Chapter 11: Apotheosis

Shinseishi

For one particular thing in this chapter that I know some people are opinionated about…well, stick around for the author's notes at the end and I'll explain my design choices.

…actually, there are several quite important things in the author's notes section this week, now that I think about it.

But one thing I'll say here: Battle of the Gods sequel is officially announced! To be released sometime next summer, probably. Now, what it does with the Hakaishin and universes, etc., will probably be very, very different to what I've done, so…needless to say, it will unfortunately not be canon to Break Through the Limit (if I'd taken longer to get here, and thus was able to add it in, I would, but I almost certainly won't be able to). I'll probably be done by then, though, that's a year or so away...

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, but don't oversell us, Pan…" Raditz said warily, pacing over to join her and his brother while keeping an eye on Helios. "Right now, you're a lot stronger than either of us."

"I wish I could do something…" Goku agreed. "I saw Roshi and Oolong and the way here…I want to fight! But this guy…"

"Not just those two," Break said grimly. "Baba, too…"

Pan turned anxiously to her grandfather. "Did you see dad anywhere? When you were…y'know…outside?"

"No," Goku replied. "But he just went a different way to us, right? I'm sure he's fine. We made it back, after all…" He gave an earnest smile, embracing her briefly. "You've done so well to get this far. It must have been hard for you…I'm very proud of you." He sighed. "I wish I could tell you it was all gonna be okay now…that we'd handle it for you, and you didn't have to get hurt anymore…"

"No, I get it…" Pan nodded. "Like you said, I'm the best we've got right now."

"And yet…that isn't enough," Raditz said flatly. "Not to be rude, but his power's a lot higher than yours, and from the looks of you, you've been feeling it."

"I know…" She shook her head. "I tried what you did. After you left. Combining the two forms…" she looked up at him. "I couldn't…I'm sorry. If I hadn't been too weak to do it, I might've been able to beat this guy! But now…you're putting all this trust in me, but I don't know what I can do…! I've been running on false bravado for too long, and if I keep going he's gonna kill me!"

"Then you know what you have to do, right?" Raditz's voice grew stern. "Try again. I can sense that combined power deep within you…you tapped into it once…"

"Unsuccessfully!" Pan pointed out. "But…yeah, since I tried that, it's stayed…sleeping, I guess, inside me. I could probably try again with just that internal reserve…wouldn't need a moon. But—" She paused, looking sad. "I can't. I don't think I can succeed, and even more than that, I don't want to go through that again!"

Break nodded to herself. So she was speaking from experience when she stopped me from trying something similar…poor kid…

Goku put a hand on Raditz's shoulder. "Come on, we shouldn't make her—"

Raditz brushed it away. "You know it's all we've got! Regardless of how unpleasant she finds it, no matter if she's your grandkid, if she can't defeat this guy, everyone dies!" His eyes narrowed. "I won't let that happen because you got sentimental."

"You…I…" Goku gave a pained look, and sighed. "If there had been any other way…"

"Don't worry, guys, I understand." Pan took a step forwards, calling over to Helios. "It's the only reason you haven't attacked us yet, anyway, right?"

The Shadow Dragon nodded slowly. "I was intrigued when it was suggested you could get stronger still. I gather you've decided to try?" Her determined stare was answer enough. "Then do whatever you have to. But don't make me wait too long."

"We're the ones on a time limit, so don't worry about that." She inhaled slowly, trying to calm herself. It didn't work. We've lost too many people, and he's too much of an ass, for me to stay calm. Well…I'll need to trigger it first…gonna be harder without a moon, even if I've internalised the feeling…I'll need my ki at its very peak, just for an instant—like the time I hurt Helios. One more time…just for a moment…let me go beyond my limits! She let out a sudden growl, a forceful wave of ki digging a crater around her as her muscles rippled and her body shone with new energy.

There! Now…time to wake up the beast.

Hello again.

Helios frowned as Pan fell to one knee, clawing at her forehead, tail lashing around in a frenzy. This is…different. It certainly seems painful…no wonder she was so reluctant to do it before.

