Chapter 28
Universe 2
The groups of fighters from now four different universes were listening to Heles and Pell´s explanation about the mission they had called them for.
Aside from some issues, for example the quite hillarious way the place in question was named, the matter itself seemed quite serious.
"By the way - may I ask why you had not asked our universe for help?" Marron wanted to know. "I had the impression that you get along quite well with at least my mother and my uncle and... well - our universe won the Tournament."
"That..." Heles started to reply. But for a short moment the Destruction Goddess seemed like out of words.
They all saw to their surpise that she actually seemed to blush.
"Lady Heles believed that, since we are already that deeply indebted to your Universe," Pell pointed out, "we should not burden you with any more of our problems."
"Oh - but burden us with them was no problem?" Champa retorted.
In this moment they all were suddenly being surprised by the arrival of yet another group.
This one was even more unexpected than the fighters from Universe 7... and not exactly welcome either.
"Quitella," Heles said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
It was indeed the God of Destruction of Universe 4, along with a group of his fighters.
They recognized them from the Tournament of Power. It were Ganos, Decori, Shosa and Kaway.
Well - everyone recognized them besides the Universe 7 group of Trunks, Goten, Marron, Twenty One and Mai. Who had not been at the Tournament in the first place.
"Ah - I have heard that you have need for help Heles," Quitella stated. "So I came here with a few of my best fighters and offer my assistance."
Everyone was silent for a few short moments.
"And how do you know this?" Heles asked finally. "Were you spying on us?"
"We have just overheard your message to Universe 11," Quitella replied.
"With other words you were spying," Pell noted. "You would not have been able to `overhear´ a direct message otherwise."
"What does it matter? What is important is that we are here to help, right? And I have brought some of my best fighters with me," Quitella responded. "You said you are in a dire situation. So you should be thankful instead of complaining - yes."
"Excuse me, Lady Heles, Lord Pell - we don´t really have time for such discussions," their Angel Sour pointed out.
"Of course," Heles admitted. "Okay - we will take your Warriors with us. But let me make clear, me and my people are the ones making the decisions."
"Well - this is not our business anyway," Champa stated. "I hope you guys do your job well. Let us go Vados."
Vados on her part just looked at everyone with a knowing smile and gave them a shrugg with her shoulders, before she turned back to Champa.
Then the two disappeared.
"Typical typical," Quitella commented, "just leaving when others need help." He shook his head dramatically.
"You don´t exactly have the reputation of a hero either," Heles remarked.
"You wound me. And here I wanted to come with you to help."
"Moment – you mean you want to come with us yourself? Not just your Warriors?" Heles questioned.
"Yes."
That was truly unusual. For a foreign God of Destruction to want to come along for such a mission in person.
Even Heles herself would only be present because it was a special situation.
But…
"As your Angel pointed out," Jiren spoke up, "this is not the time for such discussions. If we don´t go now, it might be too late to stop this Towa from whatever she plans to do."
"Fine," Heles gave in.
"If you want to, we can keep an eye on them," Toppo offered to her.
"I have a feeling this trip will not exactly going to be relaxing," Goten said quietly to the others.
"We are going to a place called the Planet of Doom. I would not expect it to be," Marron replied sarcastically.
"They don´t seem to trust these guys from that Universe 4 at all," Mai stated.
"They probably have reason to," Trunks pointed out. "Maybe something that happened during that Tournament."
"Yes – now that you mention it," Marron said. "My parents had once mentioned that this universe had been pulling dirty moves during the entire Tournament. And that their God of Destruction had even been threatening everyone else around him when they finally lost."
"And now they are just appearing here on their own and offering help?" Trunks questioned. "I guess they are right to be distrustful."
"But none of them seems to be particular strong," Twenty One stated. "Except this Quitella himself of course."
"I guess `playing dirty´ was the only reason they came far in that Tournament in the first place," Goten commented.
The Fighters and Gods from Universe 2 were leading them all to something that looked like a large spaceship.
