The battle was unlike anything Luffy had ever experienced. Goku and Vegeta moved with precision, their Super Saiyan forms unleashing devastating attacks that would have destroyed planets. But the Void Eater was intangible, its darkness reforming faster than they could disperse it.
"It's no use!" Vegeta roared, his Gallick Gun passing harmlessly through the creature. "We can't hit it!"
Goku nodded grimly. "It's not physical. It's pure concept. We need something that can affect concepts."
Luffy, bouncing between them in his Gear Fifth form, laughed. "You just gotta hit it with your dream!"
Vegeta's eye twitched. "What does that even mean?!"
"Like this!" Luffy shot forward, his fist extended. But instead of Ki or physical force, he pushed his will—his Conqueror's Haki—into the punch. The red energy erupted from his fist and slammed into the Void Eater.
The creature screamed. For the first time, it actually recoiled.
Goku's eyes widened. "That energy... it's not Ki. It's something else entirely. Vegeta, did you see that?"
"I saw it. But I don't understand it." Vegeta's pride rankled at not knowing something.
Luffy grinned. "It's my will! My dream! The shadow thing said it eats echoes, but my dream is too big to eat! Shishishi!"
Goku's face lit up with understanding. "Of course! It's not about power—it's about existence! The Void Eater consumes energy, memories, echoes. But a dream that hasn't been realized yet? That's not something that exists—it's something that will exist. You can't consume the future!"
Vegeta caught on. "So we need to hit it with something that doesn't exist yet. Something it can't process."
"Exactly!" Goku focused, reaching deep within himself. He thought of his family, his friends, his home. He thought of everything he still wanted to protect, everything he hadn't yet achieved. A faint white aura began to flicker around him.
Vegeta did the same, though his thoughts were different. His pride. His legacy. The future of the Saiyan race. A purple aura mixed with his gold.
Luffy laughed joyfully. "Shishishi! This is fun!"
The three warriors charged together, each wreathed in their own unique energy—Goku's white hope, Vegeta's purple pride, Luffy's red will. They struck the Void Eater simultaneously.
The creature's scream echoed across dimensions. Its form began to dissolve, not into pieces, but into nothing. Real nothing. The kind of nothing that couldn't reform.
"IMPOSSIBLE! I AM ETERNAL! I AM—"
"You're nothing," Luffy said simply. "Because my friends are here. And we're going to be the strongest in the universe."
The Void Eater vanished. The darkness lifted. The sun returned.
For a moment, the three warriors floated in silence. Then Luffy burst into laughter.
"SHISHISHI! WE DID IT! WE BEAT THE SHADOW THING!"
Goku grinned, dropping out of his Super Saiyan form. "That was amazing! I've never fought anything like that!"
Vegeta crossed his arms, trying to look unimpressed despite the sweat on his brow. "Hmph. It was adequate. For a team effort."
Luffy grabbed both of them in a massive rubber hug. "YOU'RE MY FRIENDS NOW! WE HAVE TO HAVE A FEAST!"
Goku's eyes lit up. "A feast? What kind of food?"
"Sanji's cooking! It's the best in the world!"
Vegeta struggled against the hug. "LET GO OF ME, FREAK! I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND!"
But even as he protested, a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He'd never admit it, but fighting alongside someone—really fighting, not just competing—felt... good.