War Begins

The sky of the World of Void shattered beneath Zeno's applause.

Rings of light burst outward from both sides of the crystal throne, dyeing the entire void in flowing gold. The two Zenos sat side by side on their thrones, swinging their legs, their eyes devoid of anything—but not one of the mortal warriors dared look at those faces for more than a second. After the light faded, the Grand Priest's voice rang out again, steady as a mirror, piercing through every stone slab of the twelve floating stands.

"The Tournament of Power preliminaries begin."

There was no countdown, no warning bell, no referee's whistle. In the span of forty heartbeats, the arena exploded from absolute stillness into dozens of high-speed arcs of light. Within the next breath, every sound was swallowed by ki blasts erupting from all directions—collisions, explosions, the sharp clatter of metal joints locking together, and the shrill howl of auras tearing through the air all layered into a single thunderous chord. The pressure of their ki crushed the fine transparent particles on the arena floor, sending debris floating upward before the next wave of impact forced it back down.

Universe 7's position was on an elevated platform near the northwest corner of the arena. Before the Grand Priest even spoke, everyone had already taken their assigned positions according to the battle plan. Ji Ming stood in the center, the auras of all ten fighters compressed within an extremely restrained radius, in stark contrast to those universes that had erupted with power the moment the match began. But keeping a low profile did not mean being passive. From the very first second, Piccolo and Nail's antennae had entered full sensory mode, and a modified anti-invisibility version of an ancient Planet Namek sealing technique had already been set in place—originally used to seal demons, Piccolo had spent much of the preparation period transforming it into a detection array capable of countering invisible opponents.

"The first threat will come from Universe 4's invisible unit," Ji Ming said quietly over the tactical channel. "Don't split up to chase invisible targets. Let them come to us."

The moment he finished speaking, an invisible blade of wind grazed Android 18's left shoulder, silently severing the strap of her combat suit. The cut was smooth as a mirror. Android 18 did not turn to look at her shoulder. Instead, she used the direction of the attack to reverse-track her opponent's movement. Her arm rose within a fraction of a second, and energy blasts fanned from her palm, covering every possible escape route. One struck the edge of something solid, scattering a small burst of dark-purple sparks through the air. Damom—Universe 4's main invisible fighter—was jolted half a step out of invisibility. His small body staggered in midair for less than a second. Before his toes could touch the ground, Android 17's high-speed ki blasts came after him, forcing him into three consecutive backflips to evade. When he landed for the third time, he stepped directly into the center of Piccolo's anti-invisibility array.

A pale green ring of light burst beneath his feet. Damom's body was forcibly revealed by the array, and his invisibility was completely sealed. Ji Ming gave him no chance to readjust. At the exact instant he appeared, Ji Ming rushed in and drove his knee into Damom's abdomen. Damom's body folded like a shrimp, pale-purple blood spraying from his mouth as he was sent flying. In midair, Vegeta casually followed up with a ki blast that struck his shoulder, sending him tumbling several times before he crashed heavily near the edge of the arena. On Universe 4's stands, God of Destruction Quitela's smile froze.

Universe 11's Pride Troopers captain, Toppo, stood directly east of the arena with his thick arms crossed over his chest, not moving a single step from start to finish. Destruction energy formed an impenetrable dark-purple barrier around him, and several contestants who tried to approach were blasted back again and again by the energy spilling from it. Beside him, Jiren floated cross-legged in the air with his eyes closed, black hair blazing upward behind him like fire. The entire eastern side of the arena had been pressed into silence by him alone. Ji Ming noticed that Universe 3's fully mechanized team had already crushed through half of Universe 10's territory in a group charge, while fighters from Universe 9 were also being swiftly knocked out.

"The first-round data is in," Piccolo's voice said over the tactical channel. His antennae marked the energy fluctuations in each universe's battle zone in real time on the holographic wristband. "The fastest eliminations at present are Universe 9, Universe 10, Universe 3, and Universe 4. Universe 10 has lost four fighters to Universe 3's mechanical legion in the southeast corner. Universe 9 has lost three in their clash with Universe 6's Saiyan formation. But the most unusual rate is Universe 4—they started showing signs of internal disorder after we countered three of them. Quitela just crushed the armrest of his seat in the stands."

