38 We Need To Talk

Quickly getting to his feet, Zyleth took on his fighting stance and glared at the unfamiliar man standing before him. But when he saw his fists, they were much larger than before.

Looking down at his body, he realized that he had reverted back to how he looked before his reincarnation.

"Who are you?" Jason 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." Jason told him.

Astral was perplexed for a moment. He genuinely couldn't believe that the mortal he had reincarnated had completely forgotten about him.

"Do you seriously not-- I'm Astral." He told the young mortal, who still had no clue who he was. "The god who reincarnated you?!"

Jason's eye narrowed before cautiously putting his hands down.

"You look... sound... and act different." Said Jason.

His appearance had completely changed as well. Gone was the old GoD Saiyan getup. His new form took on a more... mature appearance.

He had pale white skin, his eyes 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 Jason hadn't recognized him. "Oh right. I forgot that I met you in another form."

"You also didn't tell me your name before." Jason pointed out.

Astral shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "Yeah, well... I was new."

The god's behavior confused Jason. He was not this calm and collected the first time they had met. Granted, it had been five years, but damn was it an unexpected change.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Astral asked.

"You're just... really different from the last time." 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 Jason 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 young adult in his early 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."

Jason raised an eyebrow at that last part, "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?!" Jason exclaimed.

"Oh, that happened like thirty, forty years ago." Astral waved off nonchalantly.

Jason's eyebrows raised in shock for a moment before just deciding to leave it at that.

"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-huh..." Jason nodded his head slowly.

"You remember that guy who was being sent off to Berserk?" Astral suddenly asked, pointing at Jason as if he was on trial.

Thinking back, Jason 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?" Jason asked.

"Well, my boss gave him the powers of Sukuna." Astral told him.

"Ryomen Sukuna?" Jason asked with a baffled expression.

"Do you know any other fucking Sukuna?" Astral asked, his tone becoming increasingly more annoyed.

Jason raised his hands up as an apologetic gesture before asking, "So what did he do that was so frustrating?"

"He fucked EVERYTHING!" Astral yelled.

There was a few moments of awkward silence before Jason asked, "Like... Like literally?"

"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, took over Gut's body and then killed... everything!"

Jason...

Jason didn't really know how to reply to that.

"I... Uh... Damn..."

"Yeah." Astral nodded. "A lot can happen in fifty years."

"It's only been five years." Jason told him, confused.

"Not in this dimension." Astral told him.

Jason 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.

"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?" Jason 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." Jason pointed out.

Astral opened his mouth to reply, but immediately closed it and groaned. "Point taken..."

"Where'd you put him anyway?" Jason asked.

"DC."

Jason looked at him with an incredulous expression for a few seconds before responding with, "So you take him out of one Hell-hole and put him in another?"

"Okay, first, DC is a hell of a lot better than Berserk." Astral said, to which Jason gave a so-and-so gesture. "Second, he's goddamn Sukuna. There's basically nothing there can touch him."

"Darkseid?" Jason asked, pointing out the most obvious danger.

There were others 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 the big bad was Darkseid in whatever universe he ended up in.

"Oh, trust me. Darkseid's not a problem." Astral waved off. "At least not in that universe."

That last part caused Jason to raise an eyebrow, "What part of the DC universe did you send him to?"

"Don't worry about it." Astral said 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."

"Couldn't you just... make clones of yourself and split the load? I mean you are a god with seemingly infinite power." Jason suggested.

Astral looked at him as if he was stupid and then pointed towards himself with an annoyed face.

"Do you think that I 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..." Jason said. "Are there even a trillion people on Earth?"

"The universe is endless, dipshit. Humans aren't the only race we deal with. You aren't special. You're just the most loathed." Astral said as he rolled his eyes.

"Ow... Probably deserved, but ow..." Jason 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?" Jason asked, a little relieved he was alive, but still also very curious.

"Because apparently you got lucky." Astral replied, giving Jason the stink eye.

His answer cause Jason to flinch back in utter confusion.

"I'm... sorry?" He apologized, although he was not sure what he was apologizing for.

Astral groaned and sat down, "Don't be. It wasn't your fault. Technically it's mine. Actually, it's fully mine."

"What do you mean?" Jason asked.

"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.

Jason sat down next to the god, listening intently to his explanation.

"Basically, I rewrote history a bit and made it to where you're Yamoshi's descendant." Astral revealed.

That revelation caused Jason's eyes to widen.

Yamoshi's descendant? Did that mean that Yamoshi was now apart of the universe's canon? Was he in the afterlife?

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?" Jason asked.

"Nothing. You being Yamoshi's descendant went about perfectly. 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?" Jason asked.

"Two of them. Shallot and Giblet." Astral replied with a small nod.

"They are his sons?!" Jason exclaimed.

"They are in your timeline..." Astral grumbled. "And that's where the issue lies."

"What issue? Is it really that bad that I'm a descendant of Yamoshi and Shallot?" Jason replied.

"That's the thing. You're not Shallot's descendant. You're Giblet's." Astral told him, causing Jason'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."

Jason 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 Jason's dimension.

In the viewport, Jason saw himself facing Frieza. His eyes were completely white and a black and red aura completely encapsulated him.

"Wait, that's the--"

"Evil Saiyan transformation." Astral nodded.

"B-But how is that--"

"A rare few Ancient Saiyans had the ability to take on the Evil Saiyan state. If I 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 two of them."

"Cumber and Turles..." Jason 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 an intense amount of negative emotion."

"So like Super Saiyan?" Jason 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. You remember how your mother was shot?" Astral asked.

Jason 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?" Jason asked.

"Sort of. It's hard to put into words. Try and think of it as a form similar to Ultra Ego. 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." Astral replied.

"Okay... that makes sense." Jason 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?" Jason asked, to which Astral nodded.

Jason 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 it off.

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.

"Why did you call me back here? Are you taking the wish back?" Jason asked, raising his head to look at Astral.

If Astral had made him that powerful by mistake, stands to reason why he would want to revert some of the things he had previously granted during their first meeting.

Astral smirked a bit before waving his hand dismissively. "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 to take the wish back and swap it for another, I can."

Jason shook his head decisively. "I think I'll keep it."

"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."

"Wait, what?!" Jason exclaimed.

Astral smirked before snapping his fingers.

A dark portal suddenly appeared and a wave of energy suddenly pulsed from deep within Jason's soul. A dark purple energy suddenly engulfed him, slowly shifting him back into his Saiyan appearance before suddenly being pulled off into portal.

"See ya, kid." Astral muttered as the portal closed.

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.

"Nostalgic. Annoying and nostalgic."

The armored god smiled gently and nodded his head, "Good. Now go, your brothers asked 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?"

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.

____________________

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 in 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 crimson for a brief moment before he slipped back into slumber.