Chapter 4
Like a thorn in his side, the power pierced his slumber yet again.
That power…He thought. It is on the move.
He then fell back asleep.
Fixing the Namekian ship was easier than Bulma thought it would be. When one of Freeza’s goons had blasted it, she thought it would mean the machine was completely busted. While the ship did have a hole blasted through it, it was still able to fly. A little tinkering with the ship’s database would allow the vessel to retrace the path they had taken from Earth and arrive onto her home planet in roughly the same time it took to get to Namek. Bulma was almost done rewiring the ship as she thought about what she’d seen a little over an hour ago.
“I am Porunga,” the giant green dragon roared. “Granter of wishes.”
Once she had seen the sky darken and the dragon appear in the distance, she knew coming to Namek was worth it. She hightailed it to their ship they traveled in on an air contained in a capsule she had in her pocket. Bulma had forgotten about it up until she saw Porunga.
“I never leave home without one,” Bulma said.
After seeing the dragon, took it and fled to the Namekian ship they restored. However, Bulma was afraid of what forces remained on the planet that could kill her. Whether it be Vegeta or Freeza’s army, she didn’t want to stay on anymore. After she
“If they resurrect our friends, including Piccolo…” she said as she worked. “Then that means Kami will return and so will the dragon balls. When I get back to Earth, I’ll summon Shenron and wish them off Namek and onto Earth. Even if Gohan and Krillin die, I could still wish them back with the dragon balls made by Kami and still be okay.”
Even though Bulma hated the thought of leaving without Gohan and Krillin, she felt it was either now or never. It was what she believed now that she needed to get off considering what all she felt had happened on the planet. In the time between heading back to the damaged Namekian ship and fixing it up until now, the whole planet had been shaking.
While Bulma couldn’t sense qi like her friends, she could sense that. Whatever it was, it felt downright bloodthirsty and evil, with tortured screams filling the entire planet’s air. She was afraid of staying on Namek any longer because of that.
“I can’t stay here anymore after feeling…” she said. “Whatever that was. I need to get off now. Maybe it’s Freeza, maybe it’s Vegeta…I don’t know…all I know is they probably brought Piccolo back to life and he’s in Otherworld right now…waiting to come back to Earth.”
With the ship back online and the course for Earth reset, Bulma sat at the helm before the ship levitated back into the air and zipped through space.
I just have to get back to Earth before Piccolo does. She thought. So that I can wish my friends back to life and they can protect the world from him in case he gets like his father again.
King Cold sat on his throne, drinking wine from his favorite glass as he waited for a response from his son. His twelve attendants were at the monitors of his castle where he received calls from his subordinates. Cold’s soldiers were dressed in the standard attire of white and brown equipped shoulder pads. The castle he sat in was very spacious, made of glistening purple metal with a crystal chandelier hanging above.
Normally the king would be asleep at a time like this but he was curious of how his son was doing. He had heard word from some of Freeza’s soldiers that many of his men had been killed on Namek. This made the king afraid of his son’s organization’s reputation. Cold had received no response from Freeza himself in the last twenty-four hours.
There should be no warriors in the universe that can stand up to the Ginyu Force save me or my family. He thought. But apparently they had trouble with the rogue Saiyan Vegeta who rebelled against Freeza. And…another Saiyan named Goku. But I was unaware that any Saiyan besides Vegeta was currently alive. Where did he come from? No way he could be as strong as Vegeta. I wonder how much trouble he gave Freeza before the Ginyu Force must have killed him. If word gets out that they interfered with my son’s plans then others may get the idea that they can stand up to us.
Cold took a sip from his glass before sighing at the thought as he reclined against his seat.
And that’d be annoying to deal with. He thought. If a rebellion springs up from one of the conquered dust mites I might have to put my vacation to the pleasure planets on hold. I was looking forward to a fine evening in the fleshpots.
“King Cold!” a soldier said.
His bored expression shifted to Sergeant Beska, a green-skinned alien with horns growing around the edge of his face.
“What is it?” he asked. “Have you found communication with my son Freeza?”
“No word has been received from Freeza at this time!” Beska replied.
“Sergeant,” he said. “I told you only to tell me if you have received word from Freeza or his subordinates. I need to know how disastrous his campaign to Namek was.”
“But this is incredibly important!” he said. “A huge energy source is heading directly to Cold Planet 391!”
“Hmm,” the king said with dull enthusiasm. “That’s this planet.”
“Yes!” a fish-looking soldier said.
