Chapter 7: Ascension and Freedom at a Price
Disclaimer: I do not own Beastars, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, Star Wars the Clone Wars, Star Wars expanded universe, or Hazbin Hotel, or the Seven Deadly Sins Anime.
The region of the galaxy that Legoshi found himself in when he followed the ki of the deity was a place filled with black holes and chaotic forces. He spotted two large space stations that were orbiting a planet that he could feel the deity's ki emanating from. He could also sense the ki of dozens in the smaller of the two stations, but something felt off about it. Curious and concerned, Legoshi entered the smaller station. He found that all the occupants were unconscious and unresponsive. He sensed their ki leaving their bodies and traveling to the world in the center of the black hole "net".
Legoshi was fascinated and confused at first at the flow of what looked like video, audio, and other sensory representations flowing out of the occupants by an ethereal path like a small, gentle river, which he was able to observe due to his "feeling" training. Without having witness how these people entered such a state of being, Legoshi was not able to replicate it for his curiosity's sake.
Legoshi left the station as there was nothing more to learn or do there and made his way to the jungle planet that the station was encircling.
The life of this world was abundant but the ki of the life forms were in a word: chaotic. Many of the overgrown and mobile plants he saw were carnivorous as they devoured fauna as if they were fauna themselves. Legoshi could sense the ki of the occupants of the station in this place, but it felt strange, like he was sensing a reflection of them. He could sometimes see them as ripples in reality, like dark objects revealed by the shimmers of a body of water.
He could sense the deity's ki slowly approaching one of the figures and began to drain it of its life energy. He had seen The Son try this technique on him before, but this time he could see ripples in the reality around her hand as she performed the ability. It was like she was commanding reality to perform a action in a localized scale.
"Is this the Force the Jedi kept mentioning?... Maybe it has something to do with that trick Ashoka taught me and those chants..?" Legoshi thought to himself as he approached.
The "woman" that he saw was humanoid with deeply-sunken black eye sockets and tiny silver eyes reminiscent of tiny stars at the bottom of a deep well. She had a long cascade of straw-like, honey-blond hair that reached to the ground and a large, full-lipped mouth that stretched from ear-to-ear and contained needle-like teeth. Her arms were stubby, protruding no more than ten centimeters from her shoulders, with hands that had long, writhing tentacles for fingers with suction cup tips. Her body was rigid and straight, and when she walked or ran, her legs rippled forward more than they swung. In addition, her body was enshrouded in mist that gave her an ethereal appearance.
When he approached her, she darted her eyes towards him in surprise and suspicion at first. She cautiously approached him with her hands out. Legoshi could see her trying the same ability on him. While it did not affect him, Legoshi study the ripples and flows of the sparking energy, where it came from, and where it was trying to reach. Mimicking the same flow of ki energy, Legoshi started to draw the power of the "woman" into himself, but unlike him, she was not as impervious to the ability as he was.
Startled a bit, she lowered her hand and for some reason started sniffing the air around Legoshi when she was a few feet away. Her eyes widened and her face contorted into two different expressions at the same time as if one half of her face was a different person than the other. She looked both enraged and longing as she lunged at Legoshi as her form contorted to strike from multiple sides.
Legoshi shot out multiple white ki rings at her and bound all her limbs to each other. She struggled in vain to break them.
Believing he had a moment of calm now, Legoshi sniffed himself underneath his armpit.
"Do I smell that bad? I mean I guess I got used to my own smell, but I should still smell if I had BO…. Was it really that offensive to you?" Legoshi asked self-consciously to her.
"You…. You have their smell on you!" She said, both angerly and longing at the same time.
"Are…You alright?" Legoshi asked out of concern.
Moments later, she torn all her limbs off as if she disconnected them like pipes to a drain…. A flesh…. Disturbing drain. Legoshi began to see the ripples in the reality around her stumps as she fell to the ground. The ripples turned into small, thread sized streams that coursed into the stumps that then began too rapidly regenerate until they were back to normal.
"Did I see words in that energy stream?" Legoshi asked himself in confusion.
Seeing that the rings were not going to work, he dismissed them. She lunged at him again but was stopped when Legoshi used a ki technique that paralyzed her entire body as she fell to the floor again.
"Can we be civil about this now? I have not come here to fight or hurt you!"
Legoshi saw her ki leave her body, like water being poured out of a cup, into the ground. It looked like what the occupants had done, but it felt like a complete transference of one's Ki instead of sensations. He saw her body dissolve and reform from the very ground as she rematerialized in front of him.
