The Prison Beneath the Gods
Far beneath Frieza's palace, where the weight of destruction energy pressed down like the crushing depth of an endless ocean, there existed a place that the mortal inhabitants of Universe 7 would never know existed. No maps charted its location. No whispers carried its name. It was a void, a silence, a place where time itself seemed to stagnate.
There were no windows.
No doors that opened from the inside.
No clocks to mark the passage of hours, days, or years.
Only smooth black walls, pale violet light casting long, hollow shadows, and the faint, rhythmic pulse of suppression seals embedded deep within the chamber. The seals were invisible, but their presence was a constant, gnawing pressure against the skin, the mind, the very soul.
They didn't just suppress ki, they dulled perception, warped divine senses, and severed any hope of escape. Teleportation was impossible here. Even the natural regeneration of a Kai's body was stifled, reduced to a crawl.
Four figures sat within that suffocating silence, their presence the only disruption in the sterile, oppressive atmosphere.
Shin sat with his back against the wall, his once-regal posture now slumped from years of confinement. His head was lowered, his dark hair falling forward to obscure his face.
His hands rested loosely against his knees, but every few seconds, his fingers twitched, betraying the exhaustion that had seeped into his bones. The elegant robes that had once marked him as a Supreme Kai had long since been replaced with the simple, rough-spun garments of a prisoner.
The fabric was clean, but the man wearing it was anything but untouched.
Faint scars traced the length of his arms, thin and pale but unmistakable. Others crisscrossed his shoulders, disappearing beneath the fabric of his shirt.
Time was difficult to measure in this place. The seals made sure of that. But if Shin had to guess, years had passed since he and the others had been imprisoned.
Perhaps decades. The suppression had worn them down, not just physically, but mentally. Shin, who had once been nearly impossible to exhaust, now sometimes needed hours to recover from the simple act of standing.
Across from him, Mel sat with her knees drawn to her chest, her usually graceful posture collapsed into something guarded and weary. Her golden hair, once luminous, had dulled slightly, as if the very light had been drained from it. Beside her was Teal, the youngest of the four. She hugged her knees tightly, her small frame trembling. She was crying silently, her shoulders shaking with the effort of holding back the sound. She had learned long ago that crying loudly was dangerous.
The last time she had screamed, the chamber had filled with Frieza's destruction energy. The memory of that suffocating, crushing pressure still haunted them all.
Teal wiped her face quickly with the back of her hand, her breath hitching as she tried to steady herself.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Shin's head snapped up, his dark eyes locking onto her. "Don't apologize," he said, his voice rough but firm.
Teal shook her head, fresh tears welling in her eyes. "I shouldn't have cried."
Mel shifted closer, her hand reaching out to squeeze Teal's shoulder. "Teal," she said softly, her voice tired but warm. "You didn't do anything wrong."
Teal's lower lip trembled. "But Lord Frieza said"
"Don't repeat his words," Shin cut in, his voice sharpening. Not loud, never loud but authoritative enough that both women fell silent. The air in the chamber thickened, the weight of their shared history pressing down on them like the seals themselves.
Above them, the palace trembled.
BOOM.
The entire chamber shuddered, dust drifting from the ceiling like snow. Teal froze, her breath catching in her throat. Mel's grip on her hand tightened, her own body tensing as if bracing for impact. Shin closed his eyes, his jaw tightening. For several long seconds, no one breathed.
The vibration continued, a deep, resonant hum that seemed to vibrate through their very bones.
Once.
Twice.
Then, slowly, it faded.
Frieza.
Even when he wasn't physically present, they could feel him. His destruction energy permeated every inch of the palace above them, seeping down into the prison like an invisible tide. It was like living beneath an enormous star that could decide, at any moment, to collapse in on itself.
Teal's fingers dug into Mel's, her voice barely a whisper. "He's angry."
"We don't know that," Mel murmured, though her own eyes betrayed her unease.
"But the pressure" Teal began.
"Don't think about it," Shin interrupted, his voice low. He didn't need to say more. They all knew what Frieza's anger meant. They had all felt it before, the way the air thickened, the way the seals seemed to tighten like a noose around their necks.
Shin looked upward, his gaze fixed on the perfectly smooth ceiling.
He could almost imagine seeing through it,the towering spires of the palace, the kneeling attendants, the God of Destruction himself, seated upon his throne. And beyond that, the universe, vast and indifferent.
Shin's expression hardened.
Years ago, he had resisted.
They all had.
He remembered the first confrontation, the first refusal, the first time Frieza had ordered the Sacred World of the Kai to be altered.
They had resisted then, believing their titles as Supreme Kais gave them authority, that their divine status would protect them. It hadn't.
Frieza had laughed.
And then he had shown them, in brutal, unrelenting detail, exactly how meaningless their titles were beneath the power of a God of Destruction who had conquered the position.
The Sacred World had changed after that.
