Thank You

Son Gohan shifted his gaze from his fingers and looked down at the sickly smiling Kakarot below.

"I really don't want to admit it, but I truly have you to thank for this." Son Gohan's voice rang out clearly from the air, his tone flat yet deeply sincere.

Without Kakarot, he never could have crossed the threshold of mastering Hakai Energy so quickly, let alone wield it while in his Super Saiyan 4 form.

The sickly smile on Kakarot's face froze instantly, and his brows knit together.

"Thank me? What do you mean?"

"It means nothing. A dying man doesn't need to know the 'why' of so many things." Son Gohan watched him with cold eyes.

Kakarot felt completely underestimated. He refused to believe that any existence in this world could suppress his divine power. In this universe, he was the absolute Creator. "You bastard! So what if you're some God of Destruction? Don't think I'm afraid of you!"

He raised his right hand, pointing his index finger at Son Gohan's heart.

Sshhh.

A pure white beam, as thick as a thumb, shot from his fingertip. This beam lacked earth-shattering energy fluctuations, possessing only the most primal power of law. It ignored the physical distance of space, instantly appearing before Son Gohan's chest.

Son Gohan hung in place, neither dodging nor parrying.

The white light collided with the layer of quietly flowing purple-black aura on his body.

Sizzle.

It dissipated completely within the Hakai Energy, failing to stir even a ripple before vanishing into nothingness like wisps of smoke.

It hadn't even managed to harm a single hair on Son Gohan.

Kakarot felt a secret tremor of alarm; this was the first time since he had mastered Miracle Power that an attack of his had been blocked so easily.

"Try this then!" Kakarot roared, raising both hands at once.

His ten fingers flickered frantically.

A dense storm of white beams poured out, sealing off all of Son Gohan's escape routes.

Son Gohan remained as immovable as a mountain. The purple-black Hakai Energy acted as an absolute defense, corroding every Miracle beam that approached. The vacuum was filled with the hissing sound of two laws colliding.

Kakarot grew desperate. He slammed his hands together, drawing out even more Miracle Power from within his body, and blasted it forward with all his might.

A thick pillar of white light, over ten meters in diameter, roared outward.

"Disappear!"

Son Gohan did not dodge or parry the dazzling pillar of light.

Kakarot's lips had just begun to curl into a grin when his entire face locked up.

That thick beam of white light, infused with the massive amount of Miracle Power he had poured into it, should have forcibly erased everything it touched according to his will. Yet, when the world-destroying pillar slammed into Son Gohan, it was like a squirt gun—useless, save for a few splashing droplets.

Everything was neutralized by that layer of Hakai Energy, crumbling into a sky full of drifting, void-like light particles.

"Impossible... Die! Erase him!" Kakarot shrieked, pushing his hands forward again and frantically increasing the output of his Miracle Power.

Son Gohan looked up at the blinding white light flooding his vision, his purple eyes devoid of ripples. With his own solid foundation of energy, his supply of Hakai Energy was virtually inexhaustible.

He took a step forward.

Boom.

Son Gohan walked forward with leisurely ease, braving the white beam capable of reducing dozens of galaxies to nothingness. He was like a sharp, unstoppable purple axe, splitting the thick white light straight down the middle.

"How is this possible..." Kakarot's voice cracked.

He watched helplessly as the muscular man strolled through his attack. No matter how many commands of "erase," "isolate," or "destroy" he issued to his Miracle Power, they were all brutally neutralized by that layer of purple-black energy.

Son Gohan walked closer with every step, the distance between them shrinking rapidly. A thousand meters, a hundred meters, ten meters!

Just as Trunks, braving the violent energy turbulence, arrived at the edge of the battlefield, he happened to witness this scene that would leave him awestruck for the rest of his life.

Kakarot was pushing against the white light with all his might, but Son Gohan had already reached him.

A massive hand covered in dark red ape fur lunged out from the white light, its five thick fingers clamping onto Kakarot's entire face like iron pincers.

The hissing sound of corrosion erupted between those five fingers.

Kakarot's defensive barrier was like wet, thin paper before this ruthless hand, shattering in an instant.

The projection of the light beam ceased abruptly as its source was seized.

