Chapter 28

The World of the Kaioshin, far away from Earth

They - the two Supreme Kaios of this universe and their servant Kibito - had been, at least as good as they could, following the latest events and their consequences. Not only at the planet Earth, but also the effects everywhere in known space.

As good as they could... But of course The Priest with his ability to travel to other dimensions and timelines that was far superior to their own, had places where he was even out of there reach.

"Another menace had awoken," the younger Kaioshin stated, "and once again it is on Earth," he commented. "I sometimes have to ask myself what is it about this planet? When ever a universal disaster happens it is always there."

"That is nothing," the older one replied. "Have you not felt it? As this Dark Priest had returned to our universe the last time, from wherever he went, he had brought yet another God Ki user with him, one with a similar dangerous and with a equally evil aura like himself. Whatever has just awakened on Earth, it is a minor threat compared to this."

"We will have to deal with both anyway... we all will," he said, refering to their allies on that planet. Maybe we should go to Earth and warn them now."

"Don´t worry, we will. As soon as we can," the old Kaioshin told him. "As you might remember we also have a very serious problem here to take care of. He will arive here very soon. And we will need to do everything we can to convince him not to cause even more trouble."

"Yes, I know," the younger one responded.

"Good, then calm down and try to be as diplomatic as possible. They can be here any moment."

"They are already here," a voice interrupted them.

A couple of figures had just appeared a short distance from them.

"Lord Whiz," the young Kaioshin greeted them, "and Lord Beerus. How good to see you again."

"Kaioshin," Beerus replied simply.

"And you," he said, looking at the older Kaio, "as I see you are also free again. Tell me, how has it been spending millions of years trapped inside a cursed sword?"

"Quite comfortable actually," he answered, "but a bit boring." He didn´t seem to let the situation outnerve him. at least at the outside, he was completely calm.

Of course they both knew that they had much reason to be nervous with Beerus destructive and unpredictable nature. He was the God of Destruction after all... at least the one of their universe.

"Well, we originally wanted to come here to ask you about something called the Super Saiyajin God," Beerus stated. "But then we took a look at the universe around us. It seems there are a few other things we should talk about. First of who are these two new sources of dark Divine Ki?"

xxxxxxx

Earth, West City

Hoi had been waiting for this chance. Watching the ongoing fight from a hiding place, he had put his eyes on the fighters who were challenging Hildegarn... and in first line of course on Tapion.

Then at one point, Tapion and the warrior closest to him seemed distracted somehow. He made his move.

xxx

Tapion had registered what Trunks had just told him. Of course it did have to had been like that. How else would they have been able to come out of this situation in the desolated world Trunks had described where he came from?

But was there a chance here, in this world, to actually win? Maybe there had always been only one possibility to end this, to prevent even more deaths.

Had they truly a chance to beat Hildegarn? Or were they deluding themselves if they thought that?

He remembered how many hundreds... even thousands of warriors had already tried it on his home planet... and they all had been all had fooled themselves into thinking they had a chance against the monster. And they all paid for it.

But he also knew by now that Trunks and the others were incredible far above any fighter the planet Konas had ever seen. He could feel their incredible energy. But would it be enough? he asked himself. Enough to end this quickly without further victims. His fear would let go of him, a fear that every native of Konas knew all too well.

And even if they could do it, how many more innocents more would die until that point? But he could prevent it all right here. All he needed to do was... die.

Maybe it was truly better if they ended it now, he thought for a short moment. Just like the last time, he said to himself... like it happened in Trunks world.

What did he have to loose anyway? All what he had known and cared for was long gone. In every minute Hildegarn, even only half of him was on the loose, more innocent people were put into danger.

He caught himself how he actually considered it. To tell Trunks to kill him one again and end it all here and now. But somehow he could not open his mouth.

What if they could do it? Something in him refused to die for no reason.

And beside that, he didn´t really want to put Trunks who had quickly become a friend - both versions of him - through this. Not if it didn´t need to be.

xxx

Hoi came out of his hiding place. He moved with speed that seemed impossible for his age and short stature. But his magic was able to augment also his physical strength, for a short time at least.

