Chapter 829: Rule-Breaking Blood of Wrath
[You have slain Void Paradise Sequence Three: Thunder Prison God King. Obtained SS-Rank Singularity Point * 1, Dimensional Points * 50,000]
[You have acquired Privilege: Search (Tier 4) — You may scan, index, and retrieve precise intelligence or establish a forced anchor upon any designated unit or construct within spatial range]
[Faction Points +5. Current: 9]
[Special Sequence: God King progress updated. Current: 3/4]
[Special Unit: Archetype of Terminus and Genesis EX051, you have triggered Emergency Quest: Mandatory Extraction. Please disengage from combat immediately and return to the Space]
A stray strand of golden Ki sheared through Kaito Shirogane's hair, while the concussive shockwave pushed his frame backward through the air. He was already over a thousand miles from the epicenter of the battlefield. If not for the Unknown Art reshaping his eyes into an unnamable mystic vision, even he would have had to rely strictly on the Martial God's Ultimate Intent and his fraying Mantra Network just to vaguely track the flow of combat.
Kaito's pupils gleamed like lustrous gemstones, reflecting every movement of the two silhouettes moving far beyond normal perceptual limits.
Their motions were deceptively simple, every block and strike stripped of superfluous flourish. In terms of sheer martial refinement, they fell short of Kaito's current peak.
Yet backed by that apocalyptic Ki, every slight motion held the power to shatter heaven and earth. If both fighters weren't deliberately reigning in the collateral damage, the mere aftershocks of their exchange would have long reduced the planet to cinders.
Kaito flatly ignored the Space's extraction warnings. Once he departed this world, an encounter of this caliber would be nearly impossible to find again.
Meanwhile, the crimson phantom of the Omen of the Evil God continuously siphoned the ambient Ki leaking across the sky. Reaching a sudden point of saturation, it shifted into a turbulent, half-gold, half-black shimmer, expanding around him like swelling foam.
At first, Kaito took no notice, but an unnatural heaviness soon weighed upon his limbs.
[Rule-Breaking Blood of Wrath detected. Omen of the Evil God (Tier 3) satisfies advancement criteria. Initiate Sublimation Trial now?]
Only with this prompt did Kaito recall that his Crimson Great Sin had long met the advancement threshold back when he slaughtered the Reincarnators in the real world.
Yet the trial conditions had remained dormant until this moment, triggered mid-battle by the clash of two Super Saiyans.
Rule-Breaking Blood of Wrath...
The crimson-tinged text pulsed with a faint luminescence. The Space seemed to deliberately signal the extraordinary nature of this catalyst, hinting at the punishing difficulty of the sublimation trial ahead.
The Roland of Azure Sky whom Kaito had once encountered had only achieved Tier 3 within the Virtues sequence; Kaito had never heard of a Tier 4 Great Sin manifesting among Reincarnators.
He could not confirm whether crossing into Tier 4 was universally this difficult, though instinct told him this was an extreme anomaly.
Yet now that it was right in front of him, turning away was out of the question.
[Yes]
[You have initiated Omen of the Evil God Sublimation Sequence VI: Ultimate Sin]
[Please temper the sequence using materials aligned with the Ultimate Sin to forge the path. Note: Each smelting attempt consumes Sin Points * 100]
[Blood of Wrath (Unacquired)]
Kaito's gaze drifted upward. Saiyans were fundamentally tethered to wrath; unchecked fury was the true catalyst that drove their bloodline past physiological ceilings to trigger the Super Saiyan transformation.
An unquenchable rage served as their ultimate source of power.
Rule-Breaking Blood of Wrath, is it...? Kaito glanced first at Son Goku, who was gradually losing ground as he held back, being hurled repeatedly through the air. His focus then shifted toward the one-armed Gohan, whose long black hair whipped violently in the gale.
Even without sensing Ki, one could feel the suffocating, boundless fury rolling off him.
Kaito possessed a general grasp of this one-armed Gohan's history. It was an unmitigated tragedy: Son Goku had succumbed to a heart virus, leaving Androids 17 and 18 to establish total dominion over the earth.
Every Z Fighter, Piccolo included, was slaughtered. With Piccolo's death, Kami perished in tandem, rendering the Dragon Balls permanently inert.
Gohan was stripped of every shield. Sheltered in his youth by his mother's academic priorities and his gentle nature, he had never received rigorous training, leaving his combat foundations far weaker than those of his counterparts in other timelines.
That fragile Gohan was never granted the luxury of gradual growth, forced to fight for survival against two androids endowed with infinite energy.