Its forests had been reshaped into geometric perfection. Its rivers had been redirected into controlled, artificial channels.
Its temples had been repurposed, their ancient halls now adorned with Frieza's imperial crest.
Even other worlds had been altered, planets that had once belonged to the Kais were now monuments to the new order, their very landscapes twisted to reflect Frieza's vision.
Shin had been forced to watch.
Mel had been forced to help.
Teal had been forced to assist.
Every act of resistance had earned them punishment. Every defiance had been met with crushing force. Eventually, resistance had become exhaustion. Exhaustion had become survival. And survival had become obedience.
But obedience wasn't acceptance.
Shin still hated him.
Quietly.
Deeply.
Fiercely.
He simply understood that hatred alone couldn't break the seals.
Another tremor rippled through the chamber, subtle but unmistakable. Teal flinched, her body going rigid. Mel wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer.
Shin reached out, his hand covering Teal's, his voice steady despite the unease coiling in his gut.
"Stay calm."
Teal nodded, her breath shallow.
Mel leaned back against the wall, her voice barely above a whisper. "Do you think there will ever be a chance?"
Shin didn't answer immediately. His gaze remained fixed on the ceiling, as if he could see through it, through the palace, through the very fabric of the universe. "I don't know," he said finally, his voice heavy with the weight of years spent in darkness.
It was the most honest answer he could give.
Then..
Something shifted.
For the first time in years, Shin felt a disturbance. Not above them. Not from Frieza. But from somewhere impossibly distant. A foreign divine signature, faint but unmistakable. Ancient. Dense. Primal.
Shin's eyes widened, his breath catching in his throat.
Mel noticed the change in him immediately. "What?" she asked, her voice sharp with concern.
Shin slowly withdrew his hand from Teal's, his fingers curling into a fist. "Nothing," he lied, but his heart was pounding, a wild, desperate rhythm that he hadn't felt in years.
He didn't know what he had sensed.
He didn't know who or what, it belonged to.
But for the first time in years, something had entered the universe that didn't belong to Frieza.
And Shin couldn't decide whether that was salvation…
Or another disaster.
The Sacred World
I walked alone.
Faye had stayed several hundred meters behind me, his divine senses spread wide as he scoured the surrounding region for any trace of life, any clue as to what had happened to this place. The Sacred World was too quiet. That bothered me more than the ruins, more than the destruction energy humming in the air.
The old stories I remembered from Earth described this place as a sanctuary, gardens stretching into eternity, palaces glowing with divine light, the weight of millennia pressing down in a way that felt almost sacred.
This place should have carried the weight of divine civilization.
Instead, it felt like a tomb.
I followed an instinct. I didn't know why. I simply knew where I needed to go.
Past the black crystal pillars, their surfaces gleaming with restrained destruction energy.
Past the altered gardens, their once-wild beauty now tamed into cold, geometric precision.
Past a river whose water shimmered faintly with the same violet hue as the seals in the prison below.
And then I saw it.
A massive rock formation, jagged and ancient, rising from the earth like the spine of some long-dead titan. Almost completely untouched by Frieza's modifications.
And embedded within it,
A sword.
I stopped.
My eyes narrowed.
The Z Sword.
For several long seconds, I simply stared at it, my mind racing. I remembered everything I knew about it. The Sacred World. The Elder Kai. The training. The absurd, almost mythical history attached to this weapon. And something else occurred to me, a thought that settled in my gut like a stone.
Frieza had conquered this world.
Yet he had left the sword here.
Why?
Maybe he didn't know what it was.
Or maybe he simply didn't care.
Either way, it was an opportunity.
I walked toward it, my boots crunching over the blackened grass. The closer I got, the more the air seemed to hum, as if the very world recognized the significance of what I was about to do.
My hand closed around the hilt.
I pulled.
Nothing happened.
I smirked.
"Of course, I'll need more strength ."
I tightened my grip, my muscles tensing as ancient Saiyan power surged through my body. The stone groaned, protesting under the strain.
Then
CRACK.
The entire formation split, a fissure tearing through the rock like lightning. I pulled again, harder this time, and the sword came free with a sound like the world itself exhaling.
For one heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the planet shuddered.
BOOOOOOM.
The ground jumped beneath my feet, violent and sudden. Trees swayed wildly, their branches creaking under the strain.
The river erupted into waves, its surface churning as if caught in a storm. Far in the distance, a voice cut through the chaos.
"aaahhh... WHAT WAS THAT?!"Faye screamed in panic
I turned just in time to see him streaking toward me at a speed that blurred the air around him. His pink hair was completely disheveled, whipping behind him like a wild banner. He skidded to a halt in front of me, his chest heaving.
"Taru!" he gasped, his beautiful eyes wide with alarm.
"What did you do?!"
I barely had time to raise an eyebrow before he was in my face, his hands planted on his hips. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
I laughed, the sound rough and unrestrained. "You thought we were being attacked by the big scary Frieza hhmm?"
