In a dark, metallic and icy room, there lied some kind of medical stretcher, a humanoid figure was strapped to it by metal bars on his wrists and feet. He was connected to some tubes of what appeared to be a strong type of plastic.
A figure in a medical gown, a helmet, boots and gloves, all with an apparent airtight seal, approached the sleeping humanoid figure on the gurney. He removed the needles connecting the tubes and slapped the man to wake him up, the figure spoke to himself.
Baël: "I only gave you a small dose.... You should wake up immediately."
Moments after saying that, the man on the stretcher opened his eyes.
"W-What am I doing here?! W-Why am I tied up?! Who the hell are you?!"
Terror flooded the man at that moment, he paled, and his pupils contracted upon noticing that he couldn't get rid of the metal that kept him captive.
Baël didn't bother to answer his questions as he picked up a scalpel on a tray beside him.
"N-No! What are you going to do?! NO! STOP! I HAVE A FAMILY, SIR! MY DAUGHTER IS WAITING FOR ME AT HOME! P-PLEASE...! D-Don't do this...!"
The man's voice broke at last as tears came out of his eyes, meanwhile, Baël looked at him coldly, since he revealed himself his eyes remained unchanged, red eyes with absolute indifference and coldness — and in spite of his sharp stare, a cold smile could be seen through the transparent glass in his helmet.
Baël: "Don't worry about that, my soldiers took you here and killed the entire army of your civilization, your family is already a thing of the past, just like many others."
He said without altering his smile as he brought the scalpel closer to the man's torso.
The man's eyes immediately became bloodshot, he began to try to free himself from his metal restraints with all his might. All his might, however, was not enough for his restraints to break even the slightest bit, all he managed to do was arch his back and damage his joints along with drastically increasing his desperation.
Baël frowned slightly before continuing to smile. He used his left hand and placed it on the man's stomach, pushing him down. The man felt as if a building was falling on him, at the moment he was left with his back lying completely on the bed, if Baël wanted to he could break his chest without breaking a sweat, yet he kept bringing the scalpel closer without doing more than enough force to keep him still.
Baël: "I'd use torso restraints, as it makes this way easier... Or at least that's what I'd say if it wasn't so fun to watch them struggle..."
The man's pupils contracted even more as he tried to free himself, however his efforts proved to be in vain as the scalpel cut his chest from the heart to a few centimeters below the navel.
Baël then stopped smiling as he focused fully, the "patient's" pleas and cries of pain fell on deaf ears.
He removed the blood with a device while he cauterized several parts with his Ki, preventing the patient from bleeding out. He did not worry about diseases, as the room was completely sterile, the air in this place was purified to perfection.
He opened the wound with tweezers while continuing to cauterize the wounds by passing Ki through the scalpel, he immediately stabbed with the scalpel three areas of the wrist, precisely cutting the nerves that led to the hand, after this he stood watching for a few seconds before continuing on to other areas.
During the whole process the man was fully conscious and feeling everything, without counting the cut nerves, since they couldn't send the pain signal. Unable to die from blood loss, from time to time Baël pricked him with a syringe, this had a drug that prevented him from fainting from the pain, nonetheless, it didn't reduce it.
After several tests, he cut directly through the arteries of the heart, passing Ki through the scalpel, cauterizing them immediately.
Baël stayed watching until the man finally died when his neurons died from lack of oxygen, the lungs could not send oxygen from the heart to the rest of the body, yet he lived through it while he was still breathing.
It was a little more than 12 hours after his death until Baël finally left the room, he passed through a corridor with a valve at the exit and another at the entrance to ensure a completely sterile environment. He then changed his clothes and put the ones he was wearing before in a duct, then he left the corridor.
(Baël's POV)
Ugh... Looks like I'm going to need a lot of test subjects.... The soul experiment didn't yield any relevant results.
I watched his Ki flow at all times, however it did not allow me to find the soul, pain greatly altered the flow and quality of it, and fear did too, but that's something I already knew, after all Ki was made up of "Vigor" or "Genki", "Courage" or "Yuki" and "Mind" or "Shoki".
Zak had reviewed the whole process, however he found nothing, he admitted that it would be necessary to compare results with many other people, or maybe we were missing something.
The room was full of sensors of all kinds and the helmet I was wearing had sensors of its own too. It me allowed seeing data in frequencies and in ways that the naked eye couldn't appreciate. The helmet would send me the information and Zak would understand it.
