Just as Merus was about to trigger a time rewind, the scepter in his hand vibrated.
Merus blinked and glanced at the crystal.
"Mojito…" He frowned.
Why call now, of all moments?
He hesitated only a beat, then connected.
"Merus, one moment," Mojito said gently. "Lord Sidra has something to relay; he asked me to pass it on."
Merus opened his mouth—
"No time," Ken cut in, stepped forward, and ended the call.
Merus met Ken's eyes and nodded back—no objection whatsoever.
"Alright. I'm starting," Merus said, raising the scepter high.
—
Universe 9, Realm of Destruction.
Mojito stared at the cut connection and almost laughed despite himself.
Did a human-born angel candidate just hang up on me?
He didn't take offense. He switched lines and reached Sidra.
"Did you get through?" Sidra asked, strained.
"I did, but he… isn't looking to chat," Mojito answered, helpless.
Sidra's gut knotted. Something was going very wrong.
"Lord Sidra," Mojito sighed, "I warned you long ago—don't be too clever. Cleverness often outsmarts itself. If you've done things you shouldn't have, then atone. As for the consequences—wait, and accept them."
He ended the call.
Sidra went a shade green.
Regret hit like ice water.
I only wanted a little "game," a bit of spice for a Destroyer's long career—
and now I might have cooked myself?
The thought wasn't done when his mind went white and his body pitched backward through space.
What—?
A time rewind?
Sidra's face tightened, loosened, tightened again.
—
Far away.
"Time Rewind," Merus whispered.
Whumm.
Dazzling angelic power poured from the scepter.
Ken felt space itself twist and torque.
A vast, unseen vortex unfurled—visible only to angels.
He cut a look at Supreme Kai Fuwa; the Kai was scratching his head, seeing absolutely nothing.
So was Mosco.
Within the vortex, Mosco's body flickered through changes, and frames of "film" played backward like a projection spooling in reverse.
In a blink, Merus pulled time back one minute.
"Where are Broly and Buu?"
The voice drifted from far off—Merus's own, carried as energy.
Mule had already stepped out of Mosco's chassis.
"…We fought to a draw, had a good brawl," Mule said, eyes bright with a teasing smile. "Then they said they were hungry and went back to you for dinner. Sorry about the big move just now—accidentally swept you into another universe. Don't hold it against me."
That was the feed from one minute prior.
"Whew…" Merus backed off. That was his limit.
Vados didn't waste a word. Like carving moonlight, her slim fingers drew a circle with the scepter.
Vrrr—
Brighter angelic radiance lanced from the crystal, riding Merus's channel and pushing the rewind farther back.
Time inverted again.
The footage stayed locked to Mosco.
The feed halted at three minutes back.
No—four minutes. Vados could push three, and stack Merus's one.
"Hakai."
Mosco swept a palm; purple-red ruin-energy erased a swath of asteroid belt to powder.
Ken's brows knit tighter.
"No sign of Broly or Buu," Merus said, jaw hard.
"Earlier than this," Vados murmured. "We're beyond what I can safely extend."
"Call another angel to stack further?" Merus asked under his breath.
"Even if we could reach them, no one but the Grand Priest could chain it in time," Vados said, shaking her head.
Four minutes back—the exact instant Mosco had cleared the area.
Mule noticed Ken and company, and his look tightened.
How are they already here?
He'd seen a similar effect once—Korn using a rewind.
So they rewound to this moment.
Good thing I already burned out the clock.
This is as far as they go.
His mind clicked quickly—locked behind Mosco's shell, unreadable.
"Ken, now what?" Merus asked, out of ideas.
"I'll try," Ken said, drawing a long breath.
Merus blinked.
Vados's brows arched, intrigued.
"You'll try… what?" Merus asked.
"Time Rewind." Ken's face went still.
If they're earlier than minute four, then they're waiting for me beyond this wall.
"When did you learn that?" Merus blurted.
"Watching you two. It doesn't look that hard." Ken's tone was matter-of-fact.
"B-but I can't stack on Sister Vados's rewind—" Merus started, then realized what he'd implied and stared. "You can stack it?"
"Merus, less talk," Vados chided softly.
"Right." Merus shut his mouth.
Vados tossed Ken the scepter.
Ken caught it one-handed.
Across the way, Mule's frown deepened. A bad feeling pricked his spine.
He's going to try to rewind again?
He's just a human-born angel. I don't buy it.
Ken leveled the scepter at Mosco.
Click.
