Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

The other party laughed heartily. He relaxed and sat on the edge of the platform with his feet dangling in the air. Only then did Aiba Yu realize that the alien's lower leg had been severed, with the cut surface tilted so that it could be connected in a line, and the charred healing surface had not yet completely fallen off.

If the injury was caused by a knife, then the person wielding the knife must have been an extremely skilled and ruthless swordsman, and the blade must have been extremely hot. He would have immediately charred and carbonized the wound as he cut off the lower leg, cutting off any possibility of regeneration.

“Ah… I prefer you to call me 'Lucifer.' I am different from that nominal 'original body.' Just as you inherited the power of one of his clones, you should have also inherited the authority held by that clone, but you refused and resisted the erosion of the original body,” the alien said.

“Resisting the original body, you…” Aiba Yu suddenly realized something: “Noah has come to him.”

“Yes, I ‘got’ the news of his severe injury from you. Isn’t this the perfect opportunity? You’ve traversed countless universes, and so many wondrous encounters await you. Who would want to be completely negated the moment they see the ‘true self’ and lose their sense of self?” The alien reached out his hand to him: “I am Lucifer, and you are Samuel. There can only be one of us in the universe.”

“I have mastered the method to be as good as him, and you have the strength to stick to your own beliefs. We share what we have and what we lack—from now on, no one can restrain us. You are the light of freedom, and I am the only son of the morning star.”

Aiba Yu stood silently facing him, the breathing inside the container barely perceptible, the air heavy with a chilling stillness. The slime sensed the danger; it shrank back, the "container" still standing on the container, but the slime felt as if it were standing on a frozen sea, with winged fallen angels descending from the sky, tempting it to join them in storming into the gods' paradise. Failure was merely a predetermined end, while success meant a vast and open road ahead, a world beyond its borders.

As for the so-called "method of being on par with others," it's easy to deduce it by observing what he's doing.

“You used the ‘Red Jewel’ to start a cosmic war, and the power of wishing… or rather, the desire for greed, became the source of your strength,” Aiba Yu said. This approach was all too familiar. Although Lucifer said he was different from Dark Lucifer, his behavior was not much different from that original. “So this war lasted for more than a dozen generations, and then spread from this universe to another universe.”

Lucifer said frankly, "I did start the war, but I only made them make their first wish. As for how long it will last... I didn't interfere. I helped them press the button to start the war, but whether it can end is actually in their own hands."

“You’ve seen the result,” Lucifer said. “Profit is the most enduring and potent poison… It blossoms and bears fruit, attracting people to taste it, whether it brings joy, sorrow, or, ‘resentment.’”

"Go to hell with you, Lucy! Taste your ancestors! I'm going to blow your head off! Even if you were minced, monsters wouldn't want to eat it!" The slime crashed into the invisible walls around it with a "bang," trying to squeeze itself out. Suddenly, Aiba Yu pressed his chest and coughed a few times.

Lucifer was not surprised by this. He said, "He will wear down your will. You need my help."

Yu Aiba took a deep breath: "You mean... sucking blood across the entire universe, is this kind of help?" Like the master of the "Primordial Nest," it is the mother of all "monsters," a blood leech that clings to planets and gorges on them.

Lucifer paused. "You're being really rude."

“But I am very patient,” Lucifer was willing to show his tolerance: “Let me put it another way, the ‘Ruby’ is very precious, very precious. I was curious about its structure and wished to ‘replicate’ it. The ‘Ruby’ decomposed, and I also gave up my physical body, but I glimpsed the possibility of transcending the ‘original body’... And you? If you were the one who got the ‘Ruby’, what wish would you make?”

“I will make it disappear,” Aiba Yu said.

“Yes, what’s the point of a result if it’s not achieved through our own hands? We are indeed ‘the same kind,’” Lucifer said. “So… the word ‘vampire’ isn’t appropriate. It’s a means to an end. Let me think about how Earthlings describe it… ‘effort’ and ‘struggle’?”

