Chapter 35: The Ultimate Final Conflict, Part I: The Clash of the Mightiest Titans
Vegeta kept pouring Ki blast after Ki blast at Yi Xing Long, who formed a barrier around himself and tanked the blasts repeatedly. Gohan was still in place, observing the situation cautiously. He thought, "Something's wrong, it almost appears as though he's just stalling, or that he isn't even intent on attacking… He is trying to catch us off guard, I can just tell! In this situation it's only normal for me to join in and attack, is that just playing into his hands? W-What can I do?!"
"What are you doing, Nii-san?! Why don't you join in on the attack already?! Vegeta-san's been attacking by himself for a good ten minutes now!" yelled Goten, as Su Xing Long had been weakened enough that he no longer needed to be with the others.
"If you won't attack, I will!" yelled Goten as he flared up his Super Saiyan 3 aura and fired off a Ryu-Ken attack, which pushed Yi Xing Long back, barrier and all.
"I have you now!" yelled Vegeta as he powered up as much as he could and flew up and uppercut Yi Xing Long's barrier with all his might, finally cracking the barrier. Deciding to drop his cautious approach, Gohan charged up a Kamehameha and fired it off, destroying Yi's barrier and causing him to drop into the ground, where the heroes then threw Su Xing Long to his location before bombarding them with a full-blown onslaught of energy attacks, shaking the planet.
"G-Grrr…."
"They're a persistent bunch, neither of them is dead yet," said #17.
"It's advised that we finish off one of them to prevent the possibility of escape. I would recommend attacking the fire one, as his attacks would be more suited for a smokescreen or another method," said Super #17.
"Roger that. Goten! Come back here! But don't drag either of them back with your teleportation, we still should be careful!" said Trunks.
"Seems like death is paying you a visit at last, Yi. I'll kill you myself!" yelled Goten as he used a razor-sharp wind attack he generated with a swing of his left hand to slice a nearly-twisted tree in half and aimed it at Yi's head before yelling, "I'll do the honors!"
Su Xing Long shielded Yi Xing Long with a curtain of flames through which Goten struggled with before the tree quickly evaporated and he was repelled, causing the young warrior to yell, "Yi Xing Long! I'll be the one to kill you if it's the last thing I do!" and power up furiously.
Su Xing Long then said, "Yi… We still have a chance, you must make your escape! Restore your body and then I'll make it out of here somehow, Ran Xing Long is still alive, just seale – "
Before Su Xing Long could finish this sentence, Yi Xing Long impaled him with his left arm, piercing his heart and grabbing onto his two Dragon Balls.
"GWAAAAACK!" yelled Su Xing Long as he spat out blood and looked frightfully in Yi Xing Long's direction, who, in a divergent manner to his usual stone-cold poker face, smirked evilly and said, "Su Xing Long… I'm afraid I have no more use for a near-dead Dragon… This dance of ours, it was a short but interesting ride… But I'll be laying claim to your legacy, all that I deserve…"
Yi Xing Long then forcibly absorbed Su Xing Long by causing him to bloat into a horrifyingly deformed, large blob of crimson-orange, which then exploded, leaving only his lower body as Yi Xing Long's left arm expanded massively. Su Xing Long's remains, along with those of the other eleven Dragons who had been previously destroyed, evaporated into masses of dark, blackish-violet energy, which then concentrated around the Dragon Balls that they all left. Ran Xing Long's sealed Mafuba bottle, which Bra had kept inside her Gi, began shaking violently and tried to leave her grasp, forcing her to grab onto the bottle, at which point she yelled, "D-Dammit! T-This pull… It's unnatural! As if that pasty, green turd of a Dragon is drawn closer to that other asshole than he is to the sealing spell! I-I can't hold him!"
