"Before we leave," Beerus said, looking back at the Oracle Fish, "give me a prophecy. I'm going out after sleeping for years. I should come back with something worthwhile, shouldn't I?"
The Oracle Fish floated in his bowl, thinking for a moment. "I do see a large harvest for you, Beerus-sama."
Beerus liked the sound of that. "Good."
"It just may not be the kind of harvest you enjoy."
The smile left Beerus's face.
The bowl flipped before the Oracle Fish could swim away. Beerus swatted it so hard that water, fish, and glass all tumbled through the air in separate directions. The Oracle Fish hit the wall with a wet slap, stuck there for a breath, then slid down in a miserable little trail.
"Beerus-sama!" he yelled from the floor. "What was that for?"
"I felt like it."
"You awful cat! Why are you picking on a fish?"
"My hand was itchy."
Beerus flexed his fingers as if the matter were settled, then placed that same hand on Whis's back. Whis gave the Oracle Fish a sympathetic smile that did absolutely nothing to help him and took off, starlight wrapping around him as he carried Beerus away from the castle and into space.
They had barely left Beerus's planet before Beerus yawned.
Whis looked back. "Surely you aren't going back to sleep already."
"It was one yawn," Beerus said. "Don't make it dramatic."
He was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes when a golden planet drifted into view, bright enough to catch his attention even from a distance. Beerus stared at it for a moment, then pointed.
"Stop there first. I remember that place."
Whis adjusted course without question. A moment later, the two of them descended straight into the palace of the golden world, where the planet's ruler had the misfortune of being present.
The ruler was frog-like, sharp-toothed, with antennae jutting from his head. One look at Beerus turned him from a monarch into a trembling puddle in expensive clothes.
"B-Beerus-sama!" he cried, dropping to his knees. "Welcome back!"
Beerus smiled down at him with the kind of pleasantness that made everyone in the palace wish he had arrived angry instead.
"Long time no see. What was your name again?"
"My name is—"
"Never mind." Beerus waved him off. "I don't care. I came to finish what I decided last time. This planet has no reason to exist."
Color drained from the ruler's face as purple-red destruction energy gathered at Beerus's fingertip.
"Any final requests?"
The ruler's survival instincts finally kicked in. "Please wait! Beerus-sama, I have spent years preparing a feast for you. Just taste it first. If even one dish pleases you, perhaps you could consider sparing us?"
Beerus's finger lowered.
He had woken up recently, and waking up always made him hungry.
"Fine," he said, taking the seat at the head of the banquet table. "Feed me."
The palace exploded into motion. Servants rushed in and out while the ruler barked orders through a smile that kept almost cracking in half. Plates filled the table: bizarre cuts of alien meat, soups glowing with jewel-colored broth, pastries shaped like flowers, steaming dishes that smelled far better than Beerus had expected from a planet he had come to erase.
Whis stood nearby, silent and amused, while the ruler hovered around the table like a man trying to charm a bomb.
"Please enjoy everything slowly, Beerus-sama," the ruler said, bowing so deeply that his antennae nearly brushed the floor. "Our finest chefs prepared these dishes for this day. I have been waiting many years for your return."
Beerus tasted one dish, then another. His expression, to everyone's visible relief, did not sour.
"Acceptable."
The ruler almost cried from gratitude. "Then please try the wine. I brewed it especially for you. It has aged for more than a thousand years."
Beerus took the purple wine and gave it a slow swirl. "A thousand years? We met a little over thirty years ago."
"Yes, but our planet has a special space where time flows differently," the ruler said at once. "A hundred days inside is only one day outside. I stored the wine there so it could mature properly."
"An alternate dimension. That works."
Beerus drank the wine in one swallow.
The ruler watched him over the rim of the cup, his smile stretched tight enough to tear.
Drink it. Drink it all.
The poison was in that bottle. Not ordinary poison, either. It had been refined over decades, mixed from everything on the planet that could kill, corrode, melt, or rot. If Beerus wanted to destroy them, then he could die at their banquet table first.
Beerus reached for another dish.
The ruler's smile twitched.
Beerus chewed, swallowed, and took another sip from the cup.
The ruler began to sweat.
Any moment now.
Any moment.
Beerus finished the wine and licked his lips. "Not bad. The wine is better than the food."
The ruler's heart dropped into his stomach. "I-I'm honored…"
Beerus set the cup down and looked at him.
The room went quiet.
"Did you truly think poison would work on me?"
The ruler's face turned the same shade as the palace floor. "Poison? Beerus-sama, there must be some misunderstanding. I would never—"
"If you had served me a proper meal and stopped there," Beerus said, almost regretfully, "I might have spared the planet. The food was decent."
The ruler's guards began reaching for their weapons. Beerus did not bother looking at them.
"But you had to be clever."
The purple-red light returned to his finger.
"Then my first decision was the right one."
Desperation broke whatever discipline the room had left. The ruler screamed for his guards to attack, and weapons rose all around the banquet hall.
Beerus flicked his hand.
The palace, the banquet, the ruler, the guards, and the entire golden planet vanished together. One moment the world existed below them. The next, there was only empty space glittering with the last scraps of dust.