"You, cough cough, are you joking?" Aiba Yu's face looked a little pale, while Lucifer's smile deepened, only appearing terrifying and ferocious on the alien's head.

"Fate is a fickle thing. I must face the threat of Dark Lucifer, and so you may be stripped of your life at any moment."

"It must feel really bad, right? And he just stands in front of you, doing nothing, and all your resistance is futile—simply because he is the 'original form.'"

“But things are different now,” Lucifer raised his head and gazed into the boundless void. He opened his mouth but no sound came out, yet Aiba Yu heard countless soft chants:

"Woe to you, you arrogant one! Your followers are as numerous as the sands of the sea, yet you will fall from the heavens and nights, your power will be buried with you, and all nations will look upon you, but you alone will be cast out and will not enter your grave!"

Chapter 154 The Crimson Jade

From his vantage point, Lucifer looked down upon the thousands of silent shipping containers. Some aliens were still alive inside, of course, but they weren't proper listeners. While Lucifer delivered his "speech," they remained motionless in their seats, never offering any applause when it was time to cheer.

Aiba Yu, of course, wouldn't clap to show his willingness to cooperate amicably. He silently stared at the other's scarlet eyes, paying close attention to Lucifer's movements, while secretly accumulating energy.

The only one reacting enthusiastically was the slime inside his body, which had switched to more than ten different alien languages ​​in a short time, cursing everything from Lucifer's non-existent ancestors to his non-existent descendants.

Unfortunately, the person in question was unaware of His enthusiastic response. After an unbearable silence, Lucifer finally spoke: "You're not interested in my proposal, well... that's to be expected."

He wanted to say something more inspiring, just like he had tempted someone to make their first wish. In his earliest understanding, this "avatar" in the same predicament had no reason to refuse him; they should work together to strengthen themselves by all means, taking advantage of the perfect opportunity when Dark Lucifer was being targeted by Noah, until they could overthrow the so-called "original body" pressing down on them.

But after careful observation, Lucifer felt increasingly that his chances of seeking cooperation were extremely slim, and that his previous remarks were just a final confirmation, and Aiba Yu's reaction was as he expected.

“You haven’t relaxed for a moment since you came in, and the touching scene of ‘like-minded’ meeting has been ruined,” Lucifer complained half-jokingly. “A partner who doesn’t understand humor is really terrible.”

He slowly shifted his gaze from Aiba Yu to the distant edge of the warehouse. He knew that Aiba Yu was actually stalling for time so that he could make more preparations—his earliest ally, whom he thought he could develop, was now considering a full-blown fight the moment he stepped inside.

"Since we're both trying to buy time, why don't you be more enthusiastic? That way we might be able to talk for longer, and you'll achieve your goal." The alien leaned against the railing, as if all four limbs had suddenly lost their strength, with only his head remaining intact.

It was a head that looked like both a snake and a lizard. Calm words came from the throat of that head. As it spoke, its head lowered lower and lower, and its body slowly slid down, like a puppet that had lost its support. If the hand holding it let go, it was bound to slide down.

"Negotiations terminated, 'recover'." He seemed to be speaking to another person, the red light in his eyes gradually fading, leaving behind the murky pupils of a corpse. As his voice fell, the alien's body finally fell, crashing with a "thud" onto the top of the container.

Aiba Yu no longer needed to think about who cut off his leg. The body came from an alien who had been "freighted" to him. Lucifer randomly picked one with intact vocal organs and lowered his will—the culprit that cut off his lower leg was a piece of ship debris that had been blown away during the front-line battle. They were not very good as protection, but they were excellent as weapons. They only needed to ride the heat wave of the power reactor explosion to fly sideways and stir up a bloodbath.

The "recycling" process has been initiated.

Suddenly, mechanical sounds filled the quiet warehouse, followed by the entire warehouse shaking.

It has an excessively wide dome and belly, and when it shakes, it seems as if the sky is collapsing, as if it has accumulated too much that makes it unable to bear the weight, and it is about to rain down like the overturned dark clouds.

