Raditz woke with a start.
He found himself lying in the center of a massive stone circle, the cold rock biting into his skin. His body screamed in protest; every muscle was locked in a spasm of agony, pinning him firmly to the ground.
His last memory was Zamasu knocking him unconscious and discarding him like refuse.
However, the vividness of the dream he had just experienced lingered. The chaos of the ancient war, the desperation of the Gods, and the erasure of the six universes—it felt less like a dream and more like a memory etched into the stones themselves. He blinked rapidly, taking a moment to separate the nightmare from reality.
He looked across the fan-shaped area in front of him. It was similar to the ruins he had seen in Universe 7—stone pillars, altars, and indecipherable glyphs carved into the rock. The air was thick with the dust of eons. The only major difference was the scale; the stone slabs here were vast, built for giants.
Footsteps approached. Zamasu stood over him, looking down with a condescending sneer.
"Are you finally awake? Every god who enters this place sees something. I saw a timeline where mortals were extinct, then reborn, only to repeat their cycle of stupidity and violence. Tell me, Saiyan... what did you see?"
Raditz remained silent, glaring up at him.
Zamasu chuckled darky. "Let me guess. Another prophecy of the Super Saiyan God? How tedious."
Raditz didn't bother to respond. He focused on breathing, patiently waiting for his strength to return to his battered limbs.
"It doesn't matter," Zamasu said, his voice dropping an octave. He reached down, grabbed a handful of Raditz's hair, and yanked his head back, grinning maniacally. "I am going to grant you a gift. In a moment, I will force you to break through your limits. You will become a True God and accept the Baptism!"
"Baptism?" Raditz gritted his teeth.
"You will understand soon enough, and you will thank me. Under normal circumstances, breaking through the final barrier to the Realm of Gods takes years, perhaps decades of meditation. But here... the Ghosts of Destruction from the past will guide you."
Zamasu released him and walked away from the center of the altar. Raditz, sensing the shift in the atmosphere, forced himself to stand.
Above the stone pillars, the Great Tree loomed, its branches piercing the sky. The Ancient Ruins began to hum. Dust that had settled for millions of years began to rise, defying gravity, charged with a majestic, terrifying energy.
Buzz...
The energy drew a complex, glowing circular array along the ground. A pillar of light erupted, levitating Raditz into the air.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Raditz forgot to breathe.
The energy surged into him like an electric current, stimulating every cell in his body. It was a forced evolution. In this state of selflessness, seconds stretched into years. The foundation of his power was being forcibly thickened. The energy fueling this ritual was not natural—it was the residual power of the Six Erased Universes, refined by the Ruins!
His misplaced bones snapped back into alignment. His ruptured internal organs knitted together. The wounds vanished miraculously. Raditz's complexion returned to a healthy flush, his blood roaring with vitality.
But what filled his body was not ordinary ki. It was Divine Power.
He could clearly feel the difference. Before, he had merely borrowed god ki; now, he was becoming it.
His state began to fluctuate wildly. Without conscious thought, his body cycled through his transformations—Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 2, Super Saiyan 3—refining the power of each stage to a higher level. The dimension of mortals and the Realm of Gods were steadily joining together, merging within Raditz amidst the brilliant column of light.
Success in cultivation requires both effort and luck. If one buries their head in hard work without understanding, eons of practice are useless. If one relies on luck without the vessel to contain it, the body shatters.
Raditz had been hovering at 99% for years. He had spent countless hours in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, spiraling closer to the peak but never quite breaking the ceiling.
Now, suddenly, the consciousness and the body merged. The door to the True Realm of Gods was kicked open.
"That's it... the newly promoted God... very good."
Suddenly, Raditz heard a whisper in his ear.
"Come on... rise a little higher... elevate your soul..."
The voice was soothing at first, but then, another joined it. Then a dozen more.
"Avenge us... gain strength... defeat them!"
"Kill the Grand Minister... Kill Zeno!"
"Remove the obstacles... Destroy everything!"
Gradually, the tone shifted from encouraging to extreme, then to manic hatred. Raditz opened his eyes in the white void, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.
It was just as Zamasu had said. The spirits of the Gods of Destruction from the forgotten eras were wandering around him. They were "pointing the way," but as they manifested in his mind, their faces were hideous. They possessed none of the nobility of divinity; they looked like vengeful wraiths from the deepest hell.
These were the Gods who had been erased. Their souls were polluted by the very Negative Energy they had failed to contain.
Raditz saw the black aura clinging to them—the same darkness he had seen in his dream.
They... they are insane!
Raditz realized the trap. If these ancient Gods were corrupted, then the power flowing into him was tainted.
"Get out of my head!"
He tried to resist, but he couldn't move. The baptism was doing two things: elevating his realm of power, and subjecting him to what Zamasu called "transformation."
Zamasu and his mysterious benefactor didn't just want a strong ally; they wanted a weapon. They intended to twist Raditz's mind, infecting him with the same hatred for the celestial hierarchy that the erased Gods harbored.
Negative energy penetrated Raditz's mind like a rusted knife slicing through his brain.
"ARGHHHH!"
Raditz let out a scream of pure agony. It sounded like a thousand beasts roaring in unison, a sound of spirit and soul being torn apart.
Floating in the distant sky, Zamasu watched the scene with his arms crossed, a look of ecstatic pride on his face.
Zamasu had experienced a version of this baptism himself. But Zamasu was already twisted; his ideals aligned with the corruption, so the process had been a euphoric validation of his own justice. To him, Raditz's screams were a beautiful symphony—the sound of weakness leaving the body.
"That's it! Yes! Just a little more!" Zamasu laughed, almost dancing in the air.
The sky-high beam of light intensified, completely enveloping Raditz. The negative energy permeated the altar, saturating the Saiyan's very essence. The difference between "preparing" for Godhood and "achieving" Godhood was only two words, but the gap was an entire world.
Raditz was crossing that gap.
A few seconds later, the intensity peaked.
Snap.
The light dimmed instantly. The whispering voices of the ancient Destroyers fell silent and vanished back into the void.
The ruins returned to their quiet, dusty state. Only Raditz remained, suspended in midair. He floated gently, his limbs loose, his expression unrestrained and eerily calm. He looked like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
"Is it over?" Zamasu muttered to himself. Even he felt a chill run down his spine. The energy spike just now had been terrifying. "Such power... compared to the ancient forces, even I feel small."
He looked up at the floating Saiyan.
"Raditz should have completed the transformation. Heh. In the end, no mortal can escape their destiny."
Zamasu walked toward the altar as Raditz slowly descended to the ground. His sharp eyes were filled with disdain and triumph. He stepped firmly, ready to greet his new comrade—or his new slave.