The Third Wish

Porunga's crimson giant eyes lowered, like a pair of burning stars hanging above the temple. Its voice rolled across the earth, making the white pebbles rattle and bounce.

"The third—and your final wish. What is it?"

Ji Ming stood where he was, golden aura quietly burning around him. Everyone watched him—Guru leaned his aged body forward slightly from his stone chair, Nail clenched his fists, Vegeta cast a sideways glance from the corner of his eye, and Son Goku sat cross-legged on the ground. His eyes remained closed, but the corner of his mouth twitched faintly.

Frieza's finger hovered over his spacecraft's attack button, his blood-red eyes narrowed to slits. He had not struck yet—because he, too, wanted to know what this child's third wish would be. Immortality? Power? Or was he foolish enough to wish for Frieza's immediate destruction? If it was the last one, Frieza would blast that brat's mouth apart before he could finish speaking.

Ji Ming took a deep breath and spoke. His voice was not loud, yet beneath the temple dome, it was exceptionally clear.

"Porunga, my third wish—please raise my normal-state battle power to the same level as my Super Saiyan form. Once I transform into a Super Saiyan, it will no longer be a multiplicative boost. Instead, fuse the Super Saiyan's power into my normal state, so that at any time, without transforming at all, I can fully wield the strength of a Super Saiyan."

The entire place fell silent.

Krillin's mouth hung open, his bald head gleaming beneath the golden light. He nudged Tien Shinhan beside him with his elbow and whispered, "What did he just say? His normal state is equal to Super Saiyan? Then what happens after he transforms?"

All three of Tien Shinhan's eyes widened, but he did not answer.

Vegeta's pupils contracted sharply. He had undergone potential unlocking before, and he knew what that kind of power meant. But having one's normal state equal a Super Saiyan—such a realm had never existed even in legend. In other words, if this child fulfilled that wish, he would not need to transform. His usual base battle power would already be 400,000; and if he transformed into a Super Saiyan on top of that, his power would leap directly to the sum of his original Super Saiyan strength and normal-state strength. That was not doubling. That was stacking.

Frieza's smile vanished completely. Of course he understood Namekian. A normal-state battle power reaching Super Saiyan level—this brat was not simply wishing to become stronger. He was rewriting the Saiyans' rules of combat from the ground up.

Porunga fell silent for a moment. Its crimson giant eyes flickered longer than they had for the previous two wishes, its massive body trembling faintly as dark-gold scales scraped against one another with a fine rustling sound.

"This wish touches upon the fundamental limits of a living being. The fusion of your normal state and Super Saiyan state requires the simultaneous reconstruction of both your body and soul. The pain will far exceed that of a single potential unlocking. Are you certain?"

"I am."

When Ji Ming spoke those three words, what flashed through his mind was not battle, not Frieza, but a month ago in the Gravity Chamber on Mount Paozu. He had been sprawled on the floor, unable to get up, when Vegeta stood at the door and told him, "Your limits are decided by you." He did not know how far back Porunga's definition of "limits" would be pushed, but he knew better than anyone—for Frieza, what he needed was no longer a "multiplier," but a "foundation."

Porunga's eyes suddenly erupted with a crimson radiance even more blinding than before.

"As you wish."

In the span of two heartbeats, pillars of light shot out from all seven Dragon Balls at once and converged on Ji Ming. In that instant, unbearable pain tore his world apart.

It was not merely physical pain—or rather, his body hurt too, but deeper within, his soul was being taken apart. He felt every cell in his body being crushed by some force, then reassembled, then crushed again, then reassembled again. The wall between his normal state and Super Saiyan state was not opened; it was ripped away entirely. His body was being remade into a new form that belonged to no stage in Saiyan evolution.

The golden aura did not erupt. Instead, it collapsed inward. His hair shifted from black to gold, then gold to black, alternating countless times before finally settling into black. The aura around him changed from gold into pure white, but the thickness and density of that white light were no different from when he had previously transformed into a Super Saiyan.

