American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 339 It's time to rest, Butcher

Just as Emily approached Butcher, intending to thoroughly search his entire body to confirm that the butcher was unable to resist, a dark figure peeked out from one of the rooms.

Snapped!

A gunshot broke the stalemate. Butcher immediately felt his cheeks burning, as if the bullet had almost hit him. He instinctively thought it was the woman in front of him who had fired the shot, but then he saw Emily suddenly lunge at him.

"Watch out!" she shouted as she pushed him aside.

Snapped!

With the second shot, Emily's body jerked violently, and a large amount of blood gushed from her left arm. Butcher seized the opportunity to quickly find cover and rolled into it. Out of the corner of his eye, he also noticed a man in a security guard uniform at the end of the corridor, holding a pistol.

"FXXK!" Butcher cursed loudly as he immediately pulled a pistol from his crotch. He had thought that Emily wouldn't dare to search that area, so he had put the pistol there, but he didn't expect to use it so soon.

Having received military training, Butcher released the safety and began to aim and fire. The security guard tried to retaliate after seeing the other party pull out a pistol, but fell to the ground immediately after the shot was fired, with one bullet to the head and one to the chest.

After confirming that the crisis was over, Butcher immediately went to Emily's side. She was leaning against the wall, her right hand still tightly covering the wound on her left arm, and a lot of blood was seeping out from between her fingers. Emily was very unlucky; the shot had broken her bones.

The butcher hesitated for a moment, then tore off his own clothes and used them to bandage the woman.

"Good shot." Emily was very pale from the pain and blood loss, but she still had the mood to praise Butcher.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Butcher asked in a low voice, his technique rough, causing Emily to wince in pain.

"It was an instinctive reaction—I guess." Forcing a smile, Emily continued, "Besides, it's something I owe you."

"What do you owe me?"

Emily looked directly into Butcher's eyes: "You know my abilities, so I—I've seen those—so many superhumans, they're vicious, greedy. Seeing them, I even wonder why such humans exist in this world. And you—..."

"You saw it all, right?" Butcher asked, having certainly killed some superhumans.

"Yes—this is what I owe you, for not standing up sooner, for watching those damned superhumans commit evil and choosing to remain silent." Her eyes held a pleading glint: "Not all superhumans choose to become monsters, but—but what I want to say is, you are not alone!"

Butcher paused for a moment, remembering things: the day he received breast milk, French dying before his eyes, the ordinary people harmed by superhumans, Vega, and the woman before him who had just saved his life, shielding him from a bullet meant for him with her own flesh and blood.

Regardless, he had to save this woman first. Butcher didn't want to owe anything to a superhuman, let alone a life.

"Hold on, I have to get you out of here first," he said gruffly. Then he tightened his grip, causing Emily to scream in pain as she grabbed Butcher's hand. Her next words made Butcher pause in surprise.

"You want to detonate the nuclear bomb here, don't you?" Emily asked.

"—You know that?"

"It was just a coincidence," Emily said softly. "Homelander thinks he's the leader of New Hope City, but actually many superpowered people often mock him behind his back. Many superpowered people know that he has a nuclear bomb hidden in the basement of the Vought Tower, including me."

"Do you know where the nuclear bomb is hidden?"

Emily's eyes glanced subconsciously towards where the security guard was, but Butcher keenly noticed Emily's little movement.

"Thanks." Butcher stood up and strode towards the room behind the security guard. Sure enough, there was another door in this room—a thick, blast-proof door. Just seeing that thing told him he'd come to the right place. Although the door was locked, Butcher knew where to get the key.

He immediately searched the security guard he had killed and found a set of keys and several cards on him.

While Butcher was searching, Emily looked at the weapon on the ground. It was the pistol that Butcher had casually put down when he was bandaging her. She gritted her teeth and finally took the gun with her.

After several attempts, Butcher finally used the access card correctly. As the green light came on, the security door slowly opened, accompanied by a loud noise. The Butcher laughed: Sure enough, there was a nuclear warhead on display in this room. He walked straight in without even looking back.

Emily, in despair, dragged her injured body after them, sweat soaking the stray hairs on her forehead. "Please, don't do this—"

Butcher stood before the control panel, his finger hovering over a button. He turned to look at Emily's face, his expression surprisingly calm. In that instant, a flood of memories rushed through Butcher's mind: his father's beatings as a child, his near-killing of him, his joining the army and fighting in the Falklands War, meeting Vega and marrying her. "Do you know why I hate you so much?" Butcher asked softly. Before Erica could answer, he continued, "It's not because you have superpowers. No, I don't envy your superpowers. I hate you because most of you choose to use them to hurt others!"

Then, Butcher gave a wry smile: "But I guess—I'm the same way, right? Even though I don't have superpowers, I seem to always be hurting people?"

A monster that lives on hatred naturally doesn't care what methods it uses. When Butcher was awakened from his sea of ​​hatred by Emily, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have sunk too deep. For example, right now, he actually wanted to detonate a nuclear bomb, killing most of the already dwindling human population—

When did I develop such a paranoid and insane idea? Was it Vega's death? Or my brother's passing?

"No, you have other options—" Emily tried to say something, but Butcher just shook his head.

"Of course I still have a choice," he said. "I choose to end it all!"

Butcher made a gesture as if to press the trigger, and Emily had no choice but to raise her pistol and pull the trigger.

Bang bang bang!

Butcher felt a sharp pain, but he did not resist. Instead, he fell straight down. The pain quickly disappeared, and darkness swallowed his vision. Butcher had a relieved smile on his lips. In the darkness before him, he seemed to see Vega's face.

"It's time to rest, Billy," she said.

Yes, it's time to rest.