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"Damn it... how is it this strong?"
The giant spider watched Future Ultraman Cosmos punch straight through the lower body of the Meireki Great Monster and felt the situation turn bad immediately.
Its ferocious mouthparts split open. Blinding green energy churned and gathered at its mouth, forming a dense glob of corrosive venom , ready to slow Cosmos down.
At the exact moment the venom glob took shape.
BOOM!
Thunder cracked across the air.
VWOOM!!
The Spacium Beam hit first. The extreme heat vaporized the venom glob instantly, and the beam kept going, punching straight into the spider's open mouth and melting its mouthparts from the inside.
If it hadn't sensed the danger and dodged, that single strike would have taken half its life.
It hauled itself a full kilometer across the ground on thick strands of silk before it finally got a clear look: the red-and-silver giant, slowly lowering its arm.
"It can do that!?"
It couldn't believe what it had just witnessed.
One Ultraman could transfer energy to another?
And now the other one was back to full strength?
"Now the real fight begins."
"I'll assume you're ready." Natsuki's voice pressed directly into its mind.
Dazzling light gathered between the giant's palms, spinning and compressing, shaping into two light wheels that radiated raw, obvious power.
Fighting this thing in human form had already put the old man through the wringer.
Now the tables had turned.
The giant spider endured the searing pain in its mouth, its rows of crimson compound eyes clouded with confusion.
It didn't get the chance to process any of it.
The giant was already in front of it, arriving with a sonic boom.
"HISS!"
Mouthparts gone, the spider's sides split open in several places. Silk sprayed from the new openings, and a thick, heavy strand shot from its rear. The strands crossed and wove together at speed, forming a dense protective cocoon that wrapped it from every direction.
Full-body coverage.
RIIIP!
The cocoon had barely finished forming when the Ultra Slash sawed through it. The energy tore through the webbing like it wasn't there.
The old man at full power had nothing left to hold back.
Two Ultra Slashes drove through the cocoon and sheared off two of the spider's legs. Green blood sprayed. The massive body lurched and stumbled.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
Four cross-shaped light blades followed immediately, shredding the white cocoon apart. More slashes flashed. Four more legs gone.
The giant was considerably smaller than the spider.
None of that mattered. The spider's heart was pure terror.
"I'll ask one last time." The giant floated in front of the mountain-sized spider, one arm raised. "Executed on the spot, or the Cosmic Prison."
After everything, the spider had no illusions left. These two Ultramen were enemies it could not handle. Not even the Meireki Great Monster, fed on so many Kaiju, had made a difference.
"Cosmic Prison!"
"I choose the Cosmic Prison!"
"I surrender!" The spider's eyes locked onto the giant's already-glowing wrist. One more Spacium Beam and it was dead. It surrendered as fast as it could form the words.
The giant lowered its arm.
"Hand over your core." Natsuki said.
...
"Impossible!"
"What is this power!?"
"What are you!?"
The Meireki Great Monster watched Future Ultraman Cosmos leap toward it, and fear finally spread across its countless snarling faces.
Its own attacks did nothing. The opponent's attacks shredded its body like it was nothing.
One-sided didn't begin to cover it.
It had slaughtered humans beyond counting. It had never encountered a warrior like this. This was strength that didn't follow any rule it understood. It couldn't even determine what the opponent's body was made of.
BOOM!!
Cosmos's fist came down again on the mass of bodies that had filled half the space. Power and energy detonated on impact. Another enormous chunk of its form blew apart.
What remained was very small.
SMACK!!
The Meireki Great Monster's remnant body dropped from above and hit the ground.
The hunter's arrogance was gone.
It didn't even try to maintain the imposing cadence it had used before. That was finished. It had broken completely.
It understood now. It was the prey.
"I cannot accept this!"
"I am powerful — and I'm being defeated like this!"
Crushed like an insect. That was how it had always killed humans, and now the roles had flipped, and it could not accept it. The humiliation was total.
The hunter's dignity had been ground to nothing.
"Name your terms," the white head rasped, writhing on the ground. "What do you want in exchange for letting me go."
Every creature acted in its own interest. It was certain the other party had come here for a reason too, some kind of gain. There had to be room to negotiate.
The red-and-silver giant, who had just received the spider's core, glanced over.
Spare it, or finish it?
He was waiting on Cosmos's call.
Future Ultraman Cosmos looked at the Kaiju's plea. He gave a gentle nod.
He extended his hand. A soft light flowed out.
"What?"
"What is this?"
The light touched the Meireki Great Monster's remnant body. Something warm moved through it, strange, unlike anything it had felt before.
Then its last remaining head snapped wide open.
"No!"
"That's not what I asked for!"
"My consciousness , it's —!"
"AHHHHH!!"
The purification was dismantling it from the inside, stripping the malice out of its mind layer by layer. And because malice was all it was made of, this wasn't healing. This was erasure. It was rewriting what it was.
"NO!!"
It fought back with everything it had left. It would not let itself disappear.
But the resistance only made Cosmos push harder.
In Future Mode, there was no version of this where the monster won.
"Until the very end. Still unwilling to let go of the hatred."
"What a pity."
Musashi watched the last remnants of the Meireki Great Monster dissolve into drifting points of light. He understood. It had refused to go on living as something good. It had fought the purification with everything it had, and that choice had burned it to nothing.
It would rather die than become a benevolent Kaiju.
"So that's another way to use purification."
"How does the saying go — right. Live and learn."
Natsuki had watched the whole thing from start to finish. He genuinely felt like he'd picked up something new today.
➤ Next: Victory
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