A long, red, hooded cloak over what looked like the same blue Saiyan armor I wear, though I couldn't see it clearly as most of his body was covered by his cloak. He stared back at me with crossed arms, and it almost felt like I was staring into a mirror. Not surprising since he was my mirror twin, at least another version of him. Of course, that didn't take away from the eerily feeling of looking into a familiar yet unfamiliar face.
Actually, the fact he looked like my brother made this experience a bit worse. For anyone looking at us, it would probably look like we were two copies of each other. One might not necessarily differentiate him from me.
One of the only two things besides the clothes that made it clear he wasn't me was the scar on his cheek. Something the version of my Saiyan brother had gotten a long time ago when he fought a thug on our way home. "This form..." His voice trailed off as he gave me a once-over. It honestly triggered memories of my life on Vegeta.
It had never been in the forefront of my thoughts or even influenced my actions, besides probably the first few days and weeks in this universe. Of course, I wouldn't say it was without influence, but the life there wasn't something that would be considered with every action I took.
Still, I couldn't deny that seeing and hearing him triggered an emotional response of nostalgia and a mixture of happiness and sadness. However, it also put me on guard as well. It wasn't like I had a terrible relationship with my own version of Giblet to the point we wanted to kill each other. No, in fact, we had a decent relationship as our family had been, for Saiyans, unusually affectionate.
Obviously, I was happy to see him, but I also knew that he was supposed to be the villain in the dragon ball game series where Shallot was a thing. I wasn't sure why and how it put us at odds. The only thing I was certain of was that this might not be a peaceful encounter.
He raised an eyebrow as I still held my guard up against him and I wouldn't drop it easily. Mainly because of the second thing that differentiated us and represented a clear contrast between us, revealing that we were two different people, at least at this moment.
He was in his base form.
I wasn't sure whether he entered this space in his base, but he certainly weathered the chaotic and, most importantly, deadly storm with incredible ease. He stood there like it was drizzling. A bit of rain on an otherwise sunny day. One had to know where we were to understand how impressive this was.
I had been to this dimension before in two separate universes. The trip to hell had me explore this place due to many demons having hidden lairs there and the other time was when the wormhole collapsed back when I wanted to return to the future from the past. The two experiences had been starkly different in terms of their danger, though that was easily explained.
There was normal space where the normal universe was, then there was this dimension with an ever-existing mess of space and time. A storm of all possibilities. If you could travel to this place, you could enter different periods in time, past, present, and future of this universe. It was also not something one could destroy, at least it hadn't been possible for me until now.
It also didn't give you access to another universe, but one was already on the edge of this universe, making it the easiest place to enter another universe from if one could pierce through the bounds. Trigon's place had been somewhere in this place as well and it was also because it was close to the bounds of the universe that Raven had been able to use that spell to bring us to another parallel universe.
This space represented the peak of hostility this universe could show you. To be able to stand here meant he could withstand the harshest environment this universe had to offer by either disobeying/manipulating the law via metaphysical abilities/magic or by withstanding it through sheer might. Obviously, he was the latter, and he did it with ease. It was a bit unnerving.
I could stand here in my base as well, but I would probably keep a ki aura around me to fend off any sudden dangers and resist the onslaught of this place. Probably keep up Ikari, just to be sure. So, just sensing his ki already told me if he went Super Saiyan 2, it would be a close match, but I believed I could still overpower him even if he went there. Of course, power wasn't the only thing that mattered in a fight, which was why I was ready for any sucker punches or ambushes.
My telepathic and ki senses spread out in all directions, trying to discern whether there was someone in hiding. He shouldn't be the one that Chronoa had warned me about, right?
No... that had to be someone from the DC Universe as she made it sound like their opponent didn't want them here. However, she also didn't say that they were from here. Of course, it would mean that Giblet had cosmic awareness to know when his name was spoken.
"So, I guess no reunion hug?" Giblet said ironically as if he figured out what was going through my mind.
"I don't think you realized it, but I am not the Shallot of your timeline and you aren't my brother." He tilted his head at my words.
"Yeah, only one way to know for certain, right?" His speed was fast considering the fact that he was just using his base, but that was hardly enough to compete with me. I dodged his punch before rotating my body to counter with an uppercut.
