Beta read by Shigiya.
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-Ishgar-
It had been a while since Broly's mind drifted back to his childhood on Planet Vampa. The harsh landscape flashed through his memory; rocky terrain under a dim green sky, where survival meant constant battle. As a child, he had faced enormous creatures daily just to find food, something to quench his thirst, or shelter. Monsters the size of entire mountains filled the landscape of the planet, swarms of insects capable of tearing through flesh and metal, and countless other dangers. In such an environment, he never considered himself the apex predator. He was just another creature trying to survive.
Still, he remembered his father, Paragus, forcing him into dangerous situations where he had to face one monster after another. Despite these challenges, Broly rarely found himself in genuine danger. Standing at the top of Vampa's food chain in his own way, through pure brute strength and power. Only a handful of times had he encountered anything capable of resisting his attacks, and even those creatures rarely survived a second or third assault before being obliterated.
No creature on Vampa had the power to destroy an entire planet. The only being who had not only resisted his attack but overwhelmed him, Broly still remembered clearly… the Saiyan with blue hair, whose terrifying power had cut through his own rage, returning him to sanity and making him feel genuine fear for the first time. That was the first time anyone had posed a real challenge to him.
'This person in front of me... something is strange about him,' Broly thought, observing the goat-faced man who had appeared out of nowhere — this person giving him the same sensation he had sensed a while ago. The first thing Broly noticed was how wrong his ki felt, like an amalgamation of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of different life forces consumed and forcefully merged into one. Everything about this entity felt horribly wrong.
"Did you call me a Saiyan?" He asked, still unsure how to react to someone recognizing him so instantly. Whether to be happy or worried.
The goat-faced man chuckled. "Yes, I did. Is that surprising? I simply wondered if you were a Saiyan, given the way you appear. But… you don't have a tail, and usually your kind attacks me on the spot with their barbaric nature; but that sensation from your Ki is unmistakably that of a Saiyan. Then again, you... You feel different. Much more powerful than any Saiyan I've encountered before. Has your race reached a realm beyond these last few million years?"
Indeed, the more he spoke, the more certain Broly became of this feeling within him. Something about this man felt terribly wrong, especially considering how he had killed the jackal man earlier. He had sensed every bit of the jackal's life energy being drained until nothing remained. Having never seen such a strange power before and decided to play it safe. The possibility that this person might be from his world was another factor influencing his caution.
"Who are you? And how did you arrive in this world?" Broly asked.
The goat-faced man stroked his beard with a smile. "Quite rude to demand answers so blatantly, but I shouldn't expect formality from a Saiyan." He waved his hand dismissively. "Still, I'll humor you, as I never expected to meet someone like you here."
With a simple movement of his arm, he pulled his cape to the side, showcasing a rather lean but still quick muscular body hidden behind the cloak, and performed a slight bow. "Greetings to you, Broly, and to the demon and that… dragon? Interesting. But you feel different from that one, not exactly weaker but definitely more unique, I suppose."
"..."
Irene's eyes narrowed as soon as the person recognized her true nature from just a glance. Meanwhile, Moro's eyes briefly glanced at the frozen Etherious, who looked at him with an equal amount of wariness. "I am Moro, and I'm glad to make your acquaintance. However, I don't have much time to play with you all, as I'm after a certain dragon."
This finally broke Irene's silence. "Another dragon?"
Moro nodded. "A wolf-like white dragon, funnily enough. She's been quite a nuisance these past few weeks, getting in my way whenever I try to have a feast and teleporting me away at every turn. It's getting annoying, and I'd rather consume her once and for all."
Consume? Having a feast? The more he listened, the more he grew confused.
"No, we haven't seen such a dragon," Broly said, though countless questions rose in his mind. He decided not to voice them and instead asked, "Are you associated with Tartaros?"
Moro looked surprised and confused, glancing at Seilah before letting out a loud laugh.
"This? Hahaha! We may both have horns, but I have no association with that bunch. I've heard of them and even monitored them for a while, but they never caught my interest." He frowned at Seilah. "Her kind tastes disgusting, and their life energy is all wrong; an abomination that shouldn't exist, created by someone who had no idea what they were doing. Honestly, how can someone make something so repulsive?"
