Chapter 5 - Battle of Gods
Earth, Western Sector, Wasteland
Dende was in a state of panic.
Who can blame him, what with the entire world coiling and shaking with chaotic energy? Fissures of pink-hued light dispersed from the air and ground equally, sometimes coalescing with it, other times shredding it apart in an atomizing wave of destruction. If Ragnarok, the End of Times, or the Apocalypse ever looked like anything, chances are Dende was staring at it right in the face.
"This battle is going to tear apart the Universe ten times over!" Dende thought to himself with trepidation, feeling himself shake violently with fear. Gripping the sole boulder he feigned for protection, he couldn't help but close his eyes tightly, trying to shut out the chaotic storm threatening to destroy the planet and the cosmos. "someone please make it stop! Anyone!"
"Oh Bee!" Hercule shouted over the crackling eruptions of magnanimously sized bursts of malevolent energy. His big arms cradled the small, petite dog as he rolled across the ground in a comical bit of terror, not even aware of the intermitten barks his pet made, "I'm sorry I got you mixed up in this! Please forgive me when we get blown into pieces!"
"...anyone who isn't Mr. Satan would be nice!" Dende grumbled to himself aloud, shivering as his fingers dug into the boulder's withering surface.
Just then, a towering pyre of malicious pink currents arced from the sky, flourishing in their direction. The overcast of sheer white with scarlet hue created a damning silhouette, all three victims looking upwards with horror at their inevitable frames.
"DODON RAY!"
At the last second, a chorus of two voices were heard, in the wake of two golden-orange beams of heated energy flew across the air and into the body of chaotic power. Derailing it a good quarter mile away, it pummeled into the earth with a voluminous uproaring explosion, dissipating just as quickly as five more flew upwards into the sky to take its place.
Hearing the voices immediately alleviated Dende's worry. Looking to either side of himself, he blinked as he saw two familiar visages land next to them, both of a very welcoming apppearance to the neophyte Guardian of Earth. "Chiaotzu! Tien Shinhan! You're alright!"
"I was actually wondering about Chiaotzu myself, but I guess that question's answered itself," Tien spoke honestly, a trickle of sweat beading down his bald scalp as he looked across the air at his old friend.
Chiaotzu just smiled back, nodding with readiness to admit his own condition, "I'm alright, really!"
"Well," Tien couldn't help to ask, his face becoming somewhat somber, "you didn't find anyone else while you were out and about, have you?"
Chiaotzu's ecstatic expression turned into one of sadness. Bowing his head, he twiddled his hands together as he hovered in the air, "I couldn't find a single body that had life in it. I...I think we're the only ones who evaded that attack."
"I guess all of our training hadn't been for naught then," Tien said with a weary smile.
"Right!" Chiaotzu shouted with renewed vigor, pumping his hands into the air, "we can still get out of this okay!"
"Uh, guys," Dende voiced aloud with hesitation, earning both of their gazes. The short Namekian pointed upwards with a shaky arm, his eyes the size of dishwashers as he stuttered aloud, "c-c-can you s-s-stop those as well?!"
Chiaotzu gasped aloud with shock as Tien groaned audibly, "Ah, Hell..."
The very five arcs of skyscraper sized bolts of pink lightning had arced upwards into the sky, roiling around in the now darkened heavens filled within a veil of clouds as black as death. They welled up, seemingly charging into five orbs in the shape of a star above their heads, just before launching downwards at the speed of a thunderclap.
In a heartbeat, the white silhouette covered group of targeted survivors would see a shimmer of movement blur at their peripheral visions. A pair of light purple hued digits would clap together forward, as eye sockets once brimmed with pools of onyx now overflowed with a cobalt light.
Just a mere dozen meters before the convering rose lit pyres of negative energy would catch all of the survivors in its deadly grasp, it all evaporated into a field of azure sparks, dancing above their heads harmlessly.
"W-What just...happened?!" Tien breathed out, still unable to grasp just what happened.
Chiaotzu turned to look to his left, now seeing the figure stand upright, sighing with visible relief, "Who are you?!"
While this earned all eyes turned towards the new arrival, Kibitoshin fixated his gaze most specifically at Dende. A smile gaced his pure, gentle face as he extended a hand in Dende's direction, in formal greeting, "Are you alright, Kami of Earth?"
"Y-Yes, thanks to you!" Dende said readily, still unsure what the strange looking being had done, but was greatful nonetheless. Reaching out, he grasped the larger and smoother hand with his own, shaking it with barely controlled trepidation as he inquired with blinks of inquiry, "who are you, if I may ask?"
