The air tasted like aluminum foil and static electricity.
Kazuma collapsed immediately. It wasn't fear. It was gravity. The gravity in Zone 4 was set to "Anime Training Montage" standards—roughly 10x Earth's norm.
"Why..." Kazuma wheezed into the orange dirt. "Why is the air... so heavy?"
"It is the pressure of Ki," Vegeta stated, remaining perfectly upright, arms crossed. He took a deep breath, savoring the ozone. "This is a warrior's garden. Not a place for goddesses and comic relief."
"Who are you calling comic relief?!" Aqua yelled, though she was currently crawling on all fours like a toddler.
Before them stretched the iconic Namekian wasteland. But like everything in Vector Prime, it was wrong. The floating islands were made of Minecraft bedrock. The green water was actually Mako energy from Final Fantasy VII.
And standing on a pillar of obsidian, bathing in a golden aura that pierced the clouds, was the Fusion Emperor.
Perfect Ultra Frieza.
(Frieza + Perfect Cell + Kid Buu).
He had Frieza's silhouette, Cell's green insectoid armor spots, and Buu's steam vents on his head. He also had a very, very smug tail.
"Vegeta," Frieza cooed, flicking his tail. "And the Monkey. And... is that a skeleton wearing a schoolbag? My, my. The invite list has gone downhill."
"FRIEZA!" Goku stepped forward. His Gakuran uniform from the last zone ripped apart as he powered up, revealing his standard orange Gi underneath. "You merged with Cell and Buu? That's cheating!"
"It's efficient," Frieza corrected. He tapped the glowing red orb—the Anchor—in his chest. "With the Core of Escalation, my power level doesn't just rise. It multiplies every time you annoy me. And right now? I am very annoyed."
"Wait," Ainz Ooal Gown stepped forward. The Sorcerer King's red eye points flared. "A level multiplier? That sounds like a Pay-To-Win mechanic. Unfair."
"Life is unfair, Bone Daddy," Frieza sneered.
He raised one finger.
Death Beam.
It wasn't a beam. It was a deluge. A torrent of purple energy the size of a continent erupted from his fingertip.
"Gah!" Goku crossed his arms to block. "SSGSS!"
Blue aura flared. The clash shattered the sound barrier, then the light barrier. The shockwave pulverized mountains ten miles away.
Tanjiro, clinging to a rock, watched in horror.
Internal Monologue: What is this smell? It's not just power. It's pure annihilation. It smells like the end of all things. My sword... can my sword even cut energy that dense?
"SCREEEEEE!" Asta flew backward, blown away by the wind pressure. "MY EARS! WHY ARE THEY YELLING SO LOUD?"
"Get used to it!" Vegeta roared, turning Super Saiyan Blue. He charged. "FINAL FLASH!"
Vegeta's beam hit Frieza dead center. Smoke cleared. Frieza hadn't moved. He hadn't even blocked.
[SYSTEM ALERT: DAMAGE RECEIVED.]
[ANCHOR EFFECT ACTIVATED: ESCALATION X2]
Frieza's aura turned from Gold to Platinum.
"Oh my," Frieza chuckled. "Did a fly land on me?"
"This is bad," Kirito analyzed from the backline, checking his menu. "His stats just doubled. If we hit him again, they'll quadruple. It's a feedback loop!"
"So we can't hit him?" Mash asked.
"No," Anos Voldigoad stepped onto the air, walking up toward the floating emperor. "It means we must hit him with something that defies mathematics."
Anos raised his hand. A magic circle complex enough to give a mathematician a seizure appeared.
"Logic is crying," Frieza noted, watching the spell. "How cute."
Frieza vanished.
Speed blitz.
He appeared behind Anos, tail aimed for a decapitation strike.
CLANG.
A fist met the tail. A gloved, red fist.
Saitama stood there, still wearing his PE tracksuit with "Teacher" written on the chest.
"Hey," Saitama said deadpan. "Your tail. It looks like a weird sausage."
Frieza blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Are you supposed to be strong?" Saitama asked, picking his nose with his other hand. "You're shiny. Shiny things usually break easy."
Frieza's eye twitched. The combination of Cell's perfectionism and Frieza's ego couldn't handle the disrespect.
"DIE, BALDY!"
Frieza unleashed a barrage. Millions of punches per second. Each one strong enough to crack a planet.
Saitama caught them. Not blocked. Caught. Like he was playing patty-cake.
Pap-pap-pap-pap.
"Normal consecutive side-steps," Saitama murmured, swaying like a willow tree in a hurricane.
[ANCHOR EFFECT ACTIVATED: ESCALATION X4]
[ANCHOR EFFECT ACTIVATED: ESCALATION X8]
Frieza was getting faster. Stronger. The air began to tear into black rifts.
"He's adapting!" Genos scanned from a safe distance (hiding behind Naofumi's shield). "Sensei's infinite potential vs Infinite Escalation... It's an irresistible force meeting an immovable object!"
"It's creating a black hole!" Bulma shrieked, looking at her scanner. "The mass of their punches is collapsing reality!"
"Let me try!" Asta screamed. "IF IT'S ENERGY, I CAN CUT IT!"
Asta launched himself off a floating rock. Demon-Destroyer Sword.
He flew into the clash of titans. The anti-magic blade glowed.
"Black Divider!"
Asta slashed Frieza's aura.
