The Three Legendary Saiyans
Chapter 66: Pride vs Might.
Observation Stands.
Piccolo glanced at the seat next to him as Gohan materialised in the seat by his side; wounded with tears and burns in his outfit but strong burns had been left in his exposed flesh while 17 sat behind Gohan; his own clothes riddled with burns and tears from the battle and burns seared at his own flesh.
"Please Gohan; let me heal you and 17" spoke Shin; rising up from his seat and dropping to his knees with the intention to heal his past comrade-in-arms, his hands already glowing with a white radiance.
"Sure Shin… do as you wish" Gohan answered back with a smile though his focus was on Vegeta now that he'd stepped forward to challenge Toppo; Gohan couldn't help but notice that Frieza was nowhere to be seen throughout the remains on the arena.
"I'll be fine… I just need to rest and reboot some systems" 17 stated; leaning back slightly but his expression was one of dissatisfaction with his inability to stop Toppo.
"You did amazingly Brother; I had no idea that we could do the stuff you did down there" 18 answered as she lifted her brother into a seat beside her; Krillin helping her with the effort, 18 had had no idea that they were able to change the output parameters on their Infinite Ki Generators causing her to wonder what she could do if she'd done the same while her Twin had formed a Defence that any other opponent would have failed to penetrate: even Perfect Cell would have struggled or would possibly have failed to break through those Barriers.
"I'm disappointed that my Omni-Barriers couldn't withstand the powers of a Destroyer God" 17 spoke with a hint of resentment in his voice; his confidence in his perfect defence had fallen so easily to powers that far exceeded his own.
"Though your defensive power is impressive 17, no shield can stand up to a Destroyer God's power but you did build an impressive attempt, any other opponent would have failed to bring that down" Whis chimed in whilst Beerus remained steadfastly calm and quiet as two more members of Team universe 7 had been eliminated leaving only four, leaving Jiren and Toppo still standing strong though time was no longer on their side.
Vegeta.
Grinning as his first punch struck Toppo directly in the gut before snakes of purple energy lashed at Vegeta's arm; tearing the reinforced fabric of his gloves and bodysuit sleeve and leaving cuts in his flesh before pulling away.
Toppo grinned from behind his moustache; having witnessed Gohan make the same mistake and recoil from the pain of mortal flesh daring to touch those gifted with the powers of a Destroyer God's Aura and now witnessed Vegeta fall into the same trap but flinched as a second punch struck him squarely in the face.
Vegeta took his turn to grin as he'd not recoiled from pain but pulled away to launch a second punch when Toppo's guard would be down; to his surprise the purple aura did not lash at his body when striking Toppo's face.
"Interesting…" Vegeta thought to himself; a chance for victory having presented itself with a single successful blow.
Taking a step backwards; Vegeta fired off a flurry of punches at such speeds that Toppo raised his hands to block despite his untouchable aura protecting his body, each punch striking Toppo's guard with a resonating echo that boomed in the air; Toppo eventually seizing Vegeta by the arm and lifting the Saiyan above his head before piledriving Vegeta into the ground only for Vegeta to fire a blast out his exposed palm and into the floor to repel himself from a destructive impact.
Grunting as Toppo's fingertips had seared visible pieces of Vegeta's flesh to a crisp from his tight grip; gritting his teeth as glittering blue flames continued to lick off the wounds and soothing the pain of the burns, glaring at his opponent with determination to not let these burns hinder his battle even though he still felt the pain from his burns.
"Do you not care that you are wiping out entire Universes? Toppo asked; his glowing red eyes spying the burns suffered by the backlash of his Destroyer Aura against his opponent as well as those suffered by his own touch.
"Is that sympathy I hear? Strange to be coming from a half-baked Destroyer God" Vegeta scoffed with a callous smirk; using his words to get under Toppo's skin and jab at his prideful rage.
