Chapter 106 – Hello, Me

~ At the Same Time: Guru's Residence ~

Guru sat quietly in his chair, concentrating on the glowing white orb hovering above his hand. It was something he had been refining for the past thirty minutes, and now, as it neared completion, the orb's light pulsed faintly in sync with his heartbeat.

In the corner of the room, Nail's typically stoic mask began to crack as his curiosity began to get the better of him.

"Sir, what is that orb, may I ask?"

Guru blinked and slowly turned his head toward Nail. After a brief pause, he tilted his head upward, gazing at the ceiling as though searching for an answer in the distant stars above.

"A contingency, or perhaps even a necessity," Guru finally said, then quickly added, "for the future."

"Oh…"

The cryptic response was obviously of no help.

A brief moment of quiet followed, peaceful but fleeting. Then, Guru raised his hand to perform a series of intricate gestures, and Nail's body immediately began to dissolve. First, the color drained from him, as though his form was a painting washed away by water. Then, his outline blurred, his figure unraveling slowly, like a sketch being erased line by line.

A single breath of shock managed to escape Nail before even the last trace of his expression faded into nothingness. And then, he was gone.

Guru sighed softly and shifted in his large chair. With a subtle flick of his wrist, the glowing orb before him split into two fragments, each piece darting through the walls and vanishing without leaving a mark.

Satisfied with his work, Guru exhaled deeply and closed his eyes. His awareness expanded outward, beyond the confines of his body. Searching. Then, he found Ajax.

'Ajax, my boy, have Piccolo come to me at once. There's no time to waste.'

He paid no attention to Ajax's scream of surprise, instead taking a moment to send the same message to Piccolo. Of the two, he only maintained the mental connection with Ajax, letting the other drop.

"Finished just in time," Guru murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.

It soon became clear what he meant.

An enormous pressure suddenly descended upon the chamber. The air grew heavy, and the massive rock pillar supporting the residence rumbled as if something immense had landed atop it. A thin cloud of dust drifted in from the doorway, and in the distance, the faint sound of rocks cascading from the cliff and splashing into the lake below could be heard.

A shadow fell over the entrance, blotting out the sunlight. Soon after, a figure stepped inside, his garments charred and scorched. His dark red hood concealed his face, masking his identity—but there was no mistaking who he was.

Everyone in the room knew exactly who had arrived.

"Hello, me," a cold, menacing voice greeted the room. The figure stepped in further, ignoring Guru entirely, instead choosing to keep his back to the Grand Elder. His eyes swept the room with arrogant confidence, taking in the simple surroundings. There was no urgency in his movements, no rush—only the certainty that he belonged there.

"Salutations, my righteous half."

Slug paused.

"You must be suffering from dementia," he sneered, turning slightly to glance over his shoulder. "Or did your sense of humor change in the last thousand yea—OH MY GOD!!"

Slug froze, staring up at Guru's towering figure. His eyes traced from where they would normally meet Guru's eyes, then continued upward... and upward.

"You're looking younger than I expected, Slug," Guru greeted politely.

Slug snapped out of his daze just enough to reply with his usual sarcastic wit.

"Thanks to lots and lots of drugs," The truthful quip slipped out of him instinctively, but a moment later he blinked hard as if to clear his vision and shook his head vigorously. "What the hell happened to you?! Why are you so fat?!"

Guru's deep laugh boomed within his chamber, his massive form shaking with amusement. "Childbirth does that to you," he said with a wink.

"Ugh!" Slug shuddered as he recoiled in disgust.

But soon, he looked Guru up and down once more. "Seriously, what have they been feeding you? Titans?"

"Only wisdom, I assure you," Guru replied with a chuckle, "and the occasional snack." His smile widened imperceptibly. "Although I must admit, I've grown quite fond of not moving."

"Yeah, apparently a whole thousand years of sitting on your ass," Slug muttered under his breath. He shook his head in disappointment. "Ridiculous. Over one thousand years ago, we looked the same. Now you look like the result of a bad wish on the Dragon Balls."

Slug examined his own relatively lean body, conveniently ignoring the slight potbelly that had stubbornly appeared with age. His eyes flicked back and forth between his form and Guru's massive frame.

He shuddered.

"So, my righteous half, care to explain why you've taken time out of your busy day to visit? Surely you didn't come all this way just to critique my figure," Guru said pleasantly, though there was a glint of something intense in his eyes.

"Why don't you take a wild guess, oh great tactician? You're the one who lured me here."

"First, use the Dragon Balls to achieve eternal youth. Then, absorb me, eliminate Frieza, and finally, conquer the universe. In that order." Guru paused, giving Slug a knowing look. "Honestly, you're not exactly hard to understand."

