"Two days equals one hundred thirty billion years?"
The question hung in the air, seemingly impossible. If they were anywhere else in the multiverse, such a claim would be dismissed as madness. But this was the Time Nest—the domain where temporal laws bent to Chronoa's will. If she said it could be done, there had to be a way. Of course, that didn't mean it would be safe.
"How does it work?" Raditz asked, his voice steady despite the enormity of what he was considering.
Chronoa's expression grew grave. "The Time Nest seals the Original Time Axis—a forbidden place, the birthplace of all time and space across every universe. I can send you back to the very beginning, to the moment of the Big Bang itself. You'll experience the entire span of cosmic history from that point forward, living through every moment until time catches up to our present era."
She paused, letting the implications sink in.
"Once this path is chosen, there's no turning back. You cannot exit partway through, cannot take breaks or pause your journey. The road closes behind you the moment you enter."
"So if I don't succeed," Raditz finished the thought, "I die in there."
"Most likely, yes." Chronoa's voice was barely above a whisper. "But with the Angels gone, you're the only being in this world with any chance of achieving this. The only one strong enough to even attempt it." She looked at him with eyes that had witnessed countless eons, now filled with desperate hope. "Are you willing?"
"Do I have a choice?" Raditz allowed himself a small, sardonic smile. "Besides, I've got the protagonist's halo on my side."
"The what?" The Time Patrollers exchanged confused glances.
"Never mind." Raditz waved off the question, his expression turning serious again. "Tell everyone on Earth that I will succeed. No doubts, no maybes—I will come back." He turned his gaze to the massive projection displaying the unfolding crisis. "Do you think the mortal realm can hold out for two days?"
Chronoa studied the images carefully. "The Kai Realm and the God of Destruction Realm aren't ordinary dimensions. The dark forces are powerful, but their intrusion into those divine spaces is meeting resistance. The advance won't be fast." She nodded slowly. "We should have enough time."
Raditz took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders. "Then send me."
Chronoa led Raditz deeper into the Time Nest than he'd ever ventured before, past chambers filled with temporal artifacts and sealed timelines, until they reached a vault that pulsed with primordial energy. The air itself seemed to shimmer and distort, reality growing thin like worn fabric.
Before them materialized a swirling vortex of impossible colors—dense brilliance constantly shifting and transforming, as if formed from the fusion of countless realities, countless timelines, countless possibilities all compressed into a single point. It resembled a black hole in its hungry pull, ready to completely devour anyone who approached.
Chronoa gazed into the vortex, her expression unreadable. She'd only glimpsed the Original Timeline once before, and the memory still unsettled her. There was nothing there—or rather, everything was there in its most primal form. The nascent universe existed only as expanding heat and energy, requiring eons upon eons to cool, to coalesce, to form the first atoms, the first stars, the first worlds.
Can Raditz truly endure this?
One hundred thirty billion years. Even counting to such a number would take lifetimes. The Supreme Kai of Time found herself unexpectedly reminiscing about her first meeting with Raditz—which, to her divine perspective, felt like yesterday. In just over a dozen mortal years, how many world-shaking events had this Saiyan lived through? Each one remained vivid in her memory, this warrior who kept defying the impossible.
If Raditz failed, the Time Nest would collapse along with everything else when the universe fell. No one would escape the fate of annihilation. Chronoa clenched her fists, her prayer silent but fervent. Raditz, you must succeed. You must.
Throughout the Time Vault, every Time Patroller, every Supreme Kai, every warrior present stood in formal posture, heads bowed in respect and desperate hope.
Chronoa turned away from the vortex, composing herself. "Trunks, go to Earth. Tell everyone what Raditz is attempting."
"Yes, Lord Chronoa." Trunks adjusted his sword across his back, determination in his eyes. "I'll return to the Time Nest before Mr. Raditz emerges."
Temporal energy crackled around him, and in a flash of light, Trunks vanished—transported through space-time to Earth.
He materialized on the lawn outside Capsule Corporation, where Zangya and Rukon had just returned from the amusement park. The gathered warriors from multiple universes were still present, some relaxing on the grass, others engaged in quiet conversation.
The sudden appearance of a time-traveling Saiyan drew immediate reactions. Those familiar with Trunks—Vegeta, Goku, Bulma—showed pleasure at seeing him. Those from other universes immediately dropped into fighting stances, ki flaring defensively.
"Stand down!" Beerus's commanding voice cut through the tension. "This is Trunks, another ally."
Supreme Kai Shin quickly added his own reassurance, and the foreign warriors relaxed somewhat, though they remained watchful.
