Sango had appeared inside the Sai-jin Palace, near where she'd sensed Akira. Glancing around the room she'd realized she was in Palace Ops again. It looked as though Mellona and Rowan had taken over operations after she and the others had left.
"Sango?" Akira asked once he'd spotted her. "What's going on? What did the Queen want?"
"They managed to remove whatever was reported at the arena." she said. "But after they did they saw through the tear. The battle's resumed in Otherworld. They..."
Akira frowned. "She went to Otherworld to help." he said, more than asked.
"They all did." said Sango. "But the Queen asked me to come back here and report in. She was concerned that a renewal of conflict over there might mean the same here."
"Sound a Yellow Alert, bring the perimeter cams up, and arm the palace defenses." Rowan ordered, moving through the room. The others in the room did as instructed and a moment later the screens in the room were filled with images from outside the palace. The tension in the room mounted quickly as all eyes watched the screens for any sign of attack.
Sango stared along with them, not sure what she should do. Stay here and help defend the palace or go where her heart told her, through the tear, where she could try and make sure nothing happened to Gainin or Hotaru. Seconds past with no sign of attack, then minutes. And then, suddenly, Mellona's voice shattered the silence in the room.
"Red Alert! Incoming forces, quadrant forty-five!"
Sango scanned her eyes across the screens and then saw what Mellona had seen. At least a hundred dots of light had appeared in the sky, drawing closer. As she watched more dots appeared, and more, and more still. It looked like every Demon who'd survived their clearing attempts the day before was now converging on the palace.
"More sightings!" another voice called. "Quadrants nine, seventeen, twenty, and thirty-two!"
"Quadrant fifty-nine as well!" declared another.
"Aiko, Yuki, Kazuki, with me." Akira ordered, getting to his feet. "We're heading out to join the battle." He then turned his attention to Sango. "You may not be under my command anymore but we could use your help out there, too."
Sango bit her lip as she watched the army approaching, then shook her head. "I'm sorry, Akira. I can't fight here while worrying about what's happening over there. I have to make sure that Gainin and Hotaru are ok."
Akira frowned but nodded. "Then go." he said as he turned and left the room. She watched the other three Tanarians follow him out the door and then reached her senses out toward the arena. A second later she vanished from the palace and reappeared a few dozen yards from the tear. The soldiers were still standing there clearly not sure what to do.
"Return to the palace." she told them. "The Demons have launched a new assault." The Sai-jins didn't need to be told twice, blasting off for the palace at once. She watched them go for a moment, then turned her focus toward the tear. She didn't know what waited over there but she knew she had to go. Taking a deep breath she flew forward, the tear spread open, and she passed through.
The first thing she noticed when she crossed through were the impossibly high powers. There were four of them and her eyes darted through the sky to locate them. She thought she recognized Gohan's power, though it was so much higher now. A second later she spotted him firing an attack she'd not seen before, and one of the high powers fell. She cast her gaze about again, still trying to locate Hotaru's energy with her mind while pinpointing the source of the other two high powers.
She spotted Quietus and Mikomi a moment later, just as the Demon's energy suddenly began to drop. She couldn't believe how powerful he was and was worried that Hotaru's plan wouldn't work. And worried about the fact she couldn't sense her anywhere. She scanned her eyes across the battle looking for Hotaru or Gainin or someone who might know where the two were.
And then she heard Tien's voice.
XXX
Mikomi darted to her left in an effort to avoid the incoming leg, but wasn't fast enough to dodge it completely and the Demon's heel clipped her shoulder. The blow spun her around a half dozen times and shot jolts of pain through her arm. It was about par for the course for this battle. Quietus was pulling his punches just enough that every blow was severely painful but none of them were fatal.
She'd been trying to capitalize on his arrogance, to find some opening to take advantage of, some way of pulling out a victory. Thus far all her efforts had ended in failure. Since his transformation she had been unable to land a single blow. He'd blocked or dodged every attempt. Mostly dodged. Then countered with attacks she couldn't avoid.
