Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

Okinawa, Ishigaki Island.

Compared to the city where Phoenix Nest is located, this place is closer to the tropics and has a dreamy near-shore mudflat. If viewed from the air, the entire island looks like malachite embedded in a crystal surface, making it a rare tourist destination.

If the scenery of Kanto is like a kabuki performer, demurely taking small steps and hiding herself behind a folding fan, then the scenery here is like a girl playing the shamisen and singing island songs as she walks.

However, the purple vortex hanging silently above it casts an eerie shadow over the "girl" born in the azure sea.

The loading ship slowed down and slowly approached the vortex. The closer it got, the stronger the unknown sense of oppression became. Marina Kazama caught a strange sound.

Monster?

"Its gravitational influence range is 2 kilometers. Please keep your flight path outside." This is the latest message from Tengu Kinomi.

"Understood." The two responded and prepared to enter the fly-around observation mode.

The purple vortex was dazzling and mesmerizing. Ikaruga Sadaharu activated the real-time video transmission to the base while also keeping a close eye on the enormous creature that had appeared out of nowhere.

The gravitational influence, which can only be detected by monitoring equipment, left a transparent, distorted projection in his field of vision.

“Although it’s slow, it is indeed decreasing. With such a range of influence, the city would be destroyed,” Kazama Marina said. “If we can’t get close, how can we stop it?”

Still

During the analysis, "Amagi Kinomi's hands haven't stopped typing since the first monitoring message came in. She's constantly pulling up information on various monsters and aliens from the database for comparison: 'The initial plan is to use a gravity deflector, but it seems to have no physical form.'"

"If it has no physical form, then the sound I'm hearing is..."

"Maria!" Ikaruga Sadaharu suddenly pulled the control stick, and the Loader dived and accelerated. Kazama Marina was confused, but she still adjusted her flight posture to cooperate.

"What's wrong, Sadaharu?" The voice of Amaya Kinomi was somewhat muffled over the communicator.

"Sizzle—its area of ​​influence, sizzle—"

"Sadaharu? Mariina!"

In Ikaruga Sadaharu's field of vision, the transparent and distorted projection seeped into the cabin like glue, spreading and occupying the entire space in all directions.

The loading unit became part of the distortion, and the once clear city road beneath its feet became blurred and indistinguishable, like paint with its colors mixed up.

With the power system shut down, Marina Kazama's auditory world suddenly became empty.

Just as it appeared suddenly, the purple vortex carrying the loading number vanished just as abruptly.

The sea breeze on Ishigaki Island was fresh and crisp, and apart from pedestrians staring blankly at the sky, everything was as usual.

Amani Kinomi's mind went blank. She subconsciously looked at her captain, who was now tightly clasping his hands together.

Takakura City.

The investigation by Hibino Mirai and others went very "smoothly".

The aliens who caused the reservoir freezing phenomenon did not try to hide anything. Before Teppei Kuze even began his first analysis, they openly revealed their true forms.

“I don’t like noisy places, but it’s much quieter here now,” he said, pointing to the frozen reservoir. Seeing his target among the people investigating, he nodded with satisfaction: “Looks like I’m luckier.”

"I am one of the Four Heavenly Kings under the Dark Emperor, the Frozen Planet Grozam," the alien exuding a chilling aura said to the GUYS members. "Ultraman Mebius, fight me—if you don't want this planet to be frozen by me!"

As Grozam's true form appeared, the temperature in the vicinity plummeted again. What was previously just a "relatively cold winter" temperature had now dropped to a level where it could not exist naturally.

The air felt like it was carrying knives, and Aihara Ryu and Kuze Teppei couldn't help but cover their mouths and noses to make themselves feel better.

Even more serious is the rapid loss of heat. In such cold, the GUYS uniform instantly freezes into solid iron, and you can even feel the fabric digging into your shoulders and elbows with a dull pain when you raise your hand.

Knowing it might be a trap, but with their companion threatened, the Ultra Warriors couldn't just ignore it—as Grozam had predicted, Mebius appeared before them.

The temperature rose slightly, and Teppei Kuze rubbed his almost stiff fingers and took out the U-Dam capsules he had brought.

Mebius leaped high into the air, his tentative flying kick blocked by Grozam. He deftly used the momentum to roll backward, regaining his balance as he landed back on the ground.

Aihara Ryu clearly saw that even after only a brief contact, a layer of white frost had formed on Mebius's right foot.

The extremely low temperatures that are unbearable for humans are only slightly uncomfortable for Ultra Warriors, but the low temperatures emanating from Grozam during battles would be extremely uncomfortable even for Ultra Warriors.

Mebius gave a soft shout, a flash of flame appeared, the white frost sublimated and disappeared, and he rallied his spirits and charged forward again.

My ears were filled with heavy thuds and the sound of ice shattering.

The shield-shaped outer shell on his forearm was not Grozam's natural hand shape, but rather his weapon.

The small shield neutralized Mebius's attack, while the other hand used the blade to force him back. And if the opponent did not choose to dodge the attack, but instead used his free hand to control the blade...

Grozam opened its mouth and spewed out a storm of frost and cold air, instantly covering the trees around the reservoir with a layer of snow. The crackling sound of ice crystals condensing chased after the hastily retreating Mebius, sweeping all the way through, turning everything in its path into the most pale place in the entire galaxy farthest from the star.

