William's form blazed with golden and green ki, a tempest of bioelectricity swirling around him like a living Faraday cage, each arc snapping and crackling through the void.
His voice, impossibly resonant in the vacuum of space, tore forth in a roar of unbridled pain and fury that seemed to shake the stars themselves.
Across from him, Thanos's grin twisted ever wider into something almost demonic, the amethyst glow of the Power Stone pulsing through his veins as his massive muscles surged and contracted, greedily drinking in the gem's infinite energy as a sponge soaks up water.
Only his heritage as a mutant Eternal allowed him to withstand the nigh-limitless torrent now coursing through his body.
Then, with a subtle fracture in his smile, Thanos spoke, his voice a haunting paradox, gravelly and harsh yet smooth as flowing silk, a tone so chilling that cold sweat broke across the backs of friend and foe alike who dared to stand within earshot of the Mad Titan.
"COME, SAIYAN! FACE THANOS! FACE THE INEVITABLE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Thanos roared, cocking back his arm as black and gold ki erupted from his body, coiling around his fist like a tangible embodiment of death itself, while dense, swirling purple energy churned within it like a raging maelstrom of raw power.
In response, William hurled his own fist forward, sheathed in blazing gold and green energy that pulsed with enough destructive force to shatter moons into dust.
When their fists met, the universe seemed to fall into an oppressive, unnatural silence, a vast bubble of pure nullity enveloping them as time itself froze in awe of the clash.
For exactly seven eternal seconds, the world held its breath, until reality snapped back, and the sphere of soundless void detonated outward in a cataclysmic storm of energy so immense that the great barrier encasing the Earth quaked, threatening to splinter apart.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The shockwave from their first collision rippled through the cosmos, warping starlight as if it were heat haze shimmering on the horizon.
William steadied himself in the endless void, boots scraping against nothing, his aura erupting in a blazing corona of gold and green that quaked like a living starburst.
Thanos rolled his titanic shoulders once, assessing the surging power threading into his frame.
The Power Stone's energy throbbed in steady, heartbeat-like pulses, each one tightening sinew, fortifying muscle, and sharpening every instinct.
He was not yet overwhelmingly stronger, but with every passing instant, the gulf between them widened.
"This power…" Thanos rumbled, flexing his fingers as black-and-gold ki spiraled off his knuckles. "It grows. I grow."
William didn't let him finish.
In a flash, ki flared behind him like a solar eruption, hurling him forward at star-warping speed, his fist blazing through the darkness in a roar of energy.
Thanos charged to meet him, and when their fists collided this time, the impact rattled a nearby asteroid cluster so violently that dozens of rocks shattered or spun into the abyss.
William's grin was sharp, primal; he relished the fact that Thanos did not yield, relished the fact that he could be struck back. Thanos pivoted with unexpected speed for his size, his counter a crushing hammer blow from above.
William caught it on his forearm, arcs of energy crackling outward as the force drove him downward by several meters.
Thanos' eyes narrowed; he had not expected William to withstand that.
Then the Power Stone pulsed again, a tidal surge of raw force.
BOOM...
BOOM...
BOOM...
Three rapid, bone-shaking bursts sent William shooting backwards, three fresh fist-shaped holes erupting from his back due to sheer force behind the blows.
William spun wildly through the void, colliding with Kandorians and Saiyans alike, each impact unleashing the lingering energy of the Power Stone that surged through their bodies, reducing them to cascading amethyst particles as if they had been utterly erased from existence.
WHOOSH!
With a sudden burst of ki, he halted his backward momentum, gaze snapping upward to witness Thanos looming above, summoning a massive sphere of ki over his head, akin to a spirit bomb, yet forged from a dark, oppressive energy that radiated the tyrant's overwhelming dominance.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Thanos's laughter grew louder, more sinister, matching the ever-expanding size of the ominous orb overhead.
