Elimination Round

When the bell signaling the end of the preliminaries echoed above the World of Void, eight universes remained on the arena. Forty bodies lay scattered across the transparent platform, some completely unconscious, others being urgently dragged back to the floating stands by their universes' support crews. The arena's clear floor was covered in cracks, scorch marks, and dried blood—purple, green, red—gleaming eerily beneath the golden flashes of energy.

Four universes had already been erased. The sight of their floating stands dissolving into gray motes of light in the void was like a basin of ice water poured over every survivor's head. No one thought this was merely a competition anymore.

Ji Ming stood slightly north of the arena's center, his arms hanging naturally at his sides and his breathing steady. His Super Saiyan God form had ended during the last ten minutes of the preliminaries. His hair was black again, but the lingering red afterglow around him had yet to fully fade, and occasional wisps of crimson-gold lightning flickered past the tips of his hair. He swept his gaze around—Universe 7's ten fighters were all still standing. Piccolo and Nail had spent more stamina than expected, while Goten and Trunks needed time to recover now that their fusion had expired, but their overall remaining combat strength still ranked at least among the top three of the eight remaining universes.

Bulma's tactical analysis system had automatically recorded combat data from every universe during the preliminaries and was now calculating at a frantic pace. Her voice entered everyone's ears through their tactical earpieces, speaking at least twice as fast as usual. "Preliminary elimination order confirmed—Universes 4, 10, 9, and 8 have been erased. Based on the combined rankings of surviving members and ring-out counts, Universe 7 is currently in third place. The top two are Universe 1 and Universe 11. Their ring-out counts are nearly double ours."

"Universe 1." Vegeta's voice was hoarse, Deep Blue energy flickering faintly around him. He had blasted straight through at least three opponents with Final Flash during the preliminaries, and the muscles in his arms were still trembling slightly. Standing atop a shattered rise in the arena, he looked down at the other universe teams that had retreated to the edges of their respective stands. "Their leader never personally made a move from beginning to end."

"He didn't need to." Ji Ming received the data stream Bulma sent him and projected the known information on Universe 1 onto his wristband—three warriors collectively known as the Three Seats of the Divine Clan, names unknown, with predicted abilities including divine energy suppression, spatial severing, and high-density destructive energy. During the preliminaries, the Three Seats of the Divine Clan had displayed the power of only two of their members. The third had remained floating silently in the sky, and even the scanners could only capture a vague energy silhouette. "Their strategy is to use divine energy to create isolation barriers, splitting the battlefield into smaller sections before defeating opponents one by one. In the preliminaries, they used that move to wipe out Universe 3's entire mechanical legion in one go. Every mechanical warrior from Universe 3 was locked inside an energy prison less than twenty cubic meters in size, then burned into a puddle of molten metal by modified destructive energy in just sixty seconds."

Krillin unconsciously rubbed his bald head. He had personally seen Universe 3's mechanical legion at the start of the preliminaries—gleaming metal shells, firepower coordination precise to the millimeter, and a mass-charge formation capable of crushing any biological fighter. Yet that torrent of steel had not lasted even sixty seconds against Universe 1. Toppo's destructive energy barrier had remained active throughout the preliminaries, but that dark-purple wall had creaked beneath Universe 1's divine energy suppression like a sheet of metal being stepped on. Universe 6's Saiyan formation had barely maintained its footing through high-speed maneuvering, but two Saiyans had already sustained minor injuries.

The Grand Priest's voice rang out again. When he announced the elimination-round rules, the entire venue quieted until even breathing was barely audible. "The elimination rounds will take the form of one-on-one duels. Each side may freely send one contestant per round. The defeated contestant leaves the field, while the winner may continue fighting until one side's ten contestants have all been defeated. Recovery items are prohibited." He paused, his golden eyes sweeping across every fighter's face on the arena. "Any universe defeated during the elimination rounds will be erased immediately."

The two Zenos atop their crystal thrones clapped in unison. As light burst forth, the first-round matchup appeared above the arena—Universe 7 versus Universe 3.

"I'll lead." Ji Ming straightened. His Super Saiyan God form had not consumed much energy during the preliminaries, and the red flames reignited around him even faster than they had at the start of the tournament. His hair changed from black to red almost instantly. "Universe 3's mechanical legion consists mainly of metal-modified and bio-modified fighters. The most effective ways to break metal defenses are high-speed impacts and high-temperature energy. I'll take the first round and wear down as much of their main force as possible."

Universe 3's first contestant was a four-armed cyborg clad head to toe in silver-white composite armor. Each of its four hands held a differently shaped weapon—a high-temperature cutting blade, an electromagnetic pulse cannon, a chainsaw arm-blade, and a light shield capable of reflecting energy blasts. When it landed, all four legs locked into the transparent arena with a sharp metallic clang. Its own weight pressed four fine cracks into the floor beneath it. Its electronic eyes locked onto Ji Ming, streams of data racing through its pupils—energy level, speed limit, predicted attack patterns. Everything was uploaded to the tactical AI inside its body within fractions of a second.