Mebius's body was half covered in ice and snow. Teppei Kuze struggled to lift the memory display device and summoned Windom.

The Magma-type Weindam is specially designed with enhanced firepower and is equipped with a Spacium-type armor-piercing missile with a warhead.

"We've never tested this temperature before." Teppei Kuze could only hope that Windom's weapons wouldn't malfunction in such cold conditions.

……

After finishing her morning physical training, Sugiyama Mao took a relaxing shower and opened her laptop with her half-dry hair.

As usual, she logged into the astronomy enthusiast forum, where several popular posts were pinned to the top of the chat section.

"An unusually low temperature has been observed in Takakura City, raising suspicions that a frozen comet has fallen to Earth!"

Breaking News! Live Report of Abnormally Low Temperatures in Takakura City!

After hovering the mouse over the two titles for a while, Mao Sugiyama clicked on the second one while muttering to herself: "Even the coldest comet will get red-hot when it enters the atmosphere... The one above looks obviously fake. If you're going to use this to fool people, at least don't try it on an astronomy enthusiast forum."

The second post didn't ramble on. As usual, after paying tribute to Professor Sudo, an industry giant who occasionally pops up on astronomy forums, in the first post, the second post directly showed a video.

"Hey, there's video footage? I thought it was just a bunch of photos."

The video is very short, only a few minutes long, with the first few dozen seconds being the main focus of the filming.

The person was running with the camera, and the footage was shaky. The background sound was quite rich, including the cameraman's panting and loud explosions.

Those who have witnessed monster incidents can easily distinguish that the sounds produced by giant creatures clashing fists and kicks are the sounds of such combat.

Once the camera finally stabilized, viewers could see that the person filming was on the rooftop of a tall building, with a completely white artificial lake in the distance—the reservoir that had been frozen over in the news.

Mebius was battling an unknown monster there.

An unknown monster spews out storms of frost and snow, so much so that the entire reservoir is shrouded in mist.

The white mist occasionally parted, and she could see fireballs launched by the artificial monster called "Windom," which GUYS had announced at the press conference, hitting the unknown monster.

Mebius also took this opportunity to use the Mebium Slash, a golden crescent-shaped blade of light that struck the unknown monster in the chest.

The fog thinned due to the sudden heat. Not satisfied with the fireball hitting him, U.S. launched four missiles from behind, their tails blazing as they traced a clean arc and mercilessly rained down on the monster.

The frozen water surface was blasted open, flames mingled with water droplets and ice shards, steam was swept into the sky with the flames, and the monster's painful roar could be heard even by the videographer who was far away.

Mao Sugiyama clenched her fist: "As expected of GUYS!" And Mebius is as handsome as ever!

Then, in the next scene, her mood plummeted.

The monster did not die—although it was blown to pieces, the craters on its body were visibly repaired and smoothed out quickly, and even its severed hand seemed to have a mind of its own, lifting itself from the ground into the air and reattaching itself to the broken part.

As for Mebius... he didn't dispel the frost that had formed on his body because he had run out of energy.

She saw the frost extending toward the timer.

The thick white fog, like a death knell, coiled up again.

My heart suddenly plummeted, plunging into an icy abyss.

The video ends with an image of Mebius being pinned to a reservoir by an unknown monster with a sword, completely frozen by frost, so that even the red light of the timer is no longer visible.

Windom also disappeared. In the last few seconds before it vanished, after being repelled by the monster, it chose to protect Aihara Ryu and Kuze Teppei as they left.

The monster shrugged its shoulders as if laughing, and walked into the last of the white mist, which dissipated and disappeared without a trace.

"What is this... Mebius..." Mao Sugiyama looked down and found that her hands were trembling uncontrollably.

The Phoenix Nest fell into a deathly silence.

Grozam? There was no information about this monster in previous records.

And that inexplicable vortex—to this day, no similar wavelength has been found for reference.

"Swoosh—" The mechanical door opened.

Amaya Kinomi turned her head and saw Misaki Yuki walk in.

Faced with the grim situation, even she, who usually maintained a smile, could no longer face the two people present with a relaxed demeanor.

"Mami has found a way to save Mebius: Meteor Technology, Magnelium Medical Beam."

The chill that had seeped into her heart was dispelled, and Amamiya Kinoko finally found her voice again: "Magnelim..."

“Hmm,” Misaki Yuki pulled up the image in the database: “It’s something the Ultra Guard used when they rescued Ultra Seven. We’ve converted it into ammunition adapted to Meteor Technology—compressing a substance with energy equivalent to that of an Ultra Warrior into a laser and loading it onto the Propulsion.”

“We must act quickly,” Shingo Sakami said as he stepped out of the command room. “I’m going to assist with preparations. Kinoko, you continue searching for Sadaharu and Marina.”

"GIG!"

A person's voice is always somewhat weak, thought Tengu Kinomi. She took a deep breath and returned to her post.

Misaki Yuki noticed Amami Kino's low spirits and gently comforted her, "Ryu and Teppei escaped successfully under Undam's protection and are on their way back. Things aren't so bad."

"Hmm." Amakuya Kinomi's expression finally improved.

……

"What Ultra Warrior? He's just a newbie," Grozam said, still somewhat unsatisfied. "Hmm? Desrem hasn't returned yet. Was he perhaps defeated by humans?"