Irene stepped forward. "You have no idea what you're talking about. One should not underestimate the creations of the Black Mage Zeref."
Upon hearing that name, Moro repeated it under his breath several times, "Ah! I've heard that name before during my travels, but what a human mage accomplished never caught my interest."
Broly raised his hand to stop Irene from saying more. "If you have no connections with Tartaros, then we shouldn't get involved. We should split ways."
Moro chuckled again. "How eager you are to have me walk away. Unfortunately, I can't leave so soon, especially after making the effort to cross such a long distance and using my precious accumulated magic." His eyes darkened as they moved toward Seilah, who was closest to him. "I'm already feeling a bit hungry."
"Mind your tongue, fool." She fixed him with a look of pure disgust, though it did nothing to frighten him.
"While I may not like their taste, they have a surprisingly large amount of energy," Moro continued, as if not even caring to hear her words. "I'm fine with choking it down if I have to." His hand reached toward Seilah.
"Don't move a muscle," Seilah commanded immediately.
Just like with Broly at the beginning, Moro's movements momentarily stopped. But that moment alone barely consisted of more than a second. Right after that, he started moving again, clenching his hand in front of his face as he observed his body, jumping and moving around slightly.
"Interesting power," he said. "The ability to control movement by mere words. I wonder, is it your ability to influence the mind, or does she command the body itself? If someone were deaf, would her power still work?"
No trace of worry or fear could be seen on his face, just slight interest. Moro simply shook his head. "No matter. I'll research this after having consumed her."
This time, the old man moved.
Whoosh!
His form, which had seemed so frail, shot forward with a speed that defied his appearance. Seilah's eyes widened, completely caught off guard. "Too fast for you, little homunculus?" There was no time to react, no time to even form a command. Moro's shriveled palm was already on the side of her face. A deep purple aura flared around his hand, and then it exploded in a massive blast.
One with enough power to rock the very ground beneath their feet.
The Saiyan just stood there, making no move to save the Etherious newcomer. Simply because he had no reason to save what was basically his enemy — not to mention his goal of observing this Moro carefully first. His eyes remained locked on him, able to keep up with his speed. In the background, Irene projected a shield of magical energy around herself, deflecting the flying debris.
"Are you familiar with him? Who is he?" She couldn't help but ask while moving right next to him.
"I don't know," he replied honestly, trying to recall seeing anything similar to this man in Frieza's army but coming up with nothing. "But his ki... It's not plentiful, but it's dangerous. I've never felt something so disturbing. Be careful."
As he finished speaking, the dust from the explosion began to clear. They expected to see a charred corpse, but instead, Seilah was leaning against a large boulder, panting slightly. Bruises and burn marks marked the side of her face and body, her clothes tattered and burned. Moro smiled. "Impressive. You're more durable than the creature from earlier. Not many can take a hit like that and come out with just a few scratches."
"I don't care who you are," Seilah spat, pushing herself to her feet. "I don't care where you come from. For killing a member of Tartaros, for laying your hands on me... You deserve death!"
Anger taking hold of her, the woman waved her hand, and flashes of light surrounded her.
"Are those…" To the Saiyan's surprise, several dozens of books materialized, circling her. With a quick gesture, they were sent hurtling towards the goat-faced man.
"Hoh, using books with your commands? That's a first for me, I admit." Moro didn't even move, simply watching with interest as the projectiles approached. He let them hit. The books struck his body like bullets, the impacts echoing with loud bangs.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Just from the impact alone, it was clear to anyone watching that they were not ordinary books, given that none of them shredded. Like a Gatling gun, his body was bombarded, the force pushing him backward until he was crushed against the side of a mountain.
"Her magic is peculiar," Irene said from beside the warrior. "A curse that lets her control people, inanimate objects—even strengthen them." She paused. "It really does bear a striking resemblance to my own blessing magic."
Broly didn't acknowledge her observation immediately, while she may have been more curious about the abilities used… he focused on something else entirely. "She might not live for long."
