A/N: Keep a lookout for numbers like these: [1], [2], [3]. When you find one, feel free to scroll down to the "Special Notes" section of that particular analysis (just below "Weaknesses") to find out what more there is to be said about the topic that was just mentioned!
This episode was requested by ThePLOThand. Comment with your requests and they may become future episodes. Apologies for the late episode; I was out with the flu for a while this month. But I definitely wanted to get this out before Goku and Superman's big rematch!
Episode 23: Zamasu (Dragon Ball Super) VS Gorr the God Butcher (Marvel)
LZ: Since the dawn of theistic philosophy, we have tried to answer four questions of spirituality. Who is God, Who am I, What has happened between us, and What must be done in response? How an individual responds to these ageless questions is a reflection of their very being, whether they be mortal… or immortal.
TWO: Especially if they answer "Who gives a crap, they don't deserve to live." On either side!
LZ: Zamasu, the god who turned against creation itself of Dragon Ball.
TWO: And Gorr, the god-butcher who scoured the heavens of Marvel Comics.
LZ: I'm LittleZbot, and it's my hobby to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.
Zamasu:
LZ: The world of Dragon Ball is home to many. The humans who coat this little water bowl we call Earth, the Saiyans who conquered the galaxy, were mostly wiped out, and also settled on said water bowl, and the gods who watch over the entire universe, the Kais, who… also have a strange fascination with said water bowl.[1]
TWO: I bet it's the food. When it's good enough to keep the God of Destruction happy, of course the rest of the galaxy wants to live here.
LZ: But not all of the gods are so generous. Some pay attention not in hunger or humor, but in disgust. For what is more chaotic than man, and what is more stubborn in their ways than a mortal?
TWO: Like the Supreme Kai-in-training, Zamasu. But hey, I'd be mad too if I looked like the Space Pope fused with a troll doll and then fell into some lime yogurt. Zammy was a powerful little godling who got picked to be the apprentice of Gowasu, the Supreme Kai of the 10th Universe. Gowasu was the nicest god you could ask to pray to. Probably too nice. Slavery? Eh, mortals will be mortals. A couple of World Wars? Well, they'll do better next time. A space tyrant conquers most of the galaxy? Well, it's not our problem. Just wait for them to learn their lesson. I'm sure the mortals will be better any day now. Aannny day now.
LZ: Zamasu was already certain that the Kais were the superior lifeform to the mortals, but during his apprenticeship, he realized how far that gap was. He was able to peer across time and space to see the goings-on of the mortal worlds he watched over, but was completely unable to comprehend the value that other sentient life brought to the universe. Art, soul, and finding purpose in death, all meant nothing to him. As a result, as he witnessed the horrors that mortals were capable of and how they constantly repeated the same mistakes even after literal divine intervention, he began to believe that not only was mortal life meaningless, but an active disease upon creation. And as a Kai, it was his duty to protect creation, which meant one thing: every mortal in the multiverse had to be killed.
TWO: But, one day, destiny came a-knocking when Zamasu was visited by Universe 7's Goku. 'Cept this wasn't the intergalactic Saiyan mortal warrior hero guy who Zammy watched on TV. This Goku wore a dark-colored gi, slaughtered Gowasu in front of Zamasu, and called himself Goku Black.
LZ: Goku Black was another version of Zamasu. In his time, Goku, a Saiyan who had protected the Earth from uncountable threats over the years, had grown to become everything Zamasu despised. He was carefree, gluttonous beyond reason, less than intelligent, prevented the natural cycle of mortal life and death with his heroism, and had a constant lust for battle. But one day, Goku had appeared at his doorstep wishing to spar. And now Zamasu found something else out: that although the Kais were the superior beings, it was possible for mortals to reach and surpass their level of power.
TWO: Yeah, Zammy had been trained to be one of the best fighters in the multiverse, so losing to Goku and learning that Goku was sparring against Angels and Gods of Destruction made Zamasu a little cuckoo. So he made a wish on the Super Dragon Balls (which are seven planets you gather up and then they turn into a genie) to switch bodies with Goku.
LZ: Goku Black held enough power to decimate the universe, and had journeyed through time to his alternate self to bring Zamasu along for the ride. Together, they'd bring balance to the multiverse. Whether it liked it or not.
TWO: So, the two of 'em went off to enact Project Zero Mortals, a pretty apt name, I'd say. See, Goku Black didn't just take Goku's body because he has all sorts of cool Ki attacks and could transform into a Super Saiyan and even way beyond that, but because the Saiyans have a natural superpower.
LZ: The Zenkai Boost. Whenever a Saiyan is close to death and survives, their power level skyrockets in response. While a normal Saiyan would activate this ability through life-threatening hardship and battle, then weeks of recovery, Goku Black had a cheat code: thanks to his Kai body and powers, Zamasu could instantly heal anyone back to 100% with a touch. So Goku Black would just test his powers against the strongest beings he could find, then Zenkai Boost his way up the totem pole.
TWO: And those boosts are dangerous. When Goku Black and Vegeta fought for the first time, Vegeta went Blue (his super-ultra final form at the time) and wrecked his crap. He literally was moving faster than Goku Black could see and nearly took him out with just one hit!
LZ: Until the healing touch was used. With a single Zenkai boost, Goku Black matched and surpassed Vegeta's power, forcing him to retreat or die.
TWO: So, yeah, working together made for an unstoppable duo. But before Zamasu and Goku Black left to instigate said plan, Zamasu stopped to pick up his former master's ultimate tool: the Time Ring.
LZ: But before we can talk about that, we need to take a break to understand Dragon Ball's power system and cosmology. First, and by far most importantly, the single common power source of reality in Dragon Ball is Ki, a primal energy contained within everything, from rocks to humans to time itself, that mortals and gods alike learn to harness to perform superhuman feats. Ki can allow you to up your stats, shoot lasers that can burn, push, or explode, create forcefields, coat your arms in energy blades, fly, sense other energies across the universe, and do much more depending on how you train with it. Additionally, anyone with enough Ki can override other abilities their opponents use, even if they don't come from a source of Ki. Freezing or skipping ahead in time, complete body transmogrification, mind-control, and all else can be resisted assuming you have a higher level of power than your opponent.
TWO: Yep, Ki's pretty busted. But that's just the basic stuff. The Kais use Divine Ki (or God Ki), the next level up! This kind of Ki can't be detected except by other Divine Ki users, can attack things on a spiritual level, and has a ton more nifty powers that regular Ki doesn't have. That's the other reason Goku Black picked up Zammy. 'Cuz Zam here can do things like heal anyone with a touch, even himself,[2] control other people's bodies, make gravity wells, create and harness the elements, manipulate other Ki attacks, telekinetically move or choke or crush anything he sees (like the Force!), and teleport any non-sentient thing he wants anywhere he wants.
LZ: Like, say, a bag of life-restoring Senzu beans out of his enemy's pocket and into his hands.
TWO: And since it's a tier above, Divine Ki users don't have to worry about their stuff being canceled by folks using regular Ki. That enemy with the bag of beans? That was from a full-strength future Goku, who was way the heck stronger than Zamasu in power level. But because he wasn't using God Ki at the time, Zammy just snatched it anyway.
LZ: And a Kai's primary purpose, outside of keeping universal balance, is to create. Which Zamasu, naturally, can do as well. He can create virtually any inanimate object he can imagine, ranging from bricks to boats to weapons to entire planets, and telekinetically control it against his opponent. He can even form dozens of building-sized blocks of Katchin, the hardest material in the multiverse! Remember that way-stronger future Goku that Zamasu fought? Just blocking a hit from one of these blocks broke his arm!
TWO: And that's saying something, because Goku's power is all kinds of nuts. He can wipe out folks powerful enough to nuke the solar system, fly between heaven and hell in half a minute, and if he's feeling it, he can use Potara Earrings to fuse with his best buddy/biggest rival Vegeta, and turn into Vegito, the baddest, strongest dude around! And all that's in base form, by the way. Goku kind of invented the shonen trope of having tons of way better and more powerful transformations up your sleeve.
LZ: Goku completely mastered both regular Ki and, after completing an ancient ritual to become a god, Divine Ki. Except, since he has the body of a mortal, he has to transform into a Super Saiyan God or higher to use it, and can only use it in mortal ways.
TWO: Mortal ways, like, say, clashing blows with Beerus, the God of Destruction, and almost destroying all of Universe 7 in one punch! And their universe is several times bigger than ours!
LZ: Beerus was holding back significantly at the time to get Goku used to having godly power. And it worked. When Goku was fighting Beerus and the Saiyan God's power ran dry, his body acclimated and achieved that level of power at its base state. While he struggled with this afterwards, it's heavily implied that he achieved this level once again after training with Whis.
TWO: Oh, and, uh, it's NOT something you have to transform into. Saiyan Beyond God and all that? That's some old non-canon info from a movie, mixed with the 'base making stuff up and assuming it's true even though every bit of canon says no. It happens. A lot.
LZ: Super Saiyan God's power increase is unspecified, but we do know that Vegeta believed not even Vegito stood a chance against Beerus, but even he believed that Goku's God form may have been enough. Vegito's power is, similarly, unspecified directly. There is speculation that it multiplies the two power levels together, but this is never confirmed and, in fact, is countered by the video game-
TWO: Oh, just get on with it!
LZ: The Daizenshuu says that Base Vegito was more powerful than Super Saiyan 3 Goku. By applying official multipliers and assuming Saiyan God is twice as powerful as Vegito's own Super Saiyan 3 (which would have been his maximum possible power at the time), we can assume that, at Super Saiyan Blue, Goku and Vegeta would be around sixteen million times stronger than they would be in base.
TWO: Wow, that's insane! And Zamasu could hold them back physically and even defeated them by using his Kai abilities!
LZ: Speaking of Universe 7, that's what needs to be addressed next. The primary multiverse is divided into twelve universes each ruled by their respective gods. The Kais are the gods of creation who watch over the universe's balance, with the Supreme Kais commanding them all. Then there are the Kamis, which guard specific planets, and the universe's God of Destruction, a being capable of using Destruction Energy that can eradicate anything from existence. There's also the infinite void between universes, and the Null Space, and the Throne of the Omni-King outside of all that. This is where the omnipotent Omni-King resides, although nobody really has to ever think about him. However, when the barrier of time is broken and time-travel is abused in some way, an "alternate world" is created, a different timeline split off from the main one that also contains this entire cosmological structure and replicas of the beings therein.
TWO: For example, technically, in the main timeline, Goku died from a heart virus almost right after fighting Freeza for the first time. Then some androids showed up and killed most of the planet. But Bulma built a time machine for Trunks to use to go back in time and stop that from happening. Trunks' timeline stayed, but a whole new one was made where Goku never died, and that's actually the one we've been following across the story. Trippy, huh?
LZ: As a result, while Angels and Kais have the ability to manipulate time via Time Rings and Cosmic Staffs, these powers are only to be used in emergencies.
TWO: Yeah, um, Zamasu didn't follow that rule. He abused that ring like crazy and mastered full use of its power to control time.
LZ: The Time Ring doesn't have some of the abilities you might immediately think of when it comes to time manipulation. He can't slow, reverse, or stop time, and he can't even travel backwards in time.
TWO: But don't think for a second that this ring isn't one of the most busted things in the Dragon Ball Multiverse. The ring can't go backwards in time, sure, but it can go forwards while leaving a link to the present. This means that a Kai can jump ahead anywhere from a few days to a million years and just pop back into the present when they're done scoping things out. And those "alternate worlds" we've been talking about? With the Time Ring, you can jump from any timeline into any other timeline, and even just pop up wherever you want in those timelines, even if it's in a completely different universe! And the Time Ring alerts you to other time-travelers and even lets you follow that person through time and space, no matter where or when they went, including, yes, backwards in time.
LZ: However, the true power of the Time Ring is decoupling Zamasu from time, transforming him from a universal constant into a living paradox. This removes the consequences of anyone interacting with the him from other points in time.
TWO: This does a lot, but essentially, it means that killing Zamasu in the past (like if you were to go back and snap his neck as a baby) wouldn't erase him in the present. Aaaand vice versa.
LZ: Technically, with this Time Ring on, a separate version of Zamasu exists within every single Planck Time that he exists. That's, for all intents and purposes, an infinite number.[3] So you can't kill him just by destroying the current him. He's still alive and around in the Planck Time right before you killed him… and every Planck Time before that.
TWO: And since the Time Ring can sense his death in other timescales and timelines and all of the "hims" can travel forward in time without consequences, another version of him will just replace himself for eternity.
LZ: Even Beerus' Hakai, which is supposed to completely erase a being physically, spiritually, and temporally, did nothing to the Zamasu or Goku Black of the future when used on his previous self.
TWO: There are some ways to get around this, like destroying all reality and the concept of time! Uh, that's… probably not going to be an option, is it? Well, you could also reset the timestream from its origin point, merge all constants into one being, or stop time before and while you kill him. But basically, if you don't have a lot of control and power over time-travel, your only way past this temporal immortality is to remove and destroy the Time Ring yourself from any version of Zammy. Without that, the guy's a universal constant again, so there's only one of him to kill.
LZ: But good luck with that. Even if you did discover the Time Ring's abilities (not easy when even Divine Ki Senses can't tell that it's being used), getting it off his hand would require overpowering his Ki aura. In Dragon Ball, any fighter can use the Ki produced by their aura to enhance any object they hold or wear, such as clothes or a weapon. So in order to remove the Time Ring, you would have to completely overpower Zamasu first. And he might be egotistical beyond measure, but he's not dumb. He knows the value of the Ring and how it can be removed, and would do anything to protect that from happening. If it does, though, well, bye-bye temporal immortality.
TWO: Well, Zamasu does have a box of six other Time Rings collected from various alternative timelines, which he can summon to his side at will, but let's be honest, if the guy fighting him figured out to destroy the Time Ring, why on earth would they stand and watch while he summoned the box, opened it, and put on another?
