Beyond A Failed Future - Chapter 3.1 (Patreon)

When he took note of his power the next day, after training himself into exhaustion as had become routine for him, Ronan grimaced.

"About a third of the increase I got using the water." he hummed to himself as he lay back in the bed he'd woken up in after his Ultra Divine Binge.

It was still noticeable, but not on the same level. His grind would shoot through the roof if he used it, at the cost of him spazzing out until he hopefully built up a resistance to the effects.

"I'll need to do it anyway." he decided. He needed to build up the resistance to the actual detrimental effects of the Ultra Divine Water so he could use it to unlock his potential and get as big a power boost as he could.

Assuming Gohan did manage to beat the Androids, there were still huge threats out there. Cell for instance. Not to mention the likes of Babidi and Dabura.

And since the Black Water Mist was around, that meant Garlic Junior was around. Which likely meant, much of the movie villains were still romping around the galaxy.

Like Broly.

Ronan grimaced at the thought of ever running into that monster.

Though speaking of the Black Water Mist. He glanced out of the corner of his eye, to the dresser beside his bed.

Specifically at the jewelled jug.

It was the Sacred Water, which washed away the effects of the Black Water Mist.

'Demon Clan members are stronger than humans and have higher potential and the effect isn't permanent if I take the Sacred Water within twenty four hours…' he mused.

It came with side effects…but if he could say, build up a resistance to it like he planned on with the Ultra Divine Water, couldn't he increase the rate at which he gained power as well?

It was a gamble…but honestly, he kind of needed to do everything he could think of at this point if he wanted to survive.

'New planet destroying monsters pop up here every few years and there's nowhere safe in the universe even considering there's a destroyer god who could wipe out anything with a touch.' he grimaced.

Beerus the Destroyer was insane. More than a hundred times stronger than Super Saiyan Three Goku.

The escalation train with Dragon Ball was insane.

"Just a sip." he told himself, standing from the bed. And it wasn't like Garlic Junior or his merry band of male escorts the Spice Boys were around to do anything.

He picked up the Black Water Mist in one hand and the Divine Water in the other. And opened the Black Water Mist just a tiny little bit and took a quick breath of it.

As soon as he did, he felt it.

Permeating through his nostrils, spreading through his body, rushing through his veins and seeping into his ki itself.

He felt his power explode upwards and a red haze of agitation, anger and rage begin to cloud his vision.

Just before it did fully, he took a swig of the Sacred Water and felt the effects dissipate from his body almost immediately.

"…Yeah, gonna need to work on that." he grimaced.

___________

Demon Clan Ronan Battle Power: 408

___________

Three months passed atop the lookout. And Ronan had to admit, he was beginning to enjoy it.

It was a simple life, if a little lonely.

"Should be good enough to eat soon." he grinned to himself, wiping sweat from his brow as he stared down at his handiwork.

Crops rising from the garden of the Lookout. While raiding the the kitchen last month when he was bored, he came across a stash of seeds. Most of them were for different trees and flowers, but there were some for vegetables as well.

Farming wasn't exactly something he ever saw himself partaking in before, even if he knew the basics of how to go about it due to his uncle being a farmer before he ended up here.

But, he kind of understood his uncle's satisfaction now when he overlooked his crops. Where as before, when he'd worked there to help out a few times, it was all he could do not to moan in boredom.

'Honestly, I'm still wondering how this place has working electricity and running water though.' he laughed lightly to himself as he turned away and began stretching his arms out.

It was about time to get to his training for the day.

He'd already took a little droplet of the Ultra Divine Water to supe himself up and he was glad to find, that he was a lot less…prone to drunken rampages now after it.

He still felt constantly full of energy whenever he took it and it surely helped, because his power was leagues beyond what it was three months ago. Not to mention his control over it. He'd went through the training he remembered Roshi putting Krillin and Goku through when it came to sensing ki.

And it took him a month and a half to get down, way longer than Krillin and Goku, but then a week of that was spent trying to figure out how to imbue his ki into an object to use.

Frankly, Ronan had a pretty big hunch that it was also thanks to the Ultra Divine Water he managed it at all.

Holding his hands out, Ronan formed twin spheres of orange ki and with a thought, they slowly rose up into the air and languidly floated in place.