Whis looked at the place where it had been and sighed. "What a waste. That planet was full of gold."
Beerus glanced at him. "Since when do you care about metal?"
"I don't, but mortals do. Rare metals make convenient gifts."
Whis raised his staff, and a small portion of the destroyed planet rewound itself out of nothing. Gold ore rose into shape, three stories tall, bright and heavy and utterly out of place in the emptiness of space.
Beerus watched as Whis stored it away. "Who is that for?"
"A friend's girlfriend."
Beerus stared at him. "When did you make a mortal friend?"
"Social courtesy, Beerus-sama. It never hurts."
Beerus decided he had already spent enough of his morning listening to Whis be annoying. "Just take me to the Super Saiyan God."
"As you wish."
Starlight wrapped around them again, and they continued toward Earth.
…
Sacred World of the Kai.
Elder Kai had been staring into the distance for a while when Shin noticed.
Given Shin's current situation—a soul with a halo, bruised pride, and no body to hide behind—he should have known better than to ask questions. Unfortunately, knowing better had never been his strongest talent.
"Elder Kai," he said, looking up as well, "what happened?"
Elder Kai struck him on the head.
"You're a Supreme Kai. A planet was just destroyed. Can you not even sense that much?"
Shin clutched the spot where he had been hit, more offended than hurt. "Please don't hit me so casually. I'm only a soul now. If I get beaten apart, I really will vanish."
"Then stop giving me reasons."
Elder Kai's expression darkened as he kept watching the distant universe. "Beerus-sama is awake."
Shin froze, then clenched his fists. "He's awake now? Where was he when we needed him?"
Kibito, standing nearby and still carrying his own share of resentment, muttered, "Supreme Kai is right. If Beerus-sama had not spent all these years sleeping, we would never have ended up this miserable."
That did it.
Elder Kai rounded on both of them. "You two are unbelievable. Do you know how many people warned you about Beerus-sama? Did you listen to any of them? No. And as if that weren't enough, you treated Zeno-sama like a decoration. A decoration! I have seen incompetent gods before, but the two of you may be a matched set."
Shin blinked. "A matched set? That sounds… good?"
Elder Kai pointed away from him. "Do not speak to me."
Shin lasted only a few seconds.
"Where is Beerus-sama going?"
"Earth."
"Our Earth is already in Universe 6," Shin said carefully. "If he goes to the original one, he won't find anyone."
Elder Kai's eye twitched. "You still have the nerve to mention that? If you had not made such a mess, would the Earths have been switched in the first place?"
"Please don't put every disaster on me…"
"Then stop being present for all of them."
…
Twenty minutes later, Whis and Beerus arrived above what should have been Earth.
Beerus looked down and slowly narrowed his eyes.
There were oceans. There was land. There were traces of an ancient world. What there were not, anywhere, were the mortals Whis had just claimed lived here.
Beerus turned his head. "Whis."
"Yes?"
"This is a dead planet."
"So it appears."
"You told me the Saiyans lived on Earth."
"They do."
Beerus stared at him.
Whis only smiled.
Beerus's patience, already thin after sleep, began to fray. "There is not a single human down there."
"Look more carefully. The answer is not on the surface."
Beerus hated when Whis spoke like that. He scanned the planet again, this time deeper, pushing past the empty continents and dead cities until something unnatural tugged at his senses.
A dark distortion twisted in the air below.
"There."
He descended toward it, and Whis followed at a leisurely pace, looking far too pleased with himself.
The distortion was a black vortex suspended over the dead Earth, its edges folding space inward like a wound.
Beerus hovered in front of it. "A wormhole? Why is there a wormhole on Earth?"
Whis did not answer.
Beerus looked sideways at him. "You knew this was here."
"I know many things."
"Where does it lead?"
"Would you like to see?"
Beerus gave him a flat look, then flew straight into the vortex. "Fine."
Space folded.
The dead Earth vanished.
Beerus emerged into the sky above another Earth, and the difference hit him immediately. Cities sparkled below. Oceans shone blue. The air was alive with traffic, mortals, noise, food, and all the irritating signs of a planet that had no business looking this comfortable.
Beerus took one look and his mood worsened.
"This is Universe 6."
Whis appeared beside him. "Indeed."
Beerus looked down at the thriving planet again. "Why does Champa's Earth look better than mine?"
Whis's smile remained gentle.
Because this had been Universe 7's Earth until Ken switched it away.
He did not say that, of course. Some truths were more useful when left to ripen.
Beerus slowly turned toward him. "Whis, why did you bring me into Universe 6? If Champa finds out, he'll never shut up."
"Oh my. I did not bring you in. Beerus-sama entered the wormhole himself."
Beerus's ears twitched. "Do not play word games with me. We are looking for the Super Saiyan God."
"Yes."
"And you led me here."
"I followed you here."
"Whis."
Whis covered his mouth with a polite little laugh.
Beerus stared at him, then finally understood.
"The Super Saiyan God is on this Earth."
Whis's smile answered before his words did. "As expected of Beerus-sama. Your instincts are as sharp as ever."
Beerus's eyes narrowed.
Whis had enjoyed every second of this.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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