Raditz frowned, perplexed. Shouldn't she be…growing by about now?

Pan stuck out a hand below to balance herself on the ground, holding in a howl of pain. Last time…went Oozaru, then Super Saiyan…other way around this time…so I should become the golden monkey straight off, I guess…

…won't lose this time! Won't lose…control…I'm stronger than you…beast! She felt it—the change was about to begin. But since it wasn't mixed in with the moonlight this time, and therefore unclouded by primal instincts, she felt it purely as it was—a flood of energy. Of course! Matter has to come from somewhere…so Oozaru is an increase in energy, just like Super Saiyan; it just turns all that energy into matter, which is why you get bigger and stronger, but not faster or anything.

Mentally, she grabbed ahold of that flood of energy, dragging it to a halt before it could do its preprogrammed job of converting itself into fur and body mass, gasping and falling flat on her back with the enormous strain of holding such a huge well of power to a standstill. Now…let's bypass the whole mass thing…and just give me power!

The internal struggle was externalised, as some invisible force lifted Pan off the ground, columns of golden light seemingly emerging from nowhere and twisting inwards into a vortex of energy with her at the centre, her body enveloped in the blinding glow.

"This power…I can't…!" Hephaestus staggered away, unable to resist the massive weight of ki surrounding the transforming hybrid.

Goku shielded his eyes. "Too bright…it's like being hit by a Solar Flare!"

Break had to drag her father away. "Come on, idiot!"

"It's…incredible…" he whispered.

"Don't stand so close!" she insisted.

Helios was trembling with anticipation. Yes…yes! This is magnificent…finding all these unique fighters together in one place…today is a day I shall not soon forget.

The light remained just as bright, but receded in volume, the glow retreating until it settled around Pan's body, continuing to obscure her features and making her appear as some kind of reverse silhouette. Gradually, this dimmed too, leaving Pan standing amidst a circle of churned-up, yet solid rock—it had melted, then somehow rapidly frozen again, during the transformation.

Pan resumed breathing normally, opening her eyes. I tried to pull all the energy into me, adding it to my existing ki…but it wasn't 100% efficient. Some still 'stuck' as matter…so I guess there were some physical changes after all.

The others looked on, observing these changes—Pan stood a little taller and appeared slightly more muscular. More notably, dark red fur (the exact shade her hair had been in her pseudo-Super Saiyan state before, surely not a coincidence) stretched from below her wrists to up past her shoulders; her tail was now the same colour, and significantly longer. Interestingly, her eyes and hair were now changed into the blue and gold visage of the standard Super Saiyan form, a look she'd never appeared in before. There was one other change, which Break quickly pointed out.

"Uh, Pan," she said slowly, still taking in the transformation. "I'm happy you succeeded, but, uh, you might wanna cover up. Your top…" Pan noticed that, indeed, where the fur had appeared, it had burned right through the covering fabric, and had completely destroyed her shoulder-straps, making her extremely glad that only family and inhuman creatures from beyond the universe were around to see.

With a slight frown and a one-fingered gesture, she telekinetically pulled the damaged garment up off the floor. I'm glad Bulma thinks of just about everything making this stuff. As if she wasn't an expert in enough things already. If the straps get damaged, you just unfold this bit, clip that to there, and voila, strapless. Having re-dressed, she turned her attention to more important matters. "All right…I went through all that crap to become this…it better be enough."

"I, too, am anxious," Helios concurred, unfolding his arms and dropping into a wary half-crouch. I mustn't succumb to arrogance. She was formidable enough before…this should be interesting.

Pan relaxed her aura, studying Helios unblinkingly for a few seconds, and then smiled. "I win."

"What's that supposed to—" Helios got no further, collapsing like a discarded doll, vomiting blood.

"Did I stutter?" Pan snapped. "I. Win."

"A…Amazing…" Helios coughed, staying close to the ground as he tensed up to spring. He vanished from the onlookers' sight, reappearing directly in front of Pan and yelling as he forced his ki into his right fist, smashing it into Pan's face. He then gave a screech, leaping back and staring down at his broken fingers in disbelief.

