Dragon Ball: The Cold Emperor Frieza — The Last Seven Days of Planet Vegeta - Aide Selection — The One Who Executes Terror and the One Who Calculates

The mornings aboard the mothership Coldron were always filled with artificial light. Beyond the windows, the stars streamed past like countless grains of light swimming through a black sea. Along the long corridor leading to the throne room, a polished obsidian floor stretched endlessly, and across it Freeza's small shadow glided forward. Last night, he had made his decision. Planet Vegeta would be erased. The soul of the Saiyan race would be struck from the history of the universe. It was not an impulse. It was the night a plan, aged and matured over long years, finally took shape. The doors to the throne room opened. A vast space unfolded, and the pale blue light pouring from the ceiling reflected coldly off the obsidian floor. Freeza lowered himself onto the throne, closed his crimson eyes, and savored a moment of silence. (A perfect plan requires perfect instruments.) He picked up the communicator. "Zarbon, Dodoria. Come to the throne room." His voice was quiet. But that single utterance carried a weight that permitted no argument. Several minutes later, the doors to the throne room opened once more. The first to appear was a man with blue skin. His long emerald hair was gathered in a single tail at the back, and his narrow golden eyes curved as though perpetually forming a smile. His beauty was enough to be mistaken for a woman's, and every gesture he made carried a calculated elegance. Zarbon, candidate for supreme commander of the Freeza Force. He stepped before the throne and dropped to one knee. "You summoned me, Lord Freeza?" His voice was soft and polite. But deep within his eyes, something was frozen. Then came heavy footsteps. A massive frame. His pink-skinned head was studded with thorn-like protrusions, and his small black eyes held a cruel gleam. He stood well over two meters tall, and his thick fingers and sharp claws seemed made for tearing prey apart. Dodoria, candidate for supreme commander of the Freeza Force. He too knelt beside Zarbon. "Heh heh, you called for us, Lord Freeza?" A low, rumbling laugh. Dodoria's mouth twisted, baring his teeth. Freeza looked down at the two of them and slowly parted his lips. "Raise your heads." They looked up. Zarbon's golden eyes and Dodoria's black ones fixed on their master at the same moment. "Last night, I made a decision. I will explain its contents in detail later. But before that—" Freeza rested his cheek on the armrest of the throne and narrowed his crimson eyes. "Do you remember why I kept only you two as my aides?" Zarbon's lips moved, just barely. A low sound rumbled in Dodoria's throat. "...It was twenty-seven years ago." Zarbon spoke quietly. His voice carried the resonance of someone drawing up a distant memory. "I could never forget. That day was the beginning of everything for me." "Heh heh, I remember that test well enough too." Dodoria laughed low. "Out of seven candidates, only the two of us survived. That was an interesting day." Freeza smiled thinly. "Yes. Seven aide candidates. I gave every one of them a single task." He rose from the throne and began to walk slowly through the throne room. His small body cast a shadow across the vast space. "A rebellious planet. Its name: Planet Rygres. Population roughly four hundred thousand. A world that raised its banner against the Freeza Force's rule and refused to pay tribute." Freeza's footsteps echoed quietly on the obsidian floor. "I ordered the candidates: subjugate this planet by the cruelest method possible. The method was their choice. The one thing I demanded was—fear. Fear enough to carve into the very marrow of every being in this universe what it means to defy the Freeza Force." He stopped and turned. His crimson eyes pierced through both aides. "The results were truly fascinating." Freeza turned his gaze to Zarbon. "Zarbon. What did you do?" Zarbon narrowed his golden eyes and toyed with his long emerald hair between his fingertips. The gesture was elegant, as though he were fondly recalling the past. "I set my sights on the ruling class of Planet Rygres." His voice was calm. "That planet had three great noble houses. They kept each other in check, maintaining a balance. I disrupted that balance—just slightly. To one noble, I fed false information that the other two houses were secretly amassing troops. To another, the location of a treasure hoard. And to the last noble—a false report that the other two had formed an alliance." A faint smile rose to Zarbon's lips. "And what do you suppose happened?" Freeza did not answer, only deepened his smile. "The three noble houses suspected one another, hated one another, and then began to wage war. The four hundred thousand citizens were dragged into their rulers' ugly feud and slaughtered each other. I personally killed perhaps a handful. I merely delivered false letters, spread rumors, and slipped in a bit of poison. That alone was enough to make Planet Rygres destroy itself in three months. The surviving population—a mere twenty thousand. They still hate one another to this day, laboring as slaves of the Freeza Force." Zarbon looked up at Freeza and smiled. "Isn't it beautiful? Nowhere in the universe is there a conflict so exquisite." Freeza nodded with satisfaction. "Truly beautiful." Next, he shifted his gaze to Dodoria. "Dodoria. And what of you?" Dodoria grinned and cracked his thick fingers. "Mine was simple." He stood and spread both arms wide. "I blew up the whole planet. The people, the buildings, the mountains and the seas—all of it. I wiped the surface of Planet Rygres clean with my energy blast. Not a single survivor. No—more precisely, there was nothing left but shattered fragments scattered across space. Heh heh, that sight was the best. The sound of a planet breaking apart—there's nothing like it." He laughed low. The sound echoed eerily through the throne room. "Fear? You might think fear's meaningless if there's no one left alive, but that's not it. The folks on other planets saw that light. The