"Don't let go, Bra! Let me destroy it completely!" yelled Future Trunks as he fired off a Final Flash, narrowing it just enough that it would miss Bra's hands, only for the attack to be drawn into Yi Xing Long's main body along with the bottle and be absorbed into it. Future Trunks' Final Flash, along with the bottle itself evaporated and became masses of dark energy, from which Ran Xing Long emerged, only to be absorbed into Yi Xing Long as well. Yi Xing Long's body then exploded, as the image of a gigantic, frightful and horned figure dawned upon the horizon and darkened the atmosphere of the entire planet in a horrifying, ominous fog which caused all but Gohan, Goten and Vegeta to drop to their knees in sheer terror.
Not only that, but the Namekians, who had been evacuating into a distant corner of the planet, flew into the battlefield, each of them with an evil look in his eye, as it was red and bloodshot, and their nails and fangs lengthened.
"T-This evil Ki… They all feel like one of Piccolo Daimao's henchmen! They've been infected by the sheer evil that abomination is giving off!" yelled Tenshinhan, "They're Mazoku! Each and every one of them! H-How?! How is he doing this?!"
Yi Xing Long's body, which took the shape of a humongous necromorph, then shrank into an eight-foot tall, relatively humanoid size as the seven Namekian Dragon Balls he'd absorbed began to circle behind his back while emitting a dense, dark energy that crackled with black lightning, and the six Ultimate Dragon Balls that corresponded after the One-Star Dragon Ball gathered around his chest, and the Earth Dragon Balls other than the One-Star Dragon Ball were lined up vertically onto his shoulder joints and pectorals, and the final Earth Dragon Ball, colored in a dark and violet-ish blue, sat beneath its Ultimate Dragon Ball counterpart. Yi's skin darkened into a blackish blue as his eyes took on the color of a completely red sclera with black, slit-like pupils. Yi's power then completely shattered every surrounding island and he emerged and levitated himself before landing on the ground before the heroes, saying "Finally… I am now complete. All twenty-one Dragon Balls are in my grasp!"
"G-Grr! H-His power is so huge, I can't even begin to fathom it! S-So this was what he was after! I can't even sense his Ki, because if I did, it would just shatter my psyche!" yelled Gohan, "I knew he had something planned!"
"This must be why he went through the trouble of having Piccolo consume the seven Namekian Dragon Balls that had been rendered inactive when he apparently took over the Namekian Dragon… He knew his life energy would revitalize those Dragon Balls, in case he would lose the previous battle and require this power boost!"
"Lose? Fool, you have no idea what you will begin to lose now!" yelled Yi Xing Long, who flared up an aura and disintegrated half the crust surrounding all of New Namek, "This form of mine… It is the Ultimate power! One that cannot be surpassed, in the long and long history of the multiverse, past, present or future! I am… Ultimate Yi Xing Long! Cower in fear, mortals, before you meet your maker!"
"FUUUU-SIOOOON!"
The other warriors, who were completely paralyzed in sheer terror, looked just behind Ultimate Yi Xing Long, at which point Goten and Trunks performed the Fusion Dance mere dozens of yards behind Yi.
"HAAAA!"
A massive Ki exploded and caused a maelstrom of power to momentarily drive off the horrifying, dark fog emanating from Ultimate Yi Xing Long for but a moment, and Gotenks emerged. He then powered up to Super Saiyan 3 and yelled, "Stalling for so long in that cowardly little barrier of yours was your mistake! An hour has passed since my last Fusion ended, Gotenks-sama is back in the house now!"
Yi Xing Long did not even look in his direction and pointed his finger at Super #17, at which point he flicked it with such unimaginable potency that a huge gash appeared in his stomach, from which blood gushed out and he staggered, realizing that a five-inch deep wound had opened up from just Yi Xing Long's finger flick alone. Yi, emotionlessly, then began to flick his thumb a few more times, hitting Super #17 with several more air blasts until he had been slashed up until he collapsed onto the ground, his torso torn and smashed beyond recognition.
