As the landscape surrounding the Egret Necropolis continued to crumble, with enormous chunks of the desert's surface orbiting weightlessly around the main pyramid, on the terrace connected to the structure, the showdown between the Z-fighters and the evil overlord Set had reached its highest peak. The atmosphere in that area had shifted dramatically, and not only was the gravity still out of whack, but the air was also swirling violently and had become so thick it was almost suffocating. The reason for this was the Saiyan sitting in the heart of the abnormality and the immense levels of power emanating from his body.
Shrouded in a brilliant red aura with red bolts of lightning shooting off of him, the enraged Son Gohan, his hair grown down his back and waving violently on the winds of his energy, fixed his ire squarely upon the one responsible for his fury. The person in question was currently still standing by the wall of the top half of the pyramid, glaring back at him. When the dog woman growled, the boy responded with a tighter scowl and the energy fluctuating from his body increasing in ferocity.
The cyclone surrounding him caused the boulders floating in the sky around their position to blast outwards and fracture, earning a concerned glance from Whis.
Still suspended in midair and bound by golden bands, the teal-skinned attendant's eyes shimmered in amazement as he sensed the demi-Saiyan's energy skyrocket. "This boy… his power… it's incredible…"
And he wasn't just talking about the celestial energy swirling through his system.
Through the red aura surrounding his chiseled frame, the man also sensed a much more powerful energy source dwelling inside the youngster. It was the same radiance that was responsible for his initial transformation and the same one that was now being amplified by the Godly ki pumping through his veins.
Gritting her teeth under the fearsome gale racking against her form, the storm deity Set gritted her teeth and rose up to full height, removing her hand from her arm to glare across at the teenager. "What the hell are you?"
The moment she opened her mouth, the demi-Saiyan's eyes suddenly widened and, without even moving a finger, fired a powerful blast of wind towards the woman. The shockwave literally distorted the air space in front of him and warped the surface of the terrace as it rippled towards its target several times faster than light. The sight of the approaching attack had Set recoil in alarm before leaping out of the way. Landing on the very ledge of the courtyard, the canine looked back just in time to watch the wave of repulsive force take out the side of the pyramid they were on, rebound off of its surface and strike the desert beyond.
The attack damn near split the country in two, causing an explosion comparable to several thermonuclear bombs detonating at once.
Breaking a sweat at the size of the blast, which punched a hole in the atmosphere straight up into space, the God of Storms' eyes snapped towards the Saiyan in fright. "This guy's insane!" His terrifying outburst aside, the amount of power he was generating was astonishing. She hadn't felt so much power sitting in one place since her training days, before she became one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Celestial energy was pouring out of every pore and follicle on his body.
"But where the hell did it all come from?"
Set just couldn't figure it out. In her millions of years of existence, she'd only ever seen a handful of transformations like this. The ascension of a mortal being to the level of the Gods, despite being such an incredibly rare occurrence in their reality, was always an extraordinary and thought provoking event to witness.
The process in which a person transformed into a celestial being differed greatly from race to race. Most of the deities currently in existence had claimed their title of Godhood when they mastered the incredibly rare form of energy known as celestial energy or God ki, which could be acquired through a variety of different means. And of course, once a being gained mastery over this particular energy source, they were immediately put in the running for a position as one of the guardians of their universe.
"The Valkas' previous deity meditated for fifty years under a red star to gain control over celestial energy and became the very first God of Fire, and lived a further eighty million years in his time. The current God of Light achieved his power through absorbing the heart of a super massive star. And the God of War Ares unlocked his celestial energy by slaughtering and devouring the souls of his entire race." And that was only a small number of rituals used by different cultures, all of which had culminated in a single entity that possessed the sum total of their respective species' strengths and powers. "The last time I encountered a Super Saiyan God was during the time a Legendary Super Saiyan was rampaging across their home planet of Saiya over a million years ago. The Saiyans used a method of transformation in which the power of five righteous Super Saiyans was pooled into a sixth, granting the host the ability to control celestial energy and use it to amplify his powers."
It was a primitive method of transformation in which the power the Saiyan achieved from that form lasted for only a few minutes, but was potent enough to destroy the abomination that was the Legendary Super Saiyan; the embodiment of hatred, bloodlust and evil in their society. Though it wasn't a full and complete God transformation, it was still a transformation nonetheless.
"This one's different though," Set thought, sweat pouring down her face as she saw Gohan glare in her direction. "This isn't anything like the Super Saiyan God I encountered before. No pagan ritual could create a being of this strength, so where did all of this celestial energy come f-" Her train of thought stopping dead in its tracks, the girl's eyes widened in shock before snapping towards the entrance to the pyramid that was formerly her prison. When she saw the purple wisps of energy pouring out of the gateway, the goddess knew instantly what must've happened. "That's it! His body must've unconsciously absorbed the energy from inside the Nexus!" The copious amounts of celestial energy she'd been producing in her solitude had been unable to return to its host, so it sought out the only living vessel it could find. Namely, the person that'd been closest to it…
And that turned out to be the same Saiyan used to open the doorway in the first place.