A moment later, two more joined them.

And then two more.

The maximum he was going to use and the method he'd thought of to increase his control over his ki.

Keeping the orbs of ki sustained and floating in the air while at the same time training himself.

He we wasn't sure how great it was for training ki control, all he knew was that initially, when he first fought of this two months ago, he couldn't even sustain one and could now do six.

So it at least helped somehow.

"If only everything was going so well." he grimaced.

And by that he meant the Black Water Mist. He exposed himself to it every single day, yet that red haze of rage never disappeared.

It lessened and he could ignore it for a while now, but he was constantly in a foul mood when exposed to it no matter how many times he was exposed to it.

'Honestly, even after using the Sacred Water I feel like I can still feel it deep within me now.' he grimaced as he dropped to his hands and feet and began to get some push ups done for a light work out before the true one he would get to later.

…It was like a spark of crimson lightning rage deep within his core.

But he wasn't about to give up. It was too good to give up. The way his power exploded up massively when using it was a feeling indescribable.

And he needed it.

___________

Before he knew it, six months had come and gone. And a question presented itself to Ronan.

Currently, he sat cross legged.

Mid-air.

At the edge of the lookout, his gaze cast out over the horizon. It was night and pitch black outside, the only light at all coming from the moon shining down above and the orb of blazing orange ki floating beside him.

His attention wasn't actually on anything within his gaze, but rather, his senses.

Bit by bit, he'd learned out how spread his senses out over a wider scope and perceive the ki of others over vast ranges.

Right now, he was focused on a single specific ki. He wasn't sure how to describe it, in his minds eye, it felt like the sun. Warm and cheery…only, that was just an echo of what it once was and what was left was burnt out and tinged by rage.

And it was massive in scope, just like the sun itself. Multiple hundreds of times the size of his own.

"And to think, that's just his base form." Ronan couldn't help but laugh and shake his head. Even when his power spiked massively from the Black Water Mist, his power still seemed puny in comparison.

The fact he could increase that monstrous power fifty times over and it still wasn't enough to defeat the androids really set in just how powerful they were.

Six months he'd been up here and the question presented itself to him, how much longer should he stay here before he truly went to meet Son Gohan and filled him in?

"I wonder if I'm strong enough to handle the Kaioken now?" Ronan wondered to himself.

Though, there was always the option of entering the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. He dreaded entering that place, but at the same time, he couldn't help but relish the challenge.

Over the last six months, not only had his power changed massively, but so had his body, becoming larger, his muscle mass increasing noticeably and he threw himself into training each day with an eager grin.

The way he felt his power and body grow stronger day by day…was almost addictive.

He pondered those questions for what felt like hours, before he finally decided on a simple answer.

"The stronger I am before I go into the time chamber, the better." he mused, slowly lowering to the tiled floor of the lookout. He'd need to be as strong as possible to survive in there.

And there was one thing he'd noticed over his months of training up here. The stronger he was, the more his strength increased through training.

Plus, it would for sure take him a while to master Kaioken if he managed to learn it. So, the time in the chamber would be well spent on that.

"May as well go for it now." he mused.

Well, in the morning after he'd gotten some sleep so he was well rested.

____________

The next morning, after a good nights sleep and a filling breakfast, Ronan made his way towards the Pendulum Room. He was dressed in nothing more than a pair of baggy white pants held up by a red sash and his boots, with the bansho fan slung over his shoulder.

His original clothes were rank and in need of a good wash and the pants were all he could find that fit him decently.

He assumed they were Popo's since they came with a tiny little vest that just looked weird on him and as such he forgo wearing.

"This room is freaky as always." Ronan noted as he entered the Pendulum Room.

It was a massive space covered from head to toe in clock faces. Each one not pointing to a time, but a year.

He'd figured out how this place worked out months ago. He just needed to find the right clock surface and use it.

'Here we go.' Ronan nodded to himself as he found his target.

A clock face with a single year presented on its surface.

Age 766.

He pressed the hour hand.

And darkness enshrouded the room.

A crimson red pentagram formed in the middle of the room casting the room in a scarlet haze.

And a moment later, a beam of green light slowly rose up from the middle and spread apart, forming into a portal.

Ronan stared at it for a moment.

Before walking through the portal.