"Who will it be next… Will it be you, Saiyan Prince…? Or will I target one of the weakling Earthlings? One of the three little wenches sounds just fine, too!" yelled Yi Xing Long as he let loose a horrible, evil laughter that shook the planet violently, at which point Gotenks then sped right underneath his chin and yelled, "You're wide open! Your head is mine!"
Ultimate Yi Xing Long swatted Gotenks away casually, knocking him away hundreds of miles and sending him crashing right onto a large precipice. Gotenks' vest was completely torn and his belt sash was in tatters; he reverted to his normal form immediately and lost consciousness, blood spurting from his forehead.
"G-Gotenks… Was knocked out in one blow…" said Kuririn dreadfully, "W-We're really done for…"
"Very perceptive!" yelled Ultimate Yi Xing Long as he then pointed his finger at the heroes, before then swinging his arm roughly 160 degrees. The massive, razor-sharp vacuum the force of his finger's movement generated blew all the heroes apart, leaving most of them gasping for air on the ground, cut in half. Ultimate Yi Xing Long then said, "The end…" and released a gust of wind from his mouth, completely leveling the area and seemingly blasting the dying heroes to smithereens. He then began picking his ear and said, "What a disappointing ending… I need not even bother finding the fused one I sent flying a moment ago, I think I'll just end the planet right here and now…"
Just then, a massive stream of lava erupted from the fissure that he generated with his wind just the second before, which clashed onto a mass of energy in a height roughly two hundred feet above Ultimate Yi Xing Long. Yi Xing Long looked up to see that it was #17's barrier, him having retained the energy to erect a force field due to his infinite energy. Inside, Redjic, himself near death, was supplying energy to a speck of pink flesh, which looked like the tip of Mister Boo's antennae. From it, a stream of pink light spread outward, revitalizing the other, self-eroding pieces of Boo, which managed to regroup into Boo's head. Boo then breathed all the air inside the barrier and grew a dozen limbs in an anatomical fashion similar to a spider's form, managing to heal the dismembered heroes, saving them all from death and restoring their clothing as well. After this, however, Boo fell unconscious, having reached the limit of his stamina after taking Ultimate Yi Xing Long's attack head-on.
"Heh… So, the fat one survived still, eh? That Styxxan's less potent healing powers are a bother if he can breathe life back into the immortal fat one, I think I'll kill him first, and torture the rest of them slowly… Fools, you all have not powered up in the slightest! All you've done is survive for the moment, and prolong your own suffering!"
As Ultimate Yi Xing Long charged Ki into his finger preparing to bust through #17's barrier and kill Redjic, suddenly a flash of yellow light erupted behind him, and from there a massive beam of blue energy struck Yi Xing Long, only to harmlessly bounce off of his massive, dark aura, forcing the figure to teleport out of the way. #17, undoing his barrier, looked behind him and said, "S-Son Goku!"
"Goku? Son Goku?! The one who died three years prior?"
"Yo, everyone! Long time no see, I come from the afterlife, bearing gifts!"
"Kakarrot! T-That's right, you still had a day in reserve after we wished you back two years ago!" yelled Vegeta.
"G-Goku!" yelled Kuririn, "Y-You really have a way of making a guy's heart stop, you know that?! Why is it you always arrive, at the worst of times!"
"Dad!"
"Grandpa! I-I missed you so much!"
"Hate t' say it, but now's not the time for reminiscin'! I came here with a job to do, and I've got less than a day to do it! So here's the first order of business!" yelled Goku as he powered down, undoing his Super Saiyan 3 transformation that he performed the moment that he arrived on New Namek. Seeing this, Ultimate Yi Xing Long scoffed and said, "*sigh* Just what kind of suicidal trick is this?! What little power you do have, you're letting leave your body?! I thought perhaps destroying the one who began the first journey to gather the Earth Dragon Balls in centuries would bring me a modicum of entertainment and closure, but I see you're nothing but a waste of my time! Just die!"
