William hovered motionless at the heart of the crystal cavern, a living supernova in the shape of a man. His body blazed with golden ki, incandescent and divine, illuminating the space around him like a second sun. His waist-length hair whipped in all directions, caught in unseen cosmic winds, each golden strand radiating raw energy. His once-familiar eyes were now portals of unyielding focus, burning, sharp, otherworldly. There was power in his stare. A warning. A promise.
Across from him, the Hulk stood, seething, but shaken.
The emerald giant had faced gods, titans, and armies. His strength was infinite, unbound by reason. And yet… what radiated from William now stirred something primal inside him. It wasn't fear, it was confusion. Doubt. An emotion he rarely knew.
"FLSH!!"
A pulse erupted from William's aura, a sharp flash of blood-red light that cut through the golden field like a blade of rage. Hulk staggered slightly, blinking. A draining sensation crawled up his spine. His massive form, once unshakable, began to subtly contract. His veins pulsed less violently. His breath grew heavier.
What was happening?
Inside the golden storm, William remained calm, but his mind raced.
So much rage…It's like a black hole of fury, no end to it…
He could feel it flowing into him, the boundless, chaotic wrath of the Hulk, siphoned through the red ring of rage now orbiting within his aura. It took all his focus not to be consumed by it, but gradually, he forged balance, a perfect equilibrium between borrowed fury and divine discipline.
He could feel it: the endless drain of ki from this evolved form… now refueled. Recycled. Controlled. His confidence surged. He could maintain this state for as long as it took. He wasn't just surviving the power. He was mastering it.
Just as the two prepared to launch, fists drawn back, the cavern vibrating with impending cataclysm—
"KRRRSSHHHHH!"
A harsh, mechanical crackle cut through the tension like a whip. A sound they both recognized instantly: a loudspeaker being activated.
Both warriors froze mid-motion, fists inches from the other's face.
Their eyes turned skyward.
The cavern roof trembled as shadows passed overhead.
Dozens of hovercrafts descended from the clouds, forming a steel ring around the broken peak of the mountain. The skies turned black from the sheer mass of metal. Thousands of soldiers lined the decks, weapons trained below. At the forefront, a larger, gilded vessel gleamed like a bloated golden parasite, floating arrogantly ahead of the swarm.
From its speakers, a voice, coated in venom and bile, rang out:
"BEAST!!!"
It was the emperor. And he wasn't here to negotiate.
Both Hulk and William slowly turned their gazes upward, locking onto the vessel. Through the translucent glass of the command deck, a figure stood tall in a battle suit that shimmered with wealth and cruelty. His face was barely visible beneath a gilded helm, but his smile bled arrogance. In his right hand, a mace, massive, ridiculously ornate, like a ceremonial artifact carved from greed itself, gleamed with blood-red rubies and jagged obsidian edges.
And then he spoke, his voice amplified, cold, deliberate.
"Creature… we have your woman."
Time stopped.
William turned his head slowly, eyes narrowing. Hulk's fists clenched so tightly the bones in his hand audibly cracked.
With a dramatic snap of his fingers, the emperor summoned a guard. And then, she appeared.
Caiera.
Dragged forward in chains that pulsed with ancient light. Her face was bruised but unbowed, her defiance radiant even in captivity. The chains binding her shimmered ominously, glowing with runes older than the mountain itself. They weren't just restraints, they were instruments of torture, designed specifically to siphon her Old Power, bleeding her strength into the very hands of her captors.
The emperor sneered.
"Feel that?" He shouts.
"Even now, her power drains into my chains. She can't run. She can't fight. And neither can the little one squirming inside her."
His next words were quieter, more personal. More poisonous.
"Serve me… and they live.""…Defy me—"He paused, letting the silence twist like a knife."—and I'll make sure they both suffer. Slowly. Exquisitely."
Then, throwing his head back, he laughed, a booming, grotesque cackle that echoed through the skies.
"HAHAHAHA! What will it be, monster? Chains for you… or graves for them?"
Silence gripped the crystal chamber.
For a breathless moment, time itself seemed to falter.
The Hulk stood frozen. His enormous body, a monument of strength and defiance, now trembled under the unbearable weight of a single, shattering truth.
He lowered his arm. Then his head.
And something happened no warrior had ever seen before.
Dark lines crept across his face, like the shadows of grief carving themselves into stone. His wild, wrathful eyes dimmed, becoming pools of sorrow.