Slug clicked his tongue.

"...Smartass," he muttered under his breath.

Guru's smile grew wider as if he had heard every word. But then the smile faded and his tone shifted, becoming more serious. "I know why you're here, Slug, but the real question is—do you?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Slug stiffened, his eyes narrowing.

"It means," Guru replied, his gaze piercing straight through Slug, "that power isn't everything. You've spent your life chasing it, but deep down, what is it you're truly after? Even if your plan succeeds, you'll find yourself craving even more power, just as you always have. There's no finish line on this path you tread."

"I know exactly what I want."

Guru sighed softly.

"That's the problem, Slug. You only think you do."

Slug burst into laughter, as though he had just heard the most absurd joke.

But the moment was cut short by a harsh, wet rasp. Slug's body hunched over, his body shaking as he hacked into his hand. The sound was so ragged and guttural that it more resembled the drowning gasp of someone struggling for breath beneath the waves.

Slug coughed again, the spasms growing more violent, more uncontrolled. When he pulled his hand away from his mouth, it was smeared with blood.

Guru's frown deepened, disturbed by the sight.

The coughs now wracked Slug's entire body, and the blood in his hand grew darker, more substantial. There was something else in that hand too—something that should not have been there.

Slug convulsed once more, hacking up something far worse than blood—a chunk of raw, dark, pulpy flesh. It landed in his palm with a wet splat, squirming and wriggling as if it had a life of its own.

But Slug wasn't horrified. He stared at it for a moment, then calmly lifted his hand to his mouth and popped the squirming mass of flesh back in. A wet, crunchy sound could be heard as he chewed.

He swallowed.

For a moment, there was only silence.

"What vile magicks have you delved into, you FOOL!" Guru roared, suddenly sitting upright. "Are you so desperate for power that you would corrupt yourself for it?!" 

Having recovered from his episode, Slug began to laugh—a low, disjointed chuckle at first. But it quickly grew, evolving into a full, deranged cackle. The madness in his eyes flared with each breath, with every note of his laugh.

"Yes!" Slug shouted, his voice cracking with twisted glee. He spread his arms wide, as if offering himself up to God. "Isn't his power magnificent?!"

"You were never one to follow another man's footsteps," Guru said gravely, barely managing to school his expression into a deep frown. "We were never like that."

"Or maybe," Slug sneered, venom dripping from his voice, "we just hadn't found someone worth following!"

Slug's expression twisted, his grin stretching unnaturally wide, though there was something hollow and dark behind it. But then—suddenly, almost unnervingly—he fell silent. The manic grin vanished. His face slackened.

"Man?" Slug murmured. He tilted his head to the side, his expression morphing into one of deep confusion. He looked at Guru with a puzzled frown, like a child struggling with a concept too complex to grasp.

"That godlike being? Man? No… He's no man! He's a GOD!" Slug's voice rose with reverence, utterly enraptured as his eyes flashed lavender. "A God burdened with a glorious purpose! To have the world be reborn in his image!"

'What the fuck…?' A voice echoed breathily in Guru's mind. It was Ajax, speaking to him through their mental link.

Guru had to admit, he had momentarily forgotten Ajax was there. He paused and considered his next words carefully.

"Who have you given yourself to?" he finally asked. "What force has taken hold of you?"

Slug didn't answer right away. But slowly, a small, almost imperceptible smile crept back onto his face. This time, it was devoid of the earlier mania. This time, it was cold. Calculated.

"What difference does it make, Guru?" Slug whispered, his voice barely audible but heavy with ominous significance. "Power is power, no matter where it comes from. And you—you're just too blind to understand that."

In an instant, Slug's crazed behavior ceased, the transition so abrupt it could give someone whiplash. His entire demeanor shifted from fanatical devotion to something colder, more rational.

"Where is he, Guru?"

Guru narrowed his eyes and chose to remain silent.

"Where is the warrior you're hiding from me?" Slug grew more agitated by the lack of response. His eyes were wild, roving around the room—searching the walls, the ceiling, even the very atmosphere around them. "You've hidden him well with Concealment, but you're not clever enough to have him stay away! I know he's here, in this very room! Such power. Such potential! I can feel him. I can almost taste his presence!"

"I don't know who you're referring to, Slug. There's no one else here but us."

Slug shot Guru a wild look, his eyes blazing. "Lies!" he spat. "You can't hide him forever! The scent of his power is too strong!"

He prowled the room like a predator on the hunt, every fiber of his being vibrating with anticipation as he prepared to lay claim to the most powerful Namekian warrior he had sensed so far.

