"Enough talking! I'll kill you for Moro-sama!"
Yuzun lunged forward in his transformed state, but Vegeta moved first. One punch slammed into the prisoner's face hard enough to twist his features and send him rolling across the ground before he could even begin his attack.
Vegeta looked down at him with open contempt. "That's all?"
Yuzun trembled as he forced himself upright, the confidence from his transformation already beginning to disappear.
"Who were you going to kill again?" Vegeta asked.
Humiliated, Yuzun roared and charged him anyway, swinging a heavy fist with everything he had. Vegeta caught the blow without giving an inch and answered with a kick that launched him backward into a tree.
Yuzun ripped the entire tree out of the ground and hurled it at him.
"Hakai!"
A pulse of destruction energy erased the tree before it came anywhere near Vegeta.
"You're wasting your time. You can't beat me."
Yuzun refused to accept it. He tore a huge boulder from the ground, poured his energy into it, and threw it with enough force to smash through the surrounding forest.
"Die!"
Vegeta simply kicked the incoming rock.
The boulder reversed direction and shot straight back toward Yuzun.
His expression collapsed.
"Are you kidding me?!"
He threw both hands forward and barely managed to halt the massive rock before it crushed him, then forced it back into the sky while struggling to regain control of the fight.
Vegeta never gave him the chance.
He appeared in front of Yuzun and drove a kick into his stomach, emptying the prisoner's lungs and leaving his entire body limp. Vegeta followed by pressing one hand against his forehead and casually shoving him backward onto the ground.
Yuzun stumbled as he fell, and his eyes happened to catch the damaged spacecraft nearby.
Vegeta had already decided what to do with him.
"You're not going back to Moro. Come quietly and I'll send you back to the Galactic Prison. Try anything else, and I'll erase you."
Yuzun needed only a second to come up with a distraction.
"You don't need to worry about Moro coming here," he said, making sure Vegeta was listening while his hand quietly reached for the remote controlling the ship. "His next target is Earth."
Vegeta's expression immediately hardened. "Earth?"
The reaction told Yuzun everything he needed to know.
"So that planet matters to you."
Irico stepped closer. "Vegeta, has Earth really become Moro's target?"
"Universe 7's Earth is already dead," Vegeta said. "There shouldn't be anything there for him."
Ken raised his staff and checked through the crystal.
"They found the passage above Universe 7's Earth and crossed over to the Earth in Universe 6."
Vegeta turned sharply toward him. "They what?"
That was the opening Yuzun had been waiting for.
"Thanks for the distraction!"
The prisoner activated the remote, jumped onto the spacecraft, and sent it climbing into the sky before anyone could stop him. He leaned out as the ship accelerated, waving smugly toward Vegeta.
"See you around!"
Irico clenched his fists. "That bastard's getting away!"
Vegeta didn't move. Destruction energy was already gathering in his hand, and judging by his expression, Yuzun had only managed to make the manner of his death slightly more dramatic.
Then something much larger fell out of the sky.
The boulder Yuzun had thrown earlier had finally reached the top of its arc and was coming back down.
Yuzun was still laughing when a shadow passed over the cockpit. He looked up just in time to see the enormous rock descending directly toward him.
His face went pale.
The boulder smashed through the spacecraft and tore it apart in midair. Ordinarily, a rock that size wouldn't have destroyed a vessel built for space travel, but Yuzun himself had reinforced it with enough energy to turn it into a weapon.
The wreckage crashed back into the jungle.
By the time it hit the ground, Yuzun was dead.
Vegeta dispersed the destruction energy in his hand. "Idiot killed himself."
Irico stared at the wreckage without knowing what to say, while Ken remained completely unsurprised.
Once the immediate problem was over, Irico turned back toward Vegeta. "What do we do now? If Moro is targeting Earth, shouldn't we head back immediately?"
"No. Earth is safe for the moment."
Irico blinked. "You can sense all the way to Earth from here? Across universes?"
"No."
Vegeta nodded toward Ken.
"I asked him."
Irico looked from Vegeta to Ken and decided not to bother responding.
The news still changed Vegeta's priorities. He turned toward Pybara with a much more serious expression.
"We don't have time to waste. Instant Transmission can wait. Teach me something that can actually counter Moro."
Pybara nodded. "All right."
Vegeta's training on Yardrat was about to enter its next stage.
Far away aboard Moro's ship, the death of Yuzun's team did not go unnoticed.
Moro had already sensed enough of what happened to understand the outcome.
"So Vegeta really has become stronger."
Saganbo looked toward him. "You sensed him?"
"One of our teams reached that planet. They're dead now."
Saganbo immediately realized which group it had been. "Yuzun's team? Vegeta killed them? Yuzun becomes extremely powerful when he transforms."
Moro's smile only grew.
"Good. This is becoming more interesting."
If Vegeta was improving, Moro had even more reason to continue building his own reserves before the promised battle on Earth.
"I'll keep storing power until I reach my limit."
He paused, amused by his own choice of words.
"Assuming I have one."
Saganbo wisely said nothing.
"Find more planets worth consuming," Moro continued. "The better the life energy, the better."
"Understood."
The hunt continued.
Days passed, then weeks, until the two-month deadline finally arrived.
Inside Merus's extradimensional training space, considerably more time had passed for Goku.
Merus checked the clock on the wall and calculated the remaining difference between their training environment and the outside world.
"It's almost time. Let's have one final match, then we'll leave for Earth."
Goku rolled his shoulders and stepped into position. "All right. This time I'm using Ultra Instinct -Sign- from the start."
Merus nodded, his expression becoming more focused.
The two launched themselves at each other and immediately fell into the rhythm they had spent months refining. Goku no longer fought Ultra Instinct -Sign- the way he once had, forcing his mind to become empty while still trying to consciously dictate every movement. His body responded more naturally now, slipping around Merus's attacks and countering without the hesitation that had repeatedly broken his concentration in the past.
Merus steadily increased the pressure, forcing Goku to move faster and react to angles that would once have overwhelmed him. Every exchange pushed the incomplete state closer to what it was supposed to become.
Three minutes later, Merus finally pulled back.
A smile appeared on his face.
"That's it, Goku. You've got it."
Goku let the silver aura settle around him and took a moment to feel the difference for himself. The transformation no longer seemed unstable or borrowed. For the first time, Ultra Instinct -Sign- felt like something he could truly control.
"Yeah. Thanks to you, I think I've finally completed -Sign-."
"You've done more than that." Merus studied him carefully, clearly pleased with how far the training had taken him. "You're only one step away from true Ultra Instinct now."
Goku grinned.
He could feel it too.
The last barrier was still there, but for the first time, it no longer seemed unreachable.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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