The camera drones instantly spun around to face Rudy. The live broadcast reaching billions of human screens seamlessly shifted to show the Overlord standing calmly in his tailored black suit.

"My fellow people of Earth," Rudy spoke, his voice projecting through every television and digital screen on the planet. "Your so-called heroes spent the entire morning hiding in a concrete basement while I exterminated the cosmic parasites. They do not own a superweapon, and they certainly do not own the sun. I made the sun myself because I wanted to have a picnic."

Captain Justice dropped his heroic pose and glared at Rudy. "You are lying to the world! S-Class Team, apprehend this rogue villain!"

The dozen flashy heroes drew their weapons and charged forward. Rudy did not even bother moving his hands. He simply sent a quick telepathic ping to the castle.

A heavy impact shook the earth as Erika dropped directly from the castle walls and landed right in front of Rudy. She wore her blood-stained combat suit and carried a wicked blade over her shoulder. The corrupted daughter looked at the charging heroes with a grin.

"You all already know who she is. Erika, one of the few top strongest heroes." Rudy introduced her to the world. "And she... is my daughter."

"You called, Father?" Erika asked, her eyes flashing with dark amusement.

"These glory hounds want a fight," Rudy told her. "Do not kill them on live television, but feel free to break their egos."

Erika laughed out loud and vanished in a blur of motion. She completely outclassed the human heroes in every possible category. She speed-blitzed the entire team in less than ten seconds, snapping their flashy weapons in half and kicking them across the dirt. Captain Justice flew backward and crashed into a media van, crying out in pain as his armor shattered.

The camera drones captured the absolute humiliation of Earth’s strongest defenders in high definition.

A balding, heavily sweating diplomat stepped out from behind the media vans. He clutched a legal clipboard to his chest and held up a red remote control with a trembling hand.

"Stop right there!" the diplomat screamed, his arrogance masking his obvious terror. "By order of the United Earth Defense Council, I am serving you a formal eviction notice! This land belongs to the human government! If you do not hand over the superweapon and vacate the premises in exactly five minutes, I will press this button and fire the Olympus Orbital Cannon!"

He pointed the remote at the sky, threatening Rudy with a billion-dollar, nuclear-powered satellite laser currently hovering in the upper atmosphere.

Rudy looked at the diplomat and let out a tired sigh. "You humans rely way too much on toys you do not understand."

Rudy reached his right hand toward the sky and accessed his Spatio-Temporal magic. He completely bypassed the distance to the upper atmosphere and wrapped his spatial control directly around the massive orbital satellite. With a casual downward pull, he violently ripped the military superweapon completely out of orbit.

The diplomat screamed and dropped his clipboard as a massive, glowing metal structure crashed through the clouds and plummeted straight toward the earth.

Just before the billion-dollar satellite crushed the media vans, Rudy snapped his fingers. He aggressively shrank the massive weapon down to the size of a standard microwave oven. The shrunken, sparking satellite dropped harmlessly into Rudy’s waiting hand.

Rudy inspected the high-tech military laser and tossed it to Erika. "Take this to the kitchen. Tell the head chef he can use the nuclear core as a new rotisserie grill for dinner tonight."

"Will do!" Erika grinned, catching the satellite and jogging back toward the castle.

The diplomat fell to his knees in the dirt, completely paralyzed by shock. His ultimate trump card was just reduced to a kitchen appliance in front of the entire world. Rudy looked directly into the camera drones one last time.

"Do not knock on my door again," Rudy warned the planet. He waved his hand, permanently severing the global broadcast and turning billions of screens to static.

Deep within the heavily fortified underground command center of the United Earth Defense Council, supreme generals stared in absolute, suffocating silence at a wall of static monitors. The global broadcast had been entirely severed, leaving the elite military leaders to process the sheer, impossible absurdity of what they had just witnessed.

General Tuff, the supreme commander of Earth’s combined armed forces, violently slammed his heavy fists onto the metal war table.

"He humiliated us!" Vance roared, his face turning a furious, deep shade of purple. "He treated the greatest heroes on this planet like annoying children, and he stole the Olympus Cannon like it was a cheap toy! This is an act of planetary treason!"

"Sir," a trembling technician spoke up from a glowing terminal. "The satellite’s nuclear core... it is completely offline. He really did turn it into a rotisserie grill. How do we even combat that level of reality manipulation?"

"With overwhelming, unstoppable force!" Vance barked, pointing a decorated finger at the tactical map. "I want that rogue fortress leveled to the bedrock. Deploy the Titan Vanguard! Send the entire mechanized division, the plasma-artillery battalions, and the stealth bomber fleets! I do not care if we have to crack the continental plate; we are burning that castle to the ground!"

Within minutes, the greatest military mobilization in human history was underway. Thousands of heavily armored transport trucks roared to life. Dozens of towering, fifty-foot-tall Titan Mechs, that were humanity’s ultimate bipedal weapons coated in impenetrable depleted uranium, marched out of their underground hangars.

The massive mechanized army tore across the ruined, muddy landscape left behind by the eldritch invasion, their heavy treads violently churning the earth as they advanced relentlessly toward the Orcelona Keep.

Hundreds of miles away, completely unaware of the trillion-dollar military task force rolling toward the kingdom, Safalius leaned comfortably against his wooden mop.

"How clean and pretty it is!"

Safalius had absolutely no idea the human government was about to track a massive amount of mud all over his pristine floors.