Tail wagging behind her happily, Set looked up when an orange light fell upon her and she spotted a corkscrew shaped beam rocketing towards her from the sky. After watching as it approached her from its launching point in slow motion, the deity then reached up with her hand and gave a loud yawn. The instant she exhaled, a wind like barrier exploded from her body and slammed into the drill-like attack, causing it to rebound against the invisible force field and sending it flying back at its user two times faster than it'd previously been fired.
Piccolo only had a split second to gasp before his attack slammed into his chest and exploded with the force of the sun. A dome shaped blast filled the sky and showered the area with sparks and embers, seconds before the Namekian's body came flying out of the inferno to collide with one of the pyramids making up the Egret Necropolis. When the dust and light settled from both the crash landing and the exploding beam attack, it revealed the former guardian of earth lying in a smoking crater covered in burns and dirt.
Just like that, another one was out of the fight.
"PICCOLO!" Gohan yelled out, charging towards Set and sending a jab her way.
His attacks swung out at her with terrifying accuracy, the dog woman smiling as she avoided them one after the other. It was only when he came in with a hook that the Super Saiyan 2 was grabbed by the hair and kicked in the stomach. Though Set intended it to be a mere tap with her toes, the attack hit Gohan with the force of a million comets hitting a single spot at the same time. The powerful blow drew a shout of pain from the young man as he was sent barreling into the terrace's floor. He bounced along the stone surface before stopping close to the destroyed temple. When the teen rolled onto his front, his hair faded to black and the boy struggled to get back to his feet.
Upon dispatching the demi-Saiyan, Set swiftly turned her attention to her sides when two more blurs shot towards her. Reappearing in midflight, a fully charged Vegeta and Zangya let loose a barrage of punches upon their foe. Their attacks flying at her at invisible speeds, the pair forced Set to slip and dodge their blows repeatedly. It was only when they came in with two large swings the goddess quickly slipped into their range and countered them.
With both ease and grace, the woman raised her hands and, with her two index fingers, gave them each two light pokes to their bodies. The lightning fast hits not only knocked the warriors out instantly, but the impact of the final blows sent both of them simultaneously rocketing into the distance with a sonic boom. Spinning through the air, the two out cold warriors ended up bouncing across the dune seas before crashing in the middle of nowhere; their bodies ending up at the bottom of two large craters in the sand.
Humming cheerfully at her success, Set took a quick glance around the terrace and marked all the areas she'd sent the Z-fighters packing. After counting the bodies she could see lying about the area, a cheerful murmur then left the woman's lips as she turned her attention to the horizon ahead of her.
"Three minutes, hm? They lasted longer than I expected." Even though she'd used only a miniscule percentage of her strength, that was still an incredible feat on the Z-fighters' behalf.
However, just as the goddess was starting to get comfortable with the idea that she'd taken out all of them, her expression then changed when her tail swung up and blocked a kick thrown by another person appearing behind her. The blow connecting with a loud thud against her appendage, Set glanced over her shoulder to see a still conscious Videl leap away and back flip across the terrace to the edge.
As soon as she stopped, the tomboy dropped into a stance and glared daggers at the deity.
Blinking a few times in surprise, the fox woman grinned and turned to the girl in interest. "My, my. You're a spirited one, aren't you?"
Gritting her teeth tightly, the raven haired girl gave a loud grunt as her white aura burst up around her. Focusing her energy just like she was taught, the girl then turned and disappeared using super speed, sprinting a full lap around the deity before appearing beside the destroyed temple where Gohan was lying, her hands cupped beside her.
The demi-Saiyan lying stricken on the ground saw his best friend appear across from him and watched in shock as the girl took aim.
Crosshairs locked and target sitting squarely in her sights, the snarling Videl called upon all the energy she could muster before, with a mighty yell, thrust her hands forward in a single motion. "Ka-me-ha-me-HAAAAA!" A blinding flash of light followed by a thunderclap marked the launch of a massive blue blast of energy from the girl's hands, which left her palms and rocketed towards Set like a missile.
The goddess, who had managed to keep track of the teen with her eyes without any trouble, raised an eyebrow at the wall of energy charging towards her. With her hands still locked behind her and tail wagging happily, the woman allowed the blast to slam into her at full speed, the energy attack swallowing her up before exploding with the force of several nuclear warheads. The shockwave it generated shook the countryside and the pyramid, causing bits of the ruined temple to collapse to the terrace.
When the explosion eventually faded, it left a cloud of white smoke hanging over the damaged area and a panting Videl standing at the trigger end of her burst.
Sweat running down her face, the battered and exhausted fighter lowered her arms and, watching the airspace clear, turned to her friend kneeling on the ground several feet away.
