Crackle.
A small spark burst forth—followed by a shower of sizzling flames from the cannon's smoking barrel.
Standing atop the Monera Queen's massive head, Yuzhou gripped each petal of its red, flower-like crown with both hands. Power surged violently through his body. With a sharp rip!, he tore the two petals clean off.
A stream of blue-violet fluid gushed from the Queen's head as it let out a piercing scream.
Although the creature cried out in agony, its body began to enter a state of dormancy immediately after firing its circular bombardment, conserving energy to recover.
It could still sense pain—but it could no longer move.
"Mom… Mom… uuu…"
On the burning ground below, a little girl with scorched skin knelt over the lifeless body of her mother, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Y-you must… live on…"
Nearby, a dying man gasped his last words to his wife—his voice fading with his final breath.
"My child!!!"
All around came the wails of despair—anguished cries of grief and rage.
Those sounds made Yuzhou's chest tighten.
He wasn't pretending to be some saint—but seeing such tragedy unfold right before his eyes, no human could possibly remain unmoved.
"You really… deserve to die."
Yuzhou hurled the torn petals away.
Then, raising his right hand—now glowing with scorching red light—he formed a hand-blade and swung it down toward the monster's left-side tentacles.
The Monera Queen possessed twelve in total—six on each side, resembling gigantic arms stretching from shoulder to waist.
The crimson slash gleamed like a blade of light. With a sweeping motion—slash, slash, slash! —six sharp cracks resounded as all left tentacles were severed, sparks flying in a cascade of blue-violet fluid.
Yuzhou's hand-blade sliced deep into the ground, the soil hissing with smoke.
The enormous Queen let out a guttural, distorted scream from some unknown organ—agonized, helpless, unable to resist.
"It hurts, doesn't it?"
Yuzhou withdrew his arm, slowly rising into the air.
"Then I'll make it hurt even more!"
Red light flared again. Fuelled by fury, he unleashed another powerful strike—the red blade of energy cleaving through the six tentacles on the opposite side.
Monera Queen's shriek grew even more unbearable as her remaining limbs fell, twitching, to the ground.
"Kill it!"
"Ultraman Tiga, destroy that monster!"
"Avenge my husband!"
"Avenge my child!"
"Avenge my mother!!"
Voices of hatred rose from below—echoes of grief and fury blending into one.
The countless resentful cries from those who had lost loved ones reached Yuzhou's ears.
Each voice burned with hatred toward the Monera Queen.
Each one carried an overwhelming, unrelenting desire for vengeance.
But such emotions—resentment and darkness—could not merge with the power of light.
Yuzhou felt it—their fury, their grief—pressing down on his heart, disturbing his focus.
"Then… let's settle this a different way."
Hovering above the shattered city, he looked down at the mutilated, dying Queen.
Then—he released his transformation.
In an instant, black lightning arced through the air.
Dark purple light surged—and the figure of Dark Tiga emerged in the sky.
"Let me be the hand of vengeance… for those who seek it."
Yuzhou's voice was low, his tone calm yet heavy with emotion.
He looked at the survivors below—men and women who had lost everything.
One by one, threads of dark energy began to rise from above their heads, drawn toward him.
Those tendrils of hatred converged upon the blue timer on his chest.
It was the first time Yuzhou had seen such a phenomenon.
The originally blue timer began to glow faintly purple.
Even his heart wavered slightly under the weight of so much sorrow and rage.
Fortunately, the resentment wasn't strong enough to consume him. He still had control.
Spreading his arms wide, he allowed the darkness within the timer's crystal to pour outward.
All the vengeful energy floating in the air gathered toward his chest, merging with his own power.
A huge purple-black energy sphere began to form—its surface pulsing, unstable, alive with hatred.
The Monera Queen, sensing the overwhelming energy, trembled violently.
Her cries grew more desperate, shrill, pitiful.
"What's wrong? Begging now?" Yuzhou sneered. "You didn't seem so sorry when you rained fire over the city."
He lifted the enormous sphere in one hand, its glow illuminating his dark armour, and slowly approached the helpless creature.
The closer he came, the more violently the Queen shook—paralyzed by fear.
"Disappear."
With a calm whisper, Yuzhou pressed the sphere against her body.
Time seemed to freeze. The Queen's trembling stopped abruptly.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!!
A deafening explosion of black energy burst from within her.
The sound was like a planet shattering apart. A wave of shadow engulfed the entire K3 District.
Darkness swallowed everything.
At the Queen's former location, a pillar of black flame blazed upward into the sky.
Yuzhou stood unmoving amidst the chaos, his palm still resting on where the monster's body had been.
Not even the shockwave of destruction could touch him.
"So, this… is the power of Dark Tiga."
Inside the underground command bunker, Captain Megumi watched the live satellite feed in stunned silence.
Even the people sheltering below ground were silent—no one dared speak.
Tiga was not only powerful in light—
He was terrifying in darkness.
Far away, Commander Gondou's expression darkened as he stared at the screen.
A being that powerful… existing on their planet… was nothing less than a ticking time bomb.
"If humanity doesn't learn to control the power of the Giants," he murmured, "we'll never be able to stand against threats like this."
"Ultraman Tiga… Dark Tiga…" he whispered again, frowning deeply.
He recalled the classified TPC files he had once seen.
It was confirmed that among the original GUTS team, there was one who could transform into Tiga.
And from the data left behind by Masaki Keigo—it was proven that Masaki himself had become Ultraman, the dark clone known as Cain.
Which meant Masaki's experiment had succeeded.
"The new light particle converter…" Gondou muttered, stroking his chin. "It requires a person with the genes of light."
He brought up an old group photo of the original GUTS team on his monitor, studying each face carefully.
"I wonder… which one of them could it be?"