William clutched Proxima Midnight's spear with a vice-like grip as she struggled to drive it into his chest, his boots gouging deep ruts into the moon's surface under the relentless force pushing him back. Perceiving an imminent danger from behind, he erupted his ki aura in a massive, explosive wave, blasting both Proxima and Corvus in opposite directions with tremendous force.
The electricity coursing through his aura began to hiss like venomous serpents, the air around him alive with snapping and crackling energy from the sudden, overwhelming surge of ki.
Corvus, having only just halted his backward slide by plunging his blades into the lunar surface, felt an acute sense of danger prickling at his razor-sharp instincts.
He raised his eyes just in time to see William streaking toward him like a blazing meteor, his ki aura alone carving a wide trench in the lunar ground as he hurtled forward with unstoppable momentum.
Corvus' eyes glinted with a sinister light as a deep orange glow began to engulf his blades. Feigning weakness, he lured the approaching rogue Saiyan into a false sense of security. As William's ki barrier drew near, Corvus swung both blades upward in a deadly arc, aiming to sever the head from the torso.
The blades came perilously close to William's neck when his bronze ring erupted with the light of resolution, enveloping him in a protective shell that contoured his entire body and intercepted the lethal strike.
SHING!
The blades screeched like a choir of tormented souls before the orange glow of the soul stone dimmed. Corvus' gaze fixed on the thin red line on William's neck, so close to success that he could feel the pulse of the rogue Saiyan's carotid artery beneath his weapon.
William felt the warmth on his neck, a faint expression of surprise crossing his face as the attack had managed to bypass his formidable defenses, even if only slightly.
William's expression hardened, his face becoming unreadable. The faint warmth on his neck dissipated, replaced by the deep, focused anger radiating from his chest like a storm ready to erupt. Without a word, his aura exploded outward in a blinding surge of golden energy and electricity, unleashing a shockwave so powerful it shattered the ground beneath Corvus' feet.
The Black Order warrior braced himself, twin blades crossing into an X as William disappeared. In a single flicker, the lunar horizon fractured.
CRACK!
Corvus barely intercepted the descending strike, sparks flying as William's fist collided with his guard. The force drove Corvus back, his heels carving trenches into the moon's surface as fragments of rock rose into the vacuum. Before he could regain his footing, William vanished again, a blur of kinetic energy attacking from another angle.
SHHNK!
Corvus twisted, his blades deflecting a blow that would have crushed his ribs. The vibration coursed up his arms, burning like fire. On instinct, he countered, slashing in a spinning arc that sliced through the air where William had stood a fraction of a second earlier. But the Saiyan's afterimage dissolved, scattering into bronze motes.
Then another strike came.
And another.
And another.
A relentless barrage of attacks poured down from every direction. Corvus could only block, parry, deflect, and pivot under the onslaught, as William advanced with godlike precision. Each collision sent ripples through the lunar crust, waves of dust and debris spiraling into mesmerizing slow-motion chaos.
Corvus gritted his teeth, orange energy flaring around his weapons as he channeled the Soul Stone's power for reinforcement. Even so, his arms began to falter. The weight behind William's strikes wasn't merely physical, it was emotional, resolute, unyielding. Every blow resounded with silent conviction: You chose Thanos. You chose this path.
Unable to withstand the assault, Corvus leaped back, desperate for respite.
Amid the thick haze, two vivid green eyes ignited with an intense glow. From the wreckage emerged William, his aura-cloaked form rippling like a blazing inferno. Each deliberate step he took left molten imprints seared into the ground beneath him.
As he closed the distance to Corvus, his aura intensified, growing in both reach and oppressive force, its weight bearing down on all within its radius.
CRACKLE!
With a sudden surge of energy, William disappeared, leaving behind only the crackling resonance of his aura. Corvus, his senses on high alert, scanned his surroundings, a mix of fear and vigilance etched into his stance.
Despite Corvus's preparedness, William reappeared at his blind spot, his fist piercing through the alien's defenses to land a crushing uppercut.
POW!
The blow nearly sent Corvus hurtling into the moon's orbit. Before he could ascend more than a few feet, William seized his leg with an iron grip. With merciless strength, he began slamming the alien against the lunar surface, wielding him like a child might swing a toy bat. He halted only when he sensed Proxima's presence.
