A figure appeared out of nowhere in front of King Piccolo, like a ghost, right in the path of the Kamehameha!
The timing and position were so perfectly coincidental, it was as if they had been deliberately calculated.
"Hm?"
Vitelli had just teleported in and landed. Before he could even take in his surroundings, a torrent of violent energy came rushing straight at him!
The familiar ki and technique left him speechless in an instant.
"Goku, you... I just got back, and this is how you welcome me?"
A ridiculous thought flashed through Vitelli's mind: Is he holding a grudge because I didn't take him to the God of Destruction Realm to train? But his movements were still lightning-fast.
He casually raised his right hand, opened his palm, and gave the roaring Kamehameha a light shove to the side, as if swatting away an annoying fly!
Whoosh—!
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no violent clash of energy.
The Kamehameha, powerful enough to destroy a mountain, changed course by force as soon as it touched Vitelli's palm!
It made a sharp ninety-degree turn and roared off toward the distant horizon. In the end, far beyond Earth, it actually shoved the moon out of place.
"Uh..." He swore it hadn't been intentional!
Vitelli stared at the displaced moon in a daze, then turned to look at King Piccolo, whom he had just saved, and who now had a completely blank expression on his face.
"Yo~"
Vitelli raised an eyebrow, his tone faintly teasing. "Well, if it isn't Old Piccolo. Haven't seen you in a few days. What happened? You've really fallen off."
He instantly understood what had just happened—he'd apparently interrupted Goku's "finishing blow."
"Vi... Vitelli?!"
Only then did Goku recognize him. His eyes widened in surprise, and he exclaimed excitedly,
"Why did you suddenly come back?! You just swatted my Kamehameha away like it was nothing... You're amazing!"
He didn't care at all that Vitelli had "saved" his enemy. Instead, he was thrilled by the power Vitelli had displayed—a power far beyond anything he could comprehend.
After lurching violently from the depths of despair to the heights of hope, King Piccolo finally came to his senses!
He looked at the black-haired young man before him, who had casually batted away a lethal attack and whose power was unfathomable. His brief shock quickly gave way to the delirious joy of surviving and a surge of ambition!
"Wahahahaha!!!"
King Piccolo burst into laughter even more maniacal than before, as though he had never despaired at all.
"I knew it! How could the great King Piccolo possibly fall so easily? In the end, fate is still on my side!"
He forced himself to straighten his hunched back and looked down at Vitelli with disdain, as if granting him a favor.
"Kid! I don't know who you are, but you saved the great King Piccolo, and I'll remember your service! Just take out the brat in front of me, and when I rule the world, you'll be second only to me!"
He could practically see himself standing at the top of the world.
Vitelli looked at Old Piccolo as if he were an idiot, his face full of utter exasperation.
He couldn't help asking, "Hey, old man, are you always this bold? Who gave you the nerve to talk to me like that? Liang Jingru? Huh?!"
Vitelli fished a verdant Senzu Bean out of the Hoi-Poi Capsule case at his waist and tossed it over. "Here. You recognize this, right? Eat it."
A Senzu Bean?! Greedy light flashed in King Piccolo's murky old eyes!
Of course he recognized it! Without a moment's hesitation, he snatched the bean and eagerly shoved it into his mouth, chewing and swallowing with all his might!
Boom!
A tremendous surge of life energy erupted inside his withered, aged body!
His broken bones cracked as they rapidly knitted together, while his deep, gaping wounds healed and vanished before their eyes.
Even the wrinkles on his skin seemed to smooth out a little!
"My power! My boundless power is back! Hahaha!"
Feeling the surging strength within him, King Piccolo's confidence swelled to unprecedented heights!
He looked at Vitelli not with gratitude, but with cruelty and arrogance!
"Kid! You gave me a Senzu Bean, but your disrespect toward me just now—"
He raised both hands with a sinister grin. Terrifying energy began to gather around him. Clearly, he was about to turn on his benefactor and, while he was at it, test how his restored strength felt.
But before he could finish his threat, Vitelli appeared right in front of him!
A hand like an iron clamp shot out and seized him by the throat!
"Gah?!"
Every movement King Piccolo made froze in an instant!
To his horror, he found that his terrifying strength—enough to destroy a city—was as useless as a baby's against that hand!
No matter how hard he struggled or how fiercely he unleashed his ki, he couldn't budge a single finger!
The sensation of choking and the coldness of death filled his heart!
"Spit out the egg."
Vitelli's voice was ice-cold, devoid of emotion.
"Guh... guh..." King Piccolo made a hoarse, rattling sound in his throat, his eyes filled with disbelief and terror. How could this young man know?!
"Spit. Out. The egg."
Vitelli tightened his grip a little. King Piccolo's eyes bulged, and his face turned purplish-red.
He realized this wasn't a request. It was an order—a final ultimatum!
"Damn... you!" His instinct to survive overwhelmed everything else.
A trace of madness and venom flashed in King Piccolo's eyes. He abruptly raised both hands and gathered all the power he'd regained!
At point-blank range, a massive Demon King Piercing Cannon, radiating an aura of destruction, blasted into Vitelli's chest!
Boom!!!!
The violent explosion swallowed them both! Rampaging purple energy tore across the ground, gouging out an enormous crater!
Amid the billowing dust, Goku shouted nervously, "Vitelli!"