They hadn´t noticed him yet, good.

He concentrated his powers and sent them out to his enemy. Hoi´s magic struck Tapion in the back.

Nobody had noticed him until it was too late. They all had been paying attention to the creature in front of them, not to dark corners. Just as he had planned. Nobody was able to do something in time.

"Tapion," Trunks called out as he noticed his friend breaking down in pain.

Seconds later his reaction was mirrored by his younger counterpart who also saw what had just happened.

The younger Trunks was flying towards them, Son Goten a few meters behind him.

He landed and kneeled down next to his friend.

"Are you alright Tapion?" he asked concerned.

They wanted to help him, but it was already too late. They all saw and sensed a dark essence leaving his body.

"No," Tapion whispered as he noticed what happened.

His physical state wasn´t the problem. It has never been. His life had never been in danger from the attack. It had not truly been his body that Hoi had assaulted after all. It was his mind. That was the part that needed to be weakened for the captured essence to be released.

Hildegarn was free. The presence that had left Tapion´s body now gathered around the other half of the monster that was already terrorizing the town and merged with it, becoming one again.

Instead of only the bizarre looking under half, it was now Hildegarn in his full body standing before them. His power, they noticed, had also skyrocked as he became complete again.

The monster was larger than even most of the multistory building around him. While most of Hildegarn´s body was dark green, his head was white, giving it a ressemblence to a humanoid skull, with glowing red eyes. His appearance alone would be enough to scare the most normal warriors.

The level of energy he was radiating right now was gigantic, even by their standards. One to one maybe Vegeta after his power up by the Kaioshin had a chance. But the rest of them?

"Yes, yes, after all this time he is free again. Hildegarn will destroy you all," Hoi shouted for all of them to hear. Obviously having given up his carefulness in his moment of triumph. "The universe will be mine. Show them your power," he exclaimed.

At his command the monster crushed another house. He avoided attacks by Piccolo and Android 18 and smashed both of them out of his way. With his full body, it seemed he had not only gotten more powerful, but also smarter.

Being complete again, Hildegarn´s rampage now only intensified.

Mirai Trunks knew there was one thing he could do right now.

He appeared right in front of Hoi.

"It is over for you," he called out... and without a moment of hesitation blasted him away. "You have gone too far a long time ago," he stated.

Trunks was looking at the place where Hoi had been standing a moment before. Would the loss of his master make Hildegarn less dangerous? Or would he now turn into an even more uncontrollable threat? He had to admit he wasn´t sure about it. Would it even make a difference?

At least Hoi himself would never harm anyone ever again.

"Yeah, you got that bastard," his younger self who was still standing close to Tapion said to him.

"Yes, I did," he repeated quietly. Mirai Trunks turned around to Kid Trunks and Tapion. "But will it change something?" he asked in the direction of his old friend.

"I am not sure," Tapion admitted. "Hildegarn was created as a creature of pure destruction, even without Hoi´s directions, so probably not."

"I thought so," Trunks replied. He was was looking in the direction where the monster was right now fighting with Vegeta and Android 17, who were both dodging several of his blows.

Yes, he saw, killing Hoi had probably not made much of a difference. Hildegarn had been and still was, a raging killing-machine.

But at least they got rid of the smaller threat. Whatever happened, Hoi would not lead him to other planets to wipe out their population for his insane vision of a universe that belongs only to his race. Whatever damage the monster would cause from now on, there would at least be no genocidical plan behind it.

xxx

Hildegarn opened his mouth and spat a stream of ki energy into the air that nearly hit Seventeen, who barely managed to avoid it.

"It seems this thing is far more dangerous than we thought," the Android called out.

"If he had fired that to the ground, he could have wiped out at least the half city," Gohan, who had just come up again, said in shock.

xxx

"Did you see that?" Son Goten asked where he the two Trunks and Tapion where still standing.

"We need to stop him," Kid Trunks said to the others.

"Do you... do you think you can do it?" Tapion asked insecure.

"He is far more powerful than I had ever feared," Mirai Trunks admitted. "But we all have grown very strong in the last months. Together at least we will take him down."

