The Time Token itself embodied the consciousness of time. Encoded within it was a firsthand account from Kuronoa — the incumbent Supreme Kai of Time — describing the three rounds of the Super Space-Time Championship in her own words.
Never mind that Ino had survived by playing dead.
This was a selection process for the Supreme Kai of Time, not a competition for the world's greatest fighter. The process didn't matter — only the result did.
At any rate, she was the only one left standing calmly on the scene. Of the other two, one had been carried off, and one had turned into a vegetable cute girl.
Ino had also, very "humbly," asked for objections. No one present had raised one — which meant everyone was in agreement.
Here and now, she was the final victor of the Super Space-Time Championship. By all rights, she was entitled to inherit the position of Supreme Kai of Time. The procedure was entirely proper, legitimate, and by the book.
Without waiting for Aeos to pull more of her attention back to reality, Ino grabbed the big cute girl and headed straight back to the Time Nest.
Originally, Ino had wanted to lift the Time Crown off the top of Aeos's head. The thing gleamed gold and looked exactly like a royal crown — surely she, as Supreme Kai of Time, could be trusted to safeguard such a time-class divine artifact?
But she quickly found that wasn't going to happen. Aeos was fiercely attached to that hat. The hostility in her eyes kept climbing higher, and from the look of it, taking her crown would earn even more hate than stripping her clothes off. Ino figured that if she tried to force it, she'd probably jolt Aeos fully awake, and then things would get unnecessarily complicated.
Fine. Let the big cute girl hold onto it for now.
Kuronoa had been demonized. Aeos still had the Time Crown. Mechikabura apparently had the Scroll of Time in his possession as well. Ino knew perfectly well there'd be a mountain of headaches waiting for her — but none of that was urgent. First things first: she needed to take her throne. That was the most important thing by far. Everything else could come after!
Worried that delay would only breed more complications, Ino knew she had to move fast. She had to get back immediately and formally take control of the Time Nest — the central hub from which the Supreme Kai of Time governed countless timelines, staffed by an entire corps of personnel and administrative bodies. For Ino, it was a position she absolutely could not afford to lose.
The Demon Realm Supreme Kai had extracted a considerable amount of Time Power from Kuronoa. Her awareness of the timelines was no worse than Ino's own. The moment Ino revived through Izanagi, the Demon Realm Supreme Kai would almost certainly have sensed it.
Every second counted.
"Huh?" Returning to the Time Nest, Ino found the place in complete uproar. Spells, shockwaves, crossbow bolts, and javelins were flying in every direction. The first thing she laid eyes on after arriving was a flash of pink short hair — Sakura, locked in a desperate fight to the death with a Demon Clan soldier.
She casually fired a Death Beam and blew a clean hole through the demon grunt's head, then swept her gaze left and right.
Chaos.
A mass of Demon Clan mages and soldiers had Black-clothed Piccolo surrounded and were pounding him relentlessly. Piccolo was looking a bit ragged, but still holding on.
The fighting in every other direction was a grinding stalemate.
Bardock, King Vegeta, and Paragus — all three of them traitors to Aeos — had transformed and were pressing down hard on the Time Patrol's Trunks, Son Goku, Son Gohan, and Xiaofang in a fierce assault. Black-clothed Son Gohan was over there providing support as well.
In theory, no matter how much those three old Saiyans were cheating fate, they should have been only roughly on par with Son Goku's group — but the Demon Clan's magic was not something to dismiss lightly.
It was much like when the mage Babidi had controlled Dabura — that dark power that cuts straight to the heart, exploits a pretext to draw out latent potential, then twists the mind and bends it to the Demon Clan's will. It had the Time Patrol fighters fighting with both hands tied behind their backs.
They were forced to pour the better part of their energy into fending off their enemies' endless variety of mind-targeting spells.
Future Trunks was dueling Towa. Future Gohan and No. 16 were handling the other high-ranking Demon Clan fighters, while also covering Sakura.
"What in the world is going on?! King Vegeta?! Where in some forgotten backwater timeline did this lot crawl out of?" Ino was furious. She had already ascended — which meant the Time Nest was her turf.
You dare brawl on my turf? You've got some nerve.
"Die." Her Time Domain expertise wasn't on the same level as Kuronoa's or Aeos's, but stomping grunts was no problem at all.
A lead-gray mist spread rapidly outward.
Demon Clan soldiers went wide-eyed with horror. One second later, their skin wrinkled, their muscles sagged, their teeth fell out. Their life force drained away with the passage of time at terrifying speed, and in the blink of an eye, they collapsed into withered husks. Two seconds later, a Time Torrent swept over the husks, and they crumbled instantly to ash.
Then the Demon Clan officers and mages began to fall — their bodies, weapons, and spells all ground to dust before the march of time.
"Retreat! Fall back!" Towa knew Mechikabura's plan, and she had never in a thousand years expected Ino to return. Terrified, she didn't waste a single word — she whipped her bone staff in rapid arcs to force Future Trunks back, then was the first to dive into the escape portal.
The Celestial Mages and the three old Saiyans all fell back after her.
Ino didn't give chase.
Her understanding of Izanagi hadn't been thorough enough before, and on top of that, she'd honestly never used it on herself. For Obito or Uchiha Madara, permanently losing sight in one eye was the price for a full revival — but on Ino, the recovery effect was far more modest.
After the revival, it had only restored her to a sliver of health.
She had very little stamina or Time Power left right now.
She looked perfectly cold and composed on the outside — but driving the enemy off had taken just about everything she had left.
What mattered most right now was locking down the Time Nest and keeping Mechikabura from turning around and striking back.
If small-fry enemies wanted to run, let them run.
She handed the vegetable-cute girl Aeos off to Black-clothed Son Gohan and Black-clothed Piccolo, then asked the others what had happened here.
"Excuse me — where is the Supreme Kai of Time?" Trunks asked.
Ino told him straight: "Kuronoa has been demonized by the Demon Realm Supreme Kai Mechikabura. It's regrettable to have to say this, but a kingdom cannot go a single day without a ruler, so I'm the one who'll be taking on the role of Supreme Kai of Time."
Trunks's brow furrowed deeply. He had his suspicions that Ino had somehow engineered this from the shadows. "We will definitely rescue Lady Kuronoa."
"Of course — that is entirely your prerogative."
The Time Patrol was Kuronoa's private force, with no subordinate relationship to the Time Nest itself. The four who had participated in the Super Space-Time Championship were departing early — they still needed to find Vegeta and Son Goten, who were in a separate timeline. Once all six were assembled, they would set out to rescue Kuronoa.
Black-clothed Piccolo and Black-clothed Son Gohan quietly slipped away with the big cute girl as well.
The Super Space-Time Championship had seen more than its share of surprises, but in the end, a final victor had been decided.
Grand Zeno had two tall bodyguards, a Grand Minister as his majordomo, and an entire cohort of Supreme Kais, Destroyers, and regular Kais as his subordinates.
Grand Zeno's primary jurisdiction was the twelve universes — originally eighteen, but the little troublemaker had gotten angry one day and simply erased six of them.
Ino's side and Grand Zeno's side were two separate systems entirely, and naturally she had her own vast array of subordinates as well.
She settled herself onto the throne that had formerly been Kuronoa's and received work reports from a large crowd of officials — whom she privately referred to as her "three palaces and six courts."
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