The last hope

Rain poured down like a waterfall. Morning had come, and dawn was breaking.

Amid the churning sea, two truly terrifying behemoths slowly surfaced. Their bodies, well over a hundred meters tall, looked even more oppressive in the predawn darkness.

"ROOOAR!"

"ROOOAR!"

The behemoths' roars blasted the seawater aside, their fierce eyes burning as they fixed their gazes on the two Jaegers, each damaged to a different degree.

A murderous atmosphere spread wildly in that instant. They were the Precursors' weapons for destroying Earth's civilization. They had come for one purpose alone: slaughter!

"Eureka Striker and Gipsy Danger will reach the battlefield shortly! Only four kilometers remaining!"

"Crimson Typhoon, Shaolin Rogue, prepare to evade combat and wait for support!" Marshal Stacker shouted into the comms in the command center.

A battle against a Category V Kaiju would inevitably be a grueling one.

They absolutely could not engage recklessly.

In the sky not far from the battlefield, the searchlights of two Jaegers were already visible. The roar of their engines added a burning surge of fighting spirit to the battlefield.

"ROOOAR!"

The massive Abomination was the first to attack Crimson Typhoon and Shaolin Rogue. It was much larger than the Jaegers, and the sight of it swimming through the sea toward them was overwhelmingly intimidating.

At that moment, the two Jaegers that had received orders to avoid combat each made their move.

Crimson Typhoon switched its arm to the Plasma Cannon, preparing to keep the enemy at bay.

Shaolin Rogue, who had already lost an arm, charged straight at Abomination instead!

The heavy Jaeger could not move quickly through the seawater, but he ran anyway, stepping over reefs. As he approached the enormous Abomination, he even leaped into the air above the sea, twisting his body into a move like that of a warrior monk.

"ROOOAR!"

"BOOM!"

Meeting the behemoth's charge head-on, the Jaeger twisted and slammed a sweeping kick into Abomination's body. Tremendous force erupted, instantly cracking the armor plating on Abomination's exterior, while parts flew off the Jaeger's leg as well!

With a thunderous crash, the behemoth, over a hundred meters tall and nearly twice the Jaeger's size, toppled backward into the sea, its attack utterly broken!

"Beautiful!"

"That's Xia for you!" Inside Gipsy Danger's cockpit, Raleigh could not help cheering at the sight.

Watching Natsuki pilot a Jaeger in person might not have been as earth-shattering as watching the giant fight, but it still left him awestruck.

When Marshal Stacker learned that Natsuki had already engaged the enemy of his own accord and sent a Kaiju flying with one kick, the corner of his eye twitched.

Did being strong enough mean he could forget about tactics?

He could not help wondering whether the super-brains of such an advanced civilization as the Land of Light could provide them with precise, brilliant tactical plans.

He was right.

What he had not considered, however, was that the tactic Natsuki's super-brain had come up with was to use his super-muscles.

"ROOOAR!"

"ROOOAR!"

The wounded Abomination thrashed its way back up from the sea, a trace of instinctive wariness entering its previously savage eyes.

Poison Woman, a Category V Kaiju, opened its bloody maw and roared, asserting the authority of its category and driving the wariness from Abomination's mind. Then it turned toward the silver-white Jaeger approaching it, swung its nearly two-hundred-meter body, and lunged forward!

The command center at Shatterdome Base.

Marshal Stacker slowly breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Eureka Striker and Gipsy Danger enter the combat zone.

With the other three Jaegers supporting Mr. Natsuki, killing these two Kaiju should not be a problem.

Just then, however, a figure leaning on a cane staggered into the command center.

"Marshal!"

"There's an emergency! You need to take a look!"

Dr. Hermann hurried up behind Marshal Stacker, his face filled with panic, and shouted.

"Sorry, Dr. Hermann, but the battle is at a critical stage." Marshal Stacker did not turn around, remaining wholly focused on the fighting.

This mission was far too important. He had to oversee it here from beginning to end and had no time whatsoever for academic matters.

"No!"

"It's not what you think!" Hermann explained incoherently. "It's Newton... Newton established a Drift connection with a Kaiju brain!"

What had just happened was so shocking that he still had not recovered.

He had never imagined that Newton would actually find the device Albert had used to Drift with a Kaiju.

"What?" Hearing this, Albert, who had also been watching the entire battle from a corner of the command center, immediately frowned.

His claim that all his intelligence had come from Drifting with Kaiju had been nothing more than a cover story to conceal his identity as a transmigrator.

He had never Drifted with a Kaiju.

That meant Newton must have assembled a Drift device himself.

The Drift went both ways. Humans could learn about the enemy, but the enemy could also learn about humanity. That was why he had warned Newton not to recklessly Drift with a Kaiju.

He could not help growing worried. The intelligence on our side...

Oh, the only thing worth noting was that Natsuki would enter the Breach as a Giant of Light.

But that intelligence...

When he thought about Ultraman's combat power, well... it seemed that leaking that information would not make much difference anyway.

"Newton says our plan can't succeed!" Hermann dropped his bombshell, finally capturing Marshal Stacker's full attention.

Marshal Stacker frowned at those words. This was what he feared most.

What intelligence had Newton obtained from the enemy to make him say something like that?

"Dr. Albert..." Marshal Stacker had just started to ask Albert's opinion.

Then he saw Newton crawling into the command center on his belly. His glasses were crooked, and blood had run from his nose onto his white shirt, leaving him looking utterly disheveled. A nearby guard hurried over to help him up.

"Ha."

"I did it!" Supported by the guard, Newton's body twitched involuntarily as he grinned. "I got inside the Kaiju's brain and dug out their intelligence!"

Seeing his condition, no one dared doubt him. His symptoms were exactly the same as those of an overworked Jaeger pilot.

He spoke incredibly quickly, hurriedly spilling the latest intelligence he had obtained, afraid he might lose consciousness the next second.

"Our Nuclear Bomb will never detonate inside the Breach!"

"It... he, she, they somehow knew our plan in advance and pre... prepared a lot of Kaiju, completely different from anything we've encountered. They're practically an army!"

"Because of the Breach's restrictions, they can't send those Kaiju straight through, but the moment we go in, we'll be swarmed!"

"This... this is a t-trap. Yes!"

"They're just waiting for us to fall into it!"

After saying that, Newton seemed to have every ounce of strength drained from him. His vision went black, and he collapsed.

His words plunged the command center into silence.

If the enemy knew their plan and had prepared for it, could their plan... still succeed?

Could this single Nuclear Bomb really achieve its intended effect?

Marshal Stacker's expression grew grave, his mind racing.

Yes.

He soon reached his answer.

At this point, they could not abort the mission.

They... still had another Nuclear Bomb. No, something more terrifying than a Nuclear Bomb.

Originally, he had not wanted to place the fate of the entire human race in someone else's hands. He had believed that the future they fought for with their own hands would hold the greatest hope.

But now, reality had shattered that belief.

They could only entrust more people's hopes to that giant!

When humanity could see no hope even after exhausting every effort, perhaps only the giant who emerged from the light could bring them their last hope.

They had already proven humanity's courage.

The rest would be left to... Ultraman.