The temple shook beneath his feet, cracks spreading from the edge of the stone platform to the base of the mountain wall. The old Namekian warriors watching instinctively backed away several steps, squinting to avoid the blinding white light.

Ji Ming stood still, lowering his head to look at his hands.

Normal-state battle power—over 400,000. Exactly the same as when he had transformed into a Super Saiyan moments ago. His energy was still rising, and the reconstruction effect added by Porunga continued to echo deep within him. He could feel that the switch for Super Saiyan transformation was still there, but it was no longer a valve for "multiplicative enhancement." It had become an entrance to another, more fundamental power.

He looked up at Porunga, his voice steady. "Thank you."

Porunga did not answer. Its light began to fade, and the seven Dragon Balls shifted from gold to grayish white before rolling to the ground one after another with dull thuds. The Dragon God's massive body began turning into motes of light from its tail onward, drifting upward and merging into the dark yellow sky before finally vanishing into the blazing white point at the zenith. A trace of ancient aura remained in the air, but the temple had returned to silence.

Frieza finally smiled.

But all that smile revealed was icy killing intent. He rose from his spacecraft and slowly rolled his neck, his vertebrae cracking crisply.

"Interesting. Your normal state possesses a Super Saiyan's battle power? Then tell me—which is stronger, a normal-state Super Saiyan or my ultimate form?"

Ji Ming turned to face Frieza. White aura burned quietly around him, illuminating his four-year-old face. His emerald-green pupils were like two frozen jade stones.

"Let's find out."

Frieza leaped down from his spacecraft. The instant his feet hit the ground, the rock beneath him exploded into a deep crater dozens of meters wide. His body began to change—not through a gradual transformation, but by directly skipping his second form and entering his third. His shoulders swelled and broadened, his head elongated, and his purple shell peeled outward to reveal dark-red biological armor beneath. Aura burst from his body, making the surrounding air tremble.

"My second form would be too polite for you." Frieza's voice changed during the transformation, becoming deeper and carrying the hiss of some reptile. "Third form, battle power—three million."

Vegeta narrowed his eyes, one hand moving to the clasp of his battle armor. Purple light began gathering at Piccolo's fingertips for a Special Beam Cannon. Nail crushed a ring of stone fragments beneath his feet as his body bent slightly forward. But Ji Ming raised his right hand in a gesture for them to wait.

"Three million in your third form—your ultimate form has 120 million. Your third form means nothing to me, Frieza. Transform directly into your ultimate form."

Frieza's movements paused for a moment. He tilted his head and examined the child with those reptilian eyes, as if looking at a madman.

But he did not comply. He wanted to personally test just how much substance this "normal-state Super Saiyan" truly had.

"Arrogant little brat."

Frieza's figure vanished from where he stood. In the next instant, he appeared directly above Ji Ming's head. He was more than a full level faster than Ginyu. There was barely even an afterimage as he moved; only an explosive burst in the air proved that he had passed through.

His tail—that tail covered in dark-red armor—lashed down like a steel whip, carrying force enough to split apart mountains. A layer of air compressed to the extreme formed a blade around its tip, releasing a sharp shriek as it cut through the air.

Ji Ming raised his left hand and swept his forearm outward to block.

Boom—!

Ji Ming's white aura collided with Frieza's tail, and the resulting shockwave shaved away a layer of the surrounding ground. White pebbles were swept up by the blast into a wall that crashed down in every direction.

Ji Ming did not budge. His left arm blocked above his head, receiving Frieza's full-power strike in his third form. His palm had only reddened slightly; not even his skin had broken.

Frieza's smile froze for a breath. Then he attacked in rapid succession—tail, fists, knees, finger-fired energy blasts. Within a single second, the density of his attacks piled up until even a scouter's refresh rate could not keep up. Those standing in the open space saw only countless afterimages darting back and forth. Every collision unleashed a pressure ring hundreds of meters wide, stripping layer after layer from the rock walls surrounding the temple.

