A Race Against Death

For someone like Yochi, who had only watched a handful of Ultraman tokusatsu shows, it was impossible to imagine what an Ultraman fighting at full power would look like.

When an Ultraman cast aside budget constraints and appeared in reality, the power he displayed was more than enough to determine the fate of an entire civilization.

The giant standing at the center of the space maintained his beam without interruption.

The beam known as Spacium, dismissed by countless people as a weak attack, now rained down on the Precursors as a utterly devastating blow!

Every Precursor structure throughout the space had been reduced to rubble, with not the slightest trace of their former splendor remaining.

The Precursors, who prided themselves on being an advanced civilization, saw all their dignity and arrogance vanish when true judgment descended!

How could the Land of Light's Space Garrison possibly be some make-believe organization? They were true arbiters whose judgment struck terror into any invader!

They curbed the strong, protected the weak, upheld justice, and dealt annihilating blows to invaders.

Without absolute power, who would dare do such things in the boundless universe?

Even Alien Baltan, whose technology was far ahead of its time and whose civilization far surpassed the Precursors', had suffered a near-annihilating blow after Ultraman discovered their invasion. Two billion invaders had learned the consequences of aggression.

To ordinary civilizations, the Land of Light's Space Garrison was merely a legend of the universe. They rarely glimpsed the warriors who silently safeguarded their civilizations' progress.

But to invaders, the Land of Light's Space Garrison was a terrifying legend. Any civilization that engaged in violence across the universe and plundered resources through war prayed almost daily that the Space Garrison would never discover them.

Once those cosmic police discovered your evil deeds, you would find that their methods were far more violent than yours.

Especially those Ultra Brothers. When they really got down to fighting, the sight... all you could do was pray you had no sense of pain.

Rumble-

Even this space, plundered by the Precursors, trembled beneath the giant's beam.

The wronged souls within this dead planet seemed to mock the Precursors for bringing this retribution upon themselves.

Amid the endless rubble and Kaiju remains, suddenly-

Boom!

A Kaiju Factory, left half-standing after the beam had swept over it, began to shake.

"ROOOAR!!!"

A colossal beast far larger than a Category V Kaiju burst from the rubble, throwing aside the ruined structures. It stared straight at the giant and unleashed a heaven-shaking roar, as though embodying the Precursors' final gamble.

The Precursors possessed biological weapon cloning technology, so naturally, they also knew how to fuse powerful Kaiju into something even more terrifying.

As far as Yochi knew, this should have been the Super Kaiju the Precursors created ten years later by controlling Dr. Newton. But to fight Ultraman, they had prepared it ahead of time.

Fused entirely with the technology within the Kaiju Factory, this Kaiju was larger and stronger than the one from the original timeline.

Spikes that could serve as weapons protruded all over its body, and two upward-pointing tusks jutted beneath its gaping maw. It looked like a demon that had crawled out of hell!

Super Kaiju, also known as the Combined Kaiju (Category VI).

"ROOOAR!!!" Yochi eyed the giant in midair with predatory intent. With this powerful body under his control, his confidence kept soaring.

His opponent did not have much time left to act.

This one Kaiju was more than enough to deal with a rank-and-file Ultraman!

In midair, the giant had almost finished erasing every trace of the Precursors' civilization. He slowly lowered his arms, cutting off his beam amid the endless smoke and flames.

He heard the colossal beast's roar.

He turned his head, his bright eyes seemingly sizing up this Category VI Kaiju, and remained still for a moment.

Scared?

Seeing his opponent remain motionless, Yochi felt a surge of delight.

Just as I thought, he's almost out of time. It's only a few dozen seconds short of three minutes since he transformed. He's about to disappear!

That has to be why he hasn't attacked me directly!

"ROOOAR!!!" Yochi immediately unleashed a roar that shook everything around him. The roar itself even carried physical force, surging toward the giant to strike him down.

The giant remained unmoved.

Thirty seconds left. Let me test just how strong you really are!

Bang!

The Super Kaiju leaped with all its might, crushing the rubble beneath its feet with the force of its launch. It rose into the air, locking onto the giant, who was not even a third of its size.

Its nearly two-hundred-meter body radiated oppressive force, its tusks poised to impale the giant clean through!

Bang!

Its body slammed into the giant, pressing down with mountain-like force.

But a moment later, Yochi froze.

From a distance, the colossal beast appeared to be suspended in midair, an incredibly strange sight.

Looking down from the beast's perspective, one could see that the red-and-silver giant had caught its enormous head beneath the jaw, each hand gripping one of its sharp tusks.

"Wha..." Yochi realized something was wrong with the force he felt.

But before he could retreat and put some distance between them-

The giant slowly raised his leg.

Bang!

An unimaginable force erupted against the Super Kaiju's chest. At the same time, unbearable agony shot through its tusks. The nearly two-hundred-meter beast instantly flew backward and crashed into the rubble below.

Looking back at the giant-

He held two enormous tusks in his hands, blue blood flowing from their broken ends and dripping steadily.

His gaze still resembled that of someone looking at a prisoner.

"Cough... damn it." Yochi's enormous body rose from the rubble. Checking its injuries, he immediately discovered that one of the body's three secondary brains had shattered.

His opponent's strength far exceeded anything he had imagined.

He had not grasped it while watching the giant crush ordinary Kaiju. Now that he had personally taken a blow, he clearly felt that unmatched power.

Once again, the same thought crossed his mind.

You're telling me this thing is an Ultraman!?

"But there's still hope." Yochi reached into his body and tore out the badly damaged organs, then raised his head and stared fixedly at the giant.

This exchange had taken another ten seconds.

If I can just last the remaining twenty seconds, I win!

As its muscles suddenly exerted their strength, the colossal beast broke into a run, racing through the rubble strewn with Kaiju remains.

He needed to buy time.

To survive those final twenty seconds between life and death!