Ultimate Yi Xing Long then shot the finger bullet meant for Redjic, at which point Goku grabbed onto Mister Boo, who was still latching onto the other heroes like a spider, and teleported everyone out of the way. He then said, "Let's not get too carried away, Yi Xing Long! The fun's just startin'! Vegeta, I know you hate usin' one of these things, but here's the Potara! We'll make this a Fusion to remember, I've got a plan!" said Goku as he turned around and revealed something growing out of his buttocks, a brown tail.
"G-Goku! I-It's your tail!" said Tenshinhan, "The one that Kami-sama cut off so many years ago! W-What sorcery is this?!"
"It's my secret weapon! Dai Kaioshin-sama at the Kaioshin-kai went through the trouble of regenerating my tail for the past hour and several minutes, we're about to pull of a miracle with this! So Vegeta, are you in, or are you out?!"
"Kuuuuu…. Damn it, I guess I don't have any other choice. I'd rather us fuse than see my children and Bulma die…!"
Goku handed Vegeta a Potara earring as he donned it onto his left ear, and a massive hurricane of energy exploded from where the two joined bodies, irresistibly pulled toward the other as a golden, shimmering figure walked out of the eruption of power, which then sent everyone else flying. Vegetto appeared, dressed once again in the same gear he fought Baby in: purple, fingerless gloves and boots resembling Vegeta's Saiyan armor boots, dark greenish-blue pants and a reddish brown Gi shirt. Cracking his neck and then his knuckles, Vegetto walked toward Ultimate Yi Xing Long nonchalantly before then smirking and taking a breath, turning Super Saiyan. Two white bolts of lightning shot out of his aura and struck two large chunks of rock as a fiery, golden aura flared up around him. He then said, "This is Super Vegetto. Yi Xing Long, get ready for the final battle!"
"Feh… Super Vegetto, you say?! All of that fanfare, and calling yourself the secret weapon and yet… What is this paltry energy?! Your power is so low, I can scarcely call you the superior of even that vested 'Gotenks' brat I took care of just now. I feel it is a waste even for me to move from this very spot… Perhaps I will just go ahead and destroy this planet and end this farce – "
"All talkative all of a sudden, are you?! I'll wipe that silly grin right off of your ugly face!"
Vegetto then ascended from the ground and formed a power ball, throwing it into the atmosphere of New Namek before then shouting, "Burst open… and MIX!"
Vegetto's power ball erupted in the sky, instantly releasing a ray of light that lit everything in sight in a blinding, otherworldly glow. Ultimate Yi Xing Long, still unimpressed, then said, "So what is this? The monkeys are performing a light show, now?"
Vegetto then began trembling as his eyes went into a completely blood-red color and a snout appeared in place of his nostrils as his teeth took the shape of fangs, and his Potara earrings then grew larger and larger as his body grew into a size five dozen times his normal size, tearing straight through his clothes and taking the shape of a golden-furred, nearly-light brown and beige skinned giant ape. The Golden Oozaru Vegetto, his Ki now rising to incalculable heights, began pounding his chest and then shot a massive, red energy blast out of his mouth, which Ultimate Yi Xing Long had no time to dodge and strained to block.
"G-Grrrr…. GGGGGGGGWWWWWWAAAAARGH!" grunted Yi as he barely managed to deflect the blast out of the stratosphere of New Namek, finally losing his composure and saying, "W-What sorcery is this?! Is this truly the same man as that… weakling?!"
"That… Was… Just A Greeting…" said the transformed Vegetto as he suddenly began glowing in an even more blinding light than the one that was released from the fake moon he generated, causing the crust of the entire planet of New Namek to be levitated into the air and shatter into tiny rocks before raining onto the ground, and from the light, the transforming, fused hero yelled, "THE REAL FUN IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER! HAIYAHHHHHH!"