William's aura flared violently, igniting around him like a blazing inferno, his expression sharpening until it could cut through steel.
"I cannot allow that attack to land anywhere near Earth; the shockwaves alone would tear continents apart!" His gaze swept across the void until it fixed on the glowing crimson surface of distant Mars.
"That will do, unfortunate for Mars though!" William's aura erupted like a raging volcano, his golden and green energies quickly tainted by a deep, furious red that burst from his pores before fusing with and amplifying his already colossal aura.
"KAIO-KENNN!"
In an instant, William's staggering power level skyrocketed, the system's chimes ringing endlessly as it surged from 14.6 quadrillion to nearly 30 quadrillion in one explosive burst, placing him firmly above the Mad Titan, at least for now, in terms of raw might.
Sensing the peril, Thanos poured more and more of his vast strength into the massive orb of ki hovering above his head, now swelling to planetoid proportions. Its dark, menacing surface writhed like living oil, while arcs of deadly black and purple lightning crackled across it in ominous, sweeping waves.
The planetoid-sized sphere of corrupted ki and cosmic energy throbbed violently above Thanos's head, an artificial star of obliteration, its surface churning like molten tar, streaked with jagged arcs of black lightning and laced with veins of venomous purple light.
With a guttural roar that rattled the very fabric of the void, Thanos hurled the monstrous orb downward, weightless yet so dense it dragged space-time in its wake. The nothingness twisted around the descending behemoth, its crushing pressure pressing against William's skin even from thousands of kilometers away.
It wasn't merely falling.
It was a verdict from the cosmos itself.
"BE CRUSHED, SAIYAN!" Thanos thundered, his voice booming through the psychic weight of the Power Stone.
"LET EARTH PERISH WITH YOU!"
The sphere screamed through the abyss, a tidal surge of annihilation aimed squarely at William and everything he swore to protect.
But William stood his ground.
His aura erupted in a dazzling conflagration of gold, emerald, and crimson, the raw bioelectric fury snapping like solar flares torn from the heart of a newborn sun.
One thought consumed him: It will not touch Earth. Not while my heart still beats.
With a deafening burst of power, William launched himself forward.
FWOOOOOOOM!
He ripped through the void like a blazing meteor forged of fury and light, his aura streaming behind in a brilliant, fiery comet tail visible even from the surface of the world far below. Every muscle was drawn taut, every breath locked in his chest, every cell in his body unified into a single, unstoppable force.
The orb loomed before him—
A colossal, artificial moon exuding the raw essence of annihilation.
William's jaw clenched so hard that hairline fractures split through his teeth. His pupils shrank to razor-thin slits, the Kaioken surging through him like molten fire, veins glowing crimson beneath his skin as though straining to burst free.
CRACK! BOOM!
His foot smashed into the monstrous sphere.
The impact nearly tore him apart.
The orb's surface buckled and rippled like molten steel struck by a god's hammer, releasing a concussive wave that spiraled outward in streaming ribbons of green, gold, violet, and black energy. The shockwave ripped etheric fractures through nearby gravitational fields, and reality itself quaked in protest.
William roared, not in pain, but with an exertion so pure it seemed his very soul was being wrenched from his body. Veins blazed like cords of molten light across his face, his leg quaking violently, bones groaning under the catastrophic strain. His aura flared and sputtered, erupting in erratic bursts of unstable power that detonated around him in a storm of brilliant chaos.
Thanos watched from above, his eyes blazing with a deranged, feverish anticipation.
"YES! BREAK, SAIYAN! BREAK FOR ME!"
But William did not break.
With a roar that shook the very air, he pushed forward.
At first, the orb resisted. Then it slowed. Then, inch by agonizing inch, it began to slide backward.
The tension was so immense it warped reality itself. Even the distant, Earth-bound barrier quivered in response to the unfathomable force being unleashed.
With one final, primal scream—
"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
William's aura erupted outward in a colossal, blinding shockwave.
