Chapter Hundred-four
Twilight of the Gods! Tales of the Kaioushin!
It began so long ago that there is not a single mortal being whose dimmest ancestors could recall its happening. So long ago that there are planets that were born and grew life after it had long since passed. It was the end of balance and prosperity. The end of the gentle age of peace. It was the beginning of chaos and darkness. It was the death of the gods.
It began inauspiciously enough, on a planet long-since destroyed. It was a dead world of dust and ruin where the only things that lived were bitter memories and the wails of the damned on the wind. Sitting alone in his derelict and despondent fortress was the vengeful wizard Bibidi. A sickly green little bug-eyed warlock clad in blue with an orange cloak about his diminutive shoulders, he was the planet's sole inhabitant, having sacrificed the life-energy of all those who had lived on it to power the spell he was crafting. He muttered tongues long-forgotten even by the Attendant of the Hakaishin over a pit of blackness where a malevolent pink ooze bubbled and writhed dimly at the bottom.
There was a burst of light as though a star came into existence that shone through the darkness of Bibidi's miserable and decrepit dwelling as four luminous beings suddenly appeared before him. They all had small, spherical earrings dangling from their pointed ears and skin that was colored a deep amethyst.
There was mighty Nan, tall and proud, with his strong iron jaw and spikes of orange hair, clad in green and black with an orange sash about his waist and orange boots. In one of his mighty fists, he held a chu of pure katchin, the spiked end of which was larger than Bibidi's entire body. Beside him stood wise and venerable Bei, with blue hair and a thick mustache, clad in turquoise and blue. He was shorter and stouter than Nan but he had great knowledge and experience that was second only to mighty Shengda in their ranks. He was armed with two hooked shuang gou that shone like slivers of starlight in his hands. Beside him stood the beautiful and headstrong Xī, dressed in pink and red and armed with her twin tonfas, one that glowed like a new star and one that was as dark blue as a frozen planetoid. Her spiked lavender hair spilled down her shoulders and back, nearly touching her legs. Lastly, there was Dong, the smallest and youngest of the four. His ivory white hair stood in stiff peaks and his outfit of periwinkle and blue was clearly meant to mimic that of Bei, whom he most admired. As he had not come into his weapon yet, he simply held up his fists, which glowed brightly with Qi energy, while trying his best to look fierce and godlike. They all stood together, strong and proud, assured in their victory before the conflict had even begun. For they were the righteous. They were the just. They were goodness personified. How could they not triumph?
Bibidi recoiled at the sight of them, their light the antithesis and antipode of his darkness. He hissed aloud as his face coiled in disgust and bile while he shrunk back closer to the pit where he had been working his enchantments.
"Surrender, Bibidi," Bei began civilly as he pointed his swords at the sorcerer's head. "Your atrocities upon this universe are beyond the counting of even we immortals. End this now and we will end your life painlessly."
"Demons!" Bibidi spat, his vile spray flecking between his teeth. "I shall not be stopped until the universe has been freed of your arrogant, insidious, slovenly kind! I will not rest until all the gods are dead!"
"Silence, blasphemer!" Dong snapped hotly. Bei held one of his blades out in front of the young god to steady him and the godling collected himself. "Whatever crimes you believe the gods have wrought, you have killed countless innocents in your endeavors to destroy us. It ends today!"
"Never!" Bibidi shrieked vehemently, shaking his diminutive fists, his eyes wide and
bloodshot.
"However you plan to oppose us," Nan interjected, "I hope it's at least a worthy battle. I haven't had a proper fight since that Hirudegarn beast. So what is it this time, Bibidi?" Nan asked. "Did you strike a deal with the King of the Demon Realm? Mechikabura, was it?"
"The time for talking is over," Xī insisted as she twirled her tonfas. "This creature obviously feels no remorse for the senseless slaughter he has caused and he has long since used up my share of mercy. I say we finish this now!" She threw herself at Bibidi in a flying leap and brought her weapons crashing down, only to be knocked back by the energies coming from the pit. Bibidi threw back his head in mad laughter as she crashed painfully into the wall and the malevolent pink light from the pit grew brighter and brighter.
