What does it mean that the group members have given me back the light?

Munakata gestured for Horii to operate it. Horii entered a few commands on the control panel, and the ancient patterns on the surface of the time machine gradually lit up, emitting a deep hum. Blue and white light began to flicker and converge, eventually forming a clear holographic image in front of everyone—an elegant woman wearing a white robe, with silver-white hair and ice-blue pupils.

"We meet again, my descendants."

The woman's voice was ethereal yet carried a sense of the vicissitudes of time: "I am Yu Lian, the commander of the Earth Guard."

In the video, Yu Lian's eyes were solemn: "When you see this video again, you will have already experienced the baptism of demons and angels. If I'm not mistaken, the Earth has undergone tremendous changes."

"Actually, I have some doubts about the accuracy of this thing's predictions."

Horii couldn't help but mutter under his breath:

"Recently, Earth has been unusually peaceful. There haven't been any major changes. The angel she mentioned was already destroyed by Ultraman yesterday, and we haven't even seen a shadow of the demons."

In his view, the information provided by this ancient machine was rather irrelevant.

Daigo Madoka, who had just returned to the base, suddenly seemed to be deep in thought.

If the angel refers to the one that appeared yesterday... then could the demon refer to the Kirieloid that appeared even earlier?

Megumi Kijima didn't speak, but listened even more attentively.

Yu Lian's image continued, "But this is an unchangeable future, and it's far from over. Soon, another great crisis will strike Earth, but this time, you will have the opportunity to fight back."

"In a world shrouded in darkness, only those three giants can lead humanity toward the light."

"The key to finding them lies in the land of Tiga, inside the pyramid."

“The Land of Tiga…” Megumi murmured the unfamiliar place name to herself.

"You must find the Land of Ultra as soon as possible, because there are still four..."

Yu Lian continued speaking, but halfway through, her voice suddenly stopped.

"Four?"

Megumi's heart jumped instantly.

Why are we staying here? Four months? Four weeks? Or... four days?

Zong Fangcheng looked helpless and explained:

"This is the part of the new prophecy that ends here. We have used all our resources to search for clues about the pyramid called 'Land of Tiga' around the world, but so far we have only narrowed down the search to Japan. The exact location is still being confirmed."

Kijima Megumi let out a long breath and began to speak:

"Very well, but in any case, our time is running out, we need to..."

She was only halfway through her sentence when a voice came again.

"three."

Everyone looked over in shock, only to see that the prophetic image of Yu Lian, which should have ended by the time machine, was now moving its lips again, clearly uttering the countdown numbers:

"two."

"one."

“Ding ding ding ding——!!!”

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Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Land of Tiga (4k)

"Drip...drip...drip..."

The piercing alarm sounded throughout the entire laboratory.

The youngest member of the team, Nozue Yasumi, changed his expression. He quickly snatched the seat next to the control panel from Horii and started operating the computer terminal.

"Report to the captain!"

Nozue Hachimitsu's voice was tense as he stared intently at the constantly changing information on the screen.

"Abnormal situations are occurring simultaneously in various regions of the world—"

"High-intensity life activity has been detected at the active volcano Qiuwuyue. A giant creature has been confirmed to have emerged from the crater, briefly appeared, and then quickly disappeared underground. The signal has now been lost!"

"Satellite images from the Easter Island mountain region show a bird-like monster with a wingspan of over fifty meters breaking through the rock layers and moving northeastward at low altitude!"

"The Wilkes Observatory in Antarctica also reported an anomaly—the seawater temperature beneath the ice shelf rose sharply by 2-3 degrees Celsius within ten minutes, and the underwater camera captured a dark shadow more than fifty meters long speeding past under the ice!"

"Don't panic, Ye Rui."

Zongfang Chengyi said in a deep voice, "It's just a three-headed monster. With the support of our Victory Team and the original armed forces of the Night Raid Team, we may not be unable to deal with it. Calm down."

“…I understand, but, Commander…”

Nozue Hachisuke struggled to lift his head, his voice carrying a strange, forced composure:

"These three are just confirmed cases of actual eyewitness accounts. Globally, more than 300 high-energy biological fluctuations of the same type as this event have been detected."

Munakata Seiichi: "?! ...

Silence instantly enveloped the entire laboratory.

Three hundred—in everyday life, that's not a very large number.

Three hundred yen can only buy two cans of cola at a convenience store, not even enough to quench an afternoon's thirst; three hundred meters is less than a lap around a standard running track, a length that many people find too short even for a warm-up jog; three hundred days is less than a year, just a fleeting moment in the long span of life.

But at this moment, if this number represents the number of monsters... three hundred means that three hundred percent of potential destruction may be quietly brewing in every corner of the planet, that they are facing a global crisis that is erupting simultaneously, and that human civilization has faced the largest and most concentrated ultimate threat since its birth.

"This is... a joke, right?" Nanase Rena muttered to herself.

Three hundred monsters—that number kept echoing in her mind.

Although Ultraman has shown overwhelming power and can easily deal with single monsters, when faced with a surging torrent of monsters that seems to stretch as far as the eye can see... even if he is a giant of light, can he really win?

"Find the land of Ultraman Tiga and awaken the giant inside the pyramid."

Yuzare's holographic image flickered violently before everyone's eyes, and her voice began to crackle with electrical static: "There is only one way to awaken the giant, and that is to let... uh..."

Before she could finish speaking, her figure trembled violently like a television screen with a poor signal, and then with a "snap," she completely vanished into thin air, leaving only an empty, silver-white machine.

