"Be careful of its pollen. It can drag us into illusions," Raize warned, pointing as massive clouds of pollen erupted from the burning giant Gijera Flower.
Hearing this, Vali and Bikou both glanced at Le Fay and Kuroka, making the two women feel awkward. After all, they had been the first ones to get caught.
"Should we fight it, Vali?" Arthur asked softly, resting his hand on the hilt of the holy sword at his waist.
Vali carefully observed the distant Gijera Flower, which was burning and wailing. There was no real desire to fight in his eyes.
He felt that the thing simply wasn't very strong. Aside from its hallucinogenic pollen, it didn't seem to have any other noteworthy abilities.
It couldn't even deal with the flames burning on it. What was there to fight?
"Looks like you're not interested, Vali. I'm actually quite interested in the structure of that giant plant. It managed to put the cat and the little witch into illusions—definitely worth studying," Raize said.
Seeing that Vali had no intention of fighting, Raize activated acceleration and rushed toward the distant Gijera Flower.
Gijera pollen could keep brain cells permanently active, and the essence taken directly from the main body could even prevent human cells from aging.
Cripple it, bring it back, find a place to grow it, and extract its essence—another worthwhile gain.
"Vali, aren't we going to help?" Bikou asked, twirling his golden staff as he watched Raize disappear into the distance and engage the Gijera Flower.
"No need. If Raize is interested, let him handle it. That huge thing won't take long anyway," Vali replied, shaking his head.
Just as Vali said, the Gijera Flower's frontal combat ability was truly lacking. As long as one guarded against its pollen and vine attacks, it had no other tricks.
Its roots were buried deep underground, making it completely immobile. With zero mobility, it couldn't touch Raize at all.
Raize also knew that the Gijera Flower possessed tough skin capable of withstanding even Tiga Ultraman's physical attacks, which was why he set it on fire from the start.
After spending a short time crippling it, he used a sealing technique taught by Little Saint to seal the incapacitated Gijera Flower inside a holy light sphere.
He then handed it to Nepp, who tossed it into the block world.
Returning to the group took Raize less than a minute. By then, the twisted forest beneath them had withered and collapsed after the main body of the Gijera Flower was dealt with, vanishing from sight at a visible speed.
"Sigh. Now that this weird, twisted forest is gone, everything's just barren again. Vali, should we keep exploring this shattered realm?" Bikou complained as he sat cross-legged on his cloud, putting away his staff.
They had encountered plenty of danger, but aside from that, there hadn't been much else. He wasn't sure if continuing was worth it.
Raize and Vali landed on Bikou's cloud. Vali looked around at the now vegetation-free landscape and thought for a moment.
"Let's explore a bit more. If we still find nothing, we'll leave."
Vali was also gradually losing interest in this shattered realm. If nothing interesting or beneficial turned up, it would be time to go.
Choosing another random direction, the team flew off once more.
This time, they didn't bother walking on the ground. Everyone rode together on Bikou's cloud through the air.
---
Graaah!
At the location where Vali's team had first arrived, Gatanothor—shaped like a massive, inverted square sea snail—let out a strange roar.
Dense black fog poured from its enormous body. Around it, the shattered ground was littered with the lifeless corpses of BETA. These creatures couldn't even approach Gatanothor before being eroded to death by the shadowy black mist.
Countless small flying monsters called Zoiger ignored the black fog, landing on the dead BETA bodies to peck and feed.
They didn't care how ugly the prey was. If it was edible, that was enough.
Gatanothor's grotesque, inverted face locked onto a distant direction. With another roar, it began to move.
Each step of its massive body crushed the land beneath it, triggering continuous, massive earthquakes.
The black clouds above Gatanothor were far denser than elsewhere, with energy currents flashing within them.
It could feel that the Gijera Flower had lost its signal. Outsiders had arrived in this world that was on the brink of destruction.
If they could capture the other party, Gatanothor might be able to seize the chance to leave this place.
Within the Ultraman universe's worldview, there are countless parallel worlds and timelines, as well as countless possibilities. This Gatanothor came from a parallel world where it had successfully destroyed Earth and eliminated Tiga.
