Chapter 41

The Fusion called Gogou was now clashing with Demigra.

And, as incredulous as it sounded, he was actually having the upper hand.

The Goku-Seventeen Fusion, in his Ascended SSB and Kaioken20-State, was in this moment moving in unbelievable speed around demigra and landing one hit on him after the other.

Even Demigra seemed to be unable to keep up with his attacks.

But he knew the Fusion would not last long. Especially not with the level of power he was unleashing.

And while he was fighting here, the wounded Grandpriest was left to fight the other incarnation of Demigra by himself.

He needed to end this fight quickly.

The Fusion now used a combination of the fighting-style Seventeen had taken over from Kakunza and improved and both Goku´s and Seventeen´s attack moves.

He used Seventeen´s barriers to create footings for himself in the air as he moved and attacked Demigra from all sides, sending punches, kicks and energy blasts at him.

Saek meanwhile could only stand by as his father and Lord, the first and most powerful of all Demons, came closer and closer to defeat.

xxx

But while the one alternate version of Demigra was now fighting a loosing battle, the other one was in fact easily winning against the now injured Grandpriest.

Only countless million years of experienced, combined with giant energy reserves and an iron will kept the Grandpriest going, at least for the moment.

The question was how much longer he would hold out.

xxxxxxx

Above them all the number of the Super Dragon Balls was now complete. With the last three Fallen Angels just having returned with the remaining ones.

All what Demigra still needed to do now was to make his wish.

xxxxxxx

Jiren had just been coming out as the victor of the fight between him and the Beast from Universe Two.

First he had won a beam-struggle, that had obliterated Demigra´s fortress on this planet, along with the Wizard Hoy who had been inside.

Then he had struck down the Beast itself when it went out of control with the Wizard´s death.

But in the next moment he himself was being attacked from behind...

... by the Fallen Angel Krombar, one of the three who had just returned with the Super Dragon Balls.

"You," Jiren struggled to push himself back up from the ground and looked around behind him.

"Someone who claims to be an Angel should not resort to shooting someone in the back," he said quietly, but angry.

Not that he truly expected this beings to have a similar code of honor like the Pide Troopers. But secretly Jiren hoped that this insult to his new opponent´s lack of it might buy him a few seconds to come back up to his feet.

"I have to agree here brother," the second Angel Calver, who had jusr now appeared beside them, commented.

"Maybe - but ultimately it gets things done," Krombar replied grinning.

Jiren now gathered the last of his energy and desperately fired another blast at the two Fallen Angels.

But the injured and exhausted Jiren was already too weakened and Krombar easily overpowered and broke his blast with one of his own and then burned a hole right through the strongest Pride Trooper´s chest.

xxxxxxx

"Jiren," Toppo whispered in shock as he sensed the death of his closest friend.

And for a moment his concentration slipped. His opponent, the second alterate version of Quitella, used this opportunity and fired a powerful blast of Destruction Energy at Toppo.

Which he only react to in the last moment and barely managed to deflect with his own Destruction Powers.

Quitella however followed up by leaping forward and landing a vicious strike into Toppo´s side and sending the New God of Destruction flying downwards from the position they had been fighting in the sky.

Toppo caught himself again after falling and pummeling through the air for a few hundred meters. He then glared down at his sneaky opponent angrily.

In this moment however Beerus moved in and landed a similar vicious kick at the side of the alternate Quitella´s head and send him flying sidewards, in a quite similar way like he had just done it to Toppo.

"Are you okay Toppo?" Beerus called out to him.

Toppo was holding his side, where Quitella had just hit him, in visible pain.

"Normally I would tell you that this is my fight," he replied. "But right now, I am beyond caring."

"Then let us end this rat once and for all," Beerus said.

Both of them nodded and then charged up two more blasts of Destruction Power and fired them at Quitella, who had just now managed to stop his movement through the air. Just to see the two blasts coming at him at the same moment.

It was too late to evade. "No," he called out.

Being a God of Destruction himself, he might have been able to withstand it if it had been just one blast. But what hit him was the combined full power of both Beerus and Toppo.

