Levos had no idea how much time had passed when the world in front of him suddenly shifted.
The next instant, his feet were planted on a stone path inside a courtyard.
It was quiet here peaceful. In the center stood a simple, ancient-looking building, plain yet dignified.
"This is the core of the Time Nest," Chronoa explained. "The Temple of Time."
Her voice trembled slightly. Her skin was flushed red like a boiled shrimp, and a fine sheen of sweat seeped across her body she looked like she was already at her limit.
Levos wasn't doing any better. His whole body felt like it would explode in the next second. Every nerve was wound tight to the brink.
In his hand, he clenched the Potara earring, ready to put it on at any moment.
"Can you still hold it?" he asked. "I'm about to lose it."
"I'm full already…" Chronoa bit her lip hard. "Just… wait a little longer. He's coming."
The moment the words left her mouth
"TokiToki !"
A cry rang out from the sky. A large, strange bird dove straight toward them.
"Tokitoki!" Chronoa waved excitedly.
The big bird flapped twice and landed right on top of Chronoa's head.
"Damn it! I'm a dignified Supreme Kai of Time!" Chronoa cursed like a fiery kid throwing a tantrum. "Stop sitting on my head every single time!"
Levos had to admit it.
This was the least dignified "Kai" he'd ever seen even when she was maintaining her adult form, the one that fully unleashed her time power.
He moved like lightning, grabbing one of Tokitoki's legs and, without a word, began forcing divine power into the bird.
In an instant, Tokitoki's feathers exploded outward.
Its eyes went wide with terror as it flailed and beat its wings, trying to escape.
But when it realized Levos wasn't trying to harm it only transferring divine power it hesitated, confusion replacing panic, and finally stopped struggling.
"Tokitoki!" Chronoa shouted. "Don't resist! Hurry and burn through that divine power there's a lot more coming!"
"TokiToki !"
Tokitoki seemed to understand. It cried once, then spread its wings wide.
Chronoa immediately coordinated with it.
Whoosh.
Something changed something Levos couldn't put into words.
The sky seemed clearer, cleaner. The plants and trees around them became more vibrant, overflowing with life.
In the City of Time, people paused their work and looked up.
"What's going on?" Mai blinked in surprise. "The city… it looks prettier."
"Yeah." Future Trunks sighed in awe. "It's like someone has the power to reshape the environment of an entire space. That's incredible."
They exchanged a look and smiled warmly.
"We're lucky to live here," Mai said softly. "I think this place is only going to get better."
A spherical little robot chimed in from the side.
"And not only that the barrier around the City of Time has expanded. It's larger, and it's more stable."
But as soon as it said that, a question mark floated across its screen.
Because the city's barrier was still expanding and strengthening, and the plants were growing wildly as if they'd gone mad.
The robot sounded baffled.
"Strange. Why would the Supreme Kai of Time waste divine power on something like this?"
Future Trunks's heart sank.
Life in the City of Time was comfortable, but he also understood why this place existed.
To fight the Demon Realm.
To stop the enemy from swallowing the world whole.
And lately, there were nowhere near enough people to clean up the mess Zamasu had left behind.
Even the Supreme Kai of Time herself had been forced to personally jump in warping from timeline to timeline to put out fires, running nonstop until she was practically worked like a dog.
How could she possibly have spare divine power to do something like this?
As a trainee Time Patrol member, Future Trunks hadn't even completed the training process before being rushed into multiple operations.
Mai had been assigned to organizing and distributing mission tasks.
Right now, the City of Time had no "idle" people. Everyone was busy to the extreme.
"Could the Demon Realm be invading here?!" someone blurted out, panic rising.
Otherwise, there was no explanation for such a change.
"If Mr. Levos were here, it'd be great…" another voice muttered. "He's strong, and he always has ideas. It feels like there's nothing that can really stump him."
"I wonder how everyone's doing… if Earth ran into another crisis…"
They hadn't been separated for long, but Future Trunks and Mai found themselves missing their friends from that timeline.
On the other side, as Levos felt Chronoa and Tokitoki rapidly consuming divine power, he let out a quiet breath of relief.
Still, the rate of accumulation and the rate of consumption hadn't reached balance. All they'd done was slow down how fast he was getting pushed toward detonation.
Levos suddenly remembered Vados's final reminder and immediately asked Chronoa about a method to convert divine power into divine ki.
"There's still that much?" Chronoa frowned. "What a headache. Mastering that method takes time but you're about to blow up any second…"
"Aren't you the Supreme Kai of Time?" Levos shot back. "Manipulating time is basically nothing to you, right?"
"Stop talking like I abuse my authority every day…" Chronoa muttered, then glared at him. "If you have an idea, spit it out."
Levos didn't waste time.
"Can you create a space where time flows faster than the outside…?"
He laid out the emergency plan he'd just come up with.
In short: he would separate his main body from Cell Max. Cell Max who had absorbed the nine Gods of Destruction would stay outside, or be placed into a space where time moved slowly.
Meanwhile, Levos's main body would enter a space with accelerated time and learn how to convert divine power into divine ki.
"A space where time flows faster? There are plenty of those." Chronoa rubbed her chin. "As for a space where time flows slowly…"
Her eyebrows lifted.
"Oh. Interesting." A wicked little smile tugged at her lips. "Then I'll toss you into the Crack of Time. You asked for it yourself!"
Why was she jumping straight to the Crack of Time?!
Levos immediately suspected Chronoa had been plotting to dump him there to explode from the very beginning.
So she really wasn't well-intentioned.
Before he could argue, Chronoa's expression tightened again.
"No… that won't work. Gods of Destruction aren't easy to handle, and the Crack of Time probably couldn't withstand you exploding either. It might trigger an even bigger disaster…"
"So?" Levos demanded.
"Cell's body stays here. Tokitoki will keep watch on him." Chronoa said decisively. "Your main body comes with me into the Temple of Time."
Levos didn't hesitate anymore.
With a thought, Cell Max's body melted apart to either side, and Levos's true form emerged from the center.
"Your body is seriously weird!" Chronoa blurted.
This time, after the two bodies separated, Cell Max didn't devolve.
And Levos's main body… also seemed to have gained a new change, something different from before.
He had a faint feeling he could transform into Super Saiyan God smoothly.
"Is this the benefit of 'tasting' the Supreme Kais and the Gods of Destruction once?" Levos couldn't understand it.
But it was a good thing and right now, there was no time to dig into details.
His first instinct was to store Cell Max inside his pocket space.
Time inside his pocket space was almost frozen. For Levos, that was far more reassuring than the Crack of Time.
But the moment he tried, several powerful forces of rejection slammed back at him, stopping him cold.
He couldn't do it.
"What a shame…"
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