LZ: But if temporal immortality won't do, why not another form? Before entering their ideal timeline to train Goku Black's body, Zamasu and Black made one more stop: the Super Dragon Balls of Zamasu's time. And Zamasu's wish? To become truly undefeatable. To become… immortal.
TWO: Oh, man, when this was revealed, the entire fandom crapped their pants! Sure, Zamasu already was a Kai, so he couldn't die of old age, but in Dragon Ball, the word "immortal" means something completely different. This is the wish that the biggest baddest villains of the franchise were after, that Goku and the gang had to stop from happening over and over at all costs, because then there's literally no way to win.
LZ: Well, not no way. The immortal Garlic Jr. was able to be trapped in the extradimensional Dead Zone, and Trunks nearly trapped Zamasu with a specialized Ki technique known as the Mafuba. Though that definitely wouldn't work again.[4]
TWO: But if you don't have a spare dimension to trap him in (after removing the Time Ring, remember), then, yeah, you're pretty much screwed. It's next to impossible to damage him, and even if you manage it, that immortality gives him a healing factor that puts most fictional healing factors to shame. You can literally erase half of his body from existence (not kidding, actual existence erasure) and it just pops back into existing again.
LZ: With Immortality being so dangerous and held above all else, Zamasu's survivability should be superior to other characters with eternal life and broken regeneration, like Cell, who can regenerate from a single cell, and Majin Buu, who can come back from a cloud of gas.
TWO: And that's if you hurt him in the first place, 'cuz immortality also super-buffs durability, apparently. In the anime, this guy took an attack that would have killed Goku Black without even a hint of damage! Even Beerus himself said that he wasn't capable of killing someone who wished themselves immortal!
LZ: With power beyond one's grasp and several layers of protection from any threat, Zamasu and Black wreaked havoc throughout time and space before settling on Universe 7's Earth in the main timeline. AKA, the world of Future Trunks.
TWO: Trunks was the sort of challenging punching bag Black needed to get his daily dose of Zenkai, and he kept it up by slowly killing off humanity with Trunks as the only one who stood a chance against him. But Trunks still had that time machine that had created our main story timeline, and went to our heroes' timeline for help.
LZ: Leading to Goku, Vegeta, and the Kais time-traveling to keep up with and defeat Zamasu. Every time, they came up short, went back to the past, and learned some new technique or did some crazy training to come back and win. But no matter how much stronger they got, they couldn't match up.
TWO: It didn't help that their beatdowns kept powering up Black. And for some reason they kept wasting energy on regular energy blasts on Zamasu! What the heck, guys, you're supposed to be battle geniuses! He's immortal!
LZ: Eventually, Zamasu and Black would kill every last being on Earth except for Trunks and his girlfriend Mai. He even killed off all the gods of the timeline, believing none of them would understand what he had to do, and he would be satisfied if he were the only thing left in the multiverse. And there was nothing Goku and company could do to stop him.
TWO: I mean, no wonder! Zamasu's powerful enough to defeat Trunks by himself, keep up with Goku's Instant Transmission, and even the Supreme Kai of our time said himself that all the Kais in the multiverse couldn't match up to Zamasu's martial arts just by themselves! And back in his apprentice days, he could fly between universes in minutes!
LZ: As this happened in the manga, it's difficult to determine exactly how long this took. Assuming the sun in the sky is inspired by our own rotation, we know he was gone for over two hours, but he spent almost all of that time collecting information in Universe 7. If the flight took about five minutes, similar to the amount of time Whis' casual moving speed took to reach the same universe, that would be approximately 83.13 Octillion MPH; just under 124 Quintillion times faster than light!
TWO: And this was right after fighting Kibito, whom he was only slightly faster than. Thing is, in Dragon Ball when your Ki goes up, so does your fighting speed. Since he had to be reacting when he flew all that, we can take that as a base. Scaling up to the blue-haired Saiyans at the end of this arc with his years of power-ups and training, the dude could be fighting people with reaction speeds around 634.68 Nonillion times faster than light![5]
LZ: But it still wasn't enough for Zamasu. Intent on crushing the last shreds of hope in any reality, he pulled one ultimate gambit.
TWO: Hey, remember how Goku and Vegeta could fuse using those Potara Earrings and become way stronger? Guess where those earrings come from? The Kais. And guess how many Zamasus happen to be here right now?
LZ: Using Zamasu's Potara Earrings, Zamasu and Goku Black fused into a single, perfect being. And with that, all hope was lost. As it was a fusion of two of the same man, nay, the same god, his power increased tremendously, and he had all the abilities of both Zamasu and Goku Black.[6]
TWO: You know, Zenkais, Instant Transmission (which is basically teleportation), a pink energy scythe that cuts through Blue-Haired fighters like butter, the ability to rip holes in space-time and summon shadow clones, and all of Goku's Ki techniques! Remember Ultron VS Cell? Yeah, he can do most of those.
LZ: Stop being lazy. Here's a lightning round of Goku's Ki techniques: *ahem* throwing energy bombs, splitting himself into four people, manipulating matter at the molecular level, appearing in multiple places at once, blinding foes with bursts of light, throwing energy razor discs called kienzans that slice through bodies regardless of durability, and charging energy into his palms to unleash the Kamehameha. The power of this technique is determined by the amount of energy Goku can store into it at once, but at its most powerful, it can tear through and knock out foes literally thousands of times stronger than him.
TWO: Yeah, so all that on top of being able to go Super Saiyan and Zamasu's immortality means nobody stands a chance here. Especially not when he started making dozens of portals wherever he wants that he can send his punches and attacks through or get his foes to hit themselves! Did you watch that new Spider-Verse movie? Then yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. What the heck, how did Zamasu start being able to do this?!
LZ: No one knows. It could be an awakened effect of the Time Ring's control of space… maybe? Regardless, this gives Zamasu range as far as he can see, and far more options for mid-combat strategy.
TWO: Fused Zamasu is one of the most powerful beings in Dragon Ball history. He's literally stated by the gods to be stronger than Beerus! The only way Goku was able to keep up with him was to absorb all the energy of his own Super Saiyan Blue form and keep it contained to pure energy, unleashing only when he attacked. I don't think I can emphasize how ridiculous this is; it's like if you mentally told all the energy in all the cells in your body to combine and only be used when you punch a dude. You know those adrenaline things where a mom can lift a car off a baby? It's like that, but a billion times more. It was so crazy, Goku's body was under threat of literally exploding every second he fought!
LZ: As stated in the canonical Super Hero film, this is the same technique Jiren used to defeat foes like Goku with a literal blink, despite being similar in power to Goku's maximum non-UI power level. And we do mean "the only way." Goku and Vegeta, seeing no other option, fused into Vegito themselves, and used their full power to try to destroy Fused Zamasu. And even then, they couldn't do it.
TWO: Even Goku's crazy explodey power was only to buy time for the fusion to wear off. But when the time limit ended, that's when the true horror began.
LZ: Turns out, an immortal god's cells can't be destroyed without being immediately recreated, regardless of whatever magical means you might employ. So, when the Potara separated him back into Zamasu and Goku Black, what actually happened was that Fused Zamasu split… into two exact duplicates. Full power levels and everything. Meaning that the fusion was effectively permanent.
TWO: Worse yet, once Zamasu realized this, he figured out that any part of him, no matter how small, should regrow into a new Fused Zamasu. And he was right. In less than a minute he had a literal army of Fused Zamasus. Screw the saiyans, the gods, the angels, what have you. There isn't a single thing in any of the twelve universes that can defeat him. He says it himself, and our main characters are all like "yeah, he's right!" Your only chance is to completely annihilate his body so there's nothing left to grow back!
LZ: Even that wouldn't work. In the anime, Trunks managed to do this exact thing via the Spirit Sword-
TWO: You mean bullcrap ex machina-
LZ: I mean an incredibly thematic ending to the story… even if it doesn't make a lick of sense in-lore. Anyway, since he was still immortal, his soul was just able to find something else to inhabit. Something like, say, the fabric of space-time itself.
TWO: Turning the universe green and making a bunch of him everywhere, he became literally impossible to defeat. His power even started affecting the timestream itself, even showing up in the timeline that Goku and Vegeta were from! And in a cosmic structure like Dragon Ball's, that's, like, unbelievable.
LZ: It took Zeno, the Omni-King of all that exists, to step in and take Zamasu down.
TWO: By Ctrl+Alt+Deleting the entire timeline! Multiverse, infinite void, his own pocket outside of that, all gone, space and time no longer existing.[7]
LZ: Keep in mind that Zeno has shown capable of restraining his omnipotent power to any degree, and regularly checks in on and enjoys at least some of these universes. Meaning that this level of complete timeline nullification was what he considered the bare minimum energy required to end Zamasu's terror. Zamasu's immortal might threatened all of reality, just as he planned to invade every possible alternative timeline to wipe out all mortal and divine life regardless of opposition, and everyone, humans, saiyans, and gods alike, fully believed he could do it.
TWO: Holy crap! Fused Zamasu's regular body might be weaker, but a single one of them was still powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with Vegito Blue, and even take a Final Kamehameha that expended all of Vegito's energy to the face and get back up! And you know how much stronger Vegito is than Goku's base-form multiversal self. And this is Vegito Blue!
LZ: For those of you who don't like doing math yourselves, that's *ahem* 3.4 Quadrillion Universes per strike. Not to mention the speed difference. In other circumstances, similar fusions could surpass the power of Ultra Instinct, Jiren, or even Broly, who is strong enough to shatter multiple realities with every punch!
TWO: But in the end, it didn't mean anything.
LZ: It's arguable that Zamasu won. He did, after all, show the gods that their pacifism, their refusal to interact with mortals, could only lead to harm. And these mortals, without either the lifespan or the higher understanding of the gods, would one day grow more powerful than them, and the universe would be set ablaze. Even according to the video game Dragon Ball Fusions, he was, in the end, pure of heart.
TWO: He actually sacrificed his own dream without even realizing it. Goku Black had a mortal body, so, after fusing with Goku Black and becoming immortal, no matter what, he could never kill every mortal. There'd always be at least one.
LZ: And Goku proved a truth even greater than he: that none of it, the pacifism, the anger, the growth in the power of mortals, the pure-hearted crusade, would ever matter. All the power of the multiverse is nothing compared to the power of valuing life, and making even a single friend.
TWO: As long as that friend's an omnipotent cough drop in a munchkin outfit.[8]
Fused Zamasu holds his hands up, telekinetically lifting both Goku and Vegeta into the air as he chokes them, both of them unable to even muster the strength to fight back.
Zamasu smiles. "Well, then, let's see how strong my power can get!"
A moment later, a massive explosion rings out from Zamasu, devastating the landscape and sending the two saiyans hurtling through the sky. When the dust clears, a massive crater has formed and both his opponents are struggling to stand.
Zamasu throws his head back. "Perfect… this is too perfect!" He begins to laugh. "This is amazing! This devastating power! This is it! This is what I've wanted!"
He whips his head down to meet the eyes of the two terrified Kais watching this unfold, unable to even move towards the downed fighters.
"Look at this, filthy lords of lords. The time of you feeble gods watching over everyone is now over! The gods of millions of planets scattered across the universe, lords of worlds in all four directions, lords of lords in all twelve universes, and the gods of destruction…" Zamasu lifts his head to bask in his own glory. "They're all unnecessary!"
As Goku and Vegeta finally manage to stand, Zamasu doesn't even give them a moment's notice. Instead, he raises his hands to the sky and unleashes a familiar attack; one that was previously used to slaughter every human on Earth.
With a mad grin, he shouts to the heavens. "Every single intelligent being that isn't myself shall be TERMINATED!"
The energy blasts coat the sky for a moment before falling to the ground. Everyone panics, runs, seeks to protect each other, and even Goku's teleportation just sends him flying into more energy beams.
All the while Zamasu rests in the clouds, laughing maniacally.
