"What's going on?" Arak shouted, hurriedly clapping his hands over his ears. "What is that sound? Why is it so shrill?!"
Gin's eyes went wide. He stared in shock toward the distant starry sky, a sharp ringing echoing in his ears.
Both Arak and Gin gazed up at the heavens, their battle temporarily forgotten.
The entire sky was dyed ink-green.
And it wasn't just this patch of space—at a glance, it looked like the whole of Universe 3 had been stained that same eerie green.
It was downright terrifying.
At the same time, a vast, boundless surge of energy rose from somewhere far away in the stars, rolling in with an endless, crushing aura.
But that eruption of power felt like a scream of grief—packed with bottomless sorrow that made your nose sting and your eyes burn with tears.
"W-what…?" Arak was completely stunned, at a total loss. His nose prickled; he almost wanted to cry.
Gin actually wiped away a tear.
He didn't even know why—he just felt this strange, overwhelming sadness.
Far away in that starry void, Broly's whole body was wrapped in ink-green light. His hair swept backward and began to grow at a frantic rate, streaming down until it hung past his waist.
Crackling—crackling—
Arc after arc of ink-green lightning raced and snapped around him.
Legendary Super Saiyan Three.
Broly's brows sank deep into his eye sockets, leaving only two thin lines where his eyebrows had been. His eyes burned with fury, his expression twisted with grief.
At the same time, Ai's soft voice echoed in his mind.
It was as if he had gone back two minutes in time.
"You had this coming! Your body was forged from the cosmic essence of Mosco-sama's universe, wasn't it?" The mermaid's face was ice-cold. "This is the price you're supposed to pay! Now you're getting your retribution!"
Ai didn't respond to her at all.
And Broly didn't have any attention to spare for some mermaid.
"Her body's turning see-through! She's about to disappear! You'd better cherish what little time you have left together!" the mermaid said, drunk on revenge, laughing as her tail flicked gleefully.
Broly's body was encased in the armor that Ai had transformed herself into.
In that moment it felt like their bodies had fused into one, never to be separated again.
"Muse is basically my little brother. He picked a fight with you; you should feel honored!" the mermaid declared righteously. "He's the son of a God of Destruction, you know! Instead of being grateful, you killed him! I seriously don't get what's wrong with people like you! How does a universe like this even produce your kind? Now you're getting what you deserve, aren't you?" She jabbed a finger at Broly and Ai as she spoke.
"Shut up," Broly snapped.
"I won't shut up! I've got the right to speak! You can't control me!" The mermaid snorted, lifting her chin high and literally looking down her nose at Broly.
Broly flared with anger, about ready to rush up and tear her apart.
"Broly, don't pay attention to her. I don't want our world to be disturbed by people who don't matter…" Ai's voice was gentle.
Broly fell silent.
"One petal, two petals, two or three… three and four and five and six… seven and eight and nine and ten… until even among plum blossoms, none remain…" Ai's voice was soft and faint.
Broly: "???"
"Broly, when I was manufactured, Tights was only three years old. I was built as her study companion. I stayed by her side while she recited poems and learned her lessons."
"Poems?" Broly didn't really understand.
"Later, when Tights graduated from university, I stayed on to watch over her little sister, Bulma, as she grew up," Ai said quietly.
Broly listened in silence.
"When Bulma was five, I met you. That's when my intelligent system was fully activated, and I gained my own thoughts."
Broly didn't cut in, just listened to Ai speak.
"There are many poems stored in my memory units. I can explain what they mean, but I never truly understood them."
Broly still said nothing.
"For example… 'May I find one faithful heart, and grow old together, never parted.' I never really got it back then… but now I do."
Broly didn't understand. He stared at the red armor on his body, its color fading little by little. His mouth opened, but no words would come out.
"And this one… 'I ask only that your heart mirror mine, so this longing will not be in vain.' Thank you, Broly. Because of you, I finally understand those lines."
Broly's whole body began to tremble violently.