Turning sharply to meet Proxima's gaze, he sneered at the alien invader before dropping Corvus unceremoniously onto the lunar ground like discarded refuse, deliberately inciting a response. His provocation worked perfectly. As Corvus's body struck the lunar surface, Proxima summoned an array of miniature portals around her, releasing a barrage of hyper-fast jabs. These portals interconnected randomly, their exits materializing in unpredictable locations around William, who suddenly found himself evading a relentless storm of spear strikes coming from every conceivable direction.
William pivoted sharply as a spear thrust tore through the void beside his cheek, the amethyst energy grazing his skin with searing intensity. The strike left a thin line of blood across his jaw, but before the crimson droplets could fall, the vacuum flash-boiled them into faint metallic vapor.
A portal opened beneath his ribs, and the next strike came from below. Twisting mid-air, he narrowly avoided the upward lunge of the spear. The lunar surface erupted into a geyser of dust and fractured stone as the weapon tore through it, sending shockwaves rippling out like a silent explosion.
Half a dozen more portals ignited around him, flickering with eerie precision in a geometry that resembled the petals of a deadly flower. From each opening, the spear lashed out at blinding speed, striking from impossible angles.
William ducked, pivoted, and blurred from one point to another in a dance of calculated chaos. Yet Proxima's mastery of the Space Stone allowed her to bend distance itself, and even his extraordinary speed couldn't keep him unscathed.
SHHHK!
A spear tip sliced through his shoulder, carving a bloody streak that instantly began sealing shut thanks to his regeneration.
Another spear grazed his thigh, yet another nicked his forearm, none were deep, but all were maddeningly precise.
His teeth clenched as he deflected a strike with his forearm, the impact flaring sparks of golden and violet energy. He retaliated with a burst of ki, unleashing an explosive wave toward the nearest portal. The beam disappeared through it, only to erupt harmlessly from another portal behind him, scattering its energy uselessly into space.
Proxima's laughter, cruel and triumphant, echoed faintly through the portal network, resonating as a telepathic vibration carried by the Space Stone's power even across the lunar expanse.
"You can't touch me, Saiyan," her voice reverberated, layered with overlapping tones. "I can strike you from anywhere, everywhere, and you can't even find me!"
Her taunts only sharpened William's focus.
He exhaled slowly, lowering his stance as the golden electricity of his aura crackled with increasing intensity. The dust at his feet began to rise, not from motion but from the sheer gravitational force of his power.
Another portal materialized, directly in front of his chest. Through it lunged the spear, aimed with deadly intent.
This time, William didn't move.
The spear struck him squarely, or so it seemed. At the last moment, his aura flared golden and electric, forming a dense barrier that deflected the impact. The weapon scraped along his ribs, drawing blood but failing to penetrate deeply.
He grabbed the spear's shaft before it could retreat.
With an iron grip, he channeled energy down its length, disrupting the portal network just long enough for Proxima to falter. She immediately severed the connection, reclaiming the weapon before he could pull her through.
But now, William had reached his limit.
William's hair, already spiked and shimmering, surged higher, each strand glowing like molten golden blades. His aura intensified into a near-blinding brilliance, a storm of lightning, fire, and kinetic force spiraling outward with chaotic energy.
The moon itself quaked under the onslaught of power.
Chunks of lunar rock floated into the air, caught in the turbulent energy field engulfing him. The horizon rippled under the intense heat and light, warping like molten glass under a furnace's blaze.
"Fine," William murmured, his voice low and resonant, vibrating through the vacuum like the ominous hum of a collapsing star. "You want to fight everywhere at once?"
His eyes snapped open, blazing with a layered brilliance of bronze and white.
"Then I'll strike everywhere at once."
The full power of Super Saiyan 2 erupted forth.
WHOOOM!
A massive sphere of raw energy exploded from his body, expanding outward like the shockwave of a collapsing sun. Proxima's portals disintegrated instantly, their fragile spatial warps collapsing under the overwhelming force of his ki. For a brief moment, the entire moon's surface radiated with daylight-like brilliance, molten fissures spreading in vivid red across its terrain.
Proxima was hurled backward, caught mid-teleport and ripped from her position, her armor charred and smoking. She crashed onto the lunar surface miles away, skidding through craters as her spear emitted unstable, flickering energy.
William's form flickered into motion, one moment distant, the next directly in front of her, his aura leaving luminous afterimages that lingered in the vacuum like echoes of light.
He did not speak.
He simply materialized, arm drawn back, electricity roaring around his clenched fist.
When he struck, the impact shattered the ground beneath them, unleashing a blinding explosion of gold and violet energy that sent debris hurtling into orbit.
