Quickly getting to his feet, Zyleth took on his fighting stance and glared at the unfamiliar man standing before him. But something happened when he saw his fists.
They were much larger than before.
Looking down at his body, he saw that it wasn't just his fists, but his entire body had suddenly grown in size. It took a moment, but he realized that he had reverted back to how he looked before his reincarnation as Zyleth.
His true form.
His true self.
Nathan.
"Who are you?" Nathan asked, looking back up towards the stranger with his guard still up.
"What?" Astral asked, his gaze narrowed at the reincarnated mortal, "Is that how you greet me after all this time?"
"I don't even know you." Nathan told him.
Astral was perplexed for a moment. He genuinely couldn't believe that the mortal he had reincarnated, had given an entirely new life to live, completely forgotten about him.
"Do you seriously not-- I'm Astral." He told the young mortal, who still looked as though he had no clue who he was, "The god who reincarnated you?!"
Nathan eyes narrowed before cautiously putting his hands back down to his sides.
"You look and sound... and act different." Said Nathan.
The god's appearance had completely changed since the last time Nathan had saw him. Sure, the God of Destruction clothes were gone, but it wasn't just his clothes. It was like he was an entirely different person. His new form took on a more... subtle appearance.
He had pale white skin and his eyes were an almost ethereal blue. His hair was slicked back, colored in the darkest black he had ever seen. His clothes were reminiscent of Licht Bach, only the red cloak was nowhere to be seen, and the white color was replaced with a dark blue.
"Hmm?" Astral tilted his head curiously before suddenly realizing why Nathan hadn't recognized him, "Oh right, I forgot that I met you in that... other form..."
"You also didn't tell me your name before." Nathan pointed out.
Astral shrugged his shoulders dismissively, "Yeah, well... I was new."
The god's behavior confused Nathan. He was not this calm and collected the first time they had met. Granted, it had been five years, but it was like his personality did a complete 180 degree change.
"Are you okay?" Nathan asked with a raised eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" Astral asked.
"You're just... really different from the last time we met." He replied.
The attitude he was displaying was so strange. Gone was the awkward, sometimes nervous god of the past.
He was much more... mature?
If Nathan had to compare, he would say that the Astral from before was more like a well-behaved child who wanted to show off his favorite toy, while the Astral in front of him now was more in line with a young adult in his early or mid twenties.
"Yeah." Astral rubbed the back of his neck and let out a tired sigh, "I have been swamped lately with organizing the transportations for all of these damn souls. I swear, you fucking mortals just love killing each other."
Nathan raised an eyebrow at that last part before asking, "What, are there a lot of deaths going on this time of year?"
"Not until recently. World War 4 really bumped up our numbers." Astral replied passive-aggressively.
"World W-- What happened to three?!" Nathan exclaimed.
"Oh, that happened like thirty, forty years ago." Astral waved off nonchalantly.
Nathan's eyebrows raised in shock for a moment before just deciding to leave it at that, not catching onto the fact that Astral had just said forty years had passed.
"Surprisingly enough, it's not the increased number of souls coming through that are annoying me, it's the people that have already reincarnated." Astral groaned in frustration.
"Uh...huuuh..." Nathan nodded his head slowly, not knowing what he meant.
"You remember that guy I told you about? The one who was sent off to Berserk?" Astral suddenly asked, pointing at Nathan as if he was on trial.
Thinking back, Nathan did remember something about someone being shipped off to the Beserk universe.
He also remembered feeling a sense of pity.
"Well, he... wasn't exactly happy about being sent into Beserk." Astral said, "So much so that he refused to accept the terms of his reincarnation. Which, in hindsight, was fair... considering..."
"So what happened?" Nathan asked.
"Well, my boss gave him the powers of Sukuna." Astral told him.
"Ryomen Sukuna?" Nathan asked with a baffled expression.
"Do you know any other fucking Sukuna?" Astral asked, his tone becoming increasingly more frustrated and annoyed.
