Lost... I, I really lost

Whoosh—!

Broly shot backward like a cannonball, tearing through the air and smashing through several rocky peaks before barely managing to stop.

Barros did not pursue. He merely placed his left hand behind his back, his right fist still hanging in the air, and silently watched the figure rolling across the ground with an icy, blade-sharp gaze.

Cough! Cough!

The moment Broly landed, he let out two muffled coughs. Then he abruptly threw back his head, his eyes burning crimson as the energy within him surged and churned, all of it pouring into his palms.

A dark green sphere of energy swelled wildly as he gathered power to the limit—within the blink of an eye, it had expanded to several hundred meters across. Its might and scale were no different from the planet-destroying bomb Frieza had detonated on Planet Vegeta years ago!

Barros's brows drew together, his expression instantly turning grave.

If Frieza's planet-busting bomb, fired with a power level of five hundred thirty thousand, had come hurtling at him now, he would not even have bothered to dodge. One punch would have crushed it into dust.

But... this "Death Annihilation Bomb" that Broly had unleashed with everything he had was far more powerful than Frieza's attack back then—so powerful it was suffocating.

Of course, he could disperse it with a single palm strike—but if he did, he truly had no confidence that even one intact piece of crust would remain on the planet beneath his feet.

The thought flashed through his mind, but Broly had already finished charging his attack.

"HAHAHA! Take this—Death Annihilation Bomb!" Broly roared like thunder, his laughter shaking loose showers of rock from the mountains. For an instant, Barros almost felt that this untransformed Broly already carried a faint trace of the terrifying aura of the legendary Super Saiyan he would become in the future.

Of course, it was only an illusion.

The instant the Death Annihilation Bomb took shape, the entire planet began to tremble violently.

The bedrock, ground, and mountains beneath Broly's feet cracked apart inch by inch, unable to withstand the terrifying energy as he raised both arms high and slammed them down with all his strength. Broken stones burst outward like an avalanche.

Barros's pupils contracted sharply. His right fist instantly opened, his five fingers spread wide like a canopy.

The enormous green sphere hung in the sky, blotting out the heavens and the earth. Compared to it, Barros looked as insignificant as an ant standing beneath the firmament.

Bang—!!!

His palm struck solidly against the surface of the energy sphere, and a heavy muffled boom erupted.

The next second, Broly's eyes nearly burst from their sockets—his Death Annihilation Bomb, launched at the cost of everything he had, had actually been pinned in midair by a single bare hand, completely motionless!

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Broly screamed hoarsely. His hands swung again and again, firing more than a dozen green energy blasts in rapid succession, all of them crashing into that gigantic bomb!

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Green streaks sank into the sphere like raindrops.

Barros, who was suppressing it with one hand, suddenly darkened.

Before he could force it away, the Death Annihilation Bomb, already on the verge of losing control, exploded with a deafening roar!

Rumble—!!!

The violent torrent of energy instantly swallowed Barros, as unstoppable as a carriage crushing a praying mantis. Then the destructive shockwave swept across the entire planet, reducing everything in its path to ruin with nowhere to escape.

Lava erupted, and the earth split apart. The planet, already riddled with scars, now truly entered the final act of its apocalypse.

Volcanoes erupted one after another, crimson magma spilling into rivers. Across the scorched land, there was no longer a single stable place left.

Broly stared fixedly at the region his own energy had blasted into collapse, sunken deep underground and now completely swallowed by lava. An indescribable strange look flashed through his eyes before he suddenly burst into wild laughter!

"HAHAHA—!!!" He laughed madly, uncontrollably, hurling green energy blasts one after another at the crumbling planet as though he wanted to fill the fleeting, unwelcome emptiness in his heart with explosions.

At that moment, a thick pillar of magma shot into the sky. Firelight pierced the gray heavens, bursting with a breathtakingly tragic beauty in this dying world.

The splendor before destruction was so beautiful it made one's heart tremble.

But Broly was not moved in the slightest. His laughter stopped abruptly, and he no longer vented his rage. His eyes hooked like claws, locking tightly onto the figure slowly emerging from the towering waves of fire!

Magma cascaded down like a waterfall, revealing a man within—his Saiyan battle armor had been completely burned away, yet his flesh was entirely unharmed. It was Barros.

He raised his eyes to meet Broly's stunned face, a casual smile slowly curving across his lips.

When the Death Annihilation Bomb had exploded, he could have teleported away, or even hurled the energy back at Broly—but he had not done so.

Not only because of his absolute confidence in his own body, but because he wanted to crush all of Broly's pride in the most thorough way possible!

Ignoring the lava erupting around him, the volcanoes continuously exploding, and the planet beneath his feet that was falling apart...

Barros lifted his head and looked straight at Broly, his voice as cold as a blade. "Is that all you can do? Then stop struggling. Submit to me obediently and return to Divine Martial Battle Star with me."

The instant those words fell, Broly's entire body shook. He blurted out in shock, "You... you're not dead?!"

That attack had drained every last bit of his strength. Even if he had raised his strongest barrier himself, he might not have been able to withstand the Death Annihilation Bomb head-on.

Yet Barros had neither defended himself nor avoided the energy. He had been swallowed by it, then blasted deep into scorching magma!

And yet he had simply stepped out—completely unharmed!

Before his shock could subside, a surge of unwillingness exploded in his chest, setting his blood boiling.

"You want me to bow my head?" Broly growled through clenched teeth, each word deliberate. "Defeat me first!"