Ji Ming blocked every strike. Then, during the opening when Frieza drew back a punch, he slammed his forehead violently into Frieza's.

A dull impact rang out. Frieza staggered back three steps, and a hairline crack appeared in the dark-red armor on his forehead. Purple blood seeped from the fracture. He reached up and touched his forehead, then lowered his gaze to the blood on his fingertips. His expression twisted in that instant. The smile remained, but beneath it was nothing but killing intent.

"A little brat raised on Earth actually managed to hurt Lord Frieza."

"Enough." Ji Ming wiped away the blood droplets splashed onto the back of his hand and looked up at him, his eyes calm. "Stop testing me with your third form. Transform directly into your ultimate form—you don't have much time."

This time, Frieza did not argue. He straightened his body, and the aura around him began to quake violently. He no longer transformed step by step, but leaped directly to the final stage. His shell, exoskeleton, and chameleon-like spined fins all peeled away in an extremely brief burst of high-speed compression, then reformed into a short, lean, pure-white ultimate body.

Ultimate form.

He stood less than one and a half meters tall, a full half shorter than his third form. His entire body was pure white and impossibly smooth, with only purple, shell-like patches remaining on his head, shoulder blades, and wrists. His eyes were still blood-red, but the pupils had vanished, leaving nothing but pure crimson light. His ki no longer flared outward; it was all drawn inward into his body—making him seem even "quieter" than in his third form. Yet the oppressive presence saturating the air made Krillin's knees buckle in the distance, nearly forcing him to his knees.

"Power level... one hundred and twenty million." Frieza smiled, his voice returning to that shrill yet gentle tone. But this time, there was no trace of pretense beneath that gentleness—only pure cruelty and anticipation for slaughter. "Normally, I wouldn't transform into this form so quickly. But you were right—I don't have much time. Because in five minutes, I'll erase every one of you, along with this planet, from the universe."

His ki began to burn. It did not erupt outward, but compressed inward—centered on him, the air within dozens of meters was sucked dry. Pebbles floated into the air before being ground into powder by invisible pressure. Cracks spread through the temple pillars beneath the unseen force, while chalky dust continuously rained down from the dome.

Ji Ming's feet sank several centimeters into the ground, and his bones felt as though they had been struck by a blacksmith's hammer. This was not a ki blast. It was merely a "side effect" of Frieza releasing his ki in his final form.

One hundred and twenty million.

Ji Ming took a breath as his white aura began shifting toward gold. His base form had already stabilized at the Super Saiyan level. Now—he would transform into a Super Saiyan again on top of that level. But this time, he was not stacking power on top of power. He was unlocking it.

A golden aura exploded from his body. His black hair did not change—because his base form already had black hair—but the ki surrounding him shifted from white back into dazzling gold. Its radiance was deeper than his previous Super Saiyan form, golden light laced with flickering silver-white arcs of electricity. The ground caved in beneath him, with cracks spreading outward like a spiderweb. The air heated until it gave off a low hum, and the entire temple trembled.

Krillin clutched the fabric over his chest, his lips moving soundlessly. "His base form is already Super Saiyan, and he stacked another layer on top of it... What even is his power level now...?"

Vegeta fell silent for several seconds, his chest heaving as he said nothing. Shock and unwillingness flashed through his eyes at once, but in the end, all those emotions sank away, becoming a silence only a warrior could understand. He no longer intended to compare himself with this brat—at least, not for now. Purple flames ignited around his feet again as he rose into the air and swept to the side, completely yielding the front of the battlefield to Ji Ming.

Ji Ming and Frieza stood face-to-face. They were about the same height—Frieza was one and a half meters tall, while Ji Ming, at four and a half years old, was only half a head shorter. Yet the ki surrounding them had already made the ground throughout the temple grounds tremble as if the crust itself could no longer endure it.

"One hundred and twenty million." Frieza softly repeated his own power level, as though savoring a delicacy about to reach his mouth. "Even if you used the third wish and stacked your base form with Super Saiyan, you still can't reach half of my power. You think you can beat me in this state?"