The crystal released a ribbon of white-gold that struck Mosco squarely.
He didn't even get to react—caught.
Space corkscrewed.
Merus's eyes went wide.
Time Rewind. Ken had actually done it.
Vados stared too, thoughtful and bright.
Time peeled back one minute, clean as silk.
"—pff."
A familiar figure unraveled before Ken's eyes and blew away like mist.
Ken's pupils tightened. It was Broly—still fused with Majin Buu.
"Just as I feared," Merus growled. "He erased them."
The guts on this guy—
Erasing our God of Destruction candidates?
"You may not find a soul to retrieve," Vados sighed. "Resurrection may require the Super Dragon Balls."
"Out of road?" Merus asked, voice low.
"Not yet," Ken said.
Merus swung his gaze to him.
Not yet?
Ken's angelic purity wasn't even higher than Merus's. How could he not be at the limit?
Ken said nothing—only rewound again.
Thirty more seconds slid away—then Ken's eyes flashed with fury.
Mosco's hand plunged into Broly's chest and tore out five senzu beans.
Broly's face twisted with pain.
Ken's heart clenched. It hurt to watch.
I dragged you off Planet Wampa into light—just to leave you to this?
"Mosco," Merus hissed.
"Hold your center," Vados told him softly.
Merus drew a breath.
"That's enough," Vados said quickly. "Heal them here and we can restore both bodies."
"Not enough," Ken said flatly.
Vados blinked; Merus gaped.
Why not enough?
If they aren't erased yet, we can save them right now.
"I won't leave that kind of scar in my Destroyer's head," Ken said, voice like iron. "Time Rewind."
"Ken, stop!" Vados cried. "Another push and the backlash will shred you!"
Ken didn't look back. He poured himself into the crystal.
Time slid again—
Six minutes back.
Mosco battered Broly senseless, clamping a metal hand over his skull and drumming fists into him till blood flew.
Merus trembled with anger; Vados's hand on his back steadied him.
Ken's eyes narrowed—and something changed.
A clean snap inside, as if two closed meridians had opened at once.
Like breaking through a locked door—unlocking a new stance.
Clarity flooded in.
He felt the shape of it: the far shore of rewind, and beyond it—a beginning.
The end of time is my start line.
"Further," Ken said softly, and turned the key again.
"Stop, Ken! You'll disappear!" Vados shouted.
He didn't stop.
Time rolled—
Nine minutes back.
On top of Vados's three and Merus's one, Ken had personally shoved five minutes.
Merus stared, shell-shocked.
How can he push that far?
Even Vados looked honestly startled.
Fuwa stood blinking, alternately lucid and lost, like a man waking mid-dream.
With time reset this far, both Mosco and Broly vanished from the frame—they hadn't reached this sector yet.
The sky was choked with asteroids again.
Ken turned his head, then pointed. "There. Move."
He returned the scepter to Vados and shot off toward Broly and Mosco's incoming vector.
"Ken!" Merus flashed to his side. "Are you crazy? Why pull us this far? We didn't need to—"
"Ah," Vados's eyes lit. She joined them in a glittering arc. "You noticed."
Ken smiled sidelong. "I'll need your acting. If we sell it, Broly will crack his shell."
"Understood." Vados's answer was immediate—then a faint sigh. "It may take a long time."
"I didn't expect to metamorphose like this," Ken murmured.
"Metamorphose?" Merus echoed, then stared hard at Ken—and saw it: hairline fractures spidering under his skin like light through crystal.
"You—what's happening?" Merus blanched.
"I'm fine," Ken said.
Merus just stared.
Cracks and you call it fine?
"I'll heal—" he started, lifting the scepter.
Tap.
Vados's hand blocked his.
"Vados…?" Merus faltered.
"No wonder Father said you need seasoning," Vados sighed, more fond than cruel. "You heard him."
"Heard what? If I don't heal him, Ken will—"
"So dense." She almost cuffed him. "He said metamorphosis."
"Metamorphosis? Into what?" Merus was still half a step behind.
"A true Angel, what else?" Vados said, exasperated and glowing.
"W–what?" Merus gaped from her to Ken.
The Grand Priest told us twenty years—
It's been four or five days!
"Really?" Merus's face broke into delight.
"Barring surprises," Vados nodded. "Now, help me stage a convincing 'Ken dies' scene. Pain sells. If we're lucky, Broly's latent power will ignite."
Merus fell silent for a breath.
