Elsewhere:
Far beyond our hiding place, old threats awakened.
Not suddenly.
Sequentially.
As if responding to a ripple in forgotten myth.
Baby stirred first but this time, not as a parasite…but as a collective intelligence, rebuilding the Tuffle legacy planet by planet.
Super 17 followed—no longer a machine rebellion, but a perfected synthesis of hell-energy and artificial god code.
Omega Shenron was last, not born of a single set of Dragon Balls, but of collapsed dragon balls across dead timelines, coalescing into something far more malignant.
Each was stronger than canon.
Each sensed something wrong.
Something ancient had returned.
....
One night, as artificial stars drifted above the Kai sanctuary we'd carved into a dead world, Shin finally spoke the truth—at least part of it.
"I have decided," he said softly.
I turned.
"I am no longer a Supreme Kai," Shin continued. "Not in the way they define it."
He knelt.
Both in submission and commitment.
"I choose to be your guide," he said. "Your witness.
Your willing servant not because you command me… but because I believe in what you are becoming."
Emotion tightened his voice... but he didn't look away from my eyes for the first time.
"I will stay with you ," he said blushing . "For as long as you exist."
"I accept " I said with a sly grin that shin pretended not to notice..
...
End of the chapter