In the final battle, after seizing Tiga's light, it directly shattered Tiga's stone body, delivering the final blow.
Gatanothor had no interest in collecting figurines of Giants of Light. Any lifeform belonging to the light deserved to die.
Shining Tiga had long since been strangled in the cradle, and the civilization before Gatanothor's eyes was once again mercilessly destroyed.
A world that had lost any possibility of a future was beyond saving. After destroying civilization and Earth alike, Gatanothor turned its gaze toward the universe beyond Earth.
Yet after entering the cosmos, the Ruler of Darkness was inexplicably struck by a sudden burst of light and blasted into a dimensional gap, along with several of its subordinates, trapping them in this shattered world.
This was not Earth. Even if it left this place, it still could not escape the ruined realm. Without the ability to traverse dimensions, Gatanothor could only unwillingly await death alongside this broken world, while also using its own power to maintain the stability of this ruined realm.
When Raize and the others first arrived here, the entire realm, shrouded within Gatanothor's dark mist domain, was naturally sensed by it.
Seeing hope of leaving this place, Gatanothor impatiently wanted to capture these outsiders, so it could escape to a normal world and spread darkness once more.
---
Raize and Vali's group, who were exploring the ruined realm, had no idea that they were already being targeted by a certain monster. Dragging its enormous, cumbersome body, it was slaughtering its way over with its underlings.
The BETA blocking the way stood no chance against Gatanothor. Once the darkness was released, countless died, and the rest were finished off by Zoiger.
If this remnant realm was judged to have little value to exploit, then Vali and Raize's group would have left already.
However, soon after, they encountered a powerful lifeform different from the BETA.
Roar!
Suddenly, a dragon's roar echoed from ahead. Several pillars of light tore through the pitch-black clouds in the sky, only to be filled in again by dark clouds.
Raize and the others immediately recognized that attack as a laser-class BETA, and the entire team clearly heard the dragon's roar.
They were all sitting atop Bikou's slightly enlarged Cloud, maintaining low-altitude flight due to the heavy darkness saturating the sky.
"There are dragons here?"
Bikou said in disbelief while steering the cloud. Dragons actually existed in a hellish place like this?
"It is a dragon. Let's go take a look."
As the host of the White Dragon Emperor's Light Wings, Vali was extremely familiar with draconic power. Interest flashed across his face as he urged Bikou to speed up and see what was happening.
Raize was just as curious. Among the dragons he had seen, there were only two: Tohru, and the soul of the Red Dragon Emperor that had been devoured by the system.
Encountering a brand-new dragon in this remnant realm without interest was impossible.
Bikou immediately accelerated the Cloud. After some time, they arrived to find numerous BETA corpses scattered around, shattered beyond recognition.
The ground in this area had been completely scorched into cracked, fragmented wasteland, resembling a blazing hellscape.
Below them, a pure white giant dragon was fighting the BETA. The dragon had blue vertical pupils and two pairs of sharp horns on its head, one pair pointing upward and one downward. Its wings were not ferocious demon-like wings like Tohru's, but rather feathered wings resembling those of an angel.
However, those wings were severely damaged. Several large holes pierced through them, with charred flesh and dried blood clinging to the pure white feathers, an unbearably glaring sight.
Unable to fly, the dragon fought the BETA on the ground, its entire body crackling with lightning as it tore into enemies with claws and fangs.
"There really is a dragon here,"
Kuroka clicked her tongue in amazement. Seeing a living dragon in this ruined realm was truly rare.
Vali raised an eyebrow upon seeing the white dragon below and observed it closely as it engaged in close combat with the BETA.
"That white dragon down there seems to be almost out of magic. It won't last long."
Not only was the dragon badly injured, but more critically, its magic power was nearly depleted. Continuing to fight such overwhelming numbers of BETA would inevitably lead to its defeat.
Arthur and his sister looked down at the white dragon entangled with the BETA and spoke up,
"Vali, what should we do next? Go down and help the dragon, or sit back and watch the fight?"
He was actually inclined to sit back and watch. If the dragon fought until death, they could simply collect the corpse afterward, which would still be a decent harvest.