His world burned, humanity was systematically culled, and his loved ones fell one by one while he stood powerless to stop it.
Emulating the faded memories of his father, Gohan threw himself into combat, barely managing to awaken Super Saiyan, yet he remained utterly outmatched by the androids.
In the end, his arm was torn away, leaving him broken and alone.
He pinned his remaining hopes on Bulma's young son, Trunks. He taught him, guarded him, and ultimately laid down his life in a desperate standoff to ensure the boy survived.
Using his own demise as the price, he bought Trunks the time to mature, allowing the boy to live long enough for Bulma to complete the time machine. That journey across time delivered the vital heart medicine to Son Goku, altering the destiny of another timeline entirely.
Yet no matter how radiant that alternate world became, the reality belonging to this one-armed Gohan remained a shattered, desolate ruin.
Small wonder his fury ran so deep.
Kaito despised dwelling on tragic backstories and sentimental rationales. It felt as though an unseen hand was forever trying to paste convenient, tidy footnotes onto everything.
As if a warrior needed a catalog of trauma just to justify burning with absolute fury, or hungering for supreme power.
Was not the desire for absolute strength an innate instinct in its own right?
Kaito observed the black Ki clinging to Gohan's flesh like a flowing shroud. Though superficially similar, this state was distinctly neither Ultra Instinct nor Gohan's unique Beast form.
It was an independent path carved out by this Black King Gohan, an absolute mastery over Ki that exceeded standard Saiyans and Z Fighters alike.
In this elongated state, he wielded an explosive output capable of suppressing even Son Goku's Super Saiyan 3.
Of course, Kaito could also tell that Goku was actively suffocating his own battle instincts, caught in a bitter tug-of-war between his Saiyan blood and his love for his son.
Sliding through the violent kinetic crosswinds, Kaito continuously chained Musō Tensei with Spirit of the Wind, guided by the Martial God's Ultimate Intent.
As long as the two titans didn't deliberately focus their killing intent upon him, he possessed the mobility to linger along the perimeter of the kill zone.
Yet the longer he watched, the more irritated he grew. The operational tempo was far too tepid. Goku refused to commit himself to the kill.
Looking down at the churning ocean, and then back at the crimson prompt demanding the Rule-Breaking Blood of Wrath, an idea formed.
He suddenly broke the silence, projecting his voice across the void: "Black King over there! Didn't you say that if Mr. Son Goku fails to strike you down, you'll lay waste to this world and slaughter every living soul?!"
CRACK!
The atmosphere detonated. Two entities moving at trans-sonic velocities ground to an instant halt, the displaced gale screaming across the ocean like a category-twelve hurricane.
The two Super Saiyans lowered their brow ridges, their eyes shifting sideways to pin the lunatic martial artist Mercenary Tao with a glance.
There stood the long-haired warrior, his dark locks stained a wet crimson from the biological backlash of forcing the high-multiplier Kaio-Ken, arms spread wide without the slightest trace of a guard as he roared into the storm:
"Then do it right now!"
"Obliterate this world! Slaughter... every last one of them!"
His voice climbed in manic cadence, echoing through the howling gale, threatening to tear straight through the roaring wind.
The words carried an irrepressible, unhinged ecstasy.
In Super Saiyan 3, Son Goku finally turned his head fully, staring directly at this fragile, utterly insane creature.
The man had to know that the world and the lives Gohan threatened to wipe out naturally included his own.
Did this Mercenary Tao genuinely believe that his cellular regeneration was enough to preserve his life against the full might of two Super Saiyans?
Yet looking at Kaito's arched brows and relaxed, welcoming stance, Goku dismissed that thought.
This Mercenary Tao was simply a madman through and through.
One-Armed Gohan froze for a second, then exhaled a slow, heavy breath.
He knew his posturing had failed to deceive anyone. Not only this treacherous, bloodthirsty Reincarnator, but even his overly gentle father never believed for a second that he would genuinely destroy the world.
That was why Goku repeatedly held back.
And yet...
Gohan closed his eyes. Certain paths had to be walked to the end. Just as he had once been fated to trade his life away to secure an outcome...
Whether it was buying time for Trunks to grow, or paying the toll to drag an even more terrifying Black King onto the board!
Screech—PFFT!
Kaito's gemstone-like pupils contracted sharply. He raised a hand, but before his fingers could even reach his cheek, the flesh and bone beneath were sliced open with a wet pop.
