Strictly speaking, you shouldn't open a fight with your ultimate.
But when Asuka, Daigo, and Masaki fired theirs all at once, they did blast apart quite a number of tentacles.
Still—there were far more of these writhing limbs than the ones Gatanothor had back then.
The Evil God in the abyss clearly felt its tentacles being blown apart. A thunderous bellow rumbled from below, echoing like an elephant's cry and a storm's roar.
"This sound…" Yu Zhou narrowed his eyes. "It's just like Gatanothor's. Guess these two monsters really are relatives."
At his words, both Daigo and Masaki stiffened with unease.
Only those who had fought in that battle over ten years ago understood how terrifying Gatanothor truly was.
Daigo in particular could never forget it. He'd been petrified twice during that fight, the memory of its overwhelming power still etched in his bones.
Suddenly, the deep-sea trench quaked violently. Clouds of silt burst upward as massive boulders broke from the cliff walls and crashed down into the dark waters.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle…
Boiling water and bubbles surged up from the depths, racing toward the surface.
"It looks like the seal is about to shatter completely," Yu Zhou warned, his voice taut with vigilance.
"This is too dangerous. We should pull back to the surface first," Daigo urged.
He was right—down here the murky fog hindered movement, making underwater combat troublesome.
Masaki agreed immediately. Fighting on the surface would be far more practical.
"Fine," Yu Zhou nodded. "We'll wait above."
His original plan had been to keep the Evil God suppressed while the seal still held. Maybe even reseal it, or at least weaken it before it broke free.
But things had changed. The plan was ruined.
Decision made, the Ultras retraced their path upward. Black mist filled the tunnels again, but Camearra's golden whip lashed out, scattering it aside.
Before long, they burst through the waves into open air, hovering silently above the sea, waiting for the Evil God's emergence.
The sky, once pitch-black, now glowed faintly crimson. Lightning arced through the clouds, thundering in the distance. The scene was eerie—apocalyptic.
Meanwhile, in the Super Victory Team's command hall, Horii watched the displays as images from the R'lyeh Trench were broadcast worldwide.
"Footage is now being transmitted globally," he reported to Captain Hibiki.
Another crisis of human survival was at hand. Just as with Gatanothor years ago, there was no point in hiding the truth. If humanity survived, it would be rebirth. If not—extinction.
Across every country and region, people now watched the scene: seven Ultramen floating above the ocean.
Reactions erupted.
"Look! Ultraman Tiga!"
"Wait—there are two Tigas?!"
"That's so rare!"
"Not just two Tigas—there's Dyna and Gaia too!"
"Unbelievable!"
"And even three more Ultramen I've never seen before!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
Then, one line of reasoning silenced the panic:
"Hold on. If Ultramen are here, then we're safe, right?"
"Right!"
"Then it's fine!"
"It's fine!"
"It's fine!"
…
On a streaming site, a flood of scrolling comments filled the screen, ranging from awe to reassurance to nonsense.
Yu Zhou and the others, of course, had no idea the whole world was watching. They kept their focus on the sea, where waves churned violently.
A thunderous splash erupted as a massive black tentacle burst from the ocean, swinging straight for Camearra.
"Watch out!"
"Danger!"
"Run, Ultraman!"
"My god!!"
Spectators screamed in chat and in living rooms across the globe.
But Camearra only sneered. "Courting death."
With a crack of golden lightning, her whip lashed out. In a flash, the monstrous tentacle was cleaved clean in two, falling back into the sea with a crash.
Yu Zhou blinked, stunned. "…Awesome."
He started clapping without thinking.
And on screens around the world, countless people saw Tiga clapping—so they clapped too.
"Awesome."
"666!"
"Holy crap."
"Legendary."
People everywhere were floored. Few had ever seen Camearra before—but this one strike cemented her as terrifyingly powerful. To slice a colossal tentacle in half with a single whip strike? Unreal.
But there was no time to marvel.
More tentacles erupted from the ocean, writhing upward amid black mist, accompanied by that same elephantine roar.
"It's the same sound… it really is like Gatanothor!"
"The monster that almost destroyed the world!"
"I still can't forget it!"
Those who had lived through that dark time shivered in recognition.
Younger viewers, though, were confused.
"Who's Gatanothor?"
"Why don't we know about this?"
"Was it scarier than this thing?"
"…Can you eat it?"
Older youths replied solemnly:
"That was the monster of world's end."
"Yeah. Back then, darkness covered the Earth. Everyone was terrified."
"But in the end, we all became light."
"Right—I remember! I became light too!"
"The light back then included me!"
"And me!"
More and more began to recall.
Fuzzy fragments resurfaced—memories of that miracle a decade ago.
"That wasn't a dream," someone whispered. "We all became light that day."
In the command hall, Hori stared at the scrolling comments on his monitor and murmured: "Yes… we all became light."
But then, one jarring comment scrolled by. Just a short line, but it stood out like blood on snow:
"That year, I became Gatanothor."
"…???"
"…????"
"…??????"
Confusion exploded in the feed.
Back at sea, Yu Zhou faced the endless tide of tentacles.
He made no move to fire his light beams. These were just tricks, distractions. Using too much energy too early would be a mistake.
Instead, before the eyes of the whole world, Yu Zhou slowly raised his left hand—resting it against the bracelet on his right wrist.
A bracelet he hadn't touched in a very, very long time.
(To be continued…)