"No—!!!"
Watching as Yuzhou brought his hand blade down once more toward his tail, Cthulhu tried desperately to wrench it free from Yuzhou's grip—but it was already too late.
With another sharp rip, sparks burst forth again from Cthulhu's massive tail. An even deeper, charred gash appeared, seared black by overwhelming light.
A strange aroma of scorched flesh spread across the surface of the sea. Even though he was now Tiga, Yuzhou could still distinctly smell it.
"This is really making me crave barbecue," Yuzhou muttered to himself.
Without hesitation, he yanked Cthulhu's tail back again. Light gathered in his free hand, rapidly condensing into a spinning golden disc of energy.
"What?!"
A sense of impending doom surged through Cthulhu. Thick black mist poured out from his body as he attempted to force Yuzhou back.
But the golden disc in Yuzhou's hand came crashing straight down onto the existing wound on the tail.
Zzzzz—
The disc spun violently in Yuzhou's grasp, slicing like a chainsaw into Cthulhu's flesh. Particles of light and showers of sparks erupted everywhere. Amid Cthulhu's agonized screams, a dark-green tail was severed cleanly and fell into the sea.
"Damn you! Damn you! Tiga—you deserve to die!!!"
Cthulhu roared madly and charged toward Yuzhou without regard for his own condition. From the stump of his severed tail, torrents of black energy continued to gush forth.
"Die!"
Black energy enveloped Cthulhu's body as he hurled himself straight into Yuzhou.
At the same time, golden light flared around Yuzhou, and the two collided violently above the ocean.
Light and darkness slammed together.
The once-dim sea was split cleanly in two—
one half bathed in radiance behind Yuzhou,
the other drowned in shadow behind Cthulhu.
The opposing energies ground against each other, locked in a brutal contest of endurance.
Yuzhou felt no strain. If this clash could crush Cthulhu outright, then the battle would effectively be over.
Cthulhu, however, was faltering.
The grievous wound behind him was continuously leaking his dark power, weakening him with every passing second.
Gradually, the final struggle reached its conclusion.
The darkness grew thinner and thinner, while the light expanded relentlessly—devouring, overwhelming, and finally engulfing Cthulhu entirely.
Then, from within that all-encompassing brilliance, beams of tremendous power burst outward in all directions.
Glitter Zeperion Ray!
Tiga's ultimate attack in Glitter Form was unleashed for the second time by Yuzhou.
Within the blinding explosion of light, Cthulhu's massive form vanished completely, reduced to ash and scattered into the wind.
As Cthulhu was utterly annihilated, the darkness blanketing the sky receded, replaced once more by brilliant daylight.
The sea grew calm again, gentle waves rolling beneath a soft ocean breeze.
Blue skies.
White clouds.
Warm sunlight.
Nothing remained to suggest that this world had only just been swallowed by darkness.
"Job done."
Yuzhou brushed non-existent dust from his hands and shot upward into the sky with a sharp whoosh.
"Did we… survive?"
"The darkness is gone!"
"That's great! I knew Ultraman would save us!"
"It was Tiga—Tiga saved us!"
"Tiga saved us again!"
Across the world, people emerged from their homes and looked up at the sky, offering prayers of gratitude.
Earth had endured countless disasters, but the one that lingered most vividly in people's memories was the appearance of Gatanozoa.
This darkness had felt eerily similar, dragging many survivors of that era back into painful recollections.
Yet when the darkness came, people did not panic.
Because they knew—Ultraman had always protected humanity.
...
Yuzhou returned to R'lyeh, where Daigo and Masaki were already waiting for him in the Crystal Palace.
Those who had taken refuge there had long since returned home, each to their own lives.
"Yuzhou, you're getting more incredible by the day," Daigo said sincerely as he approached him.
Such a terrifying demon—slain without hesitation.
"By the way," Yuzhou added, suddenly remembering something, "Daigo, aren't you able to use Glitter? Why didn't you activate it?"
Daigo had long unlocked the ability to enter Glitter Form—yet he had still been turned into stone by Cthulhu.
"Well… I didn't have the chance," Daigo scratched his head awkwardly.
"With you around, there was no need for Glitter anyway," Masaki joked from the side.
"I've already asked Himala to prepare a victory feast. Let's go eat."
"Alright."
Yuzhou nodded, then paused and decided to invite Charija as well.
After all, during this period, Charija had honoured his request and helped protect Earth.
...
Opening a spatial vortex, Yuzhou returned to his own world.
With Cthulhu eliminated in the New Domain World, there were no lingering threats left behind.
In his daily life, aside from occasionally heading out to deal with monsters, Yuzhou spent most of his time staying close to Camearra.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Before departing for his next journey, Yuzhou not only returned Charija's suitcase, but also paid another visit to the girl in the red dress.
"To be honest," Yuzhou said, crouching quietly beside her as she repaired spatial rifts with the Needle of the Cosmos, "I feel like my strength has reached a bottleneck. It's hard to improve any further."
"And the crises in this world are basically resolved. Traveling through worlds doesn't seem that necessary anymore."
"Young one," the girl in red said, stopping her work and turning to face him.
"The world of Ultraman is but one among countless realms."
"Once the space-time rifts are fully repaired, the spatial vortices will be able to lead to other worlds."
"In those worlds, there are powers unlike those of Ultraman—some weaker, some stronger."
"Other worlds…"
Yuzhou nodded slightly.
"If you wish to explore them," the girl continued calmly, "your current strength is still insufficient."
"Although the worlds you travel to now no longer challenge you, they allow you to adapt to different rules of survival and accumulate life experience."
"I understand," Yuzhou nodded again.
Then he asked, "So how long until the space-time rifts are fully repaired?"
"Soon."
She turned back and resumed her work.
"Define 'soon'?"
"At most half a year. At least one or two months."
"That really is something to look forward to," Yuzhou said with a faint smile.
After spending so long in the Ultraman world, he truly wanted to see other worlds—to experience entirely different realities.
Leaving the girl's domain, Yuzhou stood atop a small hill.
He took a deep breath of fresh air.
Then, without hesitation, he stepped into the spatial vortex that appeared before him.