The ki he was building up in the last split-second as a defense was instantly overwhelmed and his body was consumed and, like his counterpart a minute ago, erased from existence.

xxxxxxx

Cooler and Brinka, after defeating the alternate Super Androids, where now fighting a couple of Second Generation Demons.

"My fusion will not hold for much longer," Brinka said to him.

"Okay," he replied. "Let us try to deal with this guys quickly and then reunite with the others."

He fired a Death Beam right through the heart of one of their opponents.

xxxxxxx

Kefla in her Super Saiyan Blue Form was still fighting with the enemy-version of Broly.

During the entire fight, her opponent had not said a single word yet - only growls and shouts. It was starting to make them feel freaked out.

"Hey - will you finally say something damn it!" Kefla shouted outnerved.

But the rampaging Berserker Super Saiyan only let out another growl and attacked again, even more savagely. And not only that, his power was growing.

At the same time however, his body seemed to get more and more damaged. Damage that Kefla did not cause. It was as if he was overstressing his body and literally burning himself out to defeat her.

xxxxxxx

The other, the `real´ Broly, who was on their side, had even greater problems, as his opponent, the Angel Rum was suddenly supported by a second Angel - a woman - appearing beside him.

"Jeffra," he said. "What are you doing here? I don´t need your help."

"It is time," she responded. "Lord Demigra will soon make his wish."

And then nothing would ever be the same again, they both knew.

Broly gritted his teeth. He struggled to force down his anger and frustration and to stay in control of himself.

He knew he had no chance against both of them. Unless maybe if he let himself go and went beyond his limits. But then he risked ending up like his insane counterpart just a few kilometers away.

And to become just another threat instead of being an help.

Of course, a thought came to his mind.

Broly fell back from the two Fallen Angels, turned around and then flew in the opposite direction.

After they exchanged a short look, Rum and Jeffra followed him.

Right towards Kefla and Broly´s other self.

As he came closer, he raised a hand and shot his insane other self into the back.

And then Broly simply let himself fall down a few hundred meters downwards, so that his rampaging counterpart as he turned around, was facing the two him closely following Fallen Angels instead.

"Moment - what?" Jeffra called out in surprise as they now faced the Broly meant to be on their side.

As expected, the mad Super Saiyan instantly attacked even them without thinking.

First the two were forced to parry a volley of green energy blasts the berserker threw at them, before he wildly charged at Rum, forcing him into a wrestling match.

xxx

The other their Broly meanwhile rose up again, right next to Kefla.

"Not bad," she commented as they watched their enemies going at each other.

xxxxxxx

Eighteen was meanwhile using Ultra Instinct to evade a large number of black energy globes that Towa was throwing at her and of small interdimensional portals that she was opening all around them in hope of simply throwing her opponent into another dimension.

But so far Eighteen had avoided all her attemps.

xxxxxxx

Vegeta and the Beby-possessed Gohan had send several more punches and ki blasts at each other.

With Vegeta using Forced Spirit Fission with every strike he made.

And Beby loosing both more and more of his absorbed energy and bit by bit his hold over his host-body.

But...

"Like I said, it is not that easy. And you are also loosing energy with every move you make," Beby stated. "And even if you win, I will just move on to another host. It might even be you. Remember, one small injury is enough and I could enter your body."

"Even then, I would kill you before you manage to reach me," Vegeta replied.

"Really? We will see."

"Yes - we will."

xxx

Not far away from them, Future Trunks and Mira were still facing off. Both fighters were seriously injured and at their physical limit. While Mira, being an Android, was not exhausted like Trunks, the enormous damage he had taken was more than making up for that difference.

Trunks draw his sword... and Mira materialized one of his own in his hand.

Both leaped forward and their blades clashed.

In the background behind them, Piccolo and Cabba were still fighting the giant Cell Max.

"You will not win Mortal," Mira said. "You will run out of energy, I won´t."

"Then I need to end this quickly," Future Trunks replied.

He did something that he had trained for for some time and tried a few times before. He combined his Super Saiyan Blue with his original Wraith Form.