"You may," Kibitoshin responded, bowing his head with respect as he placed his left hand over his heart, "my name is Kibitoshin, the Supreme Kai of the known Cosmos."
"Th-The Supreme Kai!" Tien said with revered amazement, having to restrain himself from acting like a fool by planting his face on the ground. While he could tell Chiaotzu was gasping with shock as well, he knew now wasn't the time to pay respects to the being who was above the alledged King Kai himself.
"Uhhhhhh," Hercule could only gape at the introduced man, finding his apperance more ridiculous than any other he's seen today, "what's a Kai? Is that some sort've space elf?"
"I would indulge in your curiosity to ease the pain of your ignorance, but I am short of time," Kibitoshin said hastily, curtly dismissing Hercule's inquiry in favor of locking his attention solely on the Guardian of Earth, "Dende is it? I need your help and we're short of time. Buu has nearly peaked the power of his rage, the result of the chaotic storm you've seen for the past few minutes."
"W-What can I do?" Dende asked with perplexion, his eyes blinking with apparent doubt that anything little ol' him could possibly do to help the most powerful Kai known.
"I need your command over the Dragon Balls," Kibitoshin said with certainty. Allowing his words to settle in for a few seconds, he turned on his right heel, raising his right hand to snap in the direction to his right and in front of Dende. Within a vibrant flash of azure light, seven orange orbs with red-emblazoned stars appeared among their midst. "I've already gathered them all together. All you need to do is to summon the Dragon."
"B-But if I summon him here, he'll surely be torn apart by the storm-!"
"That's why I'm here," Kibitoshin said with assurance, interrupting Dende's verbal plight.
"How?!" Dende nearly screeched, already feeling beads of sweat crawl down his emerald scalp as distant cracks of chaotic lightning drew ever-so closer.
"I'm going to give you what energy this body has," Kibitoshin proclaimed, fists upraised and clenched visibly, his teeth bared to show the determination filled within his being, "and gift it to you to wield as you see fit."
Dende could scarcely let out a gasp let alone a squeak of shock. The Supreme Kai, lord of all other Kais, wanted to give him the lowly Kami of Earth power? He never considered himself to be of help to anyone, aside from the brief moment of healing he provided for Gohan. In this crisis, he barely helped anybody, let alone help stop Buu.
Shaking his head, Dende couldn't help but look at his puny hands, tears welling up in his eyes, "Why? Why are you giving me that kind of power?! I never have done anything to help anybody other than heal the wounds they endured to save me or others. I've been nothing but a burden, only purpose in safeguarding the Dragon Balls so they can undo the tragedies I've been unable to prevent!"
"It is because I was the one who failed the Universe!" Kibitoshin shouted aloud, his voice holding equal amounts of shame in the honestly stern tone he projected at Dende. Earning the upward gaze of Dende, he looked up in awe as Kibitoshin waved his hands around with heavy emphasis, "I was the one responsible for this being brought about! Not Vegeta! Not Babidi! Certainly not Gohan! No, I was the one who failed to stop Majin Buu from being reborn, from killing my dearest friends before my eyes and stealing the Grand Supreme from us! I cannot make this wish on my own because I AM UNWORTHY of this task!"
Bending down on his knees, Kibitoshin bowed before Dende, causing the frail appearing Namekian to look down at him with surprise, "But you...you are a child of pure heart and unquestionable humility. Your courage has been witnessed time and again, even when you are one of little strength or standing among the titans you surround yourself with, openly calling you their friend. It is you who is the worthy one to be bestowed this gift of power, and make the wish that will save this planet from certain destruction!"
As those who witnessed Kibitoshin's moment of humble, albeit desperate plea, thunderous pyres of lightning struck the landscape in cacophonic tandem. The ground continued to erupt, split, and ignite as the energies continued to increase exponential intensity. Rattling the foundation under their soles, it was all too real that their end was nigh should they not act soon.
"I'll...I'll do it," Dende said, his quiet voice halting its trembling, taking a more resolute stance in front of the bowing Supreme, "I'll take your gift and use it with the utmost reverence and gratitude to your help."
Kibitoshin could only breathe out in relief, smiling with thankfulness that Dende worked up the nerve to accept such a offer. Rising swiftly from his knees, the flashes of rosy-currents crackled around them, giving them brief overcast silhouettes of ominous nature.
