The Three Legendary Saiyans
Chapter 87: Answered Prayer.
The Black Dawn Beam continued on to tear through the outlying land past the city's limits before fading away; with Cress standing with panting breath as the burning trail and scorched earth left little signs that anyone had survived the blast, grinning to himself as he believed he'd been victorious.
"I won! I finally conquered that wretch!" Cress bellowed to himself; his shrill laugh ringing out across the empty air with no one to hear him as far as he perceived it, laughing in the face of his apparent victory while two figures rose from outside the scorched earth's path.
Rising from the broken and collapsed walls of the Stadium was the figures of Alternate-Gohan and Alternate-Piccolo rose from the soil both coughing for breath while Raijin was nowhere to be seen nor was his energy signature present leading to the pair to believe their strange ally to be dead.
Thinking back to the moment before The Black Dawn had struck; Alternate-Gohan and Alternate-Piccolo had been witness to Raijin diving between them and taking the blast head-on, the pouring of every drop of energy into defending them both until the black radiance overtook him entirely as the Alternate versions of Gohan and Piccolo dove down into the ground in a desperate bid to survive while Raijin had vanished.
"Our friend appears to be gone…" Alternate-Piccolo spoke with a heavy-heart in light of Raijin's disappearance, rising from the dirt with his grey cloak burnt, tattered and dirty as The Namekian cast it off to reveal his traditional purple gi while Gohan cast off his own to be wearing an identical gi to that of his father only his had no emblem emblazoned on the back.
"Then it's down to us to finish the job!" Alternate-Gohan spoke as he rose to his feet, his Goku-like gi still stained from laying down in the mud and burnt from the Black Dawn beam; resolute in having to face Cress in battle himself and finishing Raijin's fight.
Before Piccolo could say anything but beam in pride of his student; the all-too-familiar form of Cress stood in the air with a pair of eyes staring bloody murder at the pair of surviving Z Fighters, "You two survived?! You Z Fighters are harder to kill than cockroaches".
"Yes; we survived thanks to our comrade who'd pushed you so hard that defeating you falls to us!" Alternate-Piccolo bellowed at the top of his lungs; standing tall though to Cress' eyes on inspection took notice of the scars on The Namekian's arms from where his arms had been repeatedly regenerated in their prior battle.
"It doesn't matter how you two survived my Black Dawn; you'll die all the same and join Son Goku in Hell!" Cress shouted with all the air in his lungs; his black hair pointing upwards like a crown of devilish horns before shifting into a shining gold, with the Alternate versions of Gohan and Piccolo standing ready to do battle just as the ground beneath their feet trembled with a fierce energy neither of them could even sense.
Whereas the ground beneath Cress' own feet trembled; even Alternate-Gohan and Alternate-Piccolo stared in shock as the ground split as a pillar of pure white light emerged from the tear in the scorched ground, a single figure rising from the burnt path of The Black Dawn Beam but cloaked in silver light, the sliver glint in his eyes and silver trails in his black hair as Raijin had risen once again.
The sudden arrival of Raijin allowed Alternate-Gohan and Alternate-Piccolo to breath a sigh of relief; his return had stopped them from fighting Cress themselves when even in a wounded state their foe would still be a deadly opponent.
"How many times do I have to kill you?!" Cress barked with great annoyance; having blasted Raijin with his full strength, having believed to have finally killed the strange individual but only to rise with a power he couldn't perceive.
"Piccolo… do you feel that?" Alternate-Piccolo stuttered his speech; staring in shock as he laid eyes on Raijin give up all his energy and willpower to defend them from The Black Dawn and vanish in the ensuing explosion only to reappear cloaked in a strange silver energy that he couldn't even sense or perceive.
"Feel what? I sense nothing from Him like there is no identifiable energy in his strange form" Alternate-Gohan stated plainly; staring at the silver glittering light was shone off Raijin's whole body with a sense of curiosity that appealed to his mindset to learn everything he could.
"Exactly… it's something we cannot even perceive of, it's like something from a higher plane of existence" Alternate-Piccolo spoke again; failing to even notice that when Raijin moved his whole body shimmered like a mirage as he moved at a speed that their eyes couldn't keep up with though he'd only moved a few steps ahead of where he'd previously stood.
Raijin glanced down at his hands as he exhaled; his hands appeared like a mirage as he moved without thought, his muscles twitching into a grin as in the back of his mind he knew he'd finally realised the power that Goku awakened to in The Tournament of Power: Ultra Instinct.
Leaping up to an elevated position atop the walls of the Stadium; Cress grimaced as Raijin had again risen to face him, feeling insulted as his Alternate-Self was proving harder to kill than any foe he'd ever fought, his displeasure at bearing witness to Raijin's return left him blindsided to two of his own subordinates arriving on the scene to aid him.
"Lord Cress! We've come to your aid!" Spoke The First of the two Soldier's a stocky and muscular man with amber-scaled skin and an orange mohawk atop his head, some reptilian facial features also included a tail and claw-like feet and hands, The Second being a fairly-attractive, blue-skinned woman with flowing blonde hair.