The ocean behind him split down the middle like warm butter under a searing blade, parting into a massive canyon that carved through the seabed and continental plate in a single stroke.
Kaito's eyes trembled. One-Armed Gohan stood with his palm leveled horizontally, having delivered a casual, effortless sweep. Kaito had failed to register the approach of the attack entirely.
There was no sensation of pain when his flesh was severed.
His Martial God's Ultimate Intent had failed to perceive the strike.
A rare tremor passed through Kaito's spine—not of terror, but of pure, intoxicating exhilaration.
He was thrilled that an apex Saiyan had finally resolved to fight with genuine, unbridled bloodlust, fully committing to the total annihilation of the world and everyone on it.
At that moment, an overwhelming tide of absolute malice rolled off One-Armed Gohan.
Pitch-black Ki expanded in visible rings, washing outward from beneath Gohan's feet in continuous shockwaves.
Standing his ground, Kaito's freshly reformed Three-Part Revolving Force was ripped to shreds instantly. The AT Field flared across his skin, sliding him backward across the sky under the relentless concussive force.
"Son Goku. From this second onward, I am going to destroy this world."
Gohan's voice flattened into utter detachment. His right arm blurred, and his Ki erupted with blinding violence.
Countless Ki blasts poured from Gohan's palm, propelled into the air in rapid succession.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
The sky was blanketed in an instant by a sea of black Ki blasts. Each orb measured less than a meter across, appearing remarkably compact, fired indiscriminately in every direction without deliberate aim.
Watching the sky fill with destructive spheres, Kaito was momentarily stunned before pure rapture took hold.
That crushing, suffocating premonition of planetary doom dug deep into his scalp.
Even for a Primordial Man sustained by the earth, even for a God of Martial Arts who had breached the divine realm to touch the Abyssal Domain, if the world itself was obliterated, he would be reduced to an insect stripped of solid ground.
A single one of those Ki blasts held enough yield to crack the planet; Gohan had casually unleashed thousands!
"Ha... Haha! Hahahahaha!"
Amidst Kaito's laughter, Son Goku's expression turned dead cold. He could never stand by and allow this to happen.
There were no Dragon Balls in this world; he could not guarantee the mystical spheres would function here even if summoned.
This realm held so many delicious foods, and he had crossed paths with Toriko, Luffy, and so many good people.
The life of this world could not be permitted to end over one man's grief.
Golden Ki surged from deep within Goku, his aura fusing into an unbroken sheet of blinding radiance. Enveloping his frame, the golden shockwave traced an expanding halo across the atmosphere.
By the time Kaito's vision resolved the image, he saw only Goku casually sweeping a single open palm. The sky full of black Ki blasts shattered on impact.
Not even a single secondary explosion was permitted to form.
Kaito realized he had to fundamentally re-evaluate the martial mastery of Son Goku and the Z Fighters.
In terms of anatomical leverage, physical kinetics, or cosmic harmonization, these Saiyans were far from peerless.
Yet in the raw dominion, compression, and execution of Ki, they possessed an innate genius that left ordinary humans completely in the dust.
Kaito's strained cognitive faculties continued to process data at maximum capacity, drawing parallels across his memories of the Dragon Ball universe.
Human martial artists like Master Roshi, the Crane Hermit, and Krillin had innovated brilliant technical maneuvers to punch far above their baseline combat power.
Yet when it came to sheer talent in commanding, manipulating, and drawing upon Ki, alien races, Majins, and Androids operated on a completely different plane.
Tien Shinhan of the Three-Eyed clan, the Super Saiyan Son Goku, and far more monstrous entities like Frieza and Buu possessed a mastery over Ki that ordinary mortals could never hope to rival.
Along this singular path, Kaito remained vastly outmatched by them.
Across the firmament, the Super Saiyan 3 moved at speeds that tested even Kaito's enhanced sight, leaving only the sensory imprint of detonating Ki erupting across the sky.
Yet every single burst precisely neutralized Gohan's black Ki.
Destructive power of that scale was contained with such finesse that it inflicted zero collateral damage upon the planet below.
Watching his assault neutralized, One-Armed Gohan pressed the attack with escalating savagery.
Seeing drops of blood begin to spray across the upper atmosphere, Kaito felt his chest swell with anticipation. He reached out an arm, drawing those scattered droplets of blood toward his palm with magnetic force.
Yet the very next instant, a hand locked around Kaito's forearm. Sparks danced along jagged strands of golden hair as Son Goku's teal eyes glared down at him with cold fury.
"Mercenary Tao... was this your goal all along...?"