Magnus also tried to follow, but he was pushed back by Axis's power. Sanguinius, Kratos, and Kasha could accompany him, but Magnus was to remain behind.
"Magnus, stay here," Axis communicated his intentions to Magnus through psychic power. "You can take my place, using your psychic abilities to convert the Emperor's sacred warp energy. Do not worry; I will return after I have dealt with this guy."
The Life Goddess, Isha, also received a telepathic message from Axis.
"Isha! In my absence, you are responsible for the Divine Tree. You must protect it at all costs. Magnus will take over my duties, while you continue converting the power of Khorne and studying the divine Ki."
Axis could go to confront the Dark King, but someone had to remain behind to watch over things.
The Life Goddess, Isha, was the most suitable guardian for the Divine Tree. With Isha there, he could leave with peace of mind to deliver a thrashing to the bastard.
"Rest assured, Father. Leave the Divine Tree to me," the Life Goddess Isha said, her gaze fixed on the slowly closing spatial rift.
Her father was truly a hot-tempered man.
The Dark King, for all his machinations, had never anticipated a temper so explosive. If he wanted a fight, then a fight he would get.
At worst, it was just a matter of changing universes.
After a disorienting sensation of the world spinning around them, the group appeared in the void of an unknown, desolate star system.
Axis was the first to charge, sending the blurry form of the Dark King flying.
Kasha, Sanguinius, and Kratos barely had a moment to recover their senses. Kratos and Kasha were able to use their immense psychic powers to forcefully manifest bubbles of air, allowing them to survive in the vacuum of space.
Sanguinius, however, drawing upon the power of a Warp God, needed no such protection.
"You… you also possess the power to cross universes? How is this possible?" the Dark King demanded, staring at Axis in disbelief.
Even he did not possess such an ability.
The most he could do was pull beings from other parallel universes into this reality. In this new universe, the Dark King could no longer influence the human race, nor could he affect the Emperor.
"You and those four other fiends call yourselves multiversal gods, do you not? Then tell me, what is your definition of 'multiversal'? Is it the ability to perceive other universes? Or is it that every version of you across the multiverse is one and the same, not an independent entity?" Axis questioned with scorn.
They were hardly worthy of the title.
They could not even destroy a single universe, yet they dared to claim power over the multiverse. Before he had achieved the state of a Super Saiyan God, Axis had studied the captured Khârn from another reality and recorded certain spatial coordinates.
With those coordinates and sufficient power, one could tear through the barrier between dimensions and reach a parallel universe.
In the future, if he grew stronger still, Axis might even be able to use his connection to the Dragon Ball world to return to that universe.
For now, however, his power only permitted him to traverse the parallel universes of the Warhammer reality.
"Axis, I admit you are powerful, but you are gravely mistaken if you think you can oppose me," the Dark King declared as a boundless dark energy erupted from him, nearly engulfing the entire star system.
"Hmph!" Axis scoffed. The brilliant aura of his Super Saiyan God form flared to life, instantly dispelling the encroaching darkness.
"Then by all means, try. You will soon discover that we are not on the same level, Axis. You have only just set foot upon the path of a god," the Dark King said with a cold sneer.
"Father! Allow me to help you!" Kratos roared, his body igniting in a golden psychic flame as he activated his Psyker Super Saiyan form and flew to Axis's side.
"And me, Axis. I will fight with you," Sanguinius added, a golden holy light blazing around him as he stood shoulder to shoulder with his comrade.
By coming to this new universe, all their inhibitions were gone.
The Dark King could neither corrupt the Emperor nor threaten the destruction of all humanity.
"There is no need! All of you, stand back. This is my Fight," Axis commanded, casting a cold glance at the two.
"Do not be rash, Axis," Sanguinius advised, "I will not interfere in your battle, but my Holy Light can empower you, protect you from the influence of the darkness, and heal your wounds."
Sanguinius had once half-joked that after mastering the Holy Light, his powers had become the ultimate support, capable of healing and bestowing blessings upon his allies.
It was therefore safest for him to remain in the rear.
"Father, I also possess the Holy Light. I can assist you alongside Uncle Sanguinius," Kratos offered.
"I said, I do not need it! This is a matter of pride," Axis bellowed, his voice filled with fervor. "Remember this well. This is how a Saiyan fights!"