From it´s appearance however – at least by Universe 7´s standards – the ship remembered them more of an holiday luxus-liner, painted in a bright orange color, than a vessel for a military mission.
But given the all-around impression they had gotten from Universe 2, this should not surprise them. They would just trust the ship to do it´s job.
Their journey now truly begann.
xxxxxxx
Universe 12
Son Goku and Vegeta, in their SSj4 forms, were in this moment standing in front of a creature that looked like out of a nightmare.
Standing behind them was a group of five warriors from Universe 12, who were all glaring at the monster in desperate defiance.
Lord Beerus had already told them the stories about the appearance of some mysterious dangerous creatures in this universe.
Source of the stories were as it turned out were the last of a group of genocidal Wizards – a small-sized alien being – the second was a giant demonic monster that they had once created and that had originally been cut in half a long time ago and sealed into two different containers.
Now however the Wizard had returned and succeeded in freeing both halves.
Goku and Vegeta had come to help out after Universe 12´s own Warriors had failed to stop the monster by themselves.
"It is pointless," the alien Wizard named Hoy called out. "Hildegarn is invincible. There is nothing that can stop him. You will all die."
Something about this guy really remembered them of Babidi.
"You got lucky that you got to revive your creature at all," Beerus commented.
Hoy gritted his teeth. He had no idea who this cat-creature and his blue skinned friend were or where they got their information from.
But it didn´t matter. Hildegarn would crush them like everyone else.
"Yes – if not fort hat person telling me, I would have never thought that the cursed Kaios would interferre and send the sealed halves of Hildegarn in different universes."
He and Whis were present, however decided to stand some distance aside from the others. Goku and Vegeta could easily deal with this on their own.
But who was `that person´, that this Hoy was talking about? Was it maybe really one of Demigra´s Servants who was involved in this?
Vegeta and Goku exchanged a look.
"You or me?" Vegeta asked.
"Do we gamble it out?" Goku responded.
"Ah – you do it," Vegeta said.
"Fools!" Hoy cried out. "Do you really think just one of you could stop Hildegarn by himself?"
The two saiyans didn´t even bother to answer.
While this creature – a Demon named Hildegarn, created from all the Dark Energy from some world somewhere in their own universe – might be a terrifying foe fort he Universe 12 Warriors, the truth was Son Goku and Vegeta had surpassed it´s level a long time ago.
It was simply not longer a threat to them.
Goku nodded and released the full power of his Super Saiyan Four.
Without combining it with the God Forms. That was not necessary.
"Hildegarn – kill him!" Hoy shouted.
And the creature moved to attack.
Suddenly Goku flew forward with an outstretched fist.
Nobody was even able to see him moving. Except for Vegeta, Beerus and Whiz of course.
`Ryuuken,´ he thought silently.
A split-second Goku had already moved right through a large hole that he had blown through Hildegarn´s giant form.
A moment later Hildegarn´s entire body was being disintigrated by the energy of the attack.
Not only the Wizard Hoy, but also the fighters from Universe 12 were stunned by what just happened.
"I-Impossible," Hoy stammered. "That can not be. Hildegarn can not be killed. That…"
"You better start talking now," Beerus addressed him. "Who is this person you have been talking about? If you say it, maybe I will not destroy you."
"You don´t need to bother," a voice said from behind them. "It was me."
"Saek." Goku and Vegeta recognized him as they turned around.
"Yes."
The Rogue Angel´s appearance took everyone off-guard. He suddenly moved right next to the small Dark Wizard and in the next he had disappeared with him.
"What?" Goku called out.
"So it were Demigra´s people," Vegeta stated. "But what do they want with this Hoy character?"
"Who knows?" Goku stated. "Maybe they want him to create another monster for them. I am sure we will find out sooner or later."
"Yes - after they have done it and it is too late to stop it beforehand," Beerus commented sighing. "Whatever. I don´t think that guy will make much of a difference when Demigra returns."
"What about him?" Vegeta asked.