She was panting as she stared at her opponent, her mind racing as it searched for some way to achieve victory. She couldn't think of any at the moment. Their plan had been the only hope she could see and it had failed, Goku and Bardock hadn't been able to stop Quietus. Dabura was likely dead, which utterly ruled out a Blood Crystal. She'd wanted to avoid that due to the state of the Realm but... at this point she'd have taken anything.
She slipped to the side quickly, just barely avoiding the energy blast that Quietus had launched her way. She was about to charge him, to try and find a lucky opening, to pull off some kind of miracle and beat him, when she suddenly felt Gohan's power spiking. She turned his way, eyes widening in shock. The Mortal had told her about his power spike in Makai but hearing about it and feeling it were completely different things. He was even stronger than Goku and Bardock.
"What is this?" Quietus growled, also looking Gohan's way.
"The power of Shinkai." Mikomi said, turning to face Quietus again, feeling a renewed sense of hope. Gohan was almost as powerful as her. Stronger than the Mazoku he was facing. It was incredible and it reminded her that nothing was truly impossible. Even this situation had a way out, she just had to find it.
Quietus snorted. "I'll admit, his power is impressive. But compared to me he is still only an ant. One I will crush once I've finished with..." His voice trailed off as another power spiked, and then a wave of pressure washed across them blocking their senses.
/That was the Tanarian Queen, I believe./ Mikomi thought, casting a glance behind her again. She wasn't sure what had just happened but she took it as a good sign. While Quietus was still distracted with what was happening in the other battles Mikomi charged him again, gathering energy in both hands as she neared.
Reaching him an instant later she slammed her open palms into his chest and unleashed the gathered energy in a brilliant explosion. The blast force pushed Mikomi back a few feet, and then suddenly Quietus' fist surged out and slammed into her face driving her back even further, and blurring her vision. She could barely make out his form as he charged her but was preparing to dodge when he suddenly came to a stop.
She thought she might have seen something come up behind him, but she wasn't sure. Rubbing her eyes trying to clear her vision she saw him trying to look over his shoulder at something behind him. /What... what's going on?/ she wondered. Suddenly there was a loud whine and then streams of red and black energy began shooting from the Demon's back. And his power began to drop.
/What...?/ she wondered confused, as Quietus began trying to reach behind his back, groping at something there she couldn't see.
XXX
Autoro had watched the battle for a moment longer, trying to catch some glimpse of the woman he'd thought for sure had been Mijima. But the fighting was too intense, the warriors moving around too much to catch more than a glimpse of anyone, and it didn't take long before he'd been drawn into the fighting himself. A Demon, perhaps assuming his undetectable energy level meant he was an easy target, had attempted to attack him.
He caught his would be attacker by surprise, however, grasping it around the throat and quickly draining it of its energy. He'd used all of his reserves on the teleport and need to replenish them quickly to improve his odds in the battle. His scanners indicated that the majority of those around him were weaker than he was but there were quite a number out there he would need to avoid, even after he topped out.
The first Demon had only got him a quarter of the way, however, and he plunged into the battle to get more. He knocked out several would be attackers, drained a few others, incinerated another group, then recharged off of a few more all while trying to figure out what his next step should be. He still wanted to put an end to this mess but, now that he was here, he wasn't entirely sure how to do so.
He'd caught sight of three battles happening apart from this main melee and figured one of them involved the leader of the attackers. The problem was, he couldn't tell which one. His scanners couldn't read any of the powers involved in those battles, they were all well beyond his ability to fight. Which left him only one tactic, and only one shot. If he targeted the wrong enemy he'd blow his only chance.
That's when he noticed a sudden shift ripple through the crowd of fighters. Eyes turned skyward, looking toward one of the three battles above. He followed their gaze and saw only flashes of light, the fighters moving too quickly for him to follow. Clearly something was happening there. And then a burst of silver light washed out across the battlefield from one of the other conflicts.