Walking towards the small Namekian, Kibitoshin leaned down and placed both hands on either shoulder. Gripping them tightly, enough to make Dende wince at the pressure, the young Namekian would see Kibitoshin's eyes glow divine cobalt as his voice hollowed and echoed with a mighty declaration, "As Supreme Kai of the Universe, I bestow you my energy and gift it to you so that you may wield it in a way that will ensure the continuation of all life in the cosmos! Child of Guru, Kami of Earth, Keeper of the Dragon Balls; my strength is now yours!"
In a matter of seconds, a brilliant aura of the purest white enveloped Kibitoshin's person, momentarily blindingly overcasting the smaller Namekian. In just as short of a time, that became contrasted.
For low, the power that Kibitoshin brought to the surface was now being transferred and magically sealed into the Namekian's body. Someone as inexperienced in wielding power of such magnitude couldn't help but let it out in a brilliant projection, casting a pyre of azure silver light that would pierce the heavens, somehow calming the dark heavens for miles in all directions.
During these moments, something else transpired that would shock those around the power transferred Kami.
Dende began to expand in mass, his musculature state becoming more endowed and fit. Audible snaps and cracks were heard vaguely behind the roar of power and the yell of surprise coming out of Dende's widened mouth, his body reconfiguring to adapt to a much more mature visage.
After the long seconds of transferrance had passed, Kibitoshin would step back, to allow all to see Dende as a very different person. Eyes glowed with a similar hue that the Supreme Kai's possessed, only simmering back into pools of onyx identical to that of his child's form. His body looked well enough to be compared to that of a fit, young adult of his kind, with his clothes magically fitted to adorn appropriately over his much taller and leaner frame.
With a mouth held agape, he looked down at his body, clenching and unclenching his more elongated digits experimentally. Faint traces of azure bioelectric shocks would dance around the perimeter of his body, indicating the truly magnificent boost of power his form had attained.
"Wow," Dende voiced aloud, now sounding a bit deeper, while still holding a tinge of youth within his amazed tone, "this power...my body...it all feels...unreal!"
"You know, I get that you got stronger, but why are you so much older?" Tien inquired, his triad of hairless brows arching upwards with dumbfoundedness.
"I think it has to do with how my people age," Dende explained, still lost in the surreal sensation of such newfound strength and power, looking at his palms with a smile, "we live for long periods of time. It takes us centuries to reach the level of seniority you humans would possess. It may take anywhere between twenty to thirty years for children not locked in a state of conflict to reach the equivalent of a young adult in size and disposition. I think my body as it was couldn't handle the power, so it forcefully matured itself in age!"
After Dende's explaination was heard, they would all notice Kibitoshin stumbling back. As he began heaving on his knees with his hands, strands of sweat beaded down his scalp, earning concern from the others.
"Are you alright?" Chiaotzu asked, rushing over across the air to appear by Kibitoshin's side.
"I appreciate the concern, but I am fine," Kibitoshin responded with a weary smile, looking at the others to reassure them, "the power transfer has exerted me nearly to my limits. I will recover what power I've given away in time, but now is not the time to be lax. I feel that Buu is about to strike at any moment!"
"R-Right!" Dende said with realization, snapping himself out of his own dazed stupor. Taking strides of newfound confidence, the Guardian of Earth moved around Kibitoshin and stood before the seven gathered orbs. Clapping his hands together, Dende's voice shouted aloud in command, "oh mighty Shenron, I call you forth so you may grant my wishes!"
Within that magnanimous shout, the seven orbs glowed a brilliant golden glow, just seconds before discharging a brilliant pyre of solar-hued light. Spiraling upwards in a dramatic fashion, the Eternal Dragon's frame began to materialize, taking shape in its gargantuan body of emerald scales and beige underbelly. Large antler horns sprouted angularly from its skull, framing his snout-protruding jaw with wiry twin green hairs near its nostrils, all becoming insignificant in the wake of the ominously glaring red eyes it stared downwards with.
"I AM THE ETERNAL DRAGON! MAKE YOUR WISHES AND I WILL-!" Shenron began to say, only to be verbally cut off by a thunderclap of proximate, nearly as large chaotically sprouting energy. The energy continued to dance around, leaving Shenron's mouth open in mid-sentance, as if to wait out the deafening storm occurring around him.
Patience wore thin in a matter of seconds, as Shenron reared back its head to let out a mighty roar, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The sheer might and gravity of the magical shout shook the fabric of the Earth's landscape for hundreds of kilometers. It caused those below to hold their ears, forced to be subjugated to bodily throbbing spasms, crackling the air with tangible power that pulsed across the planet. But as soon as the roar ended, so too were the endless crackles of chaotic energy around their vicinity.