Well, never mind, I'll put this aside for the moment, there are more urgent matters to attend to after all.
It had been 4 months since I raised [Ki Control] and [Ki Detection] to the maximum level, despite this I could not raise the level of their divine variants, after all I had no divine Ki to control, and people with divine Ki to detect were extremely far away, I would have to be a few meters away to sense it with the level 1 of this skill....
During these 4 months I continued to improve my body and thus increasing my power with meditation and light training, my skills with my fighting style did not lag behind in the slightest.
I began to prepare the Calar Civilization and the people under my command for war, this included the platoons I had control of.
These already had a lot of respect for me and practically revered me, during these months I showed them the way to increase their power faster, the first requirement being to have a "Ki Inheritance" given by me. What they didn't know is that this "inheritance" of mine was nothing more than a bomb. At this point I could hide it perfectly, they couldn't possibly know anything about it and would not see it as an attack, plus, it allowed me to know their position at all times.
It was a laborious job, since they were about 2,000 people, but it was definitely worth it. I wasn't afraid of them revealing the information, as I made them believe in a large extent that the reason for their rapid rise in power was the "Inheritance" I gave them. I also convinced them of the internal war that would happen soon, they were all quite easy to convince just like the other races. As they were not civilizations, they were not as good as the leaders of a civilization or the high ranks of the army. The Calar were much more difficult, after all even after saving them they still doubted me.
Some spread the word of all this, making everyone alert, some smart people joined the stronger groups, others with "insider" information thought it's best to join me, after all they could increase their power this way. I had a lot of people by my side and there were rumors that Dodoria was too, little did they know that these same rumors were mostly spread by me, even if they were true.
Normally having too much information in your head like the exact position of thousands of people would make your head hurt like hell, however Zak handled it with help from the system, after all the system was an extremely advanced AI, infinitely superior to the supercomputers of even this universe.
It probably wouldn't be long before Frieza found out about this, therefore it's best to start the war now, when this happens, Frieza will have to focus all his attention on his faction, trying to stabilize everything, during this time he will not be able to look at the competitors. That will be the perfect time to reveal the organization run by me, although the latter will not be known to anyone, I was preparing a star system away from the one where I trained my recruits, as the latter is my secret base and where I ran this kind of actions such the "Soul Experiment".
With what the organization earns I will manage to save as much as I can from the war by keeping a good piece of the pie.... I'll even have a civilization like the Calar supplying resources.
Well... It looks like it's time to get started...
I sat down on a comfortable sofa as I grabbed a controller, I looked at it smiling as I played with it spinning it around in my hand.
For quite some time now I had captured hundreds of people.... No, thousands, of different races. They were all hidden in different places on planets in Frieza's Army.
They were all tied up like the recent experiment, a machine would supply them with different drugs every so often, their senses would be numbed while a drug would make them furious and cause them to hallucinate. From time to time holograms of scientists of another race taking notes would appear.
The facility would have several people of the same race, there would be several for each race, however they would never mix, many of them were even from my allied races.
When I pressed a button more drug that would make them have a great rage would be released in their bodies, and an acid would run their bonds. They would manage to break the weakened metal thinking they had freed themselves because of his degraded senses by the drug and rage. They would leave the facility and start killing people left and right, some would manage to be rescued by their same race and tell them that they kept them captive, in order to torture and experiment on them.
It doesn't matter if they find the drug in their bodies, since as they would state: "They experimented on me" so this is expected.
When they leave the facility, some receivers would notice it by exploding the facility and removing all the evidence, while I would explode several Ki bombs that I hid around several planets, creating even more chaos.
Finally, with all this chaos, the war would begin.... With a simple button... Hehehehe... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Isn't it funny! A simple button can decide the life and death of hundreds of billions of people! The cruelty of the universe is spectacular... And mine doesn't fall short.... It's so easy to die for them as well as for me... How amusing...
A "click" resounded in the room, and then there was only silence, I threw the remote into the air, and it exploded, disintegrating. I meanwhile lay down on the sofa while waiting for the numerous calls I would receive...
A great satisfaction invaded me, however I would repress this feeling as soon as they called me, I still had a lot to do.
I looked up at the metallic ceiling with a strange smile on my face, the scene reminded me of when you used to stare at a shoe when you were a kid instead of getting ready for school...