The warriors around him all seemed dazed by whatever had caused that light, disoriented, and he took advantage of it to take down several more Demons. Even as he did he tracked the silver light back to its source and saw one of the three battles come to a close. A moment later, as he killed another Demon he saw a second battle end. By the reactions of the crowd around him he knew that the good guys had won both of those fights.
/So, the other one is the leader./ he mused. The attackers hadn't fled so clearly their boss hadn't fallen. Nonchalantly smashing a fist into a would be attacker's face he shot away from the main battle until he was directly below the last two fighters who stood apart from the throngs. As he reached them he witnessed a short exchange and from it quickly determined which had the upper hand.
/Got you!/ he thought, smirking. The stronger of the two clearly had to be the leader of the attackers. He pointed his metal arm skyward and quickly activated all the required systems. There was a click and a whir and then suddenly his metal arm detached from his body and shot skyward. As it neared its target it split apart into several different prongs. Reaching the man above it latched onto his back, between his shoulder blades and his wings.
"Alright!" Autoro cheered, pumping his remaining arm into the air as words flashed across his vision. VAMPIRE MODE ACTIVATED. An instant later energy began erupting from the escape ports along the arm as the device sucked the energy out of its target and jettisoned it into the air. It was his trump card attack. The arm would latch on and keep sucking out power until there was nothing left.
It had it's draw backs. The biggest being that it left him exposed, his reserve tanks were all located in the arm, his main core was all the power he had left now and it was only rated at 75,000. That meant most of the enemy around him outmatched him now, so as soon as he saw the arm was working as intended he pulled back and took cover near some boulders. His energy was artificial, if they couldn't see him they couldn't find him.
In the sky above Quietus continued to try and reach behind him and grab whatever had latched on to him. But his bulky arms and his wings were getting in his way. The object was in a place he simply couldn't reach, no matter how hard he tried. And every second that went by his energy dropped more, at an incredible rate. It had only been a few seconds but he'd already lost almost ten percent of his power.
/Whoever did this is going to pay!/ he thought as he gave up trying to grab whatever was on his back. Instead, he quickly focused all of his energy toward his back and in a cry of frustration and anger unleashed a massive burst of ki. The power surge overwhelmed the device and it exploded. Quietus turned and looked behind him for some sign of the source but saw and felt nothing, though he spotted the smoking metal fragments falling to the ground.
/Some sort of Mortal technology./ he thought, scowling. /These Shinkai scum are really starting to piss me off.../ He smirked as he turned back toward Mikomi again. "All the more reason to erase this reality and start over. Now that that interruption is dealt with what do you say we fini..."
"Alright, that's it!" a voice suddenly called out, echoing across the Grand Kai's world. "Everyone, get clear!" Quietus and Mikomi both turned toward the source of the voice and their eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
XXX
Tien had followed the battles going on below, tracking everyone as best he could, keeping an eye out for anyone that got too close. He'd felt Gohan's power spike, felt the half Sai-jin's energy slipping from him even as he fought, and felt Hotaru's technique latching onto that lost energy and drawing it in.
He'd felt the other Mazoku suddenly start toward him and had been concerned, but then he felt Hotaru in pursuit, felt him come to a stop, and then lost all sense of energy for a moment. When it came back both Mazoku had been gone and he'd turned his entire focus to Quietus. He couldn't believe just how powerful the Demon was.
Still, once the attack had started forming he'd felt fairly confident the plan would work. The charge rate was incredibly fast and the pure energy he was drawing on, while not the only energy in the attack, would give it a greater effect against the likes of Quietus. The Demon's energy was the darkest he'd ever felt.
It was shortly after the two Mazoku had fallen that he felt it. A sudden, unexpected and inexplicable, dropping of Quietus' power. An incredibly rapid dropping, at that. If it kept pace the Demon would lose all of his power in five minutes, maximum. What's more, a chunk of the energy that Quietus was losing was being caught up by Hotaru's technique and drawn in. The attack had already been stronger than Quietus before this turn, now it was going beyond him at a much faster rate.
