"As the price of your failure, now you shall appear."
Shendu glanced at the Whale Shark King and waited in silence. Sure enough, a faint, ethereal aura flickered in the distance, instantly manifesting before the King. The Whale Shark King raised his head, peering in confusion at the figure who had suddenly appeared.
Zoran.
He had never seen this man before, yet the aura he projected was so overwhelming it made one feel numb. Another Nebula Body, he thought. And yet another. What had he, the Whale Shark King, done to deserve the attention of two Nebula Bodies, or, counting Galvas, three?
The Whale Shark King suddenly laughed. With three Nebula Bodies appearing in his Third Parallel Universe, the price of his death was well worth the ticket.
"Brother!" Shendu exclaimed, his voice brimming with excitement.
The smile on the Whale Shark King's face froze. He shifted his gaze between Zoran and Shendu. Brother? This... two supreme beings from the same house?
Shendu was genuinely thrilled. He had never forgotten who had brought him to this world, who had granted him the opportunity to fight, and who had bestowed upon him the path to greater power. If it weren't for Zoran, the brother who looked after his siblings, who else could it be?
Zoran smiled and gave a slight nod. Shendu was quite obedient; even though he had been at a critical, exhilarating juncture in his battle, he had held back the moment Zoran spoke up. If he hadn't, the Whale Shark King would not have survived until now. That single flick of a finger would have obliterated not just the King, but the very planet he drew his strength from.
"We shall catch up later," Zoran said to Shendu before turning to the Whale Shark King.
Shendu nodded and waited quietly to the side. His purpose in life was simple: he went where Zoran pointed, and he struck where Zoran commanded. It was that simple. By following his brother, he had found freedom and power, and whenever there was something of value, Zoran was always the first to think of him.
"Whale Shark King, do you long for the price of failure?" Zoran asked quietly.
"Indeed. A loser deserves the awareness of a loser," the Whale Shark King replied earnestly. "If I cannot even accept that, how can I call myself strong?"
"Very well. Then do you think that by killing you, everything will end?" Zoran asked.
The Whale Shark King looked bewildered. "You... what do you mean?"
"You are indeed strong. You deserve to enter the cycle of reincarnation after death," Zoran sighed softly.
"If death is not the most severe price, then what is? As you say, I am willing to accept it." The Whale Shark King struggled to rise, but his strength failed him, and he remained half-kneeling. He was a man of his word; he had always been.
"Come with me." Zoran's expression remained as calm as still water. He reached out and lifted his hand.
In the Whale Shark King's eyes, reality began to warp, stretching like the scenery outside a speeding train. With a dizzying spin, he was lifted toward the firmament by an irresistible force. A flash of horror crossed his heart. The casual gesture Zoran had made was a power far beyond anything he could resist.
When he finally came to a halt, he gazed at the moon of the Third Parallel Universe and fell into deep contemplation. In an instant, his opponent had brought him to the void of space.
"To be denied reincarnation, to be denied death, can you accept such a price?" Zoran reached out toward the moon.
The entire lunar surface shuddered before them, brushed by a violet-black aura of demonic lunar energy. In less than half a second, the world had changed. This moon of the Third Parallel Universe now had a new master. Zoran pulled back his hand; the moon rotated slowly, shifting its phase to reveal the dark, hidden side. Controlling the moon and its phases was as easy as flipping a palm.
"So that is it. Ha! Why not?" The Whale Shark King laughed long and loud. "To receive the special attention of yet another powerful being, what an honor."
He understood now: his fate had been sealed long ago. The reason this powerful man had spoken so gently with him was not out of pity; it was respect earned through the sheer strength of his own conviction.
His laughter still echoing, the Whale Shark King waved his arm, gracefully brushing aside the cosmic winds. Relying on the sliver of strength he had recovered in these final moments, he took long, decisive strides toward the dark side of the moon.
"Heaven and hell are not my choices to make. There is only... the fate to which I have been assigned!" he exclaimed, as if mocking himself.
As the words faded, the Whale Shark King's final silhouette vanished into that abyss of blackness. The lunar phase shifted quietly, returning to a full circle. Stoic to the end, the Whale Shark King and his story were finally buried on the moon's hidden side. It was no wonder that even a man as arrogant as Shendu acknowledged his conviction.
Zoran flashed and vanished, appearing instantly back in the desert on Earth before Shendu.
"How does it feel?" Zoran asked, settling back into their conversation.
"Absolutely magnificent," Shendu replied with a hearty laugh. His joy was never feigned; he found this existence incredibly exciting. It wasn't just about the strength he had gained. He remembered the last time he and Zoran had stood side-by-side in another realm, it had been before they had liberated their other siblings.
The feeling was sublime. Like his two sisters who had also gained new life, he had been freed from the depths of hell, but he had already surpassed them by far. At this very moment, Po Kong was likely in some other world, concerned only with eating, and Bai Tza was swimming through yet another reality. But he, Shendu, stood tall at his brother's side, savoring the thrill of battle.
My "foolish" sisters, I have already won far more than you! Shendu clenched his fists, holding his head high.
"Where is the next enemy?" he asked, his battle spirit surging.
Zoran smiled. His battle-crazed brother had regained his memories and his original nature, never having changed at all. Or rather, in regaining his memories, he had reclaimed his pugnacious essence and haughty pride.
Suddenly, Zoran looked toward the horizon of the sky and laughed. "They are already here."
The Whale Shark King's defeat had prompted a swift reaction from Hades' forces. A scouting party had been dispatched from the Cloud Bat legions under the command of Bradley, the overlord of the Fourth Parallel Universe, to investigate and probe the situation.
Seven Cloud Bat Flash Riders descended from the heavens, hovering in the air.
The Cloud Bat legion.
The strongest legion among the seven parallel universes, a force composed of the finest elite warriors. Nearly every warrior in the legion possessed the ability to initiate the Ultra Beast transformation, a feat one in a million in most other parallel universes.
As the seven Flash Riders landed, the captain at the lead instantly sensed that something was wrong.
"Prepare for battle! Ultra Beast Force! Cloud Bat Formation!"
The sky tore open as the seven warriors summoned their Ultra Beasts, merging into the Cloud Bat Formation. They funneled all their power into the captain. In an instant, the Hetero-Energy radiating from the captain spiked to the level of a Black Hole.
And this was merely a fragment of the Cloud Bat legion.
It was a level of energy almost comparable to that of the Whale Shark King. But what filled the Cloud Bat squad with despair was that the power they displayed did not intimidate their enemy; instead, it ignited a flicker of eagerness in Shendu's eyes.
"You've taken the wrong path, children."
He truly didn't care for one-sided slaughters, but he couldn't help it if they were so willing to deliver themselves to his face. His aura expanded, rising toward the sky. Shendu spoke with a grin, having already named his power as he looked at the terrifying Black Hole level of energy, and stated, word by word:
"Nebula of Burning Fire."
————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]