For a brief moment, time seemed to freeze.
Guru's palm hovered above Krillin's head, neither pressing down nor withdrawing.
Yet his massive mountain-like body began to tremble violently.
Not just trembling. Sweat poured from every crease of his ancient skin like a waterfall, soaking the stone throne beneath him in an instant.
"This… this… this…"
Guru's throat emitted a broken, wheezing sound like a damaged bellows. His eyes widened so much they looked like they might split, pupils shrinking into needle points from sheer terror.
In his perception, he had thought he was guiding a river, or perhaps an ocean.
But when his psychic sense entered Krillin's body, what he saw was not an ocean, not even a starry sky.
It was "nothing."
Absolute, boundaryless, devouring void.
At the center of that void stood a bald silhouette.
That figure simply stood there, and around him, the laws of the universe, the rules of physics, the chains of biological limitation, all shattered like fragile glass.
No ceiling.
There was no such thing as "potential" anymore, because the concept of a "limit" had already been completely erased from this man.
[System Warning: External psychic intrusion detected attempting to analyze "Limiter Break" mechanism.]
[Reversing data overflow…]
[To protect the intruder's life, connection forcibly severed.]
Bang!
A dull impact sounded as Guru's body jolted backward as if struck by high-voltage electricity. He slammed heavily against the back of his stone throne.
"Great Elder!" Nail shouted, rushing forward to support him.
"Haa… haa… haa…"
Guru gasped violently, staring at Krillin as if he were some kind of existence that should not belong to this dimension at all.
"You… what kind of life form are you?"
His voice trembled.
"There are no shackles inside you… The shackles the universe places on life itself… have been broken within you!"
Krillin scratched his burning bald head.
"I'm just an ordinary Earthling. I do some push-ups, run a bit. Maybe I just trained a little harder than average?"
"An… ordinary Earthling?"
Guru gave a bitter laugh, as if he had just heard the greatest joke in existence.
Despite the chaos, the system notification still arrived as usual.
[Ding! Guru's potential awakening has further activated the host's bodily functions.]
[Saitama Template Fusion: 45% → 50%]
[New Trait Unlocked: Infinite Stamina (Passive)]
[Current Status Update:]
[Host: Krillin]
[Race: Earthling (Transcendent Regenerative Body)]
[Combat Power: ??? (Limiter broken, reference only: 120,000 under suppression)]
[Special Forms: Super Bald Form (instant activation), Divine Buddha Form (charge required)]
Krillin clenched his fist.
There was no explosive aura like Goku, but he could clearly feel something different.
His control over power had improved again.
The vague sense that he might accidentally destroy a planet with one punch had diminished, replaced by precise, controlled strength.
"Thanks, Guru."
Krillin tossed a Senzu Bean toward Nail.
"Feed this to the Elder. It restores stamina."
Nail caught it, hesitated, then did as instructed.
The moment Guru swallowed it, his weakened aura instantly stabilized, even becoming more vibrant than before.
"A miraculous bean…"
Guru muttered, then his expression turned solemn.
"That demon… Frieza… his patience has run out."
As if to confirm his words—
BOOOOOOM!
The sky outside the stone house turned a deep purple-black.
A suffocating, violent, and utterly evil aura descended like a tidal wave, swallowing the entire plateau.
"That energy…" Goku's expression changed.
The Emperor of the Universe had arrived.
Frieza.
"What an unpleasant feeling."
Frieza rotated his neck, cracking it loudly.
"A bunch of monkeys thinking they can oppose me?"
He slowly descended onto the platform outside the stone house.
But instead of attacking immediately, his crimson eyes locked onto the Namekian standing at the entrance.
Piccolo.
"Oh? Another Namekian?"
"Combat power… hmm? Forty thousand? Fifty thousand? So Namek can produce this level of fighters?"
"Not bad. Much stronger than the trash I've seen so far. Are you the guard dog here?"
Frieza sneered.
Piccolo said nothing, his expression cold. Inside, however, turmoil raged.
Guru's words. Krillin's unimaginable strength. Everything was shaking his pride.
"If I don't do something… I'll be left behind completely."
At that moment, the door opened.