/If his power stabilizes again it'll be time./ Tien thought, preparing himself. He felt it a few seconds later. The power drain ended, Quietus's power had stopped falling and was holding steady once again. /Would have liked more, but this is good enough. Even without the pure energy it could kill him. With it.../ Above his head the ball of energy had grown to the size of about a city block, and it suddenly flashed and pulsed as he closed the attack up so he could launch it.
"Alright, that's it! Everyone, get clear!" he called as he brought his arms down and launched the attack.
XXX
The six of them had been making good time in their pursuit of Quietus, had kept pace with him the whole way through the Black Skull Path and the Dead Zone. Could, in fact, have overtaken him within the Dead Zone if such a thing had been prudent. But the Mazoku's warning of their ineffectiveness in that Plane, now that they were dead, had kept them back.
Goku and Bardock hadn't been too concerned, though. They were only about two minutes behind Quietus. They figured once they crossed back into Shinkai they could just pour on the speed to overtake him long before he reached the others. Videl and Vegeta, however, weren't sure if that was wise. The pair told the other two Sai-jins about their problems fighting the Demons in Hell, how they'd seemed impervious to damage, and the Mazoku surmised it was due to the high concentration of evil in the Plane. It mended and healed the Demons faster than damage could be inflicted.
And so the plan had changed once again. They would pursue Quietus through Hell, follow him up the Red Snakeway into the H.F.I.L. and then use Relocation to overtake him there. From their battle with Janemba they knew the Plane wouldn't interfere with the battle. It was a good plan. A solid plan.
A plan that collapsed as soon as they returned to Shinkai. As soon as they arrived in Hell they noticed it. There was no trace left of Quietus's ki.
"What the Hell?" Vegeta wondered, casting his gaze and his senses around the area. The Demon couldn't have just vanished...
"Damn." Nefaria muttered. "He must have used a tear to travel up to the next plane."
"Not good." said Bardock. "That is not good."
"Can't you just sense him out anyway?" asked Videl. "Use Relocation to get to him?"
Goku shook his head. "No. We can't sense anything outside of Hell."
"It IS a prison." Dabura reminded. "It's not like the other Planes where individuals are meant to come and go."
"Do either of you know what tear to take?" asked Bardock, but the Mazoku both shook their heads no. "Damnit."
"We can lead you back to the path up to the H.F.I.L., however." said Nefaria.
"Then we need to hurry." Goku said as, in a flash of gold, he and Bardock jumped to the second level. Videl grabbed hold of Goku's ankle, Vegeta took hold of Bardock's, and then the group shot off at full speed for the Red Snakeway.
The four Sai-jins were all concerned about the delay this would cause them in catching the Demon. The flight back to the Red Snakeway would be at least five minutes. Getting up through that path was at least another fifteen minutes. That was twenty minutes that Quietus would be loose in Shinkai, unchecked. There was no telling what kind of damage he could do in that time.
After what seemed like forever they were finally nearing the exit of Red Snakeway, or at least figured they were, when Vegeta suddenly let out a shocked gasp, released his hold on Bardock's foot, missed the next bend in the tunnel, and flew head first into the wall. The sound of the crash brought the entire group to a halt, all turning back to look at him as he rubbed his head and climbed back to his feet.
"Vegeta, you ok?" Videl asked.
"Fine." the Sai-jin grumbled, frowning. "Didn't anyone else feel that?"
"Feel what?" asked Bardock.
Vegeta shook his head, looking puzzled. "I'm... not sure. It felt like... something snapped. Like something suddenly came rushing in at me and hit me head on. There was an electric charge to it, felt it all the way down to my bones."
"I didn't feel anything."
"Could it be a side effect from the fusion?" asked Nefaria.
"No." Goku said, shaking his head. "Nothing like that's ever happened to Bardock or I, and I didn't feel anything either."
"We can figure out if it means anything later." Bardock said, turning to face up the tunnel again. "We still have a Demon to catch." The others all nodded and a moment later they were off again. It wasn't long before they rounded a bend and saw light at the end of the tunnel.