But when the dust cleared, Vitelli was still standing exactly where he'd been. His hair wasn't even out of place!
The Demon King Piercing Cannon, powerful enough to pierce a mountain range, had struck him like a gentle breeze!
His other hand was even free. Amid the explosive dust, he accurately grabbed Goku's little face as the boy came closer to watch, then gave it a familiar, vigorous rub.
"Spit. Out. The egg."
Vitelli's voice rang out again, still cold and calm, as if the explosion powerful enough to destroy a city had never happened.
The hand gripping Piccolo's throat hadn't budged an inch.
King Piccolo was utterly broken!
This wasn't even the same level of opponent! This was... a monster! An absolute monster!
Before overwhelming power, all his schemes and boundless hatred seemed so pitiful and laughable!
Looking at Vitelli's expressionless eyes, as though he would crush his neck the next second, King Piccolo finally gave in. He abandoned all resistance and nodded slowly, with great difficulty and humiliation.
Only then did Vitelli release his grip on Piccolo's throat. His other hand remained firmly on his shoulder, keeping him from escaping or trying anything clever.
"Hah... hah..."
King Piccolo gasped for breath, his eyes full of humiliation and resentment.
He clutched his throat and glared venomously at Vitelli. Finally, under threat of death, he summoned all the remaining strength and life energy in his body. His abdomen convulsed and swelled!
"Ugh... Aah—!!!"
With a pained, hateful roar, he forcibly "spat" a huge Demon Egg wrapped in viscous fluid and shimmering with an eerie green light out of his mouth!
The moment the egg left Piccolo's body, it seemed to come alive. It immediately transformed into a streak of green light and shot into the sky with a whoosh, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Vitelli glanced in the direction the egg had disappeared. Knowing that it would become the Piccolo of the future, he couldn't be bothered to chase after it.
"All right, your task is done."
Vitelli looked at King Piccolo, who was sprawled on the ground and even older now that he'd exhausted his strength. His tone was casual.
"You..." King Piccolo seemed to want to say something.
Vitelli gave him no chance.
He raised his right hand. A golden point of light gathered at the tip of his index finger, then turned into a golden beam packed with terrifying penetrating power. It pierced straight through King Piccolo's forehead with a soft squelch.
The hatred, resentment, and fear in his eyes froze in an instant, then faded completely.
The Great Demon King who had once plunged the world into darkness became a cold corpse, carrying with him endless humiliation and confusion.
Vitelli lowered his hand, as calm as if he'd merely squashed an ant.
He turned to Goku, who still looked a little dazed, and said with a smile,
"I have to go first. Bulma must be getting impatient waiting for me. How about you? Want to come with me to West City? Bulma's prepared a feast."
Goku snapped out of it. He looked at Piccolo's corpse on the ground, then at Vitelli, and scratched the back of his head with a grin.
"Nah! Master Roshi and Krillin are still waiting for me to get back! I'll come visit you another time! Tell Bulma to save me some of the good stuff!"
Without another word, he summoned the Flying Nimbus and waved to Vitelli. Then he quickly vanished into the distance as a streak of golden light.
Vitelli didn't linger either. He shot urgently into the sky.
He raced toward Brief Manor in West City at a speed far beyond the Flying Nimbus!
He had to hurry. That bastard Beerus would arrive soon, and he needed to get back and prepare with Bulma.
At the very least, he couldn't let Bulma give the God of Destruction a resounding slap across the face, like she had in the original Dragon Ball story.
But... given how much he'd mastered God Ki by now...
He was confident that with a few more years to grow, he might not be able to defeat Beerus, but he could definitely fight him to a standstill!
And then... hehehe!
High above the clouds, at the Lookout.
Kami had watched the entire battle below, right through to King Piccolo's death.
His wrinkled green face wore an extremely complicated expression, a mixture of shock, bewilderment, lingering fear, and... deep relief.
"Th-That's it? It's over?"
Kami muttered to himself, feeling as if he were dreaming.
The sacrifice, the tragic struggle, the mutual destruction he had imagined... none of it happened.
King Piccolo, powerful enough to terrify even him, had been like a plaything in the hands of that alien named Vitelli. Even his final resistance had seemed utterly futile.
What unsettled him even more was the way Vitelli had forced Piccolo to "spit out the egg" at the end!
"H-How did he know that secret?"
Kami couldn't make sense of it. "I never told him that Piccolo and I came from the same being! How could he...?"
The incident gave him a new understanding of Vitelli.
Mr. Popo hadn't been back in West City for long when Kami returned. By then, Kami had figured one thing out: this man loved his wife!
Regardless, King Piccolo, the greatest threat, had been eliminated.
Kami looked at the Demon Egg that Piccolo had spat out in his final moments, now gone from sight, and his brow furrowed slightly as a trace of worry appeared on his face.
He knew better than anyone what that egg meant. There would probably be more trouble in the future...
But that was a matter for later. For now, the immediate crisis was over.
Kami let out a long breath of relief, as if he'd finally set down the burden he'd carried for hundreds of years.
"Popo," he said telepathically, his voice more relaxed than ever. "Mr. Popo, King Piccolo has been dealt with by Vitelli. You can return to the Lookout."
After telling Mr. Popo that he could come back, Kami sighed. He decided to put his earlier decision about passing the title on to Vitelli out of his mind for the time being.
"The position of Kami..."