My fist slammed into his stomach until it almost touched his spine. Spit flew out of his mouth before he was shot through the space-time storm like a cannonball. Without waiting, I shot after him. I reached him instantly and hammered into his neck.
He grunted as his direction changed downward. I was about to pursue him, but his body suddenly stopped descending. With his back toward me, a sudden gray aura appeared around him before his feet seemed to have been ignited by flames. Like a fire tornado setting his feet on fire, he was enveloped by a red aura.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Not to mention what I was sensing. It was the first time I sensed it in real life. His ki changed to godly ki, and it was obviously different compared to that of Darkseid, the furies, or even Diana. It was heavier. The nature seemed somewhat similar, but the pressure it gave me was on an entirely different level. Did I get more sensitive to godly ki after my encounter with Kakarot and Vegeta?
His ki certainly felt similar to theirs during our brief image fight. Of course, that could also be because I had only experienced it mentally. However, all three's aura was illusive, untouchable, and obviously divine. Something that was beyond what one could train towards. From a first impression, I would even go so far as to say that Giblet's aura felt heavier, and purer than Vegeta's and Kakarot's while simultaneously being less expansive.
Despite his pureness, overall, he felt weaker than those two, but that wouldn't be too surprising. It wasn't a simple task to get close to those two. Regardless of who was stronger, it didn't affect I was royally fucked, right?
He turned around as a Super Saiyan God and grinned as he saw my surprised expression. He invitingly waved his hand at me. The blatant provocation pissed me off, but instead of rushing at him, I dug deeper into that never-ending well of power.
My transformation helped me dig deeper into my heritage. Something that lay in every cell in my body and pulled it forth, simultaneously causing them to mutate and elevate the power they could give until they ruptured from the output. Perhaps this was the reason no one had done it before. As soon as I felt my body tear apart, my ki, my psychic energy, and my entire being began to heal the wounds, letting my strength soar.
It had taken me quite some time to figure out that my psychic energy contributed to my healing and the success of my transformation as I had achieved it during a mental fight, something that happened with the help of telepathy and ki. This was also the reason I got mentally fatigued in the first place. Of course, it wasn't like the revelation had any effect, as the transformation could already be instinctively activated, but it influenced my awareness.
It made me realize that psychic energy might be able to assist me in a different way other than telepathy and telekinesis. Since it was an energy that was mainly used in tandem with thoughts, I figured I could accelerate my thought process and in the past month, I had gained minor success. This little advantage only enhanced my reaction time by such a tiny fraction that one wouldn't even consider it in any calculation.
However, this tiny bit of boost was extremely valuable in fights at my current height. It was for this reason, I was able to lean out of the way when Giblet punched at my head. I would never have been able to dodge his attack, but now it only graced my cheek before I retaliated.
A green sphere enveloped my fist as I slammed it into Giblet's chin, causing the energy sphere to explode on impact. A searing pain enveloped my arm before it quickly vanished as I healed up.
My body churned with energy as it rapidly rose to new heights in the face of this threat. In just a single exchange, my power increased even more than I had in the past month. Truly, a genuine threat was the way to grow.
Giblet slashed through the smoke, dispersing it to reveal he was unharmed. He stared at me with an indifferent expression, like I hadn't just hit his face with a devastating attack, causing even this strange place to crack.
Next to his head floated a hole in reality, showing the same dimension on the other side of the hole. A small window into another universe. A moment later, the hole disappeared as reality was mending itself.
"Not bad," Giblet said with a sneer as he brushed off the nonexistent dust on his shoulder. "However, not nearly enou-" Before he finished speaking, I already threw a ki spear at him. It sailed and pierced through the space and time storm, arriving in front of him instantly.
He barely leaned out of the way before it exploded behind him. He glared at me and then rushed towards me with unprecedented speed. Before I could react, my view shifted upward. For a moment, I thought he had shattered my chin as the pain traveled over my jaw into the base of my skull.
With the force that threw my head back, I could only turn my eyes toward him. He stood there with slightly bent knees and a fist close to his waist. Only when we locked eyes, he smirked before his arm struck out like a light beam.
I could feel his fist twisting as it shattered my armor and buried itself in my stomach, not unlike what I did to him just a moment ago. His fist didn't seem to stop and for a moment I was worried his arm would pierce right through my body as he folded me in half.
