Absolute silence reigned over the entire bridge; even breathing seemed to cease. Roboute Guilliman felt as insignificant as a speck of dust, while Yvraine felt a supreme pressure stemming from a difference in the hierarchy of life itself, nearly forcing her to prostrate herself on the deck.
Was this... the power of a Divine Dragon? It was so visceral, so... domineering.
What exactly was the creature before them? Its immense scale and majesty simply exceeded their imagination.
After Axis reached the level of a universal entity, Shenron's size had also expanded to the combined mass of several planets. Now, a single claw could grasp an entire world. His strength had likewise increased to a terrifying degree; indeed, the combat power of the Eternal Dragon was fearsome.
The fighting capabilities of the Dragons were never weak to begin with. In the chaos of the Dragon Ball conflicts, one had managed to withstand a full-power punch from a Demon King who could overpower a young Super Saiyan 4 Goku, catching it with a single hand. These colossal dragons possessed far more than just the ability to grant wishes.
Before Shenron appeared this time, Axis had specifically instructed him not to act like a servant in front of others.
Axis intended to keep an ace up his sleeve; externally, Shenron would not address him as Creator or Master, which could avoid certain complications down the line.
Axis nodded in satisfaction. The Emperor's divine blessing had indeed amplified Shenron's potency.
He cleared his throat and, with a clear and resonant voice, spoke his first wish to the dragon that spanned the heavens and earth.
"Shenron, this is my first wish! Resurrect the soul located on the Golden Throne of this universe's Holy Terra, the Master of Mankind known as 'Neoth' or 'The Emperor'!
"Free him from any bindings and return him to his complete self!"
Axis worded the wish with extreme precision, stating the name for resurrection in great detail, specifically emphasizing Neoth's human identity.
"A piece of cake. That wish can be granted. Wait a moment." Shenron nodded at Axis, and then his eyes began to glow with crimson light.
The instant the wish left his mouth, Shenron's burning stellar eyes flared violently. An invisible, unimaginable force instantly crossed countless light-years, projecting directly toward the direction of Holy Terra.
…
Holy Terra. The deepest sanctum of the Imperial Palace. The Golden Throne.
The body sitting upon the Golden Throne suddenly reacted violently. When Axis had left previously, he had infused some Ki and life force into the Emperor of this world, restoring him to a dried, thin state rather than his previous condition as a skeletal corpse.
However, due to some machination of the Dark King, the Emperor had reverted to a withered cadaver.
Yet, at this moment, the soul of the Dark King was not inside the Emperor's body; he had been abroad recently, enjoying the physical vessel Axis had previously created for him, indulging in sensations he had never experienced before.
Time seemed to freeze.
The massive, cold shell on the Golden Throne, radiating ominous psychic brilliance, suddenly convulsed.
The myriad cables surrounding the throne twitched violently, emitting sharp hisses, while the psychic whispers filling the air instantly turned into the screeching of a billion souls.
The Emperor seated there, long since withered and decayed like charred deadwood, moved his eyelids that had been shut for ten millennia. They trembled... ever so slightly.
An indescribable will, a mixture of extreme fury, boundless hatred, cold malice, and a trace of disbelief, erupted like a tangible dark storm from the depths of the Throne.
The entire Imperial Palace shook.
Psychic shields flickered wildly, and countless servitors and Custodians fell to their knees clutching their heads in agony. The veil of the Warp grew thin in that moment, and the Eye of Terror seemed to roar in response.
The most primordial consciousness within that body, the awareness that had supposedly been thoroughly devoured and dissipated, was being awakened by some force. It was the human named Neoth.
At that moment, in an unknown location within the Warp, the Dark King suddenly seemed to realize something. A look of utter incredulity washed over his face.
"Damn it, how is this possible? That guy... that guy isn't dead? No, I definitely devoured him completely." The Dark King discovered with horror that the power of the Emperor, the human Neoth he had destroyed thousands of years ago, was awakening.
An inexplicable force was rousing Neoth's soul, forcibly extracting his shattered spirit and even the parts that had been consumed.
It was a great power that completely transcended his understanding and imagination, something that defied description.
"No! Damn it, you will not wake him! I don't know who you are, but you will not wake him!" The Dark King roared madly.
The main soul immediately abandoned the avatar vessel and rushed back to the rotting corpse on the Golden Throne, attempting to suppress the Emperor's restoring soul.
"ROAR!!!" Shenron's bellow seemed to carry a trace of gravity as he sensed a terrifying resistance coming from the direction of the Golden Throne.
It was not merely the silence of a soul, but a twisted existence, a concept that had usurped the position of "The Emperor" itself, resisting wildly.
It was like a greedy beast clutching its prey, absolutely refusing to let the food in its mouth be snatched away.
With his own power, Shenron should have been able to complete this task easily, but now another entity was obstructing him, which made things a bit difficult.
