The Three Legendary Saiyans.
Chapter 86: Pursuing The Demon
With Raijin and Cress fading into the distance; Future-Trunks with Future-Mai in his arms flew off in the pursuit of their own target: the time-manipulating demon Demigra, the sight of the fortress that had once been Capsule Corp under them causing Future-Trunks to grimace but feel an energy that felt like his father's inside of the fortress when he'd been led to believe that Vegeta of this Timeline was dead.
"What's wrong? You only get that look in your eye when someone you know closely is nearby" Future-Mai spoke; knowing that Raijin and Cress were fighting and judging by the sounds of battle in the distance it wasn't going well.
"I'm just worried about Raijin; sensing his energy when its clashing with that of Cress' is difficult to discern whose is whose" Future-Trunks spoke carefully; though he could sense the clashing of energies back in the city it was too unclear to tell who was winning when Raijin's and Cress' signatures were so alike.
"It's Raijin; he'll be fine on his own, and we need to focus on Demigra" Future-Mai stated; displaying her belief that Raijin can win a battle with the evil version of himself, encouraging Future-Trunks to trust in their friend just as a white flash lit up the night skies.
"Wait… isn't that!" Future-Mai stammered as she spotted Demigra standing with his free hand raised to a void-like portal began to open in the sky with a hexagonal silver webbing surrounding the void.
Up ahead from their position; a large Time Gate began to materialise into a shining white void: the realm between worlds where time and space was infinite but no living soul could exist within that space for any long period of time due to the infinitely dangerous conditions of such a realm.
"A Time Gate?! And to The Realm Between Worlds?!" Future-Trunks yelled with shock and appalment, lowering his flightpath to drop Future-Mai to the torn-up and damaged tarmac roads before drawing his blade and rushing Demigra before he could pass through The Time Gate.
With his sword raised over his head and clasped with both hands; Future-Trunks brought his weapon down on top of Demigra's smiling head only to slice through the Demon but his body vanishing into a red mist, Future-Trunks staring with shock as the mist reformed into Demigra himself but appearing completely unharmed.
"Now do you see why you Time Patrol idiots cannot arrest me? I'm impossible to catch!" Demigra gloated as his body reformed; only his Staff remaining solid while his body had melted into mist and reformed, his tone cool and calm as she spoke down to his pursuers.
Before Future-Trunks could retort; a shot of gunfire rang in the air as Demigra gasped as a bullet entered and exited his flesh as crimson blood spilled from the gunshot wound, The Demon dropping to the ground and dropping his Staff as he glanced around and spotted Future-Mai brandishing a Rifle when she'd previously held a Shotgun.
"How?!" Demigra questioned; expressing fury that he'd been shot by a weapon that the woman had clearly not been wielding a moment ago, his eyes flashing blood red when he saw Future-Mai's reveal, screaming in pain a second time as Future-Trunks capitalised on the distracting and slashed across the demon's chest with his drawn Sword.
"Modular Weaponry!" Future-Mai exclaimed; a sudden gust of wind blowing the tails of her coat opening to reveal numerous gun attachments attached to her coat and legs allowing her to alter her weapon to any form a firearm she needed.
Even Future-Trunks grinned as Future-Mai's weaponry not only surprised their target but also affected him; both feeling surprised when Demigra began to laugh as the bullet entry and exit wounds shrank and vanished along with the sword slash he'd endured.
"You do not yet understand my powers; see for yourself why not will never defeat me with Gun nor Sword" Demigra announced with bravado; his wounds from gun and sword vanishing as if they injuries had never been inflicted.
"Is that not just Regeneration?" Future-Mai shouted; raising her gun and firing another shot though Demigra twisted his Staff and deflecting the bullet with the floating orb atop his weapon.
"No; it is not…. The Space Between Dimensions is a treacherous space where mortals cannot live for long but those who do traverse it gain powers unlike those of any Mortal or God" Demigra spoke while bragging of his near-invincibility, using his newly regenerated hand to gesture to the white void projected by his personal Time Gate when speaking on The Space Between Dimensions.
"That place is forbidden by law written by Chronoa herself" Future-Mai shouted as Future-Trunks briefly hesitated; the man himself wondering if it was possible to kill Demigra when they both knew that Chronoa had forbidden entry to That Space.
"And that proves how fearful The Supreme Kai of Time is of those who have walked the path of that void" Demigra laughed as he bragged on his powers of regeneration; ignoring the fact that Future-Trunks lowered his weapon to focus his energy into the blade so he might win via decapitation.
With a single step; Future-Trunks leapt at Demigra with his Sword primed for a decapitating slice, Future-Mai quickly modifying her Rifle to a Shotgun while Demigra grinned at the pincer attack; shifting his Staff to block the sword slash while as Future-Mai pulled on the trigger of her own weapon, Demigra instantly shifted into mist again and reformed behind Future-Mai but with his right hand grabbing her by the nape of her neck as soon as he'd reformed but flinched as a secondary pistol fired from under Future-Mai's coat with the bullet going through his left leg.
"That's enough out of you woman" Demigra growled after being shot at for a third time; tightening his grip on his right hand and grabbing Future-Mai by the nape of her neck, Future-Mai opening her mouth to scream but no sound came as she simply froze on the spot while her guns dropped from her frozen hands.