After all, every part of a dragon's body was valuable.
Cruel as it was, they had no relationship with the dragon below, nor did they intend to show themselves and kill it outright. They were merely watching in silence.
If the dragon truly perished, they would just come out to collect the remains. Otherwise, the corpse would only be devoured by the BETA anyway, so it was better to let them have it.
Now it all depended on what opinion Vali, the current White Dragon Emperor's host, would have.
Meanwhile, Raize frowned as he looked at the white dragon below. The dragon's appearance felt oddly familiar.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly realized—wasn't that Kanna's dragon form?
Why would she appear here?
Of course, it was also possible that it wasn't her. Judging someone's identity solely by dragon appearance could easily be mistaken.
Seeing how the dragon was growing more exhausted by the second, it was clear its magic and stamina were nearly gone. Aside from its wing injuries, its body was also covered in wounds.
If nothing unexpected happened, this white dragon would soon die.
"Vali, I'm going down to help that dragon."
Raize decided to save it. Even if he mistook its identity, he would accept it. If it really was Kanna, then as Tohru's friend, he could not stand by and watch her die.
"Oh? You know that dragon down there?"
Vali hadn't planned to help, and was surprised by Raize's decision. Though they hadn't known each other long, he knew Raize was not the type to be a naive do-gooder.
"I don't know her, but she might be a friend of a dragon friend of mine. If that's the case, I can't just ignore it."
After explaining briefly, Raize didn't wait for their response and transformed into a streak of light as he shot downward.
Whoosh—!
Several light spears fell from the sky, instantly piercing the brains of several Grappler-class and Destroyer-class BETA.
A Fort-class BETA, fifty meters tall, was massive and slow. Its wasp-like body structure concealed a roughly fifty-meter-long tentacle with claw-shaped ramming spikes in its tail segment. The spike had a Mohs hardness of 15, and its tip secreted highly acidic corrosive fluid. The tentacle's whipping attacks were extremely agile.
The Fort-class BETA also carried many Laser-class BETA within its body. Calling it a fortress was no exaggeration.
Beams continuously fired toward the white dragon, while the tail spikes struck like venomous snakes.
After landing, Raize instantly deployed a barrier of light to block the incoming beams, while the stabbing tentacle spike was cleanly severed by him.
Clang—!
In the next moment, Raize's cold blade light flared as he slashed through an Destroyer-class BETA.
Slash!
The blade brutally pierced the hardened assault armor, ripping through flesh and effortlessly cleaving the charging BETA in two.
Raize glanced at the badly injured white dragon behind him, just as the dragon's wary and probing gaze turned toward him.
He ignored it for now and charged into the mass of BETA ahead, his figure becoming like a reflection of the moon in water—visible yet untouchable, transforming completely into a mirage.
Tensing every muscle and entering a high-speed, invisible state, Raize lowered his posture slightly, maintaining a drawn-blade stance while running. The arm gripping the Yamato's hilt blurred, and the blade slid free of its sheath.
Clang clang clang—!
Amid continuous, ringing blade chimes, countless crescent-shaped slashes erupted around Raize, forming a cold, god-speed meat grinder that tore into the BETA swarm and rampaged in all directions.
[Swift Run—Iai]
A master-level iaido technique inherited from Vergil, combining terrifying movement speed with rapid, continuous draw slashes.
Against large groups of enemies in this environment, nothing was more suitable.
Slash!
That was the sound of perfectly synchronized cuts echoing through the battlefield.
Under that razor-sharp blade light, any small or large BETA caught within it was instantly split cleanly in half.
Roar!
Some BETA with grotesque maws roared and charged toward Raize, but they couldn't see him at all. They could only howl and stumble about, eventually being mercilessly harvested by Raize.
With Raize's help, the pressure on the white dragon eased dramatically, giving it a chance to breathe. It watched the suddenly appearing human with confusion and caution. Though Raize was fast, a dragon's dynamic vision far surpassed that of humans, allowing it to clearly track his movements.
The dragon didn't understand why this human was helping her. But as she hesitated, her nose twitched, and she seemed to catch a familiar scent from him.
That scent was… Lady Tohru's!