Pan, completely unharmed, yawned. "Well, now you've given it your best, if it makes you feel any better." She began to walk casually past Helios, heading for the door.

"We're not done!" Helios roared, pumping up his energy. "I still stand! I still breathe! I will never surrender!"

She shrugged. "But you already know the result. Might as well not bother fighting."

"How…dare…you…!" Helios marched up to her, positioning himself between her and the door. "On my honour, you will not pass through this door while I live." His voice was cold steel.

"You're a fool," she said gently, sadly.

"I would sooner die a fool than live on a coward!" Helios declared, raising his left arm and concentrating his ki. "Whatever new power this is…we'll have to see…whether it can stand up to the heat of a star!"

Pan rolled her eyes. "It can, if it's only your power behind the attack."

Helios swung his arm around in a wide arc, forming and launching not one as expected, but three fiery spheres. "And your friends?"

Pan yelped in surprise as the first slammed headlong into her aura, exploding and obscuring her from view. The second was aimed for Goku and Raditz, who stood adjacent to each other, and the third flew for Break, slightly to their left.

Goku rapidly powered up, performing a peculiar mixing action with both hands and forming an attack he hadn't used for quite some time. Heat of a star? No problem. "Nova Burst!"

Before even seeing that Goku had taken steps to save them, Raditz reacted on instinct, taking an Instant Transmission jump to directly in front of Break, who had been caught off-guard and had yet to react. It was almost upon him, though he managed to turn Super Saiyan before it hit. Damn…and we only just got back! What a stupid way to die…I'm not even gonna be a decent meat shield—it's gonna go right through me and kill Break too…!

My daughter—!

Helios relaxed, beginning to feel his injuries, and watching the triple explosions with some relief. Finally…taken care of. They were certainly foes to remember, though—

"I told you." Pan, still standing in the same spot, flung her aura outwards to clear away the obscuring smoke and flames. "I can survive anything you can throw at me."

A pair of feet tapped the ground behind her as Goku touched down. Good thing I remembered that technique…it's been ages. His solar attack had still been weaker than Helios', but he'd slowed it down enough to allow himself to dodge.

Helios groaned. Did I at least kill the other two?!

Break, arms raised to shield herself, opened her eyes to find herself unharmed. What…? The smoke cleared, revealing her father facing her, still in Super Saiyan but swaying slightly, smoke rising from his back, a pained expression on his face. The power in that attack…he shouldn't have survived it, unless…? No way…but his ki did just shoot through the roof…

Sometimes I forget this, but I have awesome parents.

Raditz cracked a smile. "Heh. What a way to unlock this 'demigod ki'…" He tore off the burned remnants of his shirt, giving Break a thumbs-up. "Hell if I'm gonna let anything kill you while I'm here." He spun, facing Pan and Helios. "And now I've awakened to this…care to help me warm up?" He dashed at Helios, drawing his sword and making a downwards slash in one smooth motion. Helios jumped sideways, Raditz continuing the attacking motion and sticking his sword into the ground, pushing off and letting go to propel himself into a jumping kick. Helios blocked with his good arm, gritting his teeth at the impact. I wasn't expecting such strength from him…! That moment of desperation really did bring out his potential…

Raditz's arm swung down, and Helios dodged back, throwing a kiai that knocked the wind out of the Super Saiyan. "Your power increased a lot, certainly, but you should leave this to the girl. You're only about as strong as she was before she made this latest transformation…" Still, it is impressive in such a short space of time; he'd be able to give Hephaestus and Prometheus an even battle.

Once he'd recovered, Raditz grinned. "Yeah, you're probably right…even after all the fighting you've done, I don't stand a chance at beating you. But it's pretty exhilarating, suddenly getting this strong—I had to try it out."

