With a blinding flash that illuminated the entire dark sky, Porunga's figure disappeared into thin air.
The seven Dragon Balls, having fulfilled their purpose, lost their glow, turning to stone before shooting off in seven different directions, scattering across the entire surface of New Namek like shooting stars.
Quickly, the sky recovered its natural turquoise color, returning to normal.
Zaiko watched the Dragon Balls fading into the horizon, then, he turned to Dende and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Sorry for the trouble, Dende," Zaiko apologized sincerely. "I suppose it'll be a pain for you guys to have to travel all over the planet to collect them again."
Unlike Bulma, the Namekians didn't have a Dragon Radar to find them.
Dende, to his surprise, shook his head and gave him a bright smile.
"Oh, no, Mister Zaiko, it's no problem at all. In fact, it has given us the perfect opportunity to celebrate after a long time."
Zaiko raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused.
"Celebrate?"
For a moment, Zaiko couldn't help but imagine a Namekian party...
Yeah, sorry, it looked completely boring.
They only drink water, after all.
Dende laughed lightly, covering his mouth, amused, before explaining.
"When the Dragon Balls scatter and are ready to be recovered, the Warrior Clan organizes a friendly tournament. They divide into two teams and compete in a race to see who can collect the most spheres. It's a whole festival for our people," the little one explained, his eyes shining with excitement. "I've never witnessed it before, since the Dragon Balls aren't usually used so often, so I'm very excited to see it."
"Oh," was all that came out of Zaiko's mouth after hearing it.
Clearly, he didn't expect a race like the Namekians to have such a curious and entertaining sports tradition hidden up their sleeve.
"I guess I'll miss it, since there's still a long time until the Dragon Balls are active again."
Dende nodded, bowing his head slightly. "It's really a shame, I'm sure you would have had fun."
With nothing more to add, Zaiko nodded, satisfied with how things had turned out.
"Well, in that case, I'm glad I gave you an excuse to have fun," Zaiko said. "It's time for me to go. I hope to see you again in the future, Dende, if the opportunity presents itself."
Dende nodded respectfully.
Although he was intrigued by the strange wishes Zaiko had just made, his polite nature prevented him from asking questions about it.
"Have a good trip, Mister Zaiko, I wish you the best of luck."
At that precise moment, Zaiko disappeared instantly.
He appeared again in a radically different place, the barren, dark, and stinking Planet Vampa.
He wanted to test his new Evil Saiyan State immediately, but doing it on New Namek would have caused all the Namekians on the planet to feel his twisted Ki... and that certainly wouldn't have been a good idea if he wanted to maintain a good relationship with them in the future.
He remembered how Frieza's Ki was described in the anime as an overwhelming presence that evoked fear, despair, and death, reflecting his ruthless nature and immense destructive power capable of suffocating his opponents just by being near, and he thought...
How would his feel in comparison?
Standing in the exact same spot where he had fought Broly, Zaiko smiled with excitement.
"Let's see if I haven't made the wrong decision..." he muttered.
Without warning, his aura erupted around him with deafening violence.
The ground beneath his feet cracked and sank at once.
His aura emerged first with a deep black color, mixed with light dark purple tones, very similar to the same aura that Goku Black gave off.
It was then that his dark aura began to slowly dye itself from the center, taking on light reddish tones, as if it were fresh blood flowing in the air.
Slowly, the energy turned completely red, boiling and dense, bordered and heavily stained by black-toned edges that seemed to devour the light around it.
This was the Evil Aura of the Evil Saiyan State.
While the pressure made all of Planet Vampa tremble, Zaiko calculated his new strength.
His max base power level is 8,280,000,000,000,000,000 (eight point twenty-eight quintillion).
Now, in the Evil Saiyan State... his power had skyrocketed to 2,070,000,000,000,000,000,000 (two thousand and seventy quintillion)!
That was a x250 multiplier!
His white hair had lengthened drastically, falling down his back, very similar to the Super Saiyan 3 style, with a single, characteristic lock hanging over his forehead.
Despite the change, it still maintained its natural white color, with his two horns protruding from his head, although now curving backwards, in the same direction as his hair.
Zaiko looked at his hands, feeling his power, dense and intoxicating, flowing through his veins without any kind of restriction.
He smiled, baring his teeth, and soon, that smile turned into a loud, deep, and echoing laugh.
"Hahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
His laugh resonated throughout the entire planet.
HE COULD STILL TRANSFORM INTO A SUPER SAIYAN AND KEEP THE EVIL AURA MULTIPLIER!
HE COULD STILL BE SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL!
...
It wasn't until a few hours later that Zaiko managed to calm, even if just a little, his moment of madness.
He had been so excited by the injection of power from his new state that he had been laughing like a maniac for a long time, taking advantage of the desolate landscape to test different techniques he remembered from Cumber.
It hadn't been too complicated to recreate them.
After all, Cumber was never exactly known for his great intellect.
His techniques, although powerful, were quite simple.
The technique he had enjoyed replicating the most was, without a doubt, the Disaster Eraser.
In fact, with it he had destroyed practically half of Planet Vampa in a single impact...