And his hair turned now into the light-green shimmering teal color of a God-Wraith Form, ten times stronger than his SSB.

"What?" Mira said in surprise.

Future Trunks had already moved before the Android could react, leaving a wide clean cut across Mira´s chest... and then turned around and placed a second strike, which cut right through Mira´s head and face.

Wordlessly, his face in a silent grimace, the upper half of Mira´s head separated from his body and both was falling downwards towards the surface of the planet.

Trunks had won, but he was at the end of his strength. He was barely able to hold himself in the air. He changed back into his base form... for the moment.

xxxxxxx

"You should know something," Vegeta said to Beby. "I have one technique left that I have not shown so far. One that might be ideal to deal with something like you. Now that I have weakened your connection to your host, it might work."

Vegeta´s aura suddenly turned purple and Destruction Energy formed around him. His features slightly reshaped under the new transformation.

"What?" Beby said completely surprised.

"You should know that I have trained under a God of Destruction for years," Vegeta reminded him. "I have learned to access and weild their power. And to use it precisely."

Beby suddenly froze in his movement. Did he mean?

"I can even target one being that is hiding inside another one," Vegeta stated.

He concentrated on Beby´s energy inside Gohan´s body.

But in truth Vegeta was not half as confident in his abilities as he let on. Yes - he could hit Beby while he was possessing Gohan, but there was no telling how much damage Gohan himself would take during that.

But it was still better than leaving him as a puppet to this creature.

Still Vegeta hoped that Beby would fall for his bluff and willingly leave his vessel in an attempt to flee.

xxxxxxx

Main Timeline - Earth

On Doctor Muy´s order, the four Machine Mutants merged into a single large robot-like being and attack the remaining Z-fighters side by side with General Rilldo.

But once again they were easily beaten down by Goten and Trunks in their SSB Forms.

Doctor Muy gritted his teeth in anger and emberassment.

"Sigma Force," he called out, "disengage and merge with General Rilldo to become..."

But Trunks and Goten had enough and just blasted their opponent with a Gallick-Gun and a Kamehameha, disintigrating them instantly.

One moment later Twenty One appeared right in front of him and blasted Doctor Muy himself apart too.

"Sorry my dear `colleague´," she commented, "but I will not be your test-subject."

In that moment all Machine Mutants around the planet suddenly froze in their movements, not longer getting any signals or instructions.

"Listen to me," Trunks called out to the ones who were close around them. "Your leaders have been killed. There is no reason to continue this fight. Please just leave our planet."

They all seemed to hesitate.

Marron stepped forward.

"And if you are worried about this Lord Beby they mentioned coming after you," she said, "you can also stay close by and we will protect you."

This seemed to have done it and the Machine Mutants begann to retreat back to their ship.

"Nice thinking Marron," Trunks said.

"Yes - I had not even thought about the guy this Muy had mentioned," Goten admitted.

xxxxxxx

Demigra´s Planet

The Fusion Gogou now charged and fired a Kamehameha at the version of Demigra he was fighting.

Already weakened by Gogou´s attacks, he was not able to evade the blast. For a moment he tried to hold the deadly energy back, but it was too much even for him.

The Kamehameha completely engulfed him and burned through his body.

As the resulting explosion dimmed down and Demigra´s body became visible again, the energy of the attack had burned away his left arm and nearly half of his chest.

If he were a normal being, the attack would have killed him. But Demigra was immortal. In every sense of the word.

The lost parts of his body had already begun to regenerate themselves. Not by replicating their cells, like with Buu or Cell, but out of pure energy that turned into matter and reformed his body.

But his energy had greatly dismished.

But only for a moment. What now happened however greatly surprised not just Gogou, but also Saek who had been watching the entire fight.

Demigra´s energy suddenly changed. The difference in his Divine Ki was soo drastically that Gogou would have nearly thought he had a different person before him. If you could even speak of a person anymore.

Demigra´s new aura was so dark and sinister like they had never felt it from any living being before.

As Demigra opened his eyes, they were not longer the golden color inherited from absorbing Zamala, but a deep red.