Then, a tear fell.
Not from pain. Not from fear.
But from despair. Deep. Soul-wrenching. Unrelenting.
His massive knees buckled, and the ground beneath him quaked violently as his colossal frame crashed down. The multicolored crystals below splintered and exploded under the impact, razor-sharp shards embedding themselves into his legs. Blood, thick, dark, and steaming, began to trickle down, forming a growing pool around his knees.
He didn't flinch.
Didn't roar.
Didn't rage.
He simply knelt.
And in that broken pose, a god looked like a man.
Up above, the emperor watched it all unfold, his eyes wide, lips curled into a predatory grin. His gloved hand rested on the rail of his command vessel, fingers tightening as his laughter built like a rising storm.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The sound echoed like madness across the mountainside.
To him, this was more than victory, it was dominion. He had broken the Hulk. The rage, the rebellion, the indomitable spirit, all reduced to silence. And as an added bonus? He had unearthed a hidden cavern teeming with radiant, powerful crystals, veins of energy-rich minerals stretching like arteries into the earth.
The emperor's gaze gleamed with greed and triumph.
He leaned forward slightly, ready to deliver another cruel command—
But then it came.
"FWOOM!"
A streak of piercing golden light erupted through the air, like a lightning bolt hurled by a god.
"KRSHHKK!!"
It didn't strike the emperor.
It missed his head by inches, singing the edge of his ornate shoulder guard, but it didn't miss its mark.
One of the guards holding Caiera, the one with the chain looped around her throat, jerked violently as the beam tore through his chest, carving a molten hole clean through his armor and out the back. He collapsed without a sound, the chain falling from his grip.
The world seemed to hold its breath.
The emperor's triumphant grin froze, then cracked.
A single bead of cold sweat slipped down his temple, tracing a path along the gilded collar of his armor. His eyes darted down to William, who still hovered in the heart of the crystal-lit cavern, unflinching, his arm still outstretched, index finger glowing faintly from the ki blast he'd just fired.
William's expression was calm.
Too calm.
There was no joy in his face. No mercy. No regret.
Only a quiet, deliberate challenge.
The emperor's composure snapped.
"YOUR FIRST TASK AS A SLAVE—" he snarled, his voice thundering through the loudspeakers, "—IS TO SLAY THIS CRETIN!"
He pointed an accusing, trembling finger at William, his voice cracking with fury and fear.
But William didn't move.
His eyes never left the emperor.
And the golden light behind them only grew brighter.
The air between William and the Emperor crackled with energy, tension hanging so thick it felt like the very atmosphere would snap.
William's eyes remained locked on the tyrant above, two glowing suns of righteous fury, calm yet unblinking. But just as the moment seemed frozen in time—
"FWOOOSH!!"
A colossal green fist exploded into view from William's peripheral vision, so fast, so immense, that the very air bent and distorted around it, rippling like water struck by a boulder.
"RUMBLE!!!!"
William's pupils shrank to pinpoints. In that split-second, instinct took over.
His entire form flickered, vanishing in a golden blur just before the emerald juggernaut came crashing through.
"BOOOOOOM!!!"
The Hulk's fist struck the space where William had hovered moments earlier, but the result was far from a miss. The raw force of the blow erupted outward in a concussive shockwave, shaped like the very fist that spawned it. It tore through the cavern, shredding crystal and stone as if they were paper.
The impact didn't just fracture the mountain, it carved a path straight through it.
On the opposite side of the cavern, a new exit burst open, a massive hole shaped unmistakably like a clenched fist, leading clear through the mountain to open sky beyond.
"HRRRRHHHH!"
A sound like a boiling volcano erupted from the Hulk's throat. Steam hissed from his mouth and nostrils, venting his rage like a war engine overheating. He looked up, his glare locking onto William, who now floated high above him, body glowing with controlled energy.
Then—
"CRACK!"
The sound reverberated like bones breaking beneath the surface of the world.
With nothing but a flex of his foot, Hulk drove his heel into the earth, and the entire base of the mountain began to splinter. Spiderweb cracks laced across the ground beneath him, racing outward in every direction as the crystals trembled under the pressure of his rage.
And then he launched.
With both arms raised overhead, the Hulk rocketed upward like a missile, his body trailing steam and debris. The smash he prepared wasn't just brute force, it was finality.
William didn't retreat.
Instead, he braced.
Arms up. Aura tight.
"KRAKKA-BOOM!!"