"Do you mean a group of 3 deities, an old man, a grey skinned man with red pupils, and a woman with green hair that radiates light?" He asked.
"Yes… Will they come back?" She asked with more longing than anger this time.
Legoshi looked down to his left in guilt as he put his hands to his sides and took a very deep bow.
"I'm sorry…they did not speak of you for the brief time I "met" them. They tried to trap me in their pocket dimension because they believed I was too powerful and dangerous to be left in the "temporal world". I am the God of Destruction of this entire universe, and I could not let them undo millions of years of my work. Admittedly I could have been more patient with them, but when they would not listen to me…. I…. erased them from existence using my power… I'm sorry but they no longer exist."
Legoshi had never seen a face contort into so many different expressions at once before as it seems her ki was even more chaotic than it was before. It was like this for a few seconds before her Ki suddenly became calmer and more focused than it was previously. She extended her right hand towards Legoshi. He could hear whispers coming from a stream of ripples extending from her hand. They were of her voice asking questions that both made and not made sense. He could also have sworn he could see the words read, mind, and knowledge making up the formation of the stream in reality towards his head. The stream bounced off his mind harmlessly as she was unable to read his thoughts or memories. She looked at her hands in confusion and then tried again but with no success.
"Let me try that… Maybe I can help?!" Legoshi offered
Legoshi held out his right hand and mimicked her flow of energy as he to saw the ripples extending outward towards her mind. He was also unable to read her thoughts as she had defensively heightened her mental defenses when she saw him try the same thing.
"Hmm? What is it then? What do you want or trying to do?"
She looked around anxiously as she tried to find a middle ground to the issue of trust. She got an idea when she saw one of the mind walkers near her. She coaxed one of them to stand between the two of them.
"Please give this one the memories you had of my…family. The gods you described to me." She asked anxiously.
"You mean like a middle man right?"
She vigorously shook her head yes.
"Ok." He simply answered as he performed the ability from before.
Legoshi let his memories of them flow from his mind into his ki by "feeling" that these two bodies were connected by a body of water and let his power carry those memories to the shadowy being in front of him. Once this was done, Legoshi nodded to her that he was done. She lifted her right hand and absorbed the memories from the shadow being and relived Legoshi's memories of her family from his perspective.
Her face contorted into both joy and sorrow at the same time as she looked down as if she was contemplating something. Legoshi could sense the chaos in her ki increasing, but in a strangely controlled way like a whirlpool.
She stood this way for 10 minutes as she took in the memory and cherished seeing her family one more time, even though it also pained her beyond measure.
Legoshi gave her all the time she wanted since this looked like a very emotional time for her.
When she looked back up, she looked directly into Legoshi's eyes. Her ki had calmed like never before, but it felt like it was trying to pull him into it.
"What is your name?" She asked in a surprisingly pleasant voice.
"Legoshi….what is your name?" He awkwardly asks back.
"I have forgotten it a long time ago, but you can call me Mother."
"…..ok Mother…. Uhhhh.. Are you ok here by yourself? I kind of have work to do."
"Please don't leave!... I don't want to be alone…..please." She begs and softly trails off.
Legoshi could feel her despair and longing like a pained hunger. Legoshi cautiously approached her and was now just inches away.
"Do…you need a….hug perhaps?" He awkwardly offered in a whisper.
"I would like that." She whispered back
Legoshi gently and slowly rapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a deep and lasting hug.
She laughs a bit.
"What?... Am I hugging wrong or something?"
"Your fur is so soft and warm is all." She gently says as she buries her face into his shoulder.
This went on for 20 minutes as Legoshi was not quite sure when to let go given how she moved in his arms and how she would pull his arms back around her when he tried to let go. She finally unwraps herself from Legoshi and looks back up to him.
"Is there anything you want? Anything I can offer than can convince you to stay?... at least for a while?" she asked with longing in her voice.
Legoshi pondered this over. He had a job to do, but he also didn't want to break this person's already fragile heart. His mind drifted to the future in that same watery "feeling" from before as he began to see something that he believed was impossible for him to achieve and seeing Gouhin telling him that he was proud of him. He foresaw this from the mindset if he were to stay here.
"I think I can stay a while." Legoshi smiled at her.
She smiled back as Legoshi could see a tiny tear falling from her left eye.
Legoshi decided to examine and learn from this strange phenomenon that keeps happening whenever Mother used her powers, or when he "felt" creation connect to him. He could see words, ki, energy, reality ripple and bend like water that touched everything. Eventually these visuals seem to fade into him as if it became instinctual that he would know what is happening like knowing how to calculate a simple math problem.
