Vados teased him with a straight face. "Lord Champa, you've used your brain far more times today than usual."
Champa shot her a glare. "Cut the chatter! Help me think what do we do now?"
Vados lifted a shoulder. "We belong to Universe 6. Whatever happens to Universe 7 has nothing to do with us. What are you worried about?"
"I'm worried about getting dragged in!" Champa groaned. "I've slipped into Universe 7 more than once. The Grand Priest will find out sooner or later. We need to do something."
Vados hid a laugh behind her hand. "Isn't Lord Champa actually worried about Lord Beerus' safety?"
"I am not!" he denied at once, then shot back, "Aren't you worried about being implicated?"
"Oh?" Vados' smile turned feline. "Then what's Lord Champa's plan?"
Champa rolled his eyes. "If I had one, why would I be asking you?"
Just then, Levos returned to the field.
He tossed Piccolo a vessel. "Rose Broly's sealed inside. Piccolo layer on a few more seals."
"No trouble," Piccolo said, brows easing as he took the bottle and began reinforcing the wards.
Levos then rose toward Champa and Vados.
He thanked them both, then spoke, face set. "Once Fused Zamasu corrupts this entire world, the blight will spread across the cosmos. To save Universe 7… it has to be you."
Champa looked up.
The Sacred World of the Kais lay smothered beneath a pall of Zamasu's black malice.
He exchanged a glance with Vados.
"Your Universe 7 is a headache," he sighed then a sly glint sparked in his eye. "I'll evacuate you and your people. You can take refuge in my universe."
Levos blinked.
It… was a good plan.
Let Fused Zamasu go crash headlong into the rest of Universe 7's villains. The thought alone was almost funny.
Confident as he felt now, he still had no clean answer to Zamasu's planetary infection.
Compared to Universe 7, Universe 6 sounded like paradise.
If the goal was simply to protect himself and the people who mattered… this was a very good offer.
His eyes brightened then dimmed a notch.
He would be leaving North Kai, Jaco, the Galactic Patrol, and the other Namekians to their fate…
Champa stretched his next words out. "Buuut, if you want my help, you'll fix a little problem for me first."
Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Levos was used to detours by now.
"What problem?" he asked, frowning.
Vados cocked him a sidelong look. "Lord Champa, are you sure you want to tell Mr. Levos the truth?"
Champa chuckled. "Universe 7 is a lost cause anyway. No harm in telling him."
"Universe 7… a lost cause?!" Piccolo's keen ears picked out the words; his face drained.
Levos' brow knit.
If Champa and Vados could handle Fused Zamasu, then Universe 7 should be salvageable.
So what was he missing?
Champa bared his teeth in a crooked smile. "That's right. Because His Majesty, the Omni-King, has decided to erase Universes 7 and 10."
"The Omni-King will erase both?" Piccolo breathed.
Champa nodded. "Don't fantasize about changing it. Zeno is supreme. His terror can't be measured in power levels."
Levos drew a long, steady breath.
He hadn't seen that coming.
Even if it came to a Tournament of Power, Universe 7 now would have excellent odds. Hit, Toppo, Jiren… they weren't insurmountable.
But Zeno's decision to erase 7 and 10 shattered every plotline Levos had sketched in his head.
He frowned.
Could Goku befriend Zeno here and now? No. They didn't even know each other yet.
Was fleeing to Universe 6 the only move?
A flicker of inspiration stirred.
The Super Dragon Balls could restore erased universes. There might be a path to avoid Zeno's decree altogether.
Even so, he decided to hear Champa's price.
"So, Lord Champa what are your terms for evacuating me and my allies to Universe 6?" Levos asked carefully.
Champa sneaked a glance at Vados, as if steeling himself. "I want you to revive Beerus."
"My, my," Vados sang, "so Lord Champa has been keeping that close to his heart."
"Stow it, Vados!" Champa huffed.
"Reviving a God of Destruction isn't something ordinary Dragon Balls can do," Levos said, sober.
He knew Champa had been hunting the Super Dragon Balls, though not all the details.
"Don't worry about that," Champa said. "Universes 6 and 7 share seven wishing orbs as big as planets. Like your Earth Dragon Balls, but stronger granting any wish."
"I already have six. One more, and we summon the dragon and bring your Destroyer back from the dead."
His gaze sharpened. "But you mustn't let him know I asked for it."
Levos didn't quite see why. After a beat, he asked, "Lord Beerus is your twin. Why hide it?"
Vados bubbled a quiet laugh. "That touches on… old history between brothers."
"Vados! Not the time," Champa snapped, then turned back to Levos. "Bottom line: help me find the last orb, then you make the wish. And once Beerus revives, you convince him it wasn't my idea."
Levos blinked. Reviving Beerus was something he'd wanted to do anyway.
Circumstances had just… delayed it.
He turned it over quickly, then offered Champa a ready-made alibi.