When the flash of light subsided, there was Vegetto, his hair having grown down to his back and onto his chest, with crimson fur covering all of his upper body sans his chest, and the center of his stomach, red lines emerging onto the rims of his eyes, and his black hair of a reddish-brown tinge having taken a raven-black color. With an ethereal, crimson glow oozing from his body, Vegetto landed onto the ground as his red tail wagged about, his body having completely transformed into a new form.
"The power of the primal Oozaru and the Super Saiyan of legend… One who takes on both transformations at once and retains his rationality… He alone is fit to transform into the true Legendary Super Saiyan… This form, it is what I shall dub Super Saiyan 4!"
"S-Super Saiyan… Super Saiyan 4?! T-That Goku… Uh, I mean, Vegetto… He's done it! He's gone and scaled another wall! This Ki is so vast, I can't even imagine a limit to it! Almost like I'd go mad just fathoming the depths of it!" yelled Kuririn.
"Dai Kaioshin-sama…" thought Vegetto, as he suddenly began to reminisce back into the circumstances surrounding his Goku half's return, less than an hour and a half prior.
It was on the world of the Kaioshin-kai.
"K-Kaioshin-sama!
"Goku-san, please do calm down," said Kibitoshin.
"I-I can't be calm, not at a time like this! You brought me here just when I was about to send a message to th' old timer Uranai Baba, and request a day back in the living world! Goten an' the others need me! There's no way they can handle those seven Dragons by themselves!"
"If you go now, you'll just needlessly be wasting your life, Goku," said a smaller, aged figure that appeared behind Kibitoshin, "and it would be doubly unwise because of the fact that… on here, you could get much, much, muuuuuuuch stronger!"
"Get… much stronger? You mean through that kooky dance charm you pulled on Gohan? I don't have the time to sit through somethin' like that, old timer! Time is of the essence!"
"Correct. You scarcely have the time to sit through a ritual that could take an entire day. But with this new method I've been researching, you'll only need one hour. One hour, that's all you need to bear through before you can return to the battlefield. Is that agreeable on your terms?"
"G-Grr… Right now, a minute may s' well be an eternity… But you're sure I can use it to beat these guys, right?"
"I cannot say for certain, Son Goku. But if you're going to use your precious day in the lower world, you may as well go prepared. Now sit down, and turn around. The less time we waste, the sooner you can join your son and the others on the battlefield. And try not to get too anxious, it'll not be a solution to anything."
And so, the Rou-Dai Kaioshin sat behind Goku and performed an unknown ritual for the next sixty minutes. As he was about to finish up this process, Yi Xing Long killed his fellow Dragon Su Xing Long and then was in the process of transforming.
"G-Grrrr! T-This can't be! J-Just when things were looking up! Old timer, are we finished yet?!"
"Oh yes we are, Goku… now keep yourself bent over in that position," said Rou-Dai Kaioshin as Kibitoshin suddenly froze Goku with the same ability he used on Gohan in the Tenkaichi Budokai many years ago.
"GAAAAH! W-What are you doin', Kaioshin-sama?!"
"I think tweezers this size should be enough," said Rou-Dai Kaioshin as he suddenly materialized a pair of giant tweezers, after which he psychically tore a small hole on Goku's pants through which a small tail stump rife with brown hairs could be seen.
"G-Great ancestor! I fear I have trouble restraining Goku any longer!"
"Then we'll just have to do this!" yelled Rou-Dai Kaioshin as he concentrated all of his Ki around his arms and whacked Goku in the head with the tweezers, after which he and Kibitoshin pulled on his tail as hard as possible.
"GGGGGGAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Goku woke up to the pain, regaining consciousness to find a completely regrown tail, restored to the same proportionate length to his body that he had when he had still been a teenaged child before he'd lost it.
"My… Tail? No offense old timer, havin' this back did pay off way back in my match against Giran… But I really don't feel much stronger with this. What about havin' this is restorin' my full potential?"
