Tundra stood in darkness.
There was nothing around him—no stars, no ground, no sound. Just an endless black void stretching in every direction.
He looked around slowly.
Was this death?
No.
The thought angered him immediately.
He hadn't even been allowed to struggle properly. That creature had simply poisoned him and left him to die.
It wasn't fair.
Tundra clenched his fists and tried to power up, forcing all of his ki outward in a desperate attempt to break something—anything.
Nothing happened.
He froze.
There was no ki.
Not even a trace.
His body was completely empty.
Tundra sneered in frustration and stomped on the ground beneath him.
The surface shattered instantly.
A massive crack opened beneath his feet and swallowed him whole.
He began falling.
For what felt like hours, he plummeted through the darkness.
Around him, images began appearing.
Fragments of his life.
The time he had existed as a machine.
His encounter—and later partnership—with Cell.
His battle against Majin Buu.
Meeting Beerus and Whis.
And finally—
The moment the monster's leg pierced his chest.
After that image faded, the darkness returned.
Then something appeared beneath him.
A light.
It burned bright yellow, pulsing rhythmically as rings of light radiated outward from it.
The light grew closer as he continued falling.
Closer.
Closer.
Until it stopped directly beneath him—just before he would have touched it.
Instead, it floated upward until it hovered within arm's reach.
Tundra stared at it.
The shape became clearer.
It looked like a small star.
And somehow…
It felt like one.
Tundra glanced around.
He could feel the darkness closing in around him.
It was tightening like a noose.
A signal that death was approaching.
But he refused to disappear like this.
Slowly, he reached out and touched the star.
Pain exploded through his hand.
The heat burned intensely, scorching his skin—but he didn't pull away.
Instead, he pushed his arm deeper inside.
Then his second arm.
He paused for a moment, forcing himself to endure the agony.
But the darkness was closing faster now.
Without hesitation—
Tundra leapt directly into the star.
His entire body ignited in burning light.
The sensation was strangely familiar.
The darkness finally collapsed inward.
But the star remained.
Untouched.
—
Back in the physical world, Tundra's body lay motionless.
By all logic, he should have been dead. His ki reserves were completely empty.
Yet somehow he still lived.
The poison spreading through his body reached the strange fragments of ki embedded within him.
The moment it touched them—
It burned away.
The shards began melting, dissolving into his body and spreading through every organ.
The heat slowly consumed the poison, purging it bit by bit.
Then suddenly—
Tundra's eyes snapped open.
He shot upright, gasping for air.
"What… happened?"
His head throbbed violently as he looked around.
Then he noticed something.
The creature's severed leg was still lodged inside his chest.
Tundra grimaced and yanked it out with a sharp pull.
He glanced down at the wound.
Instead of bleeding, the hole radiated an almost blinding light.
As if a star had been placed inside his chest.
"That's… new."
He began circulating his ki through his body to check for abnormalities.
Immediately he noticed something strange.
His ki had changed.
It felt thick, dense, and incredibly sluggish.
Tundra sighed and pushed himself to his feet, slowly guiding the energy through his body to loosen it.
He hadn't even realized the shards were gone.
Nor did he understand that the glowing core in his chest now functioned like a star—burning steadily to keep him alive.
He looked around.
The cave was exactly as it had been before.
The monster hadn't destroyed anything.
Tundra crouched and jumped.
The force of his leap shattered the ceiling as he blasted upward to the surface. Teleportation wasn't an option anymore—not with his ki moving this slowly.
Once outside, he searched for the creature's energy.
He found it quickly.
Still on the same planet.
That surprised him.
He had expected it to leave already.
Tundra lifted into the air and attempted to fly.
The motion was unstable.
His speed was pathetic.
With a sigh, he dropped back to the ground.
"Back to square one."
Instead, he began running toward the creature's location.
—
Several minutes later, he spotted it in the distance.
The monster was devouring a gigantic red ant, nearly half Tundra's height.
Tundra approached quietly.
But the creature noticed him immediately.
It stopped eating and turned.
Its glowing eyes widened.
"Alive…? how?"
"I don't know," Tundra replied simply.
The creature tilted its head further, bones cracking as it twisted.
Then it stretched its hand toward him.
The same dark purple energy wrapped around Tundra again.
Tundra felt the ability trying to pull his ki out of his body.
But this time…
Nothing happened.
His ki was far too dense and sluggish to be extracted.
The creature stared in confusion.
"No… eat?"
Tundra smiled faintly.
"Looks like your special ability isn't working anymore."
Suddenly the creature erupted with power.
Dark energy flooded the entire planet, draining the surrounding life force.
The monster's strength skyrocketed.
It lunged forward, thrusting one of its spider legs toward Tundra.
But this time Tundra didn't panic.
In fact, he was almost embarrassed.
"Don't get it twisted," he said calmly. "The only reason I lost before was because of that weird ability."
He gathered a ball of ki in his palm and aimed it at the incoming leg.
"You're even weaker than Buu."
He smirked.
"You should've picked a better host."
The creature twisted its body, opening its mouth to swallow the attack again—
But Tundra moved faster.
He grabbed the creature's head with his free hand.
Then fired the blast directly downward through its skull.
The beam incinerated the monster instantly.
When the light faded, nothing remained except a single dark blue Dragon Ball lying on the ground.
Tundra stared at it with mild disappointment.
"How anticlimactic…"
Then a thought struck him.
"Wait."
He frowned.
"Didn't Shenron have seven Dragon Balls?"
The sphere on the ground suddenly cracked.
Then it split into six separate fragments.
Each piece shot into the sky and blasted into space in different directions.
Tundra watched them disappear.
"…Well."
He sighed.
"That's bad."