In Dragon Ball: A brutal beating of Frieza at the start

Page 12

"No time to solve the puzzle!" Goku rubbed his hands excitedly, his golden aura surging. "Kamehameha!" A blue-white energy wave swept through the maze like a roaring beast, only to be bounced back the instant it touched the runes. Everyone scrambled to avoid it. Vegeta was thrown to the ground by the aftershock, and he angrily cursed, "Kakarot! You idiot, are you trying to blow us all up?" He struggled to his feet, blood trickling from his mouth, but he still glared at Goku, his eyes full of displeasure.

Lin Ye stared at the flowing runes on the wall, suddenly recalling Anise's warning before she disappeared. His system beeped, detecting the rune's energy frequency: copyable. "System! Copy with skill!" Golden light condensed in his palm as he released an energy pulse, mimicking the rune's fluctuations. The warriors twisted and dissipated in the light, but before they could even breathe a sigh of relief, a larger crack suddenly appeared in the ground, and a gigantic warrior wielding a massive axe slowly rose. With each step it took, the entire maze trembled. The oppressive aura emanating from the gigantic warrior made the air thick and viscous, making it difficult for everyone to breathe.

"Oh no! The hidden mechanism has been triggered!" Bulma's voice was choked with tears as her device suddenly emitted a blinding blue light. "This puzzle must be solved within three minutes, or the entire maze will become a time-space meat grinder!" Her fingers danced wildly across the keyboard, her nails turning white, but she still couldn't find the key to crack it.

Vegeta wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his tail swishing irritably. "Enough talk! Wait until I cleave this behemoth in two—" His words were interrupted by the giant samurai's roar. A massive axe, accompanied by a black storm, cleaved down, instantly creating a trench a hundred meters deep in the ground. Vegeta leaped into the air, his deep blue aura surging, and threw a punch at the giant samurai's face, only to have it easily blocked by the samurai's axe. The powerful recoil sent him flying backward, leaving a long trail in the ground.

Lin Ye's system frantically calculated the patterns in the runes, suddenly discovering a symbol similar to the markings on the Super Dragon Ball. "Bulma! Try importing the Dragon Ball's spacetime frequency into the formula!" His voice was drowned out by the roar, but Bulma immediately understood. With trembling hands, she placed the Super Dragon Ball on the device. The instant the Dragon Ball's light resonated with the runes, the giant samurai's movements suddenly slowed, and the formulas on the labyrinth walls began to automatically rearrange.

“Success! Only one last step—” Before Bulma could finish speaking, purple lightning suddenly poured down from the top of the maze. Lin Ye saw a black-robed figure flash past in the shadows in the distance—it was the mysterious man who had stolen the Dragon Balls earlier. “He’s interfering with the puzzle! Vegeta, Goku, stop those lightning bolts! Trunks, protect Bulma!” He activated the system’s highest level of access, his veins bulging from energy overload, and his skin glowing with an eerie blue light. “I’ll crack the final code!”

Vegeta and Goku leaped into the air simultaneously, their golden and deep blue auras intertwining to form a barrier against the purple lightning; Trunks stood before Bulma, his energy sword swirling into an impenetrable net of light; Lin Ye, meanwhile, stared intently at the runes, sweat dripping from his chin, his gaze never wavering for a second. As the last rune lit up, the giant warrior collapsed with a deafening roar.

Before anyone could celebrate, the maze floor suddenly flipped, plunging them into a pitch-black space. Lin Ye grabbed Vegeta's belt as they fell, only to hear the system's despairing warning: "Time-space trap detected. Escape probability: 7.3%." From the depths of darkness came the chilling laughter of a black-robed figure, echoing like a venomous snake's tongue, the laughter faintly carrying the words: "You will never escape my grasp..."

Chapter 47 Time Illusion

The cold light refracted by the crystal cut into everyone's pupils. When Lin Ye's fingertips touched a certain rhomboid crystal, he suddenly took half a step back as if struck by an electric current—sealed inside was none other than the image of him lying in the ruins, his body riddled with bloody holes, with half of a bloodstained energy blade still stuck in his chest.