The next moment, the dimension sailed past me as I shot through it. I could feel the space-time storm pour onto my back like it was aiming for me as I pierced through it. All I could think about though was the pain I felt. I was pretty sure he just broke several of my ribs and ruptured my organs. It wouldn't surprise me if my spine had snapped since I couldn't feel my legs anymore.
Though if he thought I was out, he was very mistaken. If I wasn't killed, I would only come back stronger. My ki moved instantly to heal my wounds, resulting in mending my wounds. I back more powerful, making it easier to heal myself and get even stronger. It created a feedback loop, like a domino effect, as my new power healed me, making me stronger, in turn quickening my healing.
I would only need a dozen seconds at most to reach and surpass my peak by a long shot. However, Giblet wouldn't give me the time. He grabbed me by the tail. "Come on. Let's calm down now, okay?"
He squeezed and pulled at my tail as if he wanted to rip it out. It inflicted a deep-rooted pain in me, though it paled to the humiliation I felt as he held me up from the tail like I was a kitten. It looked like he wanted to knock me out, but a kick to my head only made my mind blank for a moment.
Then something just snapped, something inside of me. I wouldn't suffer such humiliation again. I wasn't going to be receiving a one-sided beating anymore. Not by Kakarot, Vegeta, or by this encounter with my 'brother'. No! There was no way just any Saiyan that came along would be stronger than I!
I wasn't training, only to be beaten by any Saiyan I met. I couldn't stand it! The idea of being the weakest living Saiyan disgusted me. A primal wrath I had thought I knew by now reared its head once again. My tail slithered out of his hands.
His eyes widened before he was struck by it. His head tilted to his side before he turned fully towards me with a busted lip. With the back of his hand, he wiped it away before looking at the stain on his glove.
My entire body was trembling as more and more power rushed through it. Building up inside me. Pushing me further. My muscles strained as they pumped full of energy. I could barely control it. But who said I needed control!? I just needed more! Unlimited power! I didn't care anymore. I didn't care if I lived! No longer worrying whether my body could handle it, I just let my ki flow unbridled.
My sight was tinted green as the surroundings seemed to be isolated from the rest of this dimension. A hunger formed in the pit of my stomach. My mind eerily went silent, with only one thing occupying its space: Release it!
Giblet disappeared before reappearing in front of me. An uppercut against my chin as he had done just a moment ago. This time, my head barely tilted upward. Giblet looked shocked. Before he could retract his fist, I grabbed his wrist.
I could feel it giving way, though this didn't seem to be the end of Giblet's strength. He used my arm as leverage and tried to knee my chin. I turned with his momentum and spun him around before throwing him away.
He quickly adjusted and turned around again. My eyes followed his movements, the streak of his aura through this space, but the time he needed to reach me was all the time I needed. The surroundings' shade of color changed several times as it seemed to flow into my hand. A tiny marble of pure energy formed in my palm as it overshadowed everything else with its pure potential devastation.
"Wait. Shallot!" Giblet called out despite the fact his ki moved to form a familiar technique mid-flight. He created a sphere of godly ki before punching it to accelerate it [Wild Cannon]!
At the same time, he attacked, I swung the ki sphere at him. It flew in a long arc, dispersing the space-time storm in its way before hitting his attack. The two spheres collided with each other, smushing together, deforming as if they were elastic.
The mass of energy that was created through the collision created a black crack in the middle as if this universe was ripping apart at its seams. A tear surrounded by lightning created such intense pressure and force I had to create a protective barrier around me to prevent myself from being swept away.
The clash of our attacks didn't last long. When it ended, my entire sight was painted white by the explosion. Sweeping away all there was. I couldn't sense anything or see anything besides the blinding light. The only thing I noticed was the feedback from my barrier. Did I overdo it?
This question ran through my mind as I felt a bit more grounded than before. I looked at the white sight before the sole of a foot appeared on my barrier. A crack formed on it almost immediately while I was thrown back. The worry vanished from my mind. I stretched out my hand. My fingertips glowed green as I waited. Just as another foot slammed into my barrier, I released the energy.