The world fell silent in an instant, leaving only the chilling sound of aura corroding flesh.

Kakarot's feet dangled in the air, his head locked tight in that massive hand. He tried to struggle, but an unimaginably terrifying force caused him excruciating pain. If that hand were to exert even a little more pressure, his head would burst like a ripe watermelon.

"Let... go..." Kakarot's fingernails dug deep into Son Gohan's forearm, attempting to use his Miracle Power to disintegrate the hand. But the moment those white glimmers appeared, they were devoured clean by the Hakai Energy.

"You had fun binding me earlier, didn't you?" Son Gohan leaned in, his ruthless purple eyes looking down at Kakarot, whose features were distorted by the grip. "Then let's swap roles and play again."

Giving Kakarot no chance to catch his breath, Son Gohan held his head with his right hand and pulled his left arm back. His knotted muscles bulged, and a terrifying, hundred-quadrillion-level force poured into his fist.

A purple-black halo enveloped his left fist.

He threw the punch!

There were no flashy, superfluous moves—only the purest, most extreme violence.

BANG—!!!

A dull, eardrum-shattering impact echoed through the deathly silent space, accompanied by the dissipation of raw energy. Son Gohan landed a heavy punch squarely on Kakarot's right chest.

Utter devastation.

The fist, coated in Hakai Energy, smashed through the layer of rule-based defenses without the slightest resistance. It sank into flesh and blood, the terrifying kinetic force punching straight through Kakarot's chest as blood sprayed into the void.

"Arghhhhh!" Kakarot let out a scream of extreme agony.

His physical body nearly collapsed entirely under the weight of that single blow. Most of his chest cavity was pulverized instantly, and his right shoulder, along with his entire arm, was blasted into a mist of blood by the violent shockwave!

Son Gohan loosened his grip and swept his leg out, sending Kakarot's mangled, broken body flying like a struck meteorite, trailing a long streak of blood.

Boom!

Kakarot's body smashed through hundreds of floating warship wrecks before slamming violently into the surface of the ruined Planet Vegeta below. The immense kinetic energy drove him deep into the scorching mantle, triggering a massive magma tsunami that spanned thousands of kilometers.

Trunks stood in the distance, completely stunned.

That guy with the bizarre divine power had actually been grabbed by the head by Brother Gohan and had half his body shattered by a single punch! What kind of realm had Brother Gohan's strength reached?

From the boiling lake of lava, a ball of dazzling white light broke through the dark red magma and shot into the sky.

Kakarot hovered in mid-air, gasping for breath. His shattered half-body was regenerating continuously under the influence of his Miracle Power.

However, the Hakai Energy lingering at the edges of the wound stubbornly obstructed the Miracle Power, causing an injury that should have healed instantly to take several seconds to mend.

Kakarot looked down at his newly regenerated right side, and the composure on his face finally vanished completely. In its place was an unprecedented sense of shock and irritation.

Though he was loath to accept the fact, the opponent's so-called divine power was no mere facade. That purple-black energy was not inferior to his own Miracle Power in rank, and in terms of pure destructive properties, it was even superior.

His Miracle Power was ineffective against the opponent.

This meant he had to face this red-haired brute in a real, head-on physical brawl.

Once his divine power was exhausted...

Thinking of the lethal impact from that previous punch, Kakarot couldn't help but shudder.

Since he had begun to style himself as a god, this was the first time he had felt the threat of death.

Swish!

Space distorted, and Son Gohan's demonic figure flashed directly above Kakarot. Without a word, he brought his right leg down in a fierce axe kick, the limb wreathed in purple-black gale force winds that threatened to tear everything apart, aimed straight at Kakarot's face.

"Get lost!" Kakarot roared frantically, swinging his left hand violently to wrap himself in a dense web of white energy.

Bang! Son Gohan's kick slammed into the light web, driving both the barrier and the Kakarot within it straight into a several-thousand-meter-tall active volcano. The entire mountain collapsed and exploded instantly under the sheer force.

As debris flew everywhere, Kakarot scrambled out of the ruins in a sorry state, glaring viciously at Son Gohan, who was looking down at him from above. His chest heaved violently.

"Damn it..."