Nathan raised his hands up as an apologetic gesture before asking, "So what did he do that was so frustrating?"
"He fucked EVERYTHING!" Astral yelled, his voice echoing off the non-existent walls of the void.
There was a few moments of awkward silence before Nathan asked, "Like... Like literally... or...?"
"He took over Griffith's body, broke his spirit down completely, dissected and killed Casca in front of Guts, killed and ate every single being that had even a little bit of strength he could leech, took over Gut's body and then killed... EVERYTHING ELSE!"
Nathan didn't really know how to reply to any of that...
"I... Uh... Damn..."
"Yeah." Astral nodded, "A lot can happen in fifty years."
"It's only been five years." Nathan told him, confused.
"Not in this dimension." Astral told him.
Nathan just decided to accept that little tidbit without much issue. Hell, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber was a thing. It wasn't too shocking that time moves differently in other realities.
If the void could even be counted as a separate reality, that is. He didn't know what this place was.
"So... what happened to him?" He asked, curious about the outcome.
"We picked him up and reincarnated him in another dimension." Astral replied.
"That's a thing? That's a thing that you do?" Nathan asked
"What else was I supposed to do? Leave him there?" Astral asked back, shaking his head, "Do you mortals honestly think that all us gods are just giant assholes looking to screw you?"
"To be fair, you put that guy in Berserk." Nathan pointed out.
Astral opened his mouth to reply, but immediately closed it and let out a reluctant groan, "Point taken..."
"So where'd you end up putting him?" Nathan asked.
"DC."
Nathan looked at him with an incredulous expression for a few seconds before responding with, "So you take him out of one Hell-hole to just immediately put him in a slightly, or depending on the which one, equally as shitty Hell-hole?"
"Okay, first off, DC is a hell of a lot better than Berserk." Astral said, to which Nathan gave a so-and-so gesture, "Hey, I almost put the asshole in Warhammer! Second, he's goddamn Sukuna, and an amped-up one at that! There's basically nothing there can touch him. He's fine."
"Darkseid?" Nathan said, pointing out the most obvious danger.
There were others to worry about for sure. Anti-Monitor, Starro, Nekron, Braniac, Lobo, Doomsday...
But none of them really seemed to get as much screen time, so it was more likely that whatever universe the poor fucker got re-reincarnated into, the big bad was, nine times out of ten, going to be Darkseid.
"Oh, trust me, Darkseid's not a problem." Astral waved off Nathan's concern before quietly muttering, "At least not in that universe..."
That last part caused Nathan to raise an eyebrow, "Which DC universe did you send him to that Darkseid isn't a problem?"
"Don't worry about it." Astral sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "Let's just move on. I got a lot more bigger things to deal with than to discuss the situation of another reincarnated person with another reincarnated person."
"Couldn't you just... make clones of yourself and split the load? I mean you are a god with seemingly infinite power." Nathan suggested.
Astral looked at him as if he was stupid and then pointed towards himself with an annoyed face, "Do you honestly think that I have the time to deal with souls one at a time? I have over a trillion clones working at max capacity." He told the young mortal.
"Seems a little... excessive..." Nathan responded, "Are there even a trillion people on Earth?"
"The universe is endless, dipshit. Humans aren't the only species we deal with. You guys aren't special. You're just the most loathed." Astral said as he rolled his eyes.
"Ow... Probably deserved, but ow..." Nathan muttered before finally moving onto business, "So... am I dead? Is that why I'm here again?"
"Hmm? Oh, no." Astral shook his head, "No, you're still alive."
"Then why am I here?" Nathan asked, a little relieved he was alive, but still also very curious.
"Because apparently you got lucky." Astral replied, giving Nathan the stink eye.
His answer cause Nathan to flinch back in utter confusion.
"I'm... sorry...?" He apologized, although he was not sure what exactly he was apologizing for.