"If you've had your fun, I'm going to finish it," Pan said firmly. In the blink of an eye she was behind Helios, gripping his left arm in both hands and snapping it in a single forceful motion. Helios hissed, spinning to face her. My right arm's still intact, minus a couple of finger bones…a direct punch to the face didn't faze her, though… He swung a knifehand at her eyes, but she ducked under it, backflipping away and landing some distance from him.

"I'm not…beaten yet…!" he insisted.

"You've been beaten ever since I transformed," she countered. "The next blow will be the last. I'll use my full strength for the first time."

"Then I'll show you my best, as well…while I can't yet fight at faster-than-light speeds like the gods can, in a straight line I can build up to speed you can't even comprehend." He braced himself, preparing to charge. "Almost 90 percent of lightspeed! Even you can't match that!" He took off, fist clenched to strike, soaring straight for her, 'wings' burning trails of flame through the air.

"Ninety percent?" Pan's eyes flicked open, and she disappeared, materialising crouched on the ground behind Helios followed by a trail of jumbled, smashed-aside light rays. "I'll raise you a hundred."

Half a second later, Helios gasped, feeling an immense tearing sensation flood throughout his chest. He flopped to the ground, spasming, before falling unconscious. Pan stood, rubbing her elbow. "I shattered a couple of your ribs and probably tore some other stuff. You'll live."

Hephaestus approached cautiously. "He did want you to kill him if he lost…"

Pan shrugged. "I don't like him enough to do what he wants. And I don't hate him enough to kill him, either. Unfortunately for him, I only dislike him enough to let him live, since I know it'll piss him off." She gave Hephaestus a stern look. "We're going through. For real this time. You're not going to stop us, I assume?"

"No…even if I wasn't injured, you're quite beyond my power now…" Hephaestus almost smiled. "I'm going to stay and tend to Prometheus and Helios."

"Similarly, you should stay and round up all our friends, maybe take 'em back to the first level," Raditz suggested to Break.

"What?!"

Goku stepped between them. "Easy, Break, I was about to say the same thing. But somebody needs to, and there's no easy way to say this, but…"

"Yeah, I know, the three of you are all a lot stronger'n I am, whatever…" Break turned away, sighing. "Eh, fine. But no promises I won't come after you when I'm sure they're all okay."

"Come on, people!" Pan shouted from over by the hovering doorway. "We're running out of time. Get moving, or I'm going without you."

"Coming, coming…" Goku ran after Pan.

Hephaestus gazed around at the devastated landscape. We have been utterly defeated…I never thought I'd see Inferno Gauntlet conquered by a handful of mortals. Just who are these people?

Alpha Shenron circled Wistarion, tracking his wary movements with a hunter's eye. "Come, Wistarion…let's end it."

"Very well." Wistarion summoned up his energy, preparing for the final clash. "No matter what you do…one of us will die here. And then…you lose."

(Quick note: You may have noticed that Raditz survived one of Helios' sun-blasts, despite even with demigod ki being about as strong as Hephaestus/Prometheus, yet earlier Pan at the same level dodged it, fearing for her life. The reason being that Helios fired three of them at once here, so when he shot a single one at Pan and Gogeta earlier, it was much stronger than the attack Raditz survived. Hope that clears that up.)

Okay, so here's addressing the elephant in the room, as mentioned at the start: The appearance of "Super Saiyan 4". Actually, let's address the name first. It was called that in GT because it was the next form Goku got after SSJ3, and made him even stronger. But as evidenced by Vegeta, you don't have to have SSJ3 to go "SSJ4", and in my opinion all you need is basic SSJ and Oozaru (but if you already have SSJ2 or 3, or are extremely powerful for some other reason, your "SSJ4" will of course be much stronger). Hence "SSJ4" is a misleading name, but I'll call it that with the speech marks around it in these author's notes because that's what everyone knows it as. It won't be called that in the story, because it was discovered in a completely different way, and Pan didn't go SSJ1/2/3 like Goku did before getting this form, so won't see it as simply "the next step after SSJ3".