Ji Ming smiled faintly.

"With my current power, sure, you can say that. But my strength is still rising—the potential Porunga left behind hasn't been fully released yet. And you, Frieza—you used your final form from the start. Your base is higher than ever, but you haven't reached the level of a god. Once I endure the strongest first five minutes, every second you drag this out after that will only weaken you."

Frieza slowly clenched his fists at his sides, and the rock beneath his feet silently turned to dust.

Before the words had even faded, both of them moved at once.

The two figures collided above the temple without any probing or technical feints—just a pure clash of power, neither dodging nor yielding. Their fists shot straight at each other along the most primitive trajectories. The instant their knuckles met, time seemed to freeze for half a breath. Then, at the point where their fists collided, space appeared to be torn apart from within and without by two invisible giant hands. A sphere of energy compressed to the absolute limit rapidly expanded—without a sound, because the shockwave had swallowed all sound in that instant.

Then came the delayed explosion.

BOOOOOOM—!!!

Half the temple was shaved into dust by the shockwave. The blast spread outward, scattering clouds within a ten-kilometer radius, stripping a layer from the mountains, and raising enormous waves dozens of meters high across distant Namek lakes. Above the temple ruins came a fine, dense cracking sound from extremely high overhead—the edge of the atmosphere had actually been forcibly torn open by a tiny fissure.

The golden and white spheres of light rose from the ruins at the same time and collided again in midair. Looking down from Namek's sky, the outline of the temple could no longer be distinguished on the ground. Only two trails of light remained, chasing, crashing, and tearing at each other.

Vegeta stared up at the sky, purple flames burning around him as his brow furrowed tightly. What he had told Son Goku earlier had not been bragging. Frieza truly was stronger than he had imagined, and the oppressive force of his final form was nearly suffocating. But Vegeta did not hold back any longer. He kicked off the ground and transformed into a streak of violet light, shooting toward the sky as well.

"Piccolo! Nail! Flank him!" Vegeta's voice exploded through the sky.

"Don't give me orders." Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon had already finished charging. The purple beam spun rapidly at his fingertips, giving off a piercing hum.

Nail rose into the air from a mountain slope on the other side, condensing a rapidly spinning golden ki sphere between his palms. Planet Namek's strongest warrior had gathered his offensive technique—formed with a single breath of ki—and prepared to fire alongside Piccolo.

Tien Shinhan planted himself firmly in midair, forming a square frame with his hands. Veins bulged on his forehead as all three eyes shone brightly. "Neo Tri-Beam!" He poured all his stamina and fighting spirit into the blast. Its target was not Frieza himself, but the air below and to Frieza's right—that was the position Ji Ming had whispered to him before the battle began, the point they needed to seal off. Krillin and Chiaotzu restrained Frieza from two directions at once: one using a Destructo Disc to cut off Frieza's escape route, the other using telekinesis to lock onto Frieza's senses.

Son Goku still sat cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed. The crimson aura of twentyfold Kaio-ken slowly flowed around him, his ki continuously compressing deep within his dantian. He was waiting. Waiting for the moment Frieza began to weaken.

In the main aerial battlefield, Frieza blasted away the attacks from both flanks in rapid succession, then swept his tail toward Ji Ming's waist as he gave chase. Ji Ming neither dodged nor evaded, raising his left arm to block the tail once more—but this time, an even more violent shockwave exploded from the point of impact.

The corner of Frieza's mouth curled upward. "This child's strength is still rising. But with your current power, clashing head-on against my final form, you can last only a few more minutes at most."

Ji Ming's left arm had actually turned red, and smoke faintly rose from his skin. Yet he did not cry out in pain. Instead, he smiled. It was the expression of a true battle maniac.

"Is that so?" Ji Ming's body flashed, golden aura surging over his arm. Pain did not stop him—when every blow he endured helped force his remaining potential to the surface, suffering was merely a propellant. The next second, he appeared directly above Frieza, clasped both fists together, and smashed down viciously.

