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Broly came to a stop outside the cave. The reason was simple: he'd spotted Garlic Jr., the guy who'd escaped earlier.
Right now, Garlic Jr was standing there with his head tilted back, staring at the Demon Star overhead. Both hands were raised high above him, fingers weaving through some complicated seals while he muttered under his breath:
"Shatter... Demon Star, show your final brilliance."
The moment his hands stopped forming seals, the dim blood-red star in the sky split open with a crack visible even to the naked eye. That crack spread quickly, branching out like fractures in glass.
In the blink of an eye, the entire Demon Star was covered in web-like fissures. Then it exploded with a thunderous boom.
The star might have shattered, but at the instant it broke apart, streams of dark crimson energy burst out from within. They swirled together, condensing into a deep red orb the size of a human head that drifted down toward Garlic Jr.
Garlic grabbed the orb and, without hesitation, swallowed it whole.
Watching all this, Broly pieced together what Garlic meant earlier about a one-time forbidden technique. The method was pretty obvious now: destroy the Demon Star, extract its fundamental life force, and fuse it into yourself by some special ritual to gain a temporary power boost.
Broly simply stood there, calm and observant. He wasn't stopping Garlic for two reasons. One: he couldn't be bothered. Two: he had absolute, unshakable confidence in his own strength.
That earlier fifteen-times Kaioken Broly used? Not even close to his limit. He could maintain a twenty-times Kaioken for a long stretch, and if he only needed it for a short moment, twenty-five times wasn't a problem either.
Which meant that unless Garlic Jr could push his power level past thirteen million, he had zero chance of winning. And no matter how generously Broly tried to imagine Garlic's potential, he just couldn't see him reaching something that extreme.
And Broly had good reason to be so confident. With the legendary Super Saiyan bloodline running through him and his automatic regeneration ability, he basically feared nothing as long as he wasn't killed in a single instant. Bring however many enemies you want—Broly wasn't sweating.
After swallowing the Demon Star's condensed essence, Garlic's power surged again. His aura flared outward and shifted into a dark, clotted-blood shade of red. His battle power shot up to eight million.
Say what you will about him, Garlic Jr at least had guts. After seeing Broly one-shot both Tullece and Vegeta, he knew full well that his original strength would leave him no better off than them. Maybe even worse.
So he made his decision: shatter the Demon Star, rip out its energy, and fight Broly with everything he had. If he still couldn't win, then there was nothing more to say.
Seeing Garlic's power shoot upward again, Broly actually felt a tiny twinge of disappointment. Eight million was something he could squash even at fifteen-times Kaioken. Still, he had to admit the guy's continuous breakthroughs were impressive enough to give him a bit of respect.
"So this is your forbidden magic, huh? Since you've played your final card, then it's time for you to die."
Broly roared, shot forward, and slammed a fist at the powered-up Garlic Jr. Garlic crossed both arms to block. The crack of bone echoed faintly as the impact hurled him backward for several hundred meters.
But that wasn't the end of it. Broly had used hidden force in that punch. On the surface, it looked like Garlic blocked it and only got slightly overwhelmed, but the moment that force traveled through him, a second surge rode in behind it. It rushed through his arms and shattered the bones inside them instantly.
Broly flashed again, appearing exactly where Garlic's tumbling body was about to fall.
A loud thud rang out as he kicked Garlic straight upward, sending him flying into the sky. Broly then appeared above him, right in his path, and drove his knee downward into Garlic's stomach, smashing him back toward the ground.
The impact cratered the earth, carving out a circular pit more than ten meters deep and a hundred meters wide.
Broly landed at the edge of the crater and looked down. Garlic Jr lay at the center, eyes bulging, body twitching uncontrollably. Broly drew his hands back to his right side, palms forming a circle, ready to finish him.
Just then, Garlic coughed violently. "Cough... incredible... you're absurdly strong... cough... even after sacrificing everything, I still can't even touch you. It's so infuriating. Since that's the case..."
His last words had sounded broken and weak, but the moment his tone changed, he suddenly shot into the sky without warning. Even Broly fell for it.
Garlic cackled wildly. "Heh heh... heh heh heh heh! Hahaha! Die, let's die together! Broly, watch with your own eyes as Earth is destroyed, watch your precious friends and family turn to dust. Come with me to hell! Hahahaha!"
Since he had no hope left, Garlic ripped the Demon Star's remaining essence out of his body, gathered it like a massive ki blast, and fired it straight at Earth. Malice didn't even begin to describe it.
Broly's aura exploded. "You idiot... you just don't learn. You dare to provoke me with that kind of talk?"
He instantly activated a twenty-times Kaioken and fired a Void Annihilation Cannon toward Garlic's planet-busting energy wave.
A blue beam and a dark red one collided midair. The red beam didn't even last a full second before it was completely erased, and the blue shot tore forward without slowing.
The towering annihilation blast swallowed Garlic Jr whole. He didn't even get the chance to scream. He vanished instantly, not a single cell left behind.
"That's what you get for running your mouth. Honestly, you should be grateful you went out in one hit. Otherwise I'd show you the real meaning of torture."
Broly headed back into the cave, planning to gather the remaining Fruit of the Spirit Tree. Inside, he found Goku and Vegeta sitting off to the side, patching themselves up.
"Heh... Broly, I knew you'd win. But next time, I'm not losing again."Vegeta—still recovering after getting swatted around by Great Ape Goku earlier—looked both proud and frustrated as he spoke.
"....."