"This is part of what New Namek has to endure," Ken said when Merus asked about reviving Moori and Delta. "Leave them for now. They'll have their chance to come back later."
Before Merus could ask anything else, the ground lurched beneath them. A deep rumble rolled across New Namek as the planet itself seemed to groan under the strain, and Goku immediately recognized the familiar sensation spreading through the world.
"It's Moro! He's draining the planet again!"
Vegeta searched for Moro's presence and was stunned by how far it had moved in such a short time. "That bastard covered that distance already? He's gotten even faster since restoring his magic."
They were in no condition to chase him yet, but the Grand Supreme Kai fixed that almost immediately. He placed one hand on each Saiyan and drew on Buu's healing ability, bathing them in warm light until their injuries vanished and their depleted ki surged back to its peak.
Goku flexed his hands, delighted to feel his strength return. "Thanks, Buu."
The person standing in front of him promptly changed.
Buu's pink body shifted until the Grand Supreme Kai's original appearance emerged, leaving both Saiyans staring at him in confusion.
Vegeta looked him over. "What happened to Buu?"
"Wait, aren't you Buu?" Goku asked.
The Grand Supreme Kai smiled at their confusion. "I suppose we haven't properly met. I'm the Grand Supreme Kai. I awakened inside Buu while we were fighting Moro, and for now I'm borrowing part of his power."
His expression became serious as another tremor passed through New Namek.
"We still have time. We need to stop Moro before he devours the entire planet."
"But what happened to Buu?"
"He's still asleep," the Grand Supreme Kai explained. "I'm simply taking his place for now. What I don't understand is how he became this powerful. The amount of energy inside his body is incredible. What in the world happened to him after—"
"Doesn't matter right now," Goku interrupted. "We need to move!"
The Grand Supreme Kai stared at him for a moment. Goku had been the one who asked.
There was apparently no point complaining.
"Vegeta, Grand Supreme Kai, grab onto me."
Once they each placed a hand on him, Goku locked onto Moro's position and all three disappeared from the ruined village and reappeared near the edge of New Namek's atmosphere, where Moro's energy was steadily drawing farther away.
While they pursued Moro, Merus decided there was no reason for the others to remain on the dying planet. Ken agreed, and together with Jaco and Eska they boarded Irico's ship and lifted away from New Namek.
Eska stood near a window and watched his home recede beneath them. Entire stretches of the planet had been devastated, villages had disappeared, and the once-peaceful landscape looked as though it had been torn apart piece by piece.
Jaco's usual flippancy disappeared when he noticed the young Namekian's face. "Hard to look at, huh?"
"I made a promise to everyone," Eska said quietly. "Even if I'm the only one left, I have to survive."
Jaco remembered something that had been bothering him since they left the Dragon Balls behind. "I thought your Grand Elder was the one who created the Dragon Balls. If he died, shouldn't they have disappeared too?"
Eska lowered his gaze. "Before Moori was killed, he named me the next Grand Elder. I think he already knew he might not survive and wanted to make sure everything would continue after him. That's why I can't give up now."
Merus looked back toward New Namek. "Then survive and rebuild the peaceful world they wanted. Before that, we'll make sure Moro is stopped."
"I have him ahead of us," Irico reported from the controls. "Goku and the others should reach him any moment."
Moro had moved beyond New Namek's atmosphere and was drawing the planet's life energy toward himself from open space. Goku reappeared close enough to intercept him, bringing Vegeta and the Grand Supreme Kai along, and the three immediately raised their power. Blue ki erupted around Goku as he transformed into Super Saiyan Blue, Vegeta answered with Super Saiyan 4, and the Grand Supreme Kai brought out as much of Buu's strength as he could control.
They attacked together, only for their fists and feet to pass harmlessly through Moro.
It was nothing more than an image.
"There!" Goku spotted another Moro farther away and charged with Vegeta, but every attempt to pin him down ended the same way. Moro refused to engage them directly, constantly shifting away while they wasted time attacking false positions.
After several exchanges, the Grand Supreme Kai stopped chasing.
"That isn't his real body either."
Goku pulled back beside him. "Then where is he actually draining the planet from?"
