On Planet of the God of Destruction, a mysterious being stood before a table, preparing food with a blissful expression. He was extremely tall, with blue-green skin, long white curls, purple pupils and lips, and a large, pale-blue glowing ring around his neck.
"Uhoho! It's wonderful that Lord Beerus is asleep." Whis hummed as he fried the meat of some strange creature. Wisps of smoke curled upward, and a satisfied look spread across his face.
He and Beerus shared one hobby: good food! When you had an unimaginably long time on your hands, having no interests or hobbies would drive you mad.
And now that Beerus was asleep, there was no one to steal his food. Having all the delicacies to himself was simply the best!
Just then, the Angel Staff Whis had set aside suddenly glowed green. Usually, that meant another Angel or the Grand Minister was contacting him—or something urgent had happened in Universe 7.
Whis was a little displeased. What was the big idea? He was in the middle of making something delicious, and it was at a crucial stage.
With no choice, he sealed the half-finished roast and picked up the staff, opening a green screen in an instant.
The image showed the Purple Crystal that had swallowed Karochi and Tights. It seemed to have gone berserk, voraciously devouring the surrounding planets. Even the space around it was visibly distorted.
"My, my! Something quite serious has happened!" Whis lightly covered his mouth with his right hand. His tone was exaggerated, but his eyes didn't waver in the slightest.
Only a trace of disdain and impatience showed. They were just a bunch of flies who didn't know when to quit! Somehow, they had found their way into the universe.
Whis glanced at the tower where Beerus slept, troubled. "What should I do? Lord Beerus has already fallen asleep. If I disturb him, the planets below are bound to suffer."
The Angel race wasn't allowed to act freely in the universe. That was the rule! So whenever negative energy or evil beings—evil as defined differently in this context—appeared in the universe, the God of Destruction was the one who dealt with them. That was part of his divine duty.
Of course, that didn't mean he was an employee. A God of Destruction could do whatever he pleased! If he wanted to act, he did; if he didn't, the Angels couldn't go against his wishes. Well! That was unless the big boss, Zeno, showed up.
Now Beerus was asleep, and Whis couldn't act freely across the Macrocosm! That was the real problem. Otherwise, the trash created by a few measly flies wouldn't be worth this much effort.
"Sigh! These Demon Realm fellows are making such a mess. Aren't they afraid Lord Beerus will settle the score once he wakes up?" Whis rubbed his brow, feeling a headache coming on. He still had roast meat to make.
He couldn't understand why the flies were so determined to bash their heads against a wall. Under the rule of the great king of combat, they still dared to pull these little tricks! Utterly foolish.
After a moment's thought, Whis decided to notify the Time Nest. This matter fell under their jurisdiction, after all!
"Mosimo-shi! Can Supreme Kai of Time hear me?" Whis called into the sphere atop his staff, cupping his right hand around his mouth.
The scene inside the sphere shifted at once, revealing an interior like a library, stretching endlessly in both directions.
Then a woman dressed in peculiar clothes appeared on the screen. She looked like a child, with short orange hair and the same earrings as a Supreme Kai. Her face was round, with a hint of baby fat.
"Hmm? Isn't that Mr. Whis? It's been a long time! Is something the matter?" Supreme Kai of Time seemed to have something on her mind, but her tone was gentle, and she showed Whis great respect.
"Supreme Kai of Time, here's the situation! Those fellows from the Demon Realm somehow brought Time-Space Fragments into the Macrocosm." Whis told her what he had seen.
Chronoa seemed surprised as she looked through something. "Oh, so they did! Towa and Mira are causing trouble again."
At the mention of Towa and Mira, Chronoa's expression changed. She looked almost furious!
"I wonder if you could take care of it, Supreme Kai of Time?" Whis had no interest in those Demon Realm fellows. Compared with his roast, they were utterly insignificant.
Chronoa could barely keep it together when she heard that. She was short on people herself!
"Well, all the Time Patrol members from the Time Nest have been sent out! I really can't spare anyone," Chronoa said, troubled. She looked at Whis's timeline and felt even more exasperated. This was the main reason her workload had doubled and she was so desperately short-staffed: Whis's world was a split-off timeline.
Originally, she only had to manage the timeline of the one original world, so her work was fairly light! Then, five and a half years ago, that happy state of affairs came to an end.
The original timeline had split into a parallel timeline, leaving Chronoa at her wit's end! Her workload had doubled, but her staff hadn't increased.
The Time Nest existed above time and space, so it wasn't affected by the timeline splitting! She was still herself, and the Time Patrol members were still the same ones.
But now there were twice as many opponents, and twice as many fragments from the split-off timeline! Spare a thought for her—she hadn't had a day off in five years! Some Time Patrol members were even thinking of quitting.