The golden light radiating from Shenron clashed violently with the dark will from Terra across invisible dimensions.
Space within the bridge rippled with visible distortion. The Imperial flagship rocked violently, and alarms blared shrilly.
"What is happening? didn't you say this wish was a piece of cake?" Axis frowned, sensing the violent vibration of the ship and the terrifying fluctuations of divine power coming from Shenron.
"I apologize, bearer of the Dragon Balls. A distinct, ancient, dark force is obstructing me from resurrecting the human named Neoth. He is countering my power. I could have completed this task easily, but now..." Shenron looked as though he wanted to say more but stopped.
"Leave this matter to me. Axis, let me deal with him. I will take care of the Dark King." The Grand Supreme Kai Emperor, standing beside Axis, opened his golden pupils and nodded to him.
The Dark King of his own world had first been beaten to a near-death state by Axis, and then wiped out by a single thought from the Grand Minister.
He had picked up a bargain, transforming into a powerful Grand Supreme Kai, but to be honest, the Emperor had always wanted to test himself against the Dark King.
He wanted to prove one thing: even though he was an avatar, he was no lesser than this "original" main body.
Axis glanced at the Emperor and nodded. With the power the Emperor now possessed, taking care of the Dark King would be no problem.
"Then be careful, Father-in-law."
The Emperor nodded to Axis. His golden eyes locked onto the direction of Holy Terra. Without any visible movement, the space inside the bridge rippled like water.
In the next second, his figure radiating pure vitality vanished, leaving only a gradually calming ripple in space.
…
Holy Terra. The Imperial Palace. The Sanctum Imperialis.
Space twisted and tore without warning. Golden light flooded into this forbidden ground filled with death, pain, and ominous psychic energy, seemingly tangible in its intensity.
The light banished the shadows, causing the cold metal walls to reflect a holy sheen. The figure of the Emperor appeared directly before the Golden Throne, ignoring the layers of physical and psychic barriers.
The Custodians guarding the Golden Throne had no idea what was happening.
They did not know what was occurring to the Emperor they guarded; they saw only a golden figure emitting blinding light. None of them could move or take a single step forward.
Captain-General Trajann Valoris gritted his teeth as he looked up, only to see a figure that was devastatingly familiar. How was this possible? Were there two Emperors?
The Grand Supreme Kai Emperor glanced at the nearby Custodians but ignored them, focusing all his efforts on the Dark King.
Upon the Throne, the dry corpse was trembling violently, its withered eyelids twitching frantically. The Grand Supreme Kai Emperor's soul exited his vessel, entering the body of his alternate self in this universe.
Their final battle of souls would take place in the Warp, but before that, he had to drag the Dark King's soul out.
A thick, ink-like dark psychic energy, saturated with endless malice, spewed from the seven orifices of the dry corpse like boiling oil.
It coalesced in the air into a twisted, massive, terrifying phantom formed of pure hatred and the desire for destruction, the true form of the Dark King's soul.
Countless eyes formed of darkness stared fixedly at the suddenly appearing golden figure, filled with extreme rage and... a trace of incredulous shock.
"You... it's you?!" The Dark King's thought-speech was like a billion poisoned needles piercing the Emperor's consciousness. "That... lowly avatar?! Impossible! How could you... possess such power? No, you are already dead!"
"I am not dead. However, I have come to destroy you. The me of this reality has failed, but it matters not. I will succeed," the Grand Supreme Kai Emperor said, looking at the grotesque soul before him.
It was this strange soul, the Dark King, that had once forced him to send away the Primarchs one by one.
If not for Axis's intervention, he would have become like this too, having everything stolen by this entity during ten thousand years of toil.
His personality, his consciousness, his identity.
"Impossible. Why are you so strong? You cannot possess this power. This is impossible!"
It clearly felt the vast, ocean-like, pure and holy life-origin power radiating from the opponent.
This level of power was far beyond any psychic energy or Warp essence it understood, causing even this ancient Dark King to feel an instinctual tremble.
What made it even more unacceptable was that the source of this power was the "avatar" it had once viewed as a tool to be molded at will.
He dared to resist him? Resist his master? The Dark King guessed that this Emperor must have been brought here by that bastard Axis.
Fine. After I devour this guy, I'll go deal with you, Axis. We could have stayed out of each other's way, but since you insisted on coming here to provoke me….
"Surprised, Dark King?" The Grand Supreme Kai Emperor's voice resonated directly in the depths of the Dark King's soul, carrying a cold mockery.
"You sought to cover the universe in darkness, absolute destruction. I chose a different path." He raised his hand.
Golden divine energy filled with life moved like a warm tide, gently yet firmly wrapping around the Golden Throne, aiming straight for the core of Neoth's soul which was being crushed by the Dark King and called by Shenron's power.
Simultaneously, he activated his Grand Supreme Kai powers to drag the Dark King before him into the Warp, to avoid damaging his body in the physical world.