The silence of the void only amplified the terror, no sound, just raw light and unrelenting violence.
As the dust began to settle, William hovered amid the chaos, his aura still raging, the faint traces of blood from earlier wounds vaporized by the searing heat of his energy.
He gazed down at Proxima, battered yet alive, struggling to rise to her knees, her spear quivering in her grasp.
His voice, calm yet commanding, broke the silence.
"Get up," he said, his eyes blazing with unshakable determination. "I'm not finished yet."
The silence between them broke as a new presence rippled across the moon's surface.
William's blazing aura dimmed, his instincts taut like a drawn bowstring. Proxima halted mid-rise, her head snapping upward as the very fabric of space contorted and twisted unnaturally.
A tremor coursed through the lunar crust, not from an impact, but from reality itself bending under an unseen force.
Then, a voice spoke, deep, resonant, and calm as eternity.
"Enough."
The word did not travel through air or sound but reverberated within their minds, resonating in thought rather than vibration. William's gaze turned skyward as the black void above fractured, streaks of crimson, blue, orange, and violet light slicing across the stars like cracks in shattered glass.
The colors wove together, spiraling into a rift that pulsed with immense cosmic energy. From its core emerged a figure radiating both commanding authority and raw destruction.
A towering silhouette clad in the formidable armor of the Shi'ar Empire.
A crimson cape trailing behind him like liquid gravity.
The unmistakable crest on his chest blazing with searing intensity.
Kallark.
The Gladiator.
But the being before them was no mere imperial enforcer.
This was something reborn.
Reforged.
Remade by the hand of the Mad Titan himself, who, even as the battle raged outside, used the four stones in his possession to empower Kallark.
Now, that power loomed before William. Each step Gladiator took fractured the moon's surface beneath his boots, not from weight, but from sheer presence.
Proxima and Corvus instinctively retreated, their heads bowing in submission.
William straightened, his golden aura blazing defiantly. "So, this is it," he said, his voice calm yet razor-sharp. "Thanos sends another lapdog."
Gladiator's crimson eyes flared, twin stars of fury. "I am no lapdog," he declared, his voice reverberating like thunder within the mind. "I am the will of the Empire... and now, the hand of the Titan."
Before William could respond, Gladiator moved.
A streak of light. A blur faster than thought. Then—
CRACK!
The collision was catastrophic. William's body folded under the blow before he could react, his golden aura shuddering violently as he was hurled backward. He struck the ground with explosive force, molten dust erupting in golden plumes.
In the next moment, Gladiator was above him, no teleportation, no portal, only pure mastery of speed and space. His fist descended with the force to shatter a planet.
William caught it with crossed arms, the impact reverberating through his very core. The shockwave tore across the lunar plain, splitting it apart like fragile glass.
"Good," William growled, sliding backward as dust scattered from his boots. "At least you're not as weak as the others."
"Your arrogance blinds you," Gladiator said coldly, his expression unreadable.
Then, he vanished.
William's eyes widened in alarm. The sudden distortion in space was no mere teleportation, it was raw, instantaneous movement. His instincts screamed a warning.
CRACK!
A juggernaut of flesh and fury collided with him, Gladiator's fist driving deep into William's abdomen before the Saiyan could fully react. His torso caved inward from the impact, air and ki exploding from his lungs in a silent, violent gasp. The shockwave rippled across the lunar surface, sending dust and rock flying outward in a circular wave.
Before the debris had a chance to settle, Gladiator materialized behind him, spinning with a backhand that smashed into William's jaw with devastating force.
BOOM!
The strike sent William careening across the lunar horizon, golden streaks of ki trailing behind his tumbling form. Righting himself mid-air, he landed in a skid that carved a molten trench nearly a mile long. His teeth clenched as arcs of electricity crackled around him like chains of lightning.
"Fast…" he muttered, the blood at the corner of his lips evaporating instantly under the heat of his aura.
Gladiator's voice came from behind him again. "Faster than you."
William barely managed to twist in time. Gladiator's fist grazed his temple, the impact generating a shockwave that fractured the rim of a distant crater. With a swift counterattack, William's punch struck Gladiator's forearm, the collision unleashing an explosion of golden and violet sparks that surged through the vacuum.
The two figures streaked across the moon's surface, moving faster than mortal eyes could follow. Each collision erupted like silent thunder, hurling clouds of shattered rock and molten debris into the void.