With a furious roar, a torrential divine aura blazed around Axis as he launched himself toward the Dark King. He drove his fist into the Dark King's face, a blow imbued with divine energy.
Though the Dark King possessed no true physical body, he still reeled from the impact of Axis's attack.
The Dark King was stunned.
He was a mere concept given form.
If he did not wish it, nothing should have been able to force him into a physical manifestation. Yet, this man Axis had managed to rip him from the void, attack him, and actually cause him harm. It was unbelievable.
Was this the power of a god from another universe?
"Then come, Axis! I will show you the ultimate darkness and despair of this universe. I will shatter your pride to pieces," the Dark King threatened.
A fiery battle lust ignited in Axis's eyes, the pure, unadulterated desire of a Saiyan to challenge a powerful opponent.
"Pride? No, this is enjoyment! The joy of battle, the joy of crushing you!" Axis laughed maniacally.
His celestial blue divine aura suddenly surged, and wild streaks of golden lightning began to crackle within it. A terrifying pressure slammed into the Dark King.
"Hraaaaaagh!" With a roar that shook the void itself, Axis's form underwent a dramatic transformation.
His blue hair instantly ignited into a blazing golden-green, like the corona of a sun. But this was no ordinary Super Saiyan God transformation; it contained an ancient and far more savage power.
The bloodline of the Legendary Super Saiyan.
The divine blue energy and the tempestuous golden aura merged perfectly, creating an unprecedented, resplendent blue-gold divine flame.
The energy it contained made the very fabric of the star system groan and twist. Axis's power climbed exponentially, far surpassing his previous Super Saiyan Blue state.
"What?!" For the first time, the Dark King felt a primal terror. The pressure radiating from Axis now made even him, the incarnation of the universe's ultimate darkness, feel a deep sense of dread.
This was not merely an increase in power; it was a suppression on a fundamental level, an ultimate mastery over the very concept of destruction itself.
"Now, let's have some fun!" Axis's voice resonated with divine authority and Saiyan arrogance.
His form vanished, not by teleportation, but by raw speed that surpassed light itself, leaving a blue-gold trail that tore a rift in the void.
BOOM!
Axis's fist, wreathed in the devastating blue-gold divine flame, slammed squarely into the dark energy shield the Dark King had hastily conjured.
There was no stalemate, no diffuse explosion.
The shield, which could have withstood a system-level attack, shattered and annihilated like fragile glass. The punch continued unabated, crashing into the Dark King's temporarily corporeal chest.
The Dark King let out an inhuman scream of pain.
His body, composed of pure dark energy, was caved in and cracked. Viscous, abyss-like black matter sprayed from the wound. Each drop of this 'blood' carried the essence of utter despair and darkness, potent enough to corrode stars, yet upon contact with the divine flame surrounding Axis, it sizzled and screeched before being utterly purified.
"Impossible! How can you… how can a mere mortal harm me? Me, the most powerful, the ultimate, the most ancient God of Darkness!"
The Dark King's curses was cut short by Axis's relentless, storm-like assault. The two figures became living embodiments of destruction, clashing wildly across the desolate star system.
Every exchange of blows unleashed shockwaves powerful enough to tear apart suns. Axis's movements were as fast as lightning and as powerful as collapsing thunder, each strike carrying the dual properties of purification and destruction from his blue-gold divine flame.
In response, the Dark King summoned the endless darkness of the void, shaping it into all manner of terrifying weapons and forms: a black hole spear that devoured all light, a tide of despair that eroded the soul, and colossal claws formed from a billion wailing souls.
But before Axis's enhanced divine power, all of them were shattered, incinerated, and purified.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Lifeless planets were silently pulverized by the aftershocks of their battle, and asteroid belts were wiped from existence.
The star at the system's center was first pierced by Axis's punch, its core destabilized, triggering a supernova that illuminated the entire region.
Then, an enraged blast of darkness from the Dark King extinguished and consumed the stellar explosion, leaving behind a colossal, ominous black hole that warped space around it. The entire star system was rapidly marching towards complete and utter annihilation.
Their battle had transcended all mortal comprehension. Kratos and Kasha could not hope to intervene.
Even Sanguinius, who was himself a being of the Warp, could only watch the cataclysmic duel from the edge of the system in awe.
...
..
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ps?