But the ground tilted even faster than the dome, the wheel hubs rattling noisily as the warehouse floor underwent a magnificent subsidence. The simply stacked containers slid off in one direction in a mighty torrent, and Aiba Yu glanced at the tilting area; in that instant, he seemed to see a bottomless abyss.

"What recycling?" the slime asked.

Before the container beneath his feet slid away, Aiba Yu transformed into the form of Samuel, suspended above the rumbling, collapsing warehouse in the dark, sunless place, as if flying beneath the deepest clouds and night. The churning waves revealed no white blossoms or foam; all undercurrents and surges embraced the darkness.

What's even more terrifying in this darkness is the direction the containers are sliding towards—there's an opening there, and the containers, loaded with parts of the damaged spaceship and the bodies of the "soldiers" who came by wishing, are sliding endlessly into the abyss, like the legendary Guixu at the end of the ocean, the so-called "place where all waters converge, the bottomless valley in the sea".

Samuel focused his gaze downwards, trying to penetrate the layers of building walls to see where the containers were headed.

"This place is going to collapse! That inhuman thing is probably still squatting in some corner somewhere. Let's dig three feet into the ground! We'll tear this place up and drag it out!" Slime urged him not to waste time here.

Samuel's eyesight seemed to fail him here; he could only see a thick, solid rock formation, with containers sliding down the tracks in the same orderly fashion as when they were being transferred in.

Then,

The first container to descend touched the rock, and what happened inside made Samuel gasp. He immediately understood what was happening and flew out of the crater without looking back, completely disregarding any concerns about triggering the alarm and causing a riot.

"I told you to retreat, not to run away!" The slime was completely oblivious: "Tearing up the ground here is fine, I gave my permission! While they don't have time to prepare, quickly find the wishing ball and throw it away!"

“No need to look,” Samuel said.

Despite the piercing alarms in the base, the giant flew through the defenses into outer space, only turning back to rest a little further away—from there, he could take in the entire planet that served as his "research base" and its companion star.

The base's alarm sounded like firecrackers waking up in the dead of night, and the sound spread rapidly as soon as it went off, amidst the commotion of people. The docked ships were ready to go, and they had spotted the uninvited guests who made no attempt to hide their presence.

But Samuel's attention wasn't on the ridiculously large number of ships; he saw... a deep crack appear on the outer layer of the warehouse that had been collapsed, or rather, activated for "recovery," from which a dark red light shone, pulsating rhythmically as if it were alive.

The containers fell into the crimson abyss along the pre-planned tracks. They melted upon hitting the ground, starting with the outer shell, along with the damaged parts and the dazed aliens inside, like a lump of mud being kneaded back into the soil—Samuel suddenly understood what they meant by "recycling".

“You mean the ‘Red Jade’ is that color?” Samuel stared at the deep red that had suddenly appeared on the gray planet’s outer shell.

He turned his gaze to another companion star, which was orbiting the "research base".

Perhaps that is the real planet on this orbit, and that overshadowing "research base"...

The crimson glow illuminated the polar night, and the gray planetary shell was pushed outward by an invisible impact, scattering into the synchronous orbit, allowing Samuel a glimpse of the true face of the bottom of the abyss.

It has a warm, jade-like texture.

The entire warehouse of containers fell into the bottom of this jade-like dark abyss. They were as numerous as sea sands. When they were intact, they were spaceships with the ability to jump between spaces, which made countless civilizations that had not yet entered the interstellar world envious and eager. Now, along with the "soldiers" they carried, they were like livestock being sent to their resting place one by one in a slaughterhouse, completely automated and clean.

The slime's irritable shouting suddenly stopped. He stared blankly as he "saw" the container disappear through Samuel's vision. Then, the intact ship burst out of the jade-like surface, fully equipped with its "soldiers".

"The Crimson Jade..."

A dark red glow flowed, like exposed blood vessels, drawing nutrients from the "recycled materials".

The slime exclaimed in astonishment, "Could this entire planet... be that wish-granting ball?!"

Chapter 155 A Shared Goal

Metal life form.