All right, with that out of the way: The look. Several parts to this. First, the basic SSJ hair and eyes. That honestly…just made sense to me. It's a combination of SSJ and Oozaru…so I might as well just make it look like a combination of SSJ and Oozaru. If you disagree, fine, but I wanted to put the SSJ gold in there somewhere, and the idea all-gold fur just always seemed a little off to me. (Plus, she's trying to draw the power that normally gets turned into mass into herself, so a smaller, more focused area for the gold made sense to me.)

Speaking of which, second thing—the fur. Yes, I kept the reddish fur from GT, but gave it kind of an explanation (…unlike GT). Since (for now) only Pan's assumed this form, and her "False Super Saiyan" form has reddish hair, I figured it wouldn't be unreasonable for her "SSJ4" fur to be the same colour. (My explanation for the fur's existence is similar to the hair; a small amount of the energy is still left behind as mass, making the saiyan a little taller and more muscular, and applying a small superficial amount of 'Oozaru-ness' physically, hence the fur.)

You may also have noticed that she has less fur than the GT SSJ4's; this is part of me attempting to rationalise how going SSJ4 in GT always rips off the user's shirt, leaving their pants intact (in fact, they gain magically-generated pants even after transforming through Golden Oozaru, what?!). My approach is this: Wherever the fur is formed, the clothes on that area burn off. This means that, yes, there's no fur on their legs, something GT never answered either way oddly enough (they never even ripped a trouser-leg, as far as I'm aware). Since males are naturally hairier than females, I decided that female "SSJ4's" wouldn't have fur on their torsos (except a bit that extends somewhat past the shoulders); this is also because it then enables them to wear a top, provided it's strapless (a male BTtL "SSJ4" would have as much fur as a GT one, and therefore would be screwed no matter what kind of shirt he was wearing), like Pan did here. Another reason for this decision (giving female "SSJ4's" less fur) is that if I'd just had Pan with as much fur as GT Goku, she'd be walking around half-naked for the rest of the battle. I mean, yes, the fur would have been kind of covering her, but, ehhh…I'm trying to keep this PG-13, and it just wouldn't feel right.

Okay…I think that covers that. On to other things!

As I wrote Pan's transformation scene, no lie, the wind picked up and (since the window was open) all the posters on my walls started coming loose and flapping around, stuff started falling off my shelves, cupboard doors swung open…apparently Super Saiyan 3's being felt in the afterlife has been trumped; Pan's "SSJ4" transformation is so powerful it can be felt in the real world.

I was asked to rank the dragons, etc., but didn't want to put them on the same scale as divine beings, so to avoid confusing the issue with yet another numerical scale, here's something slightly different:

Demigod ki sorta scale (so far):

(In each class, listed from strongest to weakest; a slash indicates roughly equal power.)

Class A: "SSJ4" Pan, Helios Shenron

Class B: Dragon Fist (Ryu-Ken), Kronos Shenron, Glacius Shenron,

Class C: Pan/Raditz/Hephaestus Shenon (combined with Prometheus)

Class D: Uub (Spirit Kaioken)/SSJ3 Gogeta, Hephaestus Shenron/Hades Shenron/Gaia Shenron, SSJ2 Gogeta

And, with all that done with:

Q: So, there are 13 universes and each univers has it own infinity of timelines?
If this is correct, then if your story takes place in timeline A, and lets say Future Break its from timeline B, if you would go in timeline B, there you would find another Whis? (I mean he is only 1, or there are others like him who create universes?)
And what about the Eternal, he is only 1 for the infinity of universes? Or there are an infinite number of Eternals?

A: You're partly right.

All the universes exist physically in the same…Multiverse? Omniverse? Hyperverse? Let's borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams and go with the Whole Sort of General Mish Mash. Anyway, all the universes physically exist adjacent to each other in the WSGMM—hell, some beings like the Eternal can just fly from one to the other without any kind of special teleportation or magic.

Each timeline is its own different version of events, and therefore the entirety of space exists in each timeline (you have to use a time machine to travel between timelines, you couldn't just teleport like the Hakaishin do between universes).

