Boom!
Rumble, Rumble!
The heavens trembled, time and space quivered, and an unbelievable power spread throughout the void. The aura Jiang Chen displayed in this moment was enough to shock everyone present.
The once-proud Dark Raditz and Dark Seliba both had their expressions change dramatically.
Neither of them had expected that, even with time and space sealed, and even with the power of the Super Saiyan God form restricted, Jiang Chen could still unleash this level of strength.
They had anticipated Jiang Chen's Super Saiyan 4 power beforehand. Dark Raditz had been confident that with his own augmented dark power, he could hold his ground even against that form.
But the reality was staggering.
The power Jiang Chen displayed now was not merely Super Saiyan 4; it was the next level, the full-force of Super Saiyan 5.
"Impossible!"
"How could this be!"
"Damn it!"
Dark Raditz's voice roared in fury, his body staggering backward continuously under Jiang Chen's violent aura.
Next to him, Dark Seliba fared no better. Even though her original form was weaker than Raditz, becoming a dark being didn't close the gap much; her strength was still far below Dark Raditz.
At this moment, Jiang Chen's aura was utterly overwhelming for her. Sweat began to bead across her forehead. Panic and terror inevitably etched across her face.
"There is nothing impossible!"
"This is Saiyan power!"
"Super Saiyan God, evil Saiyan... it's all just a layer of aura given to a Saiyan. Without that aura, a Saiyan is still a Saiyan."
"You seem to have forgotten the essence of a Saiyan. Then let me teach you what a true Saiyan is."
Boom!
Jiang Chen took a step forward, and in the next instant, an even more violent aura swept outward.
Rumble, Rumble!
Time and space shuddered violently, and an unparalleled aura surged in all directions.
Gugugu!
Even the Koku-Koku Bird emitted a sound of deep unease at that moment, its pitch-black wings flapping rapidly as if trying to break the seal it had created.
"Retreat!"
Feeling the escalating danger, Dark Raditz shouted, his body instinctively retreating a short distance.
But he reacted just a moment too late.
Dark Seliba did not react at all.
Boom!
Her pupils had barely contracted in fear when a figure suddenly appeared directly before her.
Immediately, Seliba felt intense pain in her abdomen as a majestic power invaded her body relentlessly.
Crunch!
Crimson blood splattered mid-air.
Seliba's expression froze, her body violently obliterated in midair with a single, devastating punch.
This made Dark Raditz, who had positioned himself further back, instinctively shrink his pupils in profound shock.
Even though he had already sensed Jiang Chen's immense strength, nothing had prepared him for the suddenness and finality of this single blow.
Seliba's strength, while not exceeding his own, wasn't that far behind. Even if Dark Raditz himself had attacked, taking her down would have required effort.
Yet now, Jiang Chen had resolved her with a single, effortless strike.
"Next… it's you."
"Raditz!"
Jiang Chen's calm voice rang out, his gaze locking onto the still-shocked Dark Raditz.
"Aspara… don't you realize that if you kill us, it would also kill Seliba and Raditz?"
Hearing Jiang Chen's statement, Dark Raditz's body shuddered instinctively. Then, as if recalling his ultimate trump card, he spoke with a cold, desperate confidence.
Jiang Chen paused immediately upon hearing him.
"Aspara, you can't kill me. If you kill me, the original Raditz will die too."
"I suppose you don't want Raditz to die either, do you?"
Seeing Jiang Chen halt, Dark Raditz exhaled a breath of relief, a trace of pride and smugness creeping across his face.
Jiang Chen's strength had indeed exceeded his expectations, but so what? He had a built-in defense mechanism. If they killed Jiang Chen, it wouldn't matter to the Z-Fighters, but if Jiang Chen killed them, the existence of their original, good-hearted selves would also perish.
"Oh!"
"Do you really think that, in this sealed time and space, you and they are still one?"
"And have you forgotten what kind of world this is?"
Hearing Dark Raditz's words, a knowing smile broke across Jiang Chen's face.
He even wondered if this dark clone had been clouded by the influence of dark energy.
What kind of world is this?