Sussi, a yellow skinned private with fins around his body, turned to King Cold.
“He’s headed straight for us!” Sussi cried. “And his power level is…we can’t really read it! It’s almost as if it’s millions of different powers in one colliding object!”
“Hmm,” Cold said. “A power level you can’t read heading in the direction of us. Another annoyance I have to take care of.”
“No sir!” Sussi said. “We don’t just mean heading towards Cold Planet 391! We mean headed straight for the capital city!”
King Cold finally sat up straight against his seat as he leered at the private.
“The capital city of Marzipan?” he asked. “I-I find that very odd news.”
He looked at the monitors to see a black silhouette of some humanoid creature entering the atmosphere of the planet.
“You must be joking,” he said. “The inhabitants of my universe know that such an action would result in the death of them and their family. Their entire race if they annoy me enough. Surely this is a funny looking meteorite or a lost denizen that drifted in space.”
“I highly doubt that, sire,” Passa said.
The yellow alien with dark yellow stripes running along his body pressed a button to gain a better visual of the entering projectile. There were other objects flying around the speeding creature that were humanoid in shape but were obviously non-living. While the object was traveling too fast to clearly distinguish, it somehow seemed familiar to King Cold.
Vegeta…? He wondered.
Suddenly a shock of surprise raced through Cold. The sensation was so unexpected it was almost painful. He leaned forward and gasped in intensity. The king shook in nervousness as his eyes widened at the feeling. Cold could see all his soldiers jumped in surprise as well. There was no explanation for what King Cold felt and yet there was only one possibility.
I just sensed their power level! He thought. But I can’t sense qi! Why-why now of all times?!
For the first time in his life, a shiver of fear ran down his spine.
And that power…He thought. It felt overwhelming…just…just so…so big. Not just big…vast, immense…like the humbling feeling of looking over an ocean for the first time.
An even scarier thought crossed his mind.
Is…? King Cold asked. Is it because…it is a power greater than anything the universe has to offer?
He jumped to his feet in fear.
Could…? He thought. Could it be a power greater than mine?
King Cold stomped in defiance at the thought, breaking the smooth stone beneath him. All twelve of his soldiers jumped at the sensation, some knocked down at the shockwave he caused. He glared forward at the monitor as the creature continued descending toward his planet.
No. Cold challenged. No. No. No. No. No. Even if it is a power greater than anything in the universe…is it still not as powerful as I am. Because nothing is. Not even my son Freeza.
“Lord…lord Cold…” Sussi said as he scrambled to his feet to look at the monitors.
“What?!” King Cold snapped.
“The…” he said. “That power level has…it has arrived. Outside….th-th-this very castle.”
“Well then…” he said. “It’s time to show this young upstart who he’s messing with!”
“What?” Sussi asked. “Y-You mean you’re going to fiiiight-?”
“Aaaahhhh!” King Cold roared.
His armor shattered into pieces as his anger soared. He began willing his qi to be released to trigger the transformation. His soldiers scurried in fear as King Cold flew out his castle, the king too concerned with the coming threat to bother walking. He nearly ripped the castle doors off their hinges before pushing them and having them burst open from sheer force.
King Cold landed outside his capital city to see that every other inhabitant was looking up at the sky in terror. The streets paved with blue sapphire and glistening white buildings were glistening in the light above. As the outermost layer of King Cold’s skin broke into fragments, he turned to look above him. The brilliant white light above him was like a sun with the silhouette of a large, winged beast in the center. Various man-shaped figures floated around him. For some reason, Cold could continue sensing the figure’s qi.
It’s…He thought. Beyond immense. It’s deep and eternal. His power level almost feels so large I’m…I’m drowning in it. I’m glad I’m skipping straight to my most powerful transformation.
And he finally did reach his pinnacle form. The blue gem street beneath him cracked for maybe fifty feet across and many windows shattered. The weight of his transformation was too much for his surroundings as most physical morphing was for his race.
When Cold’s skin broke apart and was replaced, his body was no longer pink as much as it was a dark purple. His upper body was shielded in a white chestplate with both arm and leg skin the deep violet. However, his elbows and knees were fitted with white spikes that surrounded the appendages. The horns atop Cold’s head becoming a circular crown with the eight spikes surrounding his scalp.
For the first time in his life, he had achieved this form purely out of necessity. This angered the king, a burst of purple aura surrounding him as a result of his rage. He glared up at the being who had discomforted him.
“Who are you?!” the king shouted. “Why have you come here?! Do you want to be crushed like an insect?!”
