Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

The blue youth form replaced the crimson color, and Nexus deftly rolled a few times to dissipate inertia, the water spikes falling into empty space.

“The weakness that intelligent beings usually possess, ‘regret,’ is not so obvious whether they live a shorter or longer life—unfortunately, that ‘thief’ was the kind who lived neither a long nor a short life and didn’t have much time to be clear-headed.”

Dark Lucifer never remembers specific people or events; he has his own theory about the world observed by his clones: "That is the source of his 'anger,' Noah. Do you also regret the destruction of the planet Scorpio?"

The Storm Sword was drawn, its blade gleaming with light honed to perfection. The purple lightning serpents cast by Dark Lucifer were no match for it. As Nexus wielded the sword, the air hissed sharply.

"Hahahaha..." Dark Lucifer blocked it with his bare hands. The rapidly spinning light particles cut into his palm, and the light fragments wrapped in the air ionized by the high temperature bloomed in the overlapping vision of the two.

"If you have no regrets, why did you go through so many universes, even if you've degenerated to the point of being incredibly weak, to oppose me?"

"What do you take everyone for!" a young voice cried out. Dark Lucifer summoned lightning to force him back, saying, "Ah, your chosen one?"

The seawater beneath their feet billowed with steam, and silver and black shards of light floated in the air, possessing deadly high temperatures. If anyone were to pour steel into them, it would instantly be heated into molten iron, and the nearby volcanic island would soon be molten again. Each time the two giants collided, shattered light particles flew in all directions, and the tides were flattened or distorted by the wind pressure, welcoming a series of meteor showers.

“Arrogance is my original sin, and the question of ‘what I am’ is meaningless,” Dark Lucifer said, having seen through people’s hearts and knowing himself perfectly well. “Your lives are too short to dream of ‘immortality,’ but for me, endless time is the norm—and if you wish, I can grant you your wish for ‘immortality’.”

Enraged by the giant's nonchalant attitude, Kazuki Komon unleashed a blinding light from his milky-white eyes. The suspended fragments of light were pushed aside by the sudden surge in temperature, some flying like knives into the steaming seawater, releasing white spray. The outer fragments of light rippled and danced like rotating stars, their orbits tracing perfect arcs, seemingly containing an entire galaxy—both exquisitely beautiful and perilous.

In this scene, only one person could still laugh.

Dark Lucifer watched as the silver phantom gradually solidified, like seeing a long-lost friend. It was a rare bright spot in the long scroll, and he walked at the end of time. No matter how magnificent the colors, they would eventually fade to unchanging gray. Only things that are equally eternal can maintain their vibrant appearance.

“Noah, Noah… I’m tired of communicating with your chosen ones. Their lives are so fleeting and short-lived. It’s wonderful that you’re back.”

He was so eager to see it. He was a little disappointed that he didn't get to see the Wings of Time, but it was still a good result.

The fires of hell lick at the heart, the lightning from beyond the heavens scorches the soul.

He wanted to shatter the other's heart, cut off their head, and use eternal blood to depict the supreme divine seal. He would then incorporate this color into the book, where it would remain unchanged forever, so that he would not be alone at the end of time.

“I have always tried to understand the world of intelligent beings through ‘wishes,’ and ‘wishes’ form the foundation of my understanding. But just as a cell cannot understand the whole… only those of the same kind can understand those of the same kind,” Dark Lucifer saw the light particles twisting into threads, the threads based on Nexus, rising and falling, interlocking, weaving the “eternity” he had long awaited:

“You’ve come, Noah.”

Chapter 173 Burning Blood

Jun Sakuma had played 3D pinball, one of the few old-school computer games that offered a truly stimulating audio-visual experience, even more flashy than Spider Solitaire. He had to manipulate two horizontal bars and control the force of his shot to try and hit as many scoring points as possible while keeping the pinball from falling.

The premise is that the ball is not yourself.

“The title of Light Chaser was given to me by you, and my giant appearance is also like yours. In short, you are the one slapping yourself. It has nothing to do with me, Jun Sakuma. I am not the one who is embarrassed.” He still had the mind to make a fuss: “Hey… are you tired? Do you want to stop and have a drink of water?”