Goku and Bardock poured on an extra burst of speed, rushing to get out to where they could sense the rest of the Realm and learn if they were in time or not. An instant later the group shot out of the tunnel and pulled to a stop. All eyes widened in shock as they looked skyward. They'd all felt it at the same time and none of them could believe it.
"Wh-what the Hell?" Vegeta stammered.
"That's..." started Nefaria. "What's going on?"
"I don't know, but I know how to find out." Goku said. "Everyone grab on to Bardock or I." The others soon did as instructed and the group disappeared.
XXX
Unknown Location
The command room had been silent and tense from the moment Raven and the others had arrived. When Neikan discovered the Spirit Bomb Raven had heard the sound of groaning metal and noticed her daughter leaning against the railing as she watched the monitor, clutching the metal so tightly it was bending under her hands. Even after Hotaru managed to stop the Mazoku and save the Spirit Bomb Ravenna's hands remained clenched so tightly her knuckles where white.
"Wait, what's happening?" Raven's mate asked, his voice cutting into her thoughts. "How's Quietus losing power?" Raven blinked and looked at the screens again. Sure enough the power reading for Quietus was dropping, and it was going down fast.
"There's something on his back." one of the tech's said, making a few adjustments to their controls. The view shifted a little and they caught a glimpse of something metallic attached between the Demon's shoulder blades and spewing energy into the air.
"Interesting..." Razor said. "That was launched by someone I didn't recognize. A man in a metal skull helmet. It used to be one of his arms." As he spoke Quietus released a power burst that overloaded and exploded the device.
Raven's mate let out a short chuckle. "A few changes to history and a nobody suddenly becomes a somebody." he said. "Even if just for a few seconds."
"Sir!" a tech called, twisting around to look behind him. "The Spirit Bomb, it's being launched!"
"What?" Raven demanded, even as she watched Tien's arms move, saw the attack begin its descent. She looked toward the readings and gritted her teeth. It wasn't enough pure energy. It was a few hundred thousand RADs short of what they needed to break the Black Field.
"It's not all pure energy." Razor said, also looking at the readings. "This modified version pulled in other energy forms. Pure energy makes up the bulk of the attack but the offset is enough not to reach our requirements."
"Not for a direct collapse, no..." Raven's mate said, eyeing up another screen and smirking. "But look at those readings. The field is in massive flux. The ripples are engulfing the entire surface. Thousands of gaps are forming all over the surface, some of them hundreds of miles across on the side facing the North Galaxy. It should be enough for a little... brute force to break through."
Raven glanced at him and nodded. "Go." she said. His smirk widened and then he was gone. She quickly turned to the techs in the room. "Lock us to the timeframe in view and release the anchor!" she ordered. The techs moved quickly, doing as ordered. A moment later she could feel the floor vibrating under her feet. Then a sudden feeling of weightlessness overcame her, the vibrations intensified, and then gravity returned along with the feeling as though she'd just come to a sudden stop despite the fact she'd been standing still.
She even stumbled forward half a step, like her momentum had pushed her forward. And she wasn't the only one. Everyone in the room swayed or stumbled, some even fell over. They'd just moved. For the first time since they'd anchored themselves in the past they'd moved. Jumped millions of years into the future, made the reality they'd been watching real. It was finally happening. Their plan was finally reaching it's conclusion.
"Give me an external view." she ordered, and a tech complied. A monitor flared to life showing an external view, showing their prison. Off in the distance she could see the flashes of lightning like energy, the silent lightning storm that marked the border of the time-space tear. The inner edge of their prison. Closer to her location she could see a pulsing golden light that marked her mate's location.
Suddenly a brilliant flash of blue light surged from his location racing across the empty expanse toward the distant tear. It reached it a moment later and slammed into the tear, warping and bending it as it passed through, the power too much for the weakened time-space to resist. Passing through the tear it reached the outer barrier, the one that actually kept them trapped. The Black Field.
