At the same time, a violent earthquake suddenly shook the Earth's oceans.
A massive stretch of seabed rose upward, forming new land.
From beneath the waves came a thunderous roar like the bellow of an ancient beast.
A gigantic spiral shell emerged from the sea, and countless tentacles lashed against the surface.
Thick black mist poured endlessly from the creature's body, spreading across the oceans and reaching toward every corner of the world.
From space, Yu Zhou could clearly see darkness expanding from the heart of the Pacific Ocean, engulfing the blue of the planet below.
If he wasn't mistaken, that darkness could only mean one thing—
Gatanozoa had appeared.
In Ultraman Tiga, the creature had risen in the Southern Hemisphere.
But in this reality, it had emerged in the centre of the Northern Pacific instead.
Yu Zhou glanced from the spreading darkness on Earth to the massive Sphere Black Hole that was drawing closer, devouring nearby meteors as it came.
He didn't know which one to deal with first.
"Gatanozoa has appeared."
The moment the darkness began to spread, the whole world knew it.
After all, this was the same monster that had nearly destroyed the world in Tiga's story.
In reality, its emergence sent every nation into panic.
This time, humanity didn't dare to hold back.
Every country launched its most powerful weapons toward the centre of the Pacific, where the colossal creature lay.
Because everyone understood—
If they didn't destroy it, humanity itself would be destroyed.
At the same time, satellites detected something else: a gigantic black hole had appeared beside Earth.
"The Sphere has shown up too… This is bad."
All around the world, people were cursing one company in particular—GUTS' old partner, the Ancient Company—the one responsible for unleashing so many monsters in the first place.
"Why did they have to create things that can destroy the world or swallow planets whole?!"
"How are we supposed to live like this?!"
Many began praying that the recently vanished Ultraman Tiga might still have some energy left… enough to stop the twin disasters threatening to annihilate the planet.
Pacific Ocean, central basin.
Gatanozoa's enormous form towered from the sea, its screeching roars echoing like the cries of an enraged god.
Missiles streaked across the sky in waves, exploding one after another—
but most were destroyed before they even reached the creature.
Even those that did detonate left no visible damage.
Round after round of bombardment did nothing.
The world's militaries began to despair.
Without the power of an Ultraman, defeating such a being was impossible.
Black mist continued to pour from Gatanozoa's body as it shrieked to the heavens like a mad god, its cries proclaiming dominion over Earth itself.
Humanity, it seemed, was already destined to become its dark servants.
Then, as though it had sensed something, Gatanozoa suddenly convulsed.
It tilted its head toward the sky—and fired a massive beam upward.
The beam pierced the thick clouds tainted by darkness, shooting straight into space toward the Sphere Black Hole.
But the black hole simply swallowed the beam whole.
The light vanished—without a trace.
"What the…"
Yu Zhou, who had been preparing to attack the Sphere first, froze mid-action and turned his gaze back to Earth.
The planet's surface was now shrouded in total darkness.
Bolts of electricity danced through the black clouds covering the globe.
Through the narrow gap carved by Gatanozoa's beam, Yu Zhou could faintly hear the creature's trumpet-like roar echoing into space.
"Gatanozoa…"
He was momentarily stunned.
Was Gatanozoa… attacking the Sphere?
Then again, it made perfect sense.
Gatanozoa wanted to engulf Earth in its darkness, to make the planet its dominion.
But the Sphere intended to swallow Earth entirely into its black hole.
And that would include Gatanozoa itself.
There was no way it would allow that.
"Commander! We have a situation!"
In the Chinese command centre, senior officials were deep in discussion over Earth's defence strategy when a communications officer rushed in with breaking news.
"Gatanozoa appears to be… fighting the Sphere Black Hole!"
Everyone turned to the screens.
What they saw left the entire room speechless.
The enormous creature—its vast body encased in a heavy spiral shell—was rising from the ocean, slowly but surely lifting off the surface and ascending toward space.
Defying gravity, defying logic, defying Newton's coffin lid.
Black mist stopped leaking from its body as it departed, and Earth was finally given a moment of respite.
Outer space.
Yu Zhou watched, wide-eyed, as the gigantic spiral shell burst through the layer of darkness surrounding Earth.
"It's… flying?"
"Gatanozoa can fly?!"
Not only that—it was heading straight into space!
"Dika, let's pull back."
After quickly assessing the situation, Yu Zhou decided to retreat with Dika, moving away from the battlefield while still keeping watch.
And before their eyes, Gatanozoa charged directly at the Sphere Black Hole.
Gatanozoa vs. Sphere—
a battle the universe had likely never seen before.
Countless tentacles lashed outward, coiling around nearby asteroids.
Gatanozoa hurled them at the Sphere Black Hole one after another.
But it was useless.
The Sphere distorted and warped, swallowing every chunk of rock into its endless darkness.
In retaliation, Gatanozoa unleashed its Petrification Beam, the same devastating energy it once used on Tiga.
The ray shot from its head, striking the Sphere dead-on.
This time, the black hole didn't absorb it so easily.
It reacted—raising a strange defence that partially reflected the energy.
Within the writhing void, a mesh-like structure of black and white could be seen… and some of it was turning to stone.
Apparently, even the Sphere had its limits.
Enraged by the counterattack, the Sphere began to writhe violently.
With an ear-splitting shriek, it expelled over a dozen Sphere Fusion Beasts from within itself, hurling them toward Gatanozoa like weapons of living darkness.
With a deep, booming roar like the cry of an elephant-dragon, Gatanozoa released waves of black fog that surrounded its entire body and drifted toward the incoming beasts.
As soon as the Fusion Beasts entered the mist, explosions of sparks erupted from their bodies—they were being corroded by the darkness.
Before they could even react, massive tentacles and pincers shot out from the black fog, wrapping around them and dragging them inward.
Crackling bursts of electricity flashed inside the cloud of darkness as the Sphere Beasts struggled—and were torn apart.
With one mighty pull, Gatanozoa's tentacles ripped several Fusion Beasts to pieces.
Sparks scattered through space like dying stars.
The Sphere's assault had failed.
It hadn't managed to wound Gatanozoa at all—
though it had managed to make the dark god expend a bit of energy.
"Good… yes, keep fighting each other."
Watching from a distance, Yu Zhou murmured with a faint grin.
"Best-case scenario, you both destroy each other. Saves me the trouble."
Defeating Gatanozoa head-on would be nearly impossible, unless Yu Zhou unleashed either his Shining Power or Dark Power.
But deep down, he knew—
this invasion of darkness was far from over.
Stronger, more terrifying beings would appear later.
If he used up his Shining Power now…
and something worse than Gatanozoa appeared afterward…
Then it would truly be game over.