Ino gave her wrist a flick, and her shattered left hand restored itself to normal.
The Demon Realm Supreme Kai's full-body regeneration lagged a beat behind. His crisp black uniform and red cape both vanished, leaving him bare from the waist up — every trace of his earlier elegance and composure utterly gone.
"You're simply not a match for me. Surrender," Ino said, offering terms she knew perfectly well he'd never accept.
The Demon Realm Supreme Kai's fury erupted. Black energy blazed across his entire body like open flame. Behind him, a dark shadow swelled rapidly — and by its shape, it looked exactly like a colossal eight-legged spider.
"...You're a man. Why are you turning into a spider demon?" Ino's voice was dripping with contempt. He'd opened up his "Gundam" — she couldn't afford to be sloppy either.
It was just spiritual energy amplified by God Power and projected outward, after all. Nothing so special about it.
Divine Susanoo — activate!
...
Outside the Time Domain.
A mob of Saiyans were dogpiling the demonified Kuronoa.
Gohanks, Gotenks, and Vegetto were the undisputed centerpieces. But even fused Saiyans were getting knocked around mercilessly by the former Supreme Kai of Time's arsenal — Time Freeze, time acceleration, time deceleration, even time jumping.
In one instant, the moment Gohanks raised the Key Sword, Kuronoa "jumped" two seconds along the timeline, slipped through on a parallel track, then re-emerged behind him and drove a hand-chop straight into Vegetto, leaving him reeling.
A second later, the demonified Kuronoa splayed her fingers wide, a sinister smile spread across her youthful, lovely face — and the adult form of Gotenks just stood there like he'd had his brain switched off, taking a kick to the face that sent him sailing.
The three fused Saiyans threw everything they had at her — punches, kicks, the works — but they simply couldn't land a hit. Every move they made, every technique they attempted, every thought that crossed their minds was completely transparent to Kuronoa. Reading their intentions was, to her, as easy as reading the lines on her own palm.
"Tokitoki!" The somewhat chubby Tokitoki appeared on the battlefield, hovering more than ten meters off the ground, calling out over and over to its master.
Kuronoa froze for a moment. She instinctively looked up at the sky, and the dark lines crawling across her face receded slightly. Even if it only lasted a single second of lucidity, that was good news for the assembled Saiyans.
No. 17, skirmishing from the outer edge, seized the opening. He launched a rapid-fire barrage of energy balls at Kuronoa from behind, drawing enough of her attention — and in that moment, Gohanks swung the Key Sword straight at the black aura surrounding her body.
This time, Kuronoa was distracted. She didn't predict the trajectory of his attack.
A basin-sized black energy vortex was cleaved apart. Light Power poured in along the edge of the blade, shredding the Dark Power carrying the Demon Realm Supreme Kai's aura — the demonification of the former Supreme Kai of Time was weakened by more than ten percent.
"It's working! Keep attacking!"
Ino's people on the outside launched an all-out assault, while the Time Patrol members kept calling Kuronoa's name, trying to extend the window of her clarity.
Vegetto threw energy costs out the window and unleashed a prolonged, relentless onslaught — until the Potara fusion burned out ahead of schedule. Kuronoa knocked the Time Patrol's Goku and Vegeta unconscious with a single punch and kick each; the price she paid was another slash from Gohanks, shaving off another fifth of the Dark Power coating her body.
"Tokitoki! Tokitoki, toki!" The plump little owl kept calling beside her. When Gotenks was finally knocked down as well, the former Supreme Kai of Time at last reclaimed partial control of her own body. She stood motionless where she was, letting Gohanks slash left and right, carving apart the Demon Realm Supreme Kai's Dark Power that had been holding her under its control.
"There — you need one more strike here." She pointed at her own heart.
Every Saiyan from the Time Patrol went pale.
Trunks wanted to stop his counterpart, but the words died in his throat before he could figure out how to say them.
Kuronoa gave a light laugh. "What are you lot thinking? It's just clearing out the remaining Dark Power — I'm not asking you to kill me. An attack like that can't finish me off. Hurry up."
Easy to say, but in practice, Gohanks's sword thrust through her heart did purify her body — while the massive surge of Light Power, Time Power, Dark Power, and God Power that didn't belong to her came flooding in and tore through her from the inside out, leaving the former Supreme Kai of Time gravely wounded.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough..." Kuronoa couldn't even hold her post-Liberation form anymore. She shrank back into her eight-year-old body, covering her mouth, coughing up blood in great mouthfuls.
But at last she was free — completely, fully free of the Demon Realm Supreme Kai's control.
"You're mine — don't you dare escape!" Sensing the enormous shift on this front, Mechikabura wrenched one of his spider-leg-like black tendrils out from inside Ino's Time Domain and reached toward Kuronoa, attempting to seize control of her again. His speed was terrifying — the former Supreme Kai of Time, in her base state and badly wounded, had almost no room to dodge. Fortunately, Ino hacked downward with a furious slash from inside, severing the tendril before it could reach.
Kuronoa caught her breath for a moment, ate a Senzu Bean to recover her strength — though her Time Power and God Power were nowhere near as easy to restore.
She extended her hand toward Future Trunks, who had already dissolved the Fusion Technique. "This was made by Ino, wasn't it? An excellent weapon. Lend me that sword — I'm going in to help her."
Future Trunks handed the Key Sword over to Kuronoa. He wanted to go in too, but none of them were suited to a Supreme Kai of Time's style of combat. If they entered Ino's Time Domain now without any Time Power, they'd age rapidly — they couldn't last even a minute.
"Then we're counting on you."
"Leave it to me."
Kuronoa gripped the pale-blue longsword, her silhouette flickered — and she stepped inside the Time Domain.
The fighting had been brief, but the demonified Kuronoa had left a battlefield strewn with wounded. Two whole jars of Senzu Beans were down to seven or eight remaining. Worried about what might come next, no one dared waste another — No. 17 and No. 18 included. Everyone who had fought wore their injuries openly, and they all looked drained, holding themselves together through sheer willpower.
They had no way to take part in a battle between those at the top. Saiyans fought best when it was Saiyans against Saiyans.
They turned to face the advancing force closing in around them: Black-clothed Bardock, Paragus, and a vast horde of Demon Clan mages and soldiers.
The next moment, both sides erupted into all-out war once again.
The arrival of a powerful reinforcement gave Ino a quiet breath of relief. Even at half strength, Kuronoa could take a considerable load off her shoulders.
Her golden Susanoo bore down on the Demon Realm Supreme Kai's black spider, hammering at it relentlessly — but after blow after blow, back and forth for a long stretch of fighting, she realized she simply couldn't kill him.
"Is sealing the only way to deal with this guy?" she asked Kuronoa.
Kuronoa forced herself into Liberation state, gripping the Key Sword. "The Dark Power is connected to the Demon Realm and the multiverses. Completely destroying Mechikabura is extremely difficult — back in my day, all I could manage was sealing him away."
Ino was less than thrilled. If they sealed him now, what was stopping him from breaking free in a few million or tens of millions of years and causing trouble all over again?
And yet, right now, she couldn't think of a better option.
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