"Don't you get cocky with me!"
Quitela stared at his fist, still locked in a clash with Gran's. Inside, he was seething with humiliation. In terms of raw, unadulterated power, he was undeniably weaker than Gran at this moment.
"If I weren't injured, you wouldn't have survived a single round against me!"
It was a valid claim. Quitela was widely considered the most formidable Destroyer, second only to Beerus. His combat mastery was terrifying; with a single subtle shift in weight, he completely neutralized the momentum of Gran's punch.
"Let me show you the true martial arts of a God of Destruction!"
Borrowing the momentum from Gran's own strike, Quitela performed a lightning-fast backstep.
BOOM!
A brilliant violet radiance erupted from his body. From that moment on, every movement Quitela made exuded an incomparable martial essence. He was a master of the 6th stage of raw power, the 4th stage of physical instinct, the 1st stage of the "Selfless" state of mind, and the 8th stage of the Rules of Destruction.
"This guy actually has some depth!"
Gran's eyes narrowed as his blood began to boil with excitement. For a fleeting second, as they stopped clashing, the entire cosmos seemed to fall into a heavy silence.
Then—BOOM!
A surge of even more violent energy rippled through space like the roar of a starving wolf. The star-studded sky, which had begun to stabilize, shattered once again. Shrouded in boundless energy, Quitela began to walk toward Gran.
One step. Two steps.
With every footfall, an identical afterimage materialized in his wake. By the time Quitela was within a thousand meters of Gran, the void was teeming with countless clones. They were everywhere—dense, suffocating, and numbering in the thousands.
"Hakai!"
The word echoed from a thousand throats as violet light blossomed in the hands of every clone. This was the 8th stage of the Rule of Destruction—a power that could erase anything in its path. Gran's mastery of the Rule of Destruction was only at the peak of the 1st stage; compared to Quitela, he was a mere novice. If this localized storm of erasure hit him, he would vanish from existence instantly.
"Now this is exciting!"
Instead of retreating, Gran charged forward. He was like a small fish swimming against a torrential current as the waves of Destruction closed in on him. His long-honed Ultra Instinct took over. He became a shimmering phantom, dodging through the gaps with a fluid, effortless grace.
As Gran wove through the lethal energy, the 8th-stage blasts missed him by hairsbreadths, striking the void behind him and triggering a gargantuan tide of annihilation.
"Damn you! DAMN YOU!" Quitela roared in fury. "Ultra Instinct again! Why can you and Beerus master it while I cannot?!"
Losing his composure, Quitela commanded his clones to swarm. Gran's speed increased. In the span of a single breath, he reached the first clone.
"Hakai!" Gran tried to counter with his own power of Destruction, but his 1st-stage power was too weak even to scratch Quitela's clones.
"Hahaha! With your level of Destruction, I could stand still, and you couldn't kill me!" the clones mocked in unison.
"Then how about my fists?!"
Gran threw a punch, and the sheer force pulverized one of the clones into stardust. This was the dominance of pure strength—the ability to crush complex techniques through raw power. Realizing what worked, Gran abandoned his ineffective Hakai and leaned entirely into his 7th-stage raw power. He became a whirlwind of violence, tearing through the clones like a predator through a swarm of locusts.
"Found you!"
With the clones cleared, only the original Quitela remained in the void.
"You..." Quitela was shaking with rage. Gran's Angel-level Ultra Instinct was too much; he couldn't land a hit.
"Is this the 'true martial arts' of a Destroyer? It's a bit underwhelming," Gran taunted, appearing instantly in front of Quitela.
Quitela sensed something. He didn't fight back against the next string of attacks. He took the hits, allowing Gran's fists to draw blood from his lip.
"What's wrong? Afraid to fight back?" Gran didn't notice anything unusual. He was caught up in the rhythm of his own assault, landing a heavy blow right on Quitela's face.
CRACK!
The force was enough to distort Quitela's features. However, unlike before, Quitela didn't fly backward. He anchored himself, taking the full brunt of the blow, and hissed through bloodied teeth:
"What are you acting so smug about?"
With a sudden counter-snap, Quitela swung a fist toward Gran's temple. Gran's instincts screamed at him to dodge, but he only managed to move an inch. The blow clipped his cheek hard.
Both men now stood with their fists pressed against each other's faces.
"How is this possible?" Gran's pupils dilated.
"I thought your Ultra Instinct had truly reached the Angel level, but I see now that it hasn't!" Quitela sneered. Through that exchange, he had identified Gran's weakness. "Your mind has touched the Angel level, but your physical body... your instinctual reflex is only at the 3rd-stage peak. Compared to my 4th-stage peak, there's an entire dimensional gap!"
"As long as I focus entirely on your movements, I can still catch you. Now... DIE!"
Quitela went berserk. He abandoned the wide-scale Destruction attacks, realizing that only high-speed CQC (Close Quarters Combat) could win this. The two collided in a brutal exchange of physical strikes.
BANG! BANG!
The battlefield expanded, and the collateral damage to Universe 6 grew catastrophic.
"That damn rat! Is he trying to tear my universe apart?!" Champa shouted from the sidelines, his temper flaring.
"Lord Champa, will Gran be alright?" Fuwa asked, his eyes unable to track the movement. Vados projected the fight for him, and even Fuwa could see Gran was losing ground.
"Gran is at a disadvantage, but Quitela isn't exactly having a picnic either," Champa noted coldly. "Gran's Ultra Instinct is still insane. Even if Quitela sees the openings, he can't hit him every time. They're trading injuries now. It's a war of attrition."
Just as Champa said, it was a gruesome trade. Gran landed a heavy blow to Quitela's gut. Quitela gasped in pain but managed to slam a fist back into Gran's face.