"Impatient as always, Son Goku. You remember how the old folktale goes about the legend of your kind, correct? Of the rabid, bloodthirsty Super Saiyan that's the mightiest warrior in all the land?"
"Y-Yeah, born of a calm heart and awakened by intense rage… But really, what's that gotta do with – "
"Right, there's a discrepancy between the legend of a savage, bloodthirsty warrior and the actual transformation you guys have accessed. If anything, one would guess the form is… incomplete. The blond form you took on Namek is but a precursor to the true legendary Super Saiyan! And you do know of a form that causes you to lose all logic and reason in, it's related to your tail!"
"Oo-Ooozaru! You're talkin' about the Oozaru form, aren'tcha?! I haven't been able to use it in FOREVER!"
"Correct. The original legendary Super Saiyan was a savage warrior who transformed to the blond Super Saiyan while still retaining his tail, and could hone both transformations in tandem. If you were to do the same, you would be able to unlock the deepest depths of your true powers, powers you never even knew you had… All without the need for a long-winded ritual~~"
"Y-You're kiddin'! I-I can't believe I never thought of this, before! This is great! I'm going to head on to Namek now!" yelled Goku as he put his index and middle fingers on his forehead and began to prepare to teleport.
"WAIT! Son Goku! It is great that you're fired up, but when you get there, how do you even plan to transform without a full moon? And if I am being honest, against that transformed beast, even your full potential would be trying to crack a boulder with eggshells!"
"W-Whaaaaa?! B-But you were the one who went through the trouble of restorin' my tail and all, old timer! Now you're tellin' me I can't even transform?!"
"Not only that, but how will you even retain your sanity, transformed in that form, if you had been able? Are you really jumping so haphazardly into the battle, not knowing any of this?"
"S-So what do I do?! You wanted me to sit still for an hour, gramps! I just grow my tail back for nothin'?"
"Fuhuhuhuhuhuhu… That's why you're a lucky one indeed, child. Here, take these with you!"
The Rou-Dai Kaioshin took off his pair of Potara earrings and threw them to Goku.
"You recall your first battle with Vegeta, do you not? If you were to combine with Vegeta, you'll have the ability to generate a source of Bruits waves on your own… And furthermore, he's also of the royal bloodline! The only Saiyans who've gone through the necessary training to retain their logic and reason, while transformed to apes! Only through the combined efforts of you two, will you reach the level of a truly ultimate Super Saiyan!"
"W-Wow! That works! Thank you, this could really be it!"
"Good luck, Goku-san. I know that if you and Vegeta-san were to combine into Vegetto, you could never lose."
"Thank you! Thank you so much! You've both given me just what I needed!"
Goku then transformed to Super Saiyan 3 after putting on the Potara earrings, and teleported to Ultimate Yi Xing Long's location.
His time of reminiscence over, Vegetto gripped his hands tightly into powerful fists and took a deep breath as a flaming surge of red energy blazed around his body, which was then accompanied by a white-hot aura of energy surrounded by a solid, golden border of an aura as large sparks of red lightning crackled around his being.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" yelled Vegetto as he unleashed his true power, causing a massive, ungodly quake to be felt across even the most distant ends of the universe. As far as the Kaioshin-kai, these quakes could be felt as the dimension itself began cracking, with power surge erupting in the very atmosphere of even the distant planet.
"T-This power… It is greater than I anticipated! Great ancestor, we've really done it! This is the true power of a Potara Fusion, Vegetto's power, drawn out to the very limit!"
"Heh-hehehehehehehe… This is what I've toiled and labored for, for years! He'll really give it to him now!"
"HAAAAAAAAAAH!" yelled Vegetto as he charged at Ultimate Yi Xing Long and punched him straight out of the orbit of the planet New Namek with a heavy hit.
"You've met your maker, 'Ultimate' Yi Xing Long!"
To be continued…