Astral groaned and sat down on nothing, "Don't be. It wasn't your fault. Technically it's mine. Actually, it's fully mine."
"...What do you mean?" Nathan asked after shaking off the fact that the god just sat down in a chair that wasn't there.
"When I remade your soul so that it would give off God Ki, I had to rewrite a few things in the universe so that it would makes sense as to why you had it." Astral started.
Nathan walked towards the god, looking a little hesitant before he slowly sat down next to him, feeling as though there was actually a chair underneath him.
"Basically, I rewrote history a bit and made it to where you're Yamoshi's descendant." Astral revealed.
That revelation caused Nathan's eyes to widen.
Yamoshi's descendant? That Yamoshi? The first Super Saiyan God Yamoshi?
As far as he knew, Yamoshi was not canon in the original series. Did that mean that Yamoshi was now apart of his universe's canon?
Was he just sitting in the afterlife then?
He quickly shook those questions out of his mind before focusing back on the topic at hand.
"Okay... So what's the issue with that?" Nathan asked.
"Nothing. You being Yamoshi's descendant went about as perfectly as I planned. It's the fact that you're descended from one of his sons that's the problem." Astral told him.
"His sons? Yamoshi had sons?" Nathan asked.
"Two of them. Shallot and Giblet." Astral replied with a small nod.
"Those two are his sons?!" Nathan suddenly exclaimed.
"They are in your timeline..." Astral answered before he suddenly grumbled, "And that's where the issue lies."
"What issue? Is it really that bad that I'm a descendant of Yamoshi and Shallot?" Nathan replied.
"That's the thing. You're not Shallot's descendant. You're Giblet's." Astral told him, causing Nathan's eyes to widen again, "Your Ancient Saiyan heritage had to come from one of the two brothers, and there was a stronger resonance with Giblet's side."
Nathan nodded slowly, wondering where he was going with this.
"But apparently, it was a lot stronger than I initially thought." Astral groaned before waving his hand and summoning a viewport into Nathan's dimension.
In the viewport, Nathan saw himself facing Frieza. His eyes were completely white and a black and red aura completely encapsulated him.
"Wait a second, isn't that the--"
"Yup, the Evil Saiyan transformation." Astral nodded.
"B-But how is that--"
"A very rare few Saiyans actually had the ability to take transform into the Evil Saiyan state. If I'm remember correctly, there was only around three in their entire history, including you." Astral told him, the viewport changing to show an image of Cumber and Turles, "You already know the other two."
"Cumber and Turles..." Nathan muttered.
Astral nodded before waving the viewport away, "Turles obtained it by eating the Fruit of the Tree of Might. While Cumber, and now apparently you, obtained the form naturally through the both of you being Ancient Saiyans, and the both of you going through an intense amount of negative emotion."
"So like Super Saiyan?" Nathan questioned.
"Sort of. It's a little different. Super Saiyan is when a Saiyan with an immense base power goes through an emotional turmoil so great that it causes them to go through a transformation. With Evil Saiyan, it's primarily an influx of negative emotions that causes it to manifest." Astral explained before asking, "You remember how your mother had gotten shot, right?"
Nathan nodded, his fist clenching slightly as he remembered that moment.
"Well, you gave her a Senzu Bean. She was fine. She was safe. But you didn't care about that. At that moment, the only thing running through your head was how to make Frieza suffer. You didn't want to kill him, you wanted to destroy him. Break him. Rip him apart piece by piece until he begged you to let him die." Astral explained.
"So... Evil Saiyan is just... a more self-centered form of Super Saiyan?" Nathan asked.
"Sort of. It's hard to put into words. Try and think of it as a form similar to Ultra Ego." Astral replies before trying to explain further, "In Ultra Ego, Vegeta drowns in his lust for battle, dominance, and destruction. It's the same with Evil Saiyan. You allow yourself to drown in your own selfish thoughts and emotions, only caring for your own desires and goals whilst everyone else becomes nothing but an ant that can either get out of the way or get stomped on."