Raven held her breath as she watched the time-space tear begin to rip and shatter, the temporal prison collapsing. And then she saw the flash of blue, saw the light rip outward in an ever expanding halo, surrounding them. Surging along the length of the field. In the center was nothing but empty blackness, not even the glimmer of a single star. The empty void of deep space loomed ahead, revealed at last, and she couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time.
She sensed her mate reappear inside the room an instant later, and then a hand rested on her shoulder. The attack he'd launched had worked. The modified Spirit Bomb had weakened the field enough that brute force had shattered it. It was gone. The tear was gone. All that was left was them, and the thousands of ships that had surrounded their prison awaiting their escape. Freedom, at last.
"So, we're out?" Ravenna asked, looking around the room. Everyone had gone still and quiet, it was eerie. That's when she realized that even the audio from the video feed on the Grand Kai's world had stopped. Looking back toward that monitor she saw the screen was now showing only the words NO SIGNAL. In fact, every monitor except the one that was showing the exterior of the ship was now out. "Hey, we've lost our feeds..."
"Without the tear our probes are useless." her mother said. "Along with our long range communications equipment. They all made use of the temporal anomaly to enable real time data transmission. Not that it really matters at this point, there's no way Quietus will be able to get out from under that Spirit Bomb."
"So... now what?"
"Now we begin our preparations to return home." answered her father. "The North Galaxy awaits, and it's a long journey."
XXX
Otherworld, Grand Kai's World
Quietus couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was different than before, than the one created back in Makai, but he still recognized it as a version of that attack. He also recognized the threat. He'd not felt it before, with so many energies around and his focus so tightly locked on Mikomi. But he could feel it now. The ball of energy coming his way held more power than him.
Mikomi recovered from her own surprise and moved aside quickly as the energy bomb zipped past her, racing toward Quietus. The Demon reacted just before it reached him, thrusting out his arms and catching it. As soon as it touched his hands it started forcing him down and back, and he cried out in pain as the pure energy tore at his palms.
"This... isn't... possible!" he cried, trying to force the attack off of him to no avail. His arms were shaking, his elbows starting to bend as they gave out, and he knew the ground wasn't far off now. Touching down would help give him some leverage but he knew it wouldn't be enough. As things stood he couldn't repel the attack pressing against him. As impossible as it seemed he was moments away from being killed. By a Shinkai Mortal.
"You think you can beat ME!?" he roared. "I am the most powerful being in the universe! I am the Demon King! I will tear this Realm down and become GOD!" The last word came out as an echoing roar. Suddenly a wind picked up around Quietus, not blowing out but drawing in. Mikomi swallowed and her eyes opened in shock and fear.
/No. No, that's not possible!/ she thought. But her fears were confirmed a second later as she saw streams of energy peeling away from the Spirit Bomb and flowing toward, and into, Quietus. And then one of the dead warriors let out a cry of surprise as he was suddenly sucked toward the Demon, his body distorted, turned into white mist, and was drawn into him as well.
"Everyone, get back!" Mikomi cried, pulling back from Quietus herself. Even as the Grand Kai's warriors responded to her call and began to retreat more of them cried out in surprise as they were suddenly sucked in, drawn toward the Demon and absorbed into him. Meanwhile the Spirit Bomb in his hands was shrinking as energy was siphoned off and absorbed. Shrinking and losing power.
/I... I don't believe it. All his power... all his power and he's a Soul Eater! We barely had any hope to begin with, now... with the power he'll gain there's no way we can stop him!/
A few moments later the suction stopped and with a cry Quietus pushed what remained of the spirit bomb away from him, off toward a distant mountain where it impacted and exploded. Smirking, flexing his arms and hands, he looked around the battlefield. He wasn't entirely sure he could still pull off his end game anymore, the souls he'd absorbed would have altered his being some. Perhaps enough he could no longer sync with Kokoro.
But for now, all that mattered was the fact he now had more than enough power to squash all the annoying bugs before him. His first target was the source of that attack. It had nearly killed him once, he wasn't going to allow them a second attempt. Especially now that he couldn't use Soul Absorption again to escape. His eyes followed the line the attack had taken to get to him and he saw the figure floating there, someone he'd never seen before.
Suddenly he vanished from where he'd been and appeared again a second later, directly behind Tien. Before the Human even realized he was there the Demon had karate chopped the back of his neck, instantly severing his spine. With that target down Quietus flicked his gaze across the battlefield again, spreading out his senses, this time looking for the Mortal that he'd sensed a short while ago. The one nearly as powerful as Mikomi.
He smirked as he sensed him, recognizing the energy pattern even if his power was significantly lower than it had been earlier. Turning in his direction he saw him on the ground with a small group of others. He quickly thrust an arm out and in a burst of red launched a blast of energy toward the group. Sango followed the line of the attack and her eyes widened in shock and fear. An instant later she vanished.
She reappeared a split-second later in the midst of the group that Quietus had just targeted. Gohan, Yamcha, and Hotaru. Instinctively she reached out to grab Yamcha and Hotaru's arms, determined to pull them to safety with her Terepo. But the attack was coming in too fast. She'd barely managed to grab the pair, hadn't yet had the time to start the Terepo, when Quietus's attack reached them and, in a thundering explosion, their energy signals vanished.
The Demon turned then, shifting his focus toward Mikomi herself. Now that he'd removed the Mortals he considered possible threats it was time to take care of the Supreme Kai. With three of the Supreme Mazoku now dead her death would seal the fate of the Realms. There would be no chance the balance would recover. It should be possible then for him to rip open a way out, to slip back into Void Space once more, and then he would ascend. He would become God.
Just before he attacked his eyes shifted from Mikomi to a point a few feet behind her and to her left. Several powers had just appeared there and he scowled. Dabura, Nefaria, and four Mortals. Three he recognized from the battle the day before. His scowl faded after a second and turned into a smirk. This was actually a good thing. Killing Nefaria and Dabura as well would make escaping the Realms that much easier.
"Man, it really is him!" Goku said, blinking in shock. He'd sensed it as soon as they'd reached the H.F.I.L. but he'd not believed it. His power was a lot bigger than before.
"How... how has he become so powerful?" Nefaria stammered. She couldn't believe the power she felt radiating from Quietus. It was inconceivable.
"He was a Soul Eater." Mikomi said, glancing back at them. "Some of the Mortal warriors managed a Spirit Bomb but..."
Dabura frowned. "He sucked the power from it, and from any dead warriors unlucky enough to be nearby. This is... problematic."
Bardock snorted. "This just makes things more interesting. You ready, Goku?"
Goku grinned. "Alright, let's do this!" he cheered as the pair floated apart from the group. Vegeta scowled as he watched them, wondering how they could be so confident right now. Surely their fusion didn't have that much power? Mikomi blinked as she watched the two move through a bizarre series of motions.
"Fuuuuu! Sion! Ha!" Their fingers touched and there was a blinding flash of blue white light and a burst of wind. When the light faded Goku and Bardock had vanished. In their place floated someone else who looked... almost exactly like them.
He could have easily been mistaken for either Sai-jin, though the cross scar Bardock had on his cheek had been reduced to a slash, and only about half its original size. And their clothes had been replaced. The new warrior wore a pair of baggy black pants with an orange belt and had on a short dark blue vest with green trim as well as orange arm bands. The hair was also nearly identical, only a little longer and spikier, with a few more tufts then normal.
"W-who?" Mikomi wondered, shocked. "What?"
"Yo!" the man cheered in a double voice, grinning and giving a two fingered salute. "Godock, at your service!"
Across the way Quietus chuckled. "Please, that again?" he said. "Have you forgotten what happened last time?"
"No, but last time you fought Gogeta. He was impressive, sure, but he doesn't even come close to my power. Against me you don't have a chance."
Quietus scowled and then lunged in, intending to remove this new annoyance quickly. But suddenly there was a brilliant flash of gold, a spark of blue, a massive surge of power, and then a thundering crack as Godock slammed his leg into Quietus's face sending the Demon sailing away, blood spewing from his nose.