"Damn it! What's wrong with this lousy machine? Why does it always fail at the most crucial point!"

Tetsuo Shinjo couldn't help but slam his fist on the table, making a dull thud.

A strong sense of anxiety welled up inside them—if this damned time machine had revealed this information a few weeks earlier, or even a day earlier, they could have gained much more crucial preparation time, instead of being left hanging in mid-air, helpless and at a loss like this.

"...Especially in times like these, our winning team must remain calm."

Megumi took a deep breath and turned her gaze to Nozue Yasumi on the control panel: "Nozue, how much longer will it take us to find the pyramid?"

Just as Nozue Hachisuke was about to speak, a calm and resolute voice cut him off abruptly, silencing his words.

"We'll find it right away."

The main screen in the laboratory lit up, its pale blue light dispelling the gloom in the room. Megumi's eyes narrowed as she looked at the screen—and what appeared on the screen were several faces that were all too familiar.

"Ishibori? And... the Night Raid team?"

Daigo Madoka stared at the fully armed squad on the other end of the screen, his voice filled with disbelief and astonishment.

"……How can this be?"

Nozue Hachimitsu was so excited that he jumped up from the control panel, leaning forward slightly in shock: "This is a top-level encrypted internal channel! How did you manage to breach our firewall?"

"It's presumptuous."

Mitsuhiko Ishibori nodded slightly, a hint of apology in his expression.

"I also know a little about computer technology. Because of the urgency of the situation, we also detected abnormal fluctuations globally, so we had no choice but to resort to this desperate measure and try to forcibly connect to your channel."

Mitsuhiko Ishibori then turned his gaze to the captain behind him, his expression conveying a sense of seeking instructions.

Eisuke Kazukura stepped forward and solemnly began to speak: "Captain Kijima, I will take full responsibility for all procedural violations afterward, but at this moment, in the face of this crisis that may sweep the globe, please allow the Night Raid Team to fight alongside the Victory Team."

"This is exactly what I hoped for. Captain Hekura, the Night Raid Team's more experienced combat power is indeed indispensable when facing monsters."

Megumi Kiyama looked solemnly at Mitsuhiko Ishibori, who had just spoken: "And... Ishibori, you just said that you'll find the Land of Ultra soon. Do you already have any leads?"

"Yes."

Mitsuhiko Ishibori nodded affirmatively and pulled up a document:

"Recently, while I was organizing the archives related to Titans, I happened to find a record of this place called 'Tiga Land' in an ancient language. Based on the existing data, it is located somewhere in northeastern Japan."

……exactly?

Keiji's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Her intuition, honed through years of dealing with extraordinary events, allowed her to detect a faint yet undeniable sense of unease in this overly coincidental discovery.

However, with the crisis looming, there was no time to delve into the source of this strange feeling. She quickly suppressed her doubts, and her gaze regained its clarity and determination:

"In that case, could you please have Ishibori send us the coordinates immediately? Awakening the giant is the most important task at present."

“Of course, I would be happy to oblige,” Mitsuhiko Ishibori replied with a smile.

……

……

This is an endless starry sky.

Or rather, it is a void that simulates the appearance of a starry sky.

There is no up, down, left, or right; no passage of time; only boundless, awe-inspiring vastness.

My body felt as if it had lost its weight, floating in this void.

My consciousness felt as if it were being gently withdrawn, leaving my entire body in a state of complete emptiness.

Is it a dream?

Feeling this familiar yet ethereal sensation, Gu Nuo slowly opened her eyes.

What came into view was a field of light. A field of light that could not be seen at a glance, pure and magnificent.

He subconsciously raised his head, his gaze piercing through the void, and silently met the eyes of a familiar silver giant.

A clear thought, like a gentle stream, quietly seeped into Gu Nuo's sea of ​​consciousness.

"You want to... leave?"

Without a sound, yet every word was distinct, and Gu Nuo almost instinctively understood this idea that transcended language.

The silver giant nodded slightly, its light-forged form rippling faintly in the void.

"Why now?"

Without immediately agreeing, Gu Nuo frowned slightly and asked in return.

He wasn't greedy for this power; if it had been earlier or later, he wouldn't have tried to keep Haji Guang any longer.

However, the situation was extremely unusual during this period.

The prophecy made by Kirino Makio, the endless darkness mentioned by the Kirieloids and the angel Zog... all these circumstances indicate that the impending crisis on this planet is no small matter.

The two appetizers that have arrived in the last few days illustrate this point.

Putting aside the Kirieloids, even considering the angelic monster with its second stage, although he seemed to defeat it easily, that victory was largely due to Zog's carelessness and underestimation of his opponent, and his attempt to win quickly with a sneak attack.

Gu Nuo understood very well that if the opponent had shown no reservations from the beginning and directly revealed his second-stage form, which was even larger than Chi You's, the battle would not have ended so simply and hastily.

Now, with the enemy visibly growing stronger, why would they want to replace me?

He just wanted to escape this sea of ​​overtime every day, but that didn't mean he would stand by and watch the next unlucky guy take over his shift and clean up the mess that even he found difficult to handle, without any preparation.

He understood that feeling; it was no different from telling the other person to just die.

Gu Nuo looked at the giant above him, waiting for an explanation.

The giant's light seemed to pause slightly, as if it were contemplating how to explain.

then……

"Your enemy is coming soon, and I'm not strong enough, am I?"

Gu Nuo was slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected that the reason the other party wanted to leave was that he, with his talisman magic power, was too weak?

'The next successor... at the height of its power... lost... but... it's the same... we can try... elbowing it...'