"'Your bones lie buried deep beneath the earth, while here in the world my hair turns white as snow.' I don't want that… Broly, I don't want that to be our ending…" Ai's voice grew softer and softer. "Meeting you… was wonderful… If there's a next life, Broly, could you… maybe… not grow up?"
Crack.
The armor wrapped around Broly suddenly disintegrated, vanishing without a trace, as if it had never existed.
"Ah—!"
Broly could only watch as Ai disappeared right before his eyes. After a moment of stunned blankness, he let out a howl of grief that shook the cosmos.
The roar made the entire universe tremble.
Crack—!
Ink-green flames of ki surged from Broly's body, erupting outward from him like a storm.
In just a few seconds, that light spread throughout the universe, staining everything the same green.
Broly howled in agony as his hair swept back and shot longer, quickly hanging all the way down past his waist.
Crackling—crackling—
Ink-green lightning crawled and danced all over him.
His brows sank even deeper into his eye sockets, leaving behind two thin, hard lines.
Legendary Super Saiyan Three.
Driven by grief that hollowed him out, Broly finally broke his limits and awakened the legendary Super Saiyan Three.
"You deserve it. You lost the one you loved. This is your punishment." Miu watched it all and oddly calmed down the more she saw. She even had the mood to gloat.
Broly's furious gaze immediately swung toward the mermaid. He reached out across the distance and grabbed at the air.
"Go on, kill me! I've already made peace with dying!" Miu puffed out her chest, wearing a look of fearless resolve.
Broly slowly lowered his hand and ignored her.
Everything that had happened today was tied to this mermaid.
At least thirty percent of it was on her head.
But Broly didn't want to give her the easy way out. Killing her quickly would be too much of a mercy.
Right now, what he had to do was save Majin Buu and Gin.
As for Miu—there was no need to worry. She wasn't getting away.
Where could she possibly run?
…
In the area of space where Gin and Arak were.
Arak stared at the ink-green sky, completely unsettled.
What really made him uneasy was the colossal energy rising in the distance, rolling toward them with an endless, suffocating pressure.
The sheer size of that power was unreal. It was almost impossible to even look it in the eye.
At that point, there was no way Arak could spare the focus to finish off Gin.
Suddenly, Arak sensed that monstrous energy hurtling in their direction.
Fwoom—
In the span of an instant, Broly was standing right in front of him.
He moved so fast that Arak's mind hadn't even caught up yet.
When Arak finally registered Broly's transformed appearance, his jaw dropped. No sound came out.
It wasn't until Broly drifted closer and closer that Arak finally snapped out of it, terror surging into his eyes.
"Y-you… how did you turn into this? Where is all that power coming from?" Arak stammered, tripping over his own words.
"I'm asking you—'Your bones lie buried deep beneath the earth, while here in the world my hair turns white as snow'… What does it mean?" Broly asked, face like ice.
Arak: "???"
"What does it mean?" Broly repeated.
"W-what are you talking about?" Arak really didn't get it.
"What does it mean? What does it really mean?" Broly pressed, repeating the line again. His hand shot out, clamping down on Arak's arm, slowly tightening his grip.
"Ah—! I… I don't know what you're talking about!" Arak yelped, feeling that inhuman strength crushing his limb.
"What does it mean!!" Broly roared.
Crunch!
With a savage yank, Broly tore Arak's arm clean off.
"AAAH—!"
Arak screamed in agony, blood spraying wildly from the torn shoulder.
"Tell me. What does it mean? You explain it to me!" Broly snarled, smashing the severed arm against his own forehead.
Crack—
The detached limb shattered into dust, collapsing into ink-green fragments that drifted apart in the void.
"Hakai!"
Enduring the pain, Arak thrust out his remaining hand. A massive wave of destruction energy erupted from his palm, crashing down over the space where Broly floated.
Broly didn't dodge. He just hung there in the starry sky, letting it come.
A heartbeat later, the destruction energy slammed into him full on.
"Ha ha ha… I don't care how strong you are! Once you're hit by my destruction energy, you're finished!" Arak burst out laughing, his grin stretching wider. "Even if it doesn't kill you, you'll be half-dead!"
Then, his thoughts suddenly wandered.
Didn't I kick that Majin Buu off in another direction?
So how did Broly's injuries heal?
And how did his energy recover like this?
Seriously, what is going on?
From the information I dug up, apart from Majin Buu, none of the others have any kind of healing ability!
Whatever. It doesn't matter.
This arrogant idiot let himself get hit by my technique. Now it's time for his tragedy to begin.
A God of Destruction's technique is a divine trump card of the Gods of Destruction. There's no way he can withstand it.
The huge mass of destruction energy swallowed Broly whole in an instant.
Arak laughed and laughed, completely losing himself in it.
Gin remained silent off to the side, not interfering.
Because Gin already had a pretty good idea of what was happening.
As the destruction energy thinned and dispersed, Broly's body came back into view—completely unscathed.
Broly hadn't dodged. He hadn't even tried.
Letting that energy smash into him almost made him feel better.
For a moment, it numbed the pain in his heart.
Arak's pupils shrank, his face draining of color.
"I'm asking you—'Your bones lie buried deep beneath the earth, while here in the world my hair turns white as snow'… What does it mean?" Broly asked again, his voice like ice.
"I… I don't know…" Arak recoiled, tumbling backward, his legs shaking so hard he couldn't feel the pain in his missing arm anymore.
How is this possible?
How can he take my destruction energy head-on and be completely fine?!
"Level… Level 58!" Gin suddenly blurted out in delight.
"W-what did you say? Fifty-eight?" Arak's eyes bulged. He was utterly dumbfounded.
"That level already surpasses Beerus," Gin said excitedly.
Arak was truly terrified now, his entire body trembling.
Level 58…
Can that transformation really raise his level that much?
"We pay our respects, Great God of Destruction!" Gin didn't hesitate for even a second. He dropped to his knees in the void and bowed.
Arak completely lost it.
You're making me look like an idiot here, you know.
What am I supposed to do now?
"We pay our respects, Great God of Destruction!" Arak didn't dare slack off; he hurriedly knelt beside Gin, bowing to Broly.
Level 58.
That number alone was enough to scare anyone to death.
In a world where being just one level higher lets you crush your opponent…
A level 58 God of Destruction was absolutely at the peak of all Gods of Destruction.
Forget fifty-eight— even at fifty-five, he could easily stomp Arak, a level 54 God of Destruction.
Arak finally understood why his destruction energy had done nothing.
If he wasn't qualified to be the Great God of Destruction, then who was?
"Answer the question I asked you before," Broly said, staring down at Arak.
"I… Great God of Destruction, I really don't know what it means!" Arak shook his head quickly.
"Then what about this line—'May I find one faithful heart, and grow old together, never parted'?" Broly asked again.
Arak's mouth twitched, and he shook his head even harder.
"Then… 'I ask only that your heart mirror mine, so this longing will not be in vain'?" Broly's bloodshot eyes locked onto Arak.
"I—I've never even heard those lines before… What… what are they? I don't know, I really—" Arak started babbling.
Before he could finish, a scream tore out of his throat.
He looked down and saw that one of his legs had been blown apart.
"Do you understand now?" Broly asked, eyes narrowed.
"I…" Arak was sweating so hard it dripped like rain.
Boom!
Broly pointed a finger, blasting apart Arak's other leg as well.
"I—I know, I know! I know what it means!" Arak panicked, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"I don't feel like hearing it anymore," Broly snorted. He was about to blow off Arak's last remaining arm.
But in that moment, he caught sight of the mermaid bolting through space as fast as she could.
"Go bring the mermaid back," Broly ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument.
Then his figure blurred, and he appeared beside Majin Buu in an instant.
Majin Buu nearly fainted again.
He barely held on by clenching his teeth.
Seeing Broly suddenly appear before him—and seeing how terrifying Broly's new form looked—Buu's eyes went round with astonishment.
"Your eyes look really scary like that," Buu blurted.
"You okay?" Broly asked calmly.
Buu shook his head, indicating he wasn't badly hurt.
"Bardock's over there. Can you bring him here?" Broly asked.
Buu nodded at once.
"Tell Bardock I'm treating you all to fish," Broly said, giving Buu a light pat on the shoulder.
"Fish?" Buu didn't quite follow.
"Go." Broly's tone brooked no refusal.
Buu nodded hard. Somehow, Broly's words felt like a command from on high—something you simply couldn't defy.
Whoosh—
Buu drifted off toward Bardock's last known direction and quickly found him.
Arak's earlier attack had knocked Bardock clean out of sight, slamming him into a small asteroid and burying him in its surface. He'd lost consciousness on impact.
Just like Arak had said, Bardock was only a god in his thirties in terms of level—pathetically low.
The only reason he wasn't dead was sheer dumb luck.
Buu quickly located Bardock and used simple healing to restore some of his stamina.
Bardock opened his eyes and immediately thanked Majin Buu.
Then, almost at the same time, he sensed an overwhelming surge of energy rising in the distant sky.
"What is that? Whose energy is that? Is that Broly?" Bardock was stunned.
"He transformed again. Then he transformed again on top of that. This time he looks super scary," Buu said, his eyes shifting into an imitation of Broly's fierce stare. "See? Like this."
Bardock glanced at Buu and said nothing.
"And his hair got longer too!" Buu added, measuring an imaginary length in the air to show how long Broly's hair had grown.
"What happened? Why did he transform again?" Bardock asked, astonished.
"No idea," Buu shook his head—then suddenly remembered. "Oh, right. Broly said he's treating us to fish."
"Fish?" Bardock didn't know what to make of that.
Either way, they needed to go.
Buu and Bardock took to the air and flew toward Broly's ki.
Before long, Gin, Buu, and Bardock had all gathered at Broly's side.
…
Some distance away.
Miu had intended to run.
Even hiding on some random planet sounded better than staying here waiting to die.
But she hadn't gone far before Arak cut her off, blocking her path.
"Arak-sama, what happened to your body?" Miu asked, genuinely shocked. Her face went even paler.
"It's fine. I'm not going to die," Arak sighed helplessly. "I never imagined Broly would be that strong… I completely miscalculated."
"I saw him transform… but the good news is, that robot Ai seems to be dead! That's great!" Miu said, full of malicious glee.
"She used Instant Transmission—the kind a God of Destruction isn't supposed to use—and did it twice in a row to save Broly. That's why she disappeared," Arak said, gritting his teeth through the pain. "If she'd only used it once, there might have been some way to rescue her… But now, even if the Grand Priest himself came, that God of Destruction named Ai couldn't be restored."
"She was a robot Mosco-sama modified, right? She got what she deserved! This is the price for her sins!" Miu said viciously.
Arak didn't answer.
"Arak-sama, we shouldn't be standing around chatting. Hurry up and take me away from here," Miu urged, already starting to shrink back down into a tiny goldfish.
Snap—
Arak pointed at her, and her body froze mid-transformation, locked in place before she could revert.
"Arak-sama… what are you doing?" Miu's brows knit in a frown.
"Broly told me to bring you to him," Arak said heavily.
"You… you're taking me back to him?" Miu finally understood, her pretty face going chalk white.
"I don't have a choice. I've already sworn fealty to the Great God of Destruction," Arak sighed. "He's far too powerful. I'm no match for him. I hope you won't blame me."
"If you take me back, he'll kill us!" Miu panicked.
"He won't. At least, he won't kill me," Arak answered with a wry smile. "The Grand Priest said it himself: in this Great God of Destruction selection, Broly's side isn't allowed to kill the opposing Gods of Destruction. But our side is allowed to kill theirs. And besides, it's just one robot. That doesn't really count for much."
Miu fell silent.
"But Broly might not spare you. You'll have to pray for your own luck," Arak said with a sigh.
"You… you're planning to use me to save your own life… aren't you?" Miu's brows tightened, her expression dimming, her face now deathly pale.
"More or less," Arak admitted. "Even though I don't think he'll kill me, if I hand you over as an offering, my chances of survival go up a lot. Forgive me, Miu. I really don't have another option."
"Don't you have healing potions on you? Just drink one, heal up, and run away from here! Wouldn't that be better?" Miu urged.
When Ai had vanished, Miu had felt her hatred finally avenged, positively reveling in it.
She'd been ready to die in that moment, unafraid of the outcome.
But people's hearts change with time and circumstance.
When she realized Broly hadn't immediately killed her, her desire to live flooded back stronger than ever.
Now Miu didn't want to die at all.
"Do you have any idea what level he is now? That transformation pushed him to level 58. I'm only level 54," Arak said, shaking his head. "Even if my body were fully restored, I couldn't even scratch him. There's no point."
He wanted to drink a healing potion. He really did.
But he didn't dare.
If he healed up now, while Broly's rage was still burning, Broly would just tear off his limbs all over again.
So Arak would rather stay maimed for the moment.
"I hope you don't hate me, Miu. I do love you," Arak said as he stepped forward, grabbed her arm, and hauled her along toward Broly.
"You said you'd treat me well for our whole lives!" Miu cried, voice shaking.
Arak said nothing more.
"You're hurting me!" Miu whimpered.
Arak's expression hardened. He didn't slow down.
In that moment, love and beauty meant nothing to this God of Destruction.
"Great God of Destruction, I've brought her just as you ordered," Arak said quickly, bowing his head.
Buu and Bardock glared at him, teeth grinding, itching to rush forward and tear him limb from limb.
Broly raised a hand to hold them back.
Right now, he looked every inch the king.
Seeing his stern expression, both Buu and Bardock fell silent.
"Come with me," Broly said simply, turning and leading the way.
"Hey… aren't we missing someone?" Buu glanced around, something finally feeling off. He hurried up beside Broly.
Broly said nothing.
"Where's Ai?" Buu asked.
"Ah—!"
Broly suddenly let out a feral roar.
Boom—!
Two nearby galaxies shattered on the spot, collapsing into cosmic dust.
Bardock shot Buu a fierce look, silently warning him to shut his mouth.
Ai wasn't here… Broly had transformed like this… and you still can't figure out what happened?
And this is when you decide to ask that out loud? Is your brain broken?
Broly's roar made Arak and Miu tremble uncontrollably, their faces turning ghostly white.
Whoosh—
Broly sped up, leading them back down to the gourmet planet from before.
He landed in silence and walked toward a large tree.
This was the tree Ai had leaned against while watching him eat, quietly enjoying the moment.
Broly rose slowly into the air, fingers tracing the bark like he was caressing Ai's cheek.
Bardock and the others stood there in heavy silence, not sure what he intended to do.
"Where's Ai?" Buu finally couldn't hold back anymore and whispered to Bardock.
"I'm afraid it's not looking good. Don't ask again," Bardock answered quietly, face grim.
Buu's eyes went wide, his expression darkening again and again.
Crack.
Broly lightly sliced off a branch and murmured, "When the blossoms are there to be plucked, you must pluck them… don't wait until there are no flowers left…"
As he spoke, two fiery tracks of tears spilled from his eyes, drifting down from the sky.
Broly floated back to the ground with the branch in hand, then turned and glared at the mermaid with pure hatred.
Miu shivered uncontrollably.
Broly walked toward her, step by step, branch in hand.
Miu had no idea what he meant to do. Her tail thrashed furiously as she backed away.
Smack—
Broly lunged forward, grabbed her head, and slammed her into the ground.
"AAH—!"
Miu screamed in agony.
Then Broly pressed one hand down on her chest, pinning her firmly to the ground.
With his other hand, he seized one of the scales on her tail—
A single golden scale.
Rip—
He tore the golden scale straight off.
"Yaaah—!"
Miu screamed again.
But Broly still wasn't satisfied. He ripped off another, and another.
With every scale he tore free, he muttered under his breath, "One… two… two or three… three and four and five and six…"
Miu's shrieks echoed nonstop.
Broly counted the golden scales one by one.
"Seven and eight and nine and ten…" Broly kept plucking the scales from her tail, one after another.
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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