The Grand Supreme Kai searched the surrounding space until his attention fixed on a distant point far beyond New Namek's atmosphere. "Over there. That's the real one."
Goku immediately headed after him, forcing Vegeta to stop at the edge of the atmosphere.
"Kakarot! Don't be an idiot! That's open space. Saiyans can't survive out there!"
Goku glanced back with a grin. "I got around that problem a while ago."
Vegeta stared at him. "You got around it? How the hell do you 'get around' not being able to breathe in space?"
"I'm a Supreme Kai apprentice, remember? Wouldn't be much use helping develop planets if I couldn't travel around in space."
The Grand Supreme Kai nodded approvingly and followed Goku into the vacuum. "Exactly. A Supreme Kai should be able to manage at least that much."
Vegeta remained near the atmospheric boundary, watching the two of them disappear into space with an expression that suggested he had just discovered yet another advantage Kakarot had somehow acquired without telling him.
Moro was waiting for them.
When Goku and the Grand Supreme Kai reached him together, Moro caught their opening strikes with both hands. The impact drove him backward, but his newly restored magic had changed the balance of the fight completely.
"Not bad," Moro said. "Together, the two of you can still put up a decent fight."
He released them and accelerated deeper into space, forcing Goku and the Grand Supreme Kai to chase him. Goku tried to cut off his escape by drawing his hands to his side and gathering blue-white energy between his palms.
"Kamehameha!"
The beam tore through space alongside an energy blast from the Grand Supreme Kai, but Moro made no attempt to dodge either attack. He simply opened his mouth and swallowed both, adding their energy to his own.
The Grand Supreme Kai immediately understood their mistake.
Goku winced. "Right... I forgot he could do that."
Moro was already coming back at them. He smashed his forehead into the Grand Supreme Kai's face and followed with a kick that sent the Supreme Kai crashing into a nearby asteroid, then caught Goku's arm during his counterattack and hurled him down onto the same rocky surface.
Goku recovered quickly enough to help the Grand Supreme Kai stand, but Moro made no effort to press the attack. He hovered above them instead, enjoying how thoroughly the balance had shifted since Porunga restored his magic.
"Is this really all you have together? I expected more." His gaze settled on the Grand Supreme Kai. "That strange body of yours surprised me before, but tricks like regeneration stop mattering once I'm stronger than you."
The Grand Supreme Kai pulled himself upright with Goku's help while Moro continued to mock him.
"I don't know what happened during the last ten million years, but whatever power you once had is gone. This is all you amount to now."
That was enough.
The Grand Supreme Kai brought his hands together and formed a familiar seal before pointing directly at Moro. "Listen carefully, Moro. Go back to the Galactic Prison quietly, or I'll seal your magic again just like I did ten million years ago."
Moro stared at him for a moment before breaking into laughter. "You're going to seal my magic? Go ahead. I'll stay right here and let you try."
The Grand Supreme Kai didn't move.
Moro's laughter grew louder as his suspicion was confirmed. "I knew it. I can't sense the godly power you used back then anywhere inside you. You can't perform Kai Kai Matoru anymore, can you?"
The Grand Supreme Kai grimaced. Moro had seen straight through the threat.
Goku, however, had been listening carefully.
"You just need godly power?"
The Grand Supreme Kai glanced at him. "Yes, but—"
"I've got plenty. I'll give you some."
Goku placed a hand against him and began transferring his God ki before the Grand Supreme Kai could say another word. The reaction was immediate: divine power flooded into Buu's borrowed body in a steady stream, restoring what the Grand Supreme Kai needed to perform the technique he had used millions of years ago.
His eyes lit up.
Moro's confidence vanished just as quickly. The amount of God ki pouring out of Goku made no sense to him. This Saiyan wasn't merely capable of using divine energy—he carried enough to restore a technique Moro had spent ten million years fearing.
Goku finally stopped the transfer. "That enough?"
"More than enough!" The Grand Supreme Kai could barely contain his relief. "Thank you!"
"No problem."
The smile he turned toward Moro immediately afterward was far less reassuring.
Moro did not wait to see what came next. He turned and fled deeper into space at full speed, but the Grand Supreme Kai already had the power he needed.
