Divine Might and Unyielding

Without the slightest pause, she tapped off the air with her toes. A ring of shockwaves exploded, and like a golden bolt of lightning, she charged at Champa once more.

Her long hair trailed behind her like flames, drawing a blazing streak of light that nearly tore open the sky.

This time, she was even faster than before.

Golden energy erupted around her, shining as brilliantly as a star.

A long tail of light streamed behind her, nearly splitting the heavens in two.

The compressed air shrieked. Her entire body became a blazing meteor, charging straight at Champa in midair with unstoppable momentum.

A flicker of surprise passed through Champa's eyes, but it quickly returned to that lofty indifference.

He took a deep breath. His chubby body barely moved, yet suddenly became strangely elusive.

All common sense—gravity, inertia, and the like—seemed not to exist. His body swayed from side to side in a completely unnatural rhythm. A slight tilt, a light dodge—each time, he precisely avoided her attacks.

Kale's fists could shatter mountains and carried scorching shockwaves, yet they could only whistle past his side without even touching the hem of that purple divine robe.

Refusing to believe it, she unleashed more than a dozen punches in succession. Her fist winds surged, blasting open clusters of golden ripples.

Every punch struck empty air, doing nothing but shredding the distant clouds.

"Too slow."

A freezing voice suddenly whispered right beside her ear from behind.

Kale's pupils contracted sharply. Every muscle in her body tensed, and she spun around to strike back almost instinctively!

But she was far too late.

At some point, Champa had already moved directly behind her. That thick, fleshy palm lightly patted her back, the motion seeming almost casual.

Smack—

There was barely any sound, only a dull thud, like casually brushing dust from one's body.

Yet the power contained within it was unimaginable.

Kale only felt an immense force erupt from behind her.

It was not a piercing pain, but as if the weight of the entire universe had suddenly crushed down onto a single vertebra! Her bones creaked, and the agony was so intense that she nearly shattered her teeth from clenching them.

Her golden aura was scattered by the blow. Like a meteor flung violently away, she became a blurred streak of light, falling from the sky toward the barren earth even faster than before!

BOOM—!!!

Heaven and earth shook with it.

The ground caved in and exploded, the tremendous crash deafening.

A massive crater nearly a hundred meters across was instantly smashed into the earth. Soil and rocks around its edge rolled and heaved like waves, while the exposed rock layers, more than ten meters below, had been scorched black by the heat.

Countless fragments of stone and clouds of dust were hurled hundreds of meters into the air by the shockwave, churning together into a grayish-yellow mushroom cloud crackling with energy.

Only after a long while did it slowly disperse.

At the bottom of the crater, every sound seemed to have been sucked away, leaving only the faint noise of pebbles rolling down.

Kale lay face-down amid the rubble, half her body buried in dust, completely motionless, as though every trace of life had been snuffed out by that strike.

The dead silence lasted for several seconds.

Then, suddenly, a large rock shifted. Immediately afterward, a dust-covered, scraped hand still clenched into a fist shot out from the pile of stones! Its five fingers dug fiercely into a protruding rock at the crater's edge, the knuckles turning white as cracks spread through the stone.

Then came the other hand.

Gritting her teeth, she forced herself up. Rubble cascaded down as a figure slowly yet resolutely pushed herself out of the ruins.

Kale stood up.

Her battle suit had long since been reduced to tatters, with only a few strips of cloth hanging from her body. Her skin was covered in scrapes, bruises, and bloody wounds.

Her golden hair was matted with dust and blood, hanging loose around her in a miserable state.

A line of blood ran down from her temple, across her brow, mixing with the blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. It dripped from her chin in crimson beads, striking the rubble with crisp taps.

Every breath tugged at unbearable pain, but her eyes—having faded from gold back to green—were sharper and colder than ever, like a freshly forged blade burning with an unyielding fire.

"Cough—huh..."

She sharply turned her head and spat out a large mouthful of dark, bloody froth onto the blackened rocks.

She viciously wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand, then rolled her shoulders and neck, her bones cracking loudly.

Every inch of her body ached as though protesting, but she still gritted her teeth and straightened up, her spine standing tall and straight.

Though faint, a green aura began to rise around her once more. The fighting spirit in her eyes had not dimmed; instead, it burned even fiercer, as if oil had been poured onto the flames.

She raised her head and stared through the still-settling dust at Champa high above. Blood stained the corner of her lips, yet she smiled—a smile filled with madness and provocation.

"God of Destruction..."

Her voice was hoarse, but every word landed like a stone. "Is that all you've got?"

She gave a disdainful laugh, bloody froth at her lips. "You came charging down with all that fanfare. I thought... you were supposed to be something impressive."

The unconcerned look on Champa's face vanished completely.

His eyes narrowed, a dangerous gleam flickering within them.

He no longer remained in the air. Instead, he slowly descended, landing with both feet at the edge of the crater as he looked down at the Saiyan girl standing upright at the bottom, covered in blood.

God and mortal, unscathed and grievously wounded—at this moment, they stood facing each other, the tension drawn taut like a fully stretched bowstring.

"Little girl," Champa said in a low voice, like muffled thunder before a storm. His killing intent surged forth without the slightest attempt at concealment. "Do you realize you're driving yourself into a dead end? This isn't a game. With my next attack, I will truly destroy you."

Hearing him, Kale instead took a step forward, crushing the stones beneath her feet.

She neither dodged nor retreated. Staring directly into Champa's abyss-like eyes, she spoke with unwavering resolve:

"A dead end?"

She repeated it, a wild, all-seeing expression appearing on her face. "The roads I've walked—from the blood pools of hell to the abyss of despair—which one... wasn't a dead end?"

Champa stared at her in silence for several seconds.

Only the wind wailed through the ruins.

Then, suddenly, he laughed.

His smile was complicated. It was somewhat like admiration for a tenacious little bug, but even more so, it held the indifference and cruelty of a god watching a toy struggle.

"Interesting... truly interesting."

He laughed as though he had discovered a new toy. "The Legendary Super Saiyan—this kind of unbreakable resilience truly lives up to its reputation. But—"

The smile on his face twisted in an instant, and all admiration turned into a savage grin.

Purple energy of destruction boiled around him, and the ground beneath his feet silently turned to dust!

"You think this little bit of resilience can shake the insurmountable gulf of a God of Destruction? You think you can defeat me?"

His voice suddenly rose like exploding thunder. "How naive! The game ends here!"

Before his words had even faded—

Champa's figure vanished from the edge of the crater without a trace.

There was no afterimage, no sound of wind, as though he had never been standing there at all.

Only a smooth footprint remained, along with a killing intent cold enough to freeze the soul, instantly shrouding the entire battlefield.