"Hahaha! This is it! A real fight should be bone against bone!" Gran's Saiyan blood was surging. The pain didn't slow him down; it fueled him. "Again, Quitela!"
After a flurry of strikes, Gran sent Quitela flying across light-years. He pressed two fingers to his forehead. Zip. He appeared behind the Destroyer, hands locked together in a double-fist hammer.
BOOM!
The 7th-stage strike slammed into Quitela's head, denting his skull and sending him spiraling.
"AAAGGGHHH!" Quitela's scream was soul-shredding.
But then, the tide shifted. Gran, who had been relying on his mental state, suddenly seemed more fluid. His body was adapting to the high-intensity combat.
"Yes!!" Fuwa cheered.
"That kid is a monster," Champa whispered, impressed. "His physical instincts are evolving mid-fight. Is he about to break into the 4th stage?"
Vados remained silent, but her grip on her staff tightened. She remembered Gran mentioning a "final form" of the Saiyan race. He had spent 300 years in the Room of Spirit and Time—could he have already mastered it?
In the distance, Quitela felt a chill of true terror. Gran wasn't just fighting; he was learning.
"Damn it! What kind of monster did Beerus find?!"
Gran's instinct was loosening, nearing the 4th stage. If he reached it, combined with his Angelic mindset, he would be untouchable.
"Hey, sewer rat! Don't get distracted in the middle of a fight!" Gran's voice came from everywhere at once. A massive torrent of white energy—a concentrated Ki wave—engulfed Quitela from below.
BOOM!
The 7th-stage power tore at Quitela's body. The resulting explosion was so massive that it sent shockwaves through the dimensions, catching the attention of every other universe.
In Universe 1, the Destroyer Iwan wondered if Champa and Beerus were finally killing each other. In Universe 10, Rumsshi and Kusu prepared to head over to watch the spectacle.
But Universe 7, being the twin to Universe 6, took the hardest hit. The cosmic storm rattled the foundations of the world. On the Sacred World of the Kai, Shin fell to his knees as the ground buckled. Old Kai grabbed a tree to keep from flying away.
"Gran and Whis are over there! We have to find Lord Beerus!"
They rushed to Beerus's palace. Beerus was already awake, standing in the hall with a look of pure, unadulterated fury. "I already know," he growled. "Universe 6 is exploding."
"What?!" Old Kai's eyes turned red with tears. "But Gran is there!"
Beerus's fists creaked as he clenched them. "I know." He grabbed the two Kaioshins. "Whis isn't here, so I'm taking you to the border. I'll carry you across the universes myself."
When they stepped out into the void between universes, they saw a horrifying sight: the twin universe, Universe 6, had been replaced by a gargantuan, expanding cloud of debris and void.
"It... it really blew up," Shin whispered.
"My Gran! You died so young!" Old Kai wailed, tears streaming down his face.
"Wait, look over there!" Old Kai pointed to the edge of the destruction. Two massive divine signatures were still clashing.
"It's Gran and Champa's lot," Beerus said, his heart finally slowing down. As long as his brother and his disciple were alive, the rest didn't matter.
"Oh? He's alive?" Old Kai wiped his eyes.
"Ancestor, you sound almost disappointed," Shin noted.
"Shut your trap! He's my prize pupil! I feel like I wasted a perfectly good cry," Old Kai huffed.
Beerus ignored them, flying forward. "It's not Champa. It's Quitela. Gran is fighting that rat from the gutters."
"He's fighting Quitela?" Old Kai asked, dangling from Beerus's hand. "How's he doing?"
"He's winning," Beerus said, though his voice remained worried. "But they are mortal enemies. If Gran pushes him to a dead end, Quitela will launch a suicidal counterattack. If he does that, Gran is in danger."
In the pitch-black void that used to be Universe 6, Quitela was screaming as Gran's 7th-stage blast twisted his body. Gran hovered nearby, gasping for air. He had used over half of his stamina.
"This isn't enough," Gran muttered. He knew Quitela was a survivor. Despite his injuries, the Destroyer was still standing.
Gran reached for a small pouch on his belt. He pulled out a single green bean—a Senzu Bean. Unlike Goku, Gran had no interest in "fair play" or "warrior's honor" when dealing with a murderer. He wasn't going to heal his enemy out of some misguided respect.
He tossed the bean into his mouth. Crunch.
A massive aura exploded from him as his stamina and wounds were instantly restored to 100%.
In the distance, Quitela finally managed to dispel the energy surrounding him. He was covered in blood, coughing violently. When he saw Gran's renewed aura, his eyes widened in horror.
"How... how are you full strength again?!"
"Hahaha! Die, Quitela!"
Gran soared high into the void. He cupped his hands at his side, white energy condensing into a sphere only 20 centimeters wide. He began to compress it. Every time the orb shrank, its density and power doubled.
BOOM!
The orb solidified, its power level skyrocketing to the middle levels of the 7th stage!
"Take this!!"
Gran thrust his hands forward, and the beam tore through the void. The mere spillover of energy was enough to incinerate anything in its path.
"Damn it! If I weren't injured, you could never push me this far!" Quitela spat another mouthful of blood. His eyes turned cold and glassy. "You forced my hand. You're the one who's going to die!"
Quitela entered a trance-like state. A domineering, purple aura flared around him—the Destroyer-exclusive state: Ultra Ego (Self-Will).
"I'm back at the 7th stage!!"
The violet pillar of light shot upward, instantly erasing Gran's incoming Ki blast as if it were nothing but mist.
Gran was stunned. He knew how much willpower it took to maintain that state, especially with the injuries Quitela was carrying.
"He's terrifying," Gran whispered. Then, he grinned. "But that's what makes this fun, isn't it? Let's see how it feels to kill a Destroyer at his best!"
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