His father might even have a chance by himself, he knew. The problem was Hildegarn´s ability to dissolve himself and reappear wherever he wanted. How do you fight an enemy who does not even have physical mass half the time?

"Yes, trust us Tapion," the younger Trunks told him. "We will win."

"We will," the older Trunks confirmed. "Gohan, Father, Seventeen," he shouted upwards to the others. "We should all get him at the same time. Prepare your attacks and wait for him to take full form."

Like before Hildegarn was dissolving into his fog like essence and reappearing somewhere else again and again. Not even existing as solid matter half the time.

"Maybe we should first try to get him away from the town," Son Gohan suggested.

They all knew their energy could cause terrible collateral damage. But so would letting Hildegarn continue his rampage for any longer.

Android 17 finally made the decision for them. He flew closer to Hildegarn and fired a ki blast right at the side of his head.

"Hey you," he shouted at him, "yes you, you overgrown freak. You think you can beat me? You think you have a chance? I am Android 17. Come if you think you can deal with me. I will tell you something, I have already seen more scary monsters than you. You know something? I will wish the floor with you. Come here if you are not too scared of me," he yelled

Hildegarn spat another wave of ki energy at him, another that Seventeen also easily evaded and he himself fired another weak ki blast at the enemy. That hit him square, but of course without noticable effect.

But this had of course never been his intention. Like the Android had obviously planned it, the monster started to move in his direction, to follow him as he slowly started to fly out of the city area. He was leading him away.

18 was taking a place right next to her brother. She as well was hitting the creature with a few light attacks, but was not trying to do any real damage... yet.

"You know Seventeen, of all your stupid ideas, this one might actually get the job done," she remarked.

"Hey, it isn´t stupid since it actually works. What is truly stupid is your constant complaining while I have to do everything," he replied.

"Stop your squabbling you two," Vegeta shouted at them, "and better start to concentrate on the enemy."

"If you say so Vegeta," 18 responded, still not quite serious. She truly didn´t know why she should take advice from a guy who had the habbit of playing around in nearly every battle whenever it looked as if he had the upper hand.

One thing was sure as far as it came to her. She would certainly never let the idiot live it down that he was the one who let Cell absorb her, Eighteen thought by herself.

"Okay 17, you win this time," she told her brother. "But only because we got interrupted," she commented, sounding a bit playful.

18 knew she was right now acting more like she would have a few years ago, before her marriage with Krillin. Back when she had still been `on the road´ with Seventeen, as you could call it. In old times.

She wasn´t quite sure however if that was a good sign right now or a bad one.

"Vegeta has a point," Seventeen stated, "let us deal with that guy first. We can finish our discussion later. But like you said, for the moment I win." He grinned.

xxx

"They are doing it," Gohan said to the two Trunks and Son Goten who had just arrived next to him. "They are getting him out of the city."

"Get ready everyone," Mirai Trunks told them.

They all were concentrating their energy, preparing their attacks. Vegeta and Piccolo were doing the same thing at the other side of the battlefield. They were all waiting for the right moment.

Hildegarn had just passed the city´s border. Only a few more seconds.

xxxxxxx

Not all of them were directly involved in the fight. The two who stayed out of it and were in a greater distance to the battlefield were Tarble and Mirai 18.

Both of them kept some distance to each other as well. Or more precisely he kept his distance from her. Like the others, he knew about her story by now and what she as responsible for.

Tarble had to admit, he was thankful to her for bringing him out of Bojack´s brig, but he had to agree with the others. It was good possible that it had all been part of some kind of plan. So aside from his general gratitute for freeing him he knew better than to trust her.

And he knew just how dangerous she was. Like all the others here she was far above even the Legendary Super Saiyajin level. Well, maybe she was not that far above it like some of the other were.

In the moment, both of them were staying out of the battle like he saw. He because his brother Vegeta had told him to do it and he knew, as much as he hated to admit it, that he was far too weak to even be a help. No, he would only be in the way.

She however?... she had no real reason to stay out of the fight by all he knew.

