Lapis Lazuli Flame

North Kai's Planet had truly suffered a streak of catastrophic bad luck today.

On this palm-sized asteroid, even the wind had been forcibly cut off. It was not that the air had vanished, but that it had been crushed beneath an incomparably savage aura. The grass beneath Son Goku's feet had long been scorched to ash by the heat. The hard earth cracked inch by inch under the crushing pressure, and the entire planet trembled violently beneath this berserk energy.

"Crack... crack-crack..."

A series of grating, muffled sounds rang out from deep within Son Goku's bones.

His bones were not breaking. Rather, the limit shackles buried deep in his Saiyan cells had finally cracked beneath the hammering force of the Tenfold Kaioken's full thirty million battle power!

The red aura rampaged through his muscles and blood vessels like blades. The burden of the Tenfold Kaioken was downright lethal; only Son Goku could endure it. Anyone else would have exploded into a cloud of bloody mist, skin and bones alike. Relying on the monstrous body he had forged through countless near-death experiences in the gravity chamber, he clenched his back teeth and forcibly contained the energy that was enough to burst a person apart.

Son Goku suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze filled with the feverish zeal of one breaking past his limits. An utterly suppressed growl rolled from his throat.

"Tenfold... Kaioken!!"

Boom—!

That low roar exploded across North Kai's Planet like thunder, and a scorching dark-red aura, as tangible as volcanic lava, erupted from Son Goku's body in an instant!

The violent airflow shredded all the gravity grass within ten meters into powder. This asteroid, with ten times Earth's gravity, actually let out a groan of strain at that moment.

The muscles all over Son Goku's body bulged high, and his skin flushed crimson from the extreme congestion. The burden brought by the Tenfold Kaioken felt as though countless massive hammers were crazily pounding his internal organs and every bone in his body.

But he did not stop. Instead, he suddenly clenched both fists.

"Still not enough... Break for me!!"

His battle power in his normal state had already been tempered to its limit. What he needed now was a hammer capable of forcibly smashing through the genetic barrier of the Saiyans. And the crushing burden and rampaging aura of the Tenfold Kaioken were precisely the fiercest ignition hammer!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Son Goku's heart began racing at an unbelievable speed, his blood surging through his veins like a roaring river. Those Saiyan S-cells dormant deep within his genes finally reached the critical point of complete mutation under the suicidal extreme pressure of the Tenfold Kaioken!

Bzz—!

The dark-red aura suddenly froze, then seemed to be torn apart from within by some terrifying force. A dazzling golden radiance representing the pride of a Super Saiyan crazily burst forth from his brow, chest, and every limb and bone!

At the instant red and gold intertwined, the ancient Saiyan bloodline within Son Goku finally caught the scent of transformation's blood and awakened completely!

There was no rejection, nor any struggle between two powers clashing out of control.

The ancient bloodline of the same origin was like a greedy tyrannosaur, swallowing that newborn golden aura in a single bite and instantly completing the most violent, yet most perfect fusion and evolution.

Rumble—!!

A pillar of light shot skyward, brutally piercing through North Kai's Planet's atmosphere and plunging fiercely into the endless sea of clouds in the Other World!

The pillar of light dispersed.

A color that had never before appeared in the world of Dragon Ball completely illuminated the sky of this underworld.

Azure gold!

It was nothing like the somewhat glaring, impatient bright yellow of an ordinary Super Saiyan. What burned fiercely around Son Goku was an azure-gold flame as dense and heavy as liquid mercury!

The outer layer churned with golden radiance that could destroy everything, while the inner flames carried an emerald hue capable of suppressing eternity. Dense blue lightning leaped and intertwined madly through the air, releasing scalp-numbing crackles. This was not Super Saiyan 2—it was the entire world of Dragon Ball welcoming its birth!

The instant that azure-gold radiance lit up, the operating laws of the entire underworld stuttered.

The ground of North Kai's Planet collapsed over a wide area, and the soil crystallized directly under the terrifying heat and pressure. North Kai's treasured limited-edition convertible was merely brushed by a faint wave of leaking aura before it disintegrated on the spot, turning into ash that filled the sky.

Snake Way, stretching for a million kilometers, convulsed and trembled violently in the void like a dead snake pinned at its vital point.

Inside King Yemma's Palace.

Crack! The gloomy wood desk before King Yemma, said to be capable of suppressing ten thousand ghosts, split in half down the middle. The enormous King Yemma slipped onto his backside beneath the desk, staring in terror at the ceiling as dust rained down. Countless ghosts waiting in line for reincarnation were pinned to the ground by this pressure that transcended dimensions, not daring even to breathe.

At the heart of the storm.

Within the surging azure-gold aura, Son Goku slowly straightened his back.

His black hair had long since transformed completely, each strand standing upright like an azure-gold sword, razor-sharp and exposed. Every flicker of blue lightning sliced apart the minute space around him.

He slowly opened his eyes.

They were a pair of deep, boundless olive-green eyes, carrying reason and the cold pride of a warrior race.

There was no mindless roar born of rage, nor a murderous berserk rampage. The ancient Saiyan bloodline had not only granted him power far beyond that of an ordinary Super Saiyan, but had also perfectly removed the manic side effect that so easily robbed one of calmness. Now, he could control his aura freely, and his composure was terrifying.

Son Goku lowered his head, looked at the hands wrapped in azure-gold light, and clenched them tightly.

Crack!

The air in his palm was crushed into an ear-splitting sonic boom.

A base battle power of three million in his normal state. A fiftyfold boost from Super Saiyan! And on top of that, the utterly unreasonable enhancement of the ancient bloodline...

A terrifying battle power of over one hundred and fifty million!

In this early timeline, where even the Androids had yet to show any sign of appearing, this was unquestionable absolute supremacy! Whether it was Cell or Majin Buu in the future, with this ironclad capital that stood above all else, he—the outsider butterfly—finally had a trace of confidence to scheme for the entire Dragon Ball universe.

"I finally did it!"

Son Goku spoke softly. His voice was not loud, yet under the vibrations of the azure-gold aura, it became rolling thunder.

He turned his head and glanced into the distance. There, North Kai was clinging tightly to Bubbles like a groundhog, with more than half his body buried in a pit overturned by the shockwave. He was trembling uncontrollably, and his iconic sunglasses had long since flown off who knew where.

The instant those azure-gold eyes swept over him, North Kai's heart skipped a beat, and he even forgot to breathe.

"King Kai."

Son Goku reined in the world-ending pressure radiating from his body. His blue-gold aura vanished in an instant, and his hair returned to its gentle, pure black.

He landed on the devastated ground, that calm smile returning to his face like a spring breeze, as though the peerless fiend who had nearly overturned the Underworld moments ago had never been him.

"Thank you for teaching me the Kaio-ken. It helped me smoothly break through that final barrier."

"Capsule Corporation will cover all your losses!"