William dodged a haymaker and countered with a rising knee, but Gladiator intercepted it mid-swing, twisting his body to hurl William into the ground with bone-crushing force. The lunar surface fractured like glass beneath the impact.
In an instant, William surged from the crater, his ki blazing brighter than ever. His body flickered in and out of sight as he unleashed a relentless barrage of strikes. His fists became golden meteors, his movements a blur of fury and precision.
Yet Gladiator kept pace, matching him blow for blow. Empowered by the essence of the four Stones, the Shi'ar champion existed in a state of perpetual amplification. His speed didn't just defy physics, it rewrote them.
Each time William connected, Gladiator's form shimmered, his body rippling through time and space, appearing moments before or after the strike should have landed, as though the Time Stone itself shielded him with its temporal whispers.
William roared, unleashing a wave of energy that split the battlefield in a violent arc. "You think that makes you invincible?"
Gladiator's eyes glowed crimson, his voice low yet unyielding. "It makes me inevitable."
He charged once more, a living weapon forged from cosmic will and Titan strength.
William met him head-on, their fists colliding in a radiant flash that lit up the entire lunar hemisphere. The resulting explosion sent shockwaves of golden and violet energy rippling across the void, visible even from Earth.
As the light faded, the two warriors stood locked in a stalemate, fists pressed together, their ki and cosmic energy clashing with deafening intensity.
William's grin was fierce, his teeth bared. "Let's see whose resolve breaks first."
The lunar surface trembled violently under the immense, unyielding clash of their energies, fragments of molten rock defying gravity and levitating in the vacuum as the two titans locked eyes in a battle of sheer willpower.
William's chest heaved with exertion, his aura flaring uncontrollably as he felt the crushing force of Gladiator's speed and strength bearing down on him like an immovable mountain. Every fiber of his existence cried out for more, more power, more speed, more control.
A deep, guttural growl resonated from within him, reverberating through the void as arcs of electricity crackled over his body, his golden hair bristling with static energy. He tapped into a hidden, primal reservoir of energy, a raw and untamed force that had always simmered just beneath the surface of his Super Saiyan 2 form.
His muscles clenched and expanded with ferocious intensity, sinews straining as the surging ki pushed his body to its limits. The golden aura surrounding him pulsed with increasing ferocity, bolts of lightning ripping through it and spiraling around him in a tempest of raw energy. His hair elongated, spiking chaotically as it shimmered with a molten gold radiance, tipped with flashes of searing white light.
The lunar crust fractured further, rivers of molten rock carving intricate, glowing patterns across the desolate landscape as William's power defied the constraints of gravity itself. The searing heat of his aura vaporized nearby debris, creating a howling tempest that swept across the barren moonscape.
Gladiator's eyes narrowed as he immediately registered the transformation. "He's… evolving," he muttered, a note of astonishment in his voice. Yet, his stance remained firm, his crimson eyes blazing with determination, ready to meet the impending surge of power head-on.
William's roar reverberated across the vacuum, an audible force felt rather than heard, resonating with every molecule nearby. His ki surged into a chaotic, jagged tempest, with tendrils of raw energy tearing through space and bending light. His brow furrowed deeply, veins bulging with intensity as the transformation reached its peak.
A colossal explosion of energy erupted from him, forming a violent halo that spanned miles. Lightning raced across the lunar surface like serpents of pure destruction. His golden hair, now cascading past his shoulders and glowing like molten gold, framed a fierce, resolute face. His aura blazed hotter and fiercer, a storm of untamed power, as the unmistakable energy of Super Saiyan 3 coursed through him.
Gladiator's eyes widened in disbelief as he felt the oppressive weight of this newfound power bearing down on him. Every punch he delivered and every defensive move he attempted was countered with a force far beyond anything he had ever encountered, even with Thanos' enhancements. His body quivered under the unrelenting onslaught of William's energy, the intense distortion of time and space around them growing more pronounced under William's overwhelming ki.
William's voice boomed, primal and resonant with the raw power of his transformation. "I won't hold back anymore. Not for you. Not for anyone!"
In an instant, William propelled himself forward, his golden hair trailing behind him like the tail of a comet, arcs of ki snapping violently around him. Each step left scorched craters on the moon's surface, fissures radiating outward like the fractures of a world on the verge of collapse.
Gladiator braced himself, raising his arms to counter, but even he recognized the undeniable shift. The battlefield had transformed entirely, William was no longer simply a Super Saiyan 2. He had become a relentless tempest of pure Saiyan fury, his every move a testament to boundless, unbridled power.