"There is no point in trying to stop it! The ritual has begun and it cannot be undone. I have sacrificed the energy of all on this planet, ten thousand kilis, to draw him here!" Bibidi cackled while the four gods watched in astonishment and confusion as a roiling, seething column of pink sludge oozed forth from the pit. It quivered and seized and made a horrible sound, as though it were screaming with the suffering voices of countless billions. Tendrils rose up from its formless, abominable mass and it began to take shape. Bei's eyes flickered with faint realization as he recalled events he had witnessed as a boy when he, Shengda, and Dong's predecessor had been but godlings themselves. The other three young gods steeled themselves for whatever battle was to come as the tumorous pink mass finally solidified and concentrated itself down into a humanoid shape.
The god-killer was… a small thing. It was diminutive, even shorter than Dong, with red eyes inside of black sockets, under a protruding pink brow. Tiny holes ran up its arms, across its chest, and along either side of the strange, swept-back horn atop its head. It only had one finger and thumb on each of its strange little hands, each of which had a black nail. It had black, gold-trimmed bands on its forearms, black boots, and baggy white pants with a black belt and Bibidi's Majin seal across the large golden buckle of its belt.
"I know this creature…" Bei murmured as the little monster looked at them as if studying its prey. Bibidi laughed again as the creature balled its fists.
"That's right," Bibidi declared with malevolent glee. "The mighty Boo is now under my control! My Majin Boo!" He laughed again as Bei's eyes widened with horror.
"We have to leave," he told the other three. "Now!" But Nan was already moving to attack, his pride having been challenged. The slightest shift in his body language was enough for Majin Boo to go on the attack and he let out a hellish scream before throwing himself at Nan with terrifying speed. The pair crashed through the roof of the castle, which began to crumble around the other four. Bei, Dong, and Xī escaped the castle's collapse with their Instantaneous Movement and appeared outside the ruins, watching Nan and Boo battle in the black sky above.
"I don't understand," Dong asked in confusion. "What is Majin Boo?"
"The great destroyer," Bei explained breathlessly as the clash of god and demon overhead shook the heavens like thunder. "He is an engine of destruction, without will or thought. He lives only to destroy and to consume all that lives. His hunger is unending. He will not stop until everything is dead!"
"What do we do?" Dong asked as Xī kept her eyes turned skyward impatiently.
"I-I am not sure," Bei admitted reluctantly. "It took five Kaioushin to conduct the sealing spell. Now only Shengda and I remain who can recall the ritual. Damn that Beerus," he added under his breath.
"Forget sealing anything," Xī told her elder hotly as she readied herself to fly up and join Nan. "Bibidi will just try and summon it again! I say we destroy this beast and then we slay its master like the cur that he is!"
"Boo cannot be destroyed!" Bei bellowed as Nan and Boo dropped out of the sky with a tremendous crash that nearly knocked the three divinities off of their feet. Nan emerged from the crater with one hand holding the back of Boo's head and the other fist clenching his mace.
"Ha!" Nan boomed despite his injuries. "So this is the great beast that had you so worried, Bei?" he asked while holding the dazed Boo high overhead. "He was no great challenge." Nan was scraped and scratched, with his clothes somewhat torn, but he otherwise looked unharmed. He swung his chu with enough force to crack a planet in half… straight into Boo's outstretched hand. Steam burst from the holes across Boo's body in a blood-chilling whistle and Boo's lips curled in rage as it showed its fangs. The unbreakable, indestructible katchin buckled and crumpled in its grip as it ripped the chu from Nan's hand and slid out of Nan's hand like running water. It held the chu in both hands and swung for all it was worth, cracking Nan across the jaw and sending him hurtling over the horizon before sending the weapon flying off into the vacuum of space in disdain. Boo flew off after him and Xī went to follow.
"No!" Bei told her as he grabbed her ankle, stopping her in mid-flight. "We cannot engage Boo!"
"Well, we can't just leave Nan here!" Xī shot back. "That thing could kill him!"
"If we stay here, it will kill us all!"
"If we go to Nan and retrieve him," Dong offered, "Then we will be able to take him back home, where Boo will not be able to sense us and Shengda can treat Nan's injuries. Then Shengda, in his infinite wisdom, will be able to come up with a plan so that we can stop this monster."
Bei nodded his approval. "That is an acceptable plan," he told his pupil. "Now come! Nan needs us!" They teleported toward him in an instant, to see Nan and Boo still locked in their deadly battle. Although Boo's power and ferocity seemed to have grown tremendously since he had been awoken, Nan still appeared to hold the advantage. "Nan!" Bei called over the roar of battle. "Come with us! We must escape from this place!"