Frieza twisted aside. Ji Ming's fists grazed his cheek and slammed into the ground. The earth split open into a bottomless canyon, magma bursting out from the fissure. Yet Frieza only slid back half a step, standing on empty air as he coldly watched the gorge. That had not been formed by brute force pressing down—it was because the child's fist pressure had been too concentrated, precisely driving all that destructive force deep into the rock strata.

"You little brat—how did you manage this with just a single Dragon Ball wish?"

"It wasn't something I achieved in a day." Ji Ming breathed out half a breath in the air and readjusted his stance.

His Super Saiyan body in base form was merging with his Super Saiyan transformation—the two levels of power were no longer being calculated as stacked multipliers, but were beginning to "merge." What Porunga had granted him was not merely a numerical increase. It had turned his body into a vessel capable of carrying higher-tier power. At this very moment, every time he blocked one of Frieza's lethal attacks—every time he approached his limit—a tiny portion of his potential was released as new strength, raising the vessel's upper limit.

Amid the temple ruins, Guru sat in his stone chair, his gaze piercing through smoke and flames as he watched the golden radiance burning continuously in the sky. His antennae trembled slightly as he sensed the child's ki.

"His potential has undergone a second breakthrough," Guru said softly, his voice carrying an ancient satisfaction. "Two forces of different origins within him are completing their final fusion. If he survives this battle, his base power will no longer be limited by the Saiyan evolutionary framework."

Nail clenched his fists beside him, his fingertips digging into his palms. He did not dare lose focus, as the ki sphere between his hands was still charging, but his antennae unconsciously angled slightly toward the child. He had heard of Frieza's terror since childhood, and now he had seen it firsthand. That a wish from a dragon could allow a child to clash head-on with such a monster—there had never been any record of that in any legend.

In the sky, the golden sphere and white sphere collided once more.

The golden light left the collision zone first. Frieza's white silhouette gave chase relentlessly, his punches now too fast for even the wreckage of scouters to catch any signal. Ji Ming was slightly slower, but he always managed to meet his opponent's overcharged heavy blows at the most favorable angles and bleed away their force.

"How much longer can you hold out?" Frieza's voice exploded nearby as a knee strike surged upward from below.

"Longer than you."

Ji Ming crossed his arms to block Frieza's knee and was blasted high into the sky. He flipped twice in the air to steady himself, then wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

Frieza watched him wipe away the blood, his smile widening. He had no intention of giving this brat room to catch his breath. Every time one clash ended, his next attack was already charged. To the current Ji Ming, every punch from one hundred and twenty million hit with the weight of a meteor crashing to earth. The gap in raw destructive power still existed—but it was slowly shrinking with time.

The demon king was pressing the legend hard, yet could not kill him; meanwhile, the legend's power continued to rise. This battle had changed from the initial one-sided crushing into a brutal war of attrition, blades drawn and blood spilled.

Ji Ming's arms had begun to go numb, but the cold, unfeeling counter in his mind kept ticking. Frieza's final form had been active for nearly three minutes—his ki was quietly declining. The peak of one hundred and twenty million had fallen into the range of a little over one hundred million. He still held an absolute advantage, but the trend was already clear.

One more minute. As long as he lasted one more minute, the scales of victory would begin to tip.

Without realizing it, he compressed his ki more tightly in front of him. After the next collision, the golden light did not retreat. Instead, it actively charged into Frieza's pursuit line. The frequency of fist pressure, blade-like kicks, elbows, and knees abruptly increased. This time, he seized half a measure of initiative from the demon king's rhythm.

The spectators on the ground fell silent. Krillin still held the preparatory stance for his Destructo Disc, but the disc remained hovering at his fingertips, unable to launch—his hand was shaking. Not from fear, but because he realized that even if he pushed his ki to the limit, he could find no opening in that central aerial clash where he could intervene.

Piccolo finally made his move.