"Click——"

The monster, with its mouth full of serrated teeth, bit down, piercing four holes in the ball of light beneath its powerful jaws. The teeth writhed inside, but the shield Jun Sakuma had concocted truly lived up to Samuel's praise of its "talent." The monster used the momentum of the impact to create a breach, but it struggled to expand its gains. Blood began to seep from the relatively soft jaws at the base of its fangs.

Jun Sakuma could clearly see the barbed tongue and wriggling throat of the man. If the man's shell were to be chewed up, he would probably be pulled in by the barbs and experience the excellent corrosiveness of the digestive juices. In that case, he would rather continue to be a pinball.

The monster slammed its tail against the ground, while simultaneously swinging its head in an attempt to tear apart the outer shell of the light sphere. When that failed, it rammed the sphere against the black flames' railing and against the shattered stone slabs on the ground.

Jun Sakuma desperately tried to squeeze out energy, but it wasn't enough to repair himself. The violent impact left his head spinning like a bubbly mess. He wondered if he was inside a washing machine that had broken down, turning a gentle rinse into a mechanical spin dry. With a loud bang, the washing machine finally spun everything out.

The giant's back slammed into the railing like a cannonball. The cage was firmly embedded in the island, and this earth-shattering impact caused the entire volcanic island to tilt nearly 30 degrees.

If Jun Sakuma were in human form right now, this blow would have broken his spine, crushed his ribs, and shattered his internal organs and bones into a pulp. Of course, it might have been an even worse scene—like someone jumping off a building dozens of stories high, lying flat on a slab of flesh with barely discernible outlines, his limbs intimately attached to the ground, requiring a shovel to clean him up along with the dirt.

Jun Sakuma was stunned for a moment before the monster appeared beside him in an instant, its knees bent backward. It was hard to imagine that such a massive body could react so nimbly. The giant reached out and pressed down hard on his fangs, black, viscous blood flowing down his fingers and into his arm, hissing and sizzling.

"It must be painful to be like this, right? I know you hate being seen... as a 'monster'." The giant's eyes stared intently into the ferocious beast's pupils. The golden flow reminded him of the radiance of the light from the Peleriti. How could such pure light conceal a monster with sharp scales and claws, as if it had crawled out of the abyss? Even if it did, that monster's body must have contained the same pure light.

“Look at you, so much blood. Does it hurt? If it does, wake up,” he said. “You’ve got the wrong opponent. You can gnaw on this black pillar or the book on top of it.”

“Yu, I still prefer to call this light ‘Samuel,’ and I won’t change the name… Regardless of whether it was born from a stone given to you by someone else, it still shines in your hands, doesn’t it?”

The monster paused in its biting motion, seemingly tempted. Jun Sakuma's heart stopped for a moment, but then the situation took a sudden turn for the worse! The fangs snapped shut with even greater force; the monster's earlier pause wasn't due to being moved, but rather a gathering of strength!

Even though the giant managed to escape at the last moment, his right leg was still bleeding profusely from the sharp teeth, with some parts completely missing, from which light particles burst out.

Jun Sakuma was used to seeing scenes in TV dramas where a series of heartwarming words could bring someone who had gone astray back to their senses, and Karin watched the same thing in anime.

The protagonist is about to be turned into his underling by a demon or something similar. His best friend or confidante comes out and recounts the good old days with tears streaming down her face. As a result, the sword or knife that the protagonist thrust in starts to tremble, and the villain's tricks fail!

Sakuma Jun thought his words had worked, but little did he know that the other person's teeth were clenched without the slightest hesitation! In pain, he flipped his face like a book turning, leaping to a high point and yelling, "Half-baked! Change it! Can't you even understand human language?! Where are your ears?!...Damn it! You really don't have ears!"

The lizard's ears are inner ears, with only the sockets behind the eyes and no outward protrusions. Jun Sakuma had never raised a lizard before and had never studied this. When he saw the monster tilt its head back and start compressing the air, he was so shocked that his whole body went numb. He had never been so skilled at making light shields before!

