Amarella blinked wide inside Ken's body. "Whoa, whoa… what did I just see?"
"I only wanted to raise a Supreme Kai," Ken sighed, "and he's trying to become an angel instead."
Amarella: "…"
"Can you stop humblebragging like that?" Amarella gave a wry smile. "I bet Merus is feeling all kinds of messed up right now."
"Merus, are you feeling complicated?" Ken turned and asked him directly.
Amarella fell silent.
You really just ask him to his face, huh…
Merus slowly turned his head to look at Ken, momentarily at a loss for words.
Yeah, I am feeling complicated.
Do I even keep competing with you at this point?
I can already see my Supreme Kai matchup… losing.
You're way too unfair.
I'm seriously trying to raise Jiren as a Supreme Kai.
And you're over there raising Goku as an angel.
How is that even the same game?
"How about we don't count this round? I can pick a different Supreme Kai candidate," Ken suggested.
Merus said nothing.
"Fine, then switch to Goku's son. This time I won't let him train in Ultra Instinct," Ken mused, sounding completely serious.
Merus went quiet again.
Do I really have to keep this comparison going…?
"Don't get discouraged, Merus." Ken clapped him on the shoulder, grinning so wide it practically reached his ears. "Look, Goku's angelic power is just a flash in the pan. At this rate he'll need at least fifty years to become a real angel. By then he'll be over ninety—he might not even live that long."
"I don't really understand what you're all talking about," Bulma said, arms folded as she watched the projection, "but I get the feeling Goku is going to win."
Amarella also fell silent.
Angels everywhere, huh.
But something about this is weird…
If Ken's angelic power came from my guidance…
Then where did this Son Goku's angelic power come from?
Did he develop angelic power on his own?
No, that doesn't feel right either. Goku's "angelic power" feels… off somehow.
There's a big gap between this and the power of a true angel.
Merus gradually calmed down and observed more carefully.
Huh… seems like Ken's not wrong.
After all, Merus had personally witnessed Ken's transformation into an angel and knew him very well.
He quickly noticed that while Goku did have the potential to become an angel, he'd simply started too late—and his energy was a chaotic mess. He hadn't done what Ken did back then: completely disperse all other power and focus only on cultivating angelic power.
Because of that, Goku's path toward angelhood would be extremely long and painful.
Without fifty years or more, it might be impossible for him to complete that transformation.
But there was one thing Merus could be sure of: at the pace Goku was going, reaching true Ultra Instinct should be no problem.
The only question was how many years it would take.
"It's fine, Merus. Really, we don't have to count this. I don't want to win that easily." Ken patted his shoulder again, smiling.
Merus was genuinely speechless.
You keep saying "it's fine"… while smiling like that?
He felt another stab to the heart.
Now he could only hope his God of Destruction would turn things around.
That way, at least the overall result could be a draw.
As for the Supreme Kais… yeah…
"Think of it this way," Ken said, "we agreed to a contest about raising Supreme Kais, not angels. So if I really end up turning Goku into an angel, I'm actually the one who loses."
Merus didn't want to respond anymore.
Technically, there's nothing wrong with that logic… but it feels like you're saying, "Even if I lose, I lose gloriously."
…
On the battlefield.
A faint, radiant glow danced over Goku's body, and his injuries finished mending.
This whole time, after mastering Kaio-ken, Goku had been seriously studying the book Ken gave him—The Ultra Instinct Training Guide.
He'd practically devoured every line of it.
For some reason, the techniques described inside felt oddly natural to him.
They looked complicated, but a lot of the insights overlapped with what Master Roshi and the Guardian had taught him.
Not far away, Piccolo and the others stared at the transformed Great Ape Vegeta, utterly at a loss.
"This is bad," Piccolo said darkly.
"I think I heard Vegeta say his power multiplies by ten when he turns into a Great Ape," Krillin stammered, lips trembling, his face as white as paper.
"Dad's in danger… I'm going to help him!" Gohan bit down and tried to rush out.
Piccolo clamped a hand on his head and pinned him in place.
"Let me go!" Gohan struggled anxiously.
"Hold on and look at Goku," Piccolo said. "What was that thing we just saw around him? That strange glow?"
"Wait… could that be—could that be the Ultra Instinct Ken taught him?" Krillin suddenly realized.
"That's Ultra Instinct? His ki is completely gone… I can't sense anything." Piccolo frowned.
"Same as with Ken—we can't feel his energy at all," Krillin nodded.
"And look closely—Goku's injuries are gone," Piccolo added sharply.