Before his words had even faded, he flung out four green energy blasts and leaped into the air like an enraged lion, charging straight at Barros's face with a ferocious punch powerful enough to shatter a planet!

Watching Broly refuse to accept his fate even now, Barros gently shook his head.

The four energy blasts struck his chest, shoulder, and temple in succession, yet failed to stir even the edge of his clothing. Broly followed immediately after, pouring all the strength in his body into his right fist and smashing it into Barros's face with the force of wind and thunder!

Bang—!!!

A deafening blast tore through heaven and earth, especially thunderous on this planet on the verge of destruction.

Barros neither shifted his gaze nor blinked, staring straight at Broly's suddenly pale face as his right fist shot out like lightning and smashed heavily into his chest!

Since Broly refused to bow his head, then Barros would beat him until he submitted wholeheartedly.

That nameless planet was irreversibly sliding into the abyss of destruction.

Yet within this world on the brink of collapse, the explosive crashes of fists and kicks grew increasingly frantic.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

With a sweeping kick, Barros sent Broly flying viciously, launching him nearly a thousand meters away.

Before Broly could steady himself, Barros had already streaked through the air like a phantom, catching up to him in the blink of an eye.

Gripping Broly around the waist with both hands, he drove downward with brutal force—hurling him into the ground like a meteor!

BOOM!!!

Broly tumbled and crashed along the ground, causing mountain ranges to collapse one after another as billowing dust soared into the sky.

"Bastard!" After enduring that storm of savage blows, Broly was finally completely ignited.

His own perception was sluggish, but Barros could clearly sense it: that fury was madly driving Broly's potential—his power surged, his aura ran wild, and his sanity rapidly crumbled.

His body swayed slightly, and Barros drove an uppercut precisely into Broly's abdomen, blasting him upward like a comet streaking into the sky!

White aura suddenly erupted as Barros transformed into a silver-white streak of light, tearing through the heavens in pursuit.

But just as he closed in, the flying Broly suddenly spread a dark green energy shield around himself!

The shield reflected the daylight as he threw back his head and laughed maniacally. "Hahaha! You'll never defeat me—die!!"

Having completely lost his reason, Broly wildly swung both arms, firing over a dozen berserk emerald energy blasts toward the already battered planet beneath them!

The energy blasts exploded outward in a fan-shaped spread. Barros, who had been about to catch up, contracted his pupils as his expression changed drastically.

The threat of death bore down on him. Without another moment's hesitation, he smashed through the shield with his right fist, wrapped in layers of surging force, then clamped five fingers around Broly's throat like an iron hoop. The two vanished from the sky in an instant.

They had barely fled when—

BOOM!!!

The entire planet exploded, erupting into a magnificent yet mournful firework display across the stars.

Unfortunately, both Barros and Broly had already missed that final act of light and dust.

Several star systems away, the two suddenly reappeared.

The instant he tore through the barrier of space, Barros's left fist smashed viciously into Broly's abdomen, followed by a dazzling golden energy wave that pierced straight through his chest!

Bang—!!

Broly's body was blasted away like a kite with its string cut, crashing through three mountain peaks in succession before tumbling into the distance.

Barros flashed and appeared directly above Broly's flight path. His right foot came down like thunder, forcibly stomping the stunned Broly deep into the earth's crust!

He thrust both hands into the shattered rock and yanked him back out of the ground.

Looking at Broly's face smeared with dirt and dust, Barros's heart sank slightly—he had never expected the enraged Broly to be willing to destroy a planet along with himself.

He had complete confidence in his own physical body.

But a planetary explosion was no laughing matter. Having never experienced one himself, Barros could not be certain whether he could emerge completely unharmed.

As for life and death? He had no concerns at all.

With the toughness of his current body, unless it was a god-level forbidden place like Grand Kai's Planet, no explosion, however powerful, could truly erase him.

Holding Broly up with one hand, Barros's patience had completely run out.

No matter how much potential a Legendary Super Saiyan possessed, if he refused to bow and submit, he was nothing more than a stubborn piece of iron.

And there had never been any reason to keep stubborn iron around.

"You lost. Completely and utterly." Barros stared coldly at Broly, killing intent surging beneath the surface like an icy river—if the other party showed even the slightest hint of defiance again, he would twist off that head on the spot.

Broly had no idea that Barros's killing intent had already reached its peak.

Hearing those words, he lowered his head blankly to look at his trembling hands and muttered, "Lost... I really lost."

That utterly despondent appearance brought a faint smile to Barros's heart.

Broly had not yet come of age, yet his battle power already surpassed the entire universe.

By comparison, the future Super Saiyan Goku of Earth, as well as Vegeta, could not even match one-tenth of his strength!

If Broly could steady his mind and avoid having his sanity eroded by his increasingly violent aura, then continue evolving after breaking through to Super Saiyan—

By the time Goku and Vegeta barely stepped into the realm of Super Saiyans, Broly would likely already be able to face Majin Buu alone and even crush him completely!

In the end, the Legendary Super Saiyan who appeared once every thousand years was not some unattainable myth; he was a figure ordinary Super Saiyans could spend their entire lives chasing without ever reaching.

That was the true reason Barros valued him and tolerated him time and again.

Otherwise, with Broly's current battle power of less than 2.7 million, even if Barros did not possess that terrifying physical body capable of driving him to despair, his pure battle power of 5.1 million would have been more than enough to kill him on the spot—why would he need to waste so many words?