Chapter 160 Only Choice

“Humanity’s collective consciousness hasn’t evolved nearly enough for that kind of power!” Zero snapped. “When mankind finally learns to let go of its selfishness and greed, when you finally learn to coexist peacefully, the Land of Light will gladly help you ascend!”

“Why are you holding humanity to a moral standard that your own people can’t even meet?” Vane shot back. “Need I remind you about the bloody civil wars, the rebellions, and the Ultras slaughtering each other in the Land of Light?”

Zero completely choked on his words. He opened his mouth, closed it, and struggled for a long time to find a comeback.

Finally, he spoke.

“It seems words aren’t going to get through to you.”

“How about this: if you can beat me in a fight, I’ll return to the Land of Light and personally deliver your message to the King. But if you lose, you completely drop this military expansion campaign, and you never touch the Plasma Spark Tower.”

Before Vane could even answer, Daigo stepped right in front of him.

“If you want to fight my Master, you’re going to have to go through me first.”

With a loud battle cry, Daigo aggressively flexed his entire body, violently shredding his shirt to reveal an absolutely sculpted, rock-hard physique.

“He’s incredibly jacked…” Ibuki’s eyes went wide.

Keigo Masaki just rolled his eyes. Ever since Daigo got those muscles from his hellish training, he took literally any excuse to rip his shirt off and flex on people.

“Fine. Let’s see exactly how much of Tiga’s true power a human host can actually draw out.”

Zero whipped out his Ultra Zero Eye and transformed into his Giant state.

“Let’s settle this fair and square.”

Daigo raised his Sparklence, transforming into an insanely shredded, eight-pack-toting Ultraman Tiga.

Operating on pure instinct, both Ultramen instantly converted into streaks of light, shooting straight up into the icy void of space to brawl.

If this was the Daigo from before the training, he wouldn’t have stood a snowball’s chance in hell against Zero. As the son of Ultraseven, Zero was born with immense Ultra power and had been personally trained by absolute legends like Ultraman Leo.

But this Daigo was completely different. Between Vane’s brutal, traumatizing training regimen and the insane physical buffs from eating Minecraft Golden Apples, Daigo’s human body had transcended mortal limits. He was now operating at a physical peak that allowed him to effortlessly channel Tiga’s true, unrestricted power.

Tiga wasn’t one of the Mysterious Four, but he had existed far longer than any of them. The only verified historical record was that he had visited Earth thirty million years ago to protect the ancient human civilization. When those humans willingly chose the euphoric illusions of the Gijera flowers over reality, Tiga and his companions realized they were no longer needed, leaving their physical bodies behind and returning to the stars.

But absolutely no one knew how long Tiga had existed prior to that. For all anyone knew, he had been lurking in the darkness long before the first spark of light ever illuminated the universe.

The deeper Daigo dug into Tiga’s power, the more he realized how terrifyingly vast it was. This ancient Ultraman possessed a seemingly infinite arsenal of skills and forms, perfectly adapted to counter literally any combat scenario.

Tiga and Zero clashed violently in the vacuum of space. Every single punch and kick carried apocalyptic kinetic force, sending each other flying hundreds of thousands of miles across the void. Beams of devastating energy repeatedly illuminated the cold darkness as they traded blows.

Eventually, Daigo’s sheer, hellish conditioning won out. Moving like a hurricane, Tiga completely suppressed Zero under a relentless barrage of heavy fists, forcing the younger Ultra entirely onto the defensive.

Pushed to his absolute limit, Zero roared, summoning the Shield of Baradhi. The legendary Aegis armor locked onto his frame, pushing him into his Ultimate Shining Form.

“You think you’re the only one with an ultimate form?” Daigo grinned fiercely.

“Lend me your light!”

Following Daigo’s rallying cry, the collective hope, beauty, and happiness of humanity across both Dimension B-17 and Dimension C-10 manifested into billions of brilliant motes of light. These motes surged upward, forming a massive, blinding river of energy that poured directly into Tiga’s colossal frame, forcefully evolving him into Glitter Form.

This was a new technique Daigo had engineered—channeling the collective light of humanity to manually trigger Glitter Tiga.

In the original timeline, the light of a single Earth’s children was enough to let Tiga effortlessly casually vaporize the Ruler of Darkness, Gatanothor. The combined, concentrated hope of two entire planets’ worth of humanity pushed Tiga into a realm of power that was completely incomprehensible.

Glitter Tiga and Ultimate Shining Zero stared each other down across the void. Like two supernovas, they charged directly at one another. The sheer ambient radiation they emitted was so blindingly intense that people down on Earth looked up at the sky in absolute terror.

“Enough!!”

A voice carrying absolute, undeniable authority echoed across the cosmos.

The fabric of space-time completely warped around Tiga and Zero. Ultraman King materialized directly between the two charging titans, effortlessly stopping the ultimate showdown dead in its tracks.

With a simple wave of his hand, King forcefully canceled both of their transformations, dropping Daigo and Zero back onto the city streets before taking on the form of a human himself.