It's the Dragon Ball World.
Among all fictional universes, it's perhaps the one that fears death the least. In the Dragon Ball World, from individuals to planets to entire galaxies, death is never permanent.
Not to mention the inhabitants of Earth, how many times have they died and come back in the original story?
Threatening him with death here was nothing short of an international joke.
Boom!
Jiang Chen's aura surged, and in the next instant, his figure moved.
"No!"
"Damn it!"
"You can't!" Dark Raditz shouted in pure panic.
But before he could finish, Jiang Chen's form materialized directly in front of him.
At the same time, Dark Raditz felt his head tighten, as if a massive, crushing hand had gripped it firmly.
Boom!
Panic and terror spread uncontrollably through the dark clone.
But Jiang Chen showed absolutely no mercy.
Gripping Dark Raditz's head with his right hand, he slammed him directly into the empty ground of space, or what would have been the ground had they been on a planet.
Amid a huge roar, the space itself seemed to collapse under the impact.
And this was far from the end.
A violent aura surged around Jiang Chen's right hand. In an instant, it transformed into a terrifying shockwave of energy, sweeping over Dark Raditz, now a mere smear of black ki.
Boom!
Rumbling explosions echoed through the sealed void. The unimaginable shockwave indiscriminately obliterated everything in its path. The destructive energy annihilated layer after layer of matter.
At this moment, the sheer power Jiang Chen unleashed caused even the sealed Time and Space to tremble violently.
"Gugu-gu!"
The Koku-Koku Bird's cries grew increasingly frantic.
Its body thrashed wildly.
Even as a creature comparable to the legendary Time Bird, it seemed to sense an approaching, terrifying crisis.
No, "approaching" wasn't accurate. The crisis had already descended.
Jiang Chen's gaze fixed on the Koku-Koku Bird.
His brow lifted slightly.
From previous memories, the God of Destruction Beerus, along with the Gods of Destruction from the other twelve universes, had already dealt with the Koku-Koku Bird.
In theory, the Koku-Koku Bird should not have reappeared here.
Yet now it had.
And it was here, following Dark Raditz and Dark Seliba, specifically to stop him.
Even without words, this alone conveyed a great deal about the scale of the opposition.
"Frieza, you shouldn't be dead. Come out!"
"Relying on just these two won't be enough to stop me!"
Jiang Chen spoke calmly, his gaze directed into the empty void of space.
Around him, an eerie silence fell.
No words. No sound.
Time passed… or perhaps it didn't, who could tell in that frozen continuum?
Then, the sound of the Koku-Koku Bird thudding suddenly disappeared.
A gaze, laden with sinister meaning, converged on Jiang Chen.
"Impressive perception."
"But Mr. Aspara, these two alone aren't enough… I wonder if adding this one changes things!"
A light, teasing voice came from the bird's very beak.
Though it was still a bird, it gave off an almost anthropomorphic, menacing presence.
"You really aren't dead!"
Hearing the voice from the Koku-Koku Bird, a heavy weight finally settled in Jiang Chen's heart.
Even though he had his suspicions, now that it was truly confirmed, Jiang Chen's conviction could not help but stir.
Back then, in the Null Realm, tracing through Time and Space to locate Frieza in the future, Jiang Chen had believed he had completely annihilated him.
With his level of control over Time and Space, there should have been absolutely no chance for the tyrant to survive.
Yet now, it seemed that Frieza had indeed survived.
And had even begun his next major move.
The only thing truly incomprehensible was how he had managed to evade total destruction.
"Hahaha, Mr. Aspara, I'm really looking forward to what comes next."
"Don't die on me, okay!"
Frieza's laughter, echoing through the bird's voice, gradually faded, and in the next instant, the Koku-Koku Bird itself completely shattered, reducing to a single pitch-black feather floating in the void.
"Just as I thought."
Watching this, Jiang Chen wasn't overly surprised.
Did anyone truly think a God of Destruction just sits around doing nothing, letting a threat like the Koku-Koku Bird roam free? And this wasn't one or two idle Gods of Destruction, nor were they in some lazy, slacking state of mind. They would have dealt with it.