"Villains… you are all the same in your indifference to the suffering of those under your boots" Toppo spoke with disgust; gathering from Vegeta's indifferent tone of voice that he had indeed formally been a villain but to Toppo's eyes there was no reform for evil-doers.
Vegeta's lips cured into a frown as he thought of the atrocities he'd committed while living under Frieza's thumb, having personally brought an end to countless civilisations and wiping planets out with a mere snap of his fingers; the mere thought of his old life of working under a galactic tyrant compared to his current lifestyle of training nonstop and having a small apartment to himself where he could eat, sleep, shower and watch as much TV as he wanted was a vast contract to him.
"Speak villain! Confess your sins for judgement" Toppo's voice boomed; the purple flames burning even more brightly as an Hakai Orb generated in his palm to strike down Vegeta when confessing his past sins of villainy.
"I hate having lower myself to this… but if I can't beat you into a pulp…. then I'll just blast you into oblivion" Vegeta spoke with a grumbling expression in the face of Toppo's demand for his confessions; his muscles burnt, bleeding and sore from fighting a self-destructive battle against a foe he could no longer strike.
"Are you seriously betting the fate of our battle on a single energy blast?" Toppo boomed upon realising Vegeta's strange stance; standing his legs and arms spread out; his palms open as Toppo sensed the flow of Vegeta's energies into his hands.
"What does it fucking look like I'm doing dumbass!" Vegeta aggressively barked; his glittering blue aura spiking as the flames grew fiercer as a orb of violet energy manifested in Vegeta's right palm while a matching orb of red energy manifested in his left palm, yellow lightning sparked off the two differing orbs of Mortal and Divine energies began a merging process.
Toppo's eyes widened in shock at the mere attempt of merging two vastly different energy sources as the act if it failed would surely kill Vegeta on the spot whereas if he succeeded then he'd likely surpass not only his own power but that of nearly any God of Destruction.
Flames of energy licked at Vegeta's body as he stood staring down Toppo; the remains of his armour crumbling away until nothing remained from the backlash of his own energies being poured into the orb of golden, blue and purple flames condensing down to a sphere between his hands.
"You risk everything on one attack? You are truly that reckless" Toppo spoke in his booming voice; his purple aura spreading and blanketing all else from Vegeta's field of vision.
"Maybe… but if this level of energy scares you then you are clearly not suited to be Universe 11's new Destroyer God" Vegeta countered; his pick at Toppo's own pride showing as the veins in Toppo's temples rippled in anger.
Toppo inhaled sharply so suddenly that his moustache rippled with his shimmering purple aura reverberating across his body; the audacity of Vegeta's comment striking him harder than his punches ever could while cloaked in Destroyer Energy.
As lighting forked off Vegeta's as the violet and red orbs of energy between his palms fused into a single flaming azure orb of perfectly controlled Mortal Ki and God Ki, the very floor beneath his feet trembled at the fusion of energies as yellow lightning forked off from Vegeta's body as his mouth opened to speak two words.
"FINAL FLASH!".
A burst of blinding light burst out from Vegeta's hands that encompassed an entire third of what was left of the arena; the surging wave of fused energies tearing at the very clouds as the furious technique ravaged at the arena and thus incinerating the Kachi Kachin floor within its blast radius.
His eyes widened as the blast wave neared him; throwing up his huge hands and casting his Destroyer Energy to construct a similar barrier to that of Android 17's, The Final Flash colliding with Toppo's Destroyer Barrier and easily tearing through with the fusion of Divine and Mortal Ki leading Toppo to be blasted off his feet in shock that his own barrier had been torn down so easily when he'd had to use so much energy to tear down 17's Rampart.
As the beam quieted and the quaking stopped Vegeta stood alone against the crumbling floor beneath his feet with Toppo nowhere to be seen following his attempted defence, the arms of Vegeta's bodysuit and gloves completely burnt away leaving burns and bleeding cuts across his muscles; his energy entirely burnt as he dropped to his knees as the floor gave away leading Vegeta to fall into elimination for exhaustion of his energy and backlash of his own technique.