But the others had right now their hands full with the monster that was rampaging through the town and nobody had really the time to pay attention to her.

"Hey," he called out to her, "don´t you think you could do something to help as well?"

Mirai 18 turned towards him.

"I am not as strong as the others," she replied. "You know that. I am still way behind my counterpart and her brother. I don´t think I can do anything to help," she told him.

"And that means you won´t even try?" he asked her.

"It is not as if you are the one to talk here," she said, reminded him that he was not fighting either.

"Don´t come me like that," he yelled. "We both know the difference between you and me. I would be complately useless in that fight, but you..."

"The difference between you and me?" 18 suddenly giggled. "Well, it would be good for you to remember that little man."

Tarble saw that her expression had now turned into a devilish grin. He realized that she was only been mocking him until now.

They had been right about her. She wasn´t fighting with the others because she had no interest to help them.

And he realized that he himself wasn´t exactly in a safe situation. If Mirai 18 came to the idea to attack him, he would be completely helpless.

Unknown to him however Eighteen had completely different thoughts on her mind. She for her part was quite sure now that The Priest was behind all what was happening here. That meant her time with the Z-fighters was coming to an end.

Well, it was fine as long it lasted.

xxxxxxx

"Now," Piccolo yelled to the others.

They all unleashed their attacks nearly at the same time. Just as Hildegarn was about to threw another attack at Seventeen, who was still purposely playing the bait. Like the Android had planned it.

Trunks Burning Attack, Son Gohan´s and Son Goten´s Kamehameha, Vegeta´s Big Bang attack, Eighteen´s Infinity Bullets and many others.

And all of them found their target. Hildegarn and the entire area he was standing on were caught in the center of a giant explosion. Fire filled the landscape around it.

Seconds later, as the blinding light had waned down and they could use their eyes again, they saw a crater just outside of the city and in it´s center Hildegarn´s lifeless body.

Their `other senses´ were telling them the same thing. They could not longer feel any energy coming from their fallen enemy.

xxxxxxx

Somewhere else on Earth

During all what had happened however, they were the whole time being observed. Not however with regular eyes or senses.

The Priest and his group of allies were hundreds of miles away. Demigra was standing next to him, together with Super 17 and the newly awakened Demon Buu. Both of them were under his influence. His magical energy was flowing both their bodies and their minds.

A few meters behind them were the two herans Zangya and Bido. They were still free of his control, mostly because neither Demigra or The Priest had bothered with them. Not when so many more `interesting´ candidates were around.

This two were doing their job anyway, mind-control or not.

They all were hiding their ki signatures so that they themselves wouldn´t be detected. While he and the others were using their own supernatural senses to follow the battle that was in this moment taking place.

The Priest had also sensed how Hildegarn´s energy had vanished in this moment. Yes, he remembered how a similar thing had once happened in his own world as well... one of the times he had faced Hildegarn back then.

And, like the Z-fighters probably were in this moment, he had let himself for a short time being fooled into thinking that it was over.

xxxxxxx

West City

The Z-fighters and Tapion were still looking at Hildegarn´s unmoving form.

They had won. At least that was the thought they had all on their minds.

But their relief lasted only seconds.

Hildegarn´s energy suddenly flared up again, stronger than ever before. The body was breaking open and a greenish light was shining out.

Then something broke out of and rose from the shattered form of the monster... something living. Hildegarn was not dead, they realized. He had gone through some sort of metamorphosis.

The new version of him was a light green creature with long thin horns on his head and wings, somehow ressembling a giant sized butterfly, a monstrous form of one at least.

What he left behind of his old self was now only an empty husk, an discarded old shell. Yes, ironically quite like a butterfly.

But nothing of that really mattered. What was truly important was that Hildegarn´s power had just grown by a large degree. Did they still had any chance to beat him?

Vegeta powered up to his limit. He had begann to charge his Final Flash by collecting ki in both his outstretched arms.

Hildegarn spread his new wings and lifted off into the air. Great, now their enemy could also fly, beside dis- and reappearing at will, Trunks told himself.

