Unlike the Supreme Kais, the expressions of the Gods of Destruction had turned incredibly grim.
The martial arts displayed by Beerus's candidate were so bizarre that even they struggled to fully comprehend them.
"Damn it... I'm a God of Destruction! Does that guy really have more power hidden away?"
Quitela stared fixedly at Gran on the fighting stage, his heart filled with mounting anxiety. But suddenly, his eyes lit up. Wright had been resurrected!
...
On the stage, the air exploded.
Blue, purple, white—colors interwove in a chaotic dance, turning the arena into a magnificent, lethal light show. Each flash represented a Destroyer Candidate, and every one of them was pouring their full strength into defeating a single "monster."
That monster was Gran.
If Gran had only been warming up during his earlier fight with Wright the Dire Wolf, then now, under the coordinated assault of eight Destroyer Candidates, his body—which hadn't seen combat in over three hundred years—was finally beginning to feel completely limber.
"Field of Love!"
"Hakai!"
"Lion's Roar!"
"Death Impact!"
A barrage of energy attacks converged from every direction. Gran charged forward, meeting them with a raised fist. This single strike contained the essence of the martial arts he had refined over centuries. The moment his power erupted, it sounded like the roar of a celestial dragon.
BOOM!
The combined energy blasts from Belock, Jiren, and Primo were shattered instantly, dissolving into specks of starlight that rained down upon the arena. The stage, already battered, crumbled once more. Gran had already vanished from his position; the moment he moved, countless follow-up attacks struck the spot where he had just stood.
The sound of a localized Big Bang echoed across the World of Void. The stage's damage percentage spiked from 30% to 50% in an instant. Lambert's "Lion's Roar" vibrated through the air—a sonic attack capable of shattering a person's soul.
Gran retreated into a forested area of the stage. A divine aura suddenly shimmered around him, forming a halo that effortlessly nullified the vibrations of Lambert's roar.
Swish!
Gran's silhouette flickered. Before anyone could react, he appeared directly beside Joel the Fox.
"When did he—?!" Joel's face went pale with shock.
The other candidates widened their eyes in disbelief. This guy had torn through their defensive line with terrifying ease! They scrambled toward Joel's position, desperate to prevent Gran from eliminating their teammate.
"I've heard that the mortal level of your Universe 8 exceeds 7. Why don't you, a Destroyer Candidate, see how you handle this punch!"
Gran's fist was faster than the approaching reinforcements. He drove a heavy blow directly into Joel's back.
BOOM!
A catastrophic power surged through Joel's entire body. It felt as though the weight of an entire universe was crushing down on him.
"No...!"
Splat!
Joel felt himself enveloped in endless agony. He coughed up a spray of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs. The sheer momentum of the punch sent him hurtling across the arena, the strike having already claimed half his life.
"Hakai!"
Gran was about to give chase and finish off the Universe 8 candidate when, suddenly, Blair the Sea Monster closed in behind him.
"Die!"
Blair leaped high into the air, reaching an altitude of ten thousand meters before diving back down like a meteor.
CRASH!
The peak 6th-stage power condensed within Blair's eight octopus tentacles. As he closed within ten meters, he slashed violently at Gran's back. The extreme friction of his power ignited violent bolts of lightning—crimson strikes that looked like divine tribulation, raining down upon the forest.
Against the backdrop of the lightning, Blair's tentacles struck Gran's back with full force.
However, the image of a wounded Gran never materialized. Only eight massive claw marks remained in the forest where Blair had struck, followed by the rapid disintegration of that section of the stage.
"Where is he?"
Blair shifted to the edge of an intact piece of the arena, but Gran was nowhere to be found.
"I'm behind you."
The moment the voice spoke, Blair's pupils shrank to pinpricks. He spun around to throw a punch, but—
THUD!
A sharp, agonizing pain exploded in Blair's abdomen. He looked down to see Gran's fist buried deep in his gut.
"How... how can your 3rd-stage physical instinct... be faster than my 4th-stage instinct?!" Blair gasped, clutching Gran's arm as he struggled through the pain.
Gran replied calmly, "Because your instincts still require a subjective feedback loop from your consciousness. Mine do not."
"What... what does that mean...?"
Before Blair could process the answer, his lower body began to dissolve into purple starlight.
"This is... the Power of Destruction? I'm being erased?!"
"No! Stop it!"
VROOOM!
Blair, the golden sea monster of Universe 12, vanished completely. He wasn't just dead; he had been Hakai'd.