He pointed to a figure lying unconscious on the ground not far away. As far as they had heard his name was Tapion and he originally came from Universe 7 as well.
Before he and his brother had, in an attempt to stop the monster Hildegarn, trapped it inside their own bodies and got themselves sealed away along with it.
"We could take care of him," one of the five Universe 12 Warriors offered.
"No," Vegeta replied. "He was originally from our universe. "We will take him along with us. Maybe we can help him get back home."
Ever since Hoy had managed to break the seal and free him from an object that seemed to be some sort of ancient music-box - They had all watched this Tapion trying desperately to keep holding the dematerialized upper half of the monster inside his body.
Even as the lower one was already freed and wrecking havoc on it´s own he was still trying everything to keep at least the other half imprisoned and keep Hildegarn from reaching his full power.
He had even asked them to kill him while it was still in him, to destroy the mounstrous creature for good.
That all that was pointless, since both Goku and Vegeta were more than strong enough to defeat the Hildegarn, was something he did not know.
Something about his braveness and determination had as it seemed impressed Vegeta, Goku thought.
Not that he himself thought any different. Maybe they could at least bring this guy back to his homeworld after all the time he had been trapped.
xxxxxxx
Universe 2
As it turned out, the Planet of Doom clearly lived up to it´s name. As far as they could tell, the entire world consisted of nothing but an endless lifeless wasteland of blackened rock and sand.
The sky was dark and storms were raging everywhere around the planet. Lightning was filling the skies everywhere.
The Planet of Doom suddenly didn´t seem so ridiculous anymore.
They had just arrived and the ship was still lowering itself inside the atmosphere and after a minute it finally landed on the ground.
"I will stay at the ship as we agreed," Mai told the other as they were about to get out.
"Alright," Trunks said.
"If you want to, me and Shosa can stay as well and keep a look at her and the ship while you are gone," Kawai from Universe 4 offered.
"You will come with us," Heles replied. "Vikal and Zarbuto – you stay on the ship, along with one of the Pride Troopers."
"Okay," the winged girl answered.
She knew Lady Heles had made the logical choice. Her skills of flight were not very useful in this environment. And Zarbuto was simply not longer the youngest and offensively not longer as powerful as others.
So they were the best ones to stay behind. Even if they didn´t exactly liked it.
The four Pride Troopers present were Toppo, Jiren, Tupper and Coccote.
"Tupper – you stay with them," Toppo decided.
xxx
The air outside was mostly toxic. Still being trained fighters with ki control, they could all survive here, for a while.
But Sour made it easier for them by creating a large bubble of oxigen around them all.
The combined group that finally left in the direction of the Fortress consisted of Heles, Pell, Sour, Brianne, Sanka, Su, Jimeze, Zirloin, Rabanra, Trunks, Goten, Marron, Twenty One, Toppo, Jiren, Coccote, Hit, Cabba, Caulifla, Kale and Frost.
And also the Universe 4 group of Quitella, Ganos, Decori, Kawai and Shosa, who nobody had expected or wanted.
All in all over twenty of the Multiverse strongest Warriors – including Jiren, Toppo and hit, a Kaioshin and two Gods of Destruction.
All in all more than enough to deal with nearly everything in existence easily. Even having both Jiren and Toppo here would be overkill in over 99% 0f all cases.
The question that was going though more than a few of their mind was, what in the world was here that Heles even considered coming here with a force like that might be necessary?
Okay – if Towa truly showed up here, some of it might be justified. But even for her it seemed a bit exaggerated.
xxx
Like the planet itself, the Fortress was like you would have imagined it to be. It was a giant black colored building, nearly one kilometer high, ressembling a mixture of a cathedral out of a horror movie and a knight´s castle.
"Let us go inside," Heles said. "Hopefully Towa is not here yet."
"We will. But first, how about you tell us what is truly going on here?" Jiren asked her with his arms crossed.
"Jiren?" Toppo said.
"He has a point," Hit stated. "What is in this castle what you believe Jiren, Toppo, me or yourself can not deal with ourselves? Why is everyone else here?" he questioned.
