[Vegeta! Vegeta!!]
[You should be able to hear me. I'm North Kai, one of the four Kais who oversee the eastern, southern, western, and northern parts of the universe. I'm also the god who governs our North Galaxy. I'm contacting you through a special method...]
[Don't cut off our telepathic connection just yet. We may not know each other, and you may never even have heard of me, but I have to tell you something—and you have to take it seriously. Your life and the future of this universe depend on it.]
[The Frieza you're facing has another transformation!]
[With your strength, you should be able to kill Frieza right now! So don't hesitate, and don't doubt yourself. If he completes his final transformation, then even if you become the Legendary Super Saiyan, I'm afraid you still won't be able to defeat him...]
With his formidable combat ability and nimble fighting style, Vegeta kept Frieza firmly on the defensive.
He could no longer make Frieza tremble with fear as effortlessly as before.
But Frieza still couldn't gain the slightest advantage.
Just as Vegeta had expected, their power levels were evenly matched, and he could keep Frieza pinned down.
The fight had been going smoothly—at least, Frieza's third form made a pretty good punching bag.
Then a steady stream of voices started echoing in his mind.
They were disrupting his performance in battle and distracting him, allowing Frieza to seize a slight advantage and launch a powerful counterattack.
Even the densest person in the world would have known who was speaking and what he wanted.
Before facing Frieza, if North Kai had contacted him, Vegeta might have been willing to show him some courtesy.
They could have built a good relationship, and North Kai might have been useful to have in his corner.
But showing up now was terrible timing. He was treating Vegeta like a tool, plain and simple.
As he fought off Frieza's frenzied assault, Vegeta let his guard down for just a moment. Frieza seized the opening and slammed a fist into his chest, sending him hurtling backward.
Before Vegeta could recover, a terrifying blast of energy came roaring toward him. In the blink of an eye, it swallowed him whole.
"Rumble~~~!!!"
The energy blast tore off into the distance, its terrifying force seemingly splitting the world in two and leaving behind a horrifying chasm.
The water's surface was cleaved apart. Islands in the blast's path were reduced to fragments if they were small, while larger ones were sliced in half.
"Oh ho ho ho~~! Vegeta, you let your guard down while fighting me. You really are far too arrogant! I warned you: defy me, and you die!!" Frieza laughed aloud.
That attack should have either killed Vegeta or left him grievously wounded.
Once Vegeta had taken a serious blow, he would no longer be a threat.
Thick smoke shrouded the spot where Vegeta had been, lingering for a long time.
It looked as though Vegeta had truly been killed, not a trace of life remaining.
Frieza laughed even louder, hurling one cutting remark after another at Vegeta.
As the seconds ticked by, Frieza had no idea that Vegeta was talking with North Kai.
No, that wasn't right!
North Kai was getting an earful from Vegeta.
Vegeta had been fighting just fine, steadily overpowering Frieza, until North Kai showed up and threw off his rhythm.
When two fighters were evenly matched, even the slightest change or miscalculation could decide the outcome.
In a battle to the death, it could determine who lived and who died.
North Kai had no grounds to argue with Vegeta's scolding.
After all, he was the one who had given Frieza an opening to land attack after attack.
He was lucky Vegeta was strong enough to survive. Otherwise, he really would have died just then.
After ending his conversation with North Kai, Vegeta heard Frieza's taunts ringing in his ears. Frieza was simply bragging about his strength and mocking Vegeta's foolishness.
"Man... life has two great illusions: your phone vibrating, and thinking you can turn things around... You're falling for the second one right now. Weren't two lessons enough? You had to try it one more time." Vegeta sighed in exasperation, shook his head, and spoke.
His voice rang out, and Frieza's laughter abruptly stopped.
Frieza never would have expected Vegeta to wait two whole minutes before speaking—and then to say something like that.
"You... you're still alive?! How is that possible?!" As the smoke cleared, Frieza's eyes widened at the sight of Vegeta.
Vegeta had taken all those attacks and hadn't suffered so much as a scratch.
More importantly, if he was fine, why had he played dead for so long, letting Frieza celebrate and run his mouth?
Now Frieza was the one who'd been made to look foolish again.
He didn't know what Vegeta meant by the first great illusion, the phone vibrating, but he'd accept the second one: thinking he could turn things around.
He really had underestimated Vegeta, thinking he could kill him in one fell swoop.
Now it seemed that unless he transformed into his final form, he couldn't take Vegeta down.
"No need to look so surprised. Isn't it perfectly normal that I'm still alive? I was just letting you savor the taste of victory. This game is about over, so you can transform into your final form now." Vegeta spoke directly to Frieza.
He hadn't listened to North Kai's warning at all.
That was because he understood Frieza better than North Kai did.
Frieza's eyes widened and his mouth fell open at Vegeta's words.
After a long pause, he finally managed to say, "How... how did you know I had another transformation?"
He had wanted to say so earlier, but had held his tongue.
Now Vegeta had brought it up himself. His trump card had apparently been known all along.
To be honest, Frieza hadn't been all that shocked when Vegeta first realized he could transform again. Once he knew Frieza could transform, it wasn't hard to guess he might be able to transform a second time.
But now Vegeta had described his final form. That clearly wasn't a guess. He knew exactly what it was.
Vegeta didn't answer. Frieza's expression darkened again. "So you knew from the very beginning and kept quiet just to watch me make a fool of myself?!"
"I didn't make a fool of you. You did that yourself by thinking too highly of yourself. You underestimated me so badly that after every transformation, you thought you could kill me." Vegeta replied coldly.
"You're so confident you can stand against my final form? You have no idea how terrifying my power will be once I complete my final transformation." Frieza suddenly regained his composure, and his aura shifted dramatically, becoming entirely different from before.
Vegeta felt the change and prepared himself.
"Enough. Instead of wasting time talking, why don't you transform already?" Vegeta said.