"Hey, you're right! He was really messed up just now. Yajirobe only patted him and he screamed in pain." Krillin looked around. "Speaking of which, where is that guy?"
Yajirobe: "…"
"Priorities, people! I'm hiding over here!" Yajirobe's head popped out from behind a distant rock as he hissed back at them.
"Kakarot, let's see exactly how special your Ultra Instinct is!" Vegeta roared, snapping out of his brief daze and slamming a gigantic fist down toward Goku.
He laughed wildly as he attacked.
"Your Ultra Instinct is all about dodging, right, Kakarot? Let's see if you can dodge this!"
His grin only grew more savage.
Boom!
His fist came down like a falling mountain.
A thunderous explosion rocked the battlefield, sending dust billowing and rocks flying.
Vegeta immediately realized his punch had missed. He glanced sideways and spotted Goku up in the air, so he swatted at him like a fly.
Whoosh!
Goku's form blurred and vanished again.
Vegeta's swipe hit nothing but wind. He spun, frantically searching for any trace of his opponent.
Tap.
Goku's feet settled lightly on top of Vegeta's massive head.
In that instant, his body felt impossibly light, as if he'd been reborn.
And the angelic power that had washed through him earlier had completely healed his wounds.
With the Saiyan trait of growing stronger after surviving death, Goku's base power had doubled.
Now his base battle power had climbed to sixteen thousand.
Only two thousand below Vegeta's starting point.
But because he'd stepped into the entry level of Ultra Instinct, his real fighting strength far surpassed that number.
Vegeta felt the weight on his head, pupils tightening. He snapped his gaze upward and saw Goku standing there.
Humiliation burned through him. He swung a fist at his own skull.
Tap.
Goku pushed off Vegeta's head and shot into the sky.
Vegeta punched nothing but air.
Goku hovered in midair and pressed his palm downward. An invisible divine force slammed toward Vegeta.
"Argh—!"
Vegeta howled as his whole body dropped to his knees.
Even so, his power was still enormous.
That battle power figure—measured relative to Goku, at least—was still at least a hundred thousand while transformed.
He'd taken injuries, burned through a lot of energy, and his battle power had fallen, sure, but the Great Ape multiplier still put him far above Goku on paper.
So Vegeta strained against the crushing pressure of Goku's divine force.
He dug his hands into the ground and pushed up with everything he had.
"AAAAAAH!"
His roar was full of rage and refusal.
You've gotta be kidding me.
A low-class warrior is doing this to me?
And I'm in Great Ape form!
Vegeta's mental state completely shattered.
This can't be happening. It's impossible.
Goku kept pouring divine power down on him.
But only a moment later, he was hit with an overwhelming wave of weakness.
The godly pressure winked out, and he froze in midair.
"Gaaah—!"
Vegeta screamed as the last surge of force rammed him deeper into the earth, carving a giant, man-shaped crater.
Even though Goku's divine power had vanished at the last second, that final shock had still hammered Vegeta hard.
"Urgh—!"
Blood gushed from Vegeta's mouth in a crimson spray. His huge jaws filled with red, his expression twisting into something monstrous as veins bulged in his bloodshot eyes.
Why?
Why can a low-class warrior overpower my Great Ape form?!
Watching from the projection, Merus was completely stunned.
A moment later, he shook his head in disbelief and turned to Ken. "This is strange… Goku's training method isn't like yours at all. You had a huge reserve of angelic power that just needed to be purified to complete the transformation. But Goku barely has any angelic power at all—he has to slowly build it up through constant training."
"I noticed," Ken nodded.
"On top of that, Goku's angelic power is really impure," Merus added quickly.
"He's just mixing too many kinds of power," Ken said. "I started training at age four, and Goku never let go of all his other energy the way I did."
He had, indeed, seen it clearly. Goku's angelic power was full of impurities and couldn't sustain prolonged output.
Back when Ken was five, he already had far more angelic power than Goku did now.
How much more?
At least a million times.
"Honestly, calling what Goku is using 'angelic power' is a stretch," Merus said, trying to comfort himself. "It's more accurate to call it divine power."
"Sure, we can call it divine power." Ken shrugged, utterly unconcerned.
Now Merus felt like his self-comfort had been pointless.
That casual attitude just made his heart ache more.
What hit him hardest, though, was this: they'd agreed to give Ken fifteen years to raise Goku into a Supreme Kai.
And after only ten months, Goku was already manifesting divine power tinged with angelic energy.