"In fact, reviving Lord Beerus doesn't have to rely on the Super Dragon Balls," he said. "And if Zeno erases Universe 7, using them now would only bring Beerus back for a short, pointless window."
Champa snorted. "Don't care. Just make sure he revives and he mustn't tie it back to me."
Levos nodded. "Understood. Even so, I suggest we save the Super Dragon Balls for the final hour and not rush Beerus' revival."
Champa squinted. "Oh?"
"You haven't left Universe 7 yet. If your presence is exposed, Lord Beerus will put two and two together."
"Ahh." Champa's smile returned. "Knew you were the smart sort."
"So first we remove Fused Zamasu as a factor," Levos said evenly. "Finding the last Super Dragon Ball will take time."
Zamasu's clones had been culled, but the core had become a super-virus, chewing through reality and it might spawn more.
If they stalled, disaster would find a way.
"Simple," Champa said. "Leave it to me."
He flung out a hand.
A crushing aura boiled off him, gathering into a colossal sphere. The world washed purple under its light.
The orb of Destruction screamed through the sky and hammered the vortex.
Rrrrmm
Heaven and earth reeled. The whole planet shook.
Champa's strike wasn't simple brute force; it bent the very rule of destruction a different animal from Levos' Ultimate Kamehameha.
To Champa, the law of destruction should wipe out anything.
But aside from punching a hole through the vortex, it did not end Fused Zamasu.
Worse, the planet shuddered on the edge of breaking apart.
"Even Destruction can't delete an immortal," Vados said mildly.
Champa's face pinched.
Embarrassment flickered; he covered it with a barked order. "Vados quarantine this world. Don't let that thing foul the entire universe."
"You're asking me to break the rules, Lord Champa," Vados said, smiling.
She lifted her staff.
Seven-colored light fountained from the orb at its tip.
It streaked outward
and in the next instant the temple hurtled beneath their feet, wrapped in radiance, to hover beneath the gathered survivors.
One stream of light after another arrived, dropping figures onto the terrace.
Levos' eyes narrowed. On the plaza he spotted King Cold, Tagoma, and several Cooler copies, gaping in bewilderment.
It seemed Vados had collected every survivor on the Sacred World and brought them here.
Whoosh
Scenery blurred past.
Wrapped in aurora, the temple climbed into the sky.
In moments they burst through the black cyclone into open space.
Below them far off a planet swaddled in black fog.
"Seal," Vados said softly, and swept her staff.
A translucent barrier knit itself out of nothing, wrapping the entire world.
Silver sigils crawled over its skin, each thread humming with a strange power, sinking into the ward like veins into flesh.
The Sacred World keened.
Black vapor drew together into a hate-twisted face that writhed over the planet's surface, slamming against the barrier with shrieks of rage.
The ward held. Unyielding. Unbroken.
"Fused Zamasu has merged almost completely with the planet. He can't be separated. With immortality, he can only be sealed planet and all," Vados explained, breath a shade heavier.
They stared at the warped, snarling visage and felt a thousand tangled things.
"To think we still couldn't erase that bastard," Trankon muttered, stung.
"Thank you, Lady Vados," Piccolo said. "You solved our crisis."
"I dwelt here for countless years," the Elder Kai murmured. "Now it's a prison."
One of the Cooler copies leaned forward, eyes hot. "My Big Gete Star can consume a planet's energy. You can leave this to me."
Levos' gut went cold.
If the Big Gete Star swallowed this world, it could mass-produce Black-Gold Cooler copies by the legion.
A planet fused with Fused Zamasu was a super-reactor.
The Sacred World's mass dwarfed any other. The machine world could siphon almost limitless power from it.
If that happened… it would be monstrous.
Another thought hit him, just as grim.
This sealed planet would be a banquet for Moro too.
The ancient demon had senses that felt across light-years. Finding the Sacred World was only a matter of time.
And "Planet-Eater" wasn't an empty title he devoured the life of worlds.
The greater the mass, the stronger Moro would become.
Levos' jaw tightened.
Universe 7 was cursed villains competing to outscale one another.
No matter how strong he got, how could he hold back an endless ladder of power-ups?
Neither scenario could be allowed.
I have to secure control over this planet.
His mind raced, riffling for a way to finish Zamasu.
The Super Dragon Balls could do it but that felt like a waste.
Zeno's erasure would do it too.
But what, have Zeno erase the entire universe?
He dismissed it instantly.
Champa's sanctuary was tempting, but the last Dragon Ball would take effort to find.
And would Zeno's erasure track them even into Universe 6? If so… that was checkmate.
How to handle the Sacred World?
Cooler and Moro can both consume it.
Then how do I use it absorb, devour, draw…
A spark jumped the gap in his thoughts.
Before he could chase it, Champa cut in.
"That Zamasu is sealed; he's no threat now."
"As for the planet, not my problem."
"Now, kid how are you going to revive Beerus?" Champa fixed him with a look, impatient for an answer.
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