The being did not respond. He merely landed on the surface of the streets of Marzipan so he could be seen properly. The light around him faded as his silhouetted shape disappeared to reveal his monstrous form.
King Cold shuttered in horror. He looked like an eagle at first if his wings were anything to go off of. But the span of his wings was broader across than any avian Cold was aware of. The talons on his hands and feet squeezed reflexively, as though just itching to dig into something. His gold tail waved behind him like a snake. And the metallic gold surface of his body glowed like the sun. Faces screaming in terror traveled along the surface of his body as though trapped within the form of the enormous creature.
Their screams were somewhat audible as they cried in anger of horrid, murderous things. Stone cut-outs of people floated around him. He was taller than Cold himself and had the face of a wolf. However, within his scarlet eyes, the king could see what race he was.
“A-A-A Saiyan of this caliber of strength…?” he gasped in surprise. “B-B-But who are you?”
The cries of the faces pressed against the golden skin of the creature grew louder in their infernal screeching. King Cold stepped backward in fear, wishing they’d quiet down. He would rather go deaf than listen to them for the rest of his life.
“You’re not King Vegeta…” he said. “You’re not his son…you’re not even that pipsqueak Raditz…just…just who are you?”
He almost regretted asking the question. Once he did, the clear skies of Cold Planet 391 changed from blue to black in an instant. Dark clouds swarmed above to encompass the entirety of the atmosphere. Crackles of thunder could be heard as they lit up the cloudbanks.
A Cold looked up at, he found faces flashing within the lightning of the evil looking sky. Sick laughter roared from above with each thunderous explosion. He then turned back to the Saiyan in front of him to watch his jaw open. With this simple gesture, King Cold felt the air around him shake with intense force.
Many buildings around King Cold shook before collapsing to the ground, the streets around them shattering. The closest thing he could relate it to was an earthquake occurring in the air around him but one so forceful it shattered the air like ice. King Cold felt his body vibrate so violently he stumbled to his feet. He almost landed on his hands as he tried to steady himself.
As the airquake died down, Cold slowly stood back up to face the monster to find his hateful gaze looking down at the king. For the first time in his life, King Cold felt under someone else’s authority while being stared by the bright red eyes. The irises that glowed like gems had a certain power and sway that Cold had never before experienced. He was no longer kneeling out of losing footing but kneeling out of a command to a higher authority.
“I…” he said. “Am all those you killed.”
King Cold could feel his grasp on reality slipping. In the same way a man starts seeing double from a head injury, his understanding of the world becoming more and more tenuous. It was the oddest sensation.
It was like his five senses were on the fritz. He couldn’t see, hear or feel anything and yet his body was functioning fine. Information was no longer registered to him.
Everyone…? Cold asked. Everyone?
“Yes,” the Saiyan said. “Everyone.”
“What-?!” the king shouted. “How-How could you-?”
“AAAHHH!” the Saiyan roared.
A great gust of circulating whipped up around the tall Saiyan, the tornado expanding to tear everything around it. Once the wind expanded its diameter, Cold was lifted off his feet by the force and flung through the air. His mouth fell open in amazement at the sensation of an attack knocking him off his feet. He crashed into the outer wall of a building behind him before plopping onto the street. The stone cutouts of those around him disappeared as the Saiyan laughed.
“Oh…” the king sighed in pain.
He couldn’t stand up, the wind was just too strong. Any attempt to his feet would slam him against the wall again. However, King gained a very good view of what happened around him.
What buildings in the city were not destroyed were being shattered into pieces before being thrown skyward. The frost demons living in the capital were carried almost as effortlessly into the air as the tornado roared to life. Their purple and white bodies circling in the air before disappearing in every imaginable direction made them look like specks of purplish-pink snow rotating in the sky.
Only King Cold was able to resist being flung into the air and that’s because he was doing everything in his power to stay on the ground. He fully concentrated his qi into magnetizing to the street below him. He was clinging to the ground like a man hanging on a rope for dear life.
My people…Cold thought as he watched them rocket and spin skyward.
Tears ran down his face.
My city…He thought. Everything I worked for…destroyed by this one random insubordinate getting mad.
Cold shut his eyes in pain, not daring to look at everything he’d attained collapsing before him.
I’m done for. He thought. And so are my people. But how can that be? What Saiyan has this much power? I mean…there’s no creature in the universe who could have stood up to Freeza in his first form. Who…Who is this man?