He saw in this moment that his father was trying something. It was the same technique he once used against Cell, after having trained it in the time-chamber.

Vegeta concentrated all his energy with his hands and fired. But once again Hildegarn´s form dissolved just before the attack hit him. The beam of the Final Flash vanished behind the horizon.

`No,´ the Saiyan Prince thought.

And the giant monster reappeared right beside him. One hit from his large claw smashed Vegeta down into the ground.

Hildegarn was just raising one foot to crush his downed opponent completely, but Mirai Trunks and Eighteen interfered. They fired their ki blasts at the same time and unbalanced the monster enough to keep the monster from trampling Vegeta. But otherwise their attacks showed no visible effect.

Once again Hildegarn flew up into the sky... and from above he spat down energy that send an entire forest area close to the town on fire.

"Can we still stop him?" Son Gohan questioned.

"Not without countless more victims and destruction," Piccolo replied. "He is probably already looking for the next place to wreck. We were lucky that we were at least able to get him out of the town."

"I am sorry, I have failed," Tapion said to them.

"It wasn´t your fault. It was Hoi, if he hadn´t attacked you," the Named replied. "At least Trunks had taken out that guy."

"But that won´t help us much to stop Hildegarn," Mirai Tunks

"I say we do it," Vegeta told them.

"The Super Saiyajin God Transformation?" Piccolo asked.

"Yes."

"There has to be a way we can stop him without it," Mirai Trunks argued.

"Not without thousands of more deaths and more cities destroyed," Vegeta responded.

"This is exactly what The Priest had wanted from the beginning," Trunks countered.

"I know. But do you truly think we ever had a chance to avoid it? Becoming this Super Saiyajin Gods is the only way we will ever have a chance against this Priest. You said it yourself, Fusions are too unstable and don´t hold long enough, not to mention that I hate the thought of it alone, the Super Android Project might still take years to complete.

And about your plan to get help from another timeline. There is no guaranty that your mother will even find the help she is looking for. Or that she will return in time to change something... and even if she did, you are a saiyajin. Could you truly live with yourself if you knew you survived only through the help of others? That you let them fight your enemies for you, when you had an alternative?"

"Is that this is all about to you," Mirai Trunks asked him now angrily, "your pride? Once again nothing but your goddamn ego? Just like back then against Cell?"

"Future me?" the younger version of himself asked him unsure as he saw him talking like this to his father.

"Is that true, do you just want to be the one to bring down The Priest?" Eighteen asked Vegeta sharply.

He had to hold back an angry reply. He reminded himself, 18 of all people had reason to mistrust him.

"No, that is not the reason," he said. "I had made a mistake with Cell. I let my pride and arrogance get the better of me and for that... I apologize for that Eighteen," he told her.

This took the others a bit by surprise. For Vegeta to suddenly apologize was... unusual at best. Especially for something what happened years ago. But they also knew that this was the source of a grudge the Android had against the saiyan that never truly vanished.

"But this here is not like that," Vegeta continued. "You know as good as me that The Priest is probably observing this entire battle here. If not from somewhere on this planet then maybe from the other side of the universe. But he is knowing what his happening here. By the strength our ki had you can sense it galaxis away. It would be impossible for him not to have noticed. If he is not behind it all from the beginning.

He will for sure use this as one of these `tests´ he wanted to put on us and then he can show up here at any time. And when this happens, I will rather face him as a Super Saiyajin God than like I am now."

They all were looking at each other, they knew about the chance that The Priest was indeed somehow involved in all this.

"By the way, where is Tarble?" Vegeta asked them. "I had told him to stay out of the fight."

"He did," Mirai Trunks replied. "He stayed a few miles out of the battlefield, in that direction."

"Yes and he is coming back," the younger Trunks added, pointing in the same direction where a figure was coming closer.

A second later Tarble had arrived next to them.

"Good that you are back brother," Vegeta addressed him. "We need you here for something."

"There is something you should know first. Eighteen has disappeared," he told them all.

"What are you talking about? I am right here," 18 replied.

"Not you, the other 18," he said. "It seems you were right about her."