"Analysis complete. Probability of victory—zero percent." For the first time, a trace of disbelief entered the cyborg's electronic voice.

The next instant, Ji Ming was already at its side. One punch shattered the light shield, a second punched through the armor, and a third sent the four-armed cyborg flying straight out of bounds from the arena's center. Three punches. Less than three breaths. By the time the final breath fell, the high-temperature cutting blade was still suspended in the air, having never had the chance to swing down, while its owner had already crashed into the void beyond the arena and was urgently retrieved by Universe 3's recovery beam.

A chorus of stiff mechanical joints grinding against one another rose from Universe 3's stand. Universe 3's leader—Paparazzi, the bio-modified warrior who had torn apart numerous opponents with his chainsaw arm-blade during the preliminaries—fell silent. He then sent out three mechanical warriors in succession, attempting to drain Ji Ming's stamina through ranged firepower and saturation attacks. Ji Ming's tactics were as simple as they could be—if he could dodge, he dodged; if he could not, one punch broke through their defenses, and the next sent them out of bounds.

After defeating his fifth opponent, Ji Ming raised a hand toward the referee's platform and voluntarily withdrew from his current winning streak. He still had stamina to spare, but the elimination rounds had only just begun. As one of the main fighters, there was no need to exhaust himself in the first round. Son Goku patted him on the shoulder and walked to the center of the arena. Within a few breaths, he used Ultra Instinct's continuous evasions to drain Paparazzi's remaining chainsaw energy, then sent him beyond the arena boundary with a single palm strike.

After Paparazzi fell from the arena, Universe 3's stand remained silent for a long time. Then the entire floating stand began to collapse—not vanishing instantly into ashes like a Zeno erasure, but peeling away piece by piece from the edges like gray-white scraps of paper scattered by the wind. Universe 3's God of Destruction and Angel stood atop the disintegrating stand, their bodies gradually turning into tiny motes of light that drifted into the depths of the void alongside the stand's fragments.

Universe 7 swept the first elimination round.

During the brief rest period, the results of the other elimination matches came in as well. Universe 11's Jiren crushed a contestant from Universe 2 with a single punch, and the entire arena beneath everyone's feet trembled when his opponent fell. Universe 1's match against Universe 6 was technically an elimination round, but in practice it had been as effortless as an exhibition match. Their leader merely gave a light palm strike and sent Universe 6's Saiyan captain out of the arena.

Then the second-round matchup appeared above the arena—Universe 7 versus Universe 6.

Universe 6's Saiyan formation stepped onto the arena first, led by their captain, Caulifla. Barefoot, she stepped onto the platform, and every footprint pressed out a delicate ring of crimson light. A bold smile rested on her face. There was no fear in her eyes as she looked toward Universe 7—only the pure anticipation for battle unique to Saiyans. Kale stood behind her, her shy expression forming a chilling contrast with the violent aura faintly churning around her. Holding the rear was Hit. He stood silently behind the two Saiyan women, his lean yet explosive body wrapped in a dark purple-black combat suit. His aura was extremely restrained, but it was precisely that restraint that made Ji Ming narrow his eyes slightly.

"Hit is mine." Ji Ming's clash with Hit departed from the realm of ordinary combat from the very start. Time-Skip tore time into fine fragments. Ji Ming's fists pushed through countless frozen cracks in time, closing in step by step. All the spectators could see were two figures constantly vanishing, appearing, and vanishing again across the arena, along with the growing number of minor cuts on Ji Ming's body and the increasingly grave look in Hit's eyes. In the end, Ji Ming landed a punch from the side on Hit's shoulder just before Time-Skip ended, forcing him back half a step. After steadying himself, Hit stared at him for a moment, raised a hand to concede, and returned to Universe 6's ranks.

Vegeta's battle against Caulifla was an entirely different sight. From the moment they faced each other, Caulifla launched a relentless high-speed assault. Her mouth was no less relentless than her fists, calling Vegeta an uncle, an old man, and an antique who only knew how to wear a sour expression. Vegeta caught every one of her wild attacks without expression, then slipped in through an incredibly tiny opening. His Deep Blue aura flashed—and his fist stopped an inch from Caulifla's forehead, the wind from the blow pulling her black hair straight back. Caulifla stopped attacking. She looked down at the fist hovering before her, swallowed, took a step back, and patted nonexistent dust from her combat suit. "All right," she muttered. Behind her, Kale's rampaging aura quietly calmed.