The effect was immediate. The escalating numbers didn't disappear, but they glitched. For a split second, the Anti-Magic disrupted the Reality Anchor's connection to the Plot.
"What?!" Frieza stumbled, his Ki flickering.
"NOW!" Goku yelled. "Vegeta! Fusion!"
Vegeta looked at Goku. He looked at Frieza. He looked at the goofy dance they would have to do.
"I'D RATHER DIE!" Vegeta screamed.
"VEGETA! THE UNIVERSE!"
"DAMN IT!"
The two Saiyans aligned their fingers.
"FU... SION... HA!"
Flash of light.
Emerging from the glow wasn't Gogeta.
Because of the warped reality of Vector Prime, the fusion grabbed a third person who was standing too close.
Naruto Uzumaki (who had just arrived via a Shadow Clone summon).
The three merged.
Spiky yellow/blue hair. Whiskers. Orange Gi with Saiyan Armor.
Gogeto-Uzumaki.
"Alright!" The triple-fusion voice echoed. "I'm feeling... like eating Ramen? And fighting? BELIEVE IT!"
Gogeto appeared in front of the glitching Frieza.
"Rasengan..."
A blue energy sphere formed.
"...Big Bang Kamehameha!"
The sphere grew spikes. It turned into a galaxy-sized swirling shuriken of pure destruction.
"EAT THIS!"
Gogeto slammed the attack into Frieza.
"NOOOOO!" Frieza screamed. "I AM PERFECTION! I AM THE EMPER—"
BOOOOOM.
The explosion was blinding. It didn't look like fire. It looked like the color white simply erasing the concept of the color orange.
Zone 4 vaporized.
Kazuma, clinging to a rock that was being disintegrated, accepted his fate.
"This is it. This is how I die. Killed by a shonen crossover special move. Fitting."
But as the light cleared... Frieza was still there.
Half his body was gone. Regeneration was kicking in—Bubbles of pink flesh knitting together.
"You..." Frieza wheezed, one eye missing. "You think that's enough? The Anchor... preserves me!"
The red orb in his chest pulsed. ESCALATION X100.
He began to grow. Gigantification.
"I WILL SWALLOW THIS DIMENSION!"
"Boring."
Saitama was suddenly hovering right in front of the core. He had used a piece of floating debris as a jumping board.
"Serious Series," Saitama wound up his arm. The atmosphere literally fled the planet in fear. "Serious Punch."
He didn't punch Frieza's face. He punched the space behind the Anchor.
The shockwave traveled through Frieza, ignoring his durability, and hit the connection between the villain and the Reality Anchor.
CRACK.
The red orb shattered out of Frieza's chest, launched into the sky like a home run ball.
Frieza looked down at the hole in his chest.
Then he looked at Saitama.
"Oh," Frieza said softly. "Crap."
The gathered energy inside him had nowhere to go.
Frieza imploded.
It wasn't a big bang. It was a pfffht. Like a balloon deflating. The mighty Emperor turned into a dried husk and blew away in the wind.
(Somewhere in a revival tank, Frieza's soul screamed I HATE THIS FANFIC!)
"Got it!" Luffy's arm stretched into the stratosphere.
He snatched the glowing red shard before it vanished.
[REALITY ANCHOR 4/7 ACQUIRED]
[System Effect: Power Levels Normalized]
Gravity returned to 1G.
Kazuma gasped, sucking in sweet, light air. "I lived! Praise Eris, I lived!"
The fusion wore off. Goku, Vegeta, and Naruto split apart, looking dizzy.
"That felt weird," Naruto rubbed his whiskers. "I felt an urge to train and never see my family."
"I felt an urge to yell my feelings," Vegeta shuddered.
Anos walked over to the crater. The Zone was destabilizing. The orange sky was peeling away to reveal neon lights underneath.
"Four Anchors," Anos said. "We are halfway there."
"But look at the Hub," Naofumi pointed up.
The black ring in the sky—the central villain base—was opening. Ink was dripping from it. Thick, black sludge that fell onto the Zones like oil rain.
"The Draft," Tanjiro smelled the rain and covered his nose. "It smells terrible. Like... unfinished ideas. Rejection."
A projection appeared in the sky. It wasn't Aizen this time.
It was a static image. A distorted, scribbly face.
"YOU... TAKE... MY... PIECES..."
The voice sounded like thousands of pages turning at once.
"COME. ZONE 5. I HAVE PREPARED A GAME."
The landscape flickered.
Namek disappeared.
Concrete walls rose up. Neon signs flickered to life.
"Welcome to Shibuya."
But it wasn't the Shibuya from earlier. This was Jujutsu Kaisen's Shibuya merged with the Eclipse from Berserk.
Red skies. Flesh pulsating on the buildings. Curses roaming the streets.
"Shibuya again?" Gojo sighed, pulling his blindfold back down. "I have bad memories of this place. specifically a box."
"Berserk stuff," Guts (who had been quietly killing demons in the background until now) grunted, gripping the Dragon Slayer. "The mark... it's bleeding."
"Next Zone," Kirito announced, sheathing his swords. "Zone 5: The Horror Game. Everyone check your Sanity Meters."
[SYSTEM: SANITY METER ADDED]
Kazuma checked his.
[Sanity: 12%]
"Well," Kazuma wept. "That explains a lot."
Saitama looked at his.
[Sanity: Hungry]
"Let's go," Saitama said, walking toward the wall of flesh. "Maybe this dimension has a convenience store that works."