Taro walked toward the spot where the Four-Star Dragon Ball had rolled and picked it up. Holding the yellow-orange orb in his hand, he stared intently at the four dreamlike red stars within it, unable to resist tightening his grip around it.
Suddenly, a massive shadow lood over Taro. Still toying with the Four-Star Ball in his hand, he looked up to see the ferocious giant ape standing before him and said:
"Do you want to fight for this ball?"
The giant ape roared furiously:
It had completely forgotten its fear of Taro and swung a massive palm, generating a fierce gust of wind as it aid to smack Taro's hand holding the Four-Star Dragon Ball.
Taro raised his hand with a loud BANG, blocking the ape's thick arm. The ape's giant fingers clawed desperately toward the hand in which Taro gripped the Four-Star Ball.
The beast's other furry hand ca slamming down viciously!
Taro frowned slightly and lifted his foot, delivering a powerful kick to the ape's stomach!
An explosive force surged forth!
BANG! The giant ape was sent flying backward as if struck by an iron hamr weighing thousands of pounds.
Taro tucked the Four-Star Dragon Ball into his shirt pocket. No matter what, he wasn't going to let anyone else have the Dragon Ball—especially not a wild monkey that was barely in control of its own mind.
"Grr... grr..."The ape growled weakly as it struggled to get up, still intent on charging at Taro. Seeing this, Taro shook his head. He didn't know why the monkey was so fixated on the Four-Star Ball, but...
"I'll end your suffering."
As the ape lunged toward him again, Taro raised his hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together. Zzzt zzzt zzzt! Bright arcs of electricity and flas began to dance and intertwine around his fingertips.
"Ninefold Muken: Thunder Fla Strike."
A sharp light glead in Taro's eyes as terrifying electrical and fiery energy swirled together at his fingertips, forming an intensely radiant glow!
Buzz!
A beam of light tore through the air, shooting out from Taro's fingers and vanishing into the mountain wall behind the giant ape in an instant. The beam was so powerful, so sharp, and so concentrated that it left only a perfect circular hole where it had pierced through the rock, without damaging the surrounding structure.
The giant ape's towering body finally collapsed. THUD! It slid forward slightly due to the montum of its charge before coming to a stop. Monts later, blood began to slowly pool beneath it.
Taro walked over to the fallen beast and stared at its lifeless body. Suddenly, the ape's hand grabbed his pant leg. Startled, Taro looked down, only to realize the monkey was already dead—its hand, however, still clutched him tightly.
Taro sighed softly and said:
"I don't know why you were so determined, but... I'll give you a proper burial."
With that, he pried open the ape's rigid fingers from his pants, glanced around the area, and raised his palm—
BOOM!
A Ki blast shot out, leaving a deep crater in the ground.
As he bent down to lift the ape's heavy body, Taro suddenly froze and turned sharply toward the crater he had created. His brow furrowed as he stepped into the pit, crouched down, and pressed his palm to the bottom of the hole. Focusing intently, he sensed sothing for a mont.
"As I thought, that strange aura... it seems even stronger beneath here."
Thinking this through, Taro jumped out of the crater once more. He moved a short distance away and created another deep hole with a powerful blast.
"The aura here is fainter than the one over there..."
Returning to the first pit, Taro dragged the ape's heavy body over and tossed it into the second crater. After properly burying the beast, he made his way back to the original hole.
"What exactly is the source of this energy..."
Staring into the pit, Taro pondered for a mont before finally raising his hand. A hum filled the air as a sphere of bright white energy condensed in his palm. Aiming at the bottom of the pit, Taro unleashed another Ki blast.
BOOM!
The hole expanded even deeper.
Raising an eyebrow, Taro used the Flight Technique to descend into the deepening crater.
BOOM!
He fired another blast downward.
BOOM!
And another.
BOOM! BOOM!
Taro had no idea how far he had descended, but the strange aura grew increasingly intense, as if sothing significant lay just ahead—
BOOM!