Several beams shot out. Five green-colored streaks pierced through my barrier. I didn't know whether I hit, but I felt an uncomfortable heat touch my skin as the residual energy of the collision entered my barrier. With the holes in my barrier, it got unstable and was instantly crushed when Giblet rushed inside it.
He looked desperate as he reached out to me. I leaned back into a backflip before kicking him in the face, sending him behind me."ufawh-u idioot!" He shouted as his body disappeared into the whiteness surrounding us. Suddenly, I felt a chill down my spine before I instantly shot after Giblet.
I turned my head to look back and see what my instincts were warning me from. An ever-expanding darkness that wasn't unlike what I had witnessed before Raven and I had entered Trigon's realm. Perhaps it was the same, though I doubted it since despite my increase in power, it still felt like a bad idea to meet whatever lurked inside of it.
The darkness swiftly devoured the light our attack had created. I looked away, trying to ignore it in favor to get away as fast as possible. I put two fingers on my forehead, trying to find a familiar life force, to no avail.
Giblet's ki suddenly popped up beside me, touching my shoulder. Before I could blink, our surroundings had changed. Giblet let go and looked around vigilantly as if he waited for something. After several moments of nothing happening, he sighed in relief. "-Puah. That was close."
He then turned to me and made a move to slap the back of my head, which I dodged out of the way. He was wide open, though I refrained from hitting him despite the fact I had been motivated to do so just a moment ago. Perhaps it had something to do with the cold sweat running down my back, bringing me back from my rage.
Obviously unhappy with me dodging his slap, he crossed his arms as he dropped out of SSG before waiting for me to do the same. "How long are you going to remain in that form?"
"You think I am going to let my guard down?" I took this moment to take a breather. At my question, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at me.
"You want to attract it here?" He questioned with a sneer on his face, as he figured he knew my answer, which ticked me off.
"And what do mean with 'it'?" I asked as I turned my body and adjusted my weight distribution just slightly, ready to swing at him. He glanced at me, shifting ever slightly before chortling at me.
"Can't say, though I can say that everything in this universe will die if he finds us, and I have no intention of fighting it Here." With that answer, he turned away from me, leaving his entire side and back open for me to ambush him. After deliberately looking around him this openly, he then lifted off the ground we were standing on before speeding off into space. It made me realize we were on an alien planet with some aliens surrounding and pointing at us.
I let my power settle, letting go of Ikari and just letting plain Super Saiyan empower my body, so I would still stand a chance against Giblet if he decided to ambush me. Though as I did, I wondered why I was a Super Saiyan and I didn't feel the space around us. Usually, I could easily sense it at this power level.
Ripping open a hole into space to enter that space-time storm dimension would be more than just easy to do with my current powers. The output of my energy hadn't decreased, so I didn't know- Wait, did I feel the universe suppression?
I shook my head and decided to figure out whether my suspicion was true. I followed him quickly, not wanting him to run around in this universe and accidentally destroy it. After catching up to him, he looked over his shoulder to look at me. "Did you calm down, brother?"
After speaking, he stopped and turned around in the middle of space, far away from the planetary system we had landed on just now. "I think there is a misunderstanding," I said slowly as I observed his entire body. Every single twitch would be caught by me and I would throw a beam at him to blast him to kingdom come if he decided to attack me. "I don't think you understood me correctly when I said that I am not your brother."
He said nothing as he looked at me. "No..." He finally stated with some resignation. "You are not my Shallot. You are too cautious. It is surprising to see you actually think before you make a move, though... that transformation of yours is something only you brute would use. Too vicious and destructive. Uncontrollable. If you had just gone Super Saiyan God, we probably wouldn't have had to flee. Though I am getting off-topic. Despite not knowing who you have become, we are still brothers."
"...You know I am just from another timeline of your brother, right?" He instantly shook his head and sighed as if he expected me to ask something like that. It was irritating me how easily he brushed off when I asked for clarification. This wasn't a matter of feelings, after all!
"No, you are my brother, despite having changed... He probably just erased his memories as he had done before." He muttered that last part to himself as he frowned before looking straight at me again. "No matter what. I will help you regain your birthright and your memories."
"I am not your brother. I remember mine quite clearly. My brother had died long ago before my parents send me away from planet Vegeta to safeguard me from King Cold-"
"Hmph. Planet Vegeta? King Cold? Do you think you are one of them? That was long after our time. You belong to the noble Super Saiyan God race!" He growled, clearly adamant about that.