When her sapphire eyes met Gohan's charcoal ones, a warm smile pulled across Videl's face. It was one that was both joyous and full of vigor, and captured the demi-Saiyan's attention for but a moment.
"I got her… Gohan…" the girl breathed out happily.
No sooner had she spoke, a flash of light followed immediately by a clap of a gunshot filled the air. In the blink of an eye, Videl's body was suddenly lifted off the floor when a golden beam shot through her chest and came out the other side, her eyes widening in shock as she was sent flying back through the air.
The whole thing happened so fast, but Gohan was able to see every second of it, and the sight of his best friend being hit brought a horrified look to the young Saiyan's face.
A second after she was hit, the raven haired girl's body hit the floor with a dull thud, where she lay with blood quickly beginning to pool around her. In a matter of moments her energy signature flat-lined and Gohan could only stare in disbelief as Videl's glazed eyes gazed back at him.
The demi-Saiyan trembled, his eyes fixed squarely upon his fallen friend. He was so gripped by the sight that Gohan completely missed the cloud of smoke across the platform parting and Set's form emerging from the haze.
Smiling with her finger extended, the deity lowered her arm and began ambling across the terrace to where she'd shot the human teenager. Obviously pleased with her kill, the God of Storms then stopped a few meters away when she saw Gohan crawl over to where Videl was lying and, gently taking her into his arms, rested her head against his shoulder.
His hand wrapping protectively around her, the shocked half-Saiyan continued to tremble as he gently shook his friend. His eyes shimmered in terror. "Videl… Videl…" When he rest a hand against her chest to look for a heartbeat, his palm then pulled away a split second later and, when he looked down, he saw it was covered in blood. Eyes widening even more when the girl's head slumped forward, Gohan tried one last time to coax life out of her. "No… no… " Covering his mouth with his blood soaked hand, tears formed in the young man's eyes as he leant forward and began to sob. "No… no… no! Videl… no!"
Looking upon the scene with a serious gaze in play, Set shook her head as her master's tied up body floated around behind her. "It's like I told you… your decision to resist my will and to remain as you are on earth would cost you dearly." The fox goddess narrowed her eyes on the teen as his crying grew louder and, as he held his friend close to him, his body trembled even more violently. "Now you can see the futility of your struggle… and why you should've joined me when you had the chance."
Gohan didn't hear her. His arms wrapped tightly around Videl's lifeless form, the teenager continued to cry, his words muffled by her hair.
It was a sight that filled Whis's expression with hurt and brought a solemn one to Set's.
Unwilling to see the boy suffer anymore then he had, the fox goddess closed the last few feet of distance and stopped directly beside the wounded Saiyan and his dead friend. Bringing her right arm around, Set allowed a spark of electricity to run down her fingers before speaking up once more. "I know what it's like to lose someone you care about. The pain is… almost indescribable." Narrowing her eyes, the God of Storms lifted her palm up and, curling her fingers, took aim at the trembling boy beneath her. By this point in time, his crying had stopped and so had his trembling. "But do not worry. You and your friend will be reunited in the next life."
…
…
…
"I'm sorry."
Just as the deity was swinging in, the demi-Saiyan's head snapped up and, with speed Set couldn't even track, stood up, clenched his fist, and drove a planet splitting haymaker right into her face.
The teen's knuckles caved in the goddess's snout and sent the God of Storms blasting through the air. Bouncing across the terrace like a ragdoll, the woman slammed back first into the side of the pyramid it was attached to before hitting the ground hard, where the vixen curled up, grabbed her face, and screamed in agony into her palms.
Whis, still suspended by the golden cuffs, looked up in shock when he saw what'd happened.
When the pain from the blow faded away, the stricken Set slowly pushed herself back to her feet and, stumbling a bit, looked up across the terrace in anger. With blood leaking out of her nose, the fox woman was quite easily confounded. "Where the fuck did that come from?!" By the time her eyes relocated the hybrid Saiyan at the other end of the platform, she received the biggest surprise of her life.
On his feet with Videl's body lying several meters behind him, the slumped over warrior in orange and blue stood seemingly spent in the middle of the open space. At first he didn't do anything, with nothing out of the ordinary taking place.
But as the God of Storms continued to eye the boy carefully, she then watched as bits of stone and debris began to levitate into the air around the young adult and felt the floor begin to shake. Along with a low rumbling sound that started reverberating across the entire countryside, both Set and her trapped master Whis looked on as Gohan's gaze looked up and glared across at the storm deity.