“Damn, that’s a shame. I really wanted to see who would win between Glitter Tiga and Ultimate Shining Zero!” Vane sighed in genuine disappointment. If King had just been a few seconds later, he could have finally settled one of the most hotly debated arguments in the entire Ultraman fandom.

“Who is stronger is completely irrelevant,” Ultraman King said, walking calmly over to Vane. “Welcome to the Ultra Universe, Outlander.”

“An absolute honor to meet you, King,” Vane grinned, entirely unfazed by the deity standing in front of him. “I was originally going to have Zero run back and deliver a message for me, but it looks like you saved us the trip.”

“Since you’re already here, let’s talk business. I want the blueprints for the Plasma Spark Tower.”

“You want the technology behind the Plasma Spark Tower? That is hardly a difficult request.”

Ultraman King raised his hand. A brilliant ball of light coalesced in his palm, rapidly solidifying into a flawless, glowing crystal.

“This crystal contains the entirety of the knowledge required to construct the Plasma Spark Tower, as well as the complete memories of every scientist involved in its original creation.”

“I will give this to you, but you must guarantee that an incident like today will never happen again. The power of Ultra is meant to safeguard this universe, not to be used for petty brawling and displays of dominance.”

“Wait… are you seriously just handing the Spark Tower schematics over to him?!” Zero stared in absolute shock. He couldn’t comprehend why the King was capitulating so easily. In all of his memories, he had never backed down like this.

“Zero, this is a joint decision made by myself and the Father of Ultra. You need only obey it,” King said, waving a hand to silence the young warrior.

Hearing that the Father of Ultra was also involved, Zero bit his tongue and stood down.

“Relax. I guarantee you won’t see us picking any more unnecessary fights,” Vane said, casually taking the crystal and tossing it over his shoulder to the Emperor. “Here you go, Big E. Knock yourself out.”

The Emperor scrambled to catch the glowing crystal, his face lighting up with absolute ecstasy. “This is for me?!”

“You’re actually giving this to me?!”

Vane nodded. “Of course it’s for you. Though, if you don’t want it, you can always hand it back to him.”

The Emperor immediately shoved the crystal into his coat.

When he returned to the Imperium, he was going to use this technology to force the evolution of his citizens. With an army of Giants, never mind the Milky Way—the entire universe would be conquered and folded into the Imperium of Man.

Paying back the massive debt he owed the Traveler would be a complete breeze.

Though, honestly… the Emperor thought to himself, maybe I should still turn into a long-legged, dark-skinned, busty loli just to be safe. Constantly freeloading off him like this makes me feel guilty.

“Outlander, I would like Zero to travel with you and train by your side for a time. Is that acceptable?” Ultraman King asked.

“Sure, no problem, as long as he doesn’t mind.”

Having easily secured the Plasma Spark tech and completed his quest, Vane was in an incredibly good mood.

Ultraman King turned to Zero. “For the foreseeable future, you will train under the Outlander. You will show him the exact same level of respect you show to your master, Leo. Am I understood?”

Zero didn’t understand the reasoning at all, but facing the stern gaze of the King, he had no choice but to nod.

“I understand.”

King nodded in satisfaction, then turned back to Vane. “Outlander, I wish you a truly wonderful journey through this universe. I have other matters to attend to, so I must take my leave.”

“Catch you later. Feel free to drop by whenever!” Vane waved cheerfully.

Ultraman King dissolved into countless motes of light, fading into the sky as he departed C-10 Earth.

—

On the desolate, rocky wasteland of the Planet King, Ultraman King materialized directly beside the Father of Ultra.

“I don’t understand. Why were you so incredibly accommodating to that Outlander?”

A holographic screen hovered in front of the Father of Ultra, actively broadcasting the aftermath on C-10 Earth. He obviously knew that King had just personally hand-delivered the most classified technology in their civilization.

Ultraman King looked at the Father of Ultra, then slowly turned his gaze out over the bleak, jagged landscape.

“The moment he crossed into this timeline and transformed into that colossal beast, I peered into the tapestry of fate to see what kind of future this Outlander would weave,” King said softly. “Do you know what I saw?”

“What did you see?” the Father of Ultra asked, sensing the gravity in the King’s tone.

“I saw that if we ever attempted to make an enemy of him, we would invite a retaliation of unimaginable horror. He would spawn monsters outnumbering the grains of sand on a beach. He would drag every ancient, cosmic evil that ever threatened this universe out of their graves and unleash them upon us.”

“The Land of Light would be entirely consumed by an endless, inescapable tide of war, darkness, and death. No one would survive.”

“Even if we sacrificed everything we had, we could not alter the inevitability of our absolute defeat. In the end, he would completely annihilate this universe, plunging it into eternal darkness.”

There was a genuine trace of terror in Ultraman King’s voice—an emotion the Father of Ultra had never, ever heard from the supreme ruler of their race.

It was horrifyingly clear. The apocalyptic visions of that dark future had genuinely terrified the strongest being in the Ultra Universe.

“Befriending him,” Ultraman King warned, his voice heavy with absolute certainty, “is the only choice we have.”