“These are possibilities for the future.” Anise’s voice seeped from the shadows, the silver-haired diviner’s skirt fluttering without wind. “The man in black robes is collecting fragments of spacetime, each fragment carrying the remnants of parallel universes.” She raised her hand, brushing across a row of blue-glowing crystals, within which flashes of planetary explosions flickered. “When the fragments are gathered, he can tear apart the rules of the existing universe and reshape…”

"Stop keeping us in suspense!" Vegeta smacked the ground impatiently with his tail, green light gathering in his palm. "Take us to the Key of Time, or else—"

boom!

Cracks spread across the ground like a spiderweb, and Bulma's scream was sucked into the abyss. Lin Ye clenched his fists as he plummeted, when suddenly a mechanical system voice rang in his ears: "Entering the Time Illusion Domain. Breakthrough condition: Locate abnormal energy fluctuations." The instant the weightlessness vanished, the smell of sulfur assaulted his nostrils, and the distant roar of the Great Ape made his eardrums ache—on the desolate surface of Namek, Frieza was laughing, stepping on Vegeta's back.

"Saiyan prince? Nothing but a reptile." The purple energy ball spun at Frieza's fingertip. "Now, beg for mercy."

"Impossible..." Vegeta's blood droplets hit the sand, causing Lin Ye's pupils to shrink sharply—Vegeta should have already mastered the Spirit Bomb by now, so why was he in such a sorry state? He turned his head abruptly and saw Bulma trembling behind a rock, while Piccolo stood unharmed on the hill in the distance.

No, that's not right. Lin Ye pressed his temples. Piccolo had already sacrificed himself to protect Gohan in the Namek Saga, but this "Picco" in this timeline... He suddenly noticed the silver patterns peeking out from under Piccolo's cloak—it was the energy fluctuation of the man in the black robe!

"Vegeta! Attack Piccolo with all your might!" Lin Ye suddenly shouted.

"Are you crazy?!" Vegeta gritted his teeth and looked up, but suddenly turned around when he saw Lin Ye's serious expression. The moment the green energy wave tore through the air, Piccolo's body cracked like a mirror, revealing the tentacle-like energy body wrapped under his black robe.

"It really was an illusion." Lin Ye's hand, which was condensing the energy blast, trembled slightly. This black-robed man could actually tamper with key nodes in his memories. "The 'abnormal energy' mentioned by the system means that he used his own energy to overwrite the original character!"

Frieza's laughter suddenly twisted, and the entire space began to pixelate and collapse. Lin Ye grabbed Bulma's wrist and pulled back, only to see another scene flash through the countless fragments: he was inserting the Key of Time into the altar, and the black-robed man pierced his heart from behind.

"Warning! Warning! The timeline has shifted!" Anise's voice pierced through the illusion. "He's exploiting your memory weaknesses!"

Bulma suddenly pointed to the sky: "Look! What's that?"

Countless crystal shards emerged from the clouds, each reflecting a different version of the battle scene. In one shard, Lin Ye saw himself and Vegeta switch identities, while in another, Gohan became the villain—these were all "possibilities" distorted by the man in black robes.

"The key is in Frieza's tail!" Vegeta suddenly sprang to attention, his battle suit now tattered. "That ki blast just now shattered his energy disguise!"

Lin Ye then noticed that the real Frieza was huddled in a crevice in the distance, trembling, with a silver light indeed flowing from the base of his tail. Just as he was about to rush over, Bulma suddenly raised a capsule: "Use this to trap him!"

The moment the blue pillar of light enveloped Frieza, space collapsed once more. In the last moment before Lin Ye fell into darkness, he saw the black-robed man standing at the end of the river of time, countless tentacles coiled around the Key of Time, and the patterns on the key perfectly matched the scar on his chest in his memory.

"Wake up!" Anise's slap carried a magical energy fluctuation, and Lin Ye suddenly opened his eyes, finding himself lying on the floor of the Crystal Hall, where Bulma was checking Vegeta's pulse.