"What?" Irene asked, surprised. "She just handled him quite well from that brief confrontation and even pushed him back."
The Saiyan stared ahead, pointing a finger toward the settling dust. "His ki didn't fluctuate once. He was confident enough to take those attacks without fear of getting hurt."
Just as he said, Moro's figure emerged from the haze. "Hehehe, never thought I'd have someone change the way I see something as simple as a tome. A funny little spell you have there." His old cape was now torn, revealing more of his hunched back. His body was lean, almost skeletal, with tightly drawn, sinewy muscles over his frame. Wrinkled, pale skin was on display for everyone, but he stood completely unharmed.
Just scratching his chin with a thoughtful look.
"Your powers... they don't seem to be purely magic, nor purely life energy. They're a sort of mix between the two, closer to a curse than a spell," he mused. "This is the first time I've encountered a curse fueled by a power source that isn't magical or mystical in nature. It seems I was wrong. There might be something to that Black Mage after all." He looked at Seilah. "If you can guide me to this Zeref, I would be very eager to study that human more closely and absorb his powers. In exchange, I will let you live and serve under me as my first subordinate on this planet. What do you say?"
Unfortunately, his offer was received in the worst possible way.
"Keep your mouth shut!" Seilah roared, infuriated. Her books started to swirl again, sent flying toward him. "What!?" But unlike last time, the moment they touched his body, every single one fell to the ground. A few were obliterated, pieces of paper and splinters of wood flying everywhere. This shocked both Seilah and Irene, who were genuinely confused by the turn of events.
Moro smirked. "Regardless if it's another source of power, if it's not magic or life energy specifically, it's still related closely enough for me to absorb it."
"Don't get cocky!"
Undeterred, Seilah swept her hand downward, causing the entire mountainside to collapse on top of him. The ground shook beneath the impact of tons of rock. It accomplished nothing. In the very next moment, the rubble exploded apart, chunks of stone flying in every direction. Moro burst from the debris and drove a blow into Seilah's stomach with enough force to knock the air from her lungs.
"Gah!"
"Disappointing," he said. "Is that all you can do?"
Just like before, he placed his palm behind her head as she was still mid-air and smashed her into the ground. His palm glowed a deep purple before unleashing another wave of explosive energy that expanded in a dome. It shot toward Irene and the Saiyan.
Bang!
The former tried to summon a barrier, but she was disrupted as the Saiyan grabbed her and jumped back.
"Why did you do that?" Irene asked, visibly taken aback by his action. Only for her to raise an eyebrow upon seeing the grim expression on his face.
"...Something feels wrong."
From the beginning, practically every little thing about this Moro felt completely wrong. Like a sensation at the back of his head shouting at him to stay clear of this… thing for some reason. Which confused him more than anything else, for a while, he did appear to be quite powerful, but it was definitely not at a level beyond his own.
"What is it?"
"His ki... It's growing?"
The dust took a moment longer to settle this time, drifting down in uneven sheets instead of clearing all at once. Bits of broken stone tapped against the ground, one after the other. Moro stood in the middle of it, his grip firm around Seilah's horn, holding her just off the ground. Her feet barely brushed the surface, leaving faint drag marks as she struggled.
"H-Hn! Gah!"
Crash!
He shifted his arm slightly, adjusting his hold, then flung her aside without much effort. Her body skidded across the ground, rolling once before coming to a stop against a cracked section of stone. Small fragments scattered outward from the impact, some still sliding a short distance before settling.
"A waste of time," he muttered, brushing a bit of dust off his forearm as he turned away from her.
Taking a step forward, his foot pressed into the loose debris with a dull crunch. His gaze fixed ahead on the Saiyan once more. Just as Broly was about to act, something shifted.
"Hm?" A low hum crept into the space, faint at first. Moro's next step stopped halfway before it fully landed. The ground beneath him gave a slight tremor, just enough to make the loose fragments around his foot twitch. "More of that curse magic? No, it looks like something else."