Zeno.
"That was amazing! That light was marvellous" Zeno chimed up after having been sat in silence for a long period of time; his voice high with amazement.
"yes it was; I want to see more that light" Twin Zeno spoke in the same high tone of voice.
The Grand Priest stood in awe of the destructive blast; his white-iris eyes gazing down as not only one gifted with the powers of a Destroyer God: Toppo had been eliminated by the fierce blast but its user: Vegeta had fallen into unconsciousness as a result of spending every drop of his energy and stamina in just using a single technique, standing high above what little remained of the once gigantic arena with a look of awe as the final battle was taking place under his very feet.
Observation Stands.
"It was reckless to use so much energy in a single technique… you are extremely lucky that The Final Flash defeated Toppo" Piccolo spoke; his disapproving glare aimed at Vegeta as his recklessness had successfully defeated Toppo; a foe that even Ultimate Gohan had failed to defeat, but had also cost their team a valuable asset in the fight to defeat Jiren.
Vegeta merely scoffed at Piccolo's remark as he crossed his arms and glared down into the arena's remains; only flashes of crimson fire flared against the green-tinted clouds, the signs of battle as Goku and Raijin still fought but no sign of Frieza could be seen leaving Vegeta to wonder where that vile man was hiding.
"Vegeta… he's strong enough to defeat a God of Destruction Candidate now; I'll have to keep an eye on that one" Beerus muttered to himself as his large yellow cat-eyes spied Vegeta out from the corners of his field of vision; his mind wondering what new powers might awaken from his victory over Toppo.
"I might be retired from The Tournament now… but one enemy still remains to be defeated" Vegeta spoke; lifting himself from the floor and into a seat; his eyes narrowing as raging crimson flames engulfed the arena leaving only the sound of the floor burning and screams of pain.
Toppo sat in the stands; his Destroyer Energy having disappeared and sat with Vewon, Kettle and Tupper patting his back in comfort after his defeat, he gazed out as crimson flames burnt the arena and the figures of the remaining Saiyans desperately dodged the lashing tongues of fire only to hear Belmod's voice break him back to the present debate.
"You seriously believe that those two Saiyans can defeat Jiren now that he's using 80% of his strength?" Belmod spoke so loudly that all of The Angels turned to stare at him just as Beerus did; his tone one of confidence in the one remaining team member he had who was still standing.
"I am the most serious I have ever been! Kakarot had shown repeatedly that he had utilise the power all you so-called Gods fear!" Vegeta spoke; glaring over towards Belmod and his Supreme Kai as Shin's glowing hands healed his wounds.
"Are you saying that Son Goku will master Ultra Instinct? Impossible! There are less than three minutes remaining" The Supreme Kai of Universe 11 spoke; edging his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose with a butt of his palm as he spoke in a condescending tone.
"Yes he will master that power! And I dare say that a miracle may bequeath that power to the beast-like Raijin someday too… The Saiyans of Universes Six and Seven have repeatedly broken through their limits and reached new levels of strength over the course of these battles of survival, this is the proud nature of a Warrior Race such as ourselves!" Vegeta spoke proudly as he proclaimed and sung the praises of his allies and rivals from Universe 6; his bare arms crossed as he stood up and stared out across the arena only to be joined by his comrades, Shin, Elder Kai, Kibito, Krillin, Piccolo, Gohan, Roshi, Androids 17 and 18 all standing by Vegeta's side, leaving only Whis and Beerus sat in their seats only to also rise to their feet.
"I will believe what you say when I see it Saiyan…" Belmod answered back; turning his gaze to the arena whilst the members of Team Universe 11 sat and pondered what Vegeta had said regarding the unknowable possibilities for the final few minutes in this Tournament.
Next Chapter: A Critical Mistake.