"What did you do to her?!" Future-Trunks bellowed at the top of his lungs; his hands gripping his Sword so tightly that his palms bled while Future-Mai stood motionless to the point that she remained in her exact posture even as Demigra pushed her to the hard ground.
"Merely froze her in Time with my Time Shackles, she won't be bothering us anymore" Demigra scoffed with a gleeful smile; having frozen the woman in her tracks and priming another Time Shackle for the man too.
With an instinctive reaction; Future-Trunks leapt backwards avoiding The Time Shackle and swiped his Sword only for Demigra to block the attack with his Staff, The Demon grinning widely at Future-Trunks with amusement; blasting the young man backwards with a wall of demon energy as Future-Trunks cast off his coat so to move more freely and quickly.
"A weighted coat? You mortals do such confused things" Demigra grunted as he looked back to the city, Future-Trunks also glanced back towards the city as he sensed that Raijin's energy was overtaking Cress' and that was a fact that brought a smile to his lips.
"It seems your agent in this Timeline isn't doing so hot against my friend" Future-Trunks remarked with pleasure as he sensed Raijin's energy overpowering Cress', a new determination growing within to defeat Demigra, leaping away again as a magic-based beam shot out from the orb atop Demigra's Staff; the beam leaving a deep scorch mark in the road and melting the metal on derelict cars that the beam tore through.
"Appears so… I'll have to choose someone better in the next Timeline" Demigra responded that surprised Future-Trunks while his Time Gate remained in the skies above waiting for a traveller to step through, with Demigra halting his beam and looking very disappointed until a golden flash lit up the city's skyline and Cress' energy signature suddenly spiked.
Even Future-Trunks felt shocked as he sensed the unmistakable energy of a Super Saiyan paired with Cress and Raijin both, but resolving in himself to win his own battle so he might aid his friend, bringing his Sword up just as the orb from atop Demigra's Staff flung out on its own and struck the flat side of Future-Trunks' Sword with a resounding ring.
Cursing his inability to sense magic-based attacks; Future-Trunks cloaked the flightpath of the orb with the flat side of his Sword at each opportunity, with each block leading Future-Trunks to take a step towards Demigra with each strike of the floating orb.
Grimacing against the guard Future-Trunks employed against a magic-based attack; his orb returning to its original position at the head of his Staff as Future-Trunks kept his guard up, a gust of wind lifting the scarlet tails of Demigra's robes as the veins in his neck pulsed before vanishing as his teeth contorted into sharp fangs for a brief moment.
Even Future-Trunks took notice of the more primal-looking display; the more animalistic features he'd seen in a rabid beast rather that a being bearing beastly powers like Demigra or Raijin, his train of thought coming to a halt as Demigra rose into the air.
While rising into the air; with a swish of his Staff as Demigra summoned a series of perfectly-formed Arrows out of his own energy and magic, the arrows raining down on Future-Trunks with the Time Patrol Officer leaping from car to car with his Sword raised as a shield to protect his head and neck from arrows.
Separate from the rain of arrows; Future-Mai stared out from her frozen eyes but her sight still seeing as Future-Trunks utilising his main weapon as a shield, Demigra grinning as his spinning Staff generated more and more arrows as some of his arrows past the guard and struck Future-Trunks in the legs causing the Officer to stumble but keep his head and neck protected with his Energy-charged Sword.
Seizing the moment and rushing down to install a Time Shackle to Future-Trunks as the skill required direct contact but as Demigra reached down to Future-Trunks a flash of energy and steel flew in Demigra's vision as his right hand was separated from his body and The Time Shackle negated before it could be locked onto a target.
"Argh" Demigra grunted as his right hand fell to the ground and Future-Trunks stood with his Energy-charged Sword in-hand with his blue hair standing on end before flashing a brilliant gold thus completing his transformation, Demigra grimacing as his hand failed to reattach itself as Future-Trunks' Sword had been cloaked with energy at the time of slicing through his flesh.
"Don't think you can end this confrontation that easily!" Future-Trunks remarked with a grin, with Demigra grimacing for the severing of his right hand before a gunshot rang out in the air and Demigra stumbling over after being shot again even though he'd instantly heal.
"I guess with your right hand severed; your Time Shackle is also negated!" Future-Mai stood with her Modular Rifle raised and cocked for repeated shots, taking aim for another shot as Demigra leapt away from the ruined roads they stood on just as she ground beneath their feet rumbled moments before a pitch-black beam came tearing out from the city's limits.
With the pitch-black beam tearing through the landscape with buildings and watch towers crumbling as their foundations were torn asunder by the beam's path leaving the dying screams of guards and prisoners to be snuffed out as the rampant energy consumed them; Demigra and Future-Trunks looked back at where that beam had come from only to see that it have sourced from an old and crumbling Baseball Stadium back in the city's limits.
Future-Trunks and Future-Mai both looked back to the city; the black beam resonating the energy signature of Cress but it was far stronger than that of the energy readings they'd previously known proving that Cress had grown several times stronger than previously thought.
Future-Mai spoke under her breath as even Demigra was looking back to the city, "Raijin… I pray that you're alright".