"Not good something's wrong!"
The instant Levos' tail sealed shut, a colossal torrent of energy went berserk inside him.
Even at the apex of his evolution Ultimate Cell Max he could not contain the terror boiling off Dark Gogito.
Every cell in his body swelled and throbbed as if it would rupture at any moment.
His first instinct was to eject Dark Gogito on the spot.
"No. Too dangerous and I haven't hit my ceiling yet."
Grinding his teeth, he wrestled the rampaging power, forcing his breath to steady while his mind raced for a solution.
If he couldn't vent this energy somewhere, it would tear him apart.
Light rippled over him. Mechanical Form shed away, revealing Ultimate Cell Max.
"Kaioken !"
Levos roared, driving the technique to the edge.
"One thousand times! Haaah !"
A thick, crimson spiral column punched through the void.
The Sacred World of the Kais, harder than Earth by orders of magnitude, groaned as if it were dying.
Boom-boom-boom!
The ground sank and collapsed. Endless storms howled and flayed the land.
Under the red glare of Kaioken, everything vaporized rock, soil, all of it.
On the temple terrace, faces blanched to chalk.
What kind of pressure was this?
Terrifying didn't begin to cover it.
Levos fought to tamp his power down
and his expression snapped tight.
"No! Using Kaioken is making me absorb Dark Gogito even faster!"
"Instead of relieving the pressure, it's making it worse!"
"If I push the multiplier any further, I'll just be drinking poison to quench my thirst."
He was losing control. Every cell felt like a powder keg ready to blow.
"This won't do. I need another way to burn power now!"
He thrust both palms to the sky and hurled an Ultimate Kamehameha into the churning vortex above.
Energy geysered without end and smashed into the grotesque face of the Fused Zamasu cloud devouring the planet.
Rrrrmm
Hurricanes screamed. Space cracked and stitched itself together again.
The vortex stalled.
A heartbeat later, the Sacred World of the Kais lurched like a world struck by a meteor.
Abyssal ravines split the surface into a crosshatch, as if the planet itself would be torn in two.
"Levos! Stop! That thing is almost one with the planet. Keep this up and the world goes first," the Supreme Kai's voice rang in his head.
Levos cut the blast at once.
He realized it too this would only make things worse.
Worse still, the drain from the Ultimate Kamehameha was nothing compared to the rate Dark Gogito's power was inflating inside him.
He was about to burst.
What now?!
Was releasing Dark Gogito the only option left?
But Dark Gogito's level was beyond measure. Even an angel like Vados might not be able to handle him.
Levos tried to retract his tail.
Schlup the tail drew back under the bone-wings
and Dark Gogito slipped deeper into his body.
Levos' face changed. His blood felt like it boiled. Bones creaked and popped.
This was what it felt like right before a body exploded.
"Well, I'm screwed."
He shut his eyes, threw every shred of will into one command: get him out.
"Get out!"
His tail flared wide. He mustered every last fiber of cellular strength to squeeze Dark Gogito free
but his prey sensed it. Choosing the risk of complete absorption over escape, Dark Gogito clung fast.
His energy reserves hit the ceiling.
Levos swelled at a rate visible to the naked eye
bigger, rounder, like a balloon about to pop.
"If I blow here, it won't just be this planet. The whole Sacred Realm could go with it."
He considered yelling for Trankon to instant-transmit him somewhere empty and die there instead.
"Why does this feel so familiar…"
His body gave a sudden shudder.
"Oh come on am I really going to relive Cell's whole bit?"
If that was the script…
A bizarre, bitter amusement flickered through him.
He fought it. Then he accepted it.
A roar of sheer humiliation tore from his throat.
"Fine then be born!"
Pop!
Pop!
Pop…!
Levos' tail spat out one small figure after another like dumplings from a pot.
His ballooned body deflated at speed.
The bursting ache faded just as fast.
"Hee-hee!"
"Heh-heh!"
"Chii! Chii!"
"Yaa! Yaa!"
…
Chirps and chatter filled the air.
Around Levos fluttered a crowd of creatures in his own Cell-like image his copies, through and through.
Their head crests were shorter, their bodies smaller mini Ultimate Cell Max.
Curiosity glittered in every eye; mischief, too.
They were Cell Juniors children at Levos' own tier of power.
Levos stared, expression complicated.
"So I'm a dad now. A single dad, at that."
"And my kids… weren't even born from a mother."
Fourteen Cell Juniors later, the pressure bled off. The pain vanished. Dark Gogito was almost fully assimilated.
Levos hadn't imagined the crisis would resolve in a way this… strange.
He blew out a long breath and glanced over his brood.
From the second they popped out, they could run, leap, fight.
And their strength on par with his own. It was absurd.
He tried communicating and found a thread of telepathy linking them all, clear and free of rejection.
They were clever, but like newborn cubs no words yet, and curious about everything. Wildly playful.
The thought of raising motherless kids made the corner of his mouth twitch. He had zero parenting skills; he couldn't even come up with names.
Flustered, he went with the simplest plan and slapped on placeholders.
"In birth order, you're First, Second, Third…"
He sighed in resignation. "I'm your dad. From now on, you follow my lead."
The Cell Juniors nodded like bobbleheads, clapping with bright, excited grins.
"Stick with me."
Levos banked toward the temple.
Tap
The moment he stepped onto the terrace, every jaw dropped.
The Juniors circled him, laughing and playing tag midair.
"Congrats, Levos…" Trankon managed, still stunned.
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