The impact met him like a tidal wave. William's arms caught Hulk's descending fists just inches from his face, the force quaking through the cavern and rippling outward like a sonic boom.
For a moment, the two titans hovered mid-air, locked in a test of power.
Then William made his move.
He subtly shifted his leg forward and placed it precisely between Hulk's massive legs. With a perfectly timed pull, he wrenched Hulk's arms downward while bracing his leg, a calculated counter.
Hulk's balance broke.
The green giant tripped midair, flipping awkwardly as William pivoted, using his own momentum against him.
"WHAMMMM!!"
William slammed Hulk into the crystal floor like a meteor, sending shards of luminous gemstones flying in every direction like a radiant explosion.
"RRRUUMMBLE!!"
The floor shattered beneath the Hulk's body, leaving a crater etched in glowing crystal.
But the Hulk wasn't done.
Even as he rolled across the fractured terrain, his massive hand snapped out, fingers like anchors, digging into the crystalline earth. The surface cracked and splintered beneath his grip, but he didn't let go. Shards pierced his skin, drawing blood, but he only gritted his teeth harder.
The mountain trembled again, and Hulk could see a massive golden beam cascading towards him like a horizontal waterfall before hitting him with the force of a meteor.
"WHOOOSH!"
Hulk threw up both of his massive, green hands just in time to shield himself as the energy beam slammed into him. Muscles bulged like coiled steel cables, his feet carving deep trenches into the earth as he tried to hold his ground. For a fleeting moment, it looked like he might push through it. His roar split the air, guttural, primal, a declaration of defiance against the impossible force bearing down on him.
But then, the beam surged.
A sudden pulse of raw, violent energy erupted from its core, and Hulk's eyes widened. The beam wasn't just stronger, it had evolved, fueled by rage and power far beyond what he'd first sensed. His already titanic frame swelled further, skin crackling with gamma energy, but even that wasn't enough.
The force overwhelmed him.
With a thunderous CRACK, Hulk was hurled backward like a ragdoll launched from a cannon, his body blasting through the very hole in the atmosphere he'd torn open moments before. The world became a blur of light and sound.
"AAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
He screamed, a deafening roar that echoed into the stratosphere, into the void of space itself, as his body was swallowed by the sky, trailing green lightning and fragments of shattered sound barriers.
Up he soared, past clouds, past satellites, into the upper stratosphere, where the blue of Earth bled into the star-flecked blackness of space. For a moment, everything was still. Silent. Suspended.
Then, Hulk's eyes snapped open.
"POW! POW! POW!"
He clapped his palms together, once, twice, three times, each thunderclap distorting the air like rippling bombs, the shockwaves folding in on themselves and hurling him downward. Faster. Harder. He twisted his body into a controlled fall, a living weapon, a green meteor fueled by fury and gravity, plummeting like divine judgment back toward the world below.
The sky ignited around him. His body broke the sound barrier again and again, wrapped in a cocoon of flame and kinetic force. Below, the ground quaked in anticipation, as if the Earth itself feared what was coming.
And then, impact.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
The explosion tore across the land like a miniature extinction event. The horizon bent. Entire mountain ranges trembled. Clouds were vaporized in a blink. The shockwave expanded in every direction, flattening forests, shifting tectonic plates, and sending tsunamis roaring across distant shores.
But at the epicenter, amid a maelstrom of dust and cracked earth, a figure stood unmoved.
William.
No longer restraining himself, his body surged with the unmistakable power of Super Saiyan 3, a form radiating such condensed energy that reality around him seemed to hum and tremble. Golden hair billowed in gravity-defying waves down his back, energy dancing wildly around him like chaotic lightning. His eyes, once calm, now burned with something darker. Wilder.
He had caught Hulk.
Each of Hulk's gargantuan arms, capable of leveling cities, were gripped tightly in William's glowing hands. The ground around their feet fissured from the sheer pressure of their clash. Yet William didn't budge.
His teeth were clenched, jaw set, but it wasn't effort alone. Something more dangerous was happening beneath the surface.
He was feeding on it.
The rage, Hulk's raw, unfiltered fury, was being siphoned into him. The more Hulk raged, the more William absorbed. His face began to distort with something simian, something ancient. His brow thickened, canines lengthened, and his pupils narrowed into slits.
While all this was happening, the constant shaking had caused the energy shields for the arena cages to flicker and die allowing two powerful figures in particular to step out and into freedom.