If members of the monster research department at the Geo base were here, they would surely be unable to sleep due to the sheer abundance of samples. The samples they painstakingly collected and maintained were being "mass-produced" here.

The wishing sphere, expanding to the size of a planet, encompassed all the "recycled" materials. It swallowed damaged parts of sufficient size and spat out perfectly intact ships with sleek, beautiful lines, and soldiers loaded onto them. In response to the giant threat, the base deployed skilled fighters capable of using locally sourced materials. The "containers" disappeared, and metallic lifeforms "grew" from the surface of the jade, appearing continuously.

The dark red light rose and fell rhythmically, and at the same time, the seemingly solid jade surface came to life.

"Is it too late to wish for it to disappear now?" The slime saw metallic lifeforms and alien ships springing up like mushrooms after rain.

“Maybe?” Samuel wasn’t sure. “We need to break through their forces first.”

The aliens' response to the invasion was swift and effective. As the alarms sounded, the entire normally functioning base awoke, and the metallic lifeforms and ship-roaring creatures pounced on them. They performed their duties diligently and executed the contingency plan cleanly and efficiently.

More and more cracks appeared on the gray "planet's" surface, and a dark red glow seeped out from within along the cracks. The slime noticed that as the outer shell peeled away, what had been thought to be "mountains" revealed their true form—they were actually protrusions on the wishing orb.

The container, wrapped in metal and biological materials, fell and became sticky and eerie as it merged with the ground, its jade-like surface of the wishing ball greedily sucking it up.

“So many of us, for so many years…” the slime said, “I truly believe we are fighting to wipe out the evil Earthlings who have sided with the wicked. They are so fond of colonization, they are worse than locusts, but in the end, we are also dependent on the same thing?”

He is an aggregate of resentment from aliens who died in the war, with most of his memories coming from soldiers on the front lines. They often believed, with fervor or the simplest of realities, that there was a "research base" built by the Allied Forces behind them, which concentrated all the resources that the Allied Forces could mobilize, and that the researchers put aside their differences and worked day and night for the same goal.

The resistance against the Earthlings' expeditionary force bore the most difficult task. They once thought that everyone on this battlefield was a hero. They prayed for the heroes of the Andromeda Galaxy in the solar system. They pushed forward the battle line with all their might, one of their motivations being to "echo the forces resisting the expeditionary force".

Now He realizes that there was no such thing as a "research base" that had achieved a true unification of cosmic races and realized genuine selfless cooperation, nor was there any "research base" that had bravely... in the Andromeda Galaxy.

The soldiers fighting against the Earth's expeditionary force were all based on assumptions. Now, with the scene of containers dissolving and metallic life forms slowly emerging, all the illusions about the battlefield in the Andromeda Galaxy are shrouded in an inescapable shadow.

In the shadows, the wishing machine and the monsters it creates are watching with predatory intent.

Besides the spawning metallic lifeforms, the "base" naturally also had other monster stockpiles for protection. Not only did the shipping containers become the materials for the wishing ball's rotation, but its "companion star," the true owner of this orbit, was also torn apart, its matter being pulled towards the wishing ball in the form of dust, the channels constructed within pulsating like blood vessels.

“We can have a common goal now,” Slime said.

Samuel was destroying the ships piloted by the undead when metallic lifeforms slipped in. Their intention to attack was as obvious as lice on a bald man's head, but Samuel easily caught them and calmly neutralized them.

Fighting in outer space, unaffected by Earth's gravity and on enemy territory, Samuel had far fewer concerns and didn't need to restrain himself. Scorching light flowed freely, starlight gathering within it. Samuel kicked away an incoming metal arm, then accelerated, grabbing the opponent's shoulders as his timer beam completed its charge.

The intense heat vaporized half of the metallic lifeform's body, and also scorched the alien ship behind it into ashes.

Instead of protesting or warning him that he would seize control if he attacked the aliens again, the slime quietly restrained its actions and stayed obediently inside the container, like a docile lump of potting soil.

Samuel looked down. The metal lifeform with its remaining two legs seemed to still have consciousness. It kept the last remnