Chapter 2 – Do You Know How to Heal?
Luo Tian had traveled through time.
As a lifelong Dragon Ball fan, he felt as if he'd unlocked a hidden path in reality after stumbling upon a strange, weathered volume said to belong to Vados, the angel attendant of Universe 6's God of Destruction. Her story drew him in like gravity itself.
One moonlit night, he inexplicably awoke not in his old world, but on the red skies and rocky plains of Planet Vegeta, in the Dragon Ball universe reborn as a Saiyan.
The shock and thrill came in waves. Thrill, because he had become part of the proud warrior race known for their endless battle spirit. Disappointment, because… he had hoped to awaken as an angel. Worse, the book in his possession—Vados's personal training notes mocked him with its divine handwriting.
Why not make me an angel outright? he thought bitterly.
Back when Luo Tian watched Dragon Ball Super, his favorite characters weren't Goku or Vegeta, they were the angels. True gods in the hierarchy, eternal and immune even to Zeno's erasure, their grace and overwhelming strength were unmatched.
And among them, three sisters stood out: Vados of Universe 6, Marcarita of Universe 11, and Kusu of Universe 10.
Especially Vados… and her personal notes.
Saiyan skin, human skin, angel skin, the difference didn't matter. A god could change their form or appearance with ease.
Luo Tian had been born the same year as Vegeta, to parents who were among King Vegeta's most elite warriors. His father and mother had died in space when their mission craft was struck by a meteorite an all-too-common fate in the dangerous life of Saiyans.
Planet Vegeta's population, already diminished by decades of war on alien worlds, numbered only a few thousand. Orphans like Luo Tian were common.
Privately, Luo Tian scoffed at the irony: the Saiyans, feared across the galaxy, had almost no planetary defense against cosmic-level threats. Why fight a warrior when you can just destroy his homeworld?
Gifted from birth, his battle power at infancy measured 600 matching young Vegeta's own readings. By age four, his combat power had skyrocketed to 20,000, terrifying even King Vegeta. From then on, Vegeta had grown up in the shadow of Luo Tian's overwhelming strength.
Then, without warning, Luo Tian's power began to plummet.
King Vegeta's spies traced the cause to an unusual event: during a rare visit from Beerus, God of Destruction of Universe 7, Luo Tian had somehow offered Whis a blue-skinned, silver-haired attendant an odd-smelling "starched sausage." In return, Whis gave him a book.
Since then, Luo Tian had devoted himself to the "training" in those pages.
His battle power dropped from 20,000 to 200 in just a year.
Relieved yet frustrated, King Vegeta saw immense potential wasted. He even summoned Luo Tian personally, warning him to abandon the strange angelic method. But Luo Tian refused, studying the book with even greater focus.
To the Saiyans, he had become useless another warrior who'd squandered his gifts.
But Luo Tian knew the truth. To most, Whis was merely a servant of Beerus. But Luo Tian, with his knowledge of the manga, understood Whis was the real god, and the path in the book was the path to becoming like him.
In the Tournament of Power arc, the losing universes were erased completely gods, mortals, and planets yet the angels remained untouched. The Gods of Destruction might be the pinnacle of mortal-selected warriors, but angels were born divine.
And if he became one, he could stand beside Vados herself.
So Luo Tian had committed to the training method described as Migatte no Gokui the "Ultimate Instinct" the same path Goku would one day stumble onto. The journey was grueling, requiring total loss of conventional ki and the rebirth of "angelic" energy.
And after a year of exhausting practice, Luo Tian had finally purged all his stored Saiyan battle energy, condensing instead a hazy, impure version of angelic power.
It was imperfect lacking the refined, silver brilliance Whis displayed but even in this weakened state, it carried the foundation of an angel's techniques.
And the first question it posed was simple:
What can the power of angels do?
Through a year of training, combined with the experience of a lifetime as a Dragon Ball fan, Luo Tian had formed a clear picture of what the power of angels truly was.
In essence, angelic power was an all-purpose divine energy limitless in potential and application.
Perhaps the better term was divine omnipotent energy.
Anything imaginable could be shaped by it, and anything possible could be achieved with it.
The abilities it encompassed were vast: precise destruction beyond even the Hakai of a God of Destruction, instantaneous healing of mortal and god alike, flawless restoration of objects, control over matter, projection of illusions, conjuring of elements, telekinetic manipulation, divine insight, even the revival of the dead.
With mastery, it could even rewind the flow of time itself Whis had once turned back the clock by exactly three minutes to avert disaster.
Of course, the angelic power Luo Tian could currently muster was far from capable of such feats; its impurity made such miracles out of reach… for now.
Even so, this was a crucial first step toward the road of becoming an angel.
Stripped down, the so-called training in Migatte no Gokui the "Ultra Instinct"—was simply the refinement and condensation of angelic power.
This was why Luo Tian had deliberately purged all his previous Saiyan battle energy. Compared to the serene, overwhelming force of an angel, ordinary ki was crude and limited.
True, the energy he held now was still far from pure. If the power of a fully-realized angel rated at a purity of 100, Luo Tian's current level was barely a 1.
But even at purity 1, if that energy were channeled into destructive force, it could effortlessly obliterate an entire planet.
If one insisted on converting such divine force into a "combat power" figure a notion absurd to angels—Luo Tian estimated it would register at least one billion on a scouter.
And that was without fully discarding the remnants of his old Saiyan ki.
If he could completely erase it, his angelic energy's purity would rise, and the resulting combat ability would increase exponentially.
Tilting his head back, Luo Tian gazed up at the starlit void, unbidden thoughts of Vados's elegant handwriting drifting into his mind…
He shook his head sharply. I'm daydreaming again!
From orbit, the silhouettes of Saiyan attack pods streaked through the sky, landing in bursts of flame and dust. More and more warriors were returning to Planet Vegeta. Luo Tian's chest tightened.
According to the timeline, it wouldn't be long before Frieza destroyed the planet.
It was time to leave.
He was no savior; the thought of "heroically" saving Planet Vegeta never even crossed his mind.
Besides, Frieza was not the true mastermind Beerus, God of Destruction, had long ago ordered the planet's demise to maintain universal balance. Frieza merely embraced the task as a chance to exact his own grudges.
"Vegeta," Luo Tian said casually, "ever thought of taking on missions in other star systems? I know a good place."
Before departing, Luo Tian planned to shadow Vegeta's ship off-world, avoiding direct entanglement with Frieza entirely.
His plan was simple: grow in the shadows, master angelic power, and one day take Vados's hand.
"What? You want to tag along on my missions?" Vegeta caught on instantly, eyes narrowing.
"When do you plan to launch?" Luo Tian asked.
"Hmph! I won't take you. You'd just hold me back!" Vegeta lifted his chin in disdain. "Your combat power is barely 100. For the Prince of all Saiyans to be seen dragging you around? Embarrassing!"
"Well," Luo Tian said with a mysterious smile, "don't you know I can heal?"
That stopped Vegeta cold. "Healing technique?" He stared at Luo Tian, eyes unblinking.
Luo Tian's grin widened.
Vegeta's mind flashed back to the scene of Luo Tian restoring his shattered scouter as if it had never broken.
"Think about it," Luo Tian said lightly. "If I can repair a precision device in seconds, what do you think I could do for your body in battle? Don't believe me? I can show you right now."
"Show me?" Vegeta repeated, suspicion and curiosity warring on his young face.
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