Mother lived up to her name's sake as she catered to Legoshi's ever need and want, while asking him to play games and eat together. Legoshi noticed that her ki never truly stopped being chaotic no matter how pleasant, caring, or kind she was which concerned him.
Legoshi asked her about her life, and she told him of the family she once had, her fear of mortality and leaving them, how she corrupted herself with the power of the font of power and pool of knowledge, how The Father tore her family away from her and left her here and the loneliness and madness she has endured ever since.
Legoshi told her about his life. The always holding back when he was mortal, how he was found by Gouhin and trained to be a destroyer, and some of the struggles he has had to overcome with the responsibility of his position.
Mother offered Legoshi the font and pool, but Legoshi refused to since he felt powerful enough and wanted to get his power on his own terms, which is the same for the pool as he wanted to learn the same way everyone else does… that and he felt that it would be boring to know everything that has and will happen since that would mean there would be no surprises anymore. Mother wanted to object and keep pushing the matter but decided against it because she just wanted him to stay, that and Legoshi's positive influence.
Legoshi spent 6 years on this planet, learning about how his power could interact directly into reality itself. He also grew to call Mother a true friend.
On one of these days Legoshi was sitting at the bank of a lake, looking up at the floating rocks. He thought about the forces that kept it floating. He then looked at the lake and imagined the water floating upwards like there was no gravity holding it down.
"I and everything else is connected to each other…. Does that mean…" Legoshi thought to himself.
Curiosity compelled him to lift his right hand and place his thumb over his palm as he pointed his hand towards the lake. his knowledge of gravity held to the front of his mind like a small templated.
"Here goes nothing I guess." He shrugged mentally to himself.
"Hakai the gravity of the lake water." he whispered.
Legoshi half expected the lake to be destroyed, but to his amazement, the water began to float upwards as the force of gravity on the water no longer existed. Legoshi's mouth slowly opened to a slack position as the realization of what is possible with this thought and ki process, but destroying gravity was not enough to prove his current hypothesis.
"Any destroyer can destroy gravity in the round about way by destroying the matter generating it. I need something more abstract." He thought to himself as he looked around anxiously and excitedly.
Legoshi looked at the trees behind him and took note of the color of the leaves.
"Hmmmm maybe that will do." He thought to himself.
He held out his right hand in the destroyer's pose.
"Hakai the color green on those leaves." He thought to himself instead of whispering.
With the absence of the only color the leaves reflected, they almost instantly turned into an incredibly deep black.
Now this really got him excited as this felt like a new level of control of Hakai he has never heard of before; in fact: this looked more like the reality warping powers of the wish orbs that Gouhin told him since they could most likely also do this since he was told "There is no wish they can't grant".
His excited mind soon turned to the vision that he had a few years ago.
"Perhaps there is a way to make that vision true." He thought to himself.
He suddenly felt weird and a little uncomfortable as he took the destroyer's hand position to his own face.
"I must look like a complete idiot to any other destroyer right now." He nervously laughed to himself.
He also contemplated that if this works then how would he feel, or even if he would be able to tell.
Legoshi took in some deep breaths to calm is elevated heart rate. He raised his right hand directly to his own face.
"Hakai the limits of my physical and spiritual power" he whispered.
Legoshi instantly felt like something was lifted from his mind, like a piece of clothing he didn't know he was wearing. The feeling of weight being lifted traveled from the top of his head and all the way down his body like a warm, pleasant tingling sensation. He also felt like he could breathe a bit better like he had taken a mask off his mouth.
"Well….. I didn't destroy myself at least. I don't really feel more powerful, but at least I feel better than I just was." He said to himself with a relieved smile.
Once he returned to Mother, an idea impeded into the front of his mind when he focused on her chaotic ki again. He wanted to use his idea now but felt that would be unfair to not ask how she would feel about it.
"What is it Legoshi? You seem awfully eager and energetic today." She asked him with a warm expression.
"Mother… how would you feel if the corruption from font and pool was removed from you today?!" excitedly asked.
Know that was an odd question and odder still in how excited he was when he asked. She looked up into the sky.
"It would certainly be nice to be in control and free." She calmly said as she slowly looked back down.
She paused for a moment as she saw Legoshi looking like he was expecting something from her.
"Why do you ask me?"
"Because I think I can remove it permanently from you, along with the madness you said haunts you." Legoshi happily said while cupping her tentacle hands.
Her face once again twisted into two different emotions at the same time, Hope and defeated doubt.
"If you think you can, then you can try." She said with both hope and doubt.
Legoshi quickly held up his right to her "chest" in the destroyer's posture.
