At this moment, three people had already entered the eerie, ancient castle.
The leader of the group was the self-proclaimed refined and easygoing, naturally charismatic King Pilaf… though he was a comically short figure with a large head.
Despite wearing a cropped traditional robe, the collar revealed a Western-style white shirt underneath. It seemed to show off his grand, all-embracing ruler's demeanor — if one ignored the conspicuous "Fried Rice" Kanji printed across his chest.
"King Pilaf, this place is so eerie, so terrifying…" the dog-headed warrior following closely behind him muttered.
He was a dog-headed, animal-like Earthling with a short stature, but when standing beside Pilaf, he appeared taller. Dressed in purple ninja warrior armor, he carried a katana on his back but looked unexpectedly indecisive and… afraid of ghosts.
The castle they had entered was dimly lit and ominous. On either side of the tattered red carpet in the grand hall stood imposing armored knights.
The passage of time had weathered these knights' armor, and rust covered them all, as though a mere touch would cause them to fall apart.
The air was thick with the smell of rust and dampness, creating a truly terrifying atmosphere.
The dog-headed warrior, Shu, couldn't help but feel increasingly anxious, prompting an annoyed response from a tall, cold-eyed woman in military attire standing nearby. "There's no need to be scared. These knights have been dead for who knows how many years. Maybe several hundred, maybe a thousand. They're just a pile of dust now."
"That's easy for you to say…" Shu muttered under his breath.
"Shh!" The Pilaf, walking at the front, raised his finger to his lips, halting his steps. He stared toward the far end of the hall, where, atop a grand staircase, a massive dark figure was seated.
It was a shadow!
From the silhouette, it was clear that this figure was several times larger than the armored knights on either side of the hall — an enormous being.
For the three of them, who were already shorter than the towering armored knights, this gigantic dark shadow seemed all the more overwhelming. They appeared incredibly small in comparison.
Just the presence of the shadow created an immense pressure, as if the figure was coldly looking down at them and saying: "Who gave you the courage to stand before me?"
This sense of pressure seemed to communicate that very message.
The Pilaf's group immediately felt their hair stand on end.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry..." Shu, the dog-headed warrior, immediately knelt down in apology.
The cold-eyed military woman, startled, took a nervous step back. Trained as she was, her instinct made her reach for her gun, only to realize her hand was trembling.
Yet, it was the Pilaf — who was the least capable of the three — who seemed to have the true royal demeanor he often spoke of. Though he was clearly scared, he did not falter.
With newfound courage, he stepped forward. Through a narrow beam of light filtering through the dilapidated ceiling, he finally saw clearly the massive figure seated ahead — it was another corpse. Like the towering knights they had passed earlier, it was clad in decayed heavy armor, its face dry and its eye sockets hollow. But even this giant corpse, almost like a terrifying dark overlord, nearly stripped the cold-eyed woman, Mai, and Shu of their fighting spirit just with its imposing silhouette.
"This is the aura of a king…" the Pilaf murmured, almost in awe of the dead figure's imposing presence. His two followers were speechless, feeling that even if they faced a living demon king, their own Pilaf would still try to outwit the situation, unwilling to let a piece of the pie go.
Such a despicable king was truly worthy of their loyalty!
"Shu, Mai, did you see that?" the Pilaf asked.
Knowing that it was a corpse, his steps became lighter, and he approached the giant demon king's body without hesitation. He arrived at the feet of the enormous corpse, where a stone pillar stood with a decayed tray atop it. The red cloth covering it had almost entirely weathered away, but the bead at the center of the tray still glowed with a bright orange light, drawing attention.
The Pilaf stood on tiptoe, barely able to glimpse the bead's beauty.
He marveled, "Dragon Ball... This is the Dragon Ball! It truly exists, the bead that can make me the king of the world... it really exists...!!"
His two subordinates shared in his excitement, dancing around with him.
"Ah! The Dragon Ball is really here!"
At that moment, a youthful, clear voice echoed from the direction of the door.
The Pilaf, still holding the Dragon Ball, immediately turned toward the sound.
Through the crack in the door, a red beam of light pierced through. A black, spiky-haired boy resembling a demon was swinging the red beam around as if swatting at spider webs.
Beside him, there was a similarly short girl with twin ram horns in braided pigtails, accompanied by two adults, a man and a woman.
The girl with the twin braids was speaking to the man and woman beside her. "...It suddenly disappeared. Maybe it was just eaten by some animal. The weak electromagnetic waves from the Dragon Ball get blocked when they enter a creature's body…"
It turned out that, before descending from the Flying Nimbus, Bulma had noticed that aside from the Dragon Ball close to them and the one on Master Roshi's island, the signal for the last Dragon Ball had suddenly disappeared from the radar. Since the radar wasn't one of Bulma's designs, she had only just figured out the reason before entering the castle.
"What should we do?" Tights asked anxiously.
Yamiru joked, "Well, it can't be digested. We'll just wait for that unlucky animal to poop it out…"
"Ugh…" Both girls simultaneously made disgusted faces.
Son Goku didn't pay attention to them, nor did he concern himself with the towering armored knights on either side — his beast instincts told him they were as still as rocks and wouldn't move — he kept his focus on the end of the hall, where a golden light shimmered with the resonance of the Dragon Balls.
"But it looks like they've already got that Dragon Ball," Bulma said, finally returning her attention to the scene.
"If we just take it, it might not be the best move?" Tights turned to Yamiru and asked.
At that moment, Yamiru's eyes suddenly turned a golden hue, activating his Golden Veil. He focused on the far end of the dark hall. Pilaf and his group were of no concern, but the dim end of the hall gave him a slight sense of pressure. His Golden Gaze didn't detect any strong energy in that direction. Instead, he only saw the outline of a massive figure, but under his Fire Eyes' sharp vision, it revealed no trace of human-like energy.
It was a corpse.
The remains of a terrifyingly powerful being that once existed.
Yamiru realized this immediately.
As they got closer, he narrowed his eyes, and suddenly, he was shocked — this massive corpse had a face strikingly similar to that of the Demon King Dabura from the Demon Realm!
In the manga, there was no depiction of the Pilaf obtaining the Dragon Ball. However, in the anime, an original scene was created where the Pilaf and his companions found the Dragon Ball in an unknown ancient castle. This part has been adapted here.
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