Goku looked at Freeza with utter disdain. "Even at your full power, you're barely enough to give me a decent workout. Pathetic."
A visible vein throbbed on Freeza's temple. "You arrogant worm! I'll wipe that smirk off your face!" In a blur of motion, he vanished, reappearing directly in front of Goku with a murderous glare.
Goku simply vanished in turn, materializing behind the tyrant. "Too slow." His foot connected with Freeza's back, sending him crashing through a distant rock spire.
Freeza stabilized himself in the air, wiping a trickle of purple blood from his lip. His expression was a mask of cold fury. What is this? His power… it feels even greater than before! Was he holding back as well? Impossible! I cannot… I will not be defeated by a lowly monkey!
With a roar of outrage, Freeza stomped down, vaporizing the mountain peak beneath him, and shot toward Goku like a crimson missile.
This time, Goku didn't just defend. He met the charge head-on. "HAAAAAAAA!"
Their collision was a cataclysm. The shockwave atomized the surrounding mountains, leaving only a glassy crater. Goku flipped through the air, driving a devastating axe-kick downward. Legs and fists became a blinding tempest of motion. Each strike carried monstrous force, a relentless barrage that pushed Freeza back, step by furious step. Finally, a roundhouse kick connected with a sickening crunch, hammering Freeza into a vast lake below. The impact sent a geyser of water a hundred meters into the air.
KA-BOOM!
Freeza erupted from the waves, his fingers blazing. "DIE!" A hailstorm of deadly beams screamed toward Goku.
Weaving through the barrage, Goku closed the distance—but Freeza anticipated one dodge. Seizing the micro-opening, he lunged, planting his foot squarely in Goku's chest.
CRACK-THOOM!
Goku was driven into the planet's crust like a nail, creating a cavernous pit hundreds of meters deep. Before the dust could settle, Freeza gathered a swirling orb of violet annihilation above his palm. "Now, burn to nothing!"
"Damn you!" Goku spat blood, thrusting his hands upward from the depths of the crater. "KAMEHAME—HA!"
A torrent of blue energy met the descending violet doom. The two beams clashed in a searing, trembling stalemate, lighting the shattered sky.
"RAAAAH! I AM LORD FREEZA! I DO NOT LOSE TO FILTHY MONKEYS!" Freeza's scream of rage became a catalyst. His aura detonated, his power scaling violently.
...60%... 70%... 80%...
"HRNGH!"
At 80% of his true might, Freeza's energy wave swelled, overwhelming and consuming the Kamehameha. It plunged into the crater, swallowing Goku's form.
"No way!" was all Goku had time to think before the world turned to light and fury.
RUMMMMMMMMBLE—
The ensuing explosion was planetary. Half of Namek was scoured clean in an apocalyptic flash. Continents fractured; molten rock vomited into the atmosphere. The dying planet let out a groan that echoed in the void.
Panting slightly, Freeza hovered over the devastation. A wide, manic grin split his face. "Hah… Hahaha! The legendary Super Saiyan? A myth! A joke! I, Lord Freeza, am the absolute strongest in the universe! HAHAHAHA!"
Below, the sea of magma bubbled ominously.
Gurgle… Gloop…
Freeza's laughter died. His eyes widened. "That… can't be…"
WHOOSH-BOOM!
A golden figure shot from the molten depths, an aura of pure rage blasting the magma aside like water.
"N-No… Impossible!" Freeza stammered, taking an involuntary step back. "You should be atoms!"
Goku did not answer. He hung in the air, trembling. Slowly, he raised his right hand, staring blankly at his clenched fist. He opened it.
There, resting on his palm, was a handful of metallic dust—all that remained of the World Ring he had worn. In the final moment of the blast, he had shielded himself, but the ring… the ring could not withstand such energy. And the moment it shattered…
Bulma… Saeko… Rei… Yuriko…
A silent, bottomless void opened in his chest, instantly filled with a torrent of incinerating rage.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
The scream that tore from Goku's throat was not of pain, but of utter, soul-rending loss. "FREEZAAAAAAAA!"
Consumed by fury, his hair flashed brilliantly—once, twice—then with a final, explosive WHOOSH, it solidified into a radiant, flaming gold. His eyes burned with emerald fury. A new, apocalyptic aura detonated from him, shaking the very fabric of the crumbling planet. Namek, already on the brink, began to shudder apart at the seams.
Goku clenched his fists, forcibly reining in the energy to keep the world from instantly vaporizing. He turned his gaze toward Freeza.
That gaze held the end of all things.
"Y-You…!" Freeza's blood ran cold. The shape, the color, the overwhelming, suffocating pressure... It was the nightmare given form.
"You will pay."
Goku didn't move. He simply was there, directly before Freeza. "Wha—?!" Before Freeza could even twitch, Goku's hand shot out, enveloping Freeza's wrist in an unbreakable vice.
"L-Let go! You inferior creature! I AM FREEZA!" He pummeled Goku's chest and face with his free hand, blows that could shatter worlds. They landed without sound or effect, like pebbles thrown against a mountainside.
Goku slowly tilted his head, his glowing green eyes devoid of all mercy. "Are you… trying to tickle me?"
CRUNCH.
A simple, short punch—a shōken—impacted Freeza's stomach. All the air, all the fight, left him in a choked gasp as he was driven into the ground. Then came the stomps. Methodical. Brutal.
"This…" STOMP. "…is for Bulma!" STOMP. "For Saeko!" STOMP. "For Rei! For Yuriko!" STOMP. STOMP. CRUNCH.
Each impact was a seismic event. When Goku finally stopped, Freeza lay broken in a pulped crater, barely recognizable, bleeding from a dozen compound fractures.
"Y-You…" Freeza gurgled, his eyes filled with a terror he had never known. "Who… what are you…?"
Goku leaned down, his golden hair casting a hellish light on Freeza's ruined face. His voice was the final, quiet chill before absolute zero.
"I am the legend you feared. I am the nightmare you created. I am Kakarot… the Super Saiyan."
Freeza's eyes bulged in final, comprehending horror.
With a contemptuous flick of his foot, Goku launched the broken tyrant into the sky. He raised a single hand, a sphere of condensed annihilation swirling to life above his palm.
"Now, disappear."
A thin, precise beam lanced out. It struck Freeza. There was no grand explosion, only a silent, total erasure from existence.
The Emperor of the Universe was gone.
Silence descended, broken only by the dying groans of Planet Namek. Standing alone amidst the ruins, the golden light around Goku flickered and faded, his hair returning to its dark hue. He looked at the empty dust on his palm, then closed his fist tightly.