Dark crimson energy rained down like a storm of fire, crashing toward Ino from every direction.
Ino raised one hand and slapped it toward the sky. Gravity reversed. She consciously cleaved open the space around her, and the rain of fire didn't fall — instead, it was sucked upward, spiraling back into the heavens.
Hidden within the red, smoky haze, a spear suddenly revealed itself. The angle was vicious — a thrust aimed straight at Ino's eye.
"Sneaky little thing." Ino didn't dodge. She didn't even flinch. She let the spear pierce clean through her afterimage, and with a sharp, clear ring, a golden shockwave trailing a long blazing tail slammed directly into the attacker's face.
The attacker used what appeared to be a phase-shift ability, easily nullifying the hit and slipping free of any damage.
The crimson fire-rain scattered in every direction. A woman with silver hair, a red robe, and red high heels smiled at Ino with an air of natural, intoxicating allure. "I hear that Lord Supreme Kai also has a taste for women," she purred. "How fortunate. Come and show this little one some tenderness — the rougher, the better, hmm?"
"Get lost. Don't you dare sully my reputation — I have a wife!" Ino drew her sword in a flash. Blade met spear, and a shockwave exploded through the air between them.
Ino formed a one-handed seal. The Hero's Sword began drawing in courage from across the Seventh Universe — just like Goku's Spirit Bomb drawing on energy — channeling it all into the blade to strengthen it.
The smirk at the corner of the alluring woman's mouth faded by two degrees. Her fingers traced invisible patterns in the air, and five archaic runic seals materialized around her body, spinning rapidly. Her speed and strength surged by thirty percent in an instant.
"Die!"
The empowered Hero's Sword and the spear were both swung at the same moment. A golden radiance cut diagonally across the skies of the Demon Realm. But the woman gave her spear a light flick — a crimson blood-mist poured forward, consuming every trace of golden light. And as if that weren't enough, the entire world dimmed by a shade.
The alluring woman let out a cold laugh. "Hehehe. It seems the power of darkness is just a little bit stronger, wouldn't you say?"
Ino raised her sword toward the sky. "Don't be so sure."
The golden light, compressed to its absolute limit beneath the crimson mist, suddenly detonated from within. It was like a sun rising over the dark Demon Realm.
The Demon Clan spectators below had no idea what was coming. Those who had visited the material world could at least piece it together — but those who had spent their entire lives within the Demon Realm had absolutely no concept of the sun. No concept of sunlight at all.
The golden radiance blinded dozens of Demon Clan eyes. The weaker ones began smoking all over their bodies, charred to cinders where they stood.
"Towa, you idiot! Focus! This isn't a game!" Even Dabura, locked in fierce combat with Zamasu, was caught by the blast. His movements faltered for just a fraction of a second — and Zamasu's razor-sharp hand blade immediately carved a gory wound into his left arm. Dabura exploded in fury.
Ino laughed with great satisfaction. "Getting scolded by daddy? How pitiful."
The woman's eyes filled with killing intent. "You are disgusting. That's my brother."
Ino turned to look at Dabura with exaggerated surprise. "Really? You've got such a beautiful sister? I honestly thought he was your father."
Ino and Towa rapidly closed in on each other, trading blows in a blur. Dabura's sister was, strictly speaking, not a traditional mage. Her close-quarters combat was formidable, and her magic carried devastating power.
Ino was exactly the same type of fighter, and she went in without an ounce of fear. Blade clashed against spear, and in no time at all, they had exchanged over thirty rounds.
Shin, Kibito, and Gowasu watched the battle from a safe distance.
Ino often boasted that she was a refined intellectual, a civil official ill-suited for combat — which was, of course, complete nonsense. The real civil officials were these three.
Ask them to actually get down there and fight? Out of the question. They'd barely manage to put out seventy percent of their ability under pressure. But stand on the sidelines and offer commentary? They'd never run out of things to say.
Sure enough, the three of them had slipped right back into idle chatter mode.
"Lord Gowasu," Kibito asked, "it seems Apprentice Supreme Kai Zamasu isn't exactly gaining the upper hand."
The yellow-faced, perpetually weary-looking Supreme Kai of the Tenth Universe gave a light chuckle. "I have complete faith in Zamasu. His heart holds an unyielding fighting spirit. His experience is still shallow and he has much more tempering ahead of him — but he absolutely possesses the strength to carry out his convictions. He will not fall in the Demon Realm. He will not fall today. The one I'm worried about, frankly, is this female Apprentice Supreme Kai..."
After heaping praise on his own disciple, Gowasu subtly insinuated that Ino was lacking.
Shin immediately and very openly took his subordinate's side. "Ino may be young, but she is the most resilient Supreme Kai I have ever seen. No matter what hardship or danger comes her way, nothing can bring her down. Everything she's built up to this day, she built with wisdom — and even more so, with sheer persistence."
The Supreme Kais of the Seventh and Tenth Universes launched into a spirited contest of praising their own people, each utterly convinced that their side had the superior talent.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the actual fight, Ino was having a rough time.
This wasn't a game. There was no rule saying that whoever you started the fight against was whoever you'd keep fighting.
When Dabura saw his sister in danger, he'd break away to help her. And when Towa spotted an opening, she'd flash over to support her brother — creating brief two-on-one situations that kept shifting the tide.
Ino and Zamasu's teamwork was essentially nonexistent. The two of them were fighting completely separately.
In raw power, Zamasu, Dabura, and Ino were roughly equal — and it was clear all three were holding back. Towa was a clear step below the others, but because of the siblings' coordination, the Supreme Kai side — despite being stronger on paper — couldn't break through.
Ino fired a petrification ray to knock away Dabura's petrifying spit. Zamasu swapped opponents with her, and the cold-faced Apprentice Supreme Kai channeled a violet energy blade into his palm. His movements were swift as the wind — in fewer than ten exchanges, he had Towa pinned down. Dabura fell back on an old trick, rushing over to bail her out.
This time, Ino and Zamasu actually managed a semblance of coordination. The two of them pressed a joint assault on the Demon Realm King. As Dabura's guard opened up, Ino intentionally slowed her strike by a fraction — letting Zamasu's energy blade land a devastating blow.
The Demon Realm King and his sister knew they were outmatched. They quickly fell back. Zamasu gave chase for over a hundred li.
Concerned about walking into an ambush, the "sightseeing tour" jointly organized by the Seventh and Tenth Universes came to an end. Everyone returned home.
Things played out more or less exactly as Ino had anticipated.
As the self-proclaimed king of the Demon Realm, Dabura had been visibly injured by Zamasu in front of a crowd. Whatever he truly thought about it in private, his pride left him no choice — he had to redirect the bulk of his attention toward the Tenth Universe.
With a single command from him, the Demon Clan army flooded into the Tenth Universe like a tide.
Pillaging and slaughter followed. And the souls of the Demon Clan soldiers who fell in battle were forcibly anchored in the Tenth Universe, unable to move on.
Old Kai Gowasu, who already looked like a man who'd seen better days, now looked even more miserable.
The Tenth Universe's Civilization Index began its slow, steady decline. It wasn't until Ino visited the Sixth Universe one day — bringing along a plate of squirrel-shaped mandarin fish as an offering for Vados — that she learned the Seventh Universe had climbed another spot in the rankings.
It had originally been: Ninth Universe at the bottom, Seventh Universe second-to-last. Now, the Seventh Universe had risen to fourth-from-last — with the Tenth Universe, the Sixth Universe, and the Ninth Universe bringing up the rear in sequence.
The "Use Your Neighbors as a Scapegoat" plan had been a resounding success.
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