William tore through the solar system like a celestial missile, wrapped in the untamed fury of his Super Saiyan 2 form. His golden aura didn't merely glow, it howled. Lightning writhed across his body, cracking space itself as he moved. Every atom around him screamed in resistance, superheated to the point of sublimation by the volatile energy radiating from his form.
Behind him, the Great Ape's legacy still surged, an apocalyptic energy beam the size of a mountain range, a scarlet juggernaut barreling through the void toward Earth. The attack didn't just illuminate space, it burned its presence into it, warping gravity and bending light around its path like a solar god's war cry.
To the naked eye, it might've looked like a comet, if comets ever moved at thousands of times light speed and carried the rage of a god reborn.
Space, that ancient and cold cradle of stars, recoiled. Gravitational currents twisted unnaturally. Asteroids long dormant were torn from their lazy orbits and flung across the system like pebbles before a tsunami. Some collided with moons, others with each other, shattering into dust. The beam ahead of William cut through Saturn's rings like a divine blade, a perfect, glowing scar across the sky, icy particles vaporizing as it passed.
He wasn't flying. He was ripping through creation.
And Earth was next.
Earth – Undisclosed Underground Facility
Red lights bathed the command center in a demonic hue, casting shadows across the tense, unmoving faces of the technicians. Alarms howled. The air itself seemed to buzz with rising dread.
The main monitor flickered as satellites were overridden and repurposed, camera feeds adjusting, focusing, zooming, past Mars, past Jupiter, until the impossible came into view.
It was like watching judgment day arrive.
A burning projectile of gold and crimson, bigger than anything Earth's instruments could measure. It didn't move, it consumed the distance. And ahead of it, the beam, hotter than a star, hungrier than death, roared silently through the vacuum, promising extinction.
Cecil Stedman stood stone still, the only sound his quiet drag from a nearly burnt-out cigarette. Smoke curled from his lips like a reluctant prayer.
"...Can't we get a fucking break?" he muttered, voice hoarse with fatigue.
No one answered. What could they say?
Chicago – Battlefield
The skies above the Windy City were choked with the fire of war. Rubble blanketed the streets. Entire districts had been leveled. The clash of Viltrumite power echoed like cannon fire across the skyline.
Sif stood in the heart of it all, a lone goddess bloodied and encircled. Her golden hair matted with sweat and gore. Her armor, once pristine Asgardian craftsmanship, was now a collection of battered plates, dented and scorched from relentless combat.
She breathed hard through cracked lips.
Three Viltrumites struck, synchronized, merciless. One uppercut. One elbow to the spine. One hammerfist to her ribs.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Pain spiderwebbed through her body. A jagged wound tore down her forearm, her blood trailing behind her like a war banner.
But she wasn't done.
With a battle cry that shook the buildings around her, she flipped mid-air and carved her blade through one attacker, severing his arm in a flash of silver and scarlet.
The scream barely left his throat before Krieg appeared.
Cold. Calculating. Cruel.
His knee rocketed into her face. Bone crunched. Her head jerked back violently, consciousness flickering like a dying flame. A second strike, another Viltrumite, caught her exposed back and hurled her into the sky like a meteor.
She broke through the cloud layer. Beyond even that.
In low orbit, she floated, barely conscious. Her vision blurred. Her breath came ragged and shallow. The Earth below looked so distant. So small.
Then something moved.
Far beyond the moon, a red and gold light bloomed.
It was not a star.
It was him.
"...What in the Nine Realms...?" she whispered, awe and fear twisting in her chest.
Mid-Atlantic Ocean – Above the Deep
The ocean convulsed.
Anissa and Conquest were locked in a savage dance above the waves, two titans trading blows that shattered the sky. Every collision sparked explosions that vaporized clouds. Ships were torn apart just by proximity. The ocean itself buckled, great surges of water leaping into the air with every shockwave.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Anissa spun around him like a lightning storm in human form, precise, relentless. Four bone-shattering punches hit in rapid succession, each landing with surgical fury. Conquest snarled, his jaw tightening as the final blow cracked his nose.
He staggered.
And then, he laughed.
"Still think you can win, girl?"
POW.
A backhand faster than sound caught her jaw. Her neck snapped sideways with a sickening crunch. Blood sprayed from her mouth as her body was flung like a meteor, crashing into the ocean with cataclysmic force.
The impact triggered a minor tsunami. A column of seawater erupted skyward, vaporizing around the edges from sheer heat.
For a moment, the world stilled.
Then, BOOOOOOM!
The sea detonated upward as a golden blur emerged from the depths.
Anissa's fist collided with Conquest's jaw. A bone-splintering CRACK echoed across the sky.
She wasn't done.
The moon, once a quiet, barren rock, had become a battleground, the ground shattered and torn, its surface now a mess of fractured remnants beneath the two titans locked in brutal combat. Mark, battered and bloodied, stood toe-to-toe with Thragg, the Viltrumite regent. Their blows echoed across the silence of space like thunder on a distant world, the sheer force of each punch creating shockwaves that rocked the moon's very core.
"DO YOU THINK YOU CAN WIN, MARK?" Thragg growled, his voice laced with venom. His fist collided with Mark's stomach, driving the young Viltrumite to fold in half, his breath stolen despite the fact that he didn't need air to survive.
Before Mark could recover, Thragg's enormous hand snaked around his head, lifting him effortlessly from the wreckage of the shattered moon surface. "WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU COULD DO AGAINST THE ENTIRE VILTRUM EMPIRE, MARK?"
Mark's vision blurred for a moment, and for the briefest of seconds, he caught a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye, a glimmer of light that burned brighter than any star he'd ever seen. It was distant, yet… undeniable.