"The illusion's over?" Vegeta coughed up black blood. "That guy was exploiting our fear..."

“It’s not just fear.” Lin Ye picked up a silver shard at his feet. The shard reflected images of his battle on Namek, but this time, his opponent was not Frieza, but a black-robed man wearing a Saiyan battle suit. “He’s tampering with our memory anchors. Every time we enter an illusion, he’s collecting our battle data.”

Anise's face turned deathly pale: "If he were to analyze all the possibilities... the entire timeline of the universe would become his puppet show."

The ground suddenly trembled, and cracks began to appear in the crystal wall. Bulma's scanner emitted a piercing alarm: "A tremendous amount of energy is surging from underground! It's... a reaction from the Key of Time!"

"Don't even think about escaping this time!" Vegeta leaped up first, but Lin Ye grabbed him.

“Wait a minute.” Lin Ye closed his eyes, recalling the attack pattern of the black-robed man’s tentacles in the illusion. “Every time he appeared, it was accompanied by spacetime turbulence, which means…” He suddenly looked at Anise, “Diviner, can you pinpoint his coordinates in reality?”

Anise frowned and raised her hand, silver dust condensing in her palm: "He's...below the third crystal pillar! But that's where..."

“It’s the intersection of the past and the future.” Lin Ye interrupted her, his eyes cold. “He thought we would find the key in the illusion, but he didn’t expect…” He clenched his fist, and the light from the Spirit Bomb illuminated the entire hall. “The real key has always been hidden in the time rift in the real world.”

As the Spirit Bomb shattered the third crystal pillar, spatial turbulence cascaded down like a waterfall. A black-robed figure, wreathed in tentacles, burst from the ground, the Key of Time hovering before his chest, each line absorbing the surrounding energy.

"You think you can shatter my illusion?" The black-robed man's voice was like a rusty gear. "Every future within these crystals is your destined end—"

"Enough talk!" Vegeta's Garic Cannon blew past his scalp. "Lin Ye, you take the key! I'll hold this guy off!"

Lin Ye sped through the turbulent currents, only to see the key suddenly shatter into countless fragments, each flying toward a different crystal. He gritted his teeth and chased after the largest fragment, but the moment he touched it, he was swept into another illusion—this time, he stood on the ruins of Earth, surrounded by the corpses of his companions, while the man in black robes laughed, stepping on the Dragon Balls.

"See this? This is your end." The black-robed man's tentacles pierced through his shoulder. "The flow of time... is up to me."

System notification: Host detected trapped in time loop. Activate emergency protocol?

Lin Ye laughed while spitting out blood: "Agreement? What agreement..."

“This agreement.” Bulma’s voice came from behind. Lin Ye turned around and saw her holding up the modified time machine, its body connected to the gravity device stolen from Vegeta. “Remember the ‘abnormal energy fluctuations’ you mentioned? Just now in the illusion, I attached the tracker to a fragment of the black-robed man’s tentacle!”

A blinding light flashed, and the man in black robes staggered backward as the fragments of the Key of Time reassembled. Lin Ye seized the opportunity to grab the key, but felt countless memories flood his mind—scenes of the man in black robes collecting the fragments, one of which was particularly clear: the Omni-King angrily raised his hands, while the man in black robes stood behind him, holding the complete Key of Time in his hands.

“I see…” Lin Ye gripped the key tightly, energy exploding along his arm. “You’re not trying to reshape the universe… you’re trying to replace the Omni-King.”

The black-robed figure let out a shriek, and tentacles surged forth like a tidal wave. But this time, Lin Ye did not dodge. He plunged the key into the ground, and silver patterns spread like a spiderweb. All the crystals simultaneously burst forth with light—those sealed future possibilities had now become weapons to attack him.

“This is the true use of the Key of Time.” Anise’s voice was filled with relief. “It can make all ‘possibilities’ happen at the same time…and you, Lin Ye, are the one who can control all possibilities.”

When Frieza's Death Beam, Vegeta's Final Flash, and even the Omni-King's energy ball all simultaneously blasted towards the man in black, Lin Ye finally saw the face under the hood—a face exactly like his own, except that the pupils were filled with distorted fragments of time.