As a candidate from Universe 12, Blair possessed 4th-stage physical instincts and power at the peak of the 6th stage. He was the second-strongest among the eight candidates, yet in an instant, he was wiped from existence.
The other candidates who had just arrived stood frozen, their eyes wide with terror. A deathly silence fell over the stage. Even Geene, the God of Destruction of Universe 12, couldn't believe his eyes.
Suddenly, Gran's brow furrowed. He stared intently toward Hit's location.
"Not dead yet?"
"I told you... You aren't allowed to touch my ally. You certainly have guts!"
While in his "Mystic" state, Gran's form began to shift once again.
HUMMM!
A shimmer of silver light erupted around him. Along with this fluctuation, a violent gale swept across the arena. Looking down from above the World of Void, one could see a massive silver vortex spinning counterclockwise around the stage.
The moment that vortex appeared, every God of Destruction stood up, their mouths agape.
"This... what is this? This feels like Ultra Instinct!"
"Damn it! He actually knows the Angels' Ultra Instinct?!"
"You mean to tell me that after Beerus, there's another Destroyer who has mastered it?"
"What kind of monsters are this master and apprentice duo? How can a God of Destruction learn Ultra Instinct?!"
A tidal wave of shock crashed through the hearts of the Gods and Supreme Kais. But before they could even process the shock, the silver light surrounding Gran intensified. His black hair turned a brilliant, shimmering silver.
Godly Dimension + Mystic State + Ultra Instinct.
Gran's power broke through into the 7th stage. This was his full release.
Thud.
Thud.
The Gods of Destruction in the spectator stands, who had been standing in shock, suddenly collapsed back into their seats. Quitela, in particular, felt Gran's earlier words echoing in his mind: "Don't be too frightened by my power."
"Hahaha!"
In Universe 7, Beerus laughed maniacally. "How about that? I told you my candidate had more than just a little strength. Do you believe me now?"
"Still want to go after my Hit?" Champa yelled toward Quitela, taunting him. "Let's see how your candidate handles this!"
"No...!"
In the Universe 4 stands, Quitela looked like a madman, clutching his head in desperation. "How can a mere candidate be this powerful?"
If he were at his peak, he wouldn't feel this kind of dread. But because of Zen-Oh's punishment, his strength had dropped to the peak of the 6th stage. Against Beerus's apprentice, he likely wouldn't even stand a chance. After all, that was the Ultra Instinct of the Angels!
"Lord Quitela! We still have Wright! Wright has resurrected!" Curu, the Supreme Kai of Universe 4, screamed.
"Right! Yes! We still have Wright! He's an undead creature; he can't be killed..."
Quitela scrambled up from the ground to look at the stage. A second later, he collapsed back down in utter despair.
...
On the stage, Hit was moving cautiously through a snowy mountain range. He was trying to track Gran's position, careful not to get too close, but unwilling to stray too far.
Suddenly, a voice hissed from behind him:
"Damn it... If you had just allied with me, we could have swept all the other candidates. Why did you side with this trash?!"
"Who's there?" Hit spun around. His eyes widened when he saw the newcomer. "You... weren't you killed by Lord Gran? How are you still alive?!"
"Killed?"
Wright, in his Dire Wolf form, prowled through the snow. With every step, his claws left behind trails of black smoke. Within that smoke, the faint, terrified screams of mortals could be heard—an aura of pure evil.
"I am an undead creature. Even if that Gran guy dies, I won't!" Wright growled, his voice raspy. "You're just trash with 4th-stage power. What right do you have to be Gran's ally? If I kill you, maybe he'll ally with me instead."
Hit didn't say a word. His body was coiled like a spring.
"Time-Skip!"
He knew his only option was to retreat. He activated his technique, and the snowy landscape seemed to freeze in time as Hit moved to create distance.
"Where do you think you're going?"
CRACK!
A surge of 6th-stage power shattered the vacuum of the frozen time. Hit's Time-Skip space crumbled instantly.
"Damn it!" Cold sweat poured down Hit's face. At this moment, he was the weakest one on the field; his Time-Skip was completely ineffective.
"Time-Freeze!"
He attempted to lock Wright in a temporal cage, the same move he had used to stall Belock.
However, Wright didn't slow down for a second. He closed the gap instantly, appearing behind Hit.
"Stop struggling. Against absolute power, your little time tricks are useless. Now, just die!"