And then the tornado stopped. Cold could feel the terrifying wind wasn’t scarring his skin anymore and the loud roar was gone. It was such an odd, abrupt halt of movement. The wind didn’t die down so much as it was commanded to cease. The king looked up to find falling from the sky was every person and piece of solid matter the whirlwind lifted up.
The corpses of his people smashed against the street as lifelessly as airless balls limply flailing on the ground. The broken shards of buildings and pieces of street the tornado tore asunder also rained down from above. They meteored down into every crevice of the destroyed city, burying most of the corpses and destroying all standing remains of the buildings. Almost all of the pavement had been ripped from the ground and thrown into the air as stone shreds. Some pieces of building walls even landed on King Cold.
“Ahh!” he cried in pain.
The large, flat stones covered King Cold as he laid on the ground. And they hurt. They hurt badly. In just about every fight Cold had taken apart in, debris from the battles had ever hurt him. But they did now for a reason he had no explanation as to why. He could chalk it up to the small cuts the wind scarred into the surface of his body but that didn’t seem to quite explain it. It felt as if King Cold’s spirit was hurt.
“How-?” he asked as he shook under the debris. “How can I be this weak? He’s…he’s just one lone fighter?”
A frightening realization then crossed his mind.
Could it be true? He thought. Could his power…truly be the amalgamation of all those I killed? Could their combined power have dwarfed mine?
He gritted his teeth in anger.
No. Cold said. No. No. No!
He stood up in a fit of rage and flung the large pieces of debris off him. He then stood up and stared at the Saiyan in a rage. The Saiyan stared back in apathy, clearly unimpressed by Cold’s presence. The dark sky above was flashing with white lightning. King Cold’s fists tightened in anger as purple qi surrounded him and formed cracks in the bare earth.
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“So!” he shouted. “Monkey! You think you can come to my home, my planet and tear down everything I built with my own two hands?!”
The Saiyan didn’t respond. His expression barely changed. The warrior looked at him with a bored expression, as if King Cold was no more than a child throwing a tantrum.
“Well?!” Cold roared. “Well?!”
Again, he gave no response. This angered the king, his breathing becoming shallow. Fear crept into his heart, further reducing Cold’s reasoning. He increased the purple aura surrounding his body, searing the dirt beneath him like flames did to paper.
“Alright!” he said. “Not going to say anything! Then I’ll show you the punishment I give to those who defy me!”
He propelled his qi off the ground and rushed at the Saiyan with every bit of force he could. King Cold expected his enemy to attempt to retaliate but he merely stood there, unbothered by the assault. With all his might, he punched the winged Saiyan in the face. And it felt like jamming his hand into a wall.
“Gah!” King Cold shouted.
He knelt to the ground in pain as his fist rattled with pain. The Saiyan’s hand was stronger than any substance Cold had ever touched. His right arm was shaking with severe agony, like a bell that had just been rung. He cradled his arm with his undamaged one.
He screamed in pain for a solid minute before letting go of his arm. He could feel the bones of his knuckles, hand and wrist cracking from the pressure. King Cold began whimpering in fear as the inside of his arm felt like shattered ice.
“M-My a-arm…” Cold said. “How…?”
“Haaaa!” the Saiyan roared.
The scream itself was enough to send him flying. King Cold felt like his entire body was swatted with an enormous hand. A wisp of golden aura washed over him before knocking him into the building behind him. Just as the structure collapsed onto him, he saw the warrior move his arm to the side.
Cold didn’t have time to slump to the rubble before his entire body was thrown to the right again. His head plowed into the ground, causing him to catch a mouthful of dirt and rock before his neck and upper torso was further buried by the force projected onto him. Cold felt more than half his eight horns snap off at the ends while the others broke off from their base. He glided further into the dirt before half his body was submerged within it.
And there he sat, humiliated with his legs flailing in the air before stopping all movement. As uncomfortable as it was, Cold felt almost relieved. He hoped that this state of embarrassment and obvious defeat would cause the Saiyan to leave him alone. This slight reprieve was destroyed once he felt a tight, iron vice squeeze Cold’s leg so hard that he feared the limb would be severed. Effortlessly dragged out of the ground, the frost demon began coughing up mouthfuls of dirt to hang upside down in front of his attacker. His glowing red eyes looked like death incarnate as King Cold hung weakly.
“Pl-Pl…” he strained. “Pleassssse…spare me and–and-”
He shook in fright as the Saiyan’s grip tightened.
“I shall give you half my kingdom,” King Cold said with all his might. “If you spare me.”