Zamasu:
Name: Zamasu
Species: Core Person
Height: 5'9 / 175 cm
Weight: 143 lbs / 65 kg (according to a pretty decent fan-game, no idea about canon)
Age: 75,000+
Occupation: Temporary Supreme Kai of Universe 10 (technically)
Former North Kai of Universe 10
Makes excellent tea
Is pure of heart according to Dragon Ball Fusions
Abilities:
Time Ring
~Owns six, can create more by altering time
~Time-Travel
~Timeline Traversal
~Updating information about timestream, including deaths of other Zamasus and other time-travelers
~Can track and follow others through time
~Decouples user from time
~Can summon additional versions of self from previous points in time
True Immortality
~Granted by Super Dragon Balls
~Durability vastly increased
~Instantaneous regeneration from any damage
~Cut off body parts regrow into perfect copies
~Soul does not enter afterlife, and can possess anything, including concepts
~Cannot be killed by anything less than complete multiversal timeline nullification
Fusion
~Accomplished via Potara Earrings
~Vastly increases power
~Zenkai Boost
~Super Saiyan
~Super Saiyan Rosé
~Lightning of Absolution, Blades of Judgement, Wall of Light, Divine Wrath, Heaven's Flash
~Instant Transmission
~Kamehameha, Genki-Dama, Kienzan, Taiyoken, Haizeru Kensai, Chōjin Sengeki, Zanzōken, Shishin no Ken, Shōgekiha, Goddo Shūtingu
Healing Touch
Telekinesis
Gravity Wells
Portal Creation
Materialization (Butsushitsu Shutsugen)
Move Point (Zahyō Idō)
Sky Dancing (Bukūjutsu)
Spirit Gun (Kihō)
Energy Barrier (Bariya)
Fighting Spirit Cannon (Kiai)
Shockwave Fist (Shōgekiha)
Exploding Wave (Bakuhatsuha)
Hyper Energy Blade (Retsuzan)
Ultra Planet Bomb (Chikyuu Bakudan)
Azure Dragon Sword (Seiryū Tō-gata Kiken)
Holy Light Grenade (Shin Retsu Kōdan)
Assault Rain (Asarutorein)
Illusion Thunder (Gensō Sandā)
Feats:
Defeated Trunks, Gowasu, Shin, Kibito, Vegeta, Goku
Destroyed every set of Dragon Balls in the multiverse
Killed every mortal on Earth and every god in the multiverse
Final Kamehameha that used all energy of a full-strength Vegito Blue did not hurt his body
Regenerated from a shoulder pad, Hakai, and Goku's insults
Could not be killed by Beerus
Flew from Universe 10 to Universe 7 in minutes
Far superior to Goku's base form, which can destroy the universe in one punch
Abused regeneration to create 147 duplicates in less than eleven seconds
Reacted to Goku mid-Instant Transmission
Superior to every other Kai in the multiverse in martial arts
Was stated to be more powerful than any other mortal or god in the multiverse
Earned a 12/12 Danger Rating by V-Jump
~Beerus was given a 7/12
Matched Vegito in battle, as well as Goku in Unstable Perfected Blue form
~Vegito is stronger than Broly, Beerus, Ultra Instinct, and Jiren
Became one with time and space, even affecting alternate timelines
Required Zeno to kill him
Weaknesses:
Immense Ego
Possible Mental and Emotional Instability
Vulnerable to hax moves from beings more powerful than him
Temporal Immortality can be disrupted by destroying any Time Ring any version of him wears
Very likely to get hit at least once by every new move the manga wants to show off
Does not seem to know the breadth of his power until it is tested
~Despite years of immortality, never knew he could clone himself until his final battle
~Feared being erased by Hakai, even resorting to using a hostage, even though Beerus stated that Hakai was incapable of destroying immortals
~Killed the Supreme Kais of each universe to avoid dealing with Gods of Destruction, although his power when fused is directly stated to surpass Beerus, the strongest God of Destruction
~To be fair, this could all just be bad writing
Special Notes:
[1] The canonicity of Dragon Ball Super's story is… complicated. Both the anime and manga were written and developed at the same time, with both trading places for which one was ahead in story. The writers of both were provided general information and story layouts from Akira Toriyama, but were free to make their own decisions from there. Some consider the anime to be the primary canon as it came out first, is the most well-known, and is the one most featured in expanded material. Others consider the manga to be the primary canon, as it is a direct continuation of the original primary story in the exact same format, is written by Toriyama's chosen successor, and continued the story long past the anime's ending. I personally find the latter reasons more compelling than the former, and consider the manga the "primary source" albeit with much looser guidelines for canonicity than other characters. Much like the official Death Battle, I will consider feats, forms, and rules from both versions. This is why the Death Battle rules are so malleable; for odd situations like this.
[2] While a user of Healing Ki has very rarely healed their own wounds, there is no reason Zamasu would not be capable of it. The reason it's normally not done is because you are essentially using your life force to give yourself life force, resulting in a net neutral, or, at worst, a net negative outcome. However, with Zamasu's Kai body, endless Ki resources, and immortal nature, he should be able to circumvent this entirely.
[3] Given Zamasu's time using the Time Ring, there would be an absolute minimum of 9 Sexdecillion versions of Zamasu ready to replace him. Killing Zamasu permanently without affecting his timeline or the Time Ring would require killing every one of these, and the 18.55 Tredecillion that are created every second longer any version of them fights!
[4] Zamasu has shown to be highly adaptable to techniques once he knows they exist, even directly stating "no attack will work on me twice." The Mafuba, in particular, is one of the most dangerous techniques specifically because of how easily it can be avoided or countered. Piccolo was even able to reverse the wave and capture the person performing the technique!
[5] The Daizennshuu states that Kibito could "give Gohan a difficult fight as long as he wasn't a Super Saiyan." While Gohan and Goku are on slightly different power levels all throughout the Buu arc, and it's impossible to determine when specifically the Daizennshuu was comparing them, if we compare them directly, we can multiply this by Goku's SSJ multipliers and then compare them to the God form, then boost it in accordance to the acclimated state, reaching the number presented here. It should be noted that the transformation numbers here are likely lowballed; depending on interpretation, Super Perfect Cell could destroy either solar systems or galaxies, and was a close match for SSJ2. SSJG, however, was achieved from only slightly above that level of base-form power, and could destroy the entire universe with a single blow.
[6] Hey all, Two here! Now hold on, before the reviews start pouring in about how we shouldn't count Fused Zamasu, um, yes, we should and will. Four reasons: 1, He's the same guy anyway, and already has a bunch of ways of getting more versions of himself. Unlike Goku Black, he can find his other half and full Potara whenever he wants, so he'd be able to do it without question. 2, After this fusion, literally every character only refers to him as Zamasu from now on. The story paints this as Zamasu's evolution, not Goku Black's, so we're allowing it for Zamasu. 3, This is how Zamasu is represented in the video games. OG form is rare, Goku Black is a separate character. But Fused Zamasu? According to the games, that's straight-up Zamasu. And 4, The guy who requested this matchup very specifically wanted Fused Zamasu to be part of it. So we'd feel like douches if he wasn't included. Kthxbai.
[7] It's possible this only applied to the 7th Universe, but this is highly unlikely. In the manga, Beerus and Whis discuss the timeline having been nullified, and one of the Time Rings that represent possible futures is destroyed. In both the anime and the manga, Future Zeno has nothing left to exist for and readily chooses to move into Goku's alternative timeline, heavily implying that the entire multiverse is gone.
[8] Zamasu would return in Dragon Ball Heroes, with far greater power and the implication that he survived Zeno's erasure. However, Heroes is definitively non-canon in a far more major way than most non-canon stories. Its power system, cosmology, and functions of time are fundamentally different to the main Dragon Ball story, many times in ways that are impossible to reconcile. As such, nothing from it or the Xenoverse and Legends video games will be taken into account in this particular battle.
…
Gorr the God Butcher:
TWO: You ever hear the joke about how every single religion in the world is secretly true at the same time? Well, in Marvel Comics, that's actually the case!
LZ: Well, somewhat. Technically, as established in the Doctor Strange books, Kabbalism and its contradictory Jewish Mythology cannot coexist, and Crossism is based-
TWO: Every single planet, society, and culture has its own gods. Could be a silvery surfer who flies around space, could be a panther god who gives visions of the future, could be a norse thunder god who has a cool hammer, could even be atheism, no god in the form of a god!
LZ: Getting awfully political today, huh?
TWO: It makes sense though, atheism IS actually a religion, even if-
LZ: Okay, let's steer far away from that beehive. The point is, in Marvel, so long as you believe in a god, that god is real. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're, you know, agreeable.[1]
TWO: Back in the day, "the gods are angry" was one of the most popular phrases around to explain why crops were dying, plagues were happening, and people were born *gasp* left-handed! Until C-
LZ: FAR AWAY.
TWO: Well, they might not be omnipotent deities like some of us imagined, but Marvel gods are still all crazy-powerful. But Gorr drew the god short stick. And the attractiveness short stick! What is it with these two? Seriously, look them up. First we had "dark elf bishop, cucumber flavor" and what's this guy supposed to be? Squidward covered in the ashes of his family, going through his rebellious phase with earlobes the size of Manhattan?
LZ: Well, that's actually not… quite as far off as you might think? Growing up on a desolate wasteland of a planet, Gorr and his entire race were taught to believe in gods and their mercy. They rarely hunted, as gods should provide. They did not bury their dead, as gods should take their spirits up into the sky. They did not worry even as they fell into extinction, because surely fate couldn't be in their hands. The gods were there, looking after them.
TWO: A pretty harsh cult at the best of times, but little Gorry was super-sus of it. His dad died even though everyone prayed to the gods to save him, his mom was eaten by wild animals while leaving the family's last bit of food as an offering to the gods, then later his wife got caught in a rockslide, all his children slowly died off from starving and plague, and nobody in his cult cared! They were all like "yo, man, you just didn't believe hard enough" and when he told them to stop being a-holes, they kicked him out! Man, that is just… the worst life. Like, if they suddenly retconned him so he ALSO had cancer, it would cross over into hilarious, but right now it's just sad.
LZ: Broken, despairing, and stranded in the desert of a doomed world, Gorr renounced his faith and trudged on, determined to succeed for himself or, preferably, die trying. There were never any gods. Only foolish mortals.
TWO: Then one day he got the shock of his life (and this guy's been through a lot of life) when two gods came crashing down onto the planet right next to him, and they'd both just murdered each other!
LZ: Gorr could not believe what he saw. The gods were real. They always had been. But they had ignored his people, their plight, their offerings, their devotion, their deaths. Because they were too busy killing each other. The mortals, his cult, his family, none of them were in the wrong; it was the gods who chose not to listen.
TWO: So when one of them turned out to be alive and asked for help, Gorr snapped. All he wanted was to take revenge.
LZ: And in that moment, the weapon of the other, darker god crawled into his skin, and he manifested, for the first time, All-Black, the Necrosword.[2] And there, in that desert, he killed his first god.
TWO: First, but definitely not last. The dude went on a crazy kill streak for a hundred years, until he stumbled into a young Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, who actually managed to beat him. Pissed at the world, and more specifically Thor, he sneak-attacked and captured Thor to torture information about his home Asgard out of him.
LZ: But there Gorr found something he did not expect. Thor would not break, even after torture far more extensive and lengthy than any previous god. He never lost his will to fight and his belief in his friends. And when his mortal followers found the cave Gorr hid in, he learned that these mortals truly cared about their god, and would even die in his place. Thor… was worthy.
TWO: That drove him NUTS. He came up with all kinds of excuses and changed everything about how he was killing gods. Quietly, over time, making it so the mortals just stopped believing. And if a mortal worshipped a god or, Arceus forbid, called him a god, well, no problemo killing innocent folks now! He literally went insane, but had one clear thought: no matter what, Thor would be the last god he ever butchered.
LZ: Gorr's genocide spanned across the universe for thousands of years unchecked, in part thanks to his clever subterfuge and the blind eyes of the higher gods, but mostly because of his weapon, All-Black. See, the dark god that fell in front of Gorr? That was Knull, lord of the abyss, god of symbiotes, slayer of the divine and consumer of universes, and he had just managed to reform his body after losing a fight to the Silver Surfer. In his greatly weakened state, the gods of Gorr's planet spent all their years fighting him instead of protecting their people, until one managed to temporarily put him down while crashing both of them into the planet. And on that day, when Gorr took All-Black, a sword constructed out of Knull's own shadow, into his own hands, he took some of Knull's dark power as his own.
TWO: All-Black isn't just a sword. It's a symbiote, just like Venom and Carnage, which means it can shapeshift like melted putty to be whatever shape it wants. It can be a whip, a flail, a bunch of birds, chains that can hold gods the size of mountains, as long as it connects to Gorr's body via tendril, it really isn't too picky. It can even be multiple at once, spreading out all around the arena into weapons and monsters a-plenty. Or it can seep into your pores, controlling you from the inside! And, sure, these constructs can be torn, cut, and broken by powerful weapons like Jarnbjorn, but it doesn't really matter, since, just like Carnage, it'll just pull itself back together inside Gorr's body. Then he can shoot it out however he wants!
LZ: As All-Black is the first symbiote and formed the basis that all later symbiotes would adhere to, it makes sense that it would be capable of all physical feats of other symbiotes. Such as Carnage using electricity to travel through the internet, or Agent Venom transforming into a functioning spaceship.
TWO: That ain't the half of it. All-Black's plenty strong on its own, but it got way stronger after Knull took out his first Celestial. This guy, the Headless Celestial, got a spiritual tie between his powers and the sword, which amped it up like crazy. It can hold its own against the Silver Surfboard in sword mode, slice stars in half, survive black holes, and cut through Celestial Armor!
LZ: Celestials are conceptual beings that exist in the voids between Megaverses, but create physical armors that act as extensions of their wills to interact with various universes. These armored vessels are gods beyond gods; in order to cut through them, a weapon usually has to be specifically constructed and enchanted to do so, such as Jarnbjorn or the Odinsword. Even then, any damage done can be simply regenerated with a thought. But All-Black can destroy them with strength alone, and when it "kills" one, it doesn't regenerate.
TWO: It'd be more accurate to say that All-Black uses Gorr as a plant root, instead of Gorr using All-Black as a sword. The thing can extend super far and just make more and more of its shadows, then break off some to make whatever objects Gorr feels like. A sword here, a chaingun there, a small planet? Sure! And whenever it kills someone, it absorbs their soul or imprisons it inside itself, or even in the Headless Celestial guy, making it so the guy can't be revived. And WITHOUT that tether, it could cut through All-Father Thor. And that guy can take hits from a Mjolnir-wielding Iron Man without even flinching![3]
LZ: And, as a blade made to kill gods, it works far better against nigh-immortal beings than any other weapon. Even beings with healing factors like Wolverine fall to and are infected by All-Black.
TWO: Yeah, that guy has the durability of a regular human, but his crazy healing factor has him walking out of actual nukes! But All-Black's magic symbiote stuff just… antis all that.
LZ: As it comes directly from Knull, it's likely that All-Black shares Knull's connection to death, which has allowed him to do things such as infect Celestial bodies, somewhat fight off the telepathy of Jean Grey, and kill Sentry with a single, horrific, rip.
TWO: Well, Gorr ain't Knull, and he's definitely not up to tearing someone that crazy-strong in half even with All-Black, but that's not the point here. See, this… killed Sentry. Like, he showed up as a ghost and everything. He's still dead today. But Sentry's healing powers are the most broken anime bullcrap you've ever seen. Like, having his head evaporated and it popping right back kind of bullcrap. Exploding into energy and then being fine a few issues later kind of bullcrap. Being impossible for Molecule Man to kill kind of bullcrap.