As he sent out yet another blast, a sudden sense of foreboding surged in his chest.
But it was too late.
An overwhelming force of attraction gripped him, pulling his body downward. Before Taro could react, the powerful suction yanked him into the darkness.
"Damn—"
Taro's voice echoed faintly in the depths of the pit, but he was already gone, leaving no trace.
The space he had unknowingly crossed through—a hidden, unstable spatial gateway—wavered, its delicate balance disturbed, and then slowly collapsed into nothingness.
---
Taro dropped from midair but quickly stabilized himself using the Flight Technique.
"Where is this..." Taro muttered, scanning his surroundings. He realized he had sohow ended up in a cavern. The place was dim and gloomy, making it hard to see anything clearly. To his left, however, there was a faint light emanating from sowhere deeper in the cave.
"Is this underground? Is this cave connected to that pit? But if it's underground, why is there light? And what was that strong pull earlier?"
A string of questions flooded Taro's mind. The situation was completely unexpected, but he soon cald himself. First, he made sure to stay off the ground. Given the unknown circumstances, even the faintest sound of footsteps was sothing he couldn't risk.
Next, he tried flying upward while gently tapping the cavern walls, searching for the "entrance" that had brought him here. No matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find it.
"Did it disappear... or did it never exist in the first place?"
There was no answer.
After hesitating for a mont, Taro started flying toward the faint light on his left.
Soon, he discovered that the light was coming from a winding passage. Remaining cautious, Taro heightened his senses, his entire body on alert. Slowly, he proceeded through the passage, staying as quiet as possible.
Eventually, after navigating the long, glowing tunnel, Taro erged from the cavern—only to be greeted by a scene that left him speechless.
A crimson sky!
A black crescent moon!
The air was thick with a faint, tallic tang of blood!
The eerie aura here was more intense than anything he had felt before.
"Another dinsion? A pocket dinsion connected to Earth? Could this be the so-called Demon Realm?"
Taro speculated, a faint headache creeping in. Focusing his senses, he quickly detected two imnsely powerful energies deep within this unfamiliar world.
If his current base power level was around 200, then those two overwhelming energies he sensed... were at least ten tis stronger, each hovering around 2,000 to 3,000 in strength.
Of course, there was always the possibility that the true owners of these energies were suppressing their actual strength.
Narrowing his eyes, Taro considered his options. At the mont, his Muken technique was developed up to the ninth level, aning he could amplify his strength ninefold. Even at full power, his combat strength would barely reach 2,000—still falling short of the two enormous energies he was sensing.
If he were to push himself to use the Mangekyou Sharingan's powers, he might montarily surpass those energy levels. However, his remaining eye power was limited, and his current ntal fortitude couldn't sustain such intense techniques for more than a few seconds.
Moreover, his vision was already severely deteriorated. Without relying on Ki to sense his surroundings, he would barely be able to distinguish faces, let alone recognize people.
"Unless there's absolutely no other choice, I can't use the Mangekyou."
Hovering near the cavern entrance, Taro continued sensing for other energies in this world. Initially, he had only focused on the two strongest energies, overlooking countless smaller ones. Now, he realized that about ten kiloters away, two large groups of energy signatures were clashing fiercely.
"A battle? Or sothing else?"
Looking closer, Taro noticed that such skirmishes were scattered all across the region. In every direction—near and far—signs of conflict were everywhere, varying in scale.
"A war between those two powerful energies?"
Just as Taro pondered this, his expression suddenly shifted. A faint smirk tugged at his lips. "So this is what they call 'hidden in plain sight'..."
His gaze locked onto a figure flying toward him. Or perhaps calling it a "figure" wasn't quite accurate. It resembled one of the grotesque creatures spawned from the eggs of Demon King Piccolo—neither fully human nor fully beast.
"A human!?"
The demonic warrior hovered mid-air, pointing a clawed finger at Taro, its voice filled with disbelief.
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