A surge of violet energy burst outward behind him, not in a single flash but in a thick wave that pushed through the dust and scattered it in all directions. The demon's head turned first, followed by his shoulders as he looked back. The corner of his mouth lifted, the expression settling in slowly rather than all at once.
"Now this is more like it."
From the violet miasma, Seilah emerged, more wounded than ever. Black patterns encroached upon her skin, her form visibly changing. She looked at him with pure murder in her eyes. "I will not let you walk away from here alive." She shouted, "Limiter remove!"
As the transformation neared its completion… it suddenly stopped.
"—!"
All the violet energy around her disappeared. The woman stood shocked, looking down at her hand. The black patterns and the slight protrusions resembling wings on her legs started to break down. For the first time, her voice stuttered. "W-what... what happened?"
She never got an answer, for Moro closed the distance and grabbed her face, not smashing her or throwing her this time. "I have seen enough," he said.
"Let go of me!" She tried to break free, using as much of her curse as she could muster, but it did nothing. Right before Irene and the Saiyans' eyes, a familiar scene began to occur. An influx of energy flowed out of her body, taking the shape of a ball in the middle of his other hand. Seilah grew thinner and weaker, her body looking like it was turning into a husk as Moro continued to drain her very essence.
"Eugh, disgusting."
Her movements grew even more desperate, her struggles weakening as Moro continued to drain her. Irene watched with growing disturbance as the pieces clicked into place about what was happening. Broly stood his ground, his eyes meeting the red-haired woman's, showing no motive to intervene. Still… if this woman was the one behind Jellal's state, then he couldn't let her die yet.
Though right as he was about to intervene, Moro simply let go of Seilah, her withered body dropping to the ground like a discarded doll. The goat-faced demon made a face filled with disgust. "Even if it's close enough, the taste is still disgusting. It reeks of death."
Then his eyes turned to Irene. A terrible premonition arose within Broly's mind, and he was proven right the next second.
"I might as well cleanse my palate with the taste of a dragon,"
Feeling the danger, Broly shouted at Irene, "Get away from here now!" but it was too late. Moro disappeared from his spot and reappeared next to her, catching the redhead by surprise.
"Your magic, on the other hand, is pure and plentiful," he said, his hands reaching for her. "Exactly what I like the most."
"Don't think I'll be as easy as that Etherious."
Irene's voice came out quite cold as she drew her staff up. The air in front of her tightened, threads of magic pulling together into a thin barrier. It started to take shape, faint lines crossing over one another as the surface began to solidify.
The moment his hands were about to touch it…
Crack!
A crack ran through it before it could fully form.
"How?"
The structure gave way almost immediately, splitting along uneven lines. The magic didn't even get the chance to settle before it peeled apart, fragments of light breaking off and fading into nothing. What remained flickered once, then collapsed completely.
Moro's hand pushed through where the barrier had been, his fingers already reaching forward.
Irene's eyes widened slightly as she shifted her footing, her heel scraping against the ground as she tried to move back.
Before Moro could close the distance, a powerful impact struck from the side.
"No, you don't!"
Broly's fists slammed into his face with a heavy crack, the force snapping Moro's head to the side. The hit carried through his whole body, lifting him off his feet. His form dragged across the ground for a short stretch before the momentum carried him further, his body skipping once before being sent across the battlefield.
Loose debris followed in his wake, kicked up in a rough line before dropping back down in scattered pieces.
Still in shock, Broly snapped Irene awake by shouting her name. "Get a hold of yourself, Irene! There's something extremely wrong with this person. You need to stay away!"
Most likely never having been told such a thing, she was about to argue back, only to feel a strange sense of weakness in her body that appeared for just a second but was enough for her to notice. Looking at him, a dreadful realization reached her. "My magic is... this depleted? How can that… I-I didn't even use that much?"
Before either of them could say anything more, a figure jumped from the ground ahead as Moro rushed into the sky. "You're starting to become a nuisance, Saiyan!" With both arms to the side, he took a stance before pushing his arm upward. The ground beneath them trembled, followed by several surges of pure magma shooting above. Dozens of columns bigger than a house erupted, along with boulders the size of houses floating above him.