The orb of power rocketed backward, torn free like a massive boulder kicked into the void. Faster, then FASTER, until it blazed across the cosmos like the universe's most devastating soccer ball, trailing apocalyptic energy as it hurtled toward Mars.
WHOOM...
WHOOM...
WHOOOOOOOM!
It struck the planet with a silent flash so brilliant it illuminated half the solar system.
For one terrible, awe-inspiring second, Mars became a sun.
The newborn star blazed in silence, a sphere of incandescent fury swelling outward in blinding, relentless waves.
The red planet's surface liquefied in an instant, then vaporized entirely. Towering mountain ranges vanished as though scraped from reality itself. The atmosphere erupted in a halo of crimson and white before being devoured by the ravenous, expanding shock front.
The planet shattered.
Not gently.
Not metaphorically.
But with savage finality, like a sandcastle obliterated beneath the heel of a god.
Continents tore free in colossal chunks, collapsing into molten slag within seconds, their remains flowing into shimmering rivers of plasma that twisted and writhed into long, luminous tendrils.
Mars was no more.
In its place burned a newborn, volatile mini-star, flickering and convulsing as its impossible energies ripped themselves apart from within.
Bathed in the glare of that cataclysmic birth, William hung in the void like a wounded meteor, steam coiling from his shoulders, arms quaking under the unthinkable strain he had unleashed.
His heartbeat pounded like a war drum against the walls of his skull.
And his leg... the one that had struck the orb, quivered uncontrollably, shedding golden and red sparks that drifted away like the last breaths of dying fireflies.
Somewhere deep within his bones, he felt the fractures forming, and deeper still, his very ki network was unraveling at the seams. He had only just managed to keep Earth from annihilation.
But Thanos… Thanos was laughing. It was a deep, guttural, and chilling sound, echoing through William's mind, carried on the crushing psychic weight of the Soul Stone and the raw, unrestrained might of the Power Stone.
High above, framed by the distant blaze of a cosmic inferno, Thanos stood untouched, his imposing silhouette bathed in the amethyst radiance streaming from both the gauntlet and his own eyes.
His smile twisted into something monstrous, wide, cruel, and unhinged.
"Magnificent," he drawled, his voice trembling with awe and mania. "Truly magnificent.
To defy that attack… to kick it away…" He spread his arms as though embracing the devastation itself, basking in the ruinous glow of Mars's obliteration like a priest exalting before a sacred flame.
"The universe will remember that moment." His gaze sharpened, cutting through the void. "But it will remember what comes next even more."
The Power Stone throbbed...
BOOM.
The silent tremor of raw cosmic power surged through him, causing his muscles to ripple and swell with renewed might.
A second pulse—
BOOM!
From Thanos's back, black and gold ki erupted like infernal wings unfurling against the void.
A third pulse—
BOOOOOOOM!
Reality itself fractured around the Mad Titan, the darkness splintering into jagged cracks as thin streaks of purple lightning scattered like shards of broken glass across the abyss.
With deliberate menace, Thanos raised his hand, two fingers extended in a gesture as final as a death sentence.
"Your kick impressed me… Saiyan."
His grin widened, eyes blazing with unhinged madness.
"But you are exhausted. Injured. Burning yourself alive with that red technique."
His hand clenched into a fist.
"Meanwhile… I am only growing stronger."
A violent storm of black, purple, and gold ki roared to life around him, tendrils whipping out into the void like the grasping arms of some cosmic leviathan.
In an instant, Thanos blurred, no, vanished, his movement fueled by the impossible synergy of Eternal physiology, the limitless fury of the Power Stone, and flawless mastery of ki.
William's pupils contracted in shock. He barely had time to brace—
When Thanos materialized just inches away, fist drawn back, its power howling like a chained black hole straining to break free.
"Round two, Saiyan."
And then the punch fell, swift and merciless, with the weight of the gods themselves behind it.