"Nail!" Guru suddenly bellowed. "Do NOT move."

Slug's head snapped toward Guru, and a twisted facsimile of a smile slowly crept onto his face.

"So, he's that kind of person…"

Without warning, Slug raised his hand toward Guru, curling his fingers as a crackling ball of energy—bright and jagged like lightning—formed in his palm. The ground beneath him sizzled and smoked as arcs of energy lashed out, carving scorched lines into the floor. The air grew thick with Slug's murderous intent, suffocating everything in its reach.

Guru remained seated, his massive form still as a mountain.

But Nail moved.

Well, Nail didn't truly move per se—at least, not in any deliberate way. It was more of an involuntary twitch, a momentary jerk of his body. It certainly wasn't a conscious action; it was an automatic, instinctual response to a threat on the Grand Elder's life, the kind of reflex ingrained over years of loyal service.

But that was enough.

"You foolish boy…!" Guru muttered.

At the same time, Slug's eyes flicked toward the corner of the room near Guru's massive chair.

In a flash, Slug vanished, his form streaking across the room with blistering speed. He reappeared in the corner, his arms darting out like lightning, fingers closing around something invisible. With a single, rough motion, he tore Nail out of his concealed state by the throat, as if ripping away a veil.

"Ah, there you are!" Slug's grin widened, almost splitting his face in two.

"We Namekians are just so predictably stubborn, aren't we?" he continued to taunt with mockery. "And you, 'Nail'? You're the worst of the lot. So stubbornly loyal."

Nail struggled for breath as Slug's iron grip tightened around his throat, nearly crushing his windpipe. He fought to resist, but no matter how hard he tried, his body remained unnaturally paralyzed, completely immobilized.

Slug's mouth gaped open, his jaws unhinging slightly as if he intended to swallow Nail whole. Then it began—the horrific process of forced fusion.

A sickly green light radiated from Nail's body, and he felt himself being ripped apart at the seams, his form dissolving into tiny particles of light.

Nail's eyes flew open as his breathing quickened. But to his despair, he realized there was nothing he could do to stop it. His limbs refused to respond, leaving him to helplessly watch as his body became more transparent by the second.

Soon, his strength, his memories, and his very essence would be consumed by Slug, lost forever within the twisted Namekian's soul.

Despair clawed at the edges of Nail's consciousness as he felt himself being torn from reality. He squeezed his eyes shut, unwilling to witness his own demise, and silently offered his final thoughts to Grand Elder Guru. He accepted his fate with quiet dignity even as his body grew ever lighter and translucent, flickering like a dying flame in a storm.

But then… nothing.

Nail blinked, his eyes fluttering open. He was still there—semi-transparent, yes, but undeniably alive.

Nail's gaze fell downward, and his breath suddenly came in shallow, uneven gasps. He saw motes of light—his very essence—hovering in the air like tiny, indecisive stars. They pulsed and flickered, swaying between him and Slug as if caught in conflicting gravitational fields.

Each mote of light drifting closer to his body brought a faint but noticeable return of substance, slowly filling in the gaps where his form had started to dissolve. However, the process was agonizingly slow, each second stretching into an eternity.

From the corner of his eye, Nail saw Guru leaning forward in his chair, his massive arms outstretched toward Slug, trembling with strain.

"You will not take him," Guru's voice boomed, every word imbued with immense willpower.

Slug snarled.

"You dare interfere?!" he hissed, tightening his hold on Nail while pouring even more energy into the forced fusion.

"Yes, I dare, Slug!"

And so, the two halves of the same soul locked eyes, both exerting all their strength as they fought over Nail's fate.

Meanwhile, caught between the clash of two titans, Nail felt truly powerless for the first time in his life.

Suddenly, amidst the struggle, Slug's focus wavered. His gaze suddenly darted away from Guru, his intense concentration breaking. For the first time, he seemed distracted, his dark, glowing eyes narrowing as if following something unseen in the distance.

Behind Slug, Guru's stoic expression briefly cracked, revealing a flicker of exhaustion and relief before quickly fading back into stoicism.

Slug whirled around with a snarl, baring his canines.

"You—!" he spat, voice hoarse and seething. "You planned this! You're ruining everything! Hand him over, or we'll both be killed by Cold's runt!"

Guru's only response was a silent, stoic stare as he continued to obstruct Slug's attempt at absorbing Nail.

For a moment, the two ancient Namekians stood locked in a tense standoff.

Finally, Slug's patience snapped. With a roar of frustration, he released Nail and disappeared in a flash of blinding speed.

All that remained in his wake was a gust of wind, a crackling trail of lavender energy, and silence.