"So you pushed time that far," he said, "not to die and revive—but because, while rewinding, you touched the threshold, and it pulled you through?"
"Not exactly to die," Ken said. "But yes, I felt the door during the rewind."
"Only question is how long the shedding takes," Vados added softly. "Could be… a while."
"How long?" Merus asked.
"No idea," Vados said.
"Then sell it," Ken told them. "Whether Broly reaches the new form depends on the two of you. Don't botch the scene."
"Got it…" Merus muttered, still reeling and weirdly proud.
Three streaks of light raced like comets toward the earlier battleground, and Fuwa blinked back in with a belated teleport, flustered and confused.
"W–wait for me!" he yelped, then Kai Kai'd after them.
Ken and the angels arrived just as Mosco and Broly converged—Sidra was also present, looking blank and a little dazed, as if the rewind had half-scrubbed his memory of the near future.
A gargantuan rift split the void nearby, black lightning crawling along its jaws.
This was the exact instant Mosco's "autonomous" defense had surged, blindsiding Majin Buu and tearing open a universe-spanning chasm that had flung Ken and Merus to Universe Six.
Not this time.
Clink.
Vados flicked the scepter; angelic light stitched the wound shut in a heartbeat. The black fissure sealed as if it had never been.
Mule and Mosco both stared at her, thrown.
Vados? When did she—?
And then they spotted Fuwa skimming in.
"Nosy Kai," Mule snarled under his breath. "Busybody."
So close. Another second and the trainee and the human angel would've been gone.
Now—plan ruined.
And Vados is here. This just got hard.
"Hold up," Sidra said, baffled. "Mule, how did Mosco 'move by himself'?"
"Hmph. Nothing special—I was in control," Mule said curtly, slipping back into Mosco's chassis.
For a heartbeat his thirst for revenge wavered, like the feeling you get after a dream you can't remember.
Did I… already…?
He shook it off.
No. My brother's soul woke to protect me; our power is spiking.
This doesn't end here.
"Broly," Ken said at last.
He waved a hand, and a veil of angelic power rippled over Majin Buu.
Pop.
Broly separated from Buu, dropping to a knee, disoriented. Buu patted his own belly and blinked, baffled.
'I thought I absorbed him…?'
"You came just in time. I have questions—" Mosco spoke.
Sidra jerked. "Mosco… you talk? You were hiding that deep."
Ken drifted toward Broly.
"Ken, I'm asking you!" Mosco thrust a finger at him.
Tap.
Mosco's fingertip touched Ken—and both he and Mule froze.
It felt like pressing a soap bubble. Fragile. Almost like Ken moved into it.
Then it happened... Pop.
Ken shattered into motes, like a pricked bubble.
Mule and Mosco stared, dumbstruck.
…Did he just fake a hit?
Sidra's pupils shrank to pins. A human-born angel—dead? From a poke? We're finished.
This is a disaster. Am I implicated?
No—no. Something's off. That angel was strong. How does a tap end him?
Broly lunged, hands frantic, trying to gather Ken's breaking form back together—but the more he grasped, the more the light slipped away.
"AAAH—AAAH—AAAH!"
His howl tore the dark.
"Broly," Ken's voice came through the glimmering motes, warm and calm, "if I'm not beside you, eat well. Sleep well. Train hard."
"AAAH—!" Broly's throat went raw, eyes wild with disbelief.
BOOM.
Ken's body became a small red mist—then burst—and every drop became a shining star-grain that drifted and thinned and vanished into space.
Broly clawed at the sparks until his fingers closed on nothing.
He clutched his head and shook, teeth bared, eyes flooding.
Slowly, he turned to Mosco.
"This—this wasn't me!" Mule's voice rang out from the chassis. "He broke himself! Not my fault!"
Broly's teeth chattered; tears spilled over his cheeks.
"Wrong. Something's wrong!" Mule rattled. "Think about it—he's an angel. He wouldn't be that brittle. It's a trick. It has to be a trick!"
Broly blinked through tears.
Right—Ken isn't that easy to kill. He's stronger than I am.
He wavered.
"Lord Mosco…., I can confirm: what you saw is real," Vados said quietly, a breath of sorrow in her voice.
"Lies—he can't be that fragile!" Mule snapped.
Sidra kept his peace, weighing it.
"Ken isn't fragile," Vados said. "But he overran his limit—he rewound five full minutes. The recoil undid him."
Sidra seized the opening. "Then why rewind? What happened after—"
His question trailed off.
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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