"You were never aiming at me—you were targeting this device, weren't you!" No wonder Frieza is called the emperor of the universe; his wits are at least up to par.
When the Namekian smiled, Frieza understood his aim. The scouter he wore was the last one left among the units under his command.
All the others had blown out when that power level exceeding forty thousand appeared. New scouters wouldn't be available until Ginyu and his men arrived. In other words, Frieza's Dragon Ball collection might have to slow down for a while.
"You—" Dodoria wasn't stupid, just a step slower than Frieza to react.
"Die!" Countless laser-like beams fired from Frieza's fingertips, instantly striking the Namekian whose hands had been torn off, riddling his body like a sieve. Clearly, Frieza was enraged again.
"Gulp." Dodoria swallowed hard. Frieza had scared him once more. He'd been the one holding the victim just now. If Frieza's aim had been a hair off, he'd have been the one turned into a sieve—how could he not be afraid?
"Dodoria."
"Y-yes, my lord."
"Back to the ship."
"Y-yes…"
"There are several evil ki signatures closing in on Namek at high speed." That same night after the Grand Elder unlocked the dormant potential of all the Z Fighters and Saiyans, Nail stood outside the Elder's chamber, staring into the dark sky with a grave look.
"Judging by their strength, it should be the Ginyu Force. Tch, that bastard Frieza even called them in. Fine, we'll take them out together this time so I don't have to hunt them down one by one later." Vegeta had been the first to have his potential unlocked, and he was very pleased with his latest surge in power. His tone toward the Namekian Grand Elder and Nail had improved a lot as a result. While Nail still didn't much like him, at least they weren't at each other's throats as before.
"Who would've thought Frieza's underlings included so many masters…" Nail gazed at the sky, awed. For the first time, he felt how small he was.
"Uncle Piccolo… Uncle Piccolo…" Gohan watched Piccolo, who was leaning against the wall lost in thought, and felt worried. He'd never seen Piccolo like this; for someone who prided himself on hearing far beyond normal, there was actually a day he didn't hear those speaking beside him.
"Hm? Sorry, Gohan." Piccolo finally seemed to snap out of it, gave Gohan an apologetic look, then sank back into the words the Grand Elder had spoken while unlocking his power.
"You once showed a wicked side? So you split it off? How foolish. You split that genius talent in two, leaving your growth today at less than a tenth of what it should have been. Katas was a genius unmatched even by Frieza today. If not for the catastrophe that led to the mass death of Namekians, and Katas being forced to send you off-world, you wouldn't have become what you are now. We might not even have needed help from our friends beyond Namek to overcome our crisis." It was rare, but the always-kind Grand Elder had used a note of severity.
Piccolo could hear that beneath that sternness was mostly heartache—the pain of an elder watching a younger one stray down the wrong path.
"Split in two? A genius's talent? Stronger than Frieza?" Those words kept replaying in Piccolo's mind.
"Rather than have me fuse with Kami again, I'd sooner die. I am Piccolo, nothing more—not anyone else's fragment. I am myself."
Having sorted it out, Piccolo felt a small rise in the power within his body.
"Tomorrow… looks like a fierce battle is inevitable. Will I be enough… on my own?" Krillin was the weakest among the Z Fighters—though that was only relative to monsters like Goku and Vegeta, whose power levels were in the millions.
"I thought I'd never get stronger in this life, but after that trip to Earth, I've become this strong—something I never dared dream of. I never imagined the Saiyan race had this much potential." Nappa lay on a stone step away from the others; he, too, had had his potential unlocked by the Grand Elder.
In other words, his power had skyrocketed as well. While the effect wasn't as dramatic as it was for the leads like Vegeta, it was still far beyond ordinary standards—especially since, after the Saiyans' near-extinction, the remaining Saiyans' battle power had somehow become far easier to raise.
As if someone had toggled a cheat for them: catch a single opportunity and their power would surge in incomprehensible ways.
