Smoke from the battle spread across the night sky of Yangjibang.
Shen Yong's towering body stood amid the ruins.
His punches crashed down relentlessly. Neronga's scales shattered under the blows, and the monster's pained roars echoed along the riverbank, mingling with the shrill blasts of EUC laser fire.
Every strike Shen Yong delivered carried the shadow of the tokusatsu shows he had loved as a child.
The image of Ultraman he had imagined for so many years seemed to come alive through him.
And with his more powerful physique, each of his attacks struck with unstoppable force.
Neronga crouched low against the ground. Electricity flickered wildly across its horn as it attempted to burrow underground and hide.
But Shen Yong's kick struck its abdomen with precision, flipping the massive creature onto its back.
The monster's enormous weight crushed nearby storefronts as it fell.
Glass shattered across the ground.
Panting heavily, Shen Yong pressed down on the monster, locking both hands around its neck and tightening his muscles as he forced it against the ground.
The earth trembled beneath their struggle.
Nearby gas pipelines beneath the damaged buildings ruptured under the shockwaves of the fight, and sudden explosions illuminated the battlefield with bursts of fire.
But Neronga had not given up.
A cunning gleam flashed again in the monster's small eyes.
Its horn trembled slightly.
A strange distortion spread through the air.
Then—
The monster's body began to blur.
Its invisibility ability had activated.
Shen Yong froze for a moment.
His next punch struck nothing but empty air.
His fist slammed into the ground, leaving a deep crater as dust exploded upward.
The monster had vanished.
Only a low humming vibration remained, along with the enormous footprints left on the ground.
Shen Yong scanned the surroundings, but he couldn't see it anywhere.
He tried concentrating his mind, attempting to awaken Ultraman's supposed sensory abilities.
But what he sensed was only the roar of burning flames, the cracking of collapsing buildings, the voices of the EUC armed forces nearby, and distant screams from the crowd.
His sense of touch could detect faint disturbances in the air.
But there was no psychic power.
No telepathy.
No supernatural perception.
Only sharpened human senses.
He slowly began to realize the limits of his transformation.
No beams.
No flight.
Only strength and physical endurance.
"So it's not really a transformation… just gigantification," Shen Yong thought.
Still, remembering the function of the Beta Capsule in Shin Ultraman, the situation felt somewhat reasonable.
Even relying purely on physical strength, Shen Yong believed he could defeat Neronga.
But there was another problem.
His stamina was quietly draining.
A creeping exhaustion was spreading through his body.
"Damn it… where did it go?"
Shen Yong moved carefully.
He tried to avoid causing further destruction to the city.
But even when he stepped lightly, the ground trembled with each movement. Streetlights along the road swayed and collapsed one after another as he advanced.
The coastal wind blew in from the river.
Salty air mixed with the scent of scorched earth.
EUC laser drones circled overhead but had no clear target.
A sense of unease grew in Shen Yong's heart.
If Neronga escaped while invisible—or attacked from ambush—how would he deal with it?
In the tokusatsu shows of his childhood, Ultraman always found a way.
But reality was far harsher than imagination.
He closed his eyes and listened.
His heightened hearing strained to capture the faintest vibrations beneath the ground and disturbances in the air.
Then he felt it.
The monster was tunneling underground, moving quickly in a wide arc—trying to circle behind him.
At the same time, tension still filled the EUC Defense Force Central Command.
Mark Reyes stood before the holographic platform.
On the screen, the battlefield streamed in real time: the red-and-silver giant confronting an invisible monster, while drone infrared scans displayed nothing but empty terrain.
"Where are the scan results?" Mark demanded.
"Infrared, thermal imaging, quantum sensors—none of them are picking up anything!" an officer reported, sweat forming on his forehead.
Mark slammed his fist on the console.
"Damn it! That thing can turn invisible?"
"Switch to acoustic detection! Keep tracking it!"
"We cannot let it reach the power station!"
Officers worked frantically across the room.
The screens switched to multi-spectrum imaging modes.
But Neronga's camouflage was nearly perfect.
The chaotic battlefield terrain and collapsed buildings further disrupted the signals.
Mark turned toward Ellie Solen.
The Norwegian scientist stared at the screen thoughtfully.
