"They… won't appear in our world, right?"
Just imagining numbers more terrifying than natural disasters made Le Fay's face pale. After all, this ruined realm wasn't far from their own world.
"They can travel across star systems, but they don't naturally possess the ability to cross worlds."
Raize's words made everyone breathe a sigh of relief—but what he said next made their hearts tighten again.
"However, nothing is absolute. Their species has highly intelligent master brains. If they analyzed spatial power like Arthur's holy sword, they might create a species capable of crossing dimensions."
In the original setting, BETA adapted like the Zerg, producing new units in response to circumstances.
Giving them inter-world travel wasn't impossible.
After all, if BETA existed here, what wasn't possible?
Arthur adjusted his glasses. His vigilance increased sharply. If his power were ever obtained by such a world-destroying species and used to invade his world…
He would rather destroy himself along with the holy sword than allow that.
Although most nearby BETA had been eliminated, Raize's explanation left the tension lingering.
Soon, they arrived before a massive biological "gate" composed of flesh, at least two hundred meters tall.
Though it looked unremarkable, no one lowered their guard. A colossal flow of energy pulsed within it.
This was a Gate-class BETA, guarding the central hall of the nest.
High-voltage electricity surged through its body, preventing contact. Its defense was decent—but trivial for anyone present.
Raize raised his hand and fired an even larger lighting blast, smashing the flesh gate apart.
The central hall of the BETA nest appeared before them.
The most striking sight was a pale blue-glowing, brain-like organism with grotesque folds of flesh.
This was a Brain-class BETA.
Every nest's main hall contained one.
It supplied energy, maintained captured humans' lives, collected information from its BETA units, reported to the Superior Brain, and relayed commands.
Like a commander in a human army.
But besides the massive blue brain, several things in the hall shocked Raize.
Stone statues—huge, broken humanoid statues.
Those signature egg-shaped eyes were unmistakable.
Ultraman statues… appearing here.
This ruined realm truly contained everything imaginable.
None of the statues were intact—missing limbs, torsos, or reduced to heads.
"That brain-tumor thing commands them?" Kuroka asked, more focused on the blue brain than the statues.
"That's right. It receives and issues commands."
Raize explained, then moved forward. Every main hall also contained a reactor core powering the nest.
Raize planned to sever its energy supply, then inspect the statues.
The others surrounded the massive brain.
Vali frowned. The brain emitted enormous psychic power, yet it didn't attack them.
Albion's voice answered through Vali's mind.
[Vali, it possesses intelligence, but it considers itself a machine, not a living being. To it, you are resources, not life. Raize wasn't wrong calling them miners. If possible, destroy it.]
Albion had scanned its mind.
Dozens of nests existed in this ruined realm.
Fortunately, there was no main BETA force present.
Otherwise, they would have fled immediately.
Vali then turned toward Bikou, who was poking the Brain-class BETA curiously with his golden staff.
"Bikou, destroy it."
"Got it!"
Aside from curiosity, Bikou had no fondness for the disgusting thing before him. Something that dangerous should be destroyed as soon as possible.
After everyone retreated from the nauseating object, Bikou smashed the Brain-class BETA with a single blow of his staff. Blue fluid mixed with crackling energy and chunks of flesh splattered everywhere.
Boom!
At the same time, Raize finished destroying the main hall's reactor. He absorbed its massive energy in one sweep. The enormous chamber immediately began to shake, and the pale blue glow within the flesh walls abruptly went out.
The others were drawn by the disturbance Raize caused and followed his aura, arriving before the broken giant stone statues.
At this moment, Raize was circling the massive statues, examining them carefully. When Vali and the others arrived, they also turned their attention to these strangely shaped fragments.
"What's strange about these broken statues?" Arthur stepped closer to inspect them, puzzled by Raize's interest. However, remembering that Raize never acted without reason, Arthur suspected there was something unusual about them.
Vali reached out and touched one of the statues, confirming there was no trace of life. After some thought, he said, "Any statue appearing in the lair of those monsters can't possibly be ordinary."
"These statues look pretty realistic, just really oddly shaped," Kuroka commented while lightly tapping one of the massive figures.
For someone who had never seen Ultraman, the design did look bizarre.