So overall: Each timeline contains many universes. However, time travel is not common, so there aren't that many timelines. So there is probably a Wistarion and an Eternal and a set of Hakaishin in the future timeline, yeah. Much less overall energy/power in that universe, though, so I doubt the Eternal even bothered coming to the Seventh Universe in the future timeline.

Q: [multiple questions about a DBM style tournament involving a bunch of DBZ AU fics like this one]

A: That's actually already in the works, but a long way off of publication.

Q: Once again another great chapter. I'm curious though, are the shadow dragons different because the namekian dragon balls were affected as well as the earth's or was it on a whim? Also, will there be black star dragon ball shadow dragons?

A: It was because in most other universes, the Dragon Balls are on the Namekians' homeworld only. In this one, they were on Earth, and influenced by it (for instance, their Eternal Dragon is a Shenron-type and not a Porunga-type; more on this later in the story). Thus, these seven Shadow Dragons appear less dragon-y due to Earth's influence.

And no, there will probably not be those.

Q: Haha! ...Did Raditz draw the "overly-cutesy smiley-face" on the grenade, or was it already there? I have to know.

A: He drew it.

Q: his is probably a dumb question, and it may have been asked before, but, can't Whis, just threaten to not make any more universes for Eternal to consume, to make the Dragons leave?

I mean, Eternal needs him alive to get a constant flow of sustenance, right?

If he were to just to tell them to piss off and go elsewhere, why wouldn't they listen if they know he can stop making universes for Eternal to consume?

I'm probably missing something here, but if I'm not, I'm curious why this doesn't happen. Besides it not making for a good story, of course.

It's also occurred to me that I haven't reviewed for this story even once before this. Sorry. It's a great story, and it's definitely one of the best I've read..

A: Heheh, thanks. As for your question:

-He'd rather the cycle continue, as much as he hates it, than the Eternal eat everything and there be no life left at all.

-He knows how hungry the Eternal gets, and even if he stopped creating universes, it'd still eat those that are already in existence, and see the point above.

-If he made them leave this universe and 'go elsewhere', he's just dooming another universe he created, along with all of its inhabitants. Doesn't really solve the problem. If he can thwart the Eternal's coming a few times in a row, it'll starve.

Q: I have a question what would happen to frieza if he was put up against a super saiyan 3

A: Imagine that Frieza is a small insect buzzing down a higway and the SSJ3 is a car windshield at 80 miles an hour.

And the windshield is made of concrete.

And covered in spikes.

And has machine-guns mounted on it.

Machine-guns that shoot swords.

That explode.

Into ninjas.

Q: So can a Goku Raditz fusion coming up in the story or what? Also IF they do fuse would their power be on God Level? Perhaps strong enough to challenge the eternal?

A: I would say that if they did fuse, they probably wouldn't have god ki, since at the time you asked they both had mortal ki and that's a big step up from one to t'other.

Q: The moment where Goku and Raditz show up in Inferno Gauntlet and challenge Helios was epic; if this story were actually an anime TV series, that scene would most likely have drawn cheers from the fans watching it. I'm curious as to how they'll be able to reach demigod level, particularly Goku, since he no longer uses Super Saiyan to power up, and you've stated that the key to obtaining demigod ki is within the Super Saiyan forms.

A: Well, he can still turn Super Saiyan…

Q: It also occurred to me; there are now six pure-hearted Saiyans (Goku, Raditz, Break, Goten, Vegeta Jr and Pan) present in Inferno Gauntlet, so shouldn't they be able to perform the Super Saiyan God ritual? Considering how confident Helios seems in his power, they might be able to trick him into letting them perform the ritual in order to give him a "challenging opponent".

A: Well, two of them are out for the count (Goten and Vegeta)…and Helios' patience may have stretched to allow Pan to undergo her transformation in this chapter, but it wouldn't stretch to "leave tower, Instant Transmission to Karin/Korin Tower, pick up senzus, Instant Transmission back to base of tower, run back up through the tower, revive Goten and Vegeta, lengthy SSJ God ritual". That's asking a bit much of the poor little…uh…battle-crazed godlike being from beyond time and space.