Where are you going?

"Is this really not a dream?"

Raleigh slowly raised his head and lowered the arm he had used to shield himself from the wind and waves. Staring at the giant standing beside the ruins of the Wall of Life, he murmured in disbelief.

Everything that had happened before his eyes went far beyond his understanding of reality, making him wonder whether he was having an incredibly vivid dream.

How could any living being sink an entire island with a single blow?

A monster feared by countless people had not even lasted three minutes against this giant?

Having watched the entire battle between the giant and the monster, he found the boundary between reality and fantasy blurring in the face of something so far beyond the real world.

"Ow!"

Raleigh pinched his thigh hard. The sharp pain, something a dream could never replicate, brought him to his senses. He was not dreaming at all.

The guy he had rescued from the snow was an alien. When the monster arrived, he had transformed into a giant over fifty meters tall, then blasted both the monster and an island apart in less than three minutes!

All of it was real!

He looked at the giant ahead.

A shaft of sunlight broke through the mist overhead and shone on that enormous body. The crystal on his chest flashed red, while a faint smile remained at the corners of his mouth, giving him an air of mystery.

Just as Raleigh wondered what the giant would do next.

The giant's body suddenly dissolved into countless golden motes of light, drifting away on the wind along with the falling snow.

The enormous body vanished, replaced by a familiar figure standing in the same spot.

"He changed back?" Raleigh watched the tall, slim young man standing in the wind and snow with mixed feelings. In his daze, the young man's figure overlapped with the giant's in his vision. He could no longer quite tell which form was the alien's true body.

Just then.

Marshal Stacker came up beside Raleigh. His gaze swept over the construction site ahead, now reduced to ruins, taking in the steel bars flattened into iron discs and driven into the soil... the raging waves that had yet to settle... the vast depressions left in the ground by trampling feet...

Finally, his gaze settled on the young man in a green jacket walking slowly toward them.

That young man was the one responsible for all of it.

"Do you know him?" Marshal Stacker asked.

Raleigh nodded. "Yeah. We only met today."

As he spoke, he sounded a little wistful. "When he first told me he was an alien, I didn't believe him."

"But now I do."

Raleigh told Marshal Stacker the full story of how he had met Natsuki.

Now, all he felt was relief. If he had not happened to meet this powerful alien today, he might already have died at the monster's hands.

Just like his brother.

"A space police officer... That's certainly shocking." When Raleigh explained that the young man was a space police officer, Marshal Stacker's first reaction was disbelief.

What kind of civilization would dare call itself the police of the vast universe?

But after thinking back over everything he had witnessed, he understood.

A monster that had driven humanity to the brink had not even lasted three minutes against this giant. He was practically a walking nuclear bomb. If every individual in a civilization possessed that kind of power, then calling themselves the space police was only natural.

"Compared to the civilization behind him, ours is no more than a grain of sand." Marshal Stacker was reluctant to accept that fact, but it was the truth laid out before him.

Fortunately, the alien's attitude toward humanity could be called friendly.

He had even saved Stacker's life just moments ago.

Faced with such a powerful and friendly being, both Marshal Stacker's reason and emotions told him that he had to establish a good relationship with this alien giant. For humanity, this was very likely an opportunity.

An opportunity to free their fate from the Precursors' stranglehold.

Marshal Stacker had already devised a plan to launch a counterattack against the Precursors. That plan required the veteran Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket, which was why he had come here.

But now, he saw an even greater hope.

"I'm Stacker Pentecost, commander of the Jaeger Program. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." As the young man approached, Marshal Stacker stepped forward, briefly introduced himself, and held out a hand.

He was extremely nervous, but none of it showed on the surface. He wore a polite smile, conveying his goodwill.

"Natsuki, a member of the Land of Light's Space Garrison." Natsuki sensed his enthusiasm. Years of experience let him immediately understand why Stacker was behaving this way, and it was exactly what he hoped to see. He returned the polite smile and reached out to shake his hand.

There was no language barrier whatsoever, and the alien also understood some human etiquette. This made Marshal Stacker even more certain that the alien's civilization was far more advanced than humanity's.

"Welcome to Earth, Mr. Natsuki." Natsuki's attitude eased much of the tension in Marshal Stacker's heart.

A few years ago, he could have welcomed Natsuki on behalf of all humanity as marshal of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps. Now, however, he could only speak for a small portion of them.

"Thank you for saving our lives."

"In return, I hope you'll come back to our base with us later and give us a chance to offer you our hospitality," Marshal Stacker said with genuine sincerity in his eyes.

These ruins, which had just endured a battle, were clearly no place to discuss serious matters.

Natsuki understood that as well.

According to the mission his bracelet had issued earlier, the anomalous spacetime fluctuations in this universe were likely connected to the monsters or whoever controlled them. In that case, cooperating with someone who commanded humanity's Jaegers was essential and would let him quickly obtain the relevant information.

So he agreed to the request. "Sure."

"I hope your cooks won't disappoint me," Natsuki said casually.

His relaxed tone eased most of Marshal Stacker's remaining tension.

"Of course. Our cooks will bring every bit of their expertise to bear," Marshal Stacker replied with a smile.

The two sides had reached a preliminary understanding.

The next steps would have to be discussed in depth at the base.

Seeing this, Raleigh nodded. He understood that Marshal Stacker had found an immensely powerful ally. Surely, it would not be long before the monster crisis was resolved for good.

That was a good thing. After all, he no longer wanted to pilot a Jaeger.

"Congratulations, Marshal."

"I imagine it won't be long before this apocalypse ends," Raleigh told Marshal Stacker. "Once it's all over, make sure I'm the first to hear the good news."

"Good luck to you both."

With that, he turned around, ready to leave.

He had no intention of going to the base with them.

But he had only taken two steps.

When he heard Marshal Stacker's voice behind him. "Where are you going, Raleigh?"