Ji Ming nodded slightly. Universe 4 was known for assassination and dirty tricks. Once their ambush tactics had been cracked, their frontal combat strength was at an absolute disadvantage against every other universe. Their collapse was only a matter of time.

Universe 4 was erased in the fourth minute after the battle began.

Its collapse began with subtle fractures from within. After Damom was blasted away, Universe 4 lost its core invisibility tactics, and the remaining fighters began to panic. On the Tournament of Power arena, panic was deadlier than any attack—because every universe was eyeing the same piece of meat. Whichever universe exposed a weakness first would be pincered by the two closest universes. Fighters from Universe 9 and Universe 10 simultaneously redirected their firepower toward Universe 4's remnants. Ki blasts and energy cannons poured down from both directions. Universe 4's last three fighters were driven to the edge of the arena by the crossfire. Damom struggled to turn invisible again, but the anti-invisibility seal on his chest was still active. Quitela shouted some threat from the stands, but his voice was drowned out by explosions across the field. Three arcs of light fell from the platform in succession, and every contestant from Universe 4 was eliminated.

Zeno clapped once. On Universe 4's floating stand, God of Destruction Quitela had not even managed to let out his roar before his body began to disintegrate—first his toes, then his fingers. Fragments of purple skin floated upward like ashes scattered by the wind, and he and his Angel vanished into nothingness together. They were not killed. They were simply erased. There was no process, no struggle. When the final speck vanished, the stand itself silently collapsed into gray motes of light and dispersed into the golden sky. Twelve universes became eleven.

Ji Ming withdrew his gaze. There was no time for reflection. A dense burst of metallic clanging came from the southeast corner. Universe 3's mechanical legion was crushing every undermanned group in its path with a mass-charge formation. Universe 3's bio-modified fighter, Paparazzi, launched chainsaw arm-blades from both hands, directly locking down the arms of Universe 10's last remaining fighter, while another mechanical warrior pressed a cannon barrel into his chest. Universe 10 was wiped out, and the gray light of a collapsing stand rose for the second time.

"Second wave. Defensive counterattack," Ji Ming issued his second command over the tactical channel. Universe 7's ten-man formation abruptly contracted into a triangle—Vegeta and Android 17 held the right forward wing, Android 18 and Majin Buu guarded the left, Frieza and Gotenks provided mid-range fire support, Piccolo and Nail anchored the rear, and Son Goku coordinated from the center. Ji Ming himself stood at the foremost point of the triangle.

Universe 9's remaining formation charged in. Having just tasted success while pincering Universe 4, they now saw Universe 7 as another fat target that could be surrounded and divided—six fighters in total, moving quickly. But during the first round of observation, Ji Ming had already noticed their fatal weakness: Universe 9's fighters habitually charged in dense formations, keeping extremely short distances between one another for mutual cover. This formation was effective against scattered targets, but against a defensive formation with heavy firepower, it completely locked down their own room to evade.

He raised his right hand and spread his fingers. Ten beams shot toward predicted attack positions, forcibly scattering Universe 9's charging formation less than thirty meters from Universe 7's position. The branching beams were not meant to knock them down, but to drive them into a preset fire pocket—Vegeta's Deep Blue ki blasts cut in from the right, while Frieza's golden Death Saucers sealed off their retreat from the left. The landing points of the three-way crossfire were accurate to within half a meter beneath each opponent's feet. When the sixth fighter fell over the edge of the arena, Universe 9's stand collapsed as well. Eleven universes became ten.

After three universes were eliminated in succession, the situation on the arena began to clarify. The remaining universes no longer rushed to attack. Instead, each contracted its defensive line and reassessed its opponents. After clearing out Universe 10's remnants, Universe 6's Saiyan formation swiftly withdrew to the northeast corner to regroup. Universe 1's contestants had not moved even half a step from start to finish. Three fighters floated in midair above the north side of the arena, divine ki forming nearly opaque barriers around their bodies, leaving no one able to see their faces clearly. Universe 3's mechanical legion, its charge route blocked by Universe 7's crossfire, also began reorganizing its metal battle line. Paparazzi's chainsaw arms still spun at high speed, but he no longer advanced recklessly.

