"Son Gohan."
The voice came from the northwestern sky, like metal grinding, and like a beast's low growl, carrying a chilling certainty.
"We've been waiting a long time."
Gohan's pupils suddenly contracted.
A distance of eight hundred kilometers, yet the other side's presence was already so clear it felt as if they were right before his eyes—three of them. That oppressive feeling was nothing like the larval carriers'. It was like three active volcanoes slowly closing in.
Goku's brow knotted tight. He did not hesitate, clamping a hand down on Gohan's shoulder.
"You watch for now."
"Dad!"
"Do as I say." Goku's voice sank, rare and heavy. "Your body can't hold out anymore. A burst of 420 million... look at your hand."
Gohan lowered his head.
The five fingers of his right hand were trembling faintly, his fingertips especially violently, as if a weak current were darting beneath his skin. Those were the aftereffects of briefly breaking past his limits; his cells were wailing, his muscles protesting.
He gritted his teeth.
"Fine. I'll watch."
Three black dots appeared on the horizon.
No, they were not black dots.
They were three streaks of light.
In the blink of an eye, three figures were already hovering a thousand meters up. Gohan narrowed his eyes and made out those humanoid figures' mature forms.
Their gray-green skin was covered in dense, fine patterns, like some ancient circuit diagram. Their muscle lines were impossibly smooth, every inch of them announcing explosive power. Stranger still, their eyes were not the hollow compound eyes of the larvae, but carried a kind of... scrutiny.
The one in the middle was the tallest, with a meaningful smile hanging at the corner of his mouth.
The two on either side were a little shorter, but their auras were just as