"boom--!"

The giant became a cannonball once again, pushed by the violent wind to the top of the cage. The light shield shattered halfway, turning into a handful of stardust that fell in a flurry.

Jun Sakuma almost choked on his breath; a thought flashed through his mind.

Several ideas eventually culminated in an elegant greeting:

Get laid off! You're a complete idiot! I lost my job and now I'm working at a newspaper, which is a good side job! Whoever becomes your human form is doomed. Nexus doesn't speak, but he understands human speech. Others change forms, but you, this charlatan, changed me so badly my own mother wouldn't recognize me! And then I get beaten up! If you calculate my real age, this is like beating up a kindergartener; if you calculate my human age, this is disrespecting the elderly! How could I have been so blind to become your human form!

Then he remembered that it was Samuel who had approached him first, and his anger intensified!

The monster pounced again, and taking advantage of the moment when the storm stunned its opponent, he almost chased after the storm, his slender tail curving and taut like a fully drawn bow.

Its jet-black tail cuts into the light, like looking up at the sky and casting a shadow with your fingers when you shield the sun.

Everything froze at that moment. Black flames slowly expanded, and light particles mixed with gasoline-like blood droplets tangled in the air. At the top of the cage was the intersection of the curved bars, where the giant crashed in like a pearl thrown into mud.

The pearl was pierced, and glittering fragments shot out from the wound, cutting through the air with a faint, long hissing sound.

Samuel once said, "Regarding the use of energy... anything can become a weapon." Back then, he used his blood as a blade to unleash the energy within him and burn through Megafrash's skin. Jun Sakuma now feels the same connection between himself and the surging light particles.

"Oh dear, how could I bear to let you burn yourself? I'm a reliable human host, so study hard. You're so irresponsible." Long Tail stabbed him through the heart, and a large number of light particles also dissipated from his back. If viewed from the side, it looked like a butterfly under the night sky, spreading its thin wings, with the moonlight draping each tiny scale in a veil.

Behind it was that ancient book.

The storm shook the structure of the cage roof, and the long tail smashed through the gap as it pierced through him, revealing half a page of a book. The light particles soaked it completely, and the bookmark huddled trembling in the pages behind it.

Jun Sakuma activated these "weapons," and silver flames erupted with a roar, their light expanding continuously. At first, it was just a small point of light, reflected in the monster's bloodshot pupils, like a suddenly awakened epiphyllum.

The "Moonlight Beauty" dances in the dead of night, spinning rapidly, her skirt scattering moonlight and starlight, petals overlapping and blooming in layers!

Chapter 174 Fallen Souls Look Up to the Light

"Pity".

All that has passed and cannot be retraced, ultimately leaving scars across the road.

Everyone has regrets. It might be the harsh words exchanged with a classmate before parting ways, only to find out not long after that they've transferred schools, and then you start reminiscing about the days when you were arm in arm under the tree on your way to the cafeteria. It might be the longing for the end of exams and the liberation that comes with studying, only to realize how much simpler your past was when you actually enter the workforce and are surrounded by all sorts of pressures.

For some, it's just there, something to be thought of occasionally, a fleeting thought, but life goes on.

For some, it is profound and heavy, containing foul-smelling pus and blood, like leaves and bones buried deep in a rotting swamp, which, once torn open, leaves a rusty smell lingering in their chest.

Aiba Yu knew he had to break free of the illusion. The monster's claws, drawing on the howling wind, mercilessly tore the figures apart time and time again. Yet they seemed endless, chanting like a mantra, "Want to kill me again?"

Enraged by Dark Lucifer's manipulative tactics, he grew increasingly ruthless in his attacks. Finally, as soon as the phantom beside him materialized, he swept his tail whip across the area without looking back, breaking and shattering what was meant to be broken.

Its tail whip is powerful enough to collapse an entire mountain, and its sharp tip seems capable of piercing everything—yet it's more like cutting water with a knife.

He walked through the ruins of the base.