Bikou placed a hand on one statue and roughly pried off a chunk of stone. After weighing it and confirming there was nothing special about it, he casually tossed it aside.
"Mr. Raize, is there something unusual about these statues?" Le Fay hovered on her staff like a little witch, circling the statues as she asked Raize.
Raize was clearly capable, and he had been the first to uncover information about the BETA. Her intuition told her that anything Raize paid attention to had to be special.
"Yeah. For me, this counts as a pretty good gain from this ruined realm."
Raize answered without turning around, leaving the girl confused.
The system had already scanned the broken statues. There was no soul or consciousness left inside them—only faint, incomplete remnants of light.
Buzz—
Suddenly, Raize's palm erupted with golden radiance like a miniature sun. As a devil, Vali sensed the holy power instantly—he had personally experienced it before.
Under everyone's watchful gaze, golden light poured from Raize's hand, splitting into several beams that struck the crystal-like stone on the giant statue's forehead, as well as the other broken statues.
There was no damage. Raize's holy light entered the statues effortlessly. Guided by his perception, he found faint traces of light within the broken stone bodies and drew them out.
In the eyes of Vali and the others, several luminous orbs—distinct from Raize's golden glow—were pulled out along the beams of light.
Apart from the statue with a relatively intact upper body and a few preserved heads, the statues missing limbs began to crumble as soon as Raize's light withdrew, collapsing into clouds of stone dust.
Floating above Raize's right palm were five fist-sized orbs of light: red, purple, blue, silver-white, and pale yellow.
After casting a satisfied glance at the orbs, Raize looked at the remaining broken statues and stored them in his inventory space.
As Raize landed, everyone immediately gathered around him, curious about the glowing orbs in his hand. Only Vali and Kuroka stood farther away.
The small orbs of light made Vali feel extremely uncomfortable. His demonic bloodline rejected the presence of light.
Kuroka, still a reincarnated devil, was naturally sensitive to pure, powerful light as well.
"This is… the power of light?" Arthur, being human, felt no discomfort. He was fascinated that such pure light existed inside the giant statues.
Bikou examined the five orbs like a monkey, stroking his chin as he said, "Didn't expect those statues to contain something like this. Does it actually help you, Raize?"
"I wield the power of light. What do you think?" Raize rolled his eyes at the humanoid monkey beside him.
These incomplete light orbs were indeed treasures to him.
As for what these five weak remnants of Ultraman light would bring him—Raize didn't know.
Under everyone's shocked gazes, Raize opened his mouth and swallowed all five orbs.
This reckless act made Kuroka's mouth twitch.
"Hey, kid, you don't even know what that stuff is, and you just swallow it? Aren't you afraid you'll kill yourself?"
She couldn't understand how he dared ingest something he had just found in a hellish place like this.
Even if it was light-based energy, had he confirmed it wasn't dangerous?
Raize possessed absorption and replication abilities, and his body's tolerance was extraordinary. Those light orbs had long lost any consciousness—only residual fragments of light remained.
After absorbing them, subtle changes occurred within his body.
He didn't turn into an Ultraman—but—
Buzz!
Before everyone's eyes, Raize's body scattered into countless golden particles, transforming into light and reappearing at a distance.
He had gained the ability of light element transformation.
His mind was also filled with Ultraman beam techniques.
Deracium Beam Torrent, Spacium Ray, Zeperion Beam, Light Barrier…
From the fragmented memories within the light, Raize learned that these long-dead Ultramen came from the ancient civilization of Earth in the Ultraman Tiga universe.
What surprised him most was that he had even learned the Deracium Beam Torrent, a signature finisher of Tiga's power type.
He had always thought it was unique to Tiga. Yet these broken statues—none of which resembled Tiga—could use it.
From the remaining information, Raize learned that the ancient giants of light were similar to the Land of Light, but divided into light and dark factions.
There were even places dedicated to teaching beam techniques to younger generations.
That he could acquire such techniques from residual light astonished him.
The absorbed light strengthened his body and pushed him toward becoming a being of light, though not nearly enough to turn him into a giant of light.
Still, Raize was very satisfied.
Whether he became an Ultraman didn't matter. His path to power wasn't limited to a single route.