Somehow his body had been able to absorb the rare energy that'd been perforating the dimension and was now utilizing it as his own. A feat like that took an astonishing level of natural talent… and apparently this half-breed had a lot of it. This young Saiyan was able to take a foreign energy source and mold it with his own, multiplying his powers exponentially and allowing him to achieve a pseudo-full transformation to whatever level of deity form he'd now assumed.
It was a realization that had Set grit her teeth nervously and take a stance. "This is bad. He's absorbed twenty thousand years worth of celestial energy and is now using it to supercharge all of his senses. That means he's become an incredibly dangerous adversary." She then narrowed her eyes even more when the glowing red man's scowl tightened on her position. "If I remember my Saiyan biology correctly, this form can only last for a certain amount of time. That means if I can get him to burn through all of this energy as quickly as possible, I should be able to defeat him!" That was easier said than done. But if she was going to get through this conflict alive, then she was going to have to step up in this fight and give it all she had. "If I don't kill him before his body adapts to this new level of power, then I'm going to be in serious trouble."
Hell, she could be in trouble either way.
As far as she could tell, this boy was one of the most exceptionally gifted warriors she'd ever encountered as a deity. There was something about him that sent a chill up her spine, both in a good way and a bad way. Considering he was very much like her in terms of fighting prowess and skill, if she was to allow this battle to drag on for too long then she ran the risk of his body memorizing the celestial energy patterns, which would then allow him to fight at this level regardless of the type of ki running through his system.
By this point in time, as the God of Storms was facing down her enraged opponent, over in the pyramid across from them, the grounded Piccolo had momentarily regained consciousness. From his half-buried position in the stone and amidst the chaos upsetting the stability of the planet, the green skinned warrior caught a glimpse of what was happening down on the courtyard. The sight of his student standing atop the wide-open patio bathed in red had the Z-fighter tremble with shock, shortly before blacking out once again.
"G-Gohan…"
Fixing her glare on her foe, Set smirked. "Well then, handsome… what are you going to do now-" Just before she could even finish her question, she saw the demi-Saiyan launch himself from his place several dozen yards away and, in the form of a glowing red bolt, slammed a knee into her face.
The lightning fast blow caused a shockwave that parted the clouds above them and sent a ripple of air across the desert in all directions, shaking the countryside. The attack itself managed to knock the God of Storms off her feet and blasting through the air, her head cocked back and a look of sheer surprise slapped upon her mug.
The boy's movement also dispelled the gravity distortion in the air, allowing all of the rubble and chunks of earth orbiting his position to crash back down to the planet's surface.
After landing the brutally successful hit, Gohan speedily back flipped through the air and landed against the side of the pyramid they were battling on. Crouching against it momentarily, he then took aim at the airborne deity and launched himself at her with a frightening battle cry.
"YOU KILLED VIDEL!" the demi-Saiyan roared, speedily catching the fox woman by the jaw before driving her straight into the desert floor eighty stories below. However, instead of just crashing into the sand, the two of them went straight through it and the earth's crust below that. With a towering explosion of dust marking their entry, Gohan then began burrowing his opponent into the planet's surface and kept right on going for several miles.
His aura having dissipated, the pair blasted through layer after layer of the earth's shell, easily reaching its mantle layer and beginning to plow through an ocean of lava. An ordinary being would've been incinerated the instant they hit the first signs of heat. But being the super powered warriors that they were, the two kept right on going as if the planet's center didn't even exist. In fact, using his opponent as a drill head or a battering ram, Gohan continued pushing his quarry through more and more of the planet's numerous layers. Their forms began to pick up speed as they drew closer and closer to the core.
"How many innocent lives have you destroyed in your quest to take over the universe?! Huh? Millions?! BILLIONS?!" Gohan bellowed with his hand wrapped firmly around Set's throat as they continued crashing through boiling hot oceans of magma. The goddess let out a cry of agony as they continued descending violently through earth's mantle. But even this failed to quell the man's rage as the red haired Super Saiyan God continued yelling at the woman. "I won't let you kill anymore, Set! This ends now!" His eyes widened and pupils dilated in rage, a rush of images of Videl flashing through his head as he literally screamed his threat at the stunned goddess beneath him. "I'M GOING TO RIP YOU APART!"
Teeth clenched and biting back the pain of her descent into what was quite literally hell, Set sneered at her opponent and barked, "Impertinent boy! LUMEN!" With a yell of effort, a blue aura exploded off of her body, allowing the vixen to blast out of Gohan's grip and rocket upwards in the form of a lightning bolt, leaving the teen to continue crashing through to the planet's core.
Looking behind him with a grunt of annoyance, Gohan hit the brakes, slamming his hands into the walls on either side of him and forcing himself to a grinding stop. The second his momentum ceased amidst the inferno of the planet's outer nucleus, the demi-Saiyan then sprang off of the floor he'd dug and began flying after his opponent.
Set blazed a path back to the ceiling of earth's lithosphere, her body glowing brilliantly like a flare as she glared back down the enormous hole her opponent had dug. As she got further and further out of reach of him, a wide grin formed across her face. "You'll never be able to catch me at this speed!"
She spoke too soon.
After flying at cruising velocity for a solid few seconds, the red haired Super Saiyan suddenly hit the accelerator and, powering up, blasted after the woman at an even more ridiculous rate. Red aura blazing around him like wild fire, Gohan rocketed went after the deity like a missile, catching her in a matter of milliseconds and, as her expression switched to one of disbelief, buried a punch straight into her stomach. The lunging uppercut landed with a deafening thunderclap, ripping the crust around them apart and causing Set to reel forward in shock.
Choking up blood, the fox goddess was then blasted topside, the pair exploding out of the desert floor in an explosion of rubble and debris. Their reappearance had Whis staring after them in shock as the pair ascended into the atmosphere.
Feeling the damage coursing through every fiber of her being, the burnt and battered Set roared in anger, "You think you can beat me?! WELL YOU'RE WRONG!" With a yell, the woman threw two feet forward and slammed a double kick into Gohan's stomach, sending the glowing Super Saiyan plummeting back towards the desert.
When the demi-Saiyan tucked up and spun, slowing his descent and landing safely atop the terrace of the pyramid, he looked towards the sky to see Set power up and blast into the stratosphere, leaving a vapor trail behind her.
"I am the master of darkness and chaos! The most powerful God in existence! I will not be bested, certainly not by some half-breed amateur like you!" The eyes of the anthropomorphic deity filled with paranoia and fury. "I know because I'm destined to recreate this universe! It's the reason I am still alive! Once I've defeated you, I will tear down the old regime governing this reality and create a new universe where any and all dreams are possible!" In the midst of her tirade, the goddess sent a barrage of ki rocketing down at her target with enough power to wipe the earth out a dozen times over. But Gohan, quick as ever, smacked the blasts away and effortlessly sent them soaring up into space. His efforts however only served to frustrate the goddess further, as Set's right hand ignited with blue fire and she began slashing it through the air in a series of random and indistinguishable symbols. "I COULDN'T CARE LESS WHAT HAPPENS TO FEEBLE MINDED FOOLS LIKE YOU!" After several more swipes with her hand, the vixen ended it with her arms raised, causing a blue flash of light to fill the sky behind her.
All of a sudden, emerging from the light like a titanic phantom, the space behind the God of Storms was ripped open. An eerie white glow then began gushing out of the crack and into the earth's atmosphere, causing the clouds to part violently. At first this didn't seem like anything to the people watching from below. But after seeing the gap widen even more so and feeling the energy of the entire cosmos begin to circulate around it, pennies started to drop all around with a series of horrible clangs.
Whis's eyes widened in horror. "Elysium Breaker? No, Set! DON'T!" The terrified trainer reeled forward to yell up at his student, pleading her to stop. "If you use that technique without a catalyst you'll suck this entire dimension into the void between universes! There will be nothing left! You'll destroy everything!"
A manic grin quickly formed across Set's face, "That's the idea, master!" An evil chuckle escaped her lips as the energy of the entire solar system started to build and circle around the rip in space. It was a feeling that had Gohan clench his fists tightly and grit his teeth as he listened to the woman's voice echo down towards them. "I'm going to kill two birds with one stone! Why should I waste punches on a primitive life form from a Class C planet when I can simply wipe the entire slate clean with a single-"
"Shut up." Just as his opponent was in the middle of what he assumed to be an 'important' monologue, Gohan's red aura suddenly exploded off of his body at a fiercer rate, before he vanished in a flash of golden light. A moment later, a deafening 'crack' rang out across the planet when his fist promptly impaled Set's chest a second time and had her reeling forward in shock, the teen teleporting directly up to her and burying a blow right into her solar plexus. If the power shot didn't make her chuck her guts up right then and there, then it certainly did its job in stopping her technique from being fully executed.
The moment Gohan buried his knuckles into his opponent's gut, the tear in the universe behind Set closed up and a smirk formed on the demi-Saiyan's face.
"Don't waste time on such flamboyant moves. They leave you wide open," the teen spoke, removing his fist from her stomach to let the woman curl forward and grip her abs painfully. Upon which he cupped his hands overhead and, with a loud yell of anger, drove a hammer blow straight into the vixen's back, sending her plummeting to the planet's surface. A couple seconds later, the fox crash landed in the middle of the desert, shaking the continent with her impact and sending sand hurtling into the air. The Saiyan grunted as he looked down, "Who's the amateur now?"
Dropping from the sky to join her, Gohan landed softly outside of the crater his opponent had formed. His aura fading, the red haired young warrior watched and waited with an intense glare in play to see what'd happened to his adversary. Sure enough, after a few seconds of tense silence, the ground around him began to tremble and the atmosphere became filled with the embers of a growing energy signature.
Just as the tremors were becoming more and more violent, a pillar of blue fire suddenly gushed out of the center of the hole and blasted into the sky, with a dark silhouette slowly rising up in the heart of the column. When it suspended itself above the ground and before the demi-Saiyan, the tower of fire enveloping it dispelled, revealing an incredibly ticked off looking goddess inside of it.
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