"Kai Kai Matoru!"
Godly power erupted from his hands and caught Moro before he could escape. The ancient wizard screamed as spiraling light wrapped around his body, locked him in place, and began stripping away the magic Porunga had only just restored.
Goku watched Moro spin helplessly inside the vortex. "Whoa. That's kind of like Mafuba."
The Grand Supreme Kai glanced at him but kept concentrating on the technique.
Goku scratched his head. "So where are we sealing him? We didn't bring a rice cooker."
"A rice cooker?"
"Yeah. Don't you need one to seal him?"
The Grand Supreme Kai nearly lost concentration. "No! We're sealing his magic, not cooking rice!"
"Oh. Right."
There was clearly no point explaining the distinction any further.
"Let's take him back to New Namek."
Keeping Moro trapped inside the spiraling divine energy, the Grand Supreme Kai forced him back toward the planet.
From Irico's ship, the others could see the strange vortex moving in the opposite direction.
"They're coming back," Irico said. "And Moro looks like he's trapped inside some kind of spiral."
Merus recognized the technique immediately. "Kai Kai Matoru? He can use it again?"
"He can now," Ken said. "Goku supplied the godly power he was missing."
That filled in the last piece for Merus. "Then we should head back too."
Irico turned the ship toward New Namek, while Vegeta, still waiting near the atmosphere, sensed the others returning and followed with an irritated snort.
The Grand Supreme Kai drove Moro into New Namek's surface with enough force to bury him face-first in the ground. Moro coughed up blood as he tried to rise, only to discover that the magic he had regained moments earlier was completely beyond his reach.
The change went deeper than that. Without all the energy his restored magic had allowed him to maintain, his body began aging again, his features withering as his beard lengthened until it hung heavily over his chest.
Moro stared at his own hands in disbelief. "What did you do to me?"
"Exactly what I warned you I'd do," the Grand Supreme Kai replied. "Your magic is sealed again. Now you can go back to prison and stay there."
Moro could only glare at him.
Goku looked between them. "So his magic is completely gone?"
"Not gone. Sealed," the Grand Supreme Kai corrected. "He simply can't access it anymore."
Vegeta landed nearby just in time to hear that.
"Then there's no reason to keep him alive."
He extended one hand toward Moro, and destruction energy began gathering in his palm.
Moro knew exactly what that energy would do to him now. With his magic sealed and his body weakened again, there was nothing left to convert it and nowhere left to run.
Before Vegeta could use Hakai, a huge spacecraft appeared above New Namek.
Goku looked up at the unfamiliar vessel while Vegeta kept one eye on Moro. "Whose ship is that?"
"Maybe this bastard had more allies," Vegeta said.
The ship answered by firing.
A brilliant beam erupted from its rear section and plunged directly toward them, forcing Vegeta to raise an energy barrier around the group. The blast crashed against the shield with enough force to shake the surrounding landscape, but Vegeta's barrier held without so much as cracking.
As the light faded, hatches opened across the spacecraft and figures in prison uniforms began pouring out.
Goku watched dozens become hundreds. "Those look like Galactic Prison inmates."
Moro's miserable expression finally brightened.
"That was my other wish. I had every prisoner in the Galactic Prison released."
Vegeta looked at the army descending around them and laughed.
"That's it?"
Before any of the prisoners could organize themselves, Vegeta vanished into their ranks. He moved through the crowd so quickly that none of them understood they had been attacked until he was already standing on the other side.
For a heartbeat, the entire group remained upright.
Then bodies began hitting the ground one after another.
Within seconds, more than a hundred escaped prisoners were unconscious around Vegeta, and he hadn't even bothered transforming to deal with them.
He turned back toward Moro with a contemptuous smile. "Like I said, they're nothing."
Moro could only stare at the army his wish had just provided.
If the Grand Supreme Kai hadn't sealed his magic, he could have empowered every one of those prisoners and turned them into a genuine threat. Instead, his grand escape plan had ended with the entire group unconscious before they had managed to do anything at all.
His glare slowly shifted toward the Grand Supreme Kai.
Of all the people who could have awakened inside Majin Buu, it had to be him.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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