"YOU HAVE THREE WISHES! MAKE THEM WISELY AND WITH HASTE!" Shenron bellowed out, visibly puffing smoke from his nostrils, pleased with his efforts in silencing the energy storm around them.
"S-S-Stay close to me, Bee," Hercule said with a fear-ridden voice, eyes big as saucers staring up at the Magical Dragon as he tried to keep the shaking dog from antagonizing the mighty serpent.
Without any delay, Dende raised his hands upwards as he voiced aloud with authority and equal humility, "Oh mighty Shenron! My first wish is that you may quell the chaotic energies surrounding the planet, created by Majin Buu!"
"HMPH! A SIMPLE ENOUGH TASK!" Shenron said with assurance, eyes glowing brightly, setting out to complete his first assignment. A wave of distortive pressure washed over the assembled survivors of Earth's pores, tingling their spines, as it seemed to faintly rumble across the earth and rivulet across the airspace.
In what seemed like a handful of seconds, Shenron's eyes dimmed and he rumbled out with declaration, "IT IS DONE! MAKE YOUR SECOND WISH!"
"Magnificent Shenron!" Dende began, his throat tightening with a shred of doubt before dispelling it completely, "please protect the Earth from Majin Buu and Vegehan's attacks! Keep it from destroying this planet! That is my second wish!"
An unsettling wave of silence overlapped the air, as Shenron seemed to hang in the air, contemplating on the ramifications and technicalities of the wish.
"What's going on?!" A shrill, aged voice sounded out within Kibitoshin's mind, indicating the psychic contact of the Elder Kai, "why haven't you wished the Dragon to keep the planet from being destroyed yet?!"
"I had to alter the plan, for the sake of the Universe," Kibitoshin responded mentally back, staring upwards at the Dragon with patience, "I'm having the Kami of Earth invoke the wish and with bestowed power to increase the Dragon's proficiency in accomplishing more arduous tasks."
"Bestowed?! You gave your energy to him using that technique?! I didn't tell you to do any such thing-!"
"Well I made this decision! Respect my authority as current Supreme Kai, Elder, just this once!" Kibitoshin responded evenly, clenching his teeth as hard as his fists.
"Don't you dare you go Saiyan on m-oh no!" Elder Kai's psychic tone trembled, obviously seeing something else happen at that moment, "Majin Buu is charging! You have to get that wish made or get out of there, now!"
Just then, Shenron's voice bellowed out, "YOUR SECOND WISH IS...!"
Earth, South Polar Airspace
"TIME TO DIE, SUPER SAIYAN!" Buu's voice let out in a shrill, blood curdling scream as he charged towards Vegehan. Bathed in a scarlet aura of ungodly power, fueled by his own majin-induced rage, the force of terrifying destruction carved a swathe of warping pressure as he flew towards his prey. Who knew what kind of velocity that the Homunuclus was generating as he mindlessly rushed towards his sworn enemy.
It was all that Vegehan could do to raise his left arm upwards to defend against the charging, outstretched pair of gummy knuckles. When the fist impacted his forearm, he felt a true amount of stinging rush across the nerves underlying his limb, just as the force generated from the impact fully registered around him.
A golden-rosy balloon of destructive force raced downwards, practically atomizing the remaining glaciers of the planet's southern pole, distending the oceanic mass of moisture towards the bedrock and crust. The fusion-born Saiyan could already hear the massive cracks the single punch made into the planet, knowing that the single blow was enough to shatter it beyond repair.
"No time to worry about that!" Vegehan thought to himself, as he swiftly thrust up his own fist towards the towering artificial monstrosity.
When his own gloved right handed knuckles struck an instinctively blocking left forearm, another undulating pulse of kinetic pressure rippled across his being and towards the planet's surface below him. Though this time, he would see the results of the blows with Majin Buu firsthand.
Golden tendrils of energy so ominous and so surreal, he couldn't even classify it as Ki, began discharging upwards from the ocean. It was obvious that they sprung upwards as a result from the two's exchange of blows, but what confused him was that it wasn't natural in the slightest bit. Even as they would appear, spiraling upwards into the vacuum of space, they would disappear just as quickly as they came.
"What the Hell-?!" Vegehan allowed himself to be distracted by the surreal sight. That moment was just long enough for Buu to counterattack, flinging his bodily weight into a headbutt, cracking against the Super Saiyan's forehead. "-GAH!"