The Special Beam Cannon shot from his fingertips, thin as a needle and fast as lightning, carving an almost invisible violet line through the turbulent ki currents rolling across the sky. It was not aimed at Frieza head-on. Instead, it was placed in advance at the point where Frieza's next evasive movement would land—the timing was flawless down to the smallest fraction, so precise that even Nail could not help letting out a quiet sigh of admiration in his heart.

Frieza was grazed across the shoulder blade by the Special Beam Cannon as he dodged sideways. For the first time, a charred dent appeared on his pure white shell. Purple beads of blood seeped from deep within the dent. His eyes narrowed slightly, and with a backhanded Death Beam, he blasted Piccolo into a distant mountainside.

"Annoying." Frieza's voice was soft, yet filled with irritation.

But in that "annoying" opening, Ji Ming's knee had already driven into his abdomen. Golden ki surged in through the knee, bending Frieza's body like a shrimp and making him spit out a spray of purple blood.

That blow landed solidly.

Frieza's expression finally changed. It was not anger, but disbelief. Since when had this brat been able to keep up with his speed? The reaction speed of his transformed state, layered atop his normal Super Saiyan form, was slowly dragging him down from his throne.

The battle in the sky turned into a suffocating deadlock.

Guru took a deep breath. "His potential has completed its second breakthrough. Whether he can rise any further depends entirely on how much pain he can endure."

Above the temple, Frieza lowered his head to look at the bruise on his abdomen where Ji Ming's knee had struck. Purple streaks of blood stood out starkly against his pure white shell. His expression was no longer elegant, nor did it carry any trace of mockery. In its place was killing intent so cold it reached the extreme.

"You little brat," he said softly. "You actually managed to injure my ultimate form—you really think that means you'll live to reach the next planet? I'll erase you, along with this planet, from the universe."

"Death Ball..." Vegeta's voice suddenly turned hoarse as he kicked off the ground, preparing to rush forward.

But Ji Ming was faster.

He neither dodged nor defended. Instead, he charged straight at the swelling black energy sphere. The golden aura before him rapidly drew inward, compressing into a cone-shaped blade of ki.

"Break—!!"

His whole body became a golden meteor as he crashed into the core of the Death Ball. Everyone's pupils contracted in that instant—Ji Ming clasped his fists together and slammed them down on the most unstable point inside the energy sphere.

The black sphere shook violently. Cracks spread across its surface, releasing a deep, rasping wail that belonged to no audible frequency. It did not explode. It was forcibly dispersed—the force field within was destroyed by Ji Ming at its core, and amid a piercing shattering sound, the black substance broke apart into countless fragments of light that scattered in every direction.

After a deathly silence, the aftershock erupted. Ji Ming was blasted far away by the recoil before he managed to steady himself again. Most of one sleeve of his battle suit had been shredded, and he was gasping heavily.

"You—" Frieza stared wide-eyed, unable to find the words.

Before he could finish, a violet flash fiercely tore into the battlefield from below. Vegeta's fist smashed into Frieza's face, knocking his head to one side. Then came a second punch, a third—not a simple combo, but each strike followed a different line of attack: left hooks, right straights, elbow strikes, knee strikes, whipping kicks, and reverse sweeps.

"Vegeta." Frieza caught his fourth punch with one hand. His five fingers tightened, making Vegeta's fist crack and creak. "You're still as overconfident as ever—but this overconfidence is a little stronger than before."

"Not a little." Vegeta looked down at him coldly, violet flames on his fist tearing furiously against Frieza's white ki. "You'll find out soon enough."

Frieza narrowed his eyes as another violet flash entered his sight—the Special Beam Cannon fired for a second time. Piccolo had struggled back out of the mountainside, once again fully charging his aim with arms he could barely lift. Nail's golden ki blasts followed close behind, forcing Frieza into the airspace Tien Shinhan had sealed off beforehand.

The flashes from a chain of intersecting ki blast explosions once again turned the sky above the temple as bright as day.