"Flee?!" Nan asked incredulously as he took his eye off of the battle. "Who do you think you're talking to?!"
"Nan, look out!" Xī cried out in horror as she pointed over Nan's shoulder. Nan looked back toward Boo, who had expanded his size into a tidal wave of pink sludge and crashed over Nan. As the mighty god kicked and screamed and tried to swim above the mire, the trio thought that Boo was trying to suffocate him. To their horror, they discovered that the truth was far more terrible. After a handful of heartbeats, Nan stopped struggling and the pink mass returned to a solid form. Only now, Buu was far larger, a mountainous, monstrous mass of muscle and hatred. Veins spread all over his body and his teeth were clenched hard, his face screwed up in an expression of constant, mind-shattering fury.
"Run!" Bei whispered as Boo opened his mouth impossibly wide. Instead of a shriek, he let out a titanic roar as the planet shook and split in half under his feet. The trio teleported out of existence and reappeared on the Sacred World of the Kais.
"Wh-what happened?!" Xī gasped as she panted and struggled to catch her breath, her entire body trembling like a leaf. "What did that… that thing do to Nan?!"
"It doesn't matter!" Bei told her as he drew his weapons again. "You two must go to Shengda! He will know how to contact the Hakaishin. If he's awake, he'll be able to put an end to this madness!"
"If he's awake?!" Dong exclaimed in exasperated horror. Before Bei had a chance to reprimand his charge, Majin Boo appeared before them. Somehow he had not only absorbed Nan's physical power but his Kaioushin powers as well.
"Go!" Bei roared at them before turning his attention back to Boo. The pair flew off, neither having the energy yet to use Instantaneous Movement again as Bei charged toward his death.
"He's dead…" Xī muttered forlornly as they flew as fast as they could toward the mountaintop Shengda spent most of his time on. "There's no way he can fight that thing! Nan was the mightiest of us below Shengda, how can he possibly stand against Majin Boo? We should have stood together!"
"We must respect Bei's orders," Dong told her, the steadiness in his voice belying his own all-encompassing terror. "Our strength would not have been enough to overwhelm Boo. We all would have fallen. This is the only course of action."
"But what if Boo absorbs Shen-gaaah!" Xī retorted before her words were contorted into a scream of pain as something bit into her shoulder. She came to a sudden stop and clutched at her arm as milky white, iridescent blood seeped through her fingers. Dong was forced to stop beside her and they saw one of Bei's shuang gao buried in the dirt before looking back to see Majin Boo barreling towards them, the other sword clenched in his massive fist until it shattered into stardust. Xī barely had a chance to realize that Boo was coming directly at her before Dong shoved her aside.
"Go!" he cried at her in the half-second before Boo crashed into him. She turned and flew as fast as she could, clutching her hands over her ears to try and drown out the sounds of Dong's desperate struggle and final, dying screams. She could see the mountaintop over the horizon and doubled her speed, flying so fast that her hair began to burn. She was nearly there. This awful nightmare could end and then–
Boo came crashing down on top of her, driving one massive fist into her back. She hit the ground hard and for several seconds she couldn't feel her legs. She crawled through the dirt, spiking her tonfas into the ground to pull herself further along, each stab burning or freezing the ground that they touched. Buu stalked toward her slowly now, apparently having consumed enough sentient life to have developed the capacity for cruelty. Xī managed to drag herself to her feet and brought her tonfas up to try and make a last, desperate stand, hoping that if nothing else, the feeling of their deaths would bring Shengda to strike this monster down. Majin Boo let out a snarl and reached his tendrils out to consume her as Xī grit her teeth and looked at him defiantly.
Then a deafening boom filled the air and a blinding light even greater than that which had been created by the four gods appearing in Bibid's lair split open the sky. Shengda the Highest floated down out of the light, his purple cape billowing behind him. He was pink, unlike the other gods, and was very large and round. Yet, despite his almost comical appearance and his great love of food, there was an incredible nobility and powered that seemed to radiate from him the way heat and light came from a life-giving star. Majin Boo turned his attention toward Shengda and reached out for him with his tendrils, rushing toward him like a mighty wave. To her horror, Xī realized that Shengda was not raising his hands to defend himself at all. What was he doing?!