LZ: When Molecule Man disintegrated Sentry, he came back a few seconds later. Then he did it again. This even frightened Molecule Man, who believed Sentry was impossible for him to kill. In all fairness, given his recent traumatic experiences and feats when fully-powered (this guy is actually powered by his sanity level, I know), Molecule Man was neither as precise nor as powerful as he has been in this instance. But this was still, at absolute minimum, complete separation at the molecular level. And Sentry was fine.
TWO: Not so fine when Knull got ahold of him. And since All-Black also has the same connection to deat- yeah, you get it.
LZ: This doesn't mean that every wound it makes is eternal, it is technically possible to survive them, but they are much harder to heal than those of mortal or magical means, can bypass certain types of regeneration, and have easily killed beings who thought themselves immortal.[4]
TWO: And, if things look hairy, Gorr comes prepared with a pre-packaged army courtesy of All-Black. The Black Berserkers are made out of that All-Black shadow stuff and carry out his will across the galaxy. They can slay plenty-a gods in their own right, make their hands into weapons, and when turning up the heat, Gorr can make thousands of them!
LZ: Even a single one of these monsters can be strong enough to occupy Thor for hours, surviving multiple blows from Mjolnir that could tear the universe apart. They each contain a portion of Gorr's mind and will, but are still sentient in their own way, capable of making plans and attacking deities without Gorr's knowledge or say-so.
TWO: Oh, and All-Black gave Gorr some superpowers of his own. Like flight, super-fast healing, a dark armor he can put on himself anytime, and the stats not just to rival, but completely obliterate your average Marvel god.
LZ: With the incredible power granted to him, Gorr can keep up with a ship that crossed "a few billion light-years" in just a couple of minutes. He can surpass the strength of even gods of strength like Hercules, and dodge and survive hits from multiple Mjolnirs at once.
TWO: We've mentioned it a lot already, but in case you didn't know, Mjolnir's the most awesome little hammer around. In Thor's hands, it's smashed adamantium, KO'd the Hulk with one hit, and the godblast it shoots is powerful enough to kill Galactus!
LZ: No, it isn't.
TWO: What? Yes, it is. Look, right there, Mjolnir shoots a laser, and Galactus runs away. "Galactus must not die" and all that, right here!
LZ: *ahem* ACTSHUALLY, reading the full comic gives context for this moment. Not only was Galactus severely weakened by a battle with Ego the Living Planet, one of the few beings who can compete with his power, but was already starving, and therefore much weaker than normal. There's also an interpretation of Ego granting his own power to Mjolnir's blast, but that's debatable. What's not is that Thor gets nearly taken out in one hit just a few pages earlier, and in the very next issue, Thor compares Galactus' power with Odin himself, and then just a few issues later, Galactus defeats Thor effortlessly. Not to mention the many times Thor has battled a non-starved Galactus, often along with other superheroes, and lost. But just because he can't compare to one of the most powerful beings in comic book history doesn't mean he's a slouch. Mjolnir has even disrupted the Phoenix for a couple of seconds.
TWO: Well, Galactus or no, Gorr's physical stuff makes him the nightmare of most gods. Back when he was way weaker, Gorr could take hits from Jarnbjorn and giant thunderbolts and just keep fighting. He even survived a cut that could have "felled the World Tree itself." I mean, it really messed him up and he had to get out of Dodge, but he still survived it! I bet he didn't have any trouble messing up any god that got in his way.
LZ: You'd be right. The sheer volume of gods Gorr has murdered is staggering. Enough names to quite literally fill an entire library in the Halls of Knowledge. Gods of war, death, poetry, seasons, negative emotions, positive emotions, chaos, earthquakes, love, lava, and outer voids, all easily killed, their corpses sometimes stacked high enough to be seen from outer space.
TWO: Even guys as powerful as Falligar, who was champion of a tournament of immortals for five years running, and wrestled black holes for fun!
LZ: Most of these gods were not lucky enough to experience a quick death. Not that Gorr wasn't capable of it, but because he thoroughly enjoys the artistry of torture. He will find every bit of irony he can and exploit it in the most painful way he can think of to prolong the suffering of those he kills. Whether that be hanging a family of gods on meat hooks for their people to find or keeping a single member of the pantheon alive, cutting out their eyelids so that they physically have no choice but to watch as their people are slaughtered. He's so good at it that he once tortured a god of torture to the point where he even told him where to find his own children - in just a few hours.
TWO: That's, er, horrifying.
LZ: His god-slaying quest grew to far greater levels when he used the Pool of Forevers to travel the multiverse. He even forged portions of the pool into crystals that he carries with him, allowing him to travel to and from alternate timelines. Through this, he enslaved thousands of gods to help with the construction of his ultimate weapon.
TWO: Yeah, because for some reason, despite being one of the craziest weapons in Marvel, All-Black just wasn't enough for this guy. So he started building a Godbomb millions of years in the future. Using the heart of a god from the beginning of the universe as a power source and infused with time magic from a bunch of time gods (what the crap), this thing would, after a big countdown, explode in a giant wave that would kill every single immortal and god across all of time and space.
LZ: This explosion is no joke. It very well would have succeeded, and could have even destroyed the likes of Odin, Galactus, Mephisto, and possibly even the universe's Celestials. The sheer amount of power within this blast was so vast, Thor could only contain it with the power of two Mjolnirs.
TWO: Which doesn't sound all that special, but no, no, Mjolnir's power absorption is crazy!
LZ: It's absorbed Magneto's universe-spanning magnetism, the Null Bomb's galaxy-destroying energy, and the full Power Cosmic, creating a blast that could kill the Black Winter, an entity that regularly consumes infinite multiverses.
TWO: But with that Godbomb? Nah, way too much for one Mjolnir, we need two of them! Holy crap, this guy's not leaving anything to chance! But wait, I thought he left this in the way future. Whattdamean about this whole traveling the multiverse thing?
LZ: Well, it's both. The Marvel multiverse isn't like your typical string-theory multiverse. Rather, it's a forever-branching timeline, where every single decision made creates a new universe where its other was made. Thus, in Marvel, time-travel is actually traveling between universes, and vice versa, with very few exceptions, such as the Time Stone and the Silver Surfer. This is how all of those-
TWO: You know what, on second thought, don't bother. I got enough of this cosmology stuff last episode. I was just asking for the fans.
LZ: Don't you always?
TWO: …So, the Godbomb is pretty crazy. But that's not all Gorr was doing with that pool.
LZ: He traveled millions of years into the "future," when the old gods had already died and the fresh blood was still incapable of handling someone of his power. There he waged a nine-hundred-year war against all the gods of this universe, defeating each and every one and leaving them to create his bomb. All except Thor.
TWO: This version (let's call him "Old Thor") had been King of Asgard for a while, had a kid, then some grandkids, then became a planet, then became a regular guy again, then he was attacked for centuries by a full army of those Black Berserkers. Oh, man, if just one of them is hard to put down, what did he do against a whole army?!
LZ: Mostly? Lose. Old Thor spent hundreds of years fighting, even when every other last god had been defeated, and never made a true impact. His spirit was broken, much of his power had left him, and Gorr refused to kill him until the time was ripe for the Godbomb. Gorr had discovered the only torture that would work on Thor: loneliness and uselessness.
TWO: Until Regular Thor popped up, following Gorr to this universe, just a few centuries behind the curve. Meeting with his younger self was pretty cool, but even cooler was meeting his younger younger self (we'll call 'im Young Thor, 'cuz we're creative), who Gorr plucked out of the timestream just for kicks. The three of him together decided to bring the fight to Gorr, and Old Thor got his spark back. Which is good, since he's pretty darn strong.
LZ: This was no out-of-shape duplicate. Old Thor had hundreds of times the battle experience of his peers and even access to a portion of the Odinforce.[5] At another point, Old Thor was capable of fighting and holding his own against a starved Galactus, even nearly winning.
TWO: Oh, sure, now we can scale them.
LZ: As stated, Galactus was starving at the time, which greatly weakened him as his power literally comes from how full he feels, but even in that state only a few superheroes have shown to stand a chance against the Devourer of Worlds. Characters like Quasar, Thanos, and the Sentry.
TWO: The same, limited-power Sentry who fought and matched the strength of the original Worldbreaker Hulk![6] That's, in case you didn't know, the craziest, strongest power-up of the Hulk out there. Well, before Devil and Starship Hulk, but they don't matter right now.
LZ: When Bruce unleashed Worldbreaker Hulk in the Dark Dimension, Doctor Strange specifically stated that the Hulk was more powerful than he had ever been before. This is astonishing, as, in the story arc directly prior to this, Hulk had temporarily absorbed the magic of Pandora's box, which had a mystical value of 133.45 Hercs.
TWO: Yeah, that's, um… pretty good… what's a Herc?
LZ: That's simple. In the Marvel universe, one Herc is a unit equivalent to the maximum amount of energy the god Hercules could expend in one blow.
TWO: Cool! So, um, how strong is Hercules?
LZ: Hercules is one of the gods of strength, and has shaken the universe with his punches. Using all his might, he also once held up the entirety of the "heavens" on his shoulders. By which the comic means the entire regular Marvel universe. And the Marvel universe is massive; an equal to Asgard, which is over 945 Quintillion Light-Years long, several billion times larger than our own universe!
TWO: Woah! And Worldbreaker is over a hundred times stronger than that?[7]
LZ: At least. And it's reasonable to assume that Old Thor is in the same tier of power. And you know what else? Thor once threw Mjolnir at speeds so fast, it crossed eight and a half of these universes in only seven seconds! That's over 36 Octillion times Faster than Light, and Gorr can obviously react to Mjolnir perfectly well.[8]
TWO: After seeing Thor unleash a blow with the power of "a billion storms," Gorr sacrificed all the gods he had left to All-Black, increasing its power even further. At this point he could form dark dragons that would drown foes in eternal darkness, survive multiple godblasts, blot out the sun, and defeat all three Thors at the same time!
LZ: Even when Regular Thor managed to separate his body from All-Black and Young Thor decapitated him, Gorr still survived. By merging with All-Black completely, he'd return centuries later to attempt once more to kill everything. Gods and mortals. He even killed his own wife, reborn through the blade, believing that nobody in this end of time was worthy of life but him.
TWO: But this time, he could do it. He infected the entire future universe with All-Black, becoming one with it, and destroying everything, gods, mortals, and space! The universe went all black and white (mostly black), his Black Berserkers became moons, and his tendrils could choke out every god at once!
LZ: The power of this all-encompassing form is unbelievable. Even the All-Death that sees the final end of all creatures that live, said that Thor, after surviving thousands of near-death encounters, was supposed to die here.
TWO: It took the God Tempest, the full unlocked power of Mjolnir, to break this form, and even then it had to destroy the universe's fundamental forces to do it. THAT is how crazy bad things got!
LZ: But even then, Gorr's influence was still felt. He was right; the gods did more harm than good. By assisting in the conflicts of mortals, they perpetuated a cycle that the race should have grown out of. By standing still and doing nothing, they hurt those who needed them. Even if there were a few good men among the gods, what separated them from the good men among mortals? Nothing but the most superficial of details: power and years. Even Nick Fury, after gaining the powers of a Watcher, saw this, and told Thor: Gorr was right. A revelation that made Thor unworthy of Mjolnir for a while.
TWO: To accomplish his nightmare, Gorr became the thing he hated. As Volstagg said, he was Gorr the God Butcher. His name whispered in the darkest nights, used to keep people in line, and rule over a universe as a dictator. And what is that, if not a god? No matter how many he killed, there'd always be at least one deity left.
LZ: But even then, it mattered not. He may have been right about the hubris of the gods, but he couldn't comprehend the strength of choice, the right of will, and the power of teamwork. Whether it be through a few mortal men, a team of superheroes, or three of the same man working together, Gorr was defeated by one simple thing: the gods and their fury not fighting for themselves, but for those less powerful than them. Gorr was right… but Thor was Thor.
TWO: And after hearing that, Gorr was done Thor.
LZ: …
TWO: Oh, wait, the real show already did that one. Uh, he was done… Gorr?
LZ: …
TWO: Okay, you know what, this analysis is done Go-
Gorr crushes Old Thor between two moons with a thought as his incorporeal form stares down at the God of Thunder. He has nothing to fear now. He is the Necroverse.
He laughs as Old Thor shouts in pain. "You cannot destroy me, Thunder God! I am everything now!"
He watches as Old Thor futilely pushes the moons back and reaches out to his blade, only for a black hole to form beneath him and suck his weapon down. "I am become the superclusters. The constellations. The dark nebulae are the fingers of Gorr."
His face, in the form of a cosmic storm, cracks a smile. "And this black hole is my hungry gullet, where you will be butchered on a molecular level and digested by the universe you left forsaken."
Old Thor lights up Mjolnir with thunder, but the thunder itself falls into the black hole, and despite his efforts, Old Thor cannot escape its pull.
"But there will be no resurrection for you or the last of your kind. In my new universe… the gods… the very idea of deities… will have never existed."
Old Thor screams as he, too, falls down the well.
The universal face of Gorr shines with delight. "The anti-genesis. I can see it now. It's… it's beautiful."
And Gorr weeps. Tears of black plasma.
