What a joke.
If he brought Caulifla and Kale back with him, and then Bulma and Android 18 saw the fourteen newly born Cell Juniors...
Levos did not even dare imagine what kind of scene would follow.
One lie needed countless more lies to cover it up. He had no desire to keep walking into one disaster after another.
"Why not?" Caulifla asked, confused. "Aren't you short on participants?"
"Anyway, that All-Metal Cell Max is dangerous. Even I can't see through what he really wants..."
"Mr. Levos," Cabba said sincerely, "we all understand that. Peace in the universe needs strength to protect it. After this crisis, we've realized even more deeply how lacking we are, so we urgently need a better stage to temper ourselves."
Levos could not find a good argument against that, so he hurriedly changed the subject.
"Right, Universe 6 just went through a major war. Someone needs to stay behind and handle the aftermath..."
"Levos, don't forget the Tournament of Power in the future! In the face of our universe's right to survive, nothing else matters. We have to seize every chance we can to grow stronger!" Caulifla's tone had never been so serious.
The Tournament of Power...
Levos fell silent.
It was true. Making his allies stronger had been one of his original goals from the very beginning.
These warriors from Universe 6 were his allies too.
And they all had tremendous potential. If they could grow through this game, it would be a good thing for both Universe 6 and Universe 7.
Seeing the anticipation in their eyes, Levos's resolve began to shift.
Forget it. When the cart reaches the mountain, there will be a road through.
As for the Cell Juniors, he would just have to come up with another excuse later.
"...All right." Levos finally relented. "But you'd better be mentally prepared. Every opponent in this tournament is extraordinary."
"Awesome!" Caulifla threw an arm around Kale's neck. "Kale, let's go make a mess of things!"
"Yes, Sis!"
Seeing that Levos had agreed, Champa immediately struck while the iron was hot.
"The future Tournament of Power hosted by the Omni-King is something even the gods have to take part in. Isn't it only natural for me to do a little training in advance?"
It was just a tournament hosted by mortals anyway. He would only need to go through the motions, and then he could enjoy the spectacle. More importantly, once it was over, he would have a perfectly valid excuse to go to Earth and gorge himself on food. That was his real goal.
"Fine."
Levos agreed without hesitation.
With that settled, he prepared to take everyone and leave.
But after everyone had boarded the Cube, just as Levos was counting heads, he suddenly remembered something.
"Dabura is still waiting for me. I'm going to bring him over."
He closed his eyes and began searching for Dabura's ki.
But after an extensive search, the result made him frown.
Dabura's ki... was gone.
Not only was it gone from the place where they had first arrived in Universe 6, he could not sense it anywhere in the entire universe.
"What happened?" Levos felt a bad premonition.
He remembered clearly. When he and Dabura had come to Universe 6 through Whis's passage, Dabura should have been waiting nearby.
Using Instant Transmission, Levos began carefully examining the region where Dabura had last been.
This time, he picked up two lingering traces of unfamiliar ki that did not belong to Dabura.
The aura clearly belonged to beings from the Demon Realm, stronger and stranger than Dabura's.
Levos immediately realized that while he had been fighting Ultimate Baby, something had happened here that he knew nothing about.
He tried to track the aura, only to find that it pointed directly toward the Dark Demon Realm.
"So he was taken into the Dark Demon Realm?"
That thought flashed through Levos's mind.
To be able to take Dabura away without a sound, and without Levos noticing, the other side's strength was probably anything but simple.
More importantly, Levos knew almost nothing about the current situation inside the Dark Demon Realm.
Charging in blindly would be no different from searching for a needle in the sea.
"Forget it."
After weighing the pros and cons, Levos temporarily gave up on searching for Dabura.
Right now, figuring out All-Metal Cell Max's true purpose was the priority above all else.
He flashed back to the Cube.
"Sorry to keep everyone waiting. There was a small accident just now, but we can leave now."
Inside the Cube, more than twenty Cell Juniors were squeezed together, chirping noisily.
"These little guys are pretty obedient."
Although it was hard to tell the Cell Juniors apart just by appearance, Caulifla could feel that she had some kind of close connection with a portion of them.
As long as she used telepathy, she could issue commands to them.
At first, she had been worried that a language barrier might make communication difficult.
But the facts proved that worry unnecessary.
The Cell Juniors were highly intelligent. Whether they could talk or not was beside the point.
Cabba reached out, wanting to pat one of them, only to have it dodge away warily.
"Huh? Why won't they let me touch them?"
"Maybe they're just wary of strangers. Aren't little kids all like that?"
The moment Kale crouched down, one of the Cell Juniors immediately moved closer and bumped its head against her.
Then it took her hand and placed it on top of its head.
Kale gently stroked it.
The Cell Junior immediately let out a satisfied purring sound, looking utterly content.
Cabba looked amazed. "Didn't Mr. Levos explain that the Cell Juniors have nothing to do with anyone? Then why do they listen to Miss Caulifla and Miss Kale so well?"
"You can't see through such an obvious lie?" Champa rolled his eyes. "I told you from the start, you should never have doubted my words!"
"In that case..." Caulifla's earlobes turned red, but she could not bring herself to finish the sentence.
Kale looked up.
"Sis, they really are like little children. Why don't we keep a few by our side?"
The moment Levos stepped into the Cube, he heard that exchange.
He was numb.
Completely numb.
He had already given up on explaining.
Placing one hand on the transparent wall, he directly activated Instant Transmission.
Buzz.
The scenery before their eyes changed instantly. He had already carried the entire Cube and all its passengers to the border between Universe 6 and Universe 7.
This was a bizarre, chaotic expanse. Countless twisted bands of light and broken stars wove together into a cosmic barrier.
"So long as you pass through this region, you can reach another universe," Champa said, giving directions.
Levos guided the Cube slowly toward that turbulent barrier.
The instant the Cube touched it, there was no violent collision. Instead, it was like a drop of water sinking into the sea, slipping through without a sound.
Inside the Cube, the scenery before everyone's eyes changed completely.
Outside was no longer deep starry space, but a tunnel formed from countless shifting colors.
The colors kept changing and stretching, while the very concepts of time and space became vague and blurred.
One second they saw the wreckage of stars, the next it had transformed into brilliant nebulae, only to shift again into an entirely different scene.
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