"No!" Xī screamed as she flew at Boo. She tried to bat the tendrils away with her tonfas, bringing them down on the main mass with all her strength. Her tonfas exploded on the impact and sent her flying, leaving one arm badly burned and the other so frostbitten that it might as well have been burnt. She tumbled through the grass and looked up in time to see the pink wave come crashing down over Shengda. She let out a wordless scream of heartbreak and agony because this was the end of everything. If this monster had grown so powerful from absorbing Nan, how much more nightmarishly invincible would he become from consuming the greatest god of all?
Yet to Xī's surprise and amazement, she could actually feel Boo growing weaker as his mass roiled and shook, taking form once more.
"Boooo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" The god-killing abomination squealed in laughter in a far higher, almost childlike voice. Xī's mouth hung open in sheer disbelief at the sight of him. He was much shorter now, and rounder, with a wide, closed-eyed smile as his neutral expression. He had the same purple cape and the same black vest, his white pants now puffed out in the same way and his black boots had turned yellow and even had the same style. Except for the lack of ears, hair, or a nose; the similarities between Majin Boo and Shengda were haunting.
"Majin Boo!" Bibidi declared as he suddenly appeared in a swirl of darkness and shadow. "What is the meaning of this?!" Majin Boo looked at him and Xī prayed for a moment that he would retain enough of Shengda's purity to strike the wicked sorcerer down.
"Boo want cake!" Majin Boo declared while thrusting his fists into the air. "Boo want ice cream! Boo want candy!" If it were under any other circumstances it would have been comical but Xī still wanted to scream in agony.
"V-very well, Majin Boo," Bibidi stammered as he tried to get a handle on the situation. "If you destroy planets for me, I'll get you some sweets." A silence followed and Xi could not recall if it lasted seconds or centuries before Boo finally responded.
"Okay!" he declared cheerfully. Then he and Bibidi were gone.
Even as diminished as Boo's powers were with Shengda's calming influence restraining him, Xī could not face the monster in single combat. She could only follow after him and his master, tracking them by the trail of destruction they wrought and trying to bring whatever aid she could to those who survived. Finally, though, she had her moment to strike. After bringing Boo into a lull with cakes and other treats, Bibidi cast the spell to seal Majin Boo inside his egg, a brown, veined spherical shell that would make him easier to transport to the next planet since he was easily distracted. That was when Xī struck. She fired a blast of Qi to send Bibidi flying away before she turned her focus to the egg.
"Yunshu!" she cried, waving her arms through the air in an intricate glowing pattern. The egg glowed with a bright white light before Xī thrust out her arms and it vanished from sight.
"Noooo!" Bibidi cried in horror as he watched the egg disappear. "What have you done?!" He demanded. "Where have you sent my Majin Boo?!"
"I don't know," Xī admitted. She hadn't had enough time to fine-tune the spell enough to send Boo to a specific location. "I only know this: you will never, ever find him."
"Foolish god," Bibidi scoffed as he narrowed his eyes with loathing. "I will never stop searching! If it takes me until the end of time, I will find him!" Xī's lips twisted up into a cruel smirk as she raised one hand into the air.
"Not what I meant," Xī told him as Bei's remaining shuang gao materialized in her hand. With a cry of hatred, she brought the sword down as hard as she could on Bibidi's head. Left in the stillness and the quiet, it finally came crashing down on Xī how lonely she now was. She was alone in the universe. The last of the Kaioushin.
OoOoOoO
The next several millennia were filled with near-endless work for Xī as she struggled to grow into her new roles and responsibilities. She now had to do the work of five Kaioushin despite still only having the power of one. She was now master of the mechanism of reality and keeper of the balance between chaos and order. However, because of how much extra responsibility she had to undertake now that she was the sole creator god, she could not use the gentle hand she was meant to. She no longer had the time to focus on a select handful of races, crafting them, nurturing them, and guiding them. She could only plant the seed of life on the planets she chose for them and hope for the best.
Still, as the eons wore on and once her attendant Kibito came into existence, she managed to figure out how to make the universe more or less run by itself with a few well-placed spells that only needed to be maintained and recast once every few hundred thousand years. This finally gave Xī some amount of breathing room and allowed her to properly assume the Kaioushin's second function: to be protector as well as creator.