Do we even need to keep comparing at this point?
Merus felt that if they did give Goku the full fifteen years, once he mastered true Ultra Instinct, he'd have no trouble smacking Jiren around.
His mind raced.
Soon, he came up with a way to cope.
After spending a few hours alone with Goku, he'd gotten a deeper read on him.
He'd discovered Goku's biggest issue—his questionable IQ.
With that level of intelligence, Goku might not pass the written, "academic" side of the Supreme Kai assessment at all.
That meant even if he dominated in combat, he might still tie with Jiren overall.
And as for Gods of Destruction, Merus was sure his candidate would crush this arrogant Vegeta.
If things played out that way, he'd still win.
With that thought, Merus finally relaxed.
His mood lightened, and he no longer felt as jittery as before.
…
Back on the battlefield, Goku's divine power collapsed.
He'd only just set foot in Ultra Instinct; the amount of divine power he had was tiny.
The sudden loss left him feeling completely hollowed out.
But then, like a tide rushing in, all the other energy within his body flooded back into him.
His eyes lit up.
"Double Kaio-ken!"
Scarlet ki erupted around him again as he pushed his power up to thirty-two thousand, then raised his gaze to the artificial moon hanging in the sky.
"If I destroy that fake moon, he should turn back," Goku murmured. He pressed his palms together and began gathering energy.
"Kamehame… HA!"
Boom!
A blinding beam of light roared toward the artificial moon.
Rumble!
The blast smashed into it with a deafening crash.
The artificial moon convulsed, then burst apart into glittering fragments.
As it shattered, Vegeta's body began to shrink.
In the space of a breath, he returned to his original size.
Goku descended slowly from the sky and landed in front of him.
Vegeta's eyes were bloodshot as he sprang up and put some distance between them, glowering at the low-class Saiyan with seething humiliation.
Goku's expression was calm.
"Haa… haa…"
Vegeta, on the other hand, was panting heavily, drowning in despair.
"Still want to keep going, Vegeta?" Goku asked.
The moment he heard that, Vegeta felt another knife twist in his chest.
"You damned bastard! I'm the one who's supposed to say that!" he snarled through gritted teeth.
"Then go ahead," Goku replied, smiling.
"AAAAH!"
Vegeta felt completely humiliated. He screamed and charged, throwing a flurry of blows at Goku.
Smack, smack, smack!
Goku blocked every strike with one hand.
He'd just used Ultra Instinct once, and purely by chance, it had fully healed his body.
Surviving the brink of death had doubled his energy, shooting his base power up to sixteen thousand.
With Kaio-ken layered on top, he'd climbed to thirty-two thousand.
At this point, even a peak-condition Vegeta would be far weaker than Goku.
And this Vegeta was anything but peak.
Pow!
After a few exchanges, Goku drove a punch straight into Vegeta's nose.
Blood spurted from his nostrils. He shook his head hard, ears ringing.
"Let's call it here today," Goku said with a helpless sigh. "I wanted to give you a proper beating for my fallen friends, but seeing you like this… I kinda can't bring myself to."
Vegeta felt another sharp sting in his chest.
Merus winced as he listened.
That's brutal, kid.
You sound just like Ken.
Do you two enjoy hurting people with words?
Though to be fair, Goku might not realize what he's doing.
Ken definitely does.
"AAAAH!" Vegeta screamed again, clawing at the air as he pounced.
Whump!
Goku swept his legs out, knocking Vegeta flat.
The Saiyan prince lay on his back, staring up at the perfect blue sky, his mind drifting.
"Vegeta, you really are strong," Goku said seriously. "If Ken hadn't given me that Ultra Instinct Training Guide, and I'd only had Kaio-ken, I never could've beaten you."
Vegeta's lips trembled uncontrollably.
A storm of emotions surged through him, and tears suddenly spilled from his eyes.
Vegeta was crying—partly from refusal to accept this, but even more from regret.
"Hey, don't cry… Let's stop, okay?" Goku scratched his head, embarrassed.
Piccolo: "…"
Gohan: "…"
Krillin: "…"
"To be honest, my anger's mostly gone now," Krillin said, rubbing his bald head. "Though that might be a bit unfair to Yamcha and the others…"
Piccolo stayed silent, eyes full of shock.
So this is Goku's true strength… after training with Ken.
It was… moving, in its own insane way.
He'd literally beaten the Saiyan prince until he cried.
Gohan's eyes burned. To him, his father was a hero.
Merus: "…"
This is killing him from the inside out.
