Goku rose above the metallic forest, brows knitting.
One of the ancient metal trees fused and morphed into Rilldo's form. "Seems you've been underestimating me. This is my strongest state."
As he spoke, the forest liquefied at speed, becoming a sky-filling tide of molten metal that surged toward Goku like a storm-tossed sea. It covered everything—wherever he tried to go, the ground and objects there turned to metal and rushed him as well.
Even aloft, a vast net of liquid metal spread overhead to smother him from above.
Goku frowned. A blade of light formed in his hand; with a flash, he sliced Rilldo's body into several pieces. But the fragments instantly melted, pooled, and reformed—ordinary damage had no effect at all.
"Useless," Rilldo said, arms folded, thoroughly pleased with himself. "On this planet, I cannot be defeated… because I am this planet, and this planet is me. I control every scrap of metal here. You'll never beat me."
"Tch. I had hoped to play a little longer. Since that's how it is, let's finish this quickly." Goku halted and looked at Rilldo, utterly calm, as the metal deluge rushed in.
"Oh? Giving up? Then hand over the Dragon Balls. Perhaps I'll give you a painless death."
"Give up? Don't be absurd." Goku's gaze passed through the oncoming tide as if it weren't there.
A crystal-clear emerald flame bloomed in his palm. The air temperature spiked; even space itself seemed to ripple under the heat.
At the sight of that flame, Rilldo's face drained. Raw fear flashed in his eyes.
"W-what is that fire…? How can it be so hot?!"
Rilldo's voice shook. Metal fears fire by nature; as a mutant machine lifeform, this alien flame was his innate nemesis.
As a world's Sovereign, Goku could command the different Heavenly Flames within the world he created. The fire in his hand was his own—born from that world and unique to him.
The moment it appeared, Rilldo felt as though his entire body would melt. Terror clawed at him.
"Let's end this boring fight."
Goku swept his hand. The emerald fire spread across the sky. Heat so fierce it seemed to burn the Sky poured down. Metal trees and buildings alike sagged and ran like molten iron in an instant.
"Hot—too hot! How can you control a flame like this?! It burns—aaah!" Rilldo's screams turned ragged. His body glowed cherry red, smoke wreathed him, and his struggles grew feeble.
His systems overloaded under the extreme heat. Lightning spat and crackled from within. The sky-wide tide of liquid metal lost cohesion and crashed to the ground like a spent flood.
With a harsh crackling series of bursts, Rilldo's body exploded apart.
On a distant world, in a certain laboratory, Dr. Myuu stared at a giant monitor, stunned. "So my mutant machines had that weakness? I never saw it before… No—rather, I've never witnessed a flame this terrifying. No wonder I didn't know. Hah… valuable data. But that Saiyan… his energy is beyond expectation. If I could feed that power to Baby…"
Goku, for his part, eyed the broken, lifeless shell on the ground and exhaled. "Didn't expect Heavenly flame to counter mutant machines so hard. If I'd known, I'd have used it sooner and saved time."
He turned toward a distant tower. "The transporter should be in there."
He vanished.
With Rilldo dead, the robots no longer dared block him; they scattered wherever he passed.
At a transmission device, Goku pointed at a robot he'd dragged along. Terrified, it complied at once, activating the system and sending Goku to Dr. Myuu's planet.
He reappeared in a strange laboratory lined with instruments. An old man was hastily slipping through a heavy door; it slammed shut behind him.
"That must be Dr. Myuu," Goku mused, drifting down before the door. "And behind this… the secret lab where Baby is kept?"
Baby—now that was a worthy foe. Unfortunately, with Vegeta absent from this world, Baby had no perfect host. To Goku, he'd be little more than something to swat.
Goku kicked. The reinforced door tore free, whistled across the room, and struck Dr. Myuu like a freight train. With a crash and a scream, Myuu flew, crashed, and lay scraped and battered, a pathetic sight.
"D-damn it… already here…?" he rasped, glaring up, face twisted with rage.
Goku ignored him. His eyes had locked onto a massive bioculture tank at the far end of the dim chamber. Bubbles rose within; tube-lines fed into the mouth and abdomen of a small mechanical lifeform floating inside. The chamber pulsed like a beating heart. An ominous aura seeped out, chilling to the core.
"So that's Baby. Impressive ki for such a tiny body," Goku said, surprised, and started forward.
"Don't—don't come any closer to Baby!" Myuu cried, voice laced with panic… and something like desperate affection—or was it fear?
"I'm sorry, Baby… that this filthy human sees you before you're complete…"
"Filthy?" Goku's brow ticked up. He glanced coldly at Myuu. "Seems you don't grasp your situation."
He pointed. A needle of light lanced from his fingertip and punched through Myuu's head.
"Impossible…" Myuu's eyes went wide as he toppled. His skull broke apart—no blood, only sparks, and several chips spilled out. Dr. Myuu… was a robot himself.
"Pathetic. You never realized even you were just another machine Baby made… and you dream of conquering the galaxy? Laughable."
One last look at the body, and Goku vanished to the other side of the bridge, beside the culture tank.
Even if Goku hadn't killed him, Baby would have. He merely hastened the inevitable.
At that moment, two Dragon Balls tumbled from Myuu's corpse, rolled to the bridge's edge, and plopped into the pool below—unnoticed by Goku, whose attention was fixed entirely on Baby.
Gazing at the tiny life in the tank, Goku sighed. "When you grow up, you'll be formidable… but sadly, you won't get the chance."
He thrust out his hands. A Kamehameha exploded forth, obliterating the apparatus and the lifeform within.
What he didn't see was a single bead of metal slip free amid the flying shards, falling silently into the pool.
"That should do it."
After a careful sweep revealed no residual traces of Baby's body, Goku turned to leave.
He had just reached the doorway when his expression snapped taut. "What a powerful ki—what's going on?!"
He whirled—and froze, eyes widening.
---
The lake's surface heaved and spun, forming a colossal whirlpool. At its center, a small flesh-colored gelatinous mass emerged, as if liquid and solid at once—and inside it, a small sphere was clearly visible, wrapped tight. The aura spilling from it was dreadful; the ground itself trembled.
"That is—?!" Goku snatched out the Dragon Radar and frowned. "As I thought… a Dragon Ball. But how did a Dragon Ball end up there? And this… this is bad."
The mass flowed and shifted—taking on Baby's shape.
"He's not dead? How—? And that ki… it's climbing fast. What is this?" Goku stared, genuinely shocked.
Baby's small body blazed with light and swelled larger and larger. His ki speared into the sky—terrifying, malevolent, and ever-rising—enough to make even Goku's face change.
In moments he had grown to adulthood, muscles corded and powerful. The pressure radiating from him rattled the cosmos. Across the universe, even the Kaiō and Kaiōshin felt it and quailed.
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T/N:
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