Levos' body was working without pause, breaking down the Darklings he'd sucked into his tail. Power poured into him in a constant flood; every cell throbbed, tight with pressure.
If I can't birth Mini Cells, am I really going to blow up from sheer energy overload?
Chronoa blinked, then ventured, "If there's truly no other option… I can take you to another timeline to explode?"
How was that even a suggestion a person should make?
Levos fixed her with an icy stare. "You think I'm the kind who gives up that easily?"
His fury made her falter. A prickle of guilt crept up her spine as she wondered if she'd been far too selfish just now.
Chronoa drew a steadying breath and made a decision. "All right. If you're willing… I can fuse with you."
"That might let us vent your excess energy and get you through this crisis."
"But there's one condition. If we fuse, we never separate."
She was utterly serious. Unwavering.
Levos' face turned grim.
Was she solemnly… joking? Fusing with her? He'd rather fuse with Piccolo at least that fusion could be undone. And at least Piccolo wasn't a woman.
He didn't even bother answering.
Then something she'd said clicked.
"Wait. You said there is a way to purge surplus energy? Tell me now!"
Chronoa started, then hurried to explain. "Mortals can't do it. Only a god can, so you'd have to become one first "
"A god?" Levos froze, then a spark kindled in his eyes. "I'll try it."
When he'd absorbed Evil Buu, he'd awakened the God-route core for Cell Max's evolution. He'd wanted to complete that path from the start. With this many Darklings inside him even if they weren't full gods something should shift.
Chronoa's nudge lit a thread of hope.
If he could complete the godly evolution, he could use the method she meant.
For now the key was not blowing up while he digested the Darklings.
"Can I channel the excess into you? That might buy me time." Levos asked.
Chronoa frowned. "So long as you can hold yourself together."
She added, more sharply, "If you're about to rupture, you tell me first."
"Got it."
Levos pressed both palms to her back.
A heartbeat later Chronoa's body convulsed. A tidal surge of power crashed into her nearly more than she could bear. But she gritted her teeth and rode it out, jaw set, eyes fierce.
"If you can't take it, say so," Levos warned.
"I know," she ground out.
Veins roped across Levos' forearms; muscles knotted, joints bulged. The violent energy caromed through him, every cell shrieking. He forced as much of the swelling torrent into Chronoa as he could, but it was still a losing race: he was off by an order of magnitude. The outflow didn't even reach a tenth of the inflow.
And the rate at which the trapped Darklings were being absorbed was still climbing.
Sweat traced down Chronoa's cheek; she was suffering. Levos had no bandwidth to spare.
Behind his head, a white halo blossomed and firmed, brightening to a clean, argent blaze that washed his body in soft silver-gray.
Chronoa glanced back and stared.
"That's… godly ki? But you're a mortal how do you have that?!"
She shelved the question and focused, eyes clearing.
Her own expression, however, pinched tighter and tighter. Her body trembled she was at her limit.
Levos wasn't better off. His features warped with strain, his whole frame swelling visibly.
"Can you still go on?" Chronoa asked, barely.
"Of course." His voice was frayed and hoarse, all grit and pain but his eyes stayed steady. "Just a little longer. Now tell me how to vent the energy."
Chronoa nodded, forcing the words out. "Good… You have godly ki now. Feel it. Use your will to guide it and let it fuse with your body…"
"Fuse godly ki… with my body?" he echoed.
The evolution wasn't complete yet; waiting was no longer an option. Levos drew a long breath and let his eyes fall shut.
He did as she said.
And soon, he felt a curious current coursing through him. Immense, yes but not wild like converted energy. It was gentle, quietly enhancing and refining every cell.
He tried to steer it and couldn't.
"What is this…?" His brow creased.
It was too gentle. The more he forced it, the more it slipped away, even his awareness of it blurring.
"Don't rush," Chronoa murmured. "Just listen. That's the difference between godly ki and ordinary energy."
He sank his mind.
The pain, the swelling he let them fade to the edges.
Slowly, the godly ki brightened in his senses again. A strange certainty rose: he could move it, use it if he treated it right.
The feeling was… wondrous.
Chronoa, shaking, forced herself to continue. "Once godly ki fuses, it becomes divine power inside you."
"I was born with it, and I've handled it all my life. There are many ways to use it."
"But your case is special your divinity is acquired. A lot of techniques won't translate."
"There is one you can try."
"Use divine power to carve a pocket realm a space of your own."
"It will gulp ordinary energy in one go. Here's how…"
Levos' eyes flashed open, alight.
He listened hard, even as he coaxed the godly ki to mingle with flesh and bone. Soon he felt it: the first fine threads of divine power, pure and stainless.
There you are.
He seized them gently and guided them as Chronoa described.
"Remember," she added, "it'll drain everything you've got at once. The bigger the drain, the bigger the space."
She drew a breath and released her own divinity. A soft aureate glow slipped over Levos.
Warmth flowed through him. Chronoa's divine power slid past the raging energy streams inside him and teased out his own.
He was so swollen he was almost spherical on the cusp of rupture.
Then the floodgates opened.
Divine power punched through the walls of reality. A pale-gold incision shone in the dark.
Levos sensed a white-blind space blooming in the void, swelling fast.
His pocket realm.
His reserves plummeted far faster than he could digest Darklings.
His distended body deflated, collapsing back to normal.
Relief crashed over him like cool surf. He felt weightless.
As the energy bled away, the pocket realm expanded, wider and wider. Just as Chronoa promised the more he fed it, the larger it grew.
Moments later, it was vast beyond his guesses.
"At this size… it could probably fit the entire solar system," he breathed.
And it was still growing.
There were plenty of Darklings left in his tail yet to be absorbed.
At this rate, the God-route evolution might just complete in one sweep.
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