Mercy finally arrived on the dead planet. He landed in a forest, or at least what used to be a forest, for the trees were lifeless and dead, and the ground was barren and hard. The air around him was blanketed with an unnatural, constant purple mist, and the smell of death fouled the air. In the distance, he could see clearly a monolithic castle. Even though it looked close, it was still a good distance. Mercy jumped into the air and began his flight towards it.

When He finally arrived at the gates of the castle, two guards met him. The figures were surrounded by a thick black smoke. The only features visible on them were there dark purple pupils, shiny white teeth, and black leathery wings. One of the smoke creatures greeted Mercy while the other sneered at him. "The Master has been expecting you." The gates opened, and the guard that greeted Mercy motioned him to follow. "Right this way please."

The creature led Mercy into a large throne room. At the end of the room sat a throne made of black stone skulls. A Namekian sat lazily on the throne. The Namekian's skin was a dull grey, and his eyes were a solid light purple. As he spoke, his deep voice reverberated throughout the large room. "Ah, Mercy, here to discuss the offer I made."

"I have."

"Hmm, so where is your student then?"

"I thought about your offer, and I refuse to let you turn him into a weapon, Death."

"That's a shame. He would have been a fine weapon for the gods."

"We were created to protect the mortals, not destroy them."

"And we used to be worshipped for it. Now we're forgotten, nothing more than legends told to children."

"I will not turn Preyter into a weapon, and you won't find him."

"Maybe, but I can't let you live. I wouldn't want our powerful friend, nor the other gods to know what I'm doing."

A small Frieza race, shrouded by a thick layer of smoke, stepped out from behind the throne. The only thing visible on him was his bright red eyes, coal black tail, and large grey bony crest. "Let me deal with him, Master."

Death held up a hand, "No, Sorrow, he may be the weakest, but he's still stronger than you."

As Death got up from his throne, Mercy dashed towards him, charged ki in his fist. An explosion went off, sending chunks of rock flying. As the dust settled, it revealed that Death tilted his head slightly, dodging the attack, and the back of his throne destroyed. He gave a smile, "You've gotten slower my friend." He punched Mercy in the stomach, lifting him slightly into the air, and kicked him away.

As Mercy was getting up, Death closed the short gap between them and readied another attack. Mercy reacted this time and held up a palm, which was braced by his other hand, and caught the punch. A shockwave was created by the block, shaking the entire castle.

Mercy gave a quick head-butt. Death shook his head from the sudden attack, and barely had time to jerk his head to the side to avoid Mercy's follow up attack. Another explosion happened behind him. He jerked his head to the right to avoid the next attack and dodged several others. With every punch, Mercy focused a large amount of ki in his fist, making it very deadly if landed, but he kept missing, and the room was being dotted with explosions.

Death had enough. He gave a smile and pushed Mercy with the palm of his hand, knocking the wind out of Mercy.

Mercy gritted his teeth and gave a slight chuckle. "You're holding back."

Death smirked, "So are you."

Mercy smiled, "Heh, you noticed."

Mercy gave a loud roar and a golden aura formed around him. Another pair of wings grew beneath his original pair, and his white skin turned into a bright gold color.

In an instant, Mercy punched Death square in the face, sending him skidding across the stone floor. Before he had time to recover, Mercy appeared behind him, swiped his legs out from under him, and kicked him through the roof.

Death quickly stabilized himself in the air. Well, this might be fun after all, he thought as he quickly powered up. As he did so, he looked down and saw Mercy charging him from below. Death vanished right before Mercy connected and appeared beside him, punched him, and sent him spiraling out of control.

Mercy stabilized himself and stared back at Death. They floated in the sky, staring at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Mercy was outmatched, and he knew it. He saw a large tower behind Death and got an idea. I might not be able to kill him, but maybe I can injure him.

Mercy pointed one finger at Death, and a purple ki laser hurtled towards him. Death dodged the laser by disappearing and reappearing a little closer to Mercy. Mercy pointed another finger and repeated the process until Death was close to him. Mercy expertly blocked a punch aimed for his face and grabbed Death's leg with his tail.

At full speed, Mercy flew towards the tower and at the last second threw Death at the tower. The force of the collision caused the tower to collapse on top of him. Without hesitation, Mercy began peppering the area below with ki blasts.

When Mercy stopped, he sensed an even greater amount of power emanating from Death than before. From the ruins below, Death rocketed towards Mercy at full speed. He was too fast, and in an instant, Mercy felt the pain of thousands of punches and kicks. The final blow, sent him flying backwards. Death appeared behind him to repeat the process again. As Mercy was sent flying forward, he saw Death waiting for his evitable arrival. When he was close enough, Death connected a decisive kick to his jaw and sent him flying upwards. Mercy swiftly stabilized himself, and when he did, Death appeared slightly above him, one hand tightly gripping his raised fist. A crushing blow sent Mercy careening to the devastated castle below.

Mercy landed in the room, where they started the fight. As he sluggishly got up, Death slowly lowered himself to the ground, smiling. He spoke, "I believe this fight has gone on long enough." Death held his hands close together, and a large purple ball of ki, outlined with black, began to form. As he did this, a dark purple aura formed around him.

Mercy let out a roar, his golden aura grew more intense, another pair of wings grew between the other two pairs, and a combat mask covered his mouth. He held his arms to his side, and a bright white ki ball formed in each hand.

"Eternal Darkness!"

"Divine Light!"

Both released their beams of energy simultaneously. Dark purple ki struck bright white ki, creating a huge distorted ball of light.

Mercy was overwhelmed by the force of Death's attack. In his third form, he was still weaker than Death. With a frustrated yell, his aura intensified, and his stream of white energy began to overtake Death's purple energy.

Mercy's ki blast struck Death, creating a massive explosion. Whatever part of the castle that wasn't caught in the explosion, was destroyed by the shockwave.

When the explosion died down, Mercy was floating in the middle of a crater; he was panting heavily. Death was nowhere in sight. He couldn't see him, but he sensed the overwhelming power, not even his final form could stop it.

Death appeared before Mercy. His skin was a coal black, his light purple eyes now as dark as his ki, and his power was unfathomable.

With blinding speed, Death struck Mercy with a mighty blow. Mercy could feel dark energy coursing through him.

Death gave a satisfied smile and spoke, "A thousand years of death." A barrage of punches assaulted Mercy, each hit sending dark energy coursing through him. The final blow was devastating. The dead forest behind Mercy was obliterated, a straight path carved through it. The storm clouds in the sky were parted for just a moment to reveal a bright blue sky. Light shined down on Mercy.

He could feel blood flowing down his back. His feathers fell down the crater below him. He knew his wings were shredded. He coughed up blood inside his mask and began to follow his feathers into the crater. The last thing he saw was the blue sky, and how the dark clouds overtook it.

Death exhaled, and his aura died down, his skin became grey once more, and his dark purple gaze dulled. He landed at the edge of the crater. His followers amassed before him. There were thousands, each one covered in a black mist. They were all smiling and snickering. A particularly large creature, with a massive wing span, walked before Death and kneeled. The creature asked, "What is your bidding, my master?"

Death yelled out to the crowd, "Scour the galaxy, find Preyter, and bring him to me!"

With those final words echoing across the hoard, they scattered in all directions, some laughing out loud or snickering with others.

Sorrow appeared beside Death and asked, "What would you have me to do?"

"Come, let us train."