"Times have changed, King Piccolo." Raditz stopped beside him and looked down at him.
The timing was about right.
He raised his hand. Heart-stopping energy gathered in his palm once more, its light illuminating his perpetually calm face.
"This is... the end." His voice rang clearly in King Piccolo's ears.
That slowly gathering energy.
I'm going to die... I really am!
Under the overwhelming threat of death, the instinct to survive and his obsession with revenge overcame the pride of a demon king.
"You think you can kill me that easily?!" King Piccolo roared, two beams of light shooting from his eyes toward Raditz's face.
Raditz blocked them with one hand. They did nothing but kick up a cloud of dust.
But Piccolo poured energy into his body and fled wildly toward the sky, just as he had when escaping the Evil Containment Wave.
Raditz smiled knowingly. "This is your last chance. Don't disappoint me."
Then he fired the energy wave in his hand toward the sky.
The blast ripped through the air and instantly caught up with the fleeing green figure.
Feeling its scorching, destructive force behind him, King Piccolo let out a crazed grin.
How could we, the Demon Clan, meet our end here?!
At almost the exact moment the energy wave reached him, he drained every last drop of his blood and essence, and formed a huge, milky-white egg.
Wrapped in slime and brimming with an evil aura, the egg was shot secretly toward a distant forest at incredible speed and a tricky angle, with the last of his strength.
"My child, one day, avenge your father!"
"We cannot let the roots of evil be wiped out..."
The next instant.
Boom!!
A violent explosion blossomed in the sky, forming a small mushroom cloud.
On the ground, Raditz's eyes shifted. He had kept his attention on that patch of sky and managed to catch sight of the tiny white speck.
He secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
That meant Kami was safe.
The smoke in the sky dispersed.
Master Roshi watched the traces vanish, then looked at Raditz. He opened his mouth, but for a moment, he didn't know what to say.
King Piccolo, who had ruled the world for hundreds of years and had only just regained his full strength, hadn't even announced his return to the world.
And just like that... he'd been dealt with... as if it were nothing?
Tien Shinhan struggled to sit up, fighting off his drowsiness, his eyes still filled with shock.
"It... it's over?"
The enemy he'd thought would take his life to even try to defeat had been utterly crushed by Raditz?
"For now... yes." Raditz's voice pulled the two men from their shock. He looked toward the spaceship hovering nearby. "There are still a few loose ends to take care of."
As soon as he finished speaking, he vanished in a flash and appeared on the spaceship's deck.
Inside, the Pilaf Gang huddled together, trembling.
King Piccolo had been destroyed, and now Raditz, the "menace," had suddenly appeared before them. They were even more terrified.
"P-please spare us! It wasn't our fault! King Piccolo forced us to do it!" Pilaf wailed, tears and snot running down his face as he kowtowed. Mai and the others hastily echoed him.
Raditz calmly looked them over, then fixed his gaze on some equipment near the control panel.
"I'll ask. You'll answer."
His tone brooked no argument. "How did King Piccolo find out that Tien Shinhan and I were fighting in the World Martial Arts Tournament?"
Pilaf jolted and hurriedly pointed at the computer on the control panel. "I-it was that! Not long after Lord Piccolo was relea—uh... freed, the spaceship's system received an anonymous video!"
"We... we opened it, and it was footage of the World Martial Arts Tournament! It showed you and that gentleman fighting!"
"After Lord Piccolo saw it, he... he decided to send two of his men!"
Sent anonymously?
Raditz's eyes narrowed. It wasn't unusual for spectators to record the tournament, but for someone to pinpoint King Piccolo's spaceship and send the footage anonymously... that couldn't be a coincidence.
He opened one of the devices and watched the footage.
The image was blurry, and it showed his match, but...
The footage had been taken from above, looking down!
But he hadn't seen anyone in the air at the tournament besides Tien Shinhan.
A flicker of doubt crossed Raditz's mind.
"Can you trace where it came from?" he continued.
"We... we tried, but couldn't!" Pilaf said with a miserable look. "The signal was encrypted in a strange way, with its origin relayed through layer after layer. We couldn't pinpoint it. At the time, we just assumed it was someone who didn't want their identity known but wanted to curry favor with Lord Piccolo..."
Curry favor? Raditz sneered inwardly.
This felt more like deliberate bait, meant to draw King Piccolo's attention to him and change his plans, provoking a conflict—or perhaps... observing?
Dr. Gero? The thought surfaced.
With the technology at his disposal, it wouldn't be difficult for him to pull this off.
The only question was how he'd learned of King Piccolo's release, and how he'd gotten in touch with him.
A trace of wariness stirred in Raditz. Whoever was behind this, things had already changed. Someone was deliberately stirring up trouble from the shadows.
"Um... can we leave now? We promise we'll never do anything bad again!" Pilaf asked cautiously when Raditz fell silent.
Raditz glanced at them and waved a hand.
"Thank you! Thank you, sir!" The Pilaf Gang reacted as if pardoned from death. They scrambled out of the spaceship, climbed into their small aircraft, and fled in a panic without looking back.
Raditz carefully checked the spaceship's computer again, but aside from the video, he found no further clues about the sender.
He turned and left, helpless.
Master Roshi and Chiaotzu were carefully carrying the unconscious Tien Shinhan into the aircraft.
Things here had come to an end.
After boarding, they slowly took off. Raditz suddenly said, "Master Mutten, before we head back, let's check that place first."
He pointed in a direction—the very spot where Shenron had appeared earlier.
"Over there?" Master Roshi asked, puzzled. "After Shenron grants a wish, don't the seven Dragon Balls turn into stone and fly away?"
Even so, Master Roshi agreed to take a look. There was no rush to head back.
The aircraft was fast, and they soon reached the area.
As soon as they landed, Master Roshi spotted seven round stone balls lying there.
"What are these...?" Master Roshi picked one up, took off his sunglasses, and examined it carefully. "They're definitely Dragon Balls."
"But why are they still here?"
"Maybe King Piccolo stopped them from leaving so he could make another wish?" Chiaotzu guessed.
Raditz's gaze swept over the seven stone balls. His voice was calm as he gave the answer. "You're right. He did stop them from leaving. He just killed Shenron."