Instead of having the usual charcoal or turquoise irises the woman had seen in the warrior before, the deity saw that the young man's eyes had gone completely white, showing that he was blinded by rage.
A few seconds after fixing his sights upon the God of Storms, the enraged Gohan took a deep breath and, bringing his fists up, bellowed towards the sky with a howl of rage.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRH!"
Immediately following his scream, a deafening thunderclap filled the sky as his golden aura exploded around him and expanded till it was a hundred times larger than his body. Along with the bolts of blue lightning that streaked off of him, Gohan's short blonde hair then grew down to the back of his legs and his eyebrows retracted into his skin. Multiple sonic booms ringing out all around as the area shook with the force of an eight-point magnitude earthquake, a golden, blinding light then flashed over the entire region like a nuclear warhead had been set off. This explosion of radiance lit up the entire west side of the planet and was shortly followed by a devastating shockwave.
A ripple of invisible energy left Gohan's body in a ring, overshooting his fallen friends and slamming a still standing Set in the face. Not expecting such a violent outburst, the goddess had to shield herself with her arm when the powerful gale hit her. The deity's forward eye clenched shut as she saw the bright, strobe-like aura surrounding the teen retract into him and form into a miniature vortex, which caused the clouds above them to circle.
When the field stabilized shortly thereafter, the two conscious audience members quickly thought the display was over. With the boy's impressive spiky hair having grown down his back and his eyebrows and irises having vanished, Set immediately knew right then that the teen had attained a new kind of Super Saiyan transformation.
However, when the waves of golden energy blasting off of Gohan's body began to intensify, Whis and Set soon realized it was only the beginning.
As she continued to feel the enraged man's power climbing at an astonishing rate, the God of Storms eyes soon widened in horror when she suddenly saw a blue flame like aura bleed out of the boy's body and overtake his golden one. When the translucent cloak swallowed up the demi-Saiyan, it soon formed into a pure blue sphere around his body, which shone as brightly as a quasar. Then, after several flashes of lightning shot off of the orb and tore up the surrounding desert, the sphere became a flame once again, which lifted seconds later to reveal the transformed Gohan…
Only this time he looked noticeably different.
The violent golden aura with the blue electric bio field had been replaced by a red aura with golden bolts, and his hair, which grew down his back and had previously been shining as brightly as the sun itself, had turned blood red. His muscle mass had also increased a little bit to illustrate his increase in strength and, along with the change in coloration, his skin had also taken on a slightly more reddish tone. The contrast of his form having sharpened considerably, it was easy to tell that this Ascended Saiyan form was much more different from the one he'd assumed previously.
His eyes, which were once hollow and lacking eyebrows, soon filled with a pair of red irises with black pupils, which became fixed upon the stunned goddess.
As his red aura continued to fluctuate around him, producing a hurricane that kicked up a wall of dust around him and ruffled their clothing, the thunderstruck Set couldn't help but stare in disbelief.
Her sensors were off the charts.
"W-What the hell is this?" the God of Storms gawked, unable to believe what she was sensing.
Along with his transformation, not only had the boy's appearance changed considerably, but so had the air around him. The rubble that'd been lifted from the ground at the outset of his transformation began to orbit around him and while it seemed like he was doing this unconsciously, neither Videl nor any of his other unconscious friends were being lifted into the air. However, Set could feel that she was being subjected to this unruly force, and after taking note of the planet's rotational patterns, and the mountains of rubble and rock she could see rising in the distance to orbit their position, she then made a startling discovering.
"He's producing so much power that his mass has increased," Set thought in alarm, watching as the sand in the desert started to steadily rise into the sky.
Scientifically speaking it was farfetched. However, as crazy and insane as it sounded, the young Saiyan's body was producing so much energy that his mass had become comparable to that of the moon's. The density he'd also attained in this form was close to that of a black hole, as he was consciously distorting and shifting gravity around him.
However, there was also one other thing Set had noticed.
"That's celestial energy!" the goddess thought in alarm. Somehow, the same Godly ki that she and all of the other deities used had molded with the energy in his body and he was instinctively using it to amplify his strength a thousand fold. It was responding directly to his rage, so it was possible that he had no earthly idea what the heck this energy was and what he was doing with it. However, Set knew, and with the amount that she felt, she was terrified. "Where the hell did all of that come from?!"
Just like Whis and probably all of the Kais who were now drawn to the source of the anomaly, she was completely stumped.
Noticing he had his opponent's full and undivided attention, Gohan, blinded with rage and unaware of the effect his otherworldly transformation was having on the deity in front of him, clenched his fists and snarled.
"I'm going to make you pay for what you've done to Videl."
And from the amount of venom laced in his voice… he meant it.
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