"Yes," Caulifla commented, "Aren´t these guys unimaginable strong or something? So why are we here too?"
"And what makes you even so sure that it is exactly this place that this Towa is interested in?" Hit continued. "Just because she had been seen in this part of space? Yet you never seemed to have considered that she might be going anywhere else."
"That are all good questions," Trunks stated calmly.
Yes – what made her so sure about this place? They didn´t even try to locate and hunt down Towa and instead came right here when they heard about her.
"Are you forgetting that you are talking with a God of Destruction?" Heles said defensively. "I don´t have to answer your questions. In fact I could destroy you all for demanding explanations from me like this."
"No – you can´t," Jiren stated. "Don´t forget I am stronger than you. You will not destroy anyone here without a good reason."
"And you won´t either even if you could," Toppo added. "You are not the type. We know you good enough by now to know that."
The Universe 2 Fighter were meanwile looking nervously at each other at seeing their Goddess being cornered like this.
But even they admitted a few things about this mission seemed strange.
"Maybe you should just tell them everything," Pell suggested. "This mission will be easier if all know what they are dealing with."
"I agree with the others," Cabba said. "If we are all risking our lives here for your universe, we should at least know everything."
"I fit helps our chances to survive this," Frost stated coldly.
"Okay – I will tell you," Heles agreed finally defeated. "As much as I have to talk about this matter. But I will talk while we are walking."
"That is okay with me," Caulifla said.
They opened the giant gate and stepped through. Into a long and bride hallway.
"The truth is, the Planet of Doom was created by me," Heles admitted.
"What?" several of the Universe 2 fighters called out as they heard this.
"Why?" Su said shocked.
"Lady Heles – how could you have…" Brianne asked.
"Of course not intentional," Heles clarified.
"It was a long time ago, when I was still a young God and did not have my position for long. I wanted to make Universe 2 a better more beautiful place. But I was young and stupid."
Of course it had to be one of those stories, several of them – especially from Universe 7 and 6 – thought.
"So I planned to eliminate all negative thoughts and feelings from this universe."
"That-…" Goten suddenly broke out.
"You don´t have to point it out Universe 7 Warrior, it was a stupid idea," Heles said. "Even I was not powerful or overconfident enough to attempt this with an entire universe at once. So I started trying to perform a ritual with this galaxy.
With this planet here as the vocal-point.
But the resulting negative energy turned the planet into a liveless wasteland and wiped out the native population.
Not only that, the negative energy turned into a form- and mindless dangerous entity.
Mortals all over the neighboring sectors of space were affected by it´s presence and became mentally unstable and violent.
In the end I managed to contain the negative – barely – and build this fortress around it. Then I shut off this sector from the rest of Universe 2 and forbad any contact.
And I never wanted to talk about it again," she added.
"You were lucky in a sense," Twenty One pointed out. "By my calculations the entire negative energy of a galaxy could have caused much more damage than just a single planet."
Trunks, Goten and Marron knew she was right.
They remembered how powerful alone Goku´s Genki Dama could be. And that was just the positive energy of a single planet.
"Yes – you are lucky that you didn´t get a Galaxy of Doom," Goten commented with a grin.
Everyone around was suddenly glaring at him.
"Sorry about our friend. He has a habbit of speaking without thinking first," Marron said.
"I guess he comes after his father there," Toppo remarked.
This caused everyone, including Heles, to relax a bit. They all remembered Goku´s antics, even in front of Zeno himself.
The members of Universe 4 meanwhile had staid a small distance behind from the others and not taken part in any conversation during it all.
xxxxxxx
Somewhere else, not too far away, another group of beings was meeting.
"You have kept me waiting," Towa – with Mira standing next to her – said to Saek, who had just arrived with the Wizard Hoy with him.
"There were some matters to attend to first," he replied. "But I brought the one the Master wanted." He pointed to Hoy.
Here is now the next chapter. I had the last weeks been busy with extra hours at work. So all my updates were hold off a bit.