He swore he could see a fissure of kinetic currents emanate between the point of their skulls, splaying outwards across the air, but he was too disoriented from the blow to savor the sight. Swinging his arms up in a defensive X stance, he absorbed a elongated limb's punch that stretched out like a snake, sending him hurdling down towards the icy ocean's surface.
The mass of water seemed to curl out of the way as he descended, the force his descending body generating enough pressure along the wind to blast away any form of barriers between him and his imminent destination. Dozens of kilometers worth of arctic sea would contort and billow outwards as Vegehan's back would strike ocean floor itself.
What he felt upon striking the damp earth was unnatural, like landing upon pillows conducting lightning. While it didn't harm his durable frame, it did allow him to see billowing tendrils of golden electricity to spew around him as they would dance upwards into the darkened skyline.
Sensing no energy coming from the blazing light, Vegehan could only conclude one thing: The Dragon Balls were protecting the planet.
"Fantastic!" Vegehan said aloud with a delighted smile, ignoring the fact a thin trickle of blood dribbled around his nose, spilled from the bruised & split skin on his forehead, "now I don't have to worry about holding back!"
Another blood curdling scream pierced the heavens, sounding off the charge of Majin Buu as he charged downwards. The blazing scarlet light was enough to tip off Vegehan of his swift movement, though the sound coming from his throat was unmistakably the cause for ripping him out of his stupor.
Waiting until the gum-skinned adversary was but a meter away, Vegehan grasped the oceanic floor behind his prone golden-tressed head and flipped himself backwards. Evading the two outstretched fists by a hair, more immensely proportioned rivulets of golden lightning spewed upwards to cushion the kinetic force.
This momentarily caught Majin Buu's enraged eyes for a second; it was all the time Vegehan needed.
"Shooting Gallery!" Vegehan shouted aloud, hopping from one foot to another, as two outstretched finger pistols discharged dozens of highly potent Ki bullets at his enemy. Each blast tore a hole through Majin Buu's body, rather than obliterate it as it had done with his copies.
Only taking a handful of the blasts to realize his distraction, Super Buu snarled out, swinging out his hands to bat away the rest of the bullets in a haphazard fashion away from his hole-adorned body. High-pitched whistles sounded across the air, tearing half kilometer holes through the rolled back tides of the southern pole's waters, detonating with cobalt lit flames that sprouted up mushroom clouds of sulfur only to be overwhelmed by more generations of buffeting magical energy.
After Vegehan halted his barrage of rapid fire, the Super Saiyan skidded forward, skating on trails of his own solar-wreathed energy to enhance his acceleration. Once he distortedly blurred forward, Buu was already smiling, opening up a maw filled to the brim of scarlet energy behind his teeth.
"MY TURN!" He gargled out, just as the orb-shaped deadly light of the Revenge Cannon began to regurgitate out of his maw.
"Oh no you don't!" Super Vegehan shouted aloud, his face contorting into an angry visage as both of his hands clamped over Buu's mouth. He could feel the plasma behind the magical entity's mouth heat up around his gloved palms, casting leaking gleams of its light between his splayed digits, casting a menacing silhouette around the two warriors.
Just when it seemed that Buu's maw-projecting wave of destructive energy would be let loose, Vegehan did the unexpected; unleashing his own blast into the volatile light contained in Buu's mouth!
"MASENKO!" The Fused Saiyan shouted aloud with the force of thunder, just as his sun-lit energy entered into the melting pot of plasma, creating a purple light to engorge Buu's body. When the rays of violet light escaped his air holes and even his maddened eye sockets, Vegehan just realized the error of firing off his attack at such a close range.
"Oh shi-!" Would be the closest to a reaction that Vegehan would receive before his whole scope of vision turned white.
The entire south polar region of the planet would shake, stemming from a blast of epic magnitudes. Bathed in an upward dome of spiraling purple currents of violent energy, watery tides and airwaves were heated to levels beyond normal levels of tolerance. As a result of Earth's new protective veil of magical energy, a pillar of the hemispherical sized maelstrom of light would discharge mightily outwards into space, cutting a swathe through planetary mass and space rocky formation alike.
The aftermath of such a discharge of vehement energy was unlike anything that has ever been displayed upon the planet.
Hundreds of kilometers of oceanic mass evaporated within the roiling waves of heated plasma that had spiraled around and upwards. Geysers of steam peppered across the once cold, damp ocean floor, now reduced to an expansively endless desert wasteland. Only thanks to the power of Shenron that the blast itself didn't descend past the earthen land and into the crust of the malleable life-sustaining planetoid.