Realizing this was not the time to argue, he quickly told Irene, "I'm sorry."
"What for?" she asked, confused, but her sentence came to an end as he grabbed her leg and threw the woman as far away as he could with all his strength. "Y-You idiot!" Her figure practically turned into a comet as she disappeared over the horizon. Despite crashing through several mountains, he was certain she would survive.
The avalanche of magma and rocks came crashing down upon him, burning away whatever trace of vegetation that had managed to survive the prior attacks.
After a loud shout, a burst of transparent ki surrounded his body, pushing away the magma as he flew above, flying on the same level as Moro, who had a positively amused look on his face.
"Impressive. More ki than I initially sensed. Quite interesting," the latter mentioned.
Not bothering to give him a response, Broly knew right then and there that this person was dangerous and could not be allowed loose. Whoever he was, wherever he came from, however he had arrived in this world — it didn't matter. This person had to be dealt with immediately.
"Aaah!"
Rushing ahead, Broly drove straight through the scattered debris, his shoulders hunched forward as he forced his way in. "Hah!" His fist came up and smashed through a floating rock in his path, the impact bursting it apart into jagged fragments. Another one followed, then another, each one breaking under his strikes as he closed the gap.
He didn't slow.
His right fist shot forward the moment he reached Moro. "Tch—!" The old man shifted to the side at the last second, the punch grazing past his shoulder instead of landing clean. Broly twisted his hips and followed through immediately, swinging a left hook aimed at his head.
Moro brought his forearm up. "Hmph, at least you're not a full brute." The blow landed with a dull crack, the force pushing his arm back slightly. A short shockwave rolled out from the impact, nudging the nearby boulders and sending smaller fragments drifting off course.
The Saiyan pressed in, but Moro moved first.
The old man stepped forward into his space and drove his palm into his chest. "Hah!" The strike landed solidly, folding Broly's upper body back for a moment before the force carried him away. His boots dragged across the air as he was pushed back, leaving a faint trail through the dust before he steadied himself.
"Fuu…" he exhaled, tightening his stance mid-slide. His feet planted again, stopping his momentum with a slight jolt.
He rushed back in without pause. "Hah! Hah!" His fists came out in quick succession, each punch snapping forward with little gap between them. Moro leaned and shifted through most of them, turning his shoulders to let several pass by, but not all of them missed.
"Tch!" One strike clipped his jaw. Another thudded into his ribs. A third caught him across the face with a heavier hit.
Moro's footing gave for a moment as he staggered back a step, then another. "Guh!" He steadied himself before he could fall, bringing a hand up to his mouth. When he pulled it away, there was a thin smear of blood across his knuckles.
He wiped it off with the back of his hand, breathing out through his nose as he looked back at Broly.
"You're stronger than most Saiyans I've encountered," Moro said, his expression unchanged. "But strength alone won't save you."
Broly snapped a kick toward Moro's side. "Hn!"
With his opponent pulled back just in time, the strike passed by a hair's breadth.
Not deterred, he stepped in without pause. A punch followed, then another, then a quick kick to keep him moving. "Ha!" The blows forced Moro to give ground. With him shifting and redirecting rather than blocking head-on, guiding a punch aside, catching a kick on his forearm. "Too straightforward," he said, knocking the leg away before slipping in a short strike to Broly's ribs.
The pain from that strike caused a moment of disbelief to appear within his eyes.
The ground cracked beneath them.
A column of magma burst upward, swallowing the space in heat and light. "Damn it!" Broly raised a thin energy shield, the glow blurring his vision as the surge passed.
When it cleared, Moro was already above him.
"Too slow."
"A-aah—!" Broly looked up just as both fists came down. The blow slammed through his guard and drove him straight toward the ground below.
As Broly crashed to the earth, a realization came to him. 'This is the first time I felt my body actually... hurt? Not just having my blow be met blow for blow, my strength matched, but also hit him with enough force to cause pain. I haven't felt this for a very long time. And to mention, his opponent did not even seem like he was going all out.'