This brief balance was destined not to last under the brutal rules of the preliminaries. Only the top eight universes would remain after this melee. Two out of ten had to be eliminated, and the fewer remaining fighters a universe lost, the safer it would be—every universe was secretly calculating the elimination threshold, and the weakest one could be besieged at any moment.

Universe 8 became that target. Amid the probing exchanges of long-range ki blasts, several universes quietly completed their encirclement of Universe 8 like sharks dividing meat. There had been no prior arrangement. It was simply the law of the jungle in the Tournament of Power. When Universe 8's fighters realized that crossfire had already locked them down in the southeast corner of the arena, Ji Ming heard Android 17 casually say behind him, "So weak," as he precisely fired the final ki blast through their defenses. Every contestant from Universe 8 fell simultaneously, and the gray light of another floating stand's collapse lit up for the fourth time.

The number of universes had fallen to nine, with less than thirty minutes remaining before the preliminaries ended. Universe 1 finally moved. Their leader slowly descended into the center of the arena. His feet made no sound when they touched down, yet a circle of fine spiderweb cracks spread through the transparent arena beneath him. He was a tall, slender warrior with short snow-white hair, his face obscured by a surging halo. When he raised his foot and stepped down for the second time, the ki across the entire arena was suppressed at once. The pressure was precise—every fighter, regardless of universe, felt the same burden under it.

Toppo's muscles tensed, and Jiren slowly opened his eyes. The joints of every mechanical warrior from Universe 3 clattered at once as their systems entered overclocked operation. Ji Ming's ten scattered signatures were locked onto simultaneously—Beerus's God of Destruction power, the Saiyans' battle ki, even Majin Buu's magical fluctuations were all precisely identified by the same divine ki. Universe 1 had designated the strongest several universes as priority elimination targets.

"Converge inward in a four-man formation. Piccolo, activate the sealing matrix. Vegeta and Frieza, prepare alternating long-range suppression. Isolate their vanguard," Ji Ming quickly adjusted the orders. Within seconds, Universe 7's formation shifted, compressing Universe 1's advance route from the front into a narrow corridor. The instant Universe 1's vanguard fighter charged into the corridor, he was hit by saturated crossfire from both sides. Piccolo and Nail's sealing matrix weakened his divine ki by nearly half. Vegeta's Deep Blue ki blast smashed into his left shoulder, blasting a gap in his protective divine ki. Frieza's Death Saucer followed right behind, forcing the vanguard to take the full force of the three-way damage alone. Golden and purple explosions erupted in succession, driving him back to the edge of the arena.

Jiren finally made his move. Universe 1's suppression had angered him—or perhaps it had given him a reason worthy enough to act. With a single punch, he sent Universe 1's vanguard fighter flying from the center of the arena completely out of bounds. There was no charging, no ki wave, just an ordinary punch. The shockwave tore apart the air for hundreds of meters around them, blasting a ring of cracks across the transparent arena. Universe 1's protective divine ki was as thin as paper before him. The other Pride Troopers immediately followed with a counterattack, tearing open a gap in Universe 1's formation.

Universe 1 quickly stabilized. Their leader did not enter the battle personally. Instead, he floated in the air and pressed one hand downward. A divine ki even stronger than before descended vertically from above the arena, cutting the entire battlefield into several separate combat zones. It was a divide-and-conquer tactic—using divine ki to create isolation walls, severing support between universes before defeating them one by one.

Ji Ming's tactical channel was disrupted at the same instant, and all outside sounds were cut off. Universe 1 began carrying out a brutal elimination sequence—Universe 3's mechanical legion was trapped alone inside a narrow ki prison, where continuous bombardment by modified Destruction energy melted their metal shells like wax; the flanks of Universe 2 and Universe 11 were suppressed simultaneously. Jiren did not budge, but Toppo was already forced to unleash his Destruction energy at full strength to resist; Universe 6's Saiyan formation barely held its ground through mutual cover, with one female Saiyan's red hair trailing streaks of crimson flame as she evaded at high speed.