"Impossible..." The black-robed man collapsed amidst the light. "I am the master of time..."

"No." Lin Ye picked up the dropped key and looked at the scars on his palm that matched the lines on the key. "The master of time is never the one who alters memories."

As the Crystal Hall returned to calm, Anise looked at the mess and sighed softly, "He escaped, but the key is broken. Now the problem is..."

“The problem now is,” Vegeta wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, suddenly revealing his smirk, “how do we finish off that guy the next time we meet?”

Lin Ye stared at the cracked key in his hand, the image of the Omni-King flashing through his mind. He suddenly realized that this war over time might have been destined from the moment he obtained the system.

"System notification: The Time Illusion Realm has been cracked. Reward: Spacetime Insight +10."

Bulma held up the scanner: "The energy reaction has disappeared... but don't you think that black-robed man's voice sounded a little familiar?"

Unbeknownst to anyone, a fragment within the shattered crystal pile flashed with an eerie red light. Within the fragment, another Lin Ye smiled as he turned the Key of Time, with the Omni-King bound by chains in the background.

The real game of time has only just begun.

Chapter 48: The Game of Gods

The Key of Time swirled in the black-robed man's palm, its silver light shattering the entire space into countless fragments. Ancient runes suddenly appeared on the ground beneath Lin Ye's feet, dark purple light seeping from the engravings, climbing up his ankles like living things. His Super Saiyan 3 form's golden aura collided violently with the black-robed man's surging black mist, only to dissipate silently as if swallowed by a black hole. A faint burning sensation remained on his skin—a sign that the spatial turbulence had brushed past his body. His opponent hadn't even used his full strength; the residual energy was enough to overwhelm his Super Saiyan 3 form.

"Watch out! He's going to force open the core of the Temple of Time!" Beerus's roar exploded in everyone's minds, his voice trembling unusually. Vegeta leaped up, his tail whipping through the air in three afterimages, purple flames condensing into a basketball-sized energy ball in his palm: "This guy's ki... is ten times more terrifying than a God of Destruction!" But when he unleashed his full power, the attack was twisted into a spiral black hole five meters away from the black-robed man, eventually dissipating into nothingness, without even causing a ripple on the runes on the ground.

"System! Activate Bloodline Purification!" Lin Ye's veins bulged, the taste of blood spreading in his mouth as he bit his tongue. A crimson dragon-shaped phantom appeared behind him, the ancient Saiyan bloodline power bestowed by the system. With the sound of scales rubbing together, his aura suddenly increased by three levels, even pressing out spiderweb-like spatial rifts beneath his feet. However, the black-robed man merely waved his hand casually, and the energy blast carrying the power of spacetime twisted into nothingness three feet away from him, as if it had crashed into an invisible spacetime barrier, without even a ripple.

"Is that all you've got?" The man in black robes pulled back his hood, revealing a face covered in time-patterned lines. These silver lines writhed like living things, each shimmering with a liquid metallic sheen. "When I collect all the time fragments from the twelve universes, the Omni-King's authority will be mine!" He suddenly turned, his crimson pupils locking onto Lin Ye, his gaze piercing like a knife across the man's chest. "Especially you—you bastard with an alien system, your very existence is a desecration of the laws of spacetime!"

Bulma's capsule launcher suddenly trembled violently, and a chaotic stream of data pulsed across its blue screen: "Spatial coordinate fluctuation detected! The energy frequency of the Omni-King's Palace... is materializing!" Everyone looked up and saw floating marble steps slowly emerging in the void, each step engraved with long-lost spacetime runes. The moment these runes came into contact with the black-robed man's energy, they oozed dark red tears of blood. At the end of the steps, the phantom of the Omni-King's Palace appeared and disappeared like a mirage. The glazed tile roof gleamed coldly in the darkness, and the wind chimes hanging from the eaves emitted ethereal sounds, yet carried a hint of unsettling eeriness.