Nail stepped out.
As Guru's personal guardian and the strongest Namekian warrior, Nail's power reached 42,000.
But compared to Frieza's 530,000, despair filled him.
"You are not his opponent. Neither am I."
Nail spoke quietly beside Piccolo.
"Of course I know that."
Piccolo snorted.
"But I won't sit inside like a coward while Goku goes out there to fight."
Nail looked at him, eyes firm.
"The Great Elder was right. You possess the potential of a Super Namekian, but you are incomplete because of your split nature."
Nail suddenly placed a hand on his chest.
"This is not sacrifice. This is assimilation. If I give you everything, maybe you can reach a level that can fight him."
"Assimilation?" Piccolo frowned.
"Yes."
Nail's gaze was steady.
"My power, my experience, my life force. If all of it goes to you, you may be able to stand against that monster."
"Don't be ridiculous!"
Piccolo slapped his hand away.
"You want me to absorb you? I am Piccolo. I don't need that kind of method…"
"This is not absorption!"
Nail shouted.
"This is for Namek! For the Great Elder! If you refuse, we all die!"
"That bald Earthling might win, but that is his victory, not Namek's!"
"Do you want our homeland saved entirely by outsiders?"
Those words struck Piccolo like a hammer.
Yes.
This was his homeland.
Even if he denied it, the anger he felt watching his people die, seeing Guru's condition, was real.
Piccolo turned away.
"If you're so eager to die, fine."
"But I'll be the one in control. If your consciousness interferes, I'll remove you."
Nail smiled, a look of relief.
"Don't worry… I am only power."
He placed his palm on Piccolo's chest.
"Take all of me."
At that instant—
Frieza's patience finally snapped.
"This kind of boring act… how long are you going to continue?"
He raised a finger.
A purple death beam condensed at the tip.
"If you like talking so much, then talk in hell."
Shooo!
The beam shot forward, too fast to see.
"Dodge it!" Gohan shouted from inside.
But before it could reach Nail—
A green hand casually reached out and caught it.
Sizzle… crackle…
The death beam, capable of piercing mountains, shattered like a fragile twig.
Frieza narrowed his eyes.
The light faded.
Nail was gone.
Only Piccolo remained.
But his aura had completely changed.
Deep emerald energy now surrounded him, wild yet full of life.
No muscle transformation. No flashy change.
Just standing there made space itself distort.
[System Scan: Piccolo (Assimilated State)]
[Combat Power: 1,200,000]
[Evaluation: A mathematical miracle. 40,000 + 40,000 does not equal 80,000. In Namekian assimilation logic, it becomes qualitative evolution.]
Inside the stone house, Krillin raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, that's a nice jump. Twenty to thirty times increase?"
Goku was stunned.
"Amazing! His energy feels completely different!"
Piccolo slowly raised his head.
Inside him, Nail's consciousness had not disappeared. It had become pure battle instinct and memory, fully integrated.
He could feel Nail's rage, grief, and determination to protect Namek.
"This feeling…"
Piccolo clenched his fist.
"Is this power?"
He looked at Frieza.
The fear he once felt was gone.
Replaced by absolute confidence.
"I kept you waiting."
Piccolo pointed at Frieza, a cruel smile forming.
Frieza froze.
"Did you just… call me short?"
His expression twisted.
"Very good. It seems you really don't understand what death means."
BOOM!
Piccolo vanished.
A split second later, his fist sank deep into Frieza's stomach.
"Guh…!"
Frieza coughed violently, his eyes bulging.
Piccolo's voice came from beside his ear.
"Just what?"
"Trash?"
CRACK!
A brutal strike sent Frieza crashing into the ground, forming a massive crater.
Silence.
Inside the house, Gohan's jaw dropped.
"He… he actually hit him?"
Goku grinned.
"So fast! Even I couldn't fully track that!"
Krillin calmly sipped his cola.
"Yep. That's how it should be."
But his eyes shifted slightly.
The system displayed Frieza's status.
[Frieza: Lightly damaged, rage level MAX]
[Transformation warning: Second form imminent]
Krillin muttered.
"Now things are getting interesting."
--------------------------------
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