The Saiyan’s grip tightened so much that King Cold was sure his leg had been severed.
“Gaaahhh!” he shrieked louder than he ever had in pain.
The Saiyan threw the frost demon across the city. It was at that moment that the king was gliding even faster from that motion than he had ever flown on his own might. The world to him was beyond a blur, the world around him nothing but a smear of light and color.
It was actually strangely pleasant for him to fly this far and this fast without relying on his own qi. The sensation was like being on a rollercoaster ride without any restraint. Beyond a thrill as far as the adrenaline boost went.
That was, until, a black shadow appeared out of the corner of King Cold’s eye before that his entire body was obscured by it. As fast as King Cold was flying, he was amazed that his attacker could move at even faster speed to keep up with him. Just as Cold looked up at the source of the shadow, he felt a wicked elbow drive into his stomach, the power of which was enough to pierce his organs and cause blood to erupt from his chest and mouth.
The frost demon plowed into the ground beneath him once again but this time there was no relief. He cratered into the planet below him, a windstorm stirring up around him from the force the Saiyan assaulted him with. His arms, legs and tail splayed out around him as they each created an impression at least seven feet deep into the ground.
To say Cold was in pain at this point was beyond an understatement. His body was paralyzed with agony. The idea of movement felt like an alien concept now that he’d been knocked down this much.
In all his years of training and fighting, he had never experienced a blow like this. Practically any warrior could get up from being knocked into the ground but not this time. This time, the crater he made from such overwhelming force felt real. It was not a display of strength from the opponent or a testament to the durability of the losing party that they had formed a hole in the ground. King Cold felt trapped on the surface of the planet, as if his own grave had been dug for him.
And just as Cold was sure that he would never be able to escape this grave, he felt his body rise. The edges of his body submerged into the rock around him were being scratched something fierce, blood coating the stone before he levitated into the air. His body then turned to be displayed face forward. Cold found himself facing the Saiyan directly.
The hundreds of golden faces moving along his body and screaming tortured Cold’s ears. He could not, for the life of him, concentrate with such noise. He panted in exhaustion, the pain in his body and the screaming in his ears too much for the frost demon. What scared him was that he thought that he recognized many of the faces coursing across the Saiyan’s body.
I…He thought. I killed many of them.
In the Saiyan’s open palms burned bright flames of golden aura with those recognizable faces that Cold had killed. Each expression was carved into his psyche as he levitated in the air. He had forgotten them until this point, thinking them to be nothing but ants under his feet. Now, the frost demon was forced to see their sorrow captured just before King Cold annihilated them.
And now they wish to do the same to me. He thought.
“Feel the wrath of the Trampled Innocence!” the Saiyan cried.
The qi filled with faces of long dead men and women was turned on him as an attack. The Saiyan began flinging the aura in his hands at King Cold faster than the frost demon could blink. Rapid-fire balls of light exploded all across his body, every one burning pieces of his skin to ash.
But it wasn’t just his body that was breaking down as a result of this attack. He could feel his soul doing so as well. While King Cold had never really believed in the idea of a “soul”, he could suddenly feel it inside him. Feel it be destroyed.
It was like discovering an organ in one’s body that you’d never known of being torn to bits. The portion of him he felt to be destroyed laid deeper in his being than any of his organs, deeper than his flesh, deeper than even his mind be utterly ripped out from within. The burning of the qi blasts ignited the core of who he was, each second more painful for the next.
It was strange to die this way. Strange to experience this sensation but most of all painful. King Cold’s emotions were set ablaze, disappearing little by little. His bravado and pride he had accumulated over the years was gone, leaving a hollowed out, empty feeling. Those emotions of laughing in sheer ecstasy from experiencing his own power disappeared along with his sense of being.
I have no…He thought. No feelings anymore. I…have no sense of…of confidence. No elation of victory…I am…nothing…
Cold could even see his soul being consumed in flames. Golden fire exploding from his arms and legs each contained images of his life. One image of drinking wine on his throne while telekinetically tossing around rebels his soldiers had captured was visible in the flames. The image disappeared almost as soon as it became visible.
Another one of his memories visible in the flames was standing over the piles of bodies from a planet that had defeated the soldiers he sent there. After reprimanding his surviving men for not being strong enough to take the planet, Cold himself arrived to obliterate the entirety of the planet’s inhabitants in less than half an hour. After that, he took the various body parts of the slain and sent them all around the galaxy as a message and warning to any who would disobey him. It vanished from sight along with feeling of superiority it gave King Cold
Another image that appeared in the golden flames was King Cold sparring with his son. Freeza had been seriously bruised from the exchange, one of his arms clearly broken and his left eye shut and spilling blood while facing his father. As the younger of the frost demon’s begged his father to stop the training, King Cold had none of it.
