Rumble...
The sky was dim and heavy with dark clouds rolling overhead, thunder echoing through the vast expanse.
Before long, the rain began to fall.
Drip, drip, drizzle.
The wilderness was desolate, seemingly devoid of any signs of human life.
A humanoid creature covered in scales, with a long tail, lay unconscious by the roadside, his tattered clothing gradually soaked by the rain.
Yamiru's body twitched slightly before he suddenly woke up, his platinum-gold eyes snapping open.
"..."
With a trace of confusion, Yamiru pushed himself up, particularly noting his claw-like, scaly arms.
And the golden dragon-shaped mark encircling his right wrist.
"Looks like I didn't remember wrong. I really did go to Mount Five Elements, ended up like this, and even met the Supreme Elderly Lord and Master Son Gohan."
Yamiru rubbed his temples, recalling everything carefully.
So, one moment he was eating hot pot and having a good time... Well, no singing was involved, but still—how did he suddenly teleport to this godforsaken place?
Yamiru was baffled.
The last thing he remembered before losing consciousness was the Supreme Elderly Lord reaching out toward him. Given the Elder's sheer size at the time, she could have easily grasped Yamiru in his palm. And then? And then... he seemed to have been thrown into the Furnace of Eight Divisions?!
Thinking about it, Yamiru felt at a complete loss.
Walking through the steady drizzle, he figured he should at least find some shelter from the rain—preferably somewhere with people so he could ask where the hell he was.
Could this be a separate world within the Furnace of Eight Divisions?
That didn't seem right—he had never seen anything like this in the anime.
As for the manga, well, the manga didn't even have Mount Five Elements or the Supreme Elderly Lord in the first place…
Yamiru moved quickly, his sharp gaze scanning the terrain, searching for a suitable place to take cover. At the same time, he extended his senses, hoping to detect any living beings nearby. It would be ideal if he could find someone alive to ask for information.
Unfortunately, there wasn't even the faintest trace of human presence—no humans, no animals, not even a single rabbit or wild chicken.
Too barren.
Yamiru hastily took cover under a large tree by the roadside. The tree was tall, and its base barely shielded him from the wind-driven rain. Fortunately, Yamiru could fly. Activating his flight technique, he rose into the air and perched on a higher branch, where the dense foliage finally provided some relief from the increasingly heavy rain.
"This place has an oppressive atmosphere..."
He frowned, muttering to himself while shaking off the water from his body.
The sensation of his scaled skin was oddly unsettling. And what about Taise... Yamiru couldn't help but feel a bit guilty, as if he were some unfaithful husband who had gotten into trouble and was now afraid to go home. He massaged his forehead, staring at the dragon mark on his wrist.
He would turn back.
He had to.
But something about this environment felt terribly off. Yamiru's instincts screamed at him to take this ominous premonition seriously.
Brushing aside the branches that obstructed his vision, he widened his golden eyes, observing the rain-drenched, stormy horizon.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
His eyes gleamed with golden light, and soon he saw it—a dense, dark-gold mist pervading the air.
Demonic energy.
His heart lurched.
The intensity of this demonic aura wasn't quite as overwhelming as the hellish baptism he had experienced at Mount Five Elements, but it wasn't far off either!
But... was this still Mount Five Elements?
No.
No, it wasn't.
Yamiru no longer cared about getting drenched. He shot out from the tree, surveying the landscape from midair. What had begun as mere surprise had now solidified into sheer disbelief.
Dark-gold energy was everywhere—churning, settling, saturating the very air itself.
This wasn't Earth.
Had he been sent to Hell?!
The thought made him shudder.
Returning to his perch on the tree branch, he furrowed his brows tightly, deep in contemplation.
He had only mentioned Baba's divination to the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord when, out of nowhere, he had been sent to this place… and it seemed he had been thrown into the Furnace of Eight Divisions?
Beneath the furnace was a dense concentration of hellish energy. The fire burning inside wasn't fueled by the dead dragon's remains but rather by the demonic energy from below. However, just like Fire Mountain back then, the hellish energy couldn't be burned away completely. Once the flames died down, the energy would simply revert to its original form.
Could this truly be a separate dimension within the Furnace of Eight Divisions? Yamiru knew that the mystical arts of deities often defied logic. After all, the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in the Lookout existed with a time flow different from the rest of the universe. If the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord, who had lived for at least tens of thousands of years, had created a separate dimension inside her furnace, it wouldn't be impossible… and it would certainly explain why there was so much hellish energy here.
But…
Yamiru rubbed the mark on his right wrist.
Closing his eyes, he attempted to sense something.
When he opened them again, his expression had grown significantly heavier.
The Spiritual Realm… was gone.
He tried to enter it, but there was no response—not even the faintest sense of its existence.
Yamiru could believe that the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord had hidden a separate dimension inside the Furnace of Eight Divisions.
But that this dimension could surpass the one created by the Dragon God himself? That it could be powerful enough to completely sever his connection as the highest authority of the Spirit Realm? That, he simply couldn't believe!
He thought for a moment, then called out to the stormy sky:
"Flying Nimbus!"
He waited.
There was no response.
"No Flying Nimbus… Either I'm on another planet, or…"
He stared at the branches before him, where, with his keen eyes, he could see the dim golden glow of hellish energy flickering between the gaps.
"Or I'm in a time before the Flying Nimbus ever existed…"
Yamiru didn't like that conclusion, but it seemed to be the only explanation that fit all the anomalies.
Why was there hellish energy everywhere?
Why was the Flying Nimbus nowhere to be found?
Why couldn't he sense the Spiritual Realm?
The timeline…
This could be the chaotic era the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord had once lived through.
The land where Mount Five Elements would one day stand had torn open a passage to the underworld, allowing hellish energy to flood into the human world.
Korin had once spoken of the first generation of Earth's deities, who had yet to create the Flying Nimbus… Perhaps even the first deity himself had yet to be born.
Likewise, at this point in time, the Dragon God had yet to create the Spirit Realm. There was no way Yamiru could enter a realm that didn't even exist yet.
Regardless of the circumstances, he had to keep moving forward.
His unsettled emotions slowly calmed.
A clawed hand reached into his robes, gently grasping the wedding necklace that Tights had given him.
Yamiru waited quietly for the rain to stop.
He recalled how, in the anime, Son Goku had been sent by Piccolo to a room that could transcend time itself, where he even met Master Mutaito and a young Master Roshi from centuries past. Yet, after training in that past era, Son Goku had seamlessly returned to his own time…
So, in this era… could he become strong enough to destroy a planet with a single punch?
Was this the answer the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord had given him? Yamiru didn't know.
Could he return to his original timeline? He didn't know that either.
Exhaling a slow breath, he emptied his mind. Years of rigorous training had honed his discipline. Though the current situation was abnormal, it wasn't enough to make him lose his composure.
He made an attempt. Perhaps due to the overwhelming hellish energy in the environment, the corrupt energy within him—the energy that fueled his transformation into a demonic dragon—was difficult to expel.
Difficult… but not impossible.
That was a relief. As long as he could change back, it was fine. He had no idea how he would face Tights looking like this.
The night passed, and the rain gradually stopped.
However, cold sweat beaded between the scales on Yamiru's forehead.
It was as if he had sensed something truly incomprehensible.
"This is… unbelievable…"
Swallowing hard, he muttered to himself:
"The weakest of these demons is stronger than Uncle Bardock when he had just been revived… And the strongest ones… they rival Super Saiyans…
Grand Supreme Elderly Lord… Just how did you defeat them?!"