"Stop!" The Supreme Kai of Time, wielding her scepter, hurtled through the air. Her long hair snapped apart inch by inch in the spatial turbulence, her skirt ripped to shreds in the energy storm, revealing the time chains at her ankles—the shackles branded upon each Supreme Kai's succession. The hourglass at the scepter's tip burst forth with dazzling light, colliding with the black mist of the black-robed figure, creating blinding sparks, but instantly turning inky black upon contact, like snowflakes falling into dirty water, quickly losing their luster. Cronus let out a piercing laugh, his voice sharp and metallic: "Retribution? Once I control the Omni-King's power of cleansing, the entire universe will become my puppet!"

"Don't listen to his nonsense!" Vegeta's Garic Cannon tore through the air, and the ground cracked into a spiderweb pattern in the aftershocks of the energy, with pale blue spacetime energy seeping from the cracks. "Lin Ye, you go grab the key, Beerus and I will hold him off!" However, Chronos's tentacles suddenly grew tenfold, and the dark purple energy tendrils writhed and twisted like living creatures, easily shattering the attack while slamming Vegeta into a deep crater in the ground. Scattered fragments of blood were mixed in with the flying debris, and his battle suit was torn to shreds, revealing the hideous wounds on his back.

"Insects." Chronos's voice echoed with a distortion of spacetime, each word like a stretched rubber band. "You don't even deserve my serious attention." He inserted the key into the ground, and the entire space began to deform like melting wax. The distant phantom of the Omni-King's palace gradually became clearer, and even the outlines of two Omni-Kings could be seen at the palace entrance—they stood side by side, hand in hand, with childlike innocent smiles on their faces, but their eyes were devoid of any warmth.

Lin Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, suddenly noticing a fine crack in the time runes on Kronos's wrist. System notification: Target energy overload detected. Suggested attack on his right wrist! "So that's it!" His pupils constricted, only then realizing that silver specks were seeping from the black-robed man's right hand, where the key was inserted. These specks transformed into tiny spacetime wormholes upon landing. "This key is backfiring on his body! He can't fully control the power of the Temple of Time!"

"Listen up, everyone!" Lin Ye suddenly shouted, his voice drowning out the shrieks of the spacetime turbulence. "He forcibly activated the Temple of Time, and his body can't withstand the power of the key! Attack the lines on his right wrist!" Before he finished speaking, Trunks' lightsaber had already unleashed a blue light, the boy's expression more serious than ever before. However, just as the lightsaber was about to touch its target, it was shredded into pieces by the spacetime turbulence. The aftershock sent him flying, smashing through three crystal pillars. He struggled to lift his head, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth: "Damn it... I can't even get close!"

"You think you can take me?" Kronos swung his hand back, and an invisible spacetime blade slashed three deep, bloody gashes across Lin Ye's chest, revealing the bone. Bulma's voice suddenly came through the communicator, crackling with static and rapid breathing: "Wait! I've modified the time machine; it can create a partial time freeze! But it can only last three seconds! Lin Ye, you must seize this opportunity!"

"Three seconds is enough!" Lin Ye unleashed an unprecedented golden aura, his Super Saiyan 3 energy surging to a visible, materialized state. Every strand of his golden hair crackled, and the ground beneath his feet sank into a circular crater. The instant Bulma's time machine emitted a blue light, he shot out like a golden meteor, the Spirit Bomb in his hand carrying the will of all life in the universe—energy he had painstakingly collected, power that even Beerus had marveled at, enough to destroy half a galaxy. Yet now, in the stillness of time, it glowed with an eerie dark red.

Just as the attack was about to strike, Kronos suddenly vanished and reappeared behind Lin Ye. "Too naive." His tentacles pierced Lin Ye's shoulder, the excruciating pain causing his vision to black out. Blood gushed from his throat, blocking his trachea, rendering him unable to utter a sound. "Outsider, do you think I don't know your system's weaknesses?" A piercing alarm sounded in his mind, and all the function icons were turning gray—the attacker could directly attack the link between the system and its host. Those familiar skill icons, like shattered glass, fell into the darkness.