“Nonsense,” he barked. “You will continue training until I say we stop.”
Freeza was too tired and broken to respond, panting for every last bit of air. Freeza raised his fists to his father, his legs shaking in agony as he attempted to continue fighting. While Cold said this was for Freeza’s benefit, in reality the king was doing so because he rarely had an opponent that gave him a real challenge and Freeza was one of the few who did that. Cold was basically torturing Freeza at this point to vindicate his sense of pride. This vision faded into the fire as well, the meaning and sense of joy it gave vanishing with it.
“Hahaha!” the Saiyan cried as he destroyed the frost demon.
Just as the frost demon was surrounded in a cloud of smoke, his nostrils filled with the stench of his own flesh burning, he could feel the Saiyan let go of him. At first it felt relieving for his assailant to release King Cold from his telekinetic grip. But then Cold realized he was too weak to keep himself afloat.
He dropped to the shattered remains of the street below like a rock, a large grunt and blood spilling from his mouth. It took all his strength to lift his head up to view the damage done to his body. And once he saw it, King Cold regretted the decision.
His legs had been blown off so that only bloody stubs remained. His right arm was nowhere to be seen as the right half of his torso had been burned away. His left arm from the elbow down was burned away, leaving only a smoking stump in its place.
In fact, that was a constant throughout his body. Every portion burned away from the Saiyan’s enormous qi blasts were smoking like a campfire. Red embers lingered on the destroyed portions of his flesh, continuing to cause the king.
I…He thought. I am defeated…I don’t know how or what this creature is but…this…is my end…
The warrior with faces running across his body and a bright gold aura walked forward until he stood over the king. His bloodthirsty grin only grew larger as he leaned down to the frost demon. The Saiyan picked King Cold up by his neck, his large, talon-like vice firmly surrounding his throat.
“Now…” the Saiyan said. “Are you regretting your malevolent actions?”
He tried to answer but all that came from his speech was more blood to be spat up. King Cold did his best to stare his captor down, trying to form the confidence to speak. With his strength depleted, speaking was a chore.
“Y-Yes…” he said. “I-I apologize…for…my evil…”
Every breath felt as though it was a punch to his gut.
“I…” he said. “Am sorry to all…those I killed.”
The Saiyan’s wolf-like face smiled at that. He then held out his palm to the frost demon. A burst of qi at first scared the king before feeling a gentle wave of relief flow through him, the golden light spreading across his body like water flowing across the ground.
King Cold’s strength returned to him, his ability to move no longer hindered by his injuries. Better than that, he found his limbs growing back. His legs and arms grew themselves back inches at a time, the bone, tissue and skin reappeared. In an instant his body was fixed and King Cold was able to stand on his own. After his body was regenerated, the Saiyan let go of the frost demon as he stood up on the shattered remains of the streets.
“Oh…” he said. “That feels much better. Thank-y-”
And then an awful feeling of sorrow hit him. King Cold felt horrible, downright nauseating. The worse he had ever felt in his life. Pain welled inside him something fierce. Agony coursed through him in such a way he’d never known.
“Wh-” he said. “What–but…how? I was revived…I felt it–I know I was healed by the Saiyan’s power! So-SO why-?!”
And then it hit him again. His memories flashed through him. The same ones that had been incinerated by the Saiyan’s qi attacks washed through him but now with a bitter taste.
It was the oddest feeling. It was like a sweet drink being turned bitter. Every memory King Cold ever had taken pride in was somehow soured in that instant. He couldn’t figure it out until the memories played out in his mind again. But this time, he could only feel pain.
In the memory of him standing over the bodies of innocent people, he felt no ounce of victory. Instead, as he looked over the corpses, he sensed their agony. Their sorrow. Their hatred.
King Cold stumbled back in pain, gripping his chest in pain and choking on the weight of so many disparate sensations of torture. The pain of the victims he’d created was overwhelming his soul, like a flood of negative feelings. Each moment in his life when King Cold gained some amount of superiority due to his glorious conquest or immense combat prowess was tainted with the pain of those killed to achieve it.
He could feel the deaths of each and every being he’d slaughtered in his heart happening. There was no way to overcome it, each moment of his kingly reign tainted by shared agony. King Cold stumbled over himself, gasping for air.