He absolutely hadn't done it on purpose because he really disliked this place, absolutely not.
Although he certainly didn't feel guilty at all.
Said technique simply consisted of raising a single hand towards the sky, accumulating and creating a gigantic sphere of Evil Ki, and throwing it mercilessly at the target once it was complete.
Quite simple, right?
He had already said so...
During these hours, he had also decided to try out the mythical Super Saiyan 5 for a few brief moments.
Let me tell you something...
I truly was the real Potential Man, one who did know how to take advantage of his potential.
«Screw you, Megumi Fushiguro!», he thought mockingly, claiming the title for himself once and for all.
Honestly, after feeling the overwhelming power flowing through his veins back then, he was absolutely convinced that he could effortlessly wipe the floor with a Super Saiyan Blue Vegito if he used his Super Saiyan 5 form combined with the Evil Aura multiplier.
Although maybe he was overestimating Vegito too much...
He didn't really know for sure how powerful he was, maybe he could even defeat him without needing to transform?
This was something he would find out sooner or later.
Besides...
He couldn't wait to start training for real!
Because, in case anyone hadn't noticed yet, he hadn't even started doing so!
"Hahahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
His maniacal and unhinged laugh resonated across the entire planet once again.
Yes... he had gotten excited again and, definitely, he had completely let himself go once more.
...
Zaiko finally decided that he had had enough fun for one day.
He used his teleportation and disappeared from Planet Vampa to return to New Namek and reunite with Broly and Paragus.
Upon returning, the smell of grease and roasted meat hit his nostrils almost immediately.
He found Paragus sitting on the ground in front of a massive, crackling bonfire.
To one side of the fire, several dinosaur carcasses were piled up.
Colonel Paragus had already skinned one and had it skewered on a thick log like a spit, turning it slowly with his only free hand so that the enormous beast would cook evenly on all sides.
Zaiko's mouth watered instantly upon smelling the roasted meat.
Unable to contain himself, his stomach let out a deep, highly audible growl that competed with the crackling of the flames.
Hearing the rumble, Paragus finally noticed his presence.
The old man didn't startle nor did he stop turning the spit, and looked at him out of the corner of his eye, letting out a small huff.
"So you have finally returned," Paragus said with a tone that aimed to be cold and indifferent, although the slight exhale that accompanied it betrayed an undeniable feeling of relief at seeing he hadn't abandoned them there.
Zaiko nodded, approaching the heat of the fire, without taking his eyes off the juicy dinosaur.
"Yes, I had to take care of some quick business. By the way, where is Broly?"
Paragus didn't answer; he simply averted his gaze and nodded toward the side, in the direction of the immense body of crystal-clear water extending near their makeshift camp.
Zaiko looked towards the sea and didn't see her at all on the surface, but by expanding his senses a bit, he could clearly feel her presence moving from side to side underwater.
She... was literally playing.
Imagining Broly splashing around and chasing giant fish underwater, Zaiko couldn't help but let out a small laugh.
Hearing him laugh, Paragus formed a very small and fleeting smile as he looked toward the water, remembering that, despite her power, his daughter was still quite innocent.
However, realizing that Zaiko might see him, he coughed slightly and quickly hid his smile, returning to his usual serious, frowning face.
"She's enjoying herself more than I thought," Paragus commented with a hoarse voice, focusing his attention back on the roasted meat.
Zaiko looked at him out of the corner of his eye and, in his mind, thought that this was normal.
Broly had spent her entire life trapped on a hostile planet.
She had never seen the sea, or clean water, nor had she been able to take a proper bath in her entire life.
"Alright, let me know when the food is ready," Zaiko told him, stretching his arms above his head. "I'll go take a bath too, I'm completely sweaty."
Zaiko lowered his head and sniffed his clothes.
He immediately wrinkled his nose.
Yeah, he definitely needed a dip.
Without giving it another thought, Zaiko took a step forward, walking toward the water.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Paragus stood up abruptly, throwing the log with the meat to the side.
His wrinkled face had turned completely red with anger in a fraction of a second.
He raised his arm and pointed at him with an accusing finger, trembling with fury and spitting small drops of saliva as he yelled.
"Don't you even think about taking another damn step or I swear by all my pride that I'll kill you right here, no matter what it costs me!" exclaimed the old man, blocking the path to the water. "My daughter simply threw all her clothes aside and dove into the water completely naked the moment you left! You are not going over there!"
Zaiko froze on the spot, with one foot still in the air, upon hearing him.
He opened his mouth slightly, blinking in surprise, and raised his index finger in the air, as if he were about to say something important.
He stayed in that position for a couple of seconds, then, slowly closed his mouth and lowered his finger.
After a few moments of silence, Zaiko finally looked up.
With his face completely and absolutely serious, devoid of any kind of joke, he stared directly into Paragus's eyes.
"That..." Zaiko began with a serious voice. "That just makes me want to go into the water even more."
Paragus's face, which was already red, seemed to reach a new shade of color.
The veins on his forehead and his neck bulged until they looked ready to burst, showing himself completely furious once again at Zaiko's nerve.
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