"What took you so long Raptor? Panacea?" Cress spat the names of his two subordinates with an unappreciative tone that his Soldier's exchanged a displeased look between the two of them; both clearly feeling unwanted by their superior as Cress was in a weakened and wounded state while facing two known enemies in Alternate Gohan/Piccolo and the strange man who bore a strangely similar energy and an identical face except for the silver eyes and trails in his black hair.
"I'm sorry; with the fighting and the other unknowns engaged in a pursuit…" The Female Soldier named Panacea answered only to be cut-off before she could finish by a sudden slap striking her in the face with enough force to knock her to the ground.
"Don't backtalk me!" Cress openly slapped Panacea to the ground after she'd spoken out of turn; knocking her to the ground and kicking her in front of Raijin who seems to vanish from Cress' sight only for a sudden kick to fly past his head.
Even the Reptilian Soldier named Raptor stared in shock as his tail swiped at Raijin after emerging between himself and Panacea; the tail attack swiping through empty air as Raijin in a silvery shimmer avoided the attack and struck both Cress and Raptor down with a perfect split with both feet striking the reptile-man and Cress squarely in their jaws.
With silver light cloaking his body; Raijin felt his body moving without conscious thought, his body moving of its own accord with the express purpose of finally defeating Cress, the wind gusting around him as he span in the air with both legs locking around Cress' neck and slamming him into the ground with a crushing impact.
Rising back from the ground with a vicious roar; firing his Dark Shine from both hands as Raijin merely twisted between the paths of the twin beams and unharmed by the desperate beam attack, Cress screamed as he drew on every drop of energy he had left in him to fire beam after beam with Raijin dancing between them like the beams were barely even a concern to him until reaching Cress himself and striking back with a single punch to the face that sent Cress crashing backwards into the dirt again, a tooth flying out from Cress' mouth on impact.
Raptor and Panacea stared at each other in silent shock as Cress was facing certain defeat, casting their stares at a newly empowered Raijin with shock and amazement in the silver light cloaking him before backing away as Cress rose back up from the dirt and leaped off the ground and leap past Raijin only to roar as he fired beam after beam, showering Raijin with a rain of deadly energy attacks that exploded on impact with the ground leaving little to nowhere for Raijin to stand amidst the explosions.
Blinded by rage as Cress continued to rain beams down on top of an unfazed Raijin as a silvery figure leapt between blasts, Cress grimacing as he struggled to track Raijin's movements until a pair of kicks struck him in the back of the head.
"Who fucking dares… YOU!" Cress cursed and spat as he stumbled under the kicks; regaining his footing and spinning around only to lay eyes on the presence of Alternate-Gohan who'd leapt into battle without Alternate-Piccolo and had attacked with a double stamping kick.
"Yes; me!" Alternate-Gohan yelled with all of his fury; raising his fists as he stood ready to fight with Alternate-Piccolo rising to his feet to stand-off against Cress, prepared to fight Cress as Raijin rose from the fiery dome-shaped explosions clad in silver light as he drove an axe kick directly into Cress' back.
"Stay out of this… he's mine" Raijin spoke with a booming voice; his voice booming like multiple Raijin's were speaking, Raijin himself dropping from the skies as the silver light began to flicker from his body and the silver trails in his hair began to fade but returned as Raijin leapt back into battle with a distraught-looking Cress staring in horror as Raijin's uppercut punch sent him soaring into the air again.
Alternate-Gohan and Alternate-Piccolo both stared in stunned silence as Raijin clad in this strange silver light appeared practically untouchable but the sheen of sweat and the scream of his muscles told a different story that his body was struggling to maintain this power and it would not last for much longer.
Having taken notice of Raijin's struggling body; Alternate-Piccolo raised both hands to fire out a web of energy orbs that hung in the air around Cress and Raijin as if they were inside a cage, The Saiyan glaring around him as each floating orb of Alternate-Piccolo's prevented a path of escape.
With blinding speed; Raijin hammered at Cress with punches and kicks from all angles leaving no opportunity for Cress to counterattack much less have a chance at blocking; Raijin placing a foot on each orb without triggering it to explode and using it as a foothold to bounce back at Cress, Cress grit his teeth as he had nothing to attack nor block with as the sliver-clad form of Raijin entered his field of vision with both hands moving towards each other for a final attack.
With a thousand-voiced roar as Raijin brought both hands together and fired a blast of energy with all his remaining strength at point-blank range in Cress' torso, with a silent scream leaving Cress' mouth as he was propelled backwards into Alternate-Piccolo's energy orbs that exploded on contact with Cress' back, pushing The Saiyan back into Raijin's blast to be struck again by the forceful blast and propelled backwards until he crashed into his Fortress: formally known as Capsule Corp.
Coming to a crashing halt at a tall vault door with a Cardkey Reader pedestal where The Dragon Balls had previously been kept a year ago; with Cress struggling to get back up with all the wounds suffered by Raijin's hand as his eyes set sight on the vault only to struggle to maintain unconscious as a Black Cardkey fell from a hidden pocket in his boot.