Gorr the God Butcher:
Name: Gorr
Species: Unknown
Height: 6'7 / 201 cm
Weight: Unknown
Age: 3,900+
Occupation: God of God-Butchers
Played by Christian Bale (therefore, is also Batman)
Unintentionally created Jane Foster Thor
According to the Watcher, was right
Arsenal:
All-Black
~Absorbed into Gorr's body, granting godly physical stats
~Flight
~Healing Factor
~Dark Armor
~Formation of Sword capable of cutting Celestial Armor
~Extends up to 95 km, shorter if attacking from multiple angles
~Extensive Shapeshifting
~Separation and creation of objects
~Black Berserkers
~Illusion and Hallucination Creation
~Travel through electricity & wires
~Can infect foes, draining their energy or controlling their bodies
~Healing Factor nullification
~Absorbs the souls of its victims
Forever Crystals
~Hardened forms of the Pool of Forevers
~Allows quantum multiverse theory-based time-travel
Godbomb
~Exists at the end of time
~Withstood a bomb composed of 900 years of found unstable matter
~Capable of killing every divine being throughout all of time and space
~Must be manually activated, and takes several minutes to explode (at least long enough for Thor to have an full existential crisis, beat it down for a good while, and all the gods to figure out what is happening and pray to Thor)
Feats:
Killed enough gods to fill a library in the Nexus of Knowledge
Killed Falligar, who wrestled black holes for fun
A single Black Berserker took "hours" for Thor to kill and survived a hit with the power of "a billion storms"
Regenerated an arm in less than five minutes
Tortured a god of torture
Stabbed Young Thor with enough magic that it took him a week to recover
Dodged 36*10^27 C Mjolnir
Enslaved all the gods of Asgard
Battled Regular Thor with enough power to shatter planets around them
Blotted out a star
All-Black has powers from someone who could kill Sentry
Survived a hit that could have felled the World Tree (the spiritual connective thread of the ten realms)
Survived two godblasts
Absorbing the power of the Godbomb required two Mjolnirs, even though one could absorb the entire Power Cosmic
Defeated Young Thor, Regular Thor, and Old Thor at the same time
~Old Thor could battle a starving Galactus and is likely stronger than Worldbreaker Hulk
Joined with All-Black to become the Necroverse, capable of affecting fundamental forces
Required God Tempest to kill him
Weaknesses:
Hubris to the most ridiculous degree of maybe any fictional character, it's almost funny
Mentally and Emotionally Unstable, able to be tricked and surprised easily
Relies exclusively on power to overcome foes, never thinks deeply about winning any fight against any opponent
Completely reliant on All-Black; if it is removed he is no more powerful than a regular man
~All-Black is sentient, fickle, and known to abandon its hosts
Special Notes:
[1] It has been suggested that Gods come into being as a direct result of belief influencing reality, in a similar way to how magic like the Power Cosmic, Phoenix Force, and Life Force operates. Thor has revealed that regular individuals can achieve the title of "god" without becoming immortal, and has even referred to the Avengers as the "gods of Earth." There is, however, a distinct difference in terms of the title of "god" and the use of divine powers, such as hearing prayers and sensing other gods. These are achieved either by birthright or by a strong enough belief from enough people over enough time.
[2] All-Black has been known to abandon its current host in favor of a stronger one, potentially putting Gorr at risk depending on who he fights. However, due to his spiritual ties to the blade and length of time spent wielding it, it would have to sense an inevitable defeat or far larger degree of power for an extended period of time before it would abandon Gorr specifically.
[3] All-Father Thor has far greater feats, but these either required the Power Cosmic or the full Odinforce, which he did not possess against Knull. It can, however, be presumed that he is much more powerful than Thor's typical self, who can overpower the energy needed to destroy the ten realms.
[4] When Young Thor was impaled through the chest by All-Black, he suffered pain and injury that was stated to be capable of killing anyone but Thor a thousand times over. It took seven days for him to heal enough to walk. Under normal circumstances, Thor can regenerate from having all of his skin burned off in just a few minutes!
[5] Old Thor at one point held the full might of the Odinforce, but it drained over time and battles as a result of his broken spirit. When Thor recruited him, it returned in part, but he explicitly never again wielded the full force. As he was shown only slightly above the other Thors in power, it would be unreasonable to assume that he used the full Odinforce at any point against either Gorr or All-Black.
[6] While it has been confirmed canon that Sentry and Galactus fought, the only two things known about the encounter is that they stalemated, and this was Sentry before he unlocked his additional abilities and greater strength. Given Galactus' other feats and situations where the Avengers were able to battle him, it is likely that he was very hungry and/or starving at the time, especially as it has been said that none of the Avengers, Sentry included, would stand a chance against a normal-power Galactus. This would put Old Thor on similar levels.
[7] Worldbreaker as shown here does not scale to the feats of modern Hulk, who became absurdly stronger after his connection to the One Below All. Regular Hulk was able to destroy the pocket universe of Dark-Crawler with a single thunderclap, but this was not on the scale of a regular Marvel realm. It is a smaller, contained universe; it is likely that the author understood its scale to be similar to our own observable universe. Similarly, his shaking the infinite multiverse is often taken out of context; he was within an interdimensional bridge point, and every action taken was putting the multiverse at risk. However, his power is still not to be taken lightly, as Hulk's punches have "shaken reality" and he has kept up with other beings who threatened the stability of the Marvel universe. In Worldbreaker form, a four-day battle with an equal threatened to destroy Umar's pocket of the Dark Dimension, which, while not as large as other sections of the Dark Dimension, had been shown to be able to contain the power of multiple universes. This supports the Pandora scaling.
[8] Ares once attacked X-Man while he rested in planck time. However, this was a very… tricky situation. X-Man was unleashing visions of possible futures at the time with stolen psychic energy. As a result, any action taken place, battle or not, would have taken place outside of time. Ares nearly killed X-Man in this moment, even though pre-amped X-Man was holding back Ares with one hand just a few pages prior. Additionally, neither he nor any other god displays this level of speed before or after this, with possible exception to the God of Hammers and Modern All-Father Thor (both of whom are much, much more powerful than Gorr has ever shown to be). This appears to be a specific circumstance (and a writer not understanding what plancks are) more than an actual speed feat.
…
All right, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all. It's time for a…
Death Battle!
…
Gorr stood atop the rocky outcrop, looking down at his false wife's dead body. He wondered, for a moment, if he should be feeling something right now. Pain? Regret? Anger? All he felt was spite. Spite for the gods who had given someone like her the concept of worship. It had corrupted her; she had worshipped him, and had to be culled.
A Black Berserker appeared next to him. It drooled darkness, relaying the message: no survivors. Good. Another universe without gods.
That snapped Gorr back. He didn't have time to waste on nothings like the pitiful thing at his feet. His bomb was complete. The Thors were dead. He was about to become the only thing left that mattered. And nothing could stand in his way.
"This is new," a voice he had never heard before stated.
Gorr turned around and scowled. Some alien creature was here; green-skinned, platinum-haired, and with a smirk that matched any false god. Perhaps it was a god. One of his? It was hard to keep track of the millions he had enslaved.
"Return," Gorr commanded, "or I will ensure that even the freedom to taste your own scabs will be a luxury."
Zamasu smiled. "Well, isn't this precious? I come all this way to find who has been butchering the gods of my other timelines, and all it is is a mortal who forgot what he was. Perhaps the others deserved what they received, if they were killed at the hands of something like you."
Gorr studied Zamasu more carefully. He did recognize him; actually. He'd killed two or three versions of this one in other timelines. All were attacks in the dead of night, and he had been noticeably younger, then.
"I haven't taken one of you, yet. But I've killed plenty." Gorr showed his teeth. "Would you like to hear what they said? Who they thought of in the last moments of their lives? The last noise you made?"
"Such frivolities are not in the interest of a god," Zamasu replied offishly. "I am much more intrigued by how you came about that weapon of yours. I sense no divine energy in your body, but in your sword…" he chuckled. "These toys are not fit for your sinful hands."
"I swore that Thor would be the last god I killed," Gorr said, lifting All-Black and trudging forward, "but I think I have room for dessert."
Zamasu's smile widened, and his eyes sharpened. Rather than a malice-born refined sage, he appeared now to be more akin to a demon. "Wonderful. I shall teach you the difference between god and man."
The Black Berserker beside Gorr leapt at the Kai. Zamasu raised his hand and clenched it, instantly causing the creature to explode into a black puddle.
"You do not deserve to live," Gorr exclaimed. "You will suffer as you have allowed every mortal under you to suffer!"
Zamasu clicked his tongue. "Ugh. Mortys. Too eager for power, too simple to handle it." He lifted his right hand and formed a ball of energy in it. "Your darkness will be extinguished. You will find this fight far beyond your comprehension."
Gorr sneered and stepped forward, swinging down All-Black at Zamasu's outstretched hand.
-FIGHT!-
Zamasu easily deflected the blade with an open-palm strike, his centuries of martial arts training giving him the edge in close quarters combat. All-Black transformed into whips that attacked from multiple angles, but Zamasu deftly evaded Gorr's strikes with divine agility. The Kai retaliated with blasts of pure energy, dispersing the shadowy constructs that threatened to ensnare him.
Zamasu's eyes glinted dangerously. "Your blade may have felled gods, but I am no mere deity. Your futile attempts to end me shall serve as a testament to my divine superiority."
"My vengeance has consumed gods far mightier than you." Gorr swung his cape around, transforming it into a horde of crows that blocked Zamasu's vision. Once the swarm cleared, Zamasu was suddenly set upon by four Black Berserkers. Zamasu, however, showed his mastery over divine energy. He created barriers of light, repelling the encroaching dark monsters. With a simple gesture, he summoned plum-colored energies that cascaded like a divine waterfall, consuming the shadows in a blaze of purple flame. Yet All-Black's power was enormous, and the constructs powered through.
The flame of Zamasu's Ki met the encircling shadows, creating a swirling storm of contrasting powers. Zamasu unleashed a torrent of energy, creating an orchid-colored sphere that expanded outwards, pushing back the shadows and Black Berserkers. The power of his energy illuminated the battlefield, momentarily dispelling the darkness.
Gorr, undeterred, kept attacking. Zamasu floated away from a swing, and barely redirected another from Gorr's overwhelming strength. The Necrosword morphed into a colossal serpent, attempting to crush Zamasu around its body. Yet, the Kai danced through the serpent's curling form with the confidence that only comes from having trained and fought for centuries.
Focusing on the root of All-Black's form, Zamasu formed a gravity well over Gorr, dragging him down. Gorr felt the pressure, but the godly strength All-Black afforded him allowed him to trudge forward. He bit down, and one lip cracked, a few droplets of blood forming on it. But that was all; Gorr stepped out of the gravity well no worse for wear. Especially once All-Black healed the split lip so it appeared to have never happened in the first place.
Zamasu coated his right hand in a purple energy blade and dashed towards Gorr. He swung horizontally and was blocked by the symbiote forming an immediate shield. Zamasu switched positions immediately, driving the blade up instead, and while All-Black managed to catch that one just before it hit Gorr, the force did send him up a meter, just enough room for Zamasu to create a burst of light and slam into him with a Ki-coated body. The physical shock reverberated past All-Black's defenses, shaking Gorr and spinning him towards the ground. Zamasu pulled him down even faster with gravity, and when he landed hard enough to form a small crater. Xamasu followed up with an energy-blade down-thrust.
Just for All-Black to strike upwards higher than he could reach and impale Zamasu.
Gorr shot up into the sky and grabbed the jaw-dropped Kai by the throat. He slammed him into the ground, caused a small bleed in one of his ears, and lifted him into the air again. All-Black collected in his hand in the form of the Necrosword.
"You put up a better fight than any other of your kind," Gorr announced. Although he seemed more proud of himself for that than he was Zamasu. "But every battle is over once my weapon tastes your blood."
Indeed, Zamasu felt All-Black seeping into his bloodstream now, corrupting him. Trying to control him. To… eat him.
Gorr held Zamasu by the throat, All-Black piercing through his chest, its all-consuming darkness infecting his blood and bones. Inside his body, it turned into millions of tiny instruments of pain and drove itself deeper, eliciting an attempted cry from the Kai. A cry that the grip on his throat stopped short.
"I wonder," Gorr snickered, "what those who prayed to you prayed for? I never got to ask. Every time I killed one of you, it was so… quick. So simple. I never found out what you were supposed to be a god of."
Zamasu managed to sputter out half a cough. A pool of black liquid came up with it.
"Refinement? Gravity? Or perhaps war? I've killed all of the above, in the thousands. Your blood, though, smells different. Maybe, if you answer, I might only torture you for a thousand years, and not ten thousand."
Zamasu managed to set his teeth despite his gurgling.
Gorr loosened his grip a little. "So, before my sword consumes your whole being, what were you once a god of?"
With the weakened hold, Zamasu gasped out, finally able to breathe a little. He whispered a word, too faint to hear.
Gorr glowered. "Speak up. You never listened to mortals. Be grateful that one even considers listening to you. What were you a god of?
Zamasu's dry lips cracked open.
"Creation."
And then an axe made of katchin sliced Gorr's arm off.
Gorr screamed out in shock and hurt as Zamasu stood up. No longer under the pressure of All-Black's strength, he flushed his body with Ki, vaporizing the symbiote pieces inside of him, and with a single touch to his chest, his body and stamina were back to 100%.
All-Black jutted out of Gorr's stumped arm, remaking it for him. Gorr leapt back and formed the Necrosword in his remaining hand, using it to cut down the axe as it flew at him again.
Zamasu lifted his hand, and a block of katchin the size of a four-story house fell from the sky above Gorr. The god-butcher had to be dragged out of the way by his weapon at speeds far surpassing light before it reduced him to paste. Even so, the impact of the block striking the planet rocked the world and formed fissures across every continent.
Zamasu frowned and snapped his fingers, forming a sudden gravity well that slammed Gorr into the ground. He'd recover in a few seconds, but that was enough time. Zamasu formed another block of katchin and let it fall. All-Black saved Gorr once again by extending upwards, forming into a platform to catch the falling block. It creaked and bent, but held the multiverse's strongest material firmly. Then it bended and launched it back at Zamasu, who simply pointed at it and teleported it behind Gorr. The katchin kept its momentum and slammed into Gorr's body, breaking his legs with a shriek as his body was flung further back.
Seeing his prey unable to escape, Zamasu's face split happily. He lifted his right arm, coating it in an energy blade, and reached out his left hand, telekinetically pulling Gorr towards him.
Gorr was halfway there before his pain-ridden mind caught up to what was happening. His eyes grew wide; for one of the few times in his life, he experienced fear, understanding that this god could, indeed, kill him right here. He buried his last working limb, his left arm, into his cloak and grasped a red crystal. And with that, there was a burst of energy, and he vanished.