Pushing himself off the ground, he looked above to see Moro looking down on him with a smirk on his face. "You really are different from a regular Saiyan. I wonder how you even ended up in this place."
Oh, that, well… despite not being fully certain, he had an answer for that and surprisingly answered honestly. "Someone I knew wished me to be sent here, most likely." He said, remembering those last moments. Even if he was in a state of pure rage back then, he remembered seeing the dragon in the distance.
This gained Moro's attention. "You're not interested in returning to your world? I've done a scan of this planet and everything around it. This galaxy is unrecognizable; we might not even be in the same universe, for all I know. Had such a place existed, I would have known about it ten million years ago."
"Ten million?" Just how old was this guy? "But to answer your question, no. I'm happy living here. It's peaceful, and most of the people are very kind to me. I have plenty of friends who are no different from family."
As soon as he finished his sentence, Moro scoffed the moment he heard that. "Peace? You fool, I find it funny for a Saiyan of all people to say such a thing. Guess it's my job to remind you of the harsh reality rather than have you believe such a nonsensical fantasy. I'll make sure to crush that childish belief of yours if I have to."
He rushed down, with Broly flying ahead, more certain than ever about his decision to take down this man. With both fists clashing against each other, the impact sent shockwaves across the area. The Saiyan's fists proved to be stronger and managed to push away Moro.
"You got stronger?" the latter said, visibly caught off guard by this change.
Broly did not give him an answer and started punching and kicking him. The Saiyan's assault was relentless; a right hook connected with Moro's jaw, followed by a knee to his stomach that doubled him over. Before the demon could recover, Broly spun around and delivered a powerful kick to his side, sending him skidding across the ground.
"I won't go down that easily!" Moro attempted to counter with a punch of his own, but Broly caught his arm and twisted it, forcing the old man to cry out in pain. The Saiyan followed up with a series of rapid punches to Moro's torso, each impact creating visible dents in the demon's body.
Broly grabbed Moro's legs, spun him around, and launched him further into the distance. As Moro fell, Broly grabbed his head and pushed the man through the side of a mountain, going deep through the earth and rock. Then he kicked Moro in the abdomen with his knee, which pushed the demon through the surface and into the sky.
Wanting to repay the past move, he appeared above him and used the heel of his foot to kick the guy down, creating a big crater with a loud boom. Bringing forth both his hands together, a green dot of ki gathered into a condensed form.
"Raaaaaagh!"
Broly drew in a breath and held it, his body tightening as more ki gathered in his hands. A faint glow formed first, then deepened into a dense emerald sphere. "Hah…" The light grew brighter as he fed more into it, the surface starting to churn instead of staying still.
It didn't stop there.
The sphere swelled outward, slowly at first, then faster, pushing the air around it. The clouds above began to part, dragged aside by the pressure rising from below. Loose debris lifted off the ground, pulled toward the mass of energy before being burned away at the edges.
"Hn…!" Broly forced more into it, his arms tensing as the sphere expanded further, its surface rotating with a low, grinding motion. The light spread across the battlefield, washing everything in green.
He leaned forward and shouted, "HAAH!" as he drove it down.
The sphere dropped and slammed into Moro's position with a heavy impact, the ground buckling beneath it. For a moment, it held there, spinning in place as it pressed downward. Anything caught along its surface broke apart instantly, was dragged along, and reduced to nothing as it turned.
Broly kept his hands forward, pushing more energy into them. "Stay down…!" The sphere thickened, its rotation tightening as the pressure increased.
"Grah!" He forced another surge into it, the outer layer flaring as he prepared to set it off completely.
But as he tried to do so, Broly made a sound of confusion. "Eh?"
Rather than detonating, he felt like the concentration of his ki within the attack started to lessen at a drastic rate. The giant sphere that was nearly all the way embedded in the ground was being forced upwards and starting to... shrink?
"What?"
Broly's arms stiffened as the sphere met resistance.
"…What?" The word slipped out under his breath.
The massive attack, which had been pressing downward moments ago, began to pull inward instead. At first, it was subtle, the outer edges tightening slightly. Then it became obvious.