Son Goku and Cabba sat cross-legged in the center of the arena and spent a full three minutes discussing their experiences with Saiyan transformations, until the referee reminded them of the time. Cabba stood, bowed to Son Goku, and voluntarily withdrew from the match. Universe 6's God of Destruction, Champa, raged atop the floating stand until Angel Vados lightly pressed her staff against his shoulder.

Universe 7 won the second round. Universe 6 was not eliminated—before Zeno could speak, Champa voluntarily applied to concede, preserving his universe's right to survive. The price was that Universe 6's right to compete ended early, and its floating stand was moved to the very back of the audience section.

After two rounds, only four universes remained—Universe 7, Universe 11, Universe 1, and Universe 2, which had suffered almost no losses so far.

When the semifinal matchup was announced, the Kami's Lookout channel became so quiet that everyone could hear each other breathe—Universe 7 versus Universe 11. Ji Ming glanced at the fluctuating remaining-combat-strength values on his tactical wristband, then at Jiren, who remained seated in meditation at the far end of the arena. After a moment of silence, he said, "I'll take Jiren. Vegeta takes Toppo. Dad, you and Gohan hold back the rest of the Pride Troopers." Then he turned off his wristband. "Jiren is the core of the Pride Troopers. As long as we can defeat Jiren, Universe 11's formation will collapse from within."

Toppo entered first. His fight with Vegeta was a direct collision of brute force—every clash between destructive energy and Deep Blue aura blasted great spiderweb cracks across the arena. Vegeta never dodged from beginning to end. He exchanged blow after blow with Toppo, and in the end, Vegeta's Deep Blue aura tore through Toppo's defenses first and blasted him out of the arena with one punch. Toppo fell beyond one side of the boundary, while the remaining Pride Troopers were successively suppressed and forced out by Son Gohan and Son Goku.

At last, Jiren stepped into the arena. The moment his foot touched the transparent floor, the entire World of Void Arena fell silent.

Ji Ming stood in the center of the arena, red flames burning quietly around him. Their gazes collided in midair, without the slightest probing prelude. Ji Ming moved. He did not throw a punch—he used pure speed to close in on Jiren, intending to combine Ultra Instinct's passive evasion with Super Saiyan God's offensive power and seize the initiative before Jiren could fully raise his speed.

Jiren caught it. Not with an evasion, but with one hand. He raised his right palm and steadily caught Ji Ming's incoming fist. Red flames and gray destructive energy tore viciously at each other where they met, and the resulting shockwave blasted a deep crater beneath their feet. Jiren looked down at Ji Ming, the rolling smoke and dust of the arena reflected in his eyes. He released Ji Ming's hand and said something that surprised him. "You're lighter than I expected."

Ji Ming retreated three steps to adjust his stance and said nothing.

What followed was the quietest battle of the entire Tournament of Power so far. No energy blasts, no explosions, no unnecessary skill names. There were only fists colliding with fists, and fresh cracks appearing in the arena after every impact. Ji Ming's Ultra Instinct was pushed to its limit beneath Jiren's heavy punches. Each evasion was smaller than the last, and each counterattack required him to seize the gap after Jiren withdrew his fist with greater precision than before. Destructive energy carved fine bloody wounds across his body, while a knee strike to his left shoulder left a scorched mark directly on his combat suit.

Yet Ji Ming never retreated. He kept searching for Jiren's breathing rhythm between evasions and counterattacks. The Saiyan body awakened once more in this pure battle of close combat—at the third collision at the limit, Super Saiyan God's red aura gradually faded, replaced by a silver-white radiance even more restrained than Ultra Instinct. It was not silver flames encircling his body. Instead, his eyes, hair tips, and fingertips all glowed with silver-white light, like ice illuminated from within by moonlight. Ultra Instinct's complete form—unlike Son Goku's silver flames, Ji Ming's form was heavier and quieter. His movements no longer produced energy bursts, and even the cracks in the arena ceased spreading, as though his body had reached some silent understanding with the entire World of Void.

Jiren's attacks began to miss. Every destructive heavy punch he unleashed in succession could pierce through a planet, yet Ji Ming only tilted his body aside by the smallest margin, each movement allowing the edge of Jiren's fist to pass less than half an inch from his skin. Evasion and counterattack combined—while dodging Jiren's seventh punch, Ji Ming drove his right palm into Jiren's chest. Jiren was knocked back several steps, his feet plowing a scorched trench across the arena surface. He lowered his head and looked at his chest, where the palm print gave off a faint wisp of white smoke.

The fighting spirit in Jiren's eyes was finally ignited in full. He clenched both fists at his sides and stopped holding back any of his strength. The aura around him changed from gray to blazing silver-gray. Both men vanished from where they stood at the same time. When they collided again, the entire arena shook violently once, and then it did not stop.