Zak: "We've really done it.... Those experiments will get everyone to kill each other, no one will trust anyone, some will even distrust their own race, while our 'allies' will become even more united with hatred for the other races.... Not bad!"
Finally, buzzers started ringing, I said out loud to accept the call and a hologram appeared on the table in front of me, I could see them, but they could not see me, then lots of buzzers started ringing following the first one, I meanwhile kept accepting them in the group call.
What's going on?! Does anyone have any information?!"
"I think they are attacking the headquarters-034 where we reside!"
"It's not just yours! Ours too!"
Lots of voices affirmed that the same thing was happening, however I spoke up, bringing order.
Baël: "They are not attacking us! At least not like that! No one has seen spaceships! And it's happening in multiple places at once! Do you understand what this means?"
Some looked confused, while the eyes of others sparkled in contemplation.
"The internal war has started already?! And with a planned attack?!"
I looked at the man's hologram, he was one of the captains under my command, he was one of the best qualified in my battalions, and he was the first to "get it" completely, not bad, my selection was spot on.
Baël: "That is most likely.... Some of you will have sent groups to investigate, report the information as fast as you can..."
I then activated my camera, they could finally see my darkened face.
They nodded while preparing for the worst, meanwhile I warned the Calar civilization that they should prepare ships and supplies to send, these ships were the ones I built, they were different on the outside from those of the Calar civilization and had no logo, this wouldn't reveal that they helped us.
After a few minutes the groups they sent warned how there were many people going on a fighting frenzy, some even found members of their own race and managed to interrogate them, in fact, a few recognized friends of theirs who had disappeared months ago.
"Fuck! How dare they do this to us! They've been planning this all-out war for a long time!"
"Shit shit shit! What do we do?!"
Baël: "Enough! Everybody! LISTEN TO ME!"
Everyone's attention on the call was focused on me.
Baël: "We must act now! The war has begun! Act as such! We must preserve several planets at this instant! Where you have your headquarters, try to rise to victory and dominate the planet! Withdraw the outlying groups to the planet where you have the most men! This is a war we MUST win, heed my words!"
They all nodded understanding the situation, if they failed to get planets, they would have no place left in the universe for them, most of them would be annihilated.
Baël: "Report by private every movement! Give me access to the communications of our military units! I will give both you and the unit the way to act, if anyone has a complaint you can comment it!"
They all accepted, some found it harder, but they had no choice, during all this time I had demonstrated my leadership skills, it was clear to them that I would be the best one to handle the situation, besides, I accepted their complaints, even though none of them presented any.
My plan for the moment would be to control the planets where they have more men, this should be easy enough since these races were the most numerous there, this would assure me about 12 planets. I would try to evacuate the ones that are alone and join them in several groups together with the leftover reinforcements after stabilizing some of the planets, I would strike while the iron is hot, before others were stabilized in their planets keeping some extra ones.
With Zak's strategies it would be a piece of cake. After all, he had long ago marked the planets where there were many groups, and it would be a real pitched battle between several lone groups without reinforcements, in that situation it will be easy to keep the planet, the difference is that here we have unity, we are many people who have earned each other's trust for months and even some for years, while they were a few crazy madmen fighting among many.
Zak: "Hahahaha! We fed the hatred between races little by little, then we became allies of races that mostly got along with each other before, after this you launched the experiments leaving us as the only really united side while the others fall because of their distrust between their alliance or even their same race, we will be left with large and useful planets without much fight, since these are mostly inhabited by allied races, which will allow us to stabilize quickly and have army to spare, we can wait for them to kill each other on some planets and then attack them while they are weak! Most would want to do the latter, but how many will have enough army to afford it? With this I mean to say that we're gonna take the biggest prize possible!"
Now it had finally begun.... I would finally break out of Freezer's bonds, and no longer take orders from him.... I'll be able to act with greater freedom! There will be no more obstacles to stop my rise! And if there are... They will soon be exterminated.
Although in my mind I was laughing out loud, on the outside I had a serious and confident look, like a born leader giving orders and boosting the morale of his troops, deciding without objection.
2.969 words.
Hello everyone! I'm the author of this novel, and as you may have seen it hasn't been updated for quite some time.... But that has changed! There were some problems with someone translating the story for me and I couldn't contact him for some time, but the original version has continued to be published, which means that there will continue to be weekly posts! I'm really sorry for the wait, but it's not like I can do much more.... Enjoy the chapters!