Of course, that still paled beside Frieza, the big bad whose power level was 120 million from birth.
"Meruem… why hasn't that guy shown up yet?" Of everyone present, only Musashi looked truly troubled. Unlike the Saiyans and Z Fighters, he understood Frieza's terror all too well. Don't be fooled by the dramatic spikes Goku and the others had shown—huge spikes at that.
Measured against Frieza's true power, they were still far short. Cooler's power alone, as demonstrated earlier, was enough to crush everyone present, including Musashi himself—let alone Frieza, who now surpassed Cooler.
In canon, Goku only qualified to fight Frieza because he transformed into a Super Saiyan. But now, even if Goku reached 120 million as a Super Saiyan—or beyond—
he still wouldn't be a match for this Frieza, who stood above Cooler at 470 million. He wouldn't be far off from Androids 17 and 18 in the original story.
What unsettled Musashi more was that he couldn't reach Meruem at all—not even as Meruem's avatar could he make contact. That had never happened before—not even when facing their greatest crisis in the Naruto world, during the Sage of Six Paths' sealing.
What had they encountered in the Demon Realm?
Or rather, what was blocking Meruem's return?
On a pitch-black plain deep in the Demon Realm, two men radiating terrifying auras faced off.
The blue-skinned, elder demon among them wiped a streak of purple blood from the corner of his mouth and looked at the man opposite. "How many years has it been? No one has wounded me in ages. The last time was a thousand years ago when I fought Dabura for the Demon Realm King's throne. I didn't expect mortals to produce someone as strong as you in just a millennium. I can't help it—I can't help wanting to tear you to pieces."
Look closely and you'd see this demon was the same one—Pudada—who appeared after Meruem and the others left the Demon Realm gate.
"You're not bad yourself—you even managed to injure me, the one who killed Cooler, and not lightly. You're the first. If not for my wide arsenal of techniques, I might have been the one finished." Meruem shot back, though the words tugged at a wound on his face, twisting his mouth in pain. Don't be fooled by his bravado—his pride was making him front. In truth, he'd been on the back foot against Pudada the entire time, gaining no advantage.
Against Cooler he'd run circles with Shadow Clones, the Rinnegan, ninjutsu, and all sorts of tricks.
But against this demon called Pudada, aside from top-tier techniques like the Rinnegan and Sage Arts, everything else was useless—and Pudada's bizarre magics gave Meruem a massive headache.
The Dragon Ball world may be built on battle power and ki, but that doesn't mean psychic powers, magic, or technology aren't formidable.
For instance, psychic powers: Frieza's race is one that wields them. Technology: how about Dr. Gero's androids? Their ultimate product, Cell, was stronger than the Supreme Kai, and the movie's wraith-like warriors were similarly not far off Cell. Lastly, magic: Babidi and Bibidi's sorcery created Majin Buu and controlled the Demon Realm King. The Supreme Kai, at full strength, could restrain a careless Gohan.
So while magic, technology, and psychic powers aren't the mainstream in the Dragon Ball world, their effect and might aren't inferior to those of other worlds—and may even surpass them in some ways.
"To cross blades with Pudada, Marshal of the Demon Realm and one of its three greats, is an honor," Meruem said.
That's right—the newcomer was one of the Demon Realm's strongest three, said to be weaker only than the Demon Realm King, Dabura. While the Demon Realm's denizens generally outstripped mortals in battle power, the absolute top wasn't as exaggerated as imagined; it was their overall strength that was formidable.
And Meruem's power was enough to claim a place, whether in the mortal world or the Demon Realm.
So it wasn't unthinkable that Meruem could fight Pudada, one of the Demon Realm's three greats.
After all, even the Demon Realm King Dabura's power only roughly matched Cell's. As a member of the trio just below the king, Pudada's battle power would at least be on par with Androids 17 and 18.
Given Meruem's current strength, taking him on was indeed a struggle.
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