The year is Age 749.
Inside the Dimensional Tower, on the 99th floor's final step, stood a tall, commanding figure. Standing at 185cm with eyes like starlight and a high, chiselled bridge to his nose, he possessed a face that radiated both sunshine and a sharp, handsome edge.
He wore the traditional garb of a God of Destruction. His muscles weren't grotesque or overblown; instead, they were defined with the sleek, lethal lines reminiscent of Ultimate Gohan.
Note: Don't ask how he grew up and still fits into the clothes—let's just say Destroyer fashion is highly elastic!
A faint, ethereal divine aura swirled around him, blending with his official status to give him a visible, undeniable divinity. This was Gran. Eight years had passed, and the tender traits of childhood had vanished, replaced by a towering, formidable, and breathtakingly handsome young man.
On that last step of the 99th floor, he looked back over his shoulder, gazing down like a true god looking upon the mortal realm.
"Just one more step."
Without hesitation, he turned and crossed the threshold into the 100th floor.
BOOM!
As he entered, waves of mysterious power surged from the void, boring into his body. This was the final tempering. Gran let out a low, muffled groan that echoed through the chamber. Half a day passed. Then, with a clear crack, a bottleneck shattered.
In that instant, his very essence shifted. The mortal energy within him began its final transmutation into Divine Power.
VROOM!
As the last spark of mortality faded, a holy, magnificent divine aura erupted from Gran. He had become a True God. But it wasn't over. Deep within his soul, the Dimensional Seed flared with light, just as it had when he first arrived in this world.
Back then, he had jumped from a mortal to the Peak King Kai dimension. Now, his rank continued to climb.
Junior Godly Dimension...
Intermediate Godly Dimension...
Peak Godly Dimension!
As he hit the peak, Gran felt his life force become staggeringly dense. Simultaneously, the Divine Power in his veins amplified his strength by a magnitude he couldn't even calculate.
Outside by the lake of the Destroyer's Palace, Beerus lay on his lounge chair, waving a limp hand at Whis. "Whis... I'm hungry."
"Please wait a moment, Lord Beerus. The ramen is almost ready," Whis replied, quickly prepping the cups. Soon, both were slurping away.
"Lord Beerus," Whis asked, looking up. "It's been nearly ten years of instant ramen. Are you tired of it yet?"
"Tired? Honestly, I'm beyond sick of it," Beerus muttered, putting his cup down. "But compared to your 'dark matter' cooking—where every bite felt like Zen-Oh was erasing my taste buds—I'd rather eat ramen for another century."
Whis's face darkened. Erasing his taste buds? Was it really that bad?!
"If you're so sick of it, stop eating the ramen I brought back," Beerus snapped, reaching for Whis's cup.
"I never said I was that sick of it!" Whis chirped, slurping faster.
They both went back to their noodles, but after a few seconds, they stopped, looked at each other, and sighed in unison. They were miserable.
"Lord Beerus... I miss Gran's cooking," Whis admitted, tossing his cup aside. He pictured that spunky little kid.
"I miss his fish feasts. And the roasted lamb. And the hot pot," Beerus added dejectedly. "But he's only been in there for eight years. Even with his talent, jumping from King Kai to Godly rank should take at least a century..."
Before he could finish—
KABOOM!
A vast, overwhelming divine aura exploded from the top floor of the palace!
"This... this aura!" Whis stared at the palace, his eyes wide.
"No way!!" Beerus stood up, his jaw dropping. "It took me nearly ten thousand years to make that jump! It's only been eight years! How could he—"
BOOM! BOOM!
The aura surged again, like a volcano erupting with renewed fury.
"That... that's the Peak Godly Dimension!!"
Beerus and Whis looked at each other, sheer shock reflected in their eyes. Whis swallowed hard. "Lord... Lord Beerus, isn't your own rank currently at the Peak Godly Dimension?"
"Yes! That's why I've lived this long!" Beerus clenched his fists. "But it took me tens of millions of years of cultivation to reach that status. You're telling me that brat just caught up to me in eight years?!"
Whis usually halved Beerus's "million-year" claims in his head, but even so, it should have taken millions of years to go from Junior to Peak.
"That boy is as terrifyingly mysterious as ever," Whis breathed, a look of uncontainable joy spreading across his face. "Father was right. There's something special about his origin."
