Realm of the God of Destruction.
A wild, vicious aura erupted from Son Gohan's body.
With the Rule of Destruction surging through him, the pressure he radiated completely overshadowed even his previous Death Form.
Death Form made everyone feel despair and lifeless stillness.
But right now, Gohan felt… savage. Violent. Dripping with bloodlust.
The Rule of Destruction was, by nature, brutal and terrifying.
On top of that, Gohan's dark-gold Super Saiyan 4 wasn't the same as when he first unlocked it with an 8,000-fold multiplier. After two and a half years and another huge rise in his base power
His Super Saiyan 4 multiplier had already climbed to 9,000 times.
It was a full 1,000 times stronger than his Death Form.
In terms of level, Destruction now outright crushed Beerus' own Hakai.
Hakai was only an offshoot of Space, a secondary Rule derived under the Time-Space King's grand Rule of Time and Space.
But Gohan's Destruction stood on the same level as Space and Time themselves.
His Death Rule just now had been half of the Rule of Creation. Being on the same level as Hakai was normal.
If he fused Life and Death into Creation, that would also leap to the same tier as Time and Space.
The Time-Space King's expectations for Gohan went far beyond even that. He wanted Gohan to eventually fuse Destruction and Creation together and give birth to a brand-new Rule on par with Time and Space.
Anyway, enough rambling.
Back to the fight.
Beerus' expression had turned completely serious. He could feel that Gohan's aura was anything but simple.
"Another new Rule… and one that surpasses Destruction. It's even one of the Rules Lord Zeno wiped out…" Beerus' mood had gone beyond "shocked." You could say his mental defenses had completely collapsed.
"Ten years… I was only asleep for ten years, and you… Son Gohan…" Beerus ground his teeth.
"Lord Beerus, now I'm at full power. I won't be holding back!" Gohan laughed boldly.
His ferocious aura exploded outward. Wherever his body moved, space itself seemed to crackle and pop.
"Heh. The kid's still hiding something," Whis muttered under his breath.
Obviously, Gohan was bluffing. Keeping a trump card in reserve was perfectly normal.
If you exposed it, it wouldn't be a trump card anymore.
Beerus didn't know about the Super Saiyan God form.
Goku and the others did, but they couldn't feel how strong it truly was.
Right now in the Seventh Universe, only Whis really knew the truth. He could faintly sense that the concentration of divine power deep within Gohan's body had risen quite a bit again. If Gohan used that form, his strength might reach the Fourth Stage of the Great God Realm.
As he was now, however, Dark-Gold Super Saiyan 4 Gohan sat firmly at the Third Stage. He was clearly stronger than when he'd used his Death Form.
Unlike that earlier clash of energy spheres, Super Saiyan 4 represented the Saiyan's ancient bloodline returning to its roots the pure path of the body.
It was the Great Ape form compressed into human shape.
Bang, bang!
Beerus felt like he was punching a layer of leather he could feel impact, but he couldn't break through.
Gohan, on the other hand, realized that with this body, the pain from earlier was completely gone.
The faint ache he did feel only served to fuel his fighting spirit even further.
The dark gold in his eyes burned brighter and brighter.
His combat style shifted dramatically his attacks opened up, wide arcs and wild swings, a violent, overwhelming style that gave off the same vibe as Broly's rampages.
"Now that looks like a Saiyan fight!" Vegeta said in delight.
Fist against flesh, raw power against raw power their exchange made everyone watching feel their blood boil.
Gohan hooked both hands over Beerus' shoulders and drove his knees up again and again.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Every collision between their bodies sounded like iron smashing iron.
"You're getting way too full of yourself. Get off of me!" Beerus snapped.
His strength rose another level straight to the Sixth Stage of the Great God Realm.
The tide instantly reversed.
The Gohan who'd been dominating a moment ago was forced straight onto the back foot.
The Rule of Destruction was strong, yes, but in this form he wasn't using it as smoothly as in his Mystic forms.
His speed gradually began to fall behind Beerus'.
His big, sweeping attacks started to turn clumsy, his timing off here and there.
Beerus didn't finish him off, though. Instead, he kept applying overwhelming pressure, forcing Gohan to squeeze out even more potential.
Even though he was being pushed back, Gohan's fighting spirit only burned hotter.
He felt like his entire being was soaring, not just his hidden potential but his spirit too. Fighting a true God of Destruction was nothing like fighting someone like Toppo, who merely walked the path of destruction.
Taking this beating, both his eerie Qi and his Primal Qi surged wildly inside him, and even his divine power worked overtime to sharpen his essence, energy, and spirit.
His power climbed again.
The tips of his black hair started to tint red, and his multiplier soared
9,100.
9,200.
9,300…
10,000 times.
Dark-Gold Super Saiyan 4 had now reached a ten-thousand-fold boost.
If his usual "mutation doubling" rule applied, then at around fourteen thousand times his black hair would probably be fully replaced by crimson fur.
As his overall power rose, Gohan's mind slipped into a kind of enlightenment.
His movements became pure instinct.
"Ultra Instinct…? No, that's not it. This is his body's memory. But it does have a trace of that feel to it… and yet it's different from Ultra Instinct too," Beerus thought, losing track of how many times this brat had shocked him today.
Gohan's mind replayed his fight with the earthen puppets.
He remembered his previous life.
He remembered the martial arts from that ancient eastern country in his last world.
He had never actually trained in them back then.
But he had watched a lot of them.
His movements began to change. Beerus stepped in and snapped a straight kick at his abdomen.
Gohan bent his waist backward while pulling his stomach in, his whole body folding down as if he were sitting, then curling forward. He redirected the force of Beerus' kick into the ground, letting it flow past him, then rebounded like a spring, his body snapping upright and bouncing Beerus away.
"What an interesting move," Whis said, genuinely impressed.
He was right. That little trick was straight out of an old TV drama
the classic "Taichi throwback counter" burned into Gohan's memory.
Drawing on that fuzzy impression, Gohan had recreated a Taichi technique.
Given the situation, using Taichi to deal with Beerus couldn't have been more perfect.
Soft overcoming hard.
Weak dismantling strong.
Beerus rushed back in again, both fists shooting straight for Gohan's face.
Gohan, eyes closed, lifted his palm again and again, pressing down, down, down…
Every heavy punch from Beerus was guided away, its force drained by that sliding downward motion.
The few blows that did land didn't do much Gohan kept retreating as he deflected, letting the distance and angles bleed away the impact.
With just those two simple motions, the power behind Beerus' punches dropped sharply by the time they actually connected.
"Damn it… this is humiliating. If this keeps up, where's my pride supposed to go?" Beerus cursed inwardly.
He'd already brought out his Sixth Stage strength and still hadn't managed to put Gohan down quickly.
That was more than a little embarrassing.
Then, in the instant his thoughts slipped
Still in the midst of enlightenment, Gohan seized the opening.
His fingers speared forward, stabbing into Beerus' chest.
Then he stamped his foot, his palm curling into a fist
Gohan's own version of a One-Inch Punch.
Bang boom!!
The sudden spike in power doubled the impact in an instant.
Beerus was blasted away, face twisted in pain as he clutched his chest.
"Damn it… where did you even learn these weird, ridiculous moves?!" he shouted.
Lord Beerus was officially tilted.
Everyone watching turned to stare at Raditz with very strange expressions.
Raditz raised both hands helplessly.
"Hey, hey, don't look at me. What's that got to do with me?!"