“If you had arrived at the ‘Nest of the Primordial’ earlier, ‘Gen’ might not have died yet. But you were afraid you couldn’t compete with its master, so you circled around outside before finally breaking in, and then you left nothing behind… except for tens of thousands of blood sacrifices.”

Yes, he was a little slow, always a little slow. "Gen" wouldn't blame him for saying, "I want to live too," but he knew that everyone wanted to live well.

He walked through the ruins of Pasifica.

“If you had been stronger back then, how could the Yapools have stopped you? Pasifica wouldn’t have become Serene, and none of the Vit people would have died.”

Yes, yes! Of course that's how it is. His abilities were limited, and he thought that he could be at peace if he stayed until the end, but how could he be at peace... That asteroid belt called Serene is still hanging alone in the distant, cold universe. How many people know that it was once a vibrant planet?

He walked through the ruins of Vitamori.

“If you had stayed longer, even just to retain consciousness during that clone’s final counterattack, and stayed with Muchini alongside the Light Chaser, how could he have fallen from ‘God’s Child’ to ‘Demon’?”

Indeed, he failed to provide the proper guidance and dealt a heavy blow to Muchini before Muchini had broken free from the church's indoctrination. He would sometimes say that Muchini did something wrong here or something not well done there, but in fact, he himself was the worst.

"So, you think that if we're destroyed, these things will cease to exist?"

Of course they exist, they always have existed, so no matter how many times he breaks them, they will reappear.

One shadow approached, and then more and more shadows gathered around.

This time, the "monster" didn't swing his tail whip. His eyes were half-closed, his breath hot and slow. He was too lazy to yell at Lucifer to come out and take his beating—all of it.

The incident did indeed begin with a clone that Dark Lucifer casually threw away, but ultimately, he had to walk his own path. His anger was indeed directed at Dark Lucifer, but it was also directed at and burning him.

When he first saw that gentle yet powerful light, he thought it was truly beautiful. The "monster's" body was nowhere to hide in the face of the radiance, appearing so small and low that it seemed as if it should be buried in the deepest, most rotten mud.

"Light" said, "You can do it too. If you yearn for something, then just keep striving for it. Don't stop, don't be afraid, keep moving forward."

He did so.

But why are there still so many unfillable abysses lying beneath his feet? It must be because he hasn't done enough. He shared his perfect light with Sakuma Jun with this thought in mind. Perhaps if it were someone else... this light wouldn't have been wasted. As for his own part, he dragged the culprit down to hell. Let those who belong to the mire return to the mire, and let those who belong to the sky return to the sky.

“I’ve already accepted it, you don’t need to emphasize it anymore,” he said wearily. “Can I leave now? After I tear that bastard to pieces, I’ll go with you. Some of you are in heaven, some are in hell, and I can only watch you from hell.”

The crowd of people was packed together, and countless eyes were still fixed on him, unmoved.

"Who are you going to look after in hell?"

Aiba Yu thought he had misheard; how could Sakuma Jun's voice be here? The "monster" turned its head and was shocked to find "itself" standing behind it!

That was "Samuel," a giant with shoulder armor resembling epaulettes. While Aiba Yu was stunned, he slapped the other's head, which was covered in bone spurs, and, taking advantage of their similar size, vigorously rubbed it like petting a large animal, not caring whether it hurt his hand or not.

"What the hell? Can't you hear me? Why did you make me come in here to find you?" Jun Sakuma grabbed the monster by the neck with one arm and continued to rub the lizard's head with the other. "You're much more well-behaved here now. You beat me up pretty badly just now! Don't even think about going back to settle the score with me. Forget about Pudding. I'll buy it for Karin. You can only watch her eat it!"

Aiba Yu was having trouble opening his eyes, and Sakuma Jun's hands were still trembling, so the giant's fingers kept poking into his eyes.

Normally, if he dared to do this, Xiang Ye You would throw him out and kick him a few times, but Sakuma Jun's hands were shaking and his voice was trembling. He decided to wait until the other party had vented his emotions, and besides... the giant felt warm all over, like being hugged by a sun.