The sphere shrank.
Its size dropped from something that filled the sky to something closer to a building, the light compressing rather than fading. The rotation didn't stop, but it grew denser, tighter, as if being forced into itself.
Broly leaned forward, trying to push more power into it. "Haaaaa…!"
It kept collapsing.
From the size of a hall to something no larger than a house, then smaller still. The glow intensified as it compressed, the surface grinding faster as it was forced inward.
A boulder.
That was all that remained.
Then he saw him.
Moro stood beneath it, one arm raised, holding the shrinking mass in place. His face was stretched into a wide grin, eyes locked onto his.
"Is that it?" he said as the last of the energy tightened in his grasp.
"This is amazing! I've never seen someone just casually throw so much energy in one go!"
Broly was shaken as he continued to see his attack shrink even further until it was now the size of a clenched hand, hovering in between Moro's hands. The next thing the demon did was consume it right in front of his eyes. His eyes widened in disbelief… for this was the first time he saw someone actually eat his attack.
Whoosh!
But his moment of disbelief barely lasted longer, as the person in front of him suddenly exploded with an enormous amount of power. The baleful ki within him grew in intensity and power at a ridiculous rate. "Aaaah!" Gritting his teeth and refusing to believe that this man could just suck it off, his body bulged as his muscles expanded with large amounts of power coursing through his veins. The transparent ki around his body started to take an emerald taint.
Moro, not waiting for him to finish, rushed ahead, flying above. Broly was forced to unleash a beam of pure ki, like a pillar descending from the heavens, creating more destruction. He did not have time to control its intensity and how much it affected the area, digging through the ground like a laser. But rather than push his opponent backwards, the next thing he knew was a hand emerging from the blinding emerald attack and grabbing onto his throat.
"Gack!"
"Forget about the dragon and those pesky fake demons! With you alone, I'll be able to recover to my prime state in no time!"
Instantly, the Saiyan felt a large portion of his ki getting siphoned away at such a ridiculous rate that he was unable to even transform. This made him genuinely feel overwhelmed and shocked, with his eyes widening as he tried to exert more of his power, but the results were the same.
"Is there any end to it? I welcome you to show more of what you're capable of!" Moro laughed.
Feeling for the first time in so many years a sense of desperation, Broly started punching and kicking Moro in the stomach, head, and anywhere he could without holding back, trying to break free from his grasp. But it failed no matter how many times he crashed him into the ground or kicked and punched him — the man continued to stay stably attached. To the point that genuine anger started to rise within him.
"RAAAAAAAAGH!"
Bang!
His eyes momentarily flushed pure emerald, and for a brief moment, a burst of energy managed to surpass the rate his energy was being siphoned, granting him enough strength to break free of Moro's grasp before grabbing his head and sending him flying into an ocean with a thunderous boom!
The impact pushed the ocean apart momentarily while Broly fell to the ground and crashed. "Cough! Cough!!" From the crater, he emerged, but unlike Jackal, he had a staggered step, a sense of weakness.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Even he... for the first time in a long while, a sense of genuine weakness. His hands trembled, and he was even a bit out of breath with genuine pain around his body.
For a moment there, his memory replaced the image of Moro with a blue-haired Saiyan. Immediately, he shut his eyes forcefully and shook his head, trying to shake off that image and that dreadful sensation of being overwhelmed by something one could not understand. "Focus… hah… I need to focus—!"
"—Hahahaha!" Soon, a loud laugh came from the ocean as it parted ways to show Moro standing on the ocean bed leisurely. "It has been a while since I felt this amazing."
Broly noticed that for some reason, the old man seemed to have gotten a handful of years younger.
"I know you still have plenty of life energy left," Moro said. "And I wonder what that strange emerald glow I saw at the end. I felt your energy grow at an exceptional rate, and it literally created so much more ki than you had from earlier."
Broly said nothing, but Moro just continued laughing. "Heh! No words need to be exchanged. I will gladly take the rest!"