"Ellie," Mark asked, "what about the giant? What did the scans say?"
Ellie adjusted her glasses.
More questions flooded her mind.
The giant's heat distribution was almost identical to a human's.
The skeletal structure was nearly the same.
This wasn't an alien organism.
It looked like some kind of transformation.
She remembered the Ultraman shows she had watched as a child.
Perhaps…
It really was a human who had become Ultraman.
"Commander," she said slowly, "the giant's body temperature is far higher than a human's, but the heat distribution pattern is identical. There's no energy core."
"It appears to be… a transformed human."
Mark's eyes widened.
"A transformation?"
"You're kidding me!"
He exhaled sharply.
"Forget it. Keep observing."
"Attempt to support the giant, but keep distance."
"Deploy more armed units. Have the Asian sector begin missile preheating."
He paused.
"If the giant starts destroying the city…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
But Ellie understood.
She nodded quietly.
If the giant truly was human…
Then perhaps cooperation was possible.
But right now, the battlefield remained full of unknowns.
Back on the battlefield, Shen Yong's exhaustion was growing worse.
His transformed body was incredibly powerful, but after such intense combat, fatigue was creeping through his limbs.
He took a deep breath.
Then—
His sharp hearing caught something.
A vibration beneath the ground.
Neronga was circling.
Preparing to strike.
Shen Yong suddenly slammed his fist into the ground.
The earth shattered like a spiderweb.
The shockwave rippled outward through the soil.
Dirt exploded upward, forming a massive cloud of dust.
Inside the swirling dust—
Neronga was forced out of the ground.
Its blurred outline appeared amid the falling debris.
The monster roared as it burst from the earth, its horn crackling with electricity.
It launched a lightning-charged charge straight toward Shen Yong.
Shen Yong sidestepped the attack.
As the monster rushed past, he grabbed its neck.
His right arm locked around Neronga's throat while his left hand seized its horn.
Muscles bulged across his massive frame.
He knew Neronga's weakness.
The horn that generated its electricity.
He intended to break it.
Neronga refused to die quietly.
A surge of high-voltage electricity erupted from the horn.
The current surged through Shen Yong's arm.
Numbness spread instantly through his muscles.
But Shen Yong gritted his teeth and endured it.
His transformed body was extremely durable.
The electric shock was painful—
But not fatal.
With a powerful twist—
A sharp crack echoed through the air.
The horn fractured.
The monster's electrical organ overloaded, sending wild arcs of energy bursting in every direction.
Shen Yong himself was scorched slightly by the electricity.
His body darkened in several places, though the injuries were minor.
With a roar, he exerted all his strength.
His left hand tore the horn free.
Blood sprayed outward.
Neronga staggered backward with a howl of agony.
Without its horn, the monster could no longer maintain its invisibility—or generate electricity.
Shen Yong seized the moment.
He stepped forward and drove the broken horn directly into the monster's head.
"Take it back, you bastard!"
The monster's body convulsed violently.
Blood poured out as sparks of electricity scattered through the air.
Enduring Neronga's final desperate struggle, Shen Yong twisted the broken horn deep inside the monster's skull.
The resistance grew weaker.
And weaker.
Until finally—
The massive body collapsed.
Neronga was dead.
Shen Yong let out a long breath.
But almost immediately, he noticed something strange.
Neronga's corpse began to change.
Its body rapidly dissolved into foam-like matter.
Within moments, it completely disintegrated into nothingness.
Not a trace remained.
Shen Yong stood there, breathing heavily.
His massive body swayed slightly in the night wind.
Exhaustion flooded his limbs.
His consciousness began drifting away.
The surrounding light contracted.
His body shrank.
And he returned to human form.
High above the battlefield—
A cloaked spacecraft hovered silently within the clouds.
Inside the ship, darkness filled the chamber.
Only a single screen emitted a faint glow.
The display monitored everything in real time.
The red-and-silver giant fighting.
The monster dissolving.
And the moment Shen Yong reverted back to human form.
In front of the screen, a shadowy figure watched quietly from the darkness.
A pair of glowing eyes flickered.
The figure murmured softly.
"An interesting variable…"
"In this parallel world… there is actually a guardian like this."