Hoo…!
Boros looked down at the broken armor on the floor, then laughed in a low voice, full of madness and excitement.
"This armor is used to seal my overwhelming power. If you can break it so easily… that's great. I hope you can give me some fun."
He shook his body strongly. The remaining pieces of armor fell one after another onto the metal floor, shattering as they hit it.
In a few moments, his body was completely revealed.
His skin was dark blue, like living steel. Strange lines covered his body, shining like frozen lightning. They ran from his shoulders across his chest and arms, wrapping around him like tattoos of thunder.
Louis looked at him in a different way than before.
It was not a look of mockery or contempt… but a calm, serious look, as if he was properly evaluating him.
Saitama, on the other hand, moved his eyes between the two, then asked Louis in his usual plain voice:
"Who is this weirdo?"
Louis answered quietly, without taking his eyes off Boros:
"He's the owner of this spaceship."
Saitama turned to Boros, this time with rare seriousness, and asked:
"So… is he the one who's supposed to make me get serious?"
Louis gave a small smile.
"Yes… his power is still pretty good."
It was not really praise, more like a simple statement of fact.
After hearing that, Saitama looked at Boros with real interest for the first time.
Boros, in return, stared at both of them, his glowing eye moving between them.
He could feel that neither of them was a normal intruder… both were beings with terrifying strength.
"This is really interesting…" Boros said with a growing smile, his voice full of excitement.
"Before we start fighting… please, tell me your names!"
He stood straight, like someone introducing himself on a grand stage, then spoke loudly, his voice filling the control room:
"I am the leader of the Dark Matter Thieves… the ruler of the universe! Boros!!"
His words echoed across the huge hall.
Saitama listened in silence and felt, for a moment, that the way Boros introduced himself… sounded very fitting, and matched his strange appearance.
He thought for a bit, then said in his usual simple way:
"I'm… a hero. My name is Saitama."
"Saitama, huh…" Boros repeated the name, then let out a short laugh.
For him, the name didn't have any real weight yet.
In truth… his interest was focused more on Louis.
When he had been watching the intruders through the ship earlier, he noticed that this human called "Emperor" seemed to know a lot about him and about the ship… more than any being on this planet should know.
"And you?"
Boros turned his full gaze to Louis, and for a moment, the hidden pressure in the room grew stronger with his focus.
Louis opened his mouth, getting ready to answer—
"Emperoooor!!"
"How dare you leave us behind again?!"
"You arrogant bastard!!"
Several voices exploded at the same time, along with a wave of energy rushing from the back entrance of the room.
Tatsumaki stormed in first, floating in the air, her green hair flying with anger. Behind her came the rest of the S-Class heroes, each one with a mix of tension, anger… and burning excitement on their faces.
Signs of battle were clear on some of them—dust, scratches, strange alien blood—but all of their eyes were locked on one thing:
Boros.
Tatsumaki stopped in the air and raised an eyebrow at Louis:
"Again… you disappear alone and leave us running around the ship like idiots, huh?!"
Louis didn't answer. He only gave a small, calm smile.
The other heroes didn't care much about this usual argument. Their eyes were fixed on the tall blue being standing in the center of the room.
"Boros… the cosmic ruler…" Atomic Samurai muttered slowly, as if tasting the name.
They all remembered what the Emperor had said in the meeting.
The cosmic ruler who travels through space looking for strong opponents.
The monster who once fought the Emperor to a draw.
Some of them exchanged looks.
If Emperor fought him evenly…
Then if one of us defeats him…
Wouldn't that mean we're at least as strong as the Emperor himself…?
A small spark of desire—desire for strength, for proof, for recognition—lit up in more than one pair of eyes.
Teeth clenched.
Fists tightened.
"Just as I thought…" Boros looked at Louis, thinking to himself:
"It seems this one knows me from somewhere. I only hope he doesn't disappoint me later."
Then!!!
In the moment when the heroes were just starting to understand how terrifying their opponent really was…
"Trash," Boros said calmly.
Then his body vanished.
No sound.
No warning light.
He was simply there one second… and gone the next—
"BOOOOM!!"
The whole hall shook violently, and the S-class heroes were sent flying like dolls.
All of that happened in a single instant, before most of them could even see where the attack came from.
The only one who reacted in time was Tatsumaki.
Her body floated up into the air, her eyes shining with a bright emerald green.
"You arrogant idiot…!"
A huge wave of psychic power burst out from her.
It wrapped around Boros like an invisible gravity field, squeezing him from every direction, as if space itself was trying to crush him.
The air around them rippled.
The metal walls trembled.
But Boros… didn't move an inch.
He looked up at Tatsumaki, his single eye glowing with cold interest, then smirked:
"Psychic power, huh? Interesting."
She increased her power, veins standing out on her neck from the effort, but Boros's expression didn't change at all.
"For a planet on this level," he said in a calm, deadly voice, "your ability is not bad… but it's nowhere near enough to make me kneel."
In the next moment, he broke free from her power like someone brushing a thread off their shoulder, then casually swung his arm.
"DOOOM!!"
A shockwave burst out from his body.
Tatsumaki was thrown through the air like a cannonball, shooting toward the back wall, and several other heroes who hadn't recovered yet were sent flying with her.
Right before her head was about to smash into the metal wall—
Louis disappeared from where he stood.
For the third time that day, he vanished in an instant and reappeared directly in her path, the Power Stone already in his hand.
For a split second, time seemed to slow in Tatsumaki's eyes.
Then she felt strong arms wrap around her.
In midair, between wall and floor, Louis caught her securely, taking all the impact with his own body, then returned the Power Stone to the system's storage at the same time.
He landed on the floor with two calm steps…
Still holding her in a princess carry.
The room froze.
A few of the heroes' jaws literally dropped.
Tatsumaki — who was used to flying proudly above everyone — turned bright red in an instant, even the tips of her ears flushing.
"L–Let me down right now!!" she yelled at him, hitting his chest and arm with her small fists, her eyes shining with anger and embarrassment.
"Who said you could carry me like this, you stupid Emperor?! Do you want me to kill you?!"
Louis didn't seem bothered by her outburst.
He loosened his hold just enough for her to stand on her own. She almost lost her balance from sheer fluster, then quickly turned away, biting her lip.
Louis spoke in a calm tone, as if nothing strange had happened:
"You're not suited to fight him."
She spun back toward him, ready to explode again:
"What did you just—?!"
But he didn't give her the chance.
He turned his gaze straight to Saitama and nodded toward Boros, who was watching everything with growing interest.
"Saitama…"
He paused for a heartbeat, then said clearly:
"I'll leave this one to you."
Saitama scratched his cheek with a finger, eyes on Boros:
"Oh… so it's my turn now?"
Louis smiled slightly — a tiny smile only someone who knew him well would notice.
"Yeah. Let's not make him wait too long…"