Instantly, he finally understood the strange feeling he got earlier when Moro was fighting Seilah. That thing was not just siphoning energy from touching his opponent, but also from his surroundings! Even now, Broly felt his ki getting drained, making him realize he would not be able to even transform at this rate! And Moro definitely kept growing stronger.
"After you, I will find that dragon you were with, since she also seemed to have plenty of energy," Moro said, then showing a disappointed face. "But compared to you, it was a drop of water into a bucket. Then again, I heard something about a guild from that fake demon and wondered if there are more Saiyans like you there."
"Don't you dare!" This angered Broly genuinely as he got up on his feet, the rage within him making him surge with power once again as Ki surrounded his body.
This made Moro grin as he was about to rush back at him…
▄▄▅▅▄▅▅!!!
Only for a portal to suddenly open behind him. "No!" This made the demon shout with anger as a powerful suction force suddenly pulled him from the other side. He tried to hang on, using both limbs and magic to anchor himself to the ground. "How many times are you planning on getting in my way! You're playing a losing battle since I'll keep coming back! I am far stronger now than before to fall for this again!"
Watching this, Broly wondered what was going on until a desperate voice screamed inside his mind. "Don't just stand there! Push him now! Quickly!" Not knowing who it was, he still complied, trusting the urgency in the command.
"Hah!" he roared, charging forward and driving a heavy kick straight into Moro's abdomen, forcing the demon through the portal as it slammed shut behind him.
"Fuu…" Instantly, he fell to his knees as the wave of exhaustion came back two-fold, with him no longer feeling his powers being drained but still having lost enough so suddenly for him to feel the effects of it. But soon, the giant wall of water started to enclose him, forcing him to grit his teeth and jump away just in time to avoid the clash from the ocean going back to its previous state.
He fell to the ground, lying on his back while taking deep breaths, feeling sweat on his temples, with his vision even being a bit blurry. "Who are you?" he said out loud, knowing full well that the voice was from someone he had never met before.
Unfortunately, no one answered him, leaving him with only his own thoughts and the heavy silence around him. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. Just as he was about to give up, the voice returned. "I bought you some time. We'll meet again… soon."
Broly froze for a moment, the words fading as the presence vanished completely.
"I see… I'll find a way to deal with him then."
Each step through the cooling magma sent tremors of exhaustion through Broly's body. He navigated around patches of still-molten lava, his limbs heavier than he could remember since that desperate day he crashed into the Tower of Heaven. Even his worst rages hadn't left him this hollow. The memory of Moro's touch lingered on his skin—a parasite that had fed on his very essence. A being that could drain ki directly from its source... The thought alone made his remaining strength quiver.
He had to get away from here quickly before the other one showed up again and harmed Irene, for he feared her safety more than his own, and he feared the safety of his guildmates. "Did I throw her away a bit too far?" But as he reached a spot, seeing that Irene did not come back, which made him sigh in relief, as the woman could be quite stubborn, he was about to fly away with the little energy he had left, only for a hand to break free from the somewhat cooled-down lava and grab on to his ankle.
"No, you don't!"
This genuinely shook him for a brief moment as he feared that it was Moro again and was even about to raise his hand to attack, only to stop midway upon seeing that the body did not belong to Moro. "In fact, he could not even recognize any features but could recognize her energy signature, so very faint to the point it was almost extinguished, practically half dead, but still clinging to life. Her clothes were burned, her skin was charred, and she was no different from a human-shaped coal. Still, her eyes still had some life left in them as she looked at him and tried to say something with her mouth, but no voice came out. He could read her lips, saying a single sentence which made him frown.
"..."
He raises his hand and a sphere of energy gathers, but not for an attack — instead, it enters the woman's body without causing her any harm and with quite the opposite effect. "This is some of my energy. It might help you to survive. You better keep your end of the promise or else I will make sure to make you regret lying to me."
After that, he leaped into the air and went to search for Irene in order to make sure she was all right. Now, both worried for the sake of his friends and Jellal, who still needed to be treated.
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, and my other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters, Steel Eyed Faker soon to be 3 chapters, Taimanin with 3, Hound having 3 and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.