"Can't Lord Beerus deal with it?" Chronoa asked, puzzled. Since it had appeared in the Macrocosm, it was fundamentally an issue under Zeno's authority and could no longer be considered the Time Nest's problem.
Her team was only responsible for broken timelines drifting outside the Macrocosm. Restoring them to their original timelines was the Time Nest's proper duty.
Whis replied with a troubled look, "Unfortunately, Lord Beerus fell asleep several years ago!" Although the Time-Space Fragments fell under the Time Nest's jurisdiction, bringing them into the Macrocosm changed things!
Whis and Beerus were the top deities of Universe 7, and they were responsible for overseeing the entire universe! They should have known about these Time-Space Fragments being brought in, let alone the Demon Realm fellows appearing in Universe 7.
The current situation meant he and Beerus had failed in their duties, allowing the Demon Realm fellows to appear in Universe 7—and to bring in Time-Space Fragments that should never have been there.
You could say it was the fault of Whis and Beerus... Hmm? Wait, no. This was clearly Lord Beerus's fault. It had nothing to do with him! Although he was also responsible for inspecting Universe 7, he wasn't allowed to act. That's right, this was all Lord Beerus's problem.
"In that case... I'll go over and see if I can deal with it." There was nothing for it but to go in person. Heavens, even the big boss was working overtime now.
Whis was overjoyed. "Sorry for the trouble, Supreme Kai of Time!" Heh, now he could enjoy his roast meat after all. Wonderful.
"I can go and deal with it, but please go there first, Mr. Whis! Several other timelines under my care have run into problems, and I need to handle them one by one." Her words struck like a bolt from the blue. Whis wanted to cover his ears and pretend he hadn't heard! He didn't want to go.
"Is the Time Nest really that short-staffed?" Whis asked, confused. The Time Nest should have had plenty of experts, shouldn't it? Though, by his standards, those experts were all rather ordinary.
In Whis's eyes, even Gods of Destruction were rather ordinary. Whis could knock one unconscious with a single hand! That was the difference between an Angel and a God of Destruction.
Chronoa gave a bitter smile. Wasn't it all because of this timeline of theirs? Otherwise, she'd be lounging in the sun right now. Why would she need to personally clean up Time-Space Fragments?
"Lately, the Demon Realm has been growing more and more brazen. The Time Nest lacks key high-end combatants!" Wiping out the Demon Realm would be the best way to solve the problem once and for all, but the Time Nest didn't have enough fighting strength.
If she couldn't use Liberation of Time Power to make those fellows think twice, the Demon Realm might even dare to launch a counterattack against the Time Nest.
They were far too short on top-tier fighters!
"I see. Then I'll stabilize the surrounding space first. Please hurry, Supreme Kai of Time." Whis could only cast a mournful glance at the roast meat he had sealed away. It was already a stroke of luck that Supreme Kai of Time had agreed to help.
If Supreme Kai of Time had simply washed her hands of the matter, he'd have to stay in that place until Lord Beerus woke up! Just thinking about it made an Angel despair.
Of course, it wasn't that the thing was difficult to destroy. It was that he wasn't allowed to act!
"All right, Mr. Whis. That's it for now. I'll come over once I've dealt with things here." Chronoa ended the call in a hurry, as if she really was overwhelmed with work.
"Sigh! Well, that's that." Whis shook his head in silence. He had no choice. He touched the ground with his Angel Staff, and a brilliant stream of light instantly enveloped him.
Great Space Displacement was said to be the fastest means of travel in the entire universe. At that speed, Whis would reach the area in just four or five minutes.
This wasn't some cheap imitation like Towa's, which only had the appearance of the real thing!
Four or five minutes later, Whis had reached the area. The evil aura spreading around him made him frown in disgust.
He lightly tapped the void with his staff. The crumpled space instantly smoothed out, as if someone had run an iron over it. At the same time, the devouring Time-Space Fragment came to a halt, and the blood-red aura it had released was instantly erased.
"My, my, how surprising! A living being from Universe 7 was swallowed up, yet survived." Whis glanced over and sensed Karochi and Tights inside this Time-Space Crystal.
After all, their "marks" were in his possession! It was like he held their household registration documents. But even he had no way to pull them out, so he could only wait for Supreme Kai of Time, Chronoa, to arrive.
"Hmm? One of them is a Saiyan. Hadn't the planet that angered Lord Beerus already been destroyed?" Whis was surprised. When he tried to check Karochi's information, however, an almighty force blocked him.
In the presence of this power, Whis felt fear for the first time! It was an overwhelming pressure unlike anything even Zeno had ever brought forth.
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