The Battle at Its Breaking Point
Taru was losing.
Not in power but in attrition.
Tyrant Origin raged through him like a starving god, cracking bone to fuel strength, tearing muscle to buy seconds.
Each exchange with Varkhael carved new fractures into reality and into Taru's body.
The Hunter stood immaculate amid ruin.
"You burn yourself for freedom,"
Varkhael said coldly,
"yet you still crawl."
He struck.
A blow layered with divine injunction, kneel embedded into force.
Taru felt his vision darken he was dying .
And then
Something changed.
...
The Interference No One Could Prove
Shin did not attack.
He did not cast.
He adjusted.
From the edge of causality, Shin exhaled and released Erosyne Flow.
Not toward the Hunter.
Toward Taru.
It was barely detectable:
A harmonic correction to Taru's ki circulation.
A softening of Tyrant Origin's feedback loop.
A gentle, intimate reminder to Taru's instincts
You are not alone.
The effect was immediate.
Pain dulled.
Rage sharpened.
Tyrant Origin stabilized not through suppression but focus .
Taru inhaled deeply.
And smiled.
When Varkhael struck again
Taru moved before the Hunter finished thinking.
A counterpunch clean, brutal, perfectly timed, slammed into Varkhael's chest, detonating compressed kinetic energy.
The Hunter was hurled backward, armor cracking for the first time.
Stars collapsed in his wake.
Silence followed.
Laughter.
Low. Disbelieving.
Varkhael rose slowly, eyes no longer fixed solely on Taru.
He looked past him.
Into the folds of space.
Into the hidden sections of reality .
"…That resonance,"
he murmured.
"That alignment was not yours."
His gaze sharpened divine sight piercing layers of concealment
And found Shin.
Disbelief Turns to Disgust
For the first time since his creation, Varkhael's composure fractured.
"A Supreme Kai,"
he said, voice laced with contempt,
"changing himself for a mortal ?"
His eyes scanned Shin's ascended form the warmth of his aura, the elegance of evolved divinity, the unmistakable signature of chosen transformation.
"You did not receive permission,"
Varkhael growled.
"You did not follow protocol."
Then his voice hardened into something ancient and furious.
"Your desire, no his mortal influence has corrupted you ."
The word was spat like poison.
"You submit yourself to a mortal,"
he continued,
"and dared to evolve for him?"
The Hunter turned fully now splitting his attention between Taru and Shin.
"This,"
he declared,
"is why Ancient Saiyans were purged, you're existence bends the Kai's fills them with forbidden thoughts."
Taru Steps Forward
Taru felt it now.
Not just Shin's support
But the risk he'd taken.
The self exposure.
The Defiance of hierarchy .
Tyrant Origin surged but this time without madness.
Purpose replaced frenzy, he now has something more than his own life to protect.
"Then you should have finished the job,"
Taru said quietly.
He rolled his shoulders.
Space groaned.
"Because now,"
he continued,
"you're fighting both of us."
...
Far above
...
"Unauthorized Kai interference confirmed."
"Hunter focus compromised."
"…The bond is amplifying combat output."
The Grand Priest closed his eyes.
Because the scenario he feared most was unfolding.
Not rebellion.
Solidarity between mortal and God .
....
The battle resumed
But it was no longer a hunt.
It was a war of ideals.
And the gods were no longer certain
which side history would survive.
End of the chapter