This was a God of Destruction taking things seriously.
Forget Frieza; even the Koku-Koku Bird could not have possibly escaped the joint seal of the twelve Gods of Destruction, and it certainly couldn't have suddenly appeared before him like this.
Of course, at this moment, none of that was important to Jiang Chen.
What mattered was the void before him splitting open, and a figure he genuinely never expected slowly stepping out.
A familiar figure, bearing the appearance of Goku, yet utterly devoid of his righteous, vibrant aura.
In this Time and Space, in other timelines, even in the GT universe, there had never been a Goku with such a palpable, malevolent aura.
And yet, the figure before him was indeed Goku in appearance, though the clothing was distinct: long sleeves without wrist guards, a red belt, white boots, the right index finger adorned with a Time Ring, skin slightly darker than Goku's, and a Potara earring on the left ear.
"Zamasu!"
Seeing the figure step out, Jiang Chen whispered softly, the name a chilling realization.
When the figure first appeared, he was caught off guard, but the appearance of the Time Ring and the Potara earring made it immediately clear who he was facing.
The strongest villain from the devastating Future Trunks Saga.
The turning point that signaled the complete breakdown of the Dragon Ball Super power scale.
In the original story, Zamasu was originally the Kaiō of Universe 10, a being of immense power and severe sense of justice. After observing mortals, he became fanatically convinced that humans were the inherent "cancer of the Universe," resolving to execute the "Human Zero Plan" to annihilate all mortals and eliminate any gods who dared to stop him.
As the main antagonist of the Future Arc, Zamasu was, in fact, a fairly successful and terrifying character design.
Yet, it was precisely his power and escalation that caused the entire Dragon Ball Super power system to collapse into absurdity.
Regardless of the version, one thing is undeniable: Zamasu's strength is immense. Especially when it came to the ultimate form: Fused Zamasu.
Even the slightly weakened manga version of Zamasu possessed power at the topmost tier of any Universe. The animated version, however, was far more terrifying.
In that future timeline, even after being struck by the Sword of Hope, Zamasu did not die. Instead, he completely fused with the Universe itself.
Having become the Universe, Zamasu was now the very embodiment of order and chaos; ordinary attacks were useless. He shed his divine appearance and transformed into a horrifying cosmic entity, raining down divine punishment and shrouding the multiverse in a shadow of death. Even Lord Beerus was shown with a grave, concerned expression.
Ultimately, it took Zen'ō (the King of All) personally intervening to resolve that terrifying, omnipresent existence.
Jiang Chen was unsure whether the Zamasu before him was the slightly more grounded manga version or the utterly broken, cosmic animated version.
If it was the manga version, he still had some confidence in handling him. But if it was the anime version, particularly the merged, universal entity, then even with his Super Saiyan God power restricted, Jiang Chen doubted whether he could take Zamasu down at all.
"Humans must be eradicated!"
"Humans are the cancer of the Universe!"
Zamasu's gaze fixed on Jiang Chen, radiating with pure fanaticism. A dark, potent aura erupted from him, and the Time and Space that had been sealed by the Koku-Koku Bird seemed to tremble violently under his power alone.
"Crack!"
A fissure appeared instantly in the sealed void, followed by countless cracks spreading in all directions.
But Zamasu paid no attention; his eyes were locked solely on Jiang Chen.
Murderous intent.
An overwhelmingly dense, pure murderous intent. It was as if Jiang Chen's very existence were an enormous, unforgivable mistake that must be erased.
"It seems there's no choice but to fight!"
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Chen's Super Saiyan 5 aura surged in response. His eyes instinctively glanced at the fissures spreading around them, a sign the seal was failing.
As their massive auras collided in the void, the tense situation on Earth underwent an unpredictable, dramatic transformation.
(Author's Note: The differences between the Dragon Ball Super manga and anime are significant, with character design and power levels varying greatly. The manga is often considered more internally consistent, while the anime pushes greater spectacle. Since both are adaptations based on proposals, which version to follow ultimately depends on the writer's preference for the story.)
(End of Chapter)
This novel is finished and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395