Beerus, meanwhile, felt a mix of pride and a strange, faint sense of loss. His student had reached his rank. "He's coming out."
Whis gripped his staff, and Beerus stared at the palace gates with a look that almost resembled... longing. The crushing divine pressure vanished, and a figure emerged from the shadows.
He was tall, his silhouette sharp and commanding, with the aura of a natural-born ruler swirling around his brow. He wore the exact same Destroyer uniform as Beerus, and the Divine Power still radiating from him made him look like an ancient deity returned to the world.
Gran stepped out and immediately locked eyes with Beerus across the lake. The atmosphere turned heavy and subtle.
Whis noticed his timer—a three-minute hourglass. Here we go again.
Sure enough, a silver glow flickered around Gran. Peak Godly Dimension + Ultra Instinct Sign! He vanished instantly. Simultaneously, Beerus vanished from the lakeshore.
CRACK!
High above the palace, their fists collided. A shockwave erupted, rippling outward for a hundred thousand miles and spider-webbing the ground below. Gran's strength was no longer a joke; even in the reinforced Destroyer's Realm, he was causing significant collateral damage.
"Good lad!" Beerus roared, feeling the weight behind the punch. Not only had his rank spiked, but his raw power had exploded.
On the ground, Whis narrowed his eyes and whispered, "God State Level 1."
"Lord Beerus, watch yourself!" Gran's voice was deep and steady. He threw a lightning-fast roundhouse kick that made the very air tremble.
"Bring it on! Let's see if your skills have gone soft over the last eight years!" Beerus dodged, and the two became blurs of silver and purple light, weaving through the sky and the earth.
BOOM! BOOM!
Magnetic fields haywired and space vibrated as they traded blows. Beerus caught a heavy punch and shoved a point-blank energy sphere toward Gran's face. Normal reaction time would have failed, but Ultra Instinct Sign allowed Gran's body to tilt away instinctively.
The blast hit a distant mountain range, erasing it from existence instantly.
"Impressive," Beerus grinned. "Your combat sense is as sharp as ever!"
"Lord Beerus, what would you say my power level is now?" Gran asked, backing off to shed the momentum.
"Power level? You're a God now, boy. Those mortal numbers are beneath you!" Beerus lunged again.
"Then what tier am I?"
"You've reached God State Level 1!"
Seeing Gran momentarily daze at the news, Beerus vanished and reappeared behind him. Gran sensed the hit, but he was a split-second too slow. A heavy blow sent stars dancing in his eyes.
"Again!" Gran roared, his Saiyan blood boiling.
"As you wish!"
The battle intensified, a storm of destruction ravaging the realm. Both were fighting at God State Level 1, and the resulting gale was shredding the landscape.
In the end, the "Strongest Destroyer" title wasn't just for show. Even with a Peak Godly Dimension, Gran couldn't overcome Beerus when the latter used equal power. But Gran didn't care—he was using the fight to calibrate his new body.
As the hourglass ran low, Gran grew desperate. He conjured a massive energy sphere, kilometers wide, and shoved it downward. "Take this, Lord Beerus!"
The entire realm shook. "Hmph, typical brat. Getting desperate," Beerus muttered. He raised a single finger.
"Hakai."
A tiny purple spark hit the massive sun-like sphere, turning it into harmless stardust in an instant.
Ding!
The sand ran out. Whis flicked his staff. Temporal Do-Over! The scorched earth and shattered mountains reverted to their pristine state.
Gran and Beerus landed beside Whis. The silence lasted only a moment before Gran felt a lump in his throat. "Lord Beerus, Whis... It's been a long time."
"Eight years, and look at you. All grown up," Beerus said. He instinctively reached out to rub Gran's head, then paused and pulled his hand back. The little kid was gone; a man stood there now.
"You've certainly grown," Whis noted, stepping up to poke the muscles on Gran's chest. "Though compared to other Saiyans, you're a bit on the lean side."
Gran laughed, a sound they hadn't heard in nearly a decade. "Lean? Well, compared to Lord Beerus over here, I'd say I'm practically a bodybuilder."
Beerus's face went pitch black. Whis doubled over, clutching his stomach as he howled with laughter.
The three of them stood by the lake—one fuming, one wheezing, and one smiling. It was the perfect homecoming.
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