Goku appeared over the southeastern horizon, then landed before them after a few flashes.
"Dad, how did it go?" Gohan stepped forward.
Goku's expression was several degrees grimmer than when he had left. "More troublesome than I imagined."
He crouched and drew a crude diagram on the ground with his finger. "The main node is over two thousand meters underground. It's a... how should I put it, an extremely large space. I couldn't get inside, but I could feel the life energy within it pulsing. It's still in the developmental stage, but it's already very powerful."
"How powerful?" Piccolo asked.
"Put it this way," Goku said carefully, "using King Frieza as a reference, it's probably dozens of times stronger than that. And it's still growing."
Vegeta snorted. "That's it? Three days ago, I took out that carrier with one punch."
"It's different." Goku shook his head. "The carrier was just a tentacle. The main node is the real body. Think of it this way: if you kill one ant, can you wipe out the entire colony?"
Gohan stared at the diagram on the ground, his mind racing. A depth of two thousand meters meant the enemy held the terrain advantage. Charging in recklessly would mean enduring immense pressure from the environment. But if they waited for the main node to finish developing, then... "How long is our window?" he asked.
"If my estimate is correct, three to five days," Goku said. "Before then, it still needs more energy to sustain its complete form. But once it's finished..."
He did not finish, but they all understood what that meant.
"What if we attack the main node directly?" Piccolo proposed the first plan. "Gather all our strength and force our way underground."
Goku shook his head. "I checked the route. Two thousand