"Lin Ye!" Vegeta's eyes widened in fury, his nails digging deep into his palms, blood dripping from between his fingers. Just then, the Supreme Kai of Time suddenly plunged his scepter into the ground. The hourglass at the top of the scepter reversed, and as the golden sand flowed backward, Cronus's movements instantly slowed to a crawl. Yet, he revealed a sinister smile, his cracked lips stretching to his ears, revealing a mouthful of twisted silver teeth: "You think this level of seal... can trap me?"

"That's not all!" Lin Ye endured the excruciating pain and grabbed the tentacle with his backhand, his nails digging deep into the other's energy body, blood seeping into it, causing the tentacle to sizzle and burn. "System! Force self-destruct program activated!" A dazzling white light instantly engulfed the entire area; it was the light of the system burning its core energy in a self-destruction. Countless images flashed before Lin Ye's eyes: the excitement of first obtaining the system, the battle with his companions, the destruction of Earth in his illusions... Finally, his gaze settled on Kronos's wrinkled face.

With a roar from Cronus, the Key of Time was blasted away, tracing a silver arc in the air before splitting in two just before hitting the ground—one half plunged into a spacetime rift, the other landed in Lin Ye's palm. However, just when everyone thought victory was assured, two figures slowly emerged from the illusory palace of the Omni-King. The Omni-King on the left tilted his head, his eyes gleaming with curiosity, while the Omni-King on the right expressionlessly raised his hand, a familiar purple energy sphere gathering in his palm—a power of cleansing capable of destroying the entire universe.

“Interesting.” The Omni-King on the left spoke, his voice clear as a child’s, yet sending chills down everyone’s spines. “He dares to covet our authority.” The Omni-King on the right said coldly, “However, this farce should end.” Two completely different auras pressed down simultaneously. Lin Ye felt as if his spine was about to be crushed, and his knees buckled uncontrollably. Vegeta knelt on one knee, cold sweat pouring down his forehead. Even Beerus frowned slightly, and the destructive energy gathering at his fingertips began to become unstable.

Kronos suddenly burst into maniacal laughter, his body transforming into countless fragments of time that merged into the air: "You think I've lost? Look at these two Omni-Kings, guess which one is real and which one is fake?" As the fragments brushed past Lin Ye's cheek, he heard the other whisper, "The moment you deciphered the key, you fell into my trap..." The fragments formed a giant hourglass in the air, the sand flowing in a direction completely opposite to normal time and space.

The illusory image of the Omni-King's palace collapsed with a deafening roar, and the two Omni-King figures vanished, leaving only an empty void. Lin Ye collapsed to the ground, staring at the remaining half of the Key of Time fragment in his hand. The face of Kronos faintly appeared on it, his eyes gleaming with the light of a triumphant conspiracy. **System Notification: Unknown energy residue detected. Analyze?** A red option flashed on his retina. He hesitated for a moment, then finally chose "No." At that moment, the fragment suddenly became hot, burning his palm.

"Retreat first!" Beerus frowned, gathering destructive energy at his fingertips to open a spatial passage. A series of shrill screams of spatial turbulence echoed from the black vortex. "The spacetime here is on the verge of collapse; if we don't leave now, it'll be too late!" Just as the group was about to step into the passage, Bulma's scanner suddenly emitted a piercing alarm. The red dot on the screen pounded like a heartbeat, and her face instantly turned deathly pale: "Wait! The coordinates of the Omni-King's Palace have disappeared, but… another spacetime fluctuation has been detected! It's… on Earth!"

Lin Ye suddenly looked up, and the image of Earth being destroyed in his illusion flashed through his mind again: the familiar landmarks, the burning city, the collapsed Capsule Corporation... At this moment, the key fragment in his hand began to heat up, and the Chronos in the fragment was showing a meaningful smile, an expression that was somewhat similar to the smile of the Omni-King in his memory, as if mocking their futility.