"Are you ready?" he eagerly asked.
She closed her eyes, not knowing at this point what will happen, which is one in a very few times that it has happened.
"I'm ready I guess." She says after taking a deep breath.
Legoshi's face suddenly becomes much more serious as he focuses on her ki and mind.
"Hakai the corruption of your ki and the madness of your mind." Legoshi softly said.
The mist that had always surrounded her vanish instantly. Her tentacle hands transform into human hands as she returns to the form she had lost 100,000 years ago before her transformation into the creature known as Abeloth. She slowly looks to Legoshi as she falls to the ground.
Legoshi catches her by the right wrist and back.
"Are you alright?!" Legoshi asked out of concern.
"Legoshi… it…it's been….so very long… so very very long since I've felt like this." She softly and weakly said to him with her hands trembling.
Not since she was still with her family when she was young, and mortality had not crossed her mind had she felt this… content… and happy. Everything felt so clear to her now. There was no bestial yearning for companionship.
"What's wrong!?What's happening to you?!" Legoshi asked in a panic.
Legoshi saw her getting older and older as the moments pass, and it looked like she would die from aging soon.
"I'm…finally free Legoshi. I finally feel…. At peace…. I'm…. not afraid anymore." She weakly says with tears running down her face.
"But I did this to save you, not kill or destroy you!" he said in a confused panic.
"You already have saved me Legoshi… it was my fear of mortality that I could no longer be with my family again that was part of that corruption I spoke of and that you saw. Now everything has been set right… thanks to you." She weakly says while looking at Legoshi and petting the left side of his mouth with her left hand.
Seeing that her soul was still intact, even after removing that corruption, he calmed his breathing and posture.
"When you get up to that train station… tell Bill to stop being such a pervert." Legoshi said with a slight smile.
"Who's Bill?"
"You'll know when you see him."
"a."
Legoshi could see the life leaving her eyes.
"Thank you Legoshi. Goodbye for now and I guess I'll see you later… Don't be afraid to call me…Mom…" Were the last words she weakly said before she completes turned to ash in Legoshi's hands.
Legoshi stared where her face once was for a minute before slowly getting up and lifting his hands into the air and letting the ash blow into wind. The chaotic energies of the planet also died away as the environment became more hospitable.
"Goodbye….Mom." He said as he breathed deep.
Legoshi took a last look around the planet, took a handful of bugs before departing the planet. Legoshi destroyed the blackholes and the station that had no life in it and flew out of the galaxy.
26 minutes later, Legoshi landed back on his world and release the bugs he had held onto into the air.
"You certainly have been out for a bit? Working overtime?" Came the family voice of Gouhin.
"You could say that… but I have mostly been training." Legoshi stated.
Legoshi got into a fighting stance.
"Hey Gouhin… I want to show you the results of my training!"
"Hmm? Alright… You seem pretty confident in yourself Legoshi. Let's see how much you improved!" Gouhin challenged back.
Legoshi gave a wide, manic smile like when Beerus first really fought him as Legoshi entered his Ultra Instinct state mixed with his destroyer's aura. Gouhin got into a much more serious fighting stance as he was taken aback by this turn of events.
"You mastered Ultra Instinct While I wasn't looking!? Impressive Legoshi! I probably should take more active observation of you if you are going to pull crap like this on me!" He shouted in excitement.
Legoshi and Gouhin were about to charge each other but were interrupted midway to each other by a large purple portal opening above them and the grand priest floating out of it.
"Greetings Gouhin. Hello. You must be Legoshi. Sorry for interrupting your sparing match, but you have a summons from the Omni King Grand Zeno to participate in a tournament of the destroyer's and angels."
"What kind of tournament did he have in mind." Gouhin asked
"My lord has fancied a combat tournament this time Gouhin. You and Legoshi are both participating. The winner between the destroyers will compete against the winner between the angels."
"And what happens to the winner of that fight?" Legoshi asked.
"They fight me of course. I hope everyone has improved… it's been quite a few millennia since I spared." He said with a passive smile.
Legoshi at first was going to show Gouhin how much he improved by fighting him, but now he was aspiring for an even high goal.
"Maybe if I win all this… Gouhin would be really proud of me." He thought to himself.
"I'm in!" He excitedly shouted.
"Well, if Legoshi is going then I am to… even though we kind of can't refuse a request from Zeno." He awkwardly added at the end.
"Very good…. Approximately 5 days from now it will be held in the null realm. The tournament has been called "The Tournament of Divinity"." The grand priest stated.
Author's note: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know what you think in the reviews.