Vegeta still wanted to fight back.
He gritted his teeth, every muscle in his body bulging as he desperately tried to squeeze out every last bit of strength.
Unfortunately, his body had reached its limit.
Every movement made his arms and legs feel as heavy as lead. His bones creaked as if they might snap apart at any moment.
The parasitic cells were still multiplying wildly inside him, like a nest of venomous snakes coiling around his nerves and gnawing away at his last shred of will.
His vision began to darken. Everything he saw twisted and swayed, and a constant buzzing filled his ears.
His consciousness was like an oil lamp on the verge of going out, flickering weakly as the darkness swallowed it bit by bit.
Just then—
A beam of red light suddenly shot down from the sky, thick as a tree trunk and fierce as divine punishment.
It split the dark clouds, golden arcs of electricity wreathing its edges. Bearing an irresistible pressure, it slammed straight into Great Ape Baby's tail!
"BOOM—!!!"
The thunderous blast tore through the air, and the ground shuddered violently. Flames seemed ready to burn through the sky, as the explosion sent up a mushroom cloud.
The flames surged skyward like a red tyrannosaur, swallowing everything around them.
Great Ape Baby could barely stay upright. The blast forced him back several steps, each footfall leaving a deep crater as the earth groaned beneath him.
Half his tail had been blown off. Blood and charred flesh flew everywhere, splattering the ground and filling the air with a pungent stench of burnt flesh and sulfur.
"Who?!"
Gohan whipped around, his gaze sharp as an ice blade as he roared toward the source of the red light.
Shock and fury were etched across his face. He had already taken a fighting stance, a blue energy sphere gradually forming between his palms as a dangerous aura rolled off him.
A figure slowly descended from the sky.
Even the wind seemed to grow heavy, and the air felt as if some invisible force were pressing down on it, making it hard to breathe.
It was a man clad in black armor.
His red hair swayed in the wind, flickering like flames. His pupils were red too, and his gaze was eerily calm, deep and keen, as if it could see through every secret.
A pale red aura of God Ki coiled around him. It might not have seemed especially powerful, but it carried an innate, irresistible majesty that made people want to bow their heads and dare not look directly at him.
It was Jiang Che.
He hovered there, straight as a spear, his clothes fluttering in the wind.
Just from his presence, smoke and rubble seemed to part around him of their own accord.
His gaze swept between Gohan and Baby, and the corner of his mouth curled into an inscrutable smile.
"I really didn't come too late." His deep, resonant voice shattered the silence, freezing the entire battlefield in an instant.
It was as if someone had clenched the air. The wind stopped.
The clouds stopped.
Even the dust hanging in the air stood perfectly still. It felt as though time had come to a sudden halt—even a half-broken rock floating in the distance had frozen in place.
Great Ape Baby let out a furious roar, like an army of thousands howling as the ground trembled beneath him.
He slammed down both massive arms, and cracks instantly split the ground as rubble shot out like rain.
Foul blood dripped from the stump of his tail into the earth, easily corroding smoking pits into the ground. A boiling, acrid stench of burning flesh spread through the area.
His eyes were filled with murderous intent. His blood-red pupils locked onto Jiang Che, as if he meant to tear him apart and devour him.
"You actually dared to sever my tail..." Baby's voice was low and hoarse, rough as stone scraping against stone. Even a single word sent a chill through the air.
"You Saiyan who crawled out of who knows where, you dare meddle in my plans?"
He grinned viciously, baring his fangs. Dried blood still clung between his teeth.
He slowly straightened, blocking out a vast swath of the sky. His heavy breathing sounded like bellows, every exhalation bringing a wave of heat.
Gohan and Goten turned around as well, moving in perfect unison like puppets pulled by strings.
The red light in their eyes was unnerving. It wasn't ordinary light—it seemed to glow from deep within their pupils like will-o'-the-wisps, almost like hellfire.
Black patterns appeared on their armor, slowly writhing. They carried the exact same aura as Baby.
There was no doubt about it: they were completely under his control. They had even lost their souls.
Gohan raised a hand, and a Ki Blast swelled in his palm.
At first, it was the size of a fist. Moments later, it was as large as an overturned washbasin, emitting a piercing hum.
Black-and-red ripples pulsed across it like a violently beating heart, each throb making one's own heart clench.
The air around it twisted into transparent ripples. The veins in his arm stood out as he clearly put all his strength into it.
"Lord Baby said to kill you." His voice was entirely devoid of emotion, cold and mechanical.
His lips moved like those of a robot following a program.
Goten crouched nearby, poised to spring, his legs tense like a leopard before the hunt.
Golden energy wrapped around his hands, flickering like fire and heating the air.
His gaze was fixed on Jiang Che's throat. The prey had clearly been chosen.
But Jiang Che didn't even look at them. His gaze rested on Vegeta, as if Gohan and Goten were nothing but flies.
He saw Vegeta suspended in the air, reduced to an empty shell. All that remained in his eyes were black sclera and blood-red pupils, like blood bleeding into ink—a sight that made his scalp crawl.
Black, parasite-like patterns covered his entire body, stretching from his neck to the tips of his limbs. They wriggled faintly beneath his skin, making him look as if he'd been gnawed alive.
Jiang Che looked at him with a hint of disgust. His brows knitted tightly, and one corner of his mouth lifted in a cold sneer.
"How pathetic. Is this all the Saiyan prince has to offer? You were Frieza's dog when you were a child, and now you've been possessed by lowly parasites. You've thrown away every last shred of Saiyan pride."
Before he'd even finished speaking, Gohan and Goten shot forward!
Their figures flashed and vanished. A sharp whoosh cut through the air, and two clouds of dust rose from the ground.
In the next instant, they were attacking Jiang Che from both sides!
Gohan swung his right fist, hurling the enormous Ki Blast toward Jiang Che as it roiled with raging energy.
The air along its path shrieked as it tore through the sky. A deep furrow carved into the ground while the shockwave swept up rocks and dust, forming a long, yellow-gray dragon.
The power inside the Ki Blast was like a savage beast that couldn't be caged, thrashing wildly as it prepared to tear apart everything in its path.
Before you continue