"I… won't… allow… this…" Cress muttered as he finally passed into unconsciousness.
With Alternate-Gohan and Alternate-Piccolo bearing witness alongside the many surviving soldiers under Cress' command watched as The Ruler of Earth was finally defeated; an eerie silence hung in the air as Raijin lowered back to the ground before the silver glow around his body and trailed-hair finally vanished and the battle was finally over.
An eerie silence hung over the Soldiers who'd witnessed Cress' defeat via being flung around by a cage of energy orbs and a silver-clad warrior utterly destroying him, the feat they'd witnessed causing the thousands of solders to abandon their posts and fly away under the assumption that they'd be destroyed too.
As soon as the silver glow vanished; Raijin fell to his hands and knees while drenched in sweat as the veins in both arms and both legs popped through his flesh, allowing himself to wear a victorious smile as the Alternate versions of Gohan and Piccolo both flew down to him and help him to a seating position.
"You have to tell me… what was that?!" Alternate-Gohan shouted; rushing to Raijin's side with an eagerness to learn that Raijin had known in the Young Gohan in his own Timeline's history, Alternate-Piccolo standing on-guard and ready to protect Raijin if Cress was to somehow get up again though it appeared he was finally down for the count but the fleeing soldiers gave them a chance to catch their breath.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you" Raijin smirked though the pain in his whole body; attempting to get back on his feet but every muscle in his body seemed to be screaming in pain from the excursion of using Ultra Instinct even if it was only the Omen Form.
"Even so; you have defeated our foe, and we owe you a debt" Alternate-Piccolo spoke calmly; resembling the Piccolo that Raijin knew more now that the suspicious demeanour had been dropped, their moment of peace cut short as Alternate-Piccolo seemingly vanished from sight as he was propelled backwards and impaled on a metal rod sticking out of the ruined stadium walls.
Before Alternate-Gohan could answer; an invisible force thrust him backwards too, with Alternate-Gohan being sprawled out in the dirt soaked by damaged sewage pipes as a crimson mist formed into the form of Demigra.
"Demigra… where are my comrades?!" Raijin demanded in the form of a question; though unable to so much as move his limbs but still drawing on enough energy to deliver a piercing stare.
"Well that was unexpected; to think a mortal was capable of using the divine techniques" Demigra spoke with an explicit interest in Raijin after witnessing the finishing strike to Cress but ignoring Raijin's question, pressing the orb of his staff-weapon under Raijin's chin, and pushing upwards to better examine The Saiyan's exhausted expression, "Though it appears you won't be using that power again in your current state".
"Demigra…" Raijin cursed under his breath as Alternate-Gohan and Alternate-Piccolo both lay in the dirt from Invisible Attacks; his limbs shaking as he tried to get back up but only felt pain as forcing his body to move was only making his muscles scream out in protest and cause him to collapse.
"The residents of this Timeline can do little to nothing against my power, and you've exhausted yourself with the godly skills you wield" Demigra spoke courteously; praising Raijin's awakening but striking him in the side of the head with the orb on his Staff only to twirl The Staff around as Future-Trunks dove out from behind a partially-collapsed wall and strike The Demon's weapon with The Sword of Hope.
"You're alive!" Raijin exclaimed happily; seeing his friend return and armed with the Sword of Hope.
"Not for long though" Demigra exclaimed as his crimson hair grew more wild and untamed as his body began to morph, growing larger and more beastly with each passing second until his beastly mass cast a dark shadow that even Raijin felt fearful of.
Away from the transforming Demigra, Future-Mai pulled free Alternate-Piccolo from the pipes impaling his body; watching as the puncture wound instantly closed up as Alternate-Piccolo leapt back to his feet only to rush to Alternate-Gohan's side and lift the barely-conscious boy into his arms before catching sight of the new sword-wielding warrior and the Demon in the midst of a transformation.
"Get out of here!" Future-Trunks barked at Alternate Piccolo and the semiconscious Alternate-Gohan; with Demigra still transforming into a much larger-than-life beast of a being as a pair of hungry crimson eyes glared out from his vast shadow.
"Very well; this is your battle and the fate of Cress is our own" Alternate-Piccolo shouted as Alternate-Gohan stared amazed by the strength being displayed by these strangers in the face of the bestial demon, snapping back to reality when they had their own mission to accomplish: the defeat and death of Cress as the pair flew off back towards Cress' Fortress.
With Alternate Gohan and Alternate-Piccolo leaving the battlefield for their own agenda, Future-Mai absent and Future-Trunks engaged in battle with Demigra, Raijin dug deep into his mind; clearing his excess thoughts; those of his lost Tail, his diminished Animal Instinct abilities, feeling as if his Super Saiyan 4 might be lost if he couldn't transform once The Anklet was removed but his thoughts became clear as The Anklet's tight hold on his wrist loosened, feeling a sense of relief as he spotted that The Anklet had fallen from his wrist and unleashing his full powers at last as he let out a proud roar when golden flames erupted off his body as crimson fur sprouted from his skin thus completing his own beastly transformation.