Vegeta strode forward, arms crossed in his characteristic pose of stern authority. "Why are you here, boy?"
"It's about Mr. Raditz." Trunks's tone was subdued, almost reluctant.
"What's happened to him?!" Zangya had sensed something was wrong the moment Raditz left the amusement park. Now, hearing Trunks's heavy tone, panic flashed across her face.
Trunks tried to explain tactfully, to soften the blow of what Raditz was attempting. But despite his careful word choice, the implications were clear—and Bulma's sharp questioning drew out the fuller truth piece by piece.
Finally, the entire crisis lay bare before them. The invasion from the negative world. The absence of the Angels and Grand Zeno. The probability that the divine forces were trapped or worse. And Raditz's desperate gambit to gain power equivalent to the Omni-King himself.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Bulma demanded, rounding on Vegeta. "We could have faced this together! Your wife isn't the type to faint at bad news, you know."
Vegeta merely snorted, offering no explanation.
But before the argument could escalate, Beerus stepped between them. "And what exactly could you mortals do? Even we gods are powerless against this threat."
"If you can't help, then you should be thinking of solutions instead of stuffing your faces!" Tights had always been as straightforward as her sister. She grabbed both Champa and Delicious by their robes, scolding them fiercely. "That goes for you too, you fat cat and you clown!"
Both Gods of Destruction had been enthusiastically licking their dessert plates clean. Caught in the act, they exchanged embarrassed glances and sheepishly set the dishes aside.
But what could they possibly contribute? The news from the Time Nest only confirmed their worst fears—Grand Zeno and the Angels were indeed trapped somehow, or they would have returned by now. Everything now depended on luck. On Raditz. On a miracle.
Zangya understood now what burden her husband had been carrying, what weight had pressed down on him at the amusement park. Silent tears tracked down her cheeks as she processed the reality. Two days for everyone else. But for Raditz... one hundred thirty billion years of solitude, of struggle, of growth or death.
Even for divine beings who measured their lives in millions or tens of millions of years, that number was incomprehensibly vast.
"Is it really possible?" one of the gathered warriors asked doubtfully. "To endure such impossible time and somehow gain Lord Zeno's abilities?"
"No one knows," Supreme Kai Anato admitted, shaking his head. "No one has ever attempted anything like this."
The method seemed impossible, unprecedented, absurd. To somehow contact and comprehend the universe's will itself through experiencing its entire history? Who wouldn't want to believe in such a miracle? But the odds were so infinitesimally small that hope felt like delusion.
Then Hit spoke, his voice cutting through the despair with quiet certainty. "If it's him, I believe a miracle is possible."
"So do I." Jiren stood with his back to the group, but his deep voice carried perfect clarity. "Raditz will succeed."
Goku's familiar grin spread across his face. "My brother won't let us down. I know it."
"Hmph. That fool." Vegeta's words were dismissive, but his tone betrayed his confidence in his rival.
Beerus reclined in a lawn chair, silent for a long moment before allowing himself a small laugh. In his divine experience, if Raditz claimed he could do something, he delivered. The Saiyan had never disappointed him yet—and Beerus refused to believe this time would be any different.
Two days. They all had to endure two impossibly long days of waiting...
Within the sealed Original Time Axis, Raditz floated suspended in the nascent universe, his form seeming to merge with the cosmos itself.
The Big Bang had been... indescribable. The initial temperatures had nearly incinerated his skin, heat beyond anything he'd experienced even in the most intense battles. Infinite mass exploded outward in all directions, primitive forces—gravity, electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces—all pulling and pushing at him simultaneously, threatening to tear his body apart at the atomic level.
But he'd survived that first crucial moment.
Now he drifted through the quiet, expanding universe, moving with its rhythm like a leaf carried by a cosmic current. Raditz could actually feel the universe's breath, sense its pulse—not metaphorically, but as a genuine, tangible experience. The rhythm wasn't imagination or delusion. It was real.
Already his body was changing. The scorched, damaged skin from the Big Bang was regenerating, but not in the normal way. Energy from nowhere—or perhaps from everywhere—flowed into him, suffusing his cells, replacing them one by one with something stronger, something different.
To endure this inconceivable journey, Raditz had activated Ultra Instinct from the very beginning. He maintained the state of mu—empty of thought, empty of ego, empty of self. No desires, no fears, no consciousness of time passing. He existed in perfect unity with his surroundings, synchronized with the universe itself, immersed in a mystery beyond words or comprehension.
His silver-white aura flickered around him like starlight, his hair shifted to its characteristic Ultra Instinct silver, and his eyes became clear as infinity.
One hundred thirty billion years stretched ahead of him.
This was only the beginning...