purpose."
Kiara nodded and modified the blank face.
"In any scam, you need your target to believe they have a good chance."
She turned the blank face into a clown.
"You need to give them false hope."
Chinara could see a sinister smile form on her face. Kiara continued.
"In order to make things look genuine, we won most battles but lost every once in a while. Of course, we came down hard on those who "defeated" us the next time. However, we made sure to highlight one fact."
She pointed at Amadi.
"Sinvula never stepped in, whether we win or lose. The Sinvula who would sink an island if one of his people tripped on a sidewalk there. He stayed away and let his team fight alone while he enjoyed his little game with Kismet."
"You made it seem like Iron Rain was abandoned."
"Bingo."
She stood up.
"With Sinvula preoccupied, Iron Rain was now touchable, meaning Villains, especially Supervillains, now have more freedom. They can run amok and do as they like as long as they're confident they can beat Iron Rain without Sinvula's protection."
She smiled at Chinara.
"Doesn't sound that hard, right?"
Chinara nodded.
"I can do that pretty easily."
"Right? And there will be others who believe the same thing, many of whom are probably overestimating themselves, but that doesn't matter. As long as they run amok."
Kiara held her hands out in front of her.
"The reins on the Underworld have been released, and the heartless demons who hid in the shadows are beginning to run free."
A small and low chuckle came from under her breath.
"Oh, for the Bellum Company, we just let them do their thing. Since Alala hasn't joined them in any way, people believe she is also preoccupied with Kismet. I honestly don't know how the countries will react to this, but I'm sure they're looking to take advantage of this too."
She quickly added.
"....Is that all?"
"Nah. I said it was a multi-phase plan, didn't I?"
Kiara answered Chinara with an excited tone.
"The first two phases I've explained are kind of passive, as they aren't over and will only become more effective as time passes. The rest of my plan involves posing as Heroes and Villains. As Villains, we will attack other villains, starting feuds. As Heroes we—"
Kiara's voice faded as Chinara entered deep thought while looking at her.
(This girl, Jessica Novella....She is in the process of shattering the power balance of the world and yet she talks about it so casually.)
Kiara was still excitedly explaining her plan while Chinara was still looking at her.
(Grandfather, I can see why you bought her and added her to your collection.)
Chinara smiled.
"Too bad, she was taken by your grandson."
She mumbled and placed her hand on Kiara's shoulder.
"That's enough, I understand."
Kiara slowly nodded. Chinara turned to Amadi.
"So this is it? You're creating a world for your entertainment?"
Amadi, no. The Mad Shaman, Sinvula, showed a beastly grin as he nodded.
"The stage is finally set."