Time stretched out into infinity, as it always appeared when he crossed that border. But Gorr's Forever Crystals bridged that gap, and allowed Gorr to move forward into the reality he wanted.
As he appeared, he was met with the stares of hundreds of Black Berserkers. An army he had constructed and stored long ago at a point near the end of time, to be let loose on the universe following his bomb.
Well, what did it matter if they arrived a little early?
"So, that's how you do it," Zamasu said from behind him.
Gorr whipped around, more angry than surprised. "How?!"
"A god need not explain his power." Zamasu's eyes turned slightly uneasy as he looked upon the army in front of him. "Hm. Look at what a mortal requires to even stand a chance against a god." He brought up his left hand. "Although, even that is generous beyond measure."
Suddenly, Gorr's body felt noticeably lighter. He pawed around in his cloak before realizing what had happened. "The Pool of Forevers-"
"It is not a mortal's place to command time," Zamasu replied, a sack of colored crystals in his hand. "Such realms are for the divine alone."
Gorr scowled. "You will die a thousand deaths at my hands!"
"I'd be impressed if you even managed one."
Gorr screeched. The screech held the power of death in it, and immediately made Zamasu's heart go still. His lips tightened, his blood rushed. The stars around them went dark. The only light in the void was the red in Gorr's glare. Pure anger. Pure evil.
No, that wasn't right. He was something else; something Zamasu couldn't quite place.
With a thought, Gorr commanded his entire army to converge on Zamasu. Zamasu warped forwards in time to escape, but he knew he was tethered; he would have to return eventually to the exact moment where hell itself awaited him.
Zamasu sighed as he gave in to one of his trump cards. He lightly rubbed his Time Ring.
Instantly, there was a scratching sound in universal stability, and a green portal opened up to reveal a darkened saiyan.
"This had better be important," Goku Black glared. "I assume you found him?"
Zamasu gave him a reassuring smile. "Would you like to see?"
Goku Black raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "An unusual request from myself. That must mean this is one interesting case, indeed."
Zamasu showed his ring. "Follow me."
In a moment, the two were back in the starless time. Goku Black immediately raised an energy barrier around them and Zamasu waved his hand, creating new stars to grant light into the void. The Black Berserkers crowded around the forcefield, making it appear as though it were in shadow under the power of endless creatures of destined death.
Scanning the battlefield, Goku Black scowled. "And what have I gotten myself into, this time?"
"Just a Mortal attempting to play God," Zamasu replied calmly.
Goku Black straightened his shoulders. "And what now?"
"You take the five hundred on the right, and I take the five hundred on the left?"
Goku Black smirked. "I believe I could take five hundred and one."
Zamasu frowned as his joke went over his other's head. "Your saiyan instincts are speaking for you again." He shook his head. "No. I say we show this particular mortal what it truly means to face a being of perfection."
Goku Black liked that idea even more. He sneered as he shifted his earring to his right ear.
The two halves slammed together, and the skies went white as they transformed.
The end of time went alight with divine power. The Black Berserkers shoved themselves away, trying to get back from the all-encompassing energy, and Gorr shielded his eyes as he attempted to see what had caused such a shift.
When the initial burst cleared, its cause was obvious.
There, in the middle of a green barrier, stood a deity, with the complex of a god and the hair of a warrior. Eyes that showed a lust for battle and a hunger for justice. Purity in its harshest form; the divine good, made into the divine judgment.
Fused Zamasu.
The barrier went down. One courageous Black Berserker managed to work up the malice to attack once again.
And Zamasu fired bolts of purple lighting from a sigil behind him, striking down the monster before a massive purple phoenix-like fire burst from it, growing to consume all that was recognized in this reality.
The fire burned endless Black Berserkers away before the army thought to protect their host. They flew, barely outspeeding the phoenix, and rejoined with All-Black inside of Gorr. Rather than an army, he now held something far greater: the unrestrained power of the dark god-slaying energy of his weapon.
And when the phoenix approached him, Gorr sliced through space-time with his blade, and watched the bird fall as though it were glass.
"I've never used such power before. Even on the fiercest of gods." Gorr snickered.
"I must confess the same," Zamasu announced. "Though you should take no honor in such a thing. I simply tire of your mouth."
Gorr launched himself, ten waves of light-energy bursting behind him as he threw his body at the fused deity. He punched first, only to snap his wrist against Zamasu's hardened skin. His other hand, containing the Necrosword, went next. This one nearly sliced into Zamasu, but his experience in martial arts protected him as he slid his hand over the blade's edge, smacking the finger holding it. Zamasu twirled his arm around Gorr's wrist, flourishing as he put his body weight under the god-butcher. Gorr's body went over Zamasu's head and pinned him to his hand - a hand that suddenly protruded an energy blade, piercing Gorr's chest.
Gorr gasped and pushed offwards, All-Black springing him away. Gorr washed the symbiote over his body, creating thick dark armor that would not so easily be cut through. He threw the sword at Zamasu, who easily deflected it with an open-palm strike. But it was a trap; the sword changed form into eight sap-ridden tendrils and congealed over Zamasu's body, restraining him completely. Zamasu felt his Ki begin to drain in surprise and fear as he fell. Thinking fast, Zamasu created a long, stone bridge, hovering in the emptiness of this universe, that he collapsed onto instead of flailing for infinity. As he stood, the tendrils latched themselves into the bridge, locking him down like chains.
His entire back half restrained by All-Black, Zamasu reached out his last free hand and shouted, firing a black energy blast at his emboldened prey. Gorr simply gruffed; the blast bounced off his black armor, and four more sap-like tendrils sprung from his chest, restraining Zamasu's still-outstretched arm. Gorr hovered over to the limb and formed a sword in his hands.
Zamasu's eyes darted. "Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Should I cut off his arm?' And the answer-"
Gorr cut off his arm.
Zamasu cried out as godly blood spilled from his forearm, the bottom half of his appendage leaking on the ground. He clenched his teeth and gasped; this was no ordinary pain. All-Black had ensured he felt as much agony as was physically possible.
It didn't stop his hand from popping back into existence, though.
Zamasu closed his eyes and smiled through his suffering. "...might surprise you."
If All-Black didn't warn Gorr of the attack at his feet, the kienzan would have sliced him in half.
Gorr leapt back, his weapon forming twelve shields in front of him. The kienzan cut cleanly through four before veering off into the dark sky. Gorr hissed. He knew the god in front of him was restrained, and couldn't have thrown that attack. Did he have control over his limbs even when they were disconnected?
The shields fell, and revealed the answer: a second, fully-formed Zamasu, complete with his clothes, albeit no ring, had grown from the fallen forearm.
With a flash-like sound, the Zamasu who had been contained was suddenly standing next to his double. Both gave him the same hubris-ridden smile, and one jumped at him with an energy blade as the other launched hundreds of ki bullets in backup.
Gorr let the first come, then jabbed out a blunt pole from his body, courtesy of his weapon. This pole bent Zamasu's hand, forcing his attack to turn harshly. Gorr shoved himself forward, ramming into Zamasu's body with a thud, and twisting it to take all the ki attacks the other Zamasu had launched.
"Did you truly think you were the first god I killed who could duplicate?" Gorr laughed a laugh that sounded as though it came from a desert serpent.
"Possibly not," Zamasu's voice said from behind him. Gorr turned and threw his other at the god, but a black spot opened in front of him, transporting the second Zamasu into the air, where he hovered effortlessly. "But I will be the last."
All-Black transformed into four tendrils that stabbed towards the first Zamasu, but each found themselves swallowed into a black spot, now aimed at Gorr's head. Each turned sharply upwards to avoid killing their master, but their foe had predicted this. They found themselves led upwards through space and stabbing past the dark armor on Gorr's legs.
"When you control space itself, even the mightiest weapon turns into a terrible weakness," Zamasu stated. He stretched his left hand out, forming a pink scythe in it. "My power was not achieved in such a cowardly manner. I am my weapon."
Gorr's black blood seeped down his legs. His tongue snaked out. "You are the most cowardly of all. Without mortals you would be nothing. They worship you. They laud you. And you consume. Your weapon is no scythe. It's your control over others. Now? All the old gods are dead. The mortals have long fallen into extinction. I took them from you. I took your weapon, your shield, and now…" His dark armor faded and his tendrils retreated. The fullest power of All-Black was collected into his right hand as a double-bladed sword. "...I will take your life."
Zamasu sighed. "You do love to hear yourself talk. And you are certainly the only one." He lowered his scythe. "All you've taken from me is time. Now, be a good mortal and die. Begging for forgiveness, preferably."
Gorr chuckled. A dark mist fell from his mouth. He shifted once in place before launching himself forward. He was a mere blur in the cosmic trail, moving faster than even Thor's mighty hammer could go. And when Zamasu opened a portal to trap his move, All-Black extended around the portal and struck Zamasu's hand. In surprise, the god swung down his scythe, but it shattered against the Celestial-slaying sword.
All-Black pulled itself into Zamasu, invading his cells, and superseding his bloodflow. Zamasu only had a moment to grimace before the blade burst out, tearing his body to pieces. Already they began to reform, but Gorr had seen this trick once before, and that guaranteed its failure. He opened up the destined death in All-Black, and he saw it briefly; a wisp of a soul that was suddenly absorbed by the blade, eternally trapped within the sword. The remaining body parts stiffened, then crumbled into ash.
But there was a purple flash, and Zamasu was in front of him, ring aglow, though not nearly as aglow as his eyes.
"A deal's a deal, sinner. I am impressed. But space is not the only force I control." Zamasu twisted his ring once, his all-knowing smile nowhere to be seen. "Here's a question for you; how long do you think we've been fighting?"
"Gods of creation, of space, of time," Gorr muttered. "I have slain hundreds of each. In such creative ways. Why count the seconds when you can count the screams?"
"For a god," Zamasu replied as millions of green portals opened in space around him, "it pays to know everything."
A Zamasu stepped out of each portal, each fully dressed, at top power, with their own Time Rings.
Gorr set his teeth. If only he had his crystals. Then he… could… travel…
His eyes locked on the hands of the clones in front of him. When that previous clone had been made, it had lacked one specific detail, although it had even kept the original's clothes. It had no ring.
Yet each of these had one. And the rest of their clothes had regrown. And his enemy had implied they came from the previous seconds.
It's the ring,
All-Black heard his thought and transformed itself into four billion individual buzzsaws, each aimed at the various Time Rings around their host. They launched themselves at speed far surpassing that of almost all gods, and while many were caught in black spots and even more were simply blocked by energy barriers or katchin shields, over a billion struck their target, battering through the Zamasus, the initial strikes breaking down the ki auras and then others tearing through their bodies. At least one million had their rings disconnected from their bodies; their fingers sawed off, their arms blasted apart, or, when a few buzzsaws joined together to transform, their body half-disintegrated.
But none of it mattered. A mere moment after damage was done, it was undone. Every severed finger grew into another Zamasu. Every disintegration simply… wasn't anymore.
Zamasu was immortal.
"How truly tragic," one of the Zamasus laughed. "All the gods you have slain, and never once did you consider their defining trait." The army advanced on Gorr, many forming weapons of energy or katchin.
"I should say the same," Gorr spat. "Gods cannot die. Not really. But they can fall."
One of the Zamasus reached him. All-Black sprung to protect his body, but it was an afterimage; an illusion using one of Goku's techniques. The real body shanked through Gorr's heart and threw him onto the ground.
"Mortals die," Gorr continued. If he was in pain, he didn't show it. "And they fall. But when they do-"
Four more Zamasus reached him. One held him down with gravity as the others pelted him with energy that the Necrosword attempted to block.
"...they get back up."
Gorr's body melted into black goo.
The Zamasus glanced at each other in surprise. One of the ones in the far back figured it out the fastest.
"A trick! A double made with his weapon! Hide your ri-"
That Zamasu faded away, as though he had never existed. And immediately, almost all the others followed. Fading, screaming, some souls were taken in by All-Black while others vanished from time.
Leaving just one Zamasu and Gorr, holding in his hands two objects: a fading severed finger and a Time Ring.
"Not a god of time." Gorr clenched his hand. There was a green flash, and when he opened it, the Time Ring was gone. "Just a plaything of eternity."
Zamasu scowled. "That was a clever trick. For a mortal. But fruitless."
Gorr regathered all of All-Black's billions of pieces, ignoring Zamasu. He formed them into chains and let them loose. A wall of katchin appeared in front of them; they broke through. A series of black spots interrupted them; they joined and turned back to their target. Relentless. Unstoppable. Zamasu was snatched up by the chains. They bound his legs, then his arms, then wrapped themselves around his neck and strung him up like a hanged man.
Gorr stepped up and thrust the Necrosword into Zamasu's heart. It dispersed inside his body, ready to absorb him.
Despite this, Zamasu smiled.
"I told you. For a god, it pays to know everything. But you? You can't even pay attention to two foes at once."
Gorr gnashed. "What do you mean?!"
Zamasu grinned and stared into his hollow eyes. "Your darkness is extinguished. May you find your answers in the void."
Zamasu's eyes darkened and closed as All-Black worked on him, but Gorr wasn't paying attention any longer. His mouth was open, his eyes widened. In all that had happened, he had forgotten.
He had created one duplicate before any of this.
He tore up into the endless space many light years before All-Black informed him that it detected something. He flew at god-bursting speed until it was within sight.
Hopelessness.
Millions of Zamasus, no Time Ring needed. They were taking turns slicing each other to ribbons, creating more and more. From only a single forgotten god, this much had already spawned.
The Zamasus halted their cloning and turned to Gorr. Half raised their hands, forcing him into telekinetic holds and gravity wells. The other half put their hands to their sides. With one mind, they all spoke:
"Kame…"
A ball of purple energy gathered in their hands. Gorr struggled to lift even his head. All-Black gathered itself under him, forcefully raising him as though it were a carjack.