The others looked at him now gobsmacked. Mirai 18, how could they just have forgotten about her? True, they truly did have other problems, but...

A few of them, in first line Seventeen, couldn´t help but also have a smile forming on their faces about hearing the exchange between 18 and him. But that only lasted a moment.

This was serious.

"What had happened?" Vegeta wanted to know.

"I saw that she was staying out of the fight," Tarble explained. "I called her out on it. Then she was only looking at me as if she wanted to kill me... and flew away."

"That is all?" Gohan questioned confused.

"She is probably returning to The Priest," Mirai Trunks suggested. "That means he is probably on this planet."

"Should we go after her?" this timelines 18 questioned.

"She is our smallest problem right now," Piccolo pointed out.

"We need to take care of this monster first, before it causes even more damage," Mirai Trunks said.

"And then we must probably expect The Priest showing up and jumping literally right into our lap," 17 added.

"Yes," Trunks admitted, "that too."

"The question is, what do we do now?" Vegeta asked them.

xxxxxxx

The Priest and his allies were still following the events.

What the Z-fighters didn´t know and had no way to, was that the new form of Hildegarn had not simply become stronger. In the moment he had changed, Lord Demigra who had combined his powers with the one of The Priest, had been reaching out to him.

The creature had fallen under the influence of the Demon and now Hildegarn had a new master... and he was stronger than ever before.

"Now, is the fight interesting?" Demigra asked him. "Does it meet your expectations?"

"To the most part yes," he answered. "But they have not yet unleashed the God Ki... yet. I am sure they will soon."

"Maybe we should already get involved. What do you think? Our presence might finally press them to do what you wanted all along," Demigra suggested. "We could just go there and tell them, create Divine Ki or we will kill you. Sure, it would be somewhat beneath higher beings like us, but it would be quick and effective. So why continue playing with them?"

"Maybe I like playing with them," The Priest responded sardonically. "But seriously. Yes, it would likely force them to do it. But it might also cause them to do something desperate to disrupt my plans. Or they might even decide in some kind of failed martyrdom that they rather go down fighting as they are than to endanger the rest of the multiverse.

Believe me, I know this people. It is better to let them think they still have some time until my return and the chance to prepare. If they don´t do it, then we can still come out and force the issue."

"If you think so," Demigra stated casually, not sounding as if he really cared one way or the other. After all with the Android Super 17, the Demon Buu and now this Hildegarn character, The Priest had already provided him with a group of very powerful servants.

If his plan should work out and he would manage to return the legendary Nameless God to this worlds, good. As long as they keep their word and leave Lord Demigra as overseer over these universes.

"The Divine Ki, in the hands of a skilled user, is able to defeat Hildegarn, even in his strongest form," The Priest stated. He should know that best, he thought.

He knew in at least one timeline Son Goku had killed him with his Dragon Fist. But in this world nobody knew this technique... and thanks to Demigra, this Hildegarn here was now stronger than that other version.

All what was left for them was the Godly Ki.

He remembered his last fight with Hildegarn in his own universe, if it could even be called that.

xxxxxxx

The timeline of The Priest - years ago

The young boy known as Trunks was sitting in a small space-ship that was circling the planet Earth.

The owner of said space-ship was standing right behind him. He was a green skinned alien with some superficial similarities to a Namek. With the exception of the different ears and the lack of antennas on his forehead.

Just like his student would be years later, he was clad in a black colored cloak.

He was a follower of the Nameless God, one of the Priests of the Supreme God of Destruction, whose faith had at least in some universes survived the countless generations.

This being had come to Earth nearly a year ago, after a long journey where he had searched many worlds in many different realities for a fitting candidate... for a student. Some of this `candidates´ who had failed him... and even a few of their worlds had felt his wrath if they had disappointed him all too much.

But now it seemed that he had found one who fit his expectations.

Trunks was the last survivor of the fighters of this planet. After his mentor, his mother, Tapion and even the Androids 17 and 18 who had in the last days been forced to become their allies, had perished, he had been left alone.

Until he had found him.

"Now Trunks," he said, "show me what you have learned."