“No…” he said. “No…No…my flesh is healed but…”
He collapsed to his knees.
“My soul is destroyed,” he realized. “Since their pain has become my own.”
He looked toward the Saiyan, the ruthless monster grinning wider.
“Please…” he said. “Heal my soul! I-I beg of you!”
No response.
“Please…” King Cold cried. “I’ll give you a planet! No, no, an entire solar system! Please, you can have up to half my kingdom if only you will-!”
The punch to his face was as sudden as it was painful. King Cold flew backwards until he slammed into a fallen skyscraper, cracking the broken structure before falling to ground. He attempted to pick himself back up but that one blow had knocked the window out of him. Cold fell flat on his face, defeated once again.
Then he felt the familiar sensation of the Saiyan’s grip around his neck. Lifted to the monster’s face again, King Cold winced in pain, knowing the illusion of mercy was gone. And it started again with ripping his right arm off.
“Gaaahhhh!” King Cold screamed louder than any other time in his life.
Blood spilled from the newly made stump after the Saiyan tore the arm clean off. It was quite elegant to watch, in a morbid way, like a silk dress cleanly torn in two with a swift movement. His assailant then threw King Cold to the ground again and began ripping into his body with all his strength.
“No-no!” Cold cried. “Stoooooooppppp!”
His pleas were met only with shouts of victorious vigor as the Saiyan literally tore into him. With his bare hands, the monster shoveled more and more of the flesh in his chest away. Blood erupted from Cold’s chest, his cries of anguish only encouraging the monster to keep killing him.
Once a sizeable hole was gouged into his stomach, the Saiyan then gripped his remaining arm and right leg with a hand each and tore them from his body. King Cold cried in pain, blood erupting from his throat into the Saiyan’s face. The monster licked the red liquid covering lips and cheeks up before standing straight up again.
The Saiyan let out an incredibly loud laugh as he eviscerated the frost demon, screaming in pleasure. And after that, he stopped and stood over the king with a sick grin. He laughed, having clearly enjoyed his fun of torturing Cold.
“No…” King Cold said. “No…No…what are you?!”
Cold used what little strength he had left to shake his head in defiance.
“Why-?” he said. “How? Who…Who are you?!”
At this, the Saiyan’s grin disappeared. His laughter subsided and he looked upon the kind with a level of hate he never thought possible. The malevolent expression elicited a reaction in King Cold so painful it felt as though his body was set on fire.
“I told you…” he said. “I am all those you have killed.”
His very voice made the air crackled. The sky above instantly darkened, a storm approaching. Just as King Cold could sense an immense power flow from him when the Saiyan arrived on the planet, he felt it again. The hatred the Saiyan was exuding began filling Cold with even more pain.
“I was once known as Kakarot,” he said. “A Saiyan cast from his home planet for his very weakness.”
“Kakarot…?” King Cold asked. “Why does that name sound familiar…?”
“I was then given a new name upon coming to Earth,” he said. “By a kind man named Gohan…that name was Goku.”
“I remember now!” King Cold cried. “You were the only Saiyan among four to escape Planet Vegeta before it was destroyed by my son! Your power level was puny enough you were thrown away for your inferior genetics! Your brother was Raditz and father was Bardock, warriors among the lower levels of the Saiyan army Freeza commanded!”
Cold shook his head.
“But…” he said. “But this doesn’t make any sense! How could a weakling like you gain this much power in so little time?! You weren’t even strong enough to defeat Raditz…and Raditz was helpless against Vegeta! Wh-What…What gave you this level of strength?!”
And then it dawned on him.
“Nooooooo…” King Cold said. “You…are…”
He lifted his head to face the horrid expression of his assailant.
“I am the culmination of the many souls killed by all evil beings in the universe,” Goku cried. “A warrior who is pure of heart, awakened by wicked fury, with strength unmatched.”
Lightning cackled from the sky, the dark clouds above alive with the roar of thunder.
“The amalgamation of every crushed innocent has filled me with force beyond what any mere mortal could reach,” Goku shouted. “The fangs of the wicked have destroyed hopes of the good and honest far too many and now those same bystanders who longed to live in peace have grown weary of the burden of evil.”
The faces racing across his body stretched out from the surface of skin. They were like projections of bright yellow, everything behind their mouths and eyes beams of liquid gold. The golden expression shrieked so loud they hurt King Cold’s ears, causing him to groan in pain.
“I am Son Goku!” he shouted. “And I am a Super Saiyan!”