"Hame…"
Gorr finally managed to stand, his strength surpassing that of all gods of strength. He formed the Necrosword in his right hand.
A single Zamasu spoke out of turn. "You yourself said it. Gods cannot die."
Gorr snapped his teeth together so hard that two of them broke. "No."
"HA!"
Endless beams of purple energy approached; more than enough to vaporize him at the atomic level.
"But I can."
Then Gorr turned the Necrosword and stabbed himself in the chest.
…
Bitterness. That's it.
Gorr was pure bitterness.
…
In that moment, Gorr and his blade became one.
In that moment, All-Black accepted the god-butcher fully.
In that moment, Gorr died.
In that moment, the Necroverse was born.
Gorr's body faded. And the cosmos themselves opened their eyes. They wept. Tears of black plasma. Plasma that turned into dark dragons, moons of pure malice, and everlasting black holes.
There were millions of Zamasus, and one Gorr. But Gorr was infinite, and no number, however high, can match up to that.
And so, Zamasu drowned in everlasting darkness. No body left, no matter to exist, nothing to come back from. There was nothing in reality except infinite darkness.
So infinite darkness would have to do.
The Necroverse felt itself pulled back, split and damaged. It suddenly found itself in an odd position, where it occupied the further strings of space and the nearer strings of time. And to fill its other half?
The remaining universe turned green. It swirled with endless energy. And a new face emerged.
And so, the Necroverse and Infinite Zamasu found themselves in a circle of necessity. An eternal stalemate. They spent what they perceived as an infinite amount of time, though they both comprehended that it only occupied a few minutes, attempting to destroy the other. But nothing would work. The Necroverse would drown all that exists in a black hole, and Infinite Zamasu would corrupt the black hole, searing its antimatter into time itself. Infinite Zamasu tried to drain all the Ki from reality, destroying life as it could ever be, and the Necroverse would gain power from the unlife that it brought. They were yin and yang, now; neither could budge.
"Do you understand? I am truly immortal," Zamasu's essence shouted. "I will outlive even this universe. Do not think you have won just because I cannot attack just yet!"
Then the Necroverse did something truly horrific.
It smiled.
"You fool. You have only trapped yourself."
Streaks of black tar began to paint themselves over Infinite Zamasu. The being of infinity found, unbelievably, that it could feel pain.
"What… what is this?!"
The Necroverse laughed. "A bomb."
…
Endless millenia in the past, the gods were dead. The Black Berserkers worked in their place. The Godbomb had enough energy. All they needed was the signal to turn it on and wait.
A green flash opened a pool in the sky, dropping down a silver ring.
The Black Berserkers were essences of magic, malice, and darkness. They knew a magical device when they saw one. And they remembered it as being worn by the thing that attacked their host before they had both vanished.
It was a sign. From the host.
All of time is yours to ravage.
If there were any left alive in the universe, they would have heard the endless howls of joy as the Berserkers activated the Godbomb.
…
"A god-slaying weapon of such magnitude? By a mortal? Impossible!" Infinite Zamasu screamed even as his mouth filled with tar.
"You cannot escape!" The Necroverse spoke gleefully. "The Godbomb will catch you no matter where you go. In this singular moment, I have traveled to every corner of existence and every point in time!"
Infinite Zamasu twisted its consumed eyes around. "Oh? Is that right?"
Far below, on one of the pieces of the crumbled once-bridge that had been formed many turns ago, another Zamasu was created; a host of the universe's will. He raised his hand, summoning into it a box. The Godbomb's effect caught him; he felt the black mass surrounding his lungs. Before it could spread further, he hastily opened the box to see six additional Time Rings. He practically slammed one onto his nearest finger and clenched his hand.
…
Many millennia past, Gorr stared at the two gods within the desert crater in front of his eyes.
"Gods," he muttered hazily. "There were gods all along."
There was a cough, and the golden god raised one arm a half-meter. It gurgled something incomprehensible.
Gorr climbed down into the crater, still not fully understanding what he was witnessing. "Hello? Can… can you talk?"
"Help… me…"
Gorr stilled.
He could hardly believe his ears. If he were honest with himself, he was not certain that this wasn't a hallucination. But either way, he felt the same.
"Help… you? Help you?! WHERE WERE YOU?!"
The god seemed as though it were about to say something, when black tar erupted from its mouth. It gagged, tendrils snaking around its body and eyes clouding over.
Gorr paid no mind to the unusual effect. He continued unhindered. "Where were you when my children were starving?! When my wife was screaming for help?! When my mother was being butchered like an animal?!"
The sword in the golden god's chest collapsed into a puddle. Gorr did not notice.
"Where were you when we needed our gods?!"
"I see you were always arrogant to the core," a voice said behind him.
Gorr turned, inflamed with rage. The being behind him was unusual, yet every bit as fantastical as the two laying in the sand. Between his divine skin tone, grand robes, and physics-defying hair, there was no doubt; he, too, was a god.
"You betrayed us! You promised to be there, and instead, you killed one another! Why should I save him? Why should I spare any of you?!"
If the divine menace cared, he did not show it. Instead, he gave a lidded smile and replied. "Well, they did spare you."
Gorr's anger permeated so greatly that his eyes themselves began to turn colors. "When?! I have been beaten, wounded, and had everything taken from me, even a peaceful death! All because of you gods! When have you ever spared me?!"
Zamasu laughed. A full, hearty laugh that shook the world itself. Gorr stumbled to keep his footing as Zamasu rose several meters into the air.
"Child. Know to whom you speak. Before you were a thought in your father's mind, I had watched ten thousand mortal races live and die out."
Gorr was pulled to the ground by an invisible, irresistible force. When he struggled to stand, the gravity crushed his body, forcing him down.
"I have ruled over hundreds of planets far greater than this."
Gorr's eyes widened as, with a simple hand motion, the being caused a new planet to exist in the sky above, filled with water and greenery. This desert planet, meanwhile, shuddered under the pressure of a new celestial body being so near to it.
"I have killed every living being in reality twice, and would do so again without qualm."
Gorr's body jumped up suddenly, held aloft by telekinesis whilst still being pulled into the ground. His legs buckled; the only way to survive was to allow his knees to touch the ground while the rest of him remained upright.
Zamasu snickered. "You kneel like a dog. Good."
In a blink, Zamasu was in front of Gorr. He grabbed the ashen creature's cloak and pulled their faces together, to stare him in his terrified eyes.
"Every single time you ate, they spared you by not allowing your food to be poisoned. Every single time you took a step, they spared you by stopping you from tipping yourself over and splitting open upon a feeble rock. Every single time you sullied their names by speaking it, they spared you by not answering your call. Every single moment that you have lived, they spared you by deciding not to destroy your entire race."
The grin blackened as dark tar seeped up Zamasu's teeth and dribbled out the sides of his mouth.
"Understand your own hubris. You are to a god as an insect is to you. There are more mortals in this one sector than grains of sand on your entire planet. Do you realize how small you are?"
He spat what appeared to be black blood onto the sand. Tendrils wrapped around his face. "Why would a god ever be there for you?"
In the face of greater power than he could comprehend, more terror than he thought possible, and the complete annihilation of everything he had ever believed, Gorr stared back, open-mouthed and crippled.
Yet still, he scrounged up all that he had, and met Zamasu's stare with his own cold ferocity.
"Gods do not deserve Mortals."
Zamasu's grin widened. "You're right."
And then, a form was created inside of Gorr's body. One that expanded rapidly, grew and molded. Gorr screamed as it seemed to fit and match his movement, travel his blood, and overtook his limbs. He raised his head, eyes wide in absolute fear, before the katchin statue expanded beyond his body, exploding his flesh into a rain of blood.
-KO!-
Immediately, the tendrils dissipated and the essence of the Godbomb faded. Zamasu felt his body clear up, as history was adjusted and the immortal-slaying weapon was never built to begin with.
He telekinetically lifted the statue he'd made, shaking off the blood in the air and settling it upon a nearby mound. It was an exact duplicate of Gorr's face as he died; on his knees, eyes blinded and mouth screaming as he witnessed a being of true perfection. A representation of all that would happen to mortals who dared to defy the divine.
It was then that he felt something sludge-like touch his foot. His first instinct was to shake it off, but then his divine senses recognized it. Instead, he bent down and touched the sludge with one hand. It immediately leapt into his body and came out through his right hand. The sludge fell into a shape and solidified itself into a blade; the same sword that Gorr had used on him.
Zamasu chuckled. "It appears you, too, have learned your place, little godslayer." He waved his left hand, summoning the box of Time Rings. Inspecting it revealed that, just as he had expected, another Time Ring had been added; a new timeline was forged.
He pulled All-Black back into his body. "You will have ample opportunity to prove your loyalty. We have much work to do, yet."
…
Conclusion:
TWO: Woah, talk about a Gorr-ey ending! I guess you could say he was done G-
LZ: In his defense, Gorr did have several advantages over Zamasu. He was definitely much stronger than Base Zamasu if we compare him to Worldbreaker Hulk.[1] He was also significantly more experienced, having been fighting for his life for thousands of years. His genocide of the heavens meant he also had fought a great many deities with a great many abilities, and Zamasu likely didn't have too much that he hadn't seen before and fought through to some degree.
TWO: And that Necrosword was busted! Its power to cut through Celestial Armor means that it could absolutely chop through Zamasu, even with his super-increased durability. And with it absorbing the foundations of a universe, when it unleashed its full power, it could stop some of the Kai's abilities. And since it's sentient, Zamasu couldn't just yoink it to depower Gorr.[2]
LZ: But the advantages Zamasu held were even more. While Gorr was physically stronger than Zamasu, he certainly wasn't as durable, and the gap between their strength was matched by the gap between their speed. We could definitely scale Gorr to Mjolnir; and crossing eight and a half realms in seven seconds is incredible, a feat reaching at least 36 Octillion times Light Speed.
TWO: But scaling Zamasu to the Blue Saiyans puts him well over seventeen thousand times faster! And while he's not quite as fast as them regularly, he was able to keep up and react to their attacks and movements and even defeat them in combat. Plus that transformation scaling we used didn't take training or power-ups into account, and by itself was maybe a bit underestimated anyway.[3]
LZ: And while Gorr had the experience, Zamasu had the training. He's one of the best martial artists in a multiverse filled with some of fiction's best martial artists. His ability to easily read and counter Gorr's moves would fulfill the same role as Gorr's experience, at the very least.
TWO: And that power advantage went away the second Zamasu went Fused. Even scaling to earlier Worldbreaker Hulk, Fused Zamasu would be around 2,500 times stronger. Sure, you could argue that the stats of that version of the Hulk is bigger than what we gave him, and Gorr could overpower three Thors, at least one of which could keep up with that, but you also have to give Zammy's scaling the same credits because of the low-scaled transformation and not thinking about training and all that. I mean, this power has to be lowballed, since gods who know about dudes like Top, Moro, and Jiren believed Fused Zamasu could end all mortal life even before they knew about his cloning![4] And that's not mentioning how crazy his speed and durability get, too. Gorr could maybe punch a hole through regular Zamasu, but against a guy who laughed off a Final Kamehameha that literally used up all the power of Vegito Blue's transformation? I'd expect him to break his hand first!
LZ: That being said, All-Black's all-consuming power meant it would likely be able to cut into even Fused Zamasu's body. But Zamasu had several other advantages, too.
TWO: He had all sorts of powers Gorr didn't, like how he could teleport, trip him up with portals, bypass his armor and cut him down with one strike with a kienzan, or take a trip to the future to get any information he wanted before coming back for a surprise attack. Both could create things and control bodies, but unlike Gorr, Zamasu could do that from any distance just by thinking it and using Ki. His range of stuff he can make is also way bigger, and Gorr's body control has been overcome by flushing the body with energy, which Zamasu does literally every single time he uses Ki. Plus, Gorr might fight on the level of gods, and even be called one, but he very explicitly isn't divine, so Zamasu's hax have free reign.
LZ: With his faster, more precise flight, portals, and time-hopping, he controlled the pace of the battle, and with energy attacks, he could fight at all ranges. And while both could enter alternate timelines, Zamasu was the only one capable of tracking and following his opponent through them. Even if this took place in the infinite timelines of Marvel's multiverse, Zamasu would always be able to chase down Gorr, but if he decided to leave, Gorr would have to search all of infinity for him. Or Zamasu could simply use his teleportation on Gorr's Forever Crystals, taking them for himself and locking Gorr into his current timeline. Unlike All-Black, those aren't sentient, and while they might be divine, they aren't anywhere close to as powerful as Zamasu, nor would they have the will to resist.
TWO: And both could make their own armies super casually. But unlike All-Black's Berserkers, every member of Zamasu's army is just as overpowered as its leader. And Berserkers might be tough, but they ain't atomizing a Zamasu with every strike, which means that the more the Berserkers attack, the bigger and stronger Zammy's army gets. 'Cuz, yeah, numbers and powers are great and all, but when one of you can grow more of themselves from any bit that falls off, that really limits what the other guy can do.[5]
LZ: That's actually where we get into what really breaks this match: immortality.
TWO: All the power in the omniverse doesn't mean a thing if Gorr can't kill the bougie green goblin.
LZ: To win, Gorr effectively had to get past three separate kinds of immortality: Zamasu could heal any wound of his with a single touch, had temporal immortality through the Time Ring, and true immortality as a result of his wish on the Super Dragon Balls. So, could he do it?
TWO: Let's take 'em on one at a time. Zamasu's touch-healing was broken; with an immortal supply of Divine Ki, so long as Gorr didn't kill him in one blow, he could just undo any wound he got. When Fused, he'd even get a Zenkai boost from it. The only ways to counter this would be to drain him of Ki, cut off his hands, or nullify his body's ability to heal. Gorr didn't have a consistent way of draining energy, and Zamasu's Ki barriers could protect against that, anyway. He could cut off his hands, and that'd work if he didn't also have true immortality. A second later, those hands are back and the ones on the ground have made two new Zamasus. Whoops. All that's left is nullifying healing.