Not only that, on his back was suddenly appearing a pair of large bat-like demonic wings. His fingers were growing into long sharp talons.

And a black myst-like presence was forming around him.

A presence that both Goku and Seventeen had seen before. Here in the presence in some of Demigra´s minions...

... and in a recording from the far past.

"What the hell?" even Saek asked as he saw it.

Demigra´s power was not only restored, it had grown even higher than before.

Even worse, Gogou could sense that the other alternate version of Demigra, who was facing the Grandpriest, had gone through the same bizarre transformation.

Everyone else around them was sensing it as well.

xxxxxxx

"What in the world?" even Beby, who was still in his stand-off with Vegeta, asked.

But he also used this chance, since he saw that Vegeta was distracted as well.

He moved out of Gohan´s body, turned into his liquid form and quickly disappeared into the distance.

Vegeta snapped out of his surprise a moment later and send a couple ki blasts after the escaping Beby.

But he was already far away... and Beby had moved downwards towards the surface. That meant Vegeta had to be incredible careful not to accidentally hit the planet.

"Gohan," he said as he saw the now freed half-saiyan hanging weakly in the air, back in his Base Form.

"Vegeta," he responded, "thank you."

"It seems Kakarot and Seventeen can need our help," Vegeta stated. "Do you think you are able to..."

Gohan suddenly coughed up blood.

"It seems not really," he said. "But we have no real choice, right? And I will not let father and Seventeen do this alone."

xxxxxxx

The combined mind of Goku and Seventeen remembered. The Dragon God Zalama had been infected by some kind of dark presence. The same presence had been inherited by Demigra when he had absorbed Zalama.

But Zalama had in truth been one half of Zeno, who had split-off similar to how Piccolo had once done it. And the reason he had done that, as Zalama himself had heavily implied, had been to keep this dark presence from influencing the rest of Zeno.

It was questionable how much that actually worked, since even inside Demigra the presence seemed to still have some effect on Zeno, Gogou remembered the last scene that led to the erasing of six universes.

And this presence had clearly never disappeared - obviously, since it was surrounding the morphed Demigra right now. Instead it had lived on in him and as it seemed festered and now become even more dominant.

This led to the question how much of the Demigra of today was actually the Angel Meadhon and how much this... thing?

But it had originally come from Zeno himself.

The wish, he thought - Goku/Seventeen had suddenly a terrible suspicion what it could be.

xxxxxxx

The second timeline version of Demigra had just ended his own fight... by stabbing his new cralls into the Grandpriest´s stomach.

"You..." the Grandpriest tried to say something as he looked at his brother in his new monstrous transformation. But he did not manage anymore.

"Farewell... `Brother´," Demigra said as he let the body fall down into the atmosphere towards the ground.

Then he turned around to the Super Dragon Balls above him.

xxxxxxx

Eighteen just avoided another one of Towa´s ki blasts and another attempt to push her through one of her portals that she had formed right behind her.

"You," Towa shouted. "You will see you mortal bitch, I will send you to a liveless world, where you can spend the rest of your existence alone."

"Oh yes?" Eighteen suddenly appeared right in front of her and fired a ki blast right into Towa´s face.

It was not enough to actually damage her, but enough to temporally distract her.

As in the same moment, Eighteen grabbed her by her arm and shoulder... and through her right through her own dimension-portal, that disappeared right afterwards.

Sadly she knew this would not end her. Given Towa´s abilities to create this portal, she could easily flee from wherever it had send her.

But at least she was out of their hair for the time being.

Eighteen turned around. It seemed Seventeen and Goku could use some help.

xxxxxxx

But all that - everything - might have already been too late.

Because at the same moment Demigra had activated the Super Dragon Balls and finally made his wish.

"ekam em dna Onez eno gnieb," he called out to the Dragon.

Make me and Zeno one being... (again).

Quite obviously this story is quickly approaching it´s final.

This chapter answers the question about Demigra´s wish and gives some new perspectives about the connection between him, Zeno and Zalama.

xxcc

Also: As most of you could probably guess, Vegeta´s transformation in this chapter is this story´s version of Ultra Ego.