moment Rygres vanished was visible from every neighboring star. Ever since, every planet pays its tribute on time. Power is the greatest fear of all." Freeza narrowed his crimson eyes and regarded Dodoria. "Power is the greatest fear of all, is it." He slowly returned to the throne and sat. "The other five, I disposed of." At those words, Zarbon's fingertips paused for an instant. Dodoria's grin tightened, just slightly. "One took too long to subjugate the planet. One failed to understand my intent. One, far from orchestrating fear, was consumed by it himself. One took too much pleasure in killing the inhabitants. One did nothing at all." Freeza's voice was cold as ice. "What I demanded was not mere slaughter. It was to perfect fear as an art form. Zarbon, you calculated fear through cunning. Dodoria, you executed fear through power. Without both, perfect domination cannot exist." He looked over the two of them. "That is why I kept only you two. My aides are always two in number. One who calculates fear, and one who executes it. With both in place, an aide becomes the ultimate weapon." Zarbon bowed deeply. "It is the greatest honor. To play a part in Lord Freeza's perfect domination brings me sincere joy." Dodoria also bowed roughly. "Heh heh, if it's your order, Lord Freeza, I'll blow up any planet you like." Freeza nodded, satisfied. "Then let us get to the main subject." He activated a hologram. In the center of the throne room, an image of Planet Vegeta rose into view. The reddish-brown earth, the rocky mountains, and the royal castle. The footage, captured from above the capital city of Saddla, was the same as last night's. "Planet Vegeta. The Saiyan homeworld. Population roughly ten thousand. Gravity ten times that of a standard planet. This planet—I will erase." Zarbon's golden eyes fixed on the hologram. Dodoria's black eyes took on a crueler gleam. "The timing will be seven days from now." "Seven days... that would be the night of the total lunar eclipse." Zarbon spoke quietly. "Oh? You know it well." "The Saiyan full-moon transformation is always a matter we must monitor. On the night of a full moon, they become Great Apes, and their battle power multiplies more than tenfold. But on the night of a total lunar eclipse, the moon's light is blocked, and they cannot transform. In other words, it is the one night when the Saiyans are at their most powerless." "Precisely." Freeza traced the hologram with a finger. "Seven days from now, Planet Vegeta will be visited by a total lunar eclipse. The Saiyans will be unable to become Great Apes and will have no choice but to fight with their normal battle power. Not that it matters—against me, whether they transform or not, the result is the same." He smiled thinly. "But that is not the point. What I am after is the Saiyan soul." "Their soul, my lord?" Dodoria tilted his head. "Yes. If I merely wanted to destroy the planet, a single fingertip would suffice. But that would leave nothing behind. I want King Vegeta to realize everything—and be able to do nothing—as I erase the planet along with him." Freeza's crimson eyes glowed eerily. "On the surface, it will appear to be an accident beyond control. On the night of the full moon, the Saiyans who transformed into Great Apes went berserk and destroyed their own planet—that is the scenario. But King Vegeta alone will know the truth. That this planet is being erased by my hand. And that he can do nothing to stop it." Zarbon nodded slowly. "A beautiful plan. The king will be able to do nothing but watch the moment his race is destroyed. That despair—that is your art, Lord Freeza." "Exactly." Dodoria leaned forward, as though unable to wait. "So when do we do it? I could board Vegeta right now and slaughter every last Saiyan—" "Wait, Dodoria." Zarbon cut him off calmly. "The order of operations is crucial. Let us devise a method to minimize the impact on other planets... no, to spread fear to the maximum. The Saiyans serve as mercenaries of the Freeza Force, dispatched to many worlds. When their homeworld vanishes, how will the Saiyans on other planets react? That reaction is the key to spreading fear across the entire universe." Zarbon's golden eyes shone coldly. "First, we draw the main fighting force away from Planet Vegeta. We scatter them across the universe on false missions. Then, after the planet is gone, they become orphans who have lost their homeland, wandering the cosmos. That sight will be a living warning to every world of what it means to defy the Freeza Force." Freeza nodded with satisfaction. "You understand well, Zarbon. It is precisely the plan I had in mind." He stood. "Then I order the first phase of the plan. Draw roughly six hundred of the Saiyans' main fighting force away from Planet Vegeta within seven days, using false missions. Zarbon, you will tamper with the dispatch roster via encrypted communications and arrange simultaneous, parallel deployments to multiple planets so that King Vegeta does not catch on." "By your will." Zarbon bowed elegantly. "Dodoria, you will apply pressure to the Military Affairs Bureau. Have the dispatch procedures processed with top priority and ensure the Saiyans harbor no suspicion. If the procedures are delayed, or if information leaks—you understand what that means." "Heh heh, leave it to me. I'll make the Military Affairs Bureau understand with my fists. What happens to them if the paperwork is late." Dodoria cracked his thick fingers and laughed low. "With this, the warriors remaining on Planet Vegeta on the seventh night will number roughly two hundred. Only the garrison of the royal capital Saddla and young trainees. The Saiyan fighting force will be effectively neutralized." Zarbon spoke his calculations aloud. "Though, before Lord Freeza, whether it be six hundred or ten thousand, the result is the same. This is merely stag

日本語

What is Novelia? →

Episode 2

Name: Dragon Ball: The Cold Emperor Frieza — The Last Seven Days of Planet Vegeta
Author: Novelia

What is Novelia?

Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.

Learn more about Novelia →New sign-ups get 5,000pt