OoOoOoO
The green-skinned, red-headed space pirate bellowed with rage as he charged toward Xī. She had already defeated his crew rather easily and now he was the only one left. Xī looked at his red hair with a frown and rolled her eyes.
"Dead three million years, Nan," she muttered to herself, "And I'm still cleaning up your messes." Bojack was nearly on top of her before Xī thrust out her arm, driving her fist through his chest.
OoOoOoO
"So today," Xī said into her floating crystal ball in a soft voice as she fluttered her fingers, "We're just going to take it easy and relax. I know some of you out there could probably use this. I'm looking at you, Zamasu. I've seen what kind of videos you make." She'd made a GodTube account in the last few centuries and specialized in videos for calming, relaxation, and sleep. It was nice to know that she was helping out the other Kaious of the multiverse in some small way. "Now let's start with some deep brea–" she began before Kibito rather loudly interrupted her.
"My Kaioushin!" he cried out as he ran to her. "Something in the Otherworld requires your immediate attention!"
"It had better be pretty damn important," Xī muttered, "If you're going to interrupt my stream!"
"Does the dead beginning to walk again count as damn important?" Kibito asked. Xī blinked and thought for a moment, deciding it did.
"Kibito," she ordered him, "Entertain the people! I'll be right back." Then she was gone in a blink of Instantaneous Movement. Kibito looked at the ball with a bemused expression before producing a book from his back pocket. Perhaps they would like to hear a bit from his manuscript…
OoOoOoO
Pikkon smirked to himself as a blow from the monster's red blade sent him hurtling back. Judging by the form it had taken earlier, the monster called itself Janemba. It had been much bigger then and much sillier. Now as it snarled at him in its lithe and malicious purple and red form, it pointed its red sword at Pikkon and snarled hatefully.
"All right!" Pikkon said to himself as he tossed his cape and hat aside. "Now we're getting somewhere!" He got down into a crouch and prepared to throw himself into the fray… only for a purple woman in pink and red to stand between himself and his enemy. "Hey!" he snapped at her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"You don't know who I am," she told him coolly as she looked over her shoulder at him. "So I'll let that one slide." Then she turned back to Janemba and caught his sword between two fingertips, her other hand facing toward him with her thumb tucked into her palm. "Jouka," she whispered in a voice that was simultaneously gentle yet carried a booming echo that seemed to fill all of creation. Janemba's body went rigid and he screamed with agony as a bright white light tore him apart from the inside out, dissolving him into stardust and leaving a very confused ogre in his place. "So you're the one who caused all this trouble, huh?" she asked him with a smile. The young ogre began to stammer out an apology and she chuckled while ruffling his hair. "You're gonna work for me now, okay?"
"D-doing what?" he asked. She shrugged.
"I'll think of something." Then they were gone and Pikkon was left very confused.
"What the hell was that?!" he demanded.
OoOoOoO
"O ye who believe," Kibito was reading when Xī returned with an extra party member. "Take your precautions, then advance–"
"Kibito!" Xī called. "I'm taking my stream back! I need you to find the new kid a job!" Kibito rolled his eyes and sat up with a groan, putting his book away again. Why is it that she was millions of years his senior and yet he was the adult?
OoOoOoO
The Kaioushin sat in calm meditation, as she had for nearly two hundred years. She had heard the whisperings and seen the signs. Somehow, Bibidi had returned. Well, not Bibidi exactly but a form of him. A clone called Babidi. He had been born almost the minute Bibidi had died, no doubt through some final act of black sorcery, and had spent these last eons regaining his power and forging alliances in search of his father's beast. Now it was up to Xī to find him before he did. So she had meditated in total silence and solemnity, expanding her consciousness to comb through all of the planets in existence. In this expansion, she saw chaos, pain, and strife that broke her heart. If there were more Kaioushin, she would have had the time to right these wrongs herself but she was all alone now and the location of Majin Boo was paramount. If Babidi found him before she did, all would be lost. Finally, in a starburst of clarity, she found the trace remnants of her teleportation spell and the irremovable filth of Bibidi's own dark energies.
"I've found it," she whispered to herself. She had sent Boo's egg to a primitive young planet called Earth. Now that the hunt was on, she had to forge her own alliances to stand against whatever forces Babidi was assembling. She stretched out the ethereal fingers of her mind to touch the planet's mightiest warrior. "Son Gohan…" she whispered.