"No! This is mine! My power! My vessel! My throne! You deserve death for stealing my power!" The Dark King let out a hysterical roar.
His massive dark phantom lunged at the Emperor. Countless tentacles condensed from pure malice and despair, like enraged venomous dragons tearing through space, lashed out at the golden figure with soul-annihilating might.
The surrounding Warp exuded terrifying energy. Black and gold intertwined, causing nearby Warp daemons to be instantly torn apart and destroyed.
This was the Dark King's full eruption, the ultimate malice accumulated over eons, enough to distort reality and corrupt stars.
He intended to thoroughly tear apart and devour this "avatar" who dared challenge him and possessed such incredible power, to compensate for the pain and loss of having his soul forcibly torn by Shenron's power just moments ago.
However, facing this terrifying attack that would make even the Chaos Gods pale, the Grand Supreme Kai Emperor merely raised his eyelids slightly.
"Trifling tricks. You claim I stole your power, but you should be able to sense that this power is not yours. This power is full of sanctity, full of life, full of hope." The Grand Supreme Kai Emperor continued to taunt the Dark King.
His Grand Supreme Kai power was a fusion of the Fruit of the Tree of Might, human faith, the power of hope, his own born holy psychic potential, and the Holy Light created by Sanguinius. It was fundamentally different from this guy's dark energy.
The Dark King let out a strange cry, transforming into a colossal octopus-like monster, waving gigantic tentacles to attack the Emperor.
Yet the Emperor did not even move to dodge. The golden divine life energy, the power belonging to a Supreme Kai, flowed naturally around him, forming a domain that looked soft but was indestructible.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The dark tentacles, capable of piercing starships and corrupting worlds, slammed viciously into the golden screen of light.
The moment those malice-filled attacks touched the divine life energy, it was like snow meeting the scorching sun.
A harsh sizzling sound rang out as the dark tentacles melted and were purified at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The dark energy constituting their existence was forcibly decomposed by the divine life power, converted into the most basic life particles. Like filth burned by holy fire, they rapidly turned into nothingness and vanished.
Just as when he watched the battle between his other self and Axis, the Emperor's power countered dark energy, and it seemed he countered it even more effectively than Axis.
Damn it, what happened to the other me? Why is he so strong?
"What?!" The Dark King's horrified thought nearly froze.
His attack, enough to severely wound or kill a Greater Daemon of Chaos, could not shake the opponent's protective divine light even a fraction?
How was this possible? How could the gap in strength be so immense?
"Is this the extent of you spirit? It seems my expectations of you were too high." The Emperor stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the Dark King with utter contempt.
Once, this being was an existence he could only look up to; everything he was had been manipulated by it. But now, the tables had turned.
"You rely only on the filth of the Warp, the despair of living things, and the ultimate darkness of this universe," the Emperor's voice echoed like a bell of judgment in the Dark King's consciousness, carrying absolute superiority and disdain.
"Whereas I control the primal laws of life and existence. I wield the great power of Creation, the power of Hope. Your era is over."
"Dark King, there is no need to struggle. Today is the day you die," the Grand Supreme Kai Emperor declared.
Having said this, he took a step forward. This single step seemed to tread upon the pulse of the universe. Golden light erupted abruptly, turning into an unstoppable flood of purification.
"ROAR—!" The Dark King emitted a shriek of pain unlike anything before. Under the scouring of pure divine life energy, his massive dark phantom melted and collapsed madly, like ice thrown into strong acid.
The dark essence that constituted his existence was forcibly stripped away and purified. He felt the power accumulated over billions of years flowing away rapidly; he felt the foundation of his existence shaking.
"No! I am the Dark King! I am the end of the universe! I am immortal!" The Dark King struggled and roared frantically, trying to mobilize the malice of the entire Warp to resist, attempting to pollute this holy power.
However, the level of the Grand Supreme Kai's divine power was too high. It was the power of higher-dimensional law.
The moment his dark power approached, it was purified and assimilated by the divine creation energy, conversely becoming nourishment for Neoth's soul.
"An outdated wretch. It is time for you to exit the stage." The Grand Supreme Kai Emperor's voice was as cold as the depths of space.
He extended a single finger.
At the fingertip, a point of golden divine power coalesced, pure to the extreme, seemingly containing the first ray of light from the birth of the universe.
"NO—!!!" The Dark King felt a fatal threat and let out a wail of despair.
He wanted to run, wanted to hide in the deepest void of the Warp, but he found himself locked in place by a supreme force of law.
Space, time, and even the concept of existence itself froze before this finger.
The Emperor's finger tapped gently forward.
That single point of golden light, like the first dawn splitting the heavens and earth, instantly pierced through the core of the Dark King's massive phantom.
There was no earth-shattering explosion. Only silent annihilation.
...
..
.
ps?