"This is impossible!"
Charles's face twisted as the realization hit him; he simply could not accept that, despite possessing god-like, terrifying power, he had still been sent flying by a single punch—completely unable to fight back.
"I don't believe it!"
He channeled the Abyss-Walker once more. With a flash of movement, he unleashed his full strength and charged at Goku.
"You're too weak."
Goku's right hand rapidly enlarged and shot forward. With a simple grab—as if catching a fly—he snatched Charles right out of the air.
No matter how hard Charles pushed the Abyss-Walker, he couldn't break free from that massive hand.
Goku applied a bit more pressure, and Charles—trapped inside the Abyss-Walker—suddenly felt an irresistible, overwhelming force slam into him.
Then, just like that, his entire body exploded into a pulp of flesh and blood inside the suit.
"Oops, I used a bit too much strength."
Goku was momentarily stunned to see Charles die just like that.
He had felt the Abyss-Walker was quite sturdy, so he had applied a little extra force, intending only to make Charles behave himself.
He hadn't expected Charles to be crushed to a pulp instantly.
Or perhaps it was simply that Charles himself was too weak to withstand the backlash caused by the Abyss-Walker resisting such immense external force.
Forces are reciprocal.
The Abyss-Walker heavy mech was indeed powerful, but—much like Erza's magical armor—it required a strong user to fully unleash its potential.
Even with the blessing of the "Lord of Light and Shadow," Charles's physical body was still merely that of an ordinary human.
Against average enemies, the Abyss-Walker could easily destroy them, so naturally, Charles faced no significant physical strain.
But against a terrifying entity like Goku—who could crush the Abyss-Walker itself with a full-power strike—things were different.
In the process of resisting that force, it was inevitable that some of the impact would be transferred to Charles's body.
"Oh well, he's dead now."
Mark, who had finally snapped out of his shock, was breaking into a cold sweat.
If Goku hadn't intervened, Charles—clad in the Abyss-Walker—would have blown Mark's head off with a single punch. As for Charles's death—good riddance to scum like him.
He felt absolutely no sympathy for the man.
"Retrieve the Abyss-Walker."
Seeing Goku set the Abyss-Walker down, Mark immediately signaled Dr. Carrie to have her team recover the heavy-duty mech.
Dr. Carrie, meanwhile, stared at Goku as if he were a monster.
No one on the Lighthouse understood the terrifying nature of the Abyss-Walker better than she did.
Yet Charles, while piloting it, had been as weak as an ant before Goku.
"Yes, Commander!"
Taking a deep breath, she quickly led her lab team to retrieve the Abyss-Walker.
But just then, a cloaked phantom slowly rose from Charles's lifeless corpse.
The moment the phantom appeared, everyone on the Lighthouse—Mark included—seemed frozen in place; their minds locked up, and their eyes snapped shut.
The phantom glanced at Mark, then darted straight into Goku's body.
But the very next second, it was kicked right back out.
"Who's there?"
Goku's eyes flew open, and a powerful aura instantly erupted from him.
The massive surge of energy shattered the mental lock, allowing Mark and the others to gradually open their eyes.
The phantom, momentarily dazed, wore a look of disbelief; clearly, it hadn't expected its attempt at possession to fail.
It reacted quickly, however; before anyone could catch a glimpse of it, it vanished into the Lighthouse, as if it had never existed at all.
"What happened?"
Mark and the others, having just opened their eyes, looked on in confusion as Goku suddenly radiated such an intense aura.
Goku turned his head, sensed his surroundings for a moment, and finally shook his head.
"It's nothing."
He had felt something try to enter his body. Thanks to the Ancient One's teachings on soul control, his soul had instinctively lashed out with a kick, ejecting the intruder.
"Goku, when should we start clearing out the Phage Beasts down below?"
After leaving the laboratory and returning to their quarters, Mark asked Goku for his thoughts.
After what had just transpired, he knew full well that the task of exterminating the Phage Beasts and destroying the Mana Flowers would rely primarily on Goku.
The Lighthouse crew could only provide support.
Therefore, the decision on exactly when to begin the operation naturally rested with Goku.
If Goku wanted to take more time to prepare and wait a few months before acting, Mark would consider that perfectly reasonable.
"It's too late today; let's start first thing tomorrow morning after breakfast."
Goku yawned; it was nearly midnight, and he was getting sleepy.
Mark was taken aback by this:
"Tomorrow morning? Wouldn't that be a bit too soon?"
In his view, wiping out the Phage Beasts and Mana Flowers was certainly not a task that could be completed quickly.
It required meticulous planning and a step-by-step approach; ideally, they should gather more intelligence on the Mana Flowers first.
At the very least, it would take a month.
He hadn't expected Goku to plan on starting as early as tomorrow morning.
"Yeah, I aim to take care of all the Phage Beasts tomorrow."
Goku yawned again and sat down on his bed.
For him, there was no need for preparation; he could simply keep fighting until every last Phage Beast was eliminated.
Besides, he still had over a hundred Senzu Beans, so he didn't need to worry about running out of stamina or Ki.
If things went smoothly, this sustained battle might even allow him to fully master the state of the "Transparent World" as a permanent ability.
"Eliminate all the Phage Beasts tomorrow?"
Mark gasped in astonishment.
He wondered if Goku was underestimating the sheer number of Phage Beasts.
However, recalling the scene at the spaceship wreckage—where Goku had wiped out hundreds of Phage Beasts in an instant with a wave of his hand, unleashing countless blades of Ki—
He suddenly felt that perhaps it wasn't impossible after all.
Yet, the Phage Beasts were scattered across cities all over the globe; even if they cleared them out city by city, it would be impossible to finish the job in a single day.
Just traveling between the various cities—and the flight time required—would take more than a day.
"However, it will still take a few days to repair the heavy mechs belonging to the Light and Shadow Society and the City Defense Force."
Instead of directly contradicting Goku, he raised another issue.
Currently, only the Hunter Corps' heavy mechs remained undamaged; the mechs belonging to the City Defense Force and the Light and Shadow Society had all been wrecked during the attack on Goku.
Fully repairing those heavy mechs would take at least a week.
"Oh? Then just gather the damaged mechs in one place; I'll fix them for you when I wake up tomorrow."
Goku could no longer fight off his drowsiness; after saying those final words, he collapsed and fell asleep instantly.
"You're going to fix them?"
Mark looked at the sleeping Goku, his face full of confusion, but there was no one left to answer him.
"Could it be... magic?"
Goku didn't look like the type who knew how to repair heavy mechs—and even if he did, it would be impossible to fix so many of them in a single morning.
The only explanation was that miraculous magic.
With this speculation in mind, he turned to notify the heads of the various departments to hold a meeting.
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