On this battlefield carved apart by divine ki, Universe 7 faced a more immediate threat—two Universe 1 fighters were working together to pry open a spatial rift, dragging Universe 7's entire position, including Ji Ming, toward the edge of the arena. Though such a spatial technique could not directly kill anyone under Zeno's tournament rules, it was enough to clear a large number of targets out of bounds in one move.

"The sealing array has been interrupted. The divine ki isolation wall is suppressing my antennae," Piccolo said, one knee pressed to the ground, both hands still locked onto the center of the formation.

Nail endured the divine ki and fired a targeting beam at the edge of the spatial rift. Vegeta and Frieza poured all their long-range firepower onto that single coordinate. Under the repeated bombardment, the rift finally widened briefly. Universe 7's fighters seized the opening and forcibly pulled half their bodies free from the spatial drag, but several of their main fighters had expended a great deal of energy. Piccolo was severely exhausted, Nail could barely remain standing, and the white cloaks over his shoulders had been soaked gray-green with sweat and blood.

Ji Ming stared at the still-expanding spatial rift, then suddenly said something over the tactical channel that only the Earthling fighters present could understand. "Goku, opening."

Son Goku had not attacked at all since stepping onto the arena. Within the formation, he had constantly made the smallest possible movements to create space for his teammates to evade and attack. The silver radiance of the complete Ultra Instinct had remained inconspicuous from beginning to end, but his position had always been the steady support safeguarding the entire team's defensive line. Until now, Universe 1's isolation walls had thrown everyone off rhythm, and his teammates' stamina had been pushed to the limit.

"Got it," he replied. Silver light tore through the divine ki isolation wall and entered the rift's core. Ultra Instinct's automatic evasion helped him slip past several void-rending blades as he crossed through. Son Goku did not attack anyone. He merely stepped along the crests of the spatial rift and used consecutive Instant Transmissions to relocate the entire Universe 7 team one by one from their forward position to the safe zone at the center of the arena. Having just regained his footing, Majin Buu realized he was still holding half a fragment of the isolation wall that he had casually grabbed during the teleportation, and tilted his head in confusion.

Universe 1's leader finally turned his attention to Universe 7's team. His gaze crossed the entire battlefield and met Ji Ming's for an instant—then he gave a slight nod. It was not a friendly gesture, but the silent acknowledgment a hunter gave only to prey of equal worth. Then he raised a hand and recalled every fighter still in pursuit, returning to the air above the north side of the arena as the glow around his body slowly faded.

At this point, the situation on the arena was clear: Universes 9, 10, 4, and 8 had been erased in succession, leaving eight universes. The elimination threshold for the preliminaries had been reached. The remaining universes no longer needed to reduce their numbers. They only needed to preserve their places until the time limit expired, so every universe chose to contract its defensive line and minimize the expenditure caused by further contact. The density of offense and defense on the arena abruptly dropped to its lowest point since the tournament began. Only scattered probing attacks at long range passed back and forth between positions like the last drops of rain after a storm.

Ji Ming used this precious window of respite to rapidly assess the team's condition: Vegeta's Deep Blue Form had consumed a great deal of energy; Frieza's Death Saucer usage had already exceeded the pre-match budget; Piccolo and Nail were still recovering their antenna-based sensing; the wound in Majin Buu's right abdomen was still regenerating slowly; Android 17 and Android 18's energy engines were functioning well; Goten and Trunks's fusion time had expired and still required cooldown; Son Gohan and Tien Shinhan were moderately exhausted. Overall, Universe 7's remaining combat strength ranked in the upper-middle tier among the surviving universes, but in the coming elimination stage against stronger opponents, every bit of stamina would have to be managed with absolute precision.

The Grand Priest's voice rang out exactly at the forty-minute mark. "The preliminaries are over. The elimination stage officially begins."

Upon the crystal throne, the two Zenos tilted their heads in unison as they swept their gazes over the eight remaining teams on the arena. There was no smile on their lips. Their eyes looked as though they were flipping through a menu they had not yet finished reading.