His gaze flickered toward it, a small sun, glowing ominously, approaching too rapidly to ignore. His confusion was fleeting, a split-second distraction.
But Thragg's iron grip on his head snapped his focus back to the here and now.
"I could win!" Mark spat defiantly, his voice tinged with the defiance of a Viltrumite who knew his heart better than anyone.
His smirk only served to infuriate Thragg, the elder Viltrumite's face contorting in rage. His fist was drawn back, ready to strike again, ready to wipe that cocky grin off Mark's face forever.
But suddenly, something shifted. Thragg's neck stiffened. His breath hitched. A prickling sensation crawled up his spine, a subtle but unmistakable feeling. Danger. Power.
Before he could react, Mark seized the opportunity. With a powerful thrust of his foot, he slammed it into Thragg's gut. The force of the blow reverberated through the very fabric of the moon itself, sending a shockwave through the rubble. Thragg's body jerked backward as the air rushed from his lungs.
"WHOOSH!" The sound echoed like a sonic boom, but it was only the beginning.
Mark didn't hesitate. With a strength fueled by desperation and raw instinct, he pushed. His arms wrapped around Thragg, and with all his might, he hurled the regent of the Viltrum Empire away from Earth, his body like a weapon, a spear of destruction through the cold expanse of space.
"BOOM!" They collided with a massive chunk of moonstone, obliterating it in a cataclysmic explosion of rock and debris.
Mark's feet planted firmly, and without a second's hesitation, he forced Thragg further into space, past the debris of the moon, away from the once-silent satellite. They were heading toward the distant light, the ominous, bright-red glow that had been steadily intensifying in Mark's peripheral vision, a force that grew ever closer, a tidal wave of destruction racing toward them.
Thragg, though stunned, began to push back, regaining his bearings as the two of them tore through the void of space, the stars around them blurring as they hurtled toward what could only be described as an unstoppable force. The small sun in the distance? It wasn't just a distant light. It was something else, something far more dangerous.
But even as the two Viltrumites raced toward the impending confrontation, neither of them could have guessed that the battle for the fate of Earth was about to enter an entirely new phase.
Mark's heart pounded as he shot a glance toward the horizon, now filled with nothing but the fiery approach of power incarnate. "This isn't over," he muttered under his breath.
And as the fiery light neared, a silent, menacing promise filled the void of space.
The atmosphere around them quivered with a sudden, primal force as the massive beam of energy loomed ever closer, its presence a suffocating pressure in the void of space. Mark, his mind locked on the mission at hand, pushed with everything he had, the raw, relentless might of his Viltrumite strength propelling them toward the unavoidable collision.
"WHOOOOOOOOSHHHHH!" The sound of their flight through the void was drowned out by the unbearable weight of the incoming energy. Thragg's eyes widened as realization hit him with brutal clarity.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Thragg's voice was filled with a mix of disbelief and growing fear. The sheer magnitude of the energy was unlike anything he'd encountered, and now, his worst nightmare was hurtling straight toward him.
Mark didn't hesitate. He gritted his teeth, his heart pounding in his chest as he surged forward. His hands, wrapped around Thragg, pushed him with devastating force, driving the Viltrumite regent headlong into the waiting wall of cosmic fury.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The impact was cataclysmic, a cosmic explosion that rang through the fabric of space itself. The beam slammed into Thragg's back, tearing through his skin like paper, unleashing an eruption of force and raw power that rippled outward, scattering debris and light for miles.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Thragg's roar echoed through the void, a primal, terrified scream. It was a sound of pain, the kind of pain that even a being as mighty as he had never experienced before. His entire body seemed to catch fire, his flesh sizzling and burning away as the unbearable energy consumed him. Desperation took over, and his fists hammered into Mark's back with all the fury of a cornered animal, hoping to break free, hoping to escape the onslaught.
But Mark was unrelenting.
Despite the force of Thragg's blows, Mark's body remained solid as a rock, his grip unwavering, holding Thragg in place as they were both engulfed by the energy. Every strike from Thragg sent shockwaves through his body, yet Mark held his ground, his teeth clenched in defiance. He wouldn't let go, not now, not when they were so close to their goal.
The air around them turned to molten fire as both their skin began to burn away, the intense heat of the beam stripping away their very essence. Mark's eyes teared, the pain unbearable, his vision blurring as the beam's energy began to eat away at him. His own eyes burned, and the skin around them began to crack under the strain.
But then, something changed.
A sudden, overwhelming surge of power coursed through Mark's body. His suit, once battered and worn, began to glow with a golden energy that radiated outwards like the dawn breaking across the horizon. The glow intensified, forming a protective barrier around him, shielding his body from the crushing heat.
"What is this energy, is this Ki?" Mark thought to himself, his mind scrambling to make sense of the sensation. His body was flooded with power, a mysterious force that protected him from the burning energy surrounding them. His body, now bathed in golden light, floated in front of Thragg, his once-bleeding face now set in an expression of focused determination.
Thragg, however, was far from protected. His body, unable to withstand the unrelenting onslaught, began to break down under the relentless energy. His movements grew weaker, more desperate, as the energy tore through his flesh, his entire being consumed by the beam. He thrashed helplessly, his strength waning as the beam continued its cosmic journey, carrying the broken Viltrumite regent into the vast emptiness of space.
The battlefield was silent now. The only sound was the faint crackle of the energy as it continued to carry Thragg further away, sending him spiraling into the unknown, his body broken, defeated, and swept away by the tidal wave of cosmic power.
Marks eyes went wide as a golden silhouette pierced through the thin side of the beam and approached the young Viltrumite with a strange expression on his face.
"William?" Mark questioned, "Where the hell have you been?" Mark approached William and gave him a solid hug worry clearly visible on his face.