A bolt of lightning struck the collapsed building behind them just as he said that, shattering it to pieces.
“No…” King Cold said. “The legend was true…”
He shook his hand again.
“No…” he said. “I thought we were warned…I thought we had this whole legend nipped in the bud. It can’t be!”
Goku looked down at him, angered by his words.
“What?” he asked.
“We…” he said. “We were told…told that if the Saiyans were not killed…the entire universe would be in danger of destruction. I…I let Freeza handle it, thinking he could be trusted to wipe you all out.”
King Cold coughed up more blood as he spoke, groaning in pain.
“But…” he said. “I guess he failed.”
Goku roared at him, causing several more crackles of lightning to erupt from above.
“Warned?” he asked. “Warned by who?”
“Warned by the guardian…” he said. “That…that observes us. He said…said you were a danger due to the legend of the Super Saiyan and that…that if we let the Saiyans live it would potentially destroy the universe as we know it.”
“And you do not?” Goku asked. “You don’t destroy things? You don’t end life en masse or take away freedom from people?!”
Goku stomped down on King Cold’s chest, causing him to cry in pain.
“So what gives you the right to kill others but not me?!” Goku demanded. “You believe you’re so superior to us all that only you are allowed to cause destruction?!”
Goku pressed his bird-like foot even further down onto the frost demon.
“Answer me!” he shouted.
“I can only tell you what we were told!” King Cold shouted.
He barked in pain, more blood spurting from his body.
“My son and I didn’t want to get rid of the Saiyans!” he said. “They were our greatest army! Millions upon millions of capable fighters, loyal to us out of fear! I recommended not doing so but my son Freeza-!”
He groaned in pain.
“He was scared by these warnings into destroying Planet Vegeta out of fear of the Super Saiyan legend!” King Cold shouted. “Please…please…I did not wish to destroy them! Do not take umbridged with me for your people’s destruction!”
“You still don’t understand, do you?” Goku asked.
He kicked Cold into the building behind him, eliciting a cry of agony from the pain that soared through his body.
“I don’t care for the Saiyans,” he said. “I was raised as a human on Earth before the Saiyans came to my home. They kidnapped my son, killed me, many of my friends and are known as one of the most murderous races in the galaxy. I care nothing for those of the same blood.”
His qi surrounded him again, the golden light illuminated the darkness that surrounded them.
“I only care for protecting my loved ones and the innocents in this universe from evil men like you,” Goku said. “And not only have I made you feel the wrath of those you destroyed…I will make sure you never do the same to anyone again.”
“No!” King Cold said. “No! Anything! I’ll give you anything if you don’t kill me!”
“Be quiet,” Goku said as he lifted his hand forward.
A crevice beside Cold opened up to his right. As it widened, the king could see talls fire reaching from it. Smoke and the shrieks of people in utter agony filled his eyes and ears. King Cold shook his body in pain, the shouts alone causing him fear.
Hands of fire grabbed what remained of King Cold’s body, their touch burning his flesh. King Cold grabbed onto what remained of the street, desperate not to be dragged in but it was futile. As he was dragged in, he heard the voice of someone rather familiar crying from below. He turned to see something horrifying.
“Freeza!” he shouted.
His son was screaming from below, his face contorted in fear. His limbs kept regenerating before being burnt off from the hot flames. This cycle repeated until non stop, the fellow frost demon shouting with every lick of the fire.
“Father!” Freeza cried. “Father, help me!”
“F-F-Freeza!” King Cold cried.
The king looked back to Goku, a wicked smile etched into his face.
“I thought it only fitting to let you stay with your son in eternal agony forever,” Goku said. “I hope you two find each other’s presence…mutually comforting.”
Cold gritted his teeth, his fingers digging into the ground as the arms of fire pulled against him.
“I…” he said. “I did not know you killed my son!”
“Yes,” Goku said. “He was my first victim. And I can assure you there will be many more. It is only fitting that Freeza was slain before the rest of your empire collapses.”
“What?!” King Cold asked.
“Don’t act surprised,” Goku said. “After you arrive in hell, so will your empire. I will destroy what you have carved with your own might until nothing remains. There will be no evidence of your great kingdom as even the ruins will be burned to ashes.”
King Cold looked back down at Freeza, a new pain etched into his body. He then looked back to Goku, the Saiyan smiling at his discomfort. He shook his head before Goku snapped his fingers.
“Goodbye,” the Saiyan said.
And the arms of fire dragged him into the crevice below, his last sight of anything besides flame and misery disappearing before his eyes.