The battle lasted a long time. After several hundred exchanges, Ji Ming and Jiren fell from the air onto opposite corners of the arena, both breathing heavily, their bodies covered in bruises and burn marks, yet neither fell. In the end, Jiren was the first to straighten again. He looked at Ji Ming, who was still barely holding himself up across from him, then nodded slightly after a moment. "This match is a draw."

Ji Ming did not have the strength to answer. He merely tapped his own shoulder guard with his fist toward the other man. The Grand Priest immediately announced the end of the elimination stage. Universe 7 and Universe 11 advanced to the finals together, while Universe 2 was erased for having the lowest score.

Before the final round began, Bulma led Earth's medical team in giving the entire team one last round of emergency treatment in the wing of Kami's Lookout. Vegeta's Deep Blue Form had consumed too much energy, and Bulma personally injected him with a portable cellular activator. Dende knelt between Piccolo and Nail, both hands pressed against their arms as dark green healing light slowly seeped from his palms. Majin Buu lay sprawled in a chair, the regenerative tear in his abdomen not yet fully closed as clumps of pink flesh slowly wriggled around the wound's edge. Goten and Trunks were asleep in a corner with their heads touching, and Chi-Chi covered them with a blanket brought from Earth. The blanket still carried the scent of scallions from Mount Paozu's kitchen.

When Ji Ming stood in the center of the arena again, blood was still seeping through his bandages, and Ultra Instinct's silver-white glow flickered intermittently. Piccolo and Vegeta successively ran out of stamina and fell out of bounds during the battle. Jiren and Toppo's coordination became increasingly seamless, pushing Universe 7's defensive line to its limit.

The one who truly broke the deadlock was Frieza.

With the whole team unable to respond, Frieza stepped into Jiren's path of pursuit. The energy limiter on the side of his neck had been temporarily removed before the match, and the aura of his Golden Emperor Form lit his entire body like a furnace. He looked directly into Jiren's eyes and said only two sentences. "I was never your teammate. I simply don't want to be erased by some nobody I've never heard of." Then he compressed his golden aura to the extreme and met Jiren's destructive energy head-on with a self-sacrificing explosive strike. As the two-colored shockwaves erupted, a massive hole was blasted clean through the arena. Frieza and Toppo were both hurled out of bounds by the impact. Before Frieza fell from the arena, he twisted the final trace of his trajectory toward Universe 7's side and shoved Goku once. Ji Ming knelt at the arena's edge, watching that golden arc vanish into the void through the smoke filling the sky, his right fist slowly tightening.

The final outcome came down to Ji Ming and Jiren. The two men, both already pushed to their limits, rose again and walked step by step toward the center of the arena. In their final collision, Ji Ming's right arm was shaken temporarily numb, while his left arm barely blocked Jiren's endlessly pressing heavy punches. Jiren's arms were likewise covered in bloody marks. Ji Ming gathered every last bit of energy he had into his left hand and drove it into Jiren's chest during the gap after Jiren withdrew his final punch. Jiren was knocked back one last step, setting foot beyond the arena boundary.

The World of Void became utterly silent in that instant. Ji Ming dropped to his knees in the center of the arena, gasping for breath as his consciousness barely held on at the edge of collapse. Above the arena, the two Zenos rose to their feet and clapped together, declaring Universe 7 the victor. Even Android 17 unconsciously released his fingers, which had been clenched white.

Ji Ming knelt on the arena floor, gasping as his consciousness was pulled back and forth between clarity and oblivion. He lowered his head and looked at his open palm—that hand had defeated Jiren moments ago, but now it could not even close. Ultra Instinct's silver-white glow had completely gone out, and the bloodstained bandages over his body had become a smeared mess of sweat and dust. Then a hand reached over from beside him and grasped his wrist. It was Son Goku. He did not use Instant Transmission, nor did he say anything about winning or losing. He simply pulled Ji Ming up from the ground, steadily and firmly.

Vegeta pushed himself upright from the edge of the arena. His Deep Blue aura had long since vanished, but he refused to let anyone help him. Frieza had his energy limiter placed back on in Universe 7's recovery beam and was coughing while telling the medical team to get lost. With the last of his strength, Piccolo reattached Nail's severed arm, and both of their capes had already been torn beyond recognition.

In the stands, Bulma removed her headset, picked up the cup of coffee that had gone cold long ago, and drank it in one gulp. Chi-Chi stood beside her, the edge of her apron wrinkled from being clenched so tightly, tears streaming down her chin. Whis smiled as he put away his staff and softly said, "Just as interesting as I expected." Beerus sat in front of him, his tail swaying lightly as he said nothing more.

Meanwhile, Zeno stood atop the crystal throne, looking down earnestly at the mortals in the center of the arena with those pure black, dot-like eyes. He poked the other Zeno beside him, his tone carrying a childlike satisfaction. "See? They won. I told you they definitely could. But they fought for way too long. I'm hungry now. Next time we go to Mount Paozu, tell Chi-Chi to make more tempura."