Though it did little to cushion the blast that Vegehan stood within.
The palms of Vegehan's gloves were scorched, showing first degree burns from tanking the blast head-on. His arms held curtails of the blast, only rolling rivulets of hissing steam, with pocketed marks of partial burns around his limbs where his clothing or energy didn't cover him properly. Beads of sweat crawled down his scalp, relief exhaling out of his nostrils at having escaped an untimely demise by the mouth-breathed blast of Buu's.
The relief sustaining Vegehan at the moment would be short-lived. Eyes widened with incredulous disbelief, at seeing the body of Super Buu that had been all but reduced to chunks as big as hamburger meat rematerialize in one whole and unmarred body.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Super Vegehan uttered aloud, taking a step back with caution at this newly powered Buu.
Buu didn't take time to gloat this time. With a vehement snarl that matched the gleam of murder kindling within his crimson lit eyes, the Ultimate Majin charged at Vegehan.
The Fused Saiyan had to pounce sideways to avoid the reckless, hyperspeed thrust of Buu's left arm, having generated enough tactile kinetic force to warp the fabric of space to slice the air for a good kilometer.
Tapping on his left foot with the other raised behind him, Vegehan would skirt around to get behind his opponent, hoping to get a quick hit on his posterior. Landing behind Buu, just as his arm snapped back into place, Vegehan kicked off the earth with a golden-tendril blazing dispersal of superhuman speed.
Majin Buu moved accordingly, doing so in an unorthodox manner of twisting his entire torso around in a 180 degree spin to his right. While this caused Vegehan to open his eyes with shock, halfway through his charge, it didn't prepare him well enough for the two orbs of rosy-hued energy in both of the Homunculus's hands.
"DOUBLE KAMEHAMEHA!" Bibidi's masterpiece of havoc shouted out in a crazed tone, unleashing the dual orbs of deadly energy point blank, hitting the Super Saiyan of untold power head-on.
"Saiyan Shield!" Vegehan thought with decisiveness, enveloping his body in the protective shield of skin-laced pure energy. Just as he was wreathed in a divine halo of light, he would experience being struck by the mountain-sized pyre of light, hurtling him across the planet in earnest.
He could feel the air bend and contort around the locomotive of Ki, thrusting him on the other side of the world from which he came from. He didn't see the plateaus, hillsides, or mountains that were sheared off by the mere proximity of the blazing inferno of plasma, reaping life of all things as it intended for the captive Super Vegehan.
"Got...to...get...free!" The Fusion Born Saiyan shouted, drowned out by the roar of Ki wave that continued to push against him and his protective shield.
Pushing his hands against the veil of light, he bent his now exposed digits over the fabric of malleable light. Igniting his aura in earnest, he paid little attention to the dancing sparks that flourished around his star-lit being, pressing against the tower of velocity driven energy.
"RRRRRRRRRRRR!" Vegehan strained his muscles, veins protruding across his arms and forehead, showing the duress his body put against the rocketing blaze of light. After what seemed like two laps around the world, rapidly moving in on a third, it seemed as if the energy pyre began to slow down and halt its unstoppable momentum.
A sudden jabbing, unforgiving bludgeoning from the back, broke what hope he had gained in arresting himself from the speed-carried captivity. So focused on the threat at hand he had failed to notice Buu rolling himself up into his Mystic Ball state, rocketing beside the beam of energy to build up his own momentum. At the end, he was a scarlet-hued meteor, striking the back of someone closest to being a god among Super Saiyans.
This also caused the coalescing energy at Vegehan's finger tips to fold around his form, wrapping around him in a spherical prison as he flew into the dual-now-one Kamehameha beams. With his body descending into a continent on the other side of where his battle started with the pink-skinned monstrosity, it was all that he could do to sustain himself with the Saiyan Shield as he dropped like an atom bomb onto the earth below.
Unfolding himself, the blood-shot eyed Buu could only giggle insanely at the sight of the explosion shaking the planet below his feet. Another roiling maelstrom of plasma ensued, before discharging upwards into space, guided by the tendrils of solar-hued protective energy Shenron's magic generated.
Without even observing his frame, obscured by the hundreds of kilometer wide bath of smoke and steam, Buu knew Vegehan was still alive.
"I have to hit him with something bigger! Something to hurt him even more! I have to make him bleed before I see him die!" Majin Buu thought with maddened realization. Looking to and fro, he tried to think of anything, ANYTHING at all that could be used as a medium for untold destruction.