Wright moved in for the kill. But then—
"I told you... Do not touch my ally!"
A majestic voice resonated throughout the World of Void.
BOOM!
A vast, silver aura swept across the entire arena, making the stage tremble and churn like a boiling pot. A streak of brilliant silver light flashed across the battlefield. It moved with such blinding speed that it was behind Wright in the blink of an eye.
"Who?!"
The fur on Wright's back stood on end. He spun around to find Gran standing there.
"How can you be so fast...?"
Before Wright could finish, the 7th-stage power within Gran erupted.
BOOM!
Like ten thousand needles of light, the silver radiance surrounding Gran transformed into piercing beams. In an instant, Wright's body was riddled with holes. A second later, he exploded.
But Wright was undead. As long as the "mortal fear" within him wasn't dispersed, he could keep regenerating. Strands of black smoke gathered in the snow, and soon, Wright's silhouette reappeared before Gran.
"I didn't expect your true strength to be in the 7th stage. No wonder you were so arrogant!" Wright laughed. "But... I'm immortal! No matter how great your raw power is, it's useless! I can resurrect forever, while your energy will eventually run dry. When you're exhausted, that's when you'll die—"
"And what about the Power of Destruction?" Gran interrupted.
"Hakai?" Wright froze. He thought of the erasure power of the Gods, and his body began to tremble.
"It seems the rules of Destruction are your natural enemy. In that case..."
Gran raised his hand, pointing it directly at the creature. Two cold words escaped his lips:
"Hakai."
VROOOM!
A deep purple light erupted from his palm. This was a universal law of erasure, capable of unmaking anything in existence. At that moment, Wright felt his very soul shudder.
"No!"
"Stop!"
Wright turned to flee, but before he could even rotate his body, the purple light consumed him.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
The agony of being erased drew a blood-curdling scream from his throat. The "mortal fear" within him tried desperately to resist the erosion of the Hakai, but against Gran's power, it was like an ant trying to stop a tidal wave.
With a soft pop, Wright's entire body dissolved into nothingness. Every trace of fear he carried was scrubbed from reality. It happened so fast that Hit hadn't even processed it before Wright was gone forever.
"This... this is Lord Gran's power?" Hit stared at Gran's back.
Gran's hair remained silver, surrounded by a gentle but terrifying silver mist. Combined with his divine pressure, he looked like an ancient deity who had just awakened from an eons-long slumber.
"So strong...!"
"Lord Gran, you're incredible!"
In that moment, Hit completely forgot his persona as a cold-blooded assassin. He was jumping up and down with excitement like a child. Gran was momentarily speechless at the contrast in Hit's personality. He gave Hit a brief look before turning his gaze toward the north.
"I've played around long enough. It's time to end this."
With a light tap of his toe, Gran leaped into the air. He seemed to bypass the arena's flight prohibition entirely, soaring toward the north.
BOOM!
Like a silver dragon heading north, every area Gran passed over collapsed under the weight of his presence. The stage's damage jumped from 50% to 80%.
"What kind of monster is this?! How did his power jump from the 6th stage to the 7th?!"
"We could barely handle him at the 6th stage! How are we supposed to stop this?!"
"He's coming!"
"Block him! Now!"
The remaining candidates knew they couldn't run. One by one, they unleashed their ultimate techniques, throwing everything they had at Gran. But their attacks couldn't even touch his clothes.
The "Silver Dragon" that was Gran tore through the northern forest.
CRASH!
The dragon first passed through Belock. Belock's slimy body was pulverized instantly before being covered by the Power of Destruction. Belock of Universe 3: eliminated.
Next was Rosa, the Goddess of Love. Her fate was no different; her body was struck with the force of a runaway freight train, reduced to mush and then erased. Rosa of Universe 2: eliminated.
At this moment, Gran was a god of death, beginning his final slaughter.
"No... please!"
"I beg you, spare me!"
Harry the Mummy of Universe 5: eliminated.
Joel the Silver Fox of Universe 8: eliminated.
...
With every candidate Gran erased, the Gods of Destruction in the stands fell further into silence. It wasn't just silence—it was pure despair.
If Gran had stayed at the 6th stage, they might have held onto a glimmer of hope that their candidates could dodge the Hakai. But with Gran at his full power, every God knew the game was over.
Even if Quitela himself were to step onto that stage right now, he likely wouldn't be able to defeat Gran. This candidate was on the verge of reaching their level.
What kind of monsters were these two from Universe 7?
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