"Okay... that... actually makes a lot of sense." Nathan nodded slowly. "So how powerful is Evil Saiyan?"
"The Evil Saiyan transformation is a two-hundred and fifty times multiplier. Not only that, but it can stack onto your already busted Super Saiyan transformations, giving you a times five boost to all of your Super Saiyan transformations."
"Even the god forms?" Nathan asked, to which Astral nodded.
Nathan glanced away from the god, his mind all over the place in light of all this information.
"Jesus..."
This was something he didn't expect. A times five boost to all transformations, even the god forms? Now that he thought about it, he did recall Vegeta managing to pull something like that off in the Dragon Ball Heroes storyline.
What was the name of that form called again? Evil Super Saiyan Blue? Super Saiyan Blue Berserk?
Names aside, if that's true, he was a lot more powerful than he originally thought.
A lot more.
"So why did you call me back here? Are you going to be taking the wish back?" Nathan asked, raising his head to look at Astral.
If Astral had made him that powerful by mistake, it stands to reason why he would want to revert some of the things he had previously granted during their first meeting.
Astral looked over at Zyleth and smirked a bit before waving his hand dismissively, "What? Hell no. I just needed to explain the situation to you since this wasn't apart of the agreement we made when you made the wish. Fully informed agreements is what reincarnation gods pride themselves on. If you want, I can take the wish back and swap it for another."
Nathan shook his head decisively, "No thank, I think I'll keep myself the way I am."
"Good choice." Astral said before adding, "With Evil Saiyan stacked onto your already doubled transformations, you'll basically be on par with Broly's Legendary state. Well... eventually."
"Wait, what?!" Nathan exclaimed.
Astral smirked again before snapping his fingers.
A dark portal suddenly appeared and a wave of energy suddenly pulsed from deep within Nathan's soul. A dark purple energy suddenly engulfed him, slowly shifting him back into his Zyleth appearance before he was suddenly pulled into portal.
"See ya, kid." Astral muttered as the portal closed, "I like that one."
Turning away, Astral summoned and walked through a bright yellow portal, exiting on the other side to reveal the god in golden armor sitting on his throne.
"Did you finish your discussion with the mortal?" The god in golden armor asked.
"I did." Astral nodded.
"And how did it feel seeing him after all this time?" The god asked curiously.
Astral crossed his arms and closed his eyes, thinking about how it felt to see that particular mortal again.
Unknown to Nathan, Astral actually felt quite fond of him due to the fact that he was the first mortal to accept the offer of using a pre-existing character's form instead of their own.
This resulted in Astral creating a clone that would check in on Nathan from time to time. Sure, he made clones that would check on others, but no where near as many or as frequently as the ones that he sent to check on Nathan.
"Nostalgic. Annoying and nostalgic."
The armored god smiled gently and nodded his head, "Good. I'm glad it went well. Now you should go, your brothers came in asking for your assistance some time ago."
Astral rolled his eyes and let out a tired sigh, "Great, what do they need me for again this time? I swear, if they sent another one of their mortals into Yu-Gi-Oh---"
The armored god chuckled softly as he watched his son grumble to himself. Despite being constantly overworked, Astral really had come into his role as a God of Reincarnation.
Definitely more so than his other children.
---
Upon waking, Zyleth saw himself in an unfamiliar room, his vision blurred with a strange green hue. It wasn't until he tried to move that he realized that he was floating inside the healing fluid of a Medical Machine.
"Ah, you're awake..."
A chill ran up Zyleth's back as he heard the familiar voice. Looking back up, he saw the face of Cooler staring directly at him with a smirk.
"Now, now, don't be frightened. We have much to discuss."
Zyleth's vision began to fade once more, but he could have sworn that he saw Cooler's eyes gleam a bright crimson for a brief moment before he slipped back into deep slumber.
[Word Count: 3,013.]