The tremors from that half-step backward had yet to fade.
The aura stopped burning outward.
The temperature throughout the underground space plummeted. The golden light on Goten's hands seemed to have been cut off at its source, flowing back into his body bit by bit, every inch compressing tighter, burrowing deeper, forcing its way between his bones and hammering into his marrow.
Every strand of his hair stood on end.
Tiny blue-white arcs of electricity burst across his skin, hissing as they turned all the air within two meters into plasma. When the black tentacles trying to approach touched the arcs, scorch marks burned across them, and they shrank back, sizzling and smoking.
The Crimson One-Eyed Being stared at the sight in silence for a moment.
Only then did the distorted human face truly grow wary.
It was not fear, but the sort of instinctive reaction an ancient being had only when confronted with something beyond the boundaries of its understanding.
This thing was different now.
"Haaaaah-!"
The roar exploded with a boom. The entire underground abyss seemed to have been struck through the middle with a sledgehammer. The rock walls on both sides shattered in unison, rubble flying backward. A towering golden pillar tore through the dark red air, thrusting straight up from underground and pushing a bulge into the foundations beneath the Hokage Building's ruins.
The advanced Super Saiyan form was fully unlocked.
The entire underground space was lit as brightly as day—no, brighter than day. So bright that the Crimson One-Eyed Being instantly narrowed its eye to a slit. The layer of black aura around its body, which it had taken such pride in, sizzled in the golden light, shrinking like frost beneath the blazing sun.
"Impossible!"
For the first time in any real sense, panic appeared