"It seems we have to go back to Earth." Lin Ye gripped the fragment tightly, blood seeping into the lines of his palm. The phantom of Chronos on the fragment's surface suddenly licked its lips, sending a chill down his spine. "This time, I won't let him succeed again." He stood up, the aura of Super Saiyan 3 reigniting, but secretly recalling the system core that was about to dissipate—he had reserved 30% of the energy from the self-destruct program earlier, those faint blue lights flickering like dying fireflies deep within his sea of ​​consciousness.

In a corner of the universe, spacetime turbulence converged into a vortex, from which emerged Kronos. His right hand held the complete Key of Time, while his left hand gently touched the cracks on his face, which gradually healed after absorbing the key's energy. A satisfied smile spread across his face as he looked at the smooth skin on his wrist: "Outsider, your vigilance is quite good… However, when you return to Earth, you'll find it's my home turf." He turned to look at the shadows behind him. Two phantoms of the Omni-King sat on the Throne of Time, identical smiles on their lips. The Omni-King on the left brandished his scepter, while the Omni-King on the right put a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture.

The real battle between the gods has only just begun.

Chapter 49: Opportunity to Break the Stalemate

"Lin Ye, watch out for his Time Collapse Cannon!" The Supreme Kai of Time's warning pierced through the roaring airwaves. Kronos's black robes surged like a black hole vortex, and the eerie blue energy ball condensing at his fingertips was tearing through space. Lin Ye felt a sharp pain on his back as if time was gnawing at him—not physical damage, but a harbinger of his own existence being erased.

The system flashed red, and a mechanical voice, unusually sharp, announced: "The spacetime paradox index has been detected to have exceeded the critical value! It is recommended to immediately fuse all bloodline energies!"

"To hell with it!" Lin Ye gritted his teeth, the taste of blood mingling with the burnt smell of rampaging energy, exploding in his mouth. Golden Saiyan energy, blue angelic aura, and purple ancient Saiyan patterns surged through his meridians, he could hear his bones shattering like glass, and the gilded patterns unique to the Super Saiyan God form appeared on his retina.

Drink up!

Three torrents of energy converged into a dazzling star core in Lin Ye's fist. The moment Lin Ye threw the punch, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the spatial barrier of the entire Time Realm. Kronos's pupils shrank sharply. The bone claws that extended from under his black robe were grazed by this blow, and dark purple blood dripped to the ground, instantly corroding a deep hole that emitted blue smoke.

"Interesting." The man in black licked the blood from his fingertips, then suddenly revealed a sinister smile. "So your system grows by devouring energy from different timelines? Like a parasite clinging to the placenta of the multiverse..." Before he finished speaking, his figure had already transformed into thousands of black shadows, solidifying above the head of the Supreme Kai of Time.

Oh no! He has to take down the time-space anchor first! Future Trunks's mechanical arm plowed a deep trench in the ground, his signature purple hair now stained with blood. Once the Supreme Kai falls, the timeline of this spacetime will completely collapse!

As Lin Ye turned around, he saw the energy blade at the tip of Kronos's finger pierce through the Supreme Kai's shoulder. The silver-haired old man knelt on one knee, cracks spreading from the Space-Time Scepter to the gem at its tip, and the golden runes that maintained the stability of space-time were peeling off in patches.

You think you can stop fate? Kronos' laughter, mingled with the static of electricity, tells you that from the moment you activated the Key of Time, you were destined to become the fuel for me to reshape the multiverse—

"Let him go..." Trunks's mechanical arm suddenly emitted an overload hum, liquid metal seeping from the joints. "Don't touch my... future."

Lin Ye's pupils reflected his best friend's gradually becoming transparent body. Three months ago, when this warrior from the future first stepped out of the time machine, his left arm still gleamed with the luster of brand-new alloy. Now, that mechanical arm was riddled with holes, revealing the charred wires inside, and Trunks was using it to tightly clamp down on Kronos's wrist.

Lin Ye! Trunks' right eye flashed with data stream snowflakes, but his voice remained unusually clear, "Do you remember how I taught you to use the Time Blade?" He suddenly turned his head, a blood-stained smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, and using the residual energy of the Supreme Kai's Scepter as a coordinate, fired the Annihilation Cannon into the core of the Key of Time—

No! You'll...