"I'll step out for a bit," Ken told Merus and Bulma, then vanished with a flicker.
Whoosh.
In the next instant, he appeared beside Vegeta.
"Ken? You're here?" Goku pointed at the Saiyan on the ground. "Look, he's crying."
"Once upon a time, there was an Ultra Instinct Training Guide right in front of me," Ken said, sighing as he looked down at Vegeta. "I didn't cherish it. Only when I lost it did I realize how much I regretted it. If heaven gave me one more chance, I'd tell that book, 'I love you.' And if I had to put a time limit on that love, I'd want it to last… ten thousand years of training."
Vegeta's regret hit a whole new level, and fresh tears poured down his face.
A moment later, he scrambled up and dropped to his knees in front of Ken.
"Ken, I want to train in Ultra Instinct!" Vegeta sobbed, sniffling and crying like a mess.
Ken reached out and patted him on the head.
"Teach me!" Vegeta grit his teeth, his whole body shaking harder and harder.
"Vegeta, I actually prefer you when you're all arrogant and rebellious," Ken said.
"What… what's that supposed to mean? Are you going to teach me or not?!" Vegeta roared.
"Yeah, that's the attitude." Ken nodded, satisfied—and smacked him hard across the face.
Vegeta hit the ground again.
"But Ultra Instinct doesn't really suit you," Ken added.
Vegeta rubbed his stinging cheek and forced himself upright, looking at Ken in confusion.
"Vegeta, would you be willing to become my God of Destruction?" Ken asked, looking down at him.
"God of Destruction?" Vegeta froze.
"The strongest god who presides over an entire universe," Ken said with a gentle smile.
Vegeta's first instinct was to refuse.
I don't want to be anyone's God of Destruction.
I just want to be myself.
At that moment, Goku chimed in from the side.
"Say yes!" he whispered. "I only got to learn Ultra Instinct because I agreed to become Ken's Supreme Kai. Otherwise I wouldn't have beaten you."
Vegeta: "…"
His gaze flashed with resentment as he glared at Goku.
Goku just grinned back at him with a friendly smile. "Vegeta, once you're a God of Destruction and I'm a Supreme Kai, we can have a proper rematch."
Vegeta paused.
Supreme Kai? God of Destruction?
From what I know, a God of Destruction is the absolute ceiling of battle power in this universe.
Some Supreme Kai is nothing in comparison.
Sure, Supreme Kais are strong, but compared to a God of Destruction they're tens of thousands of miles behind.
So Ken's raising him to be a Supreme Kai…
And he saved the God of Destruction role for me?
Vegeta felt a strange warmth surge in his chest.
So Ken really does treat me well.
All these years, and he's still kept that divine seat open just for me.
"I accept," Vegeta said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"Good." Ken smiled faintly, raised his right hand, and wrapped Vegeta in a layer of angelic power.
His wounds closed up at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In the span of a breath, Vegeta was completely healed, his energy restored to its peak.
He was back to full power.
"Your healing's gotten that fast?" Vegeta stared at him in shock.
Ken snapped his fingers.
A book appeared in his hand, and he tossed it straight into Vegeta's arms.
Vegeta hurriedly caught it, then looked down at the cover.
Ultra Ego Training Guide.
Underneath, in smaller text, was a line that read: A God of Destruction technique—exclusive to Gods of Destruction.
Goku craned his neck to peer at it, immediately noticing the title.
"Ultra Ego? That's different from my Ultra Instinct," he said, quickly pulling out his own book and comparing it to Vegeta's.
Vegeta clutched his book to his chest.
You're not seeing this.
This one's mine.
In the original story, it had been Vegeta who came up with that name.
Now Ken was just borrowing it a little early.
Borrowing it from Vegeta, to give it back to Vegeta.
As for how a supposed angel was using God of Destruction techniques—well, that was child's play.
In the Grand Priest's words, most Gods of Destruction were basically pets raised by angels.
It was the angels who taught them their destructive arts and guided them in smashing planets to keep the universe in balance.
So could an angel use God of Destruction techniques?
Of course.
Don't forget—angelic power can be converted into any ability, including God of Destruction skills.
You could say angelic power is all-purpose.
God of Destruction techniques, by contrast, are specialized purely for destruction.
Once you push your own energy past a certain point, though, you can stand toe-to-toe with those techniques. Just ask Broly.
"Let's work hard together, Vegeta!" Goku said, offering his hand.
Vegeta snorted and turned away, ignoring him.
Shake hands with a low-class warrior? You wish.
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]