"Super Saiyan God race..? Sounds fucking stupid-" Given his expression, it seemed like that got under his skin. I knew that the original Shallot was an ancient Saiyan, but what the hell was the Super Saiyan God race? Some natural-born gods or descendants of Yamoshi? I certainly didn't have any godly ki...
He took a deep breath to calm himself. "Yes, we are descendants of the Super Saiyan God who fought against the wicked Saiyans. The Saiyans born on planet Vegeta and served under that frost demon Cold were all descendants of these evil Saiyans."
I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Wouldn't that mean that Kakarot and Vegeta were evil Saiyans? Wait, was that why he was an antagonist in that game? "So, what? You are out on a mission to correct history? Revenge? Some cleansing bullshit?" His expression twitched slightly as I asked that.
"No, not anymore. It's a long story. Short story, we were manipulated by a guy called Zahha to stand against each other, but in the end, we realized his trickery and were able to beat him. It was unfortunate that we were separated by the collision of the cluster of realities, but now that I found you in good health. After we return and fix your memories with the help of these so-called dragon bal-"
"I am not going back. Besides, I still think you got the wrong guy. Infinite universes, infinite possibilities, so I am not a descendant of the Super Saiyan God and not your brother. I am not going to leave this 'cluster', so you can just go and leave on your own, find your correct brother." My answer wasn't something he expected or rather wanted, obviously.
"You will come with me. Once you have your memories back, you will understand-"
"I don't think you understand, buddy. I am not your bro, so either fuck off or put your paws up and we finish what we started." Despite the fact that my guard was up and my Super Saiyan transformation empowered my visual acuity and dynamic vision, I wasn't prepared when his aura instantly changed red. His transformation didn't even last a fraction of a second as if it had been underneath the surface all the time. He blitzed me with overwhelming speed.
The moment he passed me, I felt like I lost something. My power instantly increased as I entered legend mode, though a sharp pain in my neck interrupted me, robbing me of any thoughts as the hit left my mind blank. Some of his energy entered my neck before it was crushed by mine.
I recovered quickly and turned to him to punch him. I ate his punch into my cheek and lashed out. A heavy haymaker with all my back behind it. The green aura fiercely erupted out of me and enveloped my arm. "Wait!" He held something up, but I couldn't care enough to stop. What kind of fighter would stop attacking, just because the enemy called out to stop?!
Seeing no other way, he moved to block. With his right arm, he barely guided my punch away before he transitioned his momentum into a kick aimed at my temple. I rose my arm and blocked it. I pointed my palm at him. Green energy instantly formed before erupting into a beam at him.
He held an objection in his hand and used it to block my beam. My beam clashed against it and was divided into several streaks of light, scattering to the four winds. We were only one and a half meters away, so I could see it wasn't giving way. I flew backward to accumulate more energy into my other hand, ready to blast him to hell with so much condensed energy it will tear right through everything in its way.
Though even after the light show and dust had settled from my previous attack and its resulting explosion, I didn't attack. The reason was the round object he held in his hands and the resonance I felt from it. For just a moment, I entertained the thought that he had ripped out my heart before I caught a glimpse of it. When he turned around his hand and showed it to me, it was white-bluish.
"This is proof that you aren't from another timeline." Giblet quickly said, seizing on my hesitation. "Zahha placed these into our bodies to nourish them with our energy. He placed these into us, only us. Not another version or timeline. Just. Us."
If it weren't for the lack of star shapes inside of it, I might have considered it to be a dragon ball from GT. "What is it?" A white, bluish sphere. Should this mean anything to me? Was this something from the Xenoverse games?
This thing wasn't something I was familiar with and I wasn't sure how this could be supposed to be his proof. Should I hold up what I had for breakfast and say that was proof we had no relation?
The only thing that could underline his words was the fact that it just withstood a full-power attack of mine, and it felt like he was holding up one of my organs. Or was he just trying to use his words to stop me from building up my momentum?
He has done this since the beginning of our exchange. The moment I got the upper hand, he interjected with something. Was this a deliberate distraction?
"This, my dear brother, is the Omnificence Crystal, or at least the other half of it."