"Did he have to make even his exit that dramatic? A rainbow door just to say goodbye? I wonder where it leads." Dao Zhi rubbed his chin, eyeing the shimmering portal with barely concealed curiosity.
Everyone knew Goku had made up his mind; there was no stopping him now. One by one they offered farewells.
At the end, only Duanmu Rong remained, her expression a tangle of emotions.
"Coming with me?" Goku asked with an easy smile, holding out his right hand.
"Hmph. As if I'm that eager," Duanmu Rong sniffed, turning her face aside.
"Don't be so stubborn—go," Dao Zhi laughed, giving her a playful shove straight into Goku's arms.
"Dao Zhi! You—" Rong flushed scarlet and glared daggers at him, even as she found herself held fast against Goku's chest.
"Come on, Rong-girl, drop the act. Brother Goku's a good man. Wishing you two happiness!" Dao Zhi grinned.
Duanmu Rong shot Goku a quick glance—her cheeks burned hotter—then sent Dao Zhi one last frosty look that couldn't quite hide a flicker of gratitude. Without that push, she wouldn't have had the courage.
"Well then, everyone… until we meet again," Goku said, smiling as he took Shi Lan's, the Goddess's, and Duanmu Rong's hands and led them into the seven-colored gateway.
"W-wait, why am I going too?" came Shi Lan's muffled yelp from within the light.
"Less talking. You already know what I am—of course you're coming."
The rainbow gate flashed—and vanished.
---
A prismatic corridor stretched into infinity, awash in flowing radiance and rising auspicious mist. Within the color and light, countless sigils drifted and chimed like a ritual chant. Those sigils tessellated into myriads of luminous lanes, each about a meter wide, pouring forward without end. This was the Dimensional Passage.
Every glowing lane led to a different world. Some shone dim, others blazed: the fainter the light, the lower the world's rank; the brighter, the higher.
"What… is this place?" Shi Lan and Rong stared around, astonished.
"The Dimensional Passage," Goku said, brows knitting as he studied the glow. "Each of these corridors opens into a different world."
"All of these… are gateways to other worlds?" The two women gaped at the uncountable paths stretching beyond sight.
Even Ling Yue looked openly impressed. "It's my first time here as well. To think so many worlds exist beyond the ones I know… But judging from your face, something's wrong?"
"Very wrong." Goku's expression turned grim. "I didn't expect this many routes. Picking the exact world I want out of billions is going to take time."
He closed his eyes. His divine sense flowered into a billion strands, lancing down a billion corridors in the blink of an eye.
A heartbeat later, a storm of alien impressions flooded his mind—glimpses of world after world—
"Hm?" A surge of all-too-familiar menace brushed his awareness, and his face tightened.
He was peering into a lightless chaos where a hulking figure loomed against a broken sky. Laws frayed; the firmament itself seemed ready to tear apart. Overhead, a colossal wheel of law spread until it blanketed the void, bleeding threads of raw chaos that pressed the world flat. It felt like the end of days. Creatures everywhere staggered into despair.
Where the chaos passed, blood mist erupted. Lives burst like overripe fruit, their essence streaming upward into the gaping maw of the shadow that straddled the sky.
"Demon! Help! Is our world finished? Someone—anyone—save us!"
Screams, sobs, the thin wail of hopelessness. The world reeled under a terror beyond naming.
"Hahaha! Exquisite. So much energy—enough to restore a little strength…" The shadow's laughter was wild and cold. Life and death were nothing to him; beings were fuel.
"Enough!" A rift yawned in the void. Through it descended a figure of austere authority. Seeing his realm in ruins, the Sovereign of that World went white with rage. His fury made the very air keen; spiritual currents surged as chains of law spilled from the torn sky, sigils of annihilation sparking across them—heaven's wrath made manifest.
"Heh. Finally," the devourer drawled, a chill smile cutting across his face. "I've been waiting… Sovereign."
He spread his fingers. Demonic miasma congealed into a world-spanning hand that slammed downward.
Thunder split the world. The titanic palm crushed the sky itself, collapsing it into a black gulf a thousand leagues wide, swallowing the Sovereign whole.
All beings quailed. No one had imagined such force could exist. Before that weight, even the mightiest looked like ants.
Another detonation—and the Sovereign was swatted away like a meteor, punching out through his own firmament and vanishing into the trackless void.
"Tch. A trash-tier Sovereign, daring to posture before Yuanmie, Evil of the Dimensions?" the shadow sneered, swaggering even as his eyes narrowed toward the torn horizon. "Damn it, I overdid it—now I'll have to hunt him down."
He gathered himself to pursue—then froze, gaze snapping upward. "That aura… Goku? Don't tell me that brat's on my tail."
For all his bluster, his presence wavered. He hadn't recovered his full might, and every time he'd crossed paths with Goku he'd come away worse for it. He had no desire to tempt fate again so soon.
"Not the time. I need my strength back first," he muttered—his voice a rolling quake the whole world could hear. "Play hero later, boy. I'll be elsewhere."
Grumbling, Yuanmie tore open a lightless vortex before him. It swallowed his hulking silhouette in an instant and winked out.
—
Back in the Dimensional Passage, Goku's eyes snapped open. "Gone? Did Yuanmie really swing by?"
If Yuanmie feared him, he feared Yuanmie in turn.
"Things just got urgent. You three—go relax in my world for now." Before Shi Lan or Rong could respond, Goku flicked a thought and tucked them—and the Goddess—safely into his World Ring.
To mask his own trail, he blinked sideways in space, shooting down the nearest bright corridor to its end.
A rainbow gate blossomed. Goku stepped through into a canyon of glass and steel. He paused, felt the pulse of the place, and a small grin broke over his face. "Sekirei… a goddess, even? Heh. Of all places to land in a hurry."
---
Though the sun blazed overhead and traffic seethed along the avenue, not a single passerby noticed the prismatic door irising open on the sidewalk; Goku had veiled it with divine art. To mortal eyes, it wasn't there.
He watched the bustle, mind already turning. In the Passage he'd brushed against Yuanmie's presence—and it felt stronger than before. Time was running thin.
"So I really can't spend all day charming girls and coasting," he sighed. "Hold on… why haven't I been abusing Shadow Clone for training? That's a built-in cheat code."
His eyes lit. With a thought he slipped into the World Ring and split himself into a billion shimmering doubles. For someone of his current stature, it was child's play.
"You lot grind. I'll handle the flirting."
Chuckling, Goku set the Dimensional pearls down for his clones to attune to; his own power as a Sovereign would feed it for a while yet. Then he stepped back out to the city, humming to himself as he headed into the crowd.
___
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