"what!?, no... I thought it was a trap or something !" Faye replied a bit embarrassed and annoyed...
"You're not funny by the way, with your stupid face "he pouts while glaring at me..
I couldn't help it, I laughed harder, the sound echoing through the altered landscape. Faye's cheeks puffed out, his frustration palpable.
"You're so terrible," he huffed.
" oh relax, I just pulled a sword out of a rock," I said, as if that explained everything.
"And shook the entire planet as a result, what if it was a trap hmm? !" Faye threw his hands up in exasperation.
"I didn't know it would do that."I lied of course
Faye squints his eyes.. "You knew something would happen!"
"Maybe.". I say with a Grin
Faye's eyes narrowed further , his frustration giving way to suspicion. "You're enjoying this neh ."
"Very much." I said with a wide smile..
He huffed again, but the fight seemed to drain out of him as he looked at the weapon in my hands. His expression softened, curiosity replacing his irritation. "What is that anyway ?"
I rotated the sword slightly, the massive blade catching the pale light. It was enormous ancient, heavy, and yet strangely balanced, as if it had been forged for a hand far larger than my own.
"The Z Sword," I said.
Faye blinked. "The one from the stories?"
"One of them."
He cautiously reached toward it, his fingers hovering just above the hilt. The moment his skin made contact, he recoiled, his eyes widening. "Whoa."
"What?, what's wrong " I asked.
"It feels…" He searched for the word, his brow furrowing. " like it's made of something Old."
I nodded. "Yea, beerus probably has something to do with that... This thing is older than most of the Kai we've met."
Faye looked toward the horizon, his expression thoughtful. Then he turned back to me, his usual playful demeanor returning. "So.... what are you going to do with it?"
"You gonna stab people now? "
I tightened my grip on the hilt, the weight of the sword feeling right in my hands. "Find out why Frieza left it here instead of taking it like the earth dragon balls ."
Faye hums in thought ,
He understood immediately.
This wasn't just a weapon.
It was a clue.
Something about this timeline had been altered so drastically that even the sacred relics of the Kais had been forgotten, left behind like discarded toys.
I looked around, my gaze sweeping over the empty gardens, the silent trees, the river that no longer flowed naturally. No Kais. No attendants. The Elder Kai still sealed if he even exists in the sword. Nothing.
My grip tightened around the sword.
"OK.. We're leaving," I said.
Faye nodded, his expression serious. "let me guess, we're going to Namek?"
"Yeah Namek."
"Why?"
I looked toward the sky, where the distant stars burned cold and indifferent. "Because if Frieza controls Earth's Dragon Balls and this place has been abandoned…"
I let the thought hang in the air between us.
Faye's eyes lit up with understanding. "…Namek is our next lead to what happened in the universe ."
He stepped beside me, his shoulder brushing against my arm. Then he paused, his body going still. His divine senses flared, his expression shifting from curiosity to wariness.
"Wait," he said.
"What?" I asked, my own guard instantly raising.
Faye's eyes darted around the landscape, his voice dropping to a whisper,as he begins to shiver . "i feel like Someone's watching us."
I immediately scanned the area, my senses stretching to their limits. The world seemed to hold its breath. The wind stopped. The trees stopped moving. The very air felt thick, charged with something unseen.
I searched the entire planet with my ki sense.
Nothing.
Just the faint, lingering residue of destruction energy, like the aftertaste of a storm that had long since passed.
"Where is the feeling coming from ?" I asked.
Faye frowned, his brow furrowing in focus . "I don't know."
I looked toward the sky, my instincts screaming at me. For several long seconds, nothing happened.
Then I felt it.
Barely.
A presence.
Observing them from a far
I smiled, slow and deliberate.
"So Frieza knows," I said.
Faye swallowed, his throat bobbing.
"Already?"
"Yeah, Apparently."
I rested the Z Sword across my shoulder, the weight of it comforting. " but it's a good thing ."
Faye looks up and stared at me, his confusion evident. "So is that Why you are smiling?"
"Because now we know something," I said.
"know What?" he pressed.
I looked toward the distant stars, where the answers we sought lay hidden. "This universe isn't ignoring us anymore."
Faye's expression shifted, his own smile beginning to form as understanding dawned. "You want him to know we're here? ."
I didn't answer, didn't need to.
The truth was in the air between us, electric and unspoken.
I reached out, my hand finding Faye's. He stepped closer, his body pressing against mine as the familiar sensation of divine teleportation began to gather around us.
Before we disappeared, I looked back once.
At the altered Sacred World.
At the empty gardens.
At the sword's ancient blade, gleaming in the pale light.
Somewhere beneath this universe's history was a story nobody wanted us to truly uncover.
And I intended to uncover every piece of it.
The world folded around us.
The Sacred World vanished.
And our next destination materialized in my mind, sharp and clear.
Namek.