Ultraman: This Belial only wants to make money.

Chapter 16. Soaring into the Blue Sky

At dawn in Tokyo, the sky was still dark, and the daylight had not yet completely ended. Faint golden lines could be seen in the distant clouds.

"It's time to go."

Jin Yi reminded him.

The ceremony to send off the savior was not particularly grand; there were no cheers or flowers lining the streets, but almost the entire Fought Team was present to bid farewell to the hero who was about to save the Earth.

"Kanaga-kun... didn't he come?"

Lipia's eyes darted around, searching for his former human form.

"He was delayed by something."

Hiroko Asami explained that everyone had tried to contact him, but the chat software always showed that he had read the message but not replied, so everyone had to go there in person.

"All right."

The two people in the center of the plain exchanged a knowing glance.

There were no words of encouragement; at this moment, all words were superfluous. Intense emotions surged with the morning breeze. Ultraman took out the Beta Wand from his pocket and pressed the button sharply.

As everyone watched, the silver giant broke through the clouds and soared into the sky.

----------

"Zeeton—"

The ultimate weapon of destruction emitted a dull, mechanical sound.

Zetton hovers in outer space 30 km above the Earth's surface, but for Ultraman, who has regained his full power, such a distance is nothing more than an instant!

clang!

Its silver body flew out from the aquamarine planet without slowing down in the slightest, and its enormous kinetic energy directly collided with Zetton's phase barrier.

In an instant, the resounding sound could be heard almost all over the earth.

But this had no effect whatsoever. Looking back at Zetton in the sky, its position hadn't changed at all. This blow, which could have sunk the Japanese continental shelf, was like an insect hitting tempered glass, having no impact whatsoever.

This glass layer, made of phase barrier, is only about ten kilometers long, just one thirty-thousandth of the distance from Earth to Zetton, but to break through it, one must risk everything!

"Specium Ray!"

With his hands crossed, surging silver energy intertwined and emanated from Ultraman's pure silver hands, flowing and surging across the transparent barrier, slowly but surely—

"The barrier is retreating!"

Almost all the sophisticated equipment on Earth was simultaneously monitoring every move here. Although the surging Specium energy failed to directly damage the barrier, the two silver giants continued to move forward.

"Concentrate energy at one point for erosion?"

Yes, this is the tactic that Lipia and Jin Yi discussed. The mechanical Zetton is much larger and has more energy than Lipia, so it is unrealistic to break the barrier directly. So how about using erosion instead?

Ants cannot crush a hard wooden door, but they can gnaw a passage through it with their teeth.

As long as Belial's Ultimate Battle Device comes into direct contact with Zetton, victory can be declared in an instant!

However, Jaden is not a lamb to be slaughtered.

The autonomous defense matrix was activated the moment Ultraman's body collided with the phase barrier.

Thousands, no, tens of thousands of lasers, trailing long tails, slammed into Ultraman's silver body in an instant. The pure silver body was baked into an ominous dark red by the high temperature—the color of steel under high temperature.

"Can you hold on?"

Jin Yi asked from behind.

Ultraman's body stood like a mountain in front of him, blocking almost all the attacks. Even Belial behind him could maintain his original silver-white appearance, and his electromagnetic disguise was not broken.

"no problem."

The brief response, though affirmative, did little to improve the situation.

Ultraman's energy is nearly inexhaustible, but it is affected by the output power, just like a battery that can discharge forever but has a limited output power.

Although activating the shield can mitigate Zetton's damage, the energy consumed will affect the output power.

This is essentially trading health for damage output.

We're almost halfway through this long and arduous road, five thousand meters, or three thousand meters from where we'll arrive.

However, Ultraman's situation worsened. The closer he got to Mechanical Zetton, the more ferocious Mechanical Zetton's attacks became. His silver body was scorched to a dark red, and even began to turn charred.

Boom!

As if some mechanism had been triggered, just a few steps away, the laser's power suddenly increased, becoming dozens of times thicker than before. High-energy rays, tens of millions of degrees strong enough to dissolve any substance, were released and slammed into Ultraman's front!

"Gurgle!"

Even with superhuman willpower, he couldn't bear the pain. Ultraman subconsciously let out a low growl from his throat, but—he had to hold on!

Even when unconscious, the Specium Rays still instinctively emanated from his hands, propelling his entire body forward step by step, yet shrinking with each step, as if his whole body was about to dissolve into this endless stream of light.

"That won't do, Libia—"

"Death is not the end for you."

Before plunging into that deep darkness, Lipia heard these words.

It was Beria.

A large silver hand—no, now a large black hand—grabbed Ultraman by the back of his neck and yanked him backward with force.

"It's up to you now."

Ultraman closed his eyes contentedly. The bullet he fired was destined to never return. Hit by Zetton's high-energy rays, the charred giant of light fell like Icarus with broken wings.

"Leave it to me!"

Without looking back, Jin Yi manipulated Belial's body and charged forward!

The silvery-white disguise completely disappeared. This paper-like electromagnetic disguise dissolved the moment it came into contact with the light stream and was cut off. Old White, no, the real Old Black, appeared!

Even with Belial's outstanding defense, the high-energy rays stung his skin, as if he were in boiling water.

Undoubtedly, the power of the mechanical Zetton was enough to harm Belial's physical body, but in response to this pain, Jin Yi, or perhaps Belial in the spiritual world, let out a wild, arrogant laugh.

"That's really impressive!"

"But you're not strong enough to kill me!"

The raised Ultimate Battle Device flickered with an ominous black light, its tip emitting chain lightning that had already clung to Zetton's surface. Jin Yi, using all his strength, leaped forward—

The moment the Ultimate Battle Device made contact with Zetton, it emitted a radiance a thousand times greater than that of the sun.

A violent explosion, mixed with the sharp metallic screeching of more than a thousand birds, flew across the dark space of space and through the white atmosphere. At this moment, almost everyone on Earth lowered their heads and covered their ears.

And when they looked up again—

In the eyes of all Earthlings who looked up at the sky, that heavy and enormous weapon of destruction had disappeared, and the sky had returned to its unchanging blue color for thousands of years.

----------

Below Lake Ryusei lies a secret Japanese air force base.

The defenses were tight, but they couldn't handle the extraterrestrial visitors. The guards lay sprawled on the ground, and the alarm bells on the wall were silent, making no sound at all.

"It was well hidden, but unfortunately it's meaningless."

"Zalab Alien Zack casually commented, strolling leisurely around the base, with Shinji Kaminari behind him, silent."

What a crazy decision! Just for one sentence, he actually followed this alien and invaded his own country's military base. He would probably be sentenced to death for treason.

But it's worth it.

"At first I was a little disappointed. After all, solidified life devices are not readily available in mainland China. Using them on short-lived Earthlings is a bit of a waste."

"But looking at it now, it's not such a pity if it's a man like you."

With a thunderous roar, the heavy metal door slowly opened, revealing a silver eagle sleeping peacefully in its nest.

"Jet Vito..."

This is a ground-to-space reconnaissance aircraft secretly developed by the Japanese government to counter increasingly frequent unusual events; it has not yet been test-flown.

Zack kicked the pilot lying on the ground aside and pointed to the silver eagle inside the warehouse, which seemed ready to take flight.

"A truly excellent weapon, it's a pity the designer didn't think of that—"

Zach snapped his fingers, and the swivel window slowly rose.

"Its maiden voyage will be to send humans to meet Ultraman!"