LZ: It's possible that All-Black was capable of this very thing. After all, it could temporarily bypass the healing factors of certain gods, and Knull, channeling the same connection to death, could kill Sentry, who could come back from scattered molecules. However, Zamasu's healing works in a very different way to Sentry's, a different way to almost all of All-Black's victims, and beings with accelerated healing have healed from its wounds before, given enough time. Whether or not it could completely nullify his Ki Healing is up for debate.[6]
TWO: But let's assume it could. He'd still have to get past the other two. All-Black can cut through the Kai and could kill folks that were practically immortal. Could it bypass Zamasu's true immortality?
LZ: Very likely not. There's a big difference between being practically immortal and being actually immortal. No matter how many powers it can counter and how much healing it can stop, All-Black could harm Zamasu, but could not kill him through physical means alone. True immortality's healing doesn't work like regular Dragon Ball Healing Ki or healing factors. What is destroyed simply… exists again. Even having half of his body erased from existence didn't matter. Even if his body was completely disintegrated with nothing left to pop back from, Zamasu could still infest anything else he wanted, including the universe itself. So All-Black couldn't kill Zamasu unless it could destroy his soul.
TWO: So, could it? Well, it might surprise you given the ties to death and all that, but nope. It's actually a big part of the King in Black story that All-Black doesn't destroy souls.[7] Heck, even Sentry still had his soul, and was given the option to return to mortal life. At best, it can maybe absorb and trap them, but without Knull, it's a bit vague. But even if it could in Gorr's hands, it has to destroy the mortal shell to do it, and that leaves it open to possession. Sure, All-Black can blot out a universe, but Zamasu has become a universe before. It wouldn't be a big deal.
LZ: Even if it could destroy souls, it might not matter. Not only has Zamasu taken on incredible amounts of Divine Ki, which has the capacity to attack spiritually, but Beerus himself stated that he couldn't kill an immortal being.
TWO: And that guy can erase souls with a literal point of the finger![8]
LZ: And then there's the final one: the Time Ring's temporal immortality. Even if Zamasu's healing was nullified, his soul destroyed, and his true immortality overwritten, it wouldn't matter, because there's an infinite amount of temporal copies who will keep on fighting.
TWO: Unlike certain other comic book villains, Gorr didn't have a great understanding of or control over time. He couldn't reset timelines, consolidate time remnants, or stop time, and probably wouldn't think to do so even if he could. His only way out was by destroying that Time Ring, which is way easier said than done, especially if Zamasu is in Fused form. Yeah, good luck getting past that barrier now!
LZ: Gorr could perhaps destroy the Time Ring by overpowering Zamasu before he could fuse, but this is fairly unlikely. For starters, he would have no way of knowing that Zamasu's temporal immortality was tied to any physical object. Based on all the other gods he's fought, he would assume that it was just a power that he had, and Zamasu would take care to hide the truth from him. And if other Divine Ki users have difficulty tracking the Time Ring's energy, there's very little chance of Gorr doing so.
TWO: Even if he did figure it out, based on how he handles other situations like this craziness, plucking the Time Ring off and crushing it wouldn't be in the first hundred things he thinks to do. He'd be WAY more likely to chop off the hand or the fingers or just try to blast that part of Zamasu's body off. None of which would work and most of which would create another Zamasu. Whoops again.
LZ: And while becoming one with the universe via All-Black meant taking control of much of its fundamental forces, even requiring Old Thor to reset those forces in order to kill him, this wouldn't give Gorr the time manipulation he would need to bypass this specific immortality. Remember, the Marvel multiversal structure and time-travel isn't like Dragon Ball's. In Dragon Ball, entering a new timeline means it wraps through and around the entire multiverse+infinite void+everything else, creating new versions of all this. Time in Dragon Ball is almost like DC's Speed Force, as it exists both within and outside of all realities and augmenting it will create new infinite multiverses. But in Marvel, every singled-out universe is a timeline. Changing the past or traveling through time creates new universes, yes, but those universes are trapped within those choices. It's much more contained and narrow. So becoming one with a universe in Marvel doesn't give you control over time, and definitely not control over a timestream so much more potent than its own.
TWO: And even though it took destroying and remaking a giant universe to perma-kill Gorr after he became reality, beings who could also destroy universes of similar sizes (given their powerscalings) were helpless against Zamasu's reality takeover. Gorr was reset by turning off a universe, but Zamasu was reset by an omnipotent being turning off the infinite multiverse. Both were erasing a timeline, sure, but, as we talked about before, that's a way bigger deal in Dragon Ball. So Zamasu even had Gorr beat THERE.
LZ: Even with all three forms of immortality, Gorr did have one thing that could permanently kill Zamasu: the Godbomb. This bomb was capable of completely eliminating all immortal beings throughout time and space, very similar to what Zeno did to eradicate Zamasu. It might be through more… physical means, but if it is believed to be able to work on beings who are immortal even beyond the typical Marvel standard, it's likely to work even on Zamasu.
TWO: And, yeah, there are definitely versions of this fight where Gorr wins by turning on the Godbomb. But Death Battle looks at things statistically. Who wins more times out of a hundred, or a hundred thousand? And usually, Gorr doesn't pull out this move until it's too late. It's just not in his personality. And it takes forever to charge up, too, so even when he does activate it, more often than not, Zamasu kills him before it can go off, which, yeah, is a win.
LZ: Or he senses it with Divine Ki and uses his control over matter to shut it down. Or escapes into a different timestream. This bomb could affect beings in other Marvel timestreams, yes, but Dragon Ball's time- you know what, I believe in you, you get it by now.
TWO: And, yeah, there's also ALL the advantages he has even without the immortality thing. Don't forget those just because we talked about immortality for six hours.
LZ: Gorr was an incredible monster that might have terrorized the entire Marvel universe, but Zamasu just had him beat.
TWO: As far as he was concerned, he was just another mortal on the chopping block.
LZ: Up against a foe with a far larger range of abilities, superior speed, a higher tier of strength that could be reached, ever-growing power, broken regeneration, and multiple forms of immortality, Gorr finally met a god he couldn't butcher.
TWO: His chances of winning were Knull. RIP, buddy. I'll wear All-Black to the funeral. He was don-
The winner is… Zamasu.
…
Special Notes (For the Conclusion):
[1] While there are feats of Thor defeating Megaverse-level threats, these are almost all extreme situational outliers or grossly misinterpreted from those who did not actually read the comic, only the few panels provided. Additionally, neither a single Marvel universe nor Yggdrasil can be infinite in size; mortal humans have used technology to explore or scan both, and even cellular life has "infested" Yggdrasil before. It is a major point of event comics that change the future of the story that the universe has an edge and Yggdrasil has a limit.
We cannot take authorial/narrative statements by themselves without evidence; or else we would have quite literally hundreds of lore-destroying conflicts between the stories and narration, and everything in Marvel from normal humans to single-celled organisms would be infinite in speed and capable of outerversal feats, and every single "god" regardless of feats or strength, would be "omnipotent." Seriously, Marvel throws that word around like candy, and it has never meant anything. The same applies to Dragon Ball, although their examples are far fewer and less extreme; a few statements of "infinite power" here and there, and one about higher spatial dimensions, all of which actively contradict the story on display and are discounted. Remember, everyone, when it comes to determining power, the story always comes first. This is not an interpretation. This is a fundamental rule of writing.
[2] It's possible that All-Black would recognize Fused Zamasu's power to be significantly above that of Gorr's, in which case it would leave Gorr to be wielded by Zamasu, much as it did with Thor. It's also possible that, with his divine senses, mastery of Ki, and understanding of time, Zamasu would be able to detect the spiritual thread linking All-Black to the Headless Celestial, and destroy it much like Asgard's Valkyries did, thereby vastly reducing All-Black's power.
[3] While Zamasu's 5-minute estimation as compared to Whis' casual space travel may be a bit questionable, it is not far above the speeds Goku was capable of reaching in base form during the Buu Saga, his speed of arrival and departure was clearly quick enough to not be of note, and other Kais have moved to the other side of the universe they were in in "an instant." Additionally, the gods once played a game of hide and seek with all twelve universes as the available area, and this was considered acceptable. This level of speed should not be unreasonable. It should be noted that even if we had accepted Ares' single planck time feat and scaled that specific speed to Gorr, Fused Zamasu would still be faster.
[4] In battle against Zamasu, Vegito's power was directly stated by the East Supreme Kai to have surpassed Beerus'. Relatively little time passed between the Future Trunks Saga and Tournament of Power. In both versions of the story, Goku spent almost all this time relaxing, even commenting on how he was "getting out of shape." In the anime, Vegeta trained rarely whilst worrying about his pregnant wife, and in the manga, his training during this time only put him on the level of power Goku had during the Future Trunks Saga. There is little reason to believe Goku and Vegeta to be far stronger during and directly after the Tournament of Power than they were when they fought Fused Zamasu.
A single Fused Zamasu fought blow-for-blow with Vegito Blue, who is exactly equivalent to Gogeta, Goku and Vegeta's other fusion. Gogeta Blue was stronger than Broly, who has been officially stated to be more powerful than Beerus and Ultra Instinct, making Gogeta Blue, and therefore Fused Zamasu, more powerful than Jiren, Top, Belmod, and likely every other contestant in the Tournament of Power. This scaling is much more of a direct line than most, but at worst, can be taken as supporting evidence for the Kai's claims. It should also be noted that Jiren and Goku only began to move fast enough where Vegeta couldn't perceive them once Ultra Instinct was involved, whereas Fused Zamasu was able to use that level of speed casually.
Basically, just because a character in Dragon Ball is introduced later in the story does not by itself make it more powerful than a previous one. Fused Zamasu especially has mountains of evidence showcasing his ability to keep up with the higher echelons.
[5] In the anime, Zamasu and Goku Black's fusion mutated badly upon attempted regeneration, as half of his body was not immortal. This does not occur in the manga, and is inconsistent with other fusions both before and after this point, where the individual gains pure forms of all the abilities both previous beings possessed, including transformations, techniques, or biological functions that were unavailable to one user.
[6] When Sentry regenerated from Molecule Man, he had to transform into his alter ego, Void, to do so, as he is much more powerful than Sentry's base level. When Knull ripped apart Sentry, he also immediately absorbed Void into himself as he had other dark powers before. It's possible that this is how he got around Sentry's healing ability, rather than simply nullifying it in a way All-Black would be capable of.
[7] While Celestials are embodiments of concepts, killing them does not automatically grant All-Black conceptual erasure. The bodies of the Celestials were created when they grew too dangerous for mortals to comprehend, and function as a bridge that connects them to regular Marvel space-time. Almost any time you see a Celestial killed or destroyed in Marvel Comics, it is only their body that is lost. They still live in all other multiverses, and can eventually reform themselves. Even the Headless Celestial that All-Black draws its power from is still alive and can communicate with others.
[8] When focused, Hakai is stated to "erase beings from reality," including from time, and would affect every incarnation of the individual throughout the multiverse, including through alternate timelines. It is, in Beerus' own words, "as if they never existed." Beerus has erased Dr. Mashirito, a literal ghost who "crawled out of Hell," without even paying attention to him. He also threatened to destroy Freeza's soul so that he could "never be revived." Zamasu was stated in the anime to be immune to Hakai's reach because of the Time Ring's decoupling, while in the manga, Beerus claims that it would not work at all, and implies that this is due to his true immortality.
…
Next time, on Death Battle…
A bandaged hunter pulls out the guts of a lovecraftian monster, causing it to screech and fade to dust.
VS
A headless king dashes past an ancient vampire lord, slashing through his head for the final time as he falls.
(Bloodborne VS Dead Cells)
WAGH! Another one down! This one was a toughie, especially in terms of writing the battle. Gorr's powers have so much potential that just isn't seen in his comics, while Zamasu has an entire fighting game meta I had to work in and more powers than you could shake a Necrosword at. But the prevailing idea had to be their philosophies. These are almost the same character in very different situations, yet complete opposites at the same time. Nailing their dynamic was incredibly tough, and I'm still not sure I succeeded. Also, apparently I disagree with, like, 90% of everyone who talks about this match online. But they all either scale Gorr to Odin, which is silly, or clarify that they aren't using immortality, which is equally silly. Also, the Dragon Ball fnabase as a whole just super-underestimates Zamasu for some reason. The story clearly states how absolutely absurd he is; stronger than most of the other major villains even after him. But because he's from an earlier arc, apparently he's automatically considered weaker than Krillin in the Tournament of Power or whatever. I, at least right now, fully believe in my reasoning and conclusion.
And I have to give a huge shout-out to ThePLOThand. Seriously, this request was killer. It's as though these two characters were invented to be Death Battle opponents; they mirror each other in such amazing ways! Absolutely the best possible fight for either of them, and to be able to explore that WHILE fulfilling a fan request? Heck yes! Thanks for checking back in, by the way; be sure to let me know what you thought of the episode (and maybe if you didn't hate it you might even think about reading some future ones once in a blue moon). As always, any requests any of y'all have, I'm happy to hear! Review, comment, share, blah blah blah!
Next time is a doozy. I think it genuinely took the most research of any episode this season minus GL VS SS. Let's just say one takes place in a well-established, very complicated mythology with tons of writing that needed to be read, and the other is like studying a few dozen different characters at once. But it'll be really cool, I promise.
And once more, dear Guest, I'm sorry about rvbvsRvB. Maybe if I had someone to help write the battle sequences, I coulda done it. But as is, it just wasn't feasible. I hope you can find something else to like here. Or, heck, if you can't, just suggest an episode!
Mmkay, that's it! Will I see you before Christmas? Who knows, everyone's busy this time of year. I hope I will! Though not as much as I hope that Death Battle's Season 10 Finale is Light VS Columbo. Probably not. But I can dream.
See you soon.