Chapter 165 (Online): Absolute Evil

Through Bang's Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, Garou had already learned to channel the flow of tides and currents through his own body, and his knack for absorbing any technique extends that principle further. Newly empowered, he now grasps how all energy moves and how every force in the universe behaves, and he brings that understanding to bear on Saitama.

Launching his new style, All Life Eradication Fist, Garou charges Saitama with an attack called Nuclear Fission. The blast is powerful enough to trigger the decontamination system aboard the Gotz Okkie, whose crew realize the strike carries the force of a nuclear weapon. Watching from afar, Psykos likens the explosions to Homeless Emperor's energy spheres and calls them divine power, while a rising mushroom cloud shifts with humanoid shapes that leave Genos wondering whether Saitama is involved.

Saitama shrugs off the assault but grows annoyed that his clothes are shredded. Garou boasts that he can read every move, then demonstrates his modes, martial-arts forms that borrow the movements of living things. He activates Mode: Saitama and answers the hero with Consecutive Normal Punches, startling him into throwing the very same technique back; the two barrages collide in a massive shockwave, and both fighters land a blow to each other's face that drives them into the ocean before they resurface. Garou taunts that anything he copies will only sharpen, so Saitama will soon be unable to keep up, while Saitama frets over having promised Tareo he would not get a scratch.

Determined to show the boy how powerless heroes are, Garou unleashes a Gamma Ray Burst that lights the sky and blasts Saitama far away. On the surface the shockwave batters the other heroes, and Sweet Mask, driven by his loathing of monsters, confronts Flashy Flash over sheltering Manako, who dismisses her as a useful exotic animal. With Saitama gone, Garou lands before the assembled heroes, who realize he was the source of the explosions and regard him in terror. Bang crawls from the rubble, shocked at his former student's state, and asks whether he is still himself.

Garou recalls how the power came to him: when God, wearing Bang's face, offered its hand, merely brushing it was enough for the entity to seize hold of him and declare it would make him its avatar, flooding him with power that nearly knocked him out. Assuring Bang that he still holds on to his lessons and his own self despite the mutation, Garou apologizes to Tareo and declares that the time has come for him to do evil.

Titled Zettai Aku in Japanese and released by Viz as Absolute Evil, the chapter adapts parts of webcomic chapters 82 and 92. Garou appears on the cover.

It released online on June 9, 2022 with 52 pages, following The Abominable Fist That Turned Against God and preceding Squared.