It was when he looked up in the currently evening sky of this part of the world, he saw it. A white disc in the sky, named Luna, shined upon Sol's single star known as the Sun. The second largest planetoid next to the Earth, rotated in harmonious and surprisingly undisturbed orbit was the moon itself!
"Yesssssssssssssssssss!" Buu breathed out with excited, barely contained glee. Twirling his right arm around, generating a small twister of momentum around his gummy limb, he discharged it like a grappling hook towards the otherworldly body.
From orbit, one would see a small tensile limb stretch all the way up towards Luna, crossing the gap at a astronomically inconceivable pace. Once it touched the surface, it would briefly impale itself into the rocky terrain, before giving it a hard yank. Sporadic discharges of scarlet light would dance across the planetoid body, emblazoning it with the monster's own energy, allowing it to be wielded in a way he saw fit.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Majin Buu laughed maniacally, eyes wide open with terrifying joy, swinging the giant mass of space rock like a wrecking ball down towards the planet where Vegehan was sensed to be, "TIME TO DIE, VEGEHAN! SAY GOODBYE TO LIFE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The howling laughter awoke the Fused Saiyan from his dazed state. Opening his eyes, he groggily moved his now gloveless left hand across the flattened, yet untouched earth around him. He heard the faint sounds of sizzling soil around him, drowned out by the cackling vocalized at a high volume downwards. His bloodied and ruined glove on his right hand balled up, pushing him onto his hands and knees, finally standing upwards to look up at the source of the demented joyous cries.
What he saw caused his throat to tighten and his face to bare teeth. It looked like a molten version of the Cosmos Bomb, imbuing the enraged Majin's energy with the mass of the moon itself. Not only was it diabolically clever for the wrath-fueled creature, it was definitely on another league compared to the planet core sustained orb that was sent his way ages ago.
"I wonder if this was what it felt like for the Saiyans? Staring death in the face as Frieza's Supernova came crashing down on their heads. I can now only emphasize with them further, seeing what I am facing now," Vegehan thought in his head, clenching his bleeding digits into fists with contrary vigor, "but I am here now! I have the power to end this, once and for all!"
As the descending mass of molten, energy-imbued rock hurtled downwards, with Buu now in the upper atmosphere an ominous yell could be heard. It was drowned out, dimmed by the insane laughter of the Mad Majin's vocalized insanity and the roars of the downward spiraling body of lunar mass. But as one could hear, a deafening scream seemed to emanate, even within the vacuum of space.
Buu's eyes widened, realizing he shouldn't be able to hear anything at the altitude he was levitating upon, what with being so close to space's cold grip. With his gaze only focused on his own attack, just as it was with the Cosmos Bomb, he couldn't see or understand the source of the undying yell obviously stemming from his arch nemesis.
"Is he really going to try and take this on? Fool! This attack is on an entirely different league than any other technique I've used thus far!" Majin Buu thought to himself, smiling with self reassurance, even as veins nearly popped out from his pink-complexioned dermal covering. "this last act of desperation is just proof that he's nothing more than a simple mortal. In the face of me, Majin Buu, no other being can compare to m-!"
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Vegehan's voice finally pierced the fabric of space, earning a wide-eyed stare of genuine fear and bewilderment to cross Buu's visage. White lightning seemed to bristle around the perimeter of the molten mass of rock, signifying the deified force halting its descent, sending rivulets of inhumanly accelerating shockwaves shaking half the planet.
What would formerly be a sphere covered in scarlet light now would be replaced by pure shining sparks of starlight, oscillating with orbital currents of silver-lit pyres of bio-currents numbering in the hundreds. In a matter of two minutes, the piece of orbiting rock would be placed back into its former place, with a single christening beacon of luminescence holding it upright.
Within the blink of Buu's eyes, that illuminated visage of the haloed entity would materialize right in front of him, earning a recoiling motion of shock.
There levitated Vegehan, arms held at his sides stoically, just as an intense stare of emerald eyes glared at his fear-lit crimson orbs. His aura, once a magnificent transparent mantle of golden light, now a blazing flame of solar-hued energy, emblazoned by dozens of silver hued currents of bioenergy arcing to and fro across his beaten and worn frame. His widowspeak hair stood sharper and coiled with the newfound presence of intensified energy, the single lock arching over his right brow flourishing haplessly as he awaited a reaction from his enemy.
"W-What...is this?! What...what are you?!" Majin Buu stuttered aloud, unsure what to make of what he's seeing, and the energy eclipsing his own as it bathed over his gummy pores.
"I'm the strongest Saiyan ever to enter existence," Vegehan proclaimed, unashamed and without gloating tone, "given life by the noble spirit of Vegeta and the prodigy child Gohan, I am the culmination of their best and worst attributes. Their power burns on within me as well as their memories of every fight that has led up to this point.
"Simply put," Vegehan allowed himself a smirk, a handful of bristling currents danced in front of his smug visage, "I am your worst nightmare, Buu!"
"Y-You...YOU...!" The Super Buu snarled out, welling up with incredulous rage once more, causing his pink-hued body to be engulfed by his crimson aura. Rearing back a fist, he prepared to drive it through Vegehan's head, intending on shearing it off in one blow, "YOU INSINUATE THAT I FEAR YOU?!"
Vegehan, clad in his Super Saiyan 2 mantle, didn't even bother to move out of the way of the fist heading towards his face. The gummy knuckles turned into ash before touching the skin on his forehead, bubbling into gaseous mist before evaporating into oblivion.
"G-Gah...what?!" Buu looked down at his stump, trying to will himself to regenerate his limb back but found he could not, "what is happening?!"
"You're at your limit, Majin Buu," Vegehan stated with renewed ire, clasping his right wrist with his left hand, causing an orb of slowly rapidly amassing energy to gather beneath his shredded gloved palm, "us Saiyans never reach our limits. That's why you can never reach this level, not in a million years."
"C-C-Curse you!" Buu bit back, swinging back his other limb, finding it to be ineffective just as the other time he threw out his now void fist. This one too became nothing but a stump, causing him to recoil in pain, staggering back in the middle of the planet's upper atmosphere, now seeing the solar-hued orb of crackling energy forming under Vegehan's palm.
"You were a good opponent, Buu, I'm not going to lie," Vegehan stated with an honest tone, raising his singular right arm towards him, held by the wrist by his left bare-burned set of digits, "I've enjoyed our fight. I'll probably never feel more alive than I have in this last hour we spent with each other."
Buu could only stare blankly and confusingly at Vegehan. It looked as if he was entering a state of shock, incapable of understanding the end was nigh for him. His body became bathed in the rays of yellow-white light, high-pitched whines blending in with dozens of crackles of powerful energy at the beck and call of Vegehan's fingertips.
"See you in the next life, Buu!" Vegehan declared with a rare, soft smile, before hardening it into an intense glare of determination. With bared teeth and widened eyes, the Fused Super Saiyan would shout out at the top of his lungs with finality, "FINAL MASENKO!"
The world blended into a sea of white in Buu's eyes. His screams of agony would be dimmed within seconds, as his body was dismantled at a molecular level his artificial physiology couldn't comprehend. Red eyes widened within the veil of disintegration, as a dawning thought just occurred to him, within the final moments of his life.
"He won...I...lost..."
And with those thoughts, his consciousness and spirit, departed along with the massive spacial cleaving pyre of Ki-empowered light. Roaring out into the horizon, Vegehan could only stare at the attack and where his enemy was moments ago, before all of the light cast from his attack finally dimmed. A smile dawned upon his visage, as his power began to soften along with his features.
"It's finally over," He breathed out, soaking in his victory as he allowed his eyes to close, basking in the sensation of fulfillment and closure enveloping his being. Hanging within the middle of space, he allowed his Ascended form to gently drop him downwards to the battle torn planet he worked so hard in protecting.
He however could only wonder a single thought before his feet touched the earthen land mass below: What now?
A/N: And done! Wow what a spectacular finish, right?!
To those of you who think of this being the end, fear not! This series will continue onwards as my other series (FYI, Vegeta Chronicles will be updated along with Legend of Broly sometime next week).
To keep that in mind, I hope I did a good job ending this Arc. I wanted to make sure I didn't drag it out, but emphasized enough of the battle section as I did with the prior set-up with Dende and Kibitoshin. Hope I did a good job on that ^^
While some of the stuff I stated in the beginning section IS speculative, this has been drawn upon DBZ lore. The fact that Namekians are long-lived beings just as Saiyans are, and with children like Dende rarely seen getting much older over the course of time, I came up with the conclusion that low-level Namekians have longer periods of childhood to extend their life cycle, whereas in hostile scenarios (see Piccolo Jr.) they can force their maturity to build-up rapidly over the course of a short period of time.
Any of you with comments, thoughts, and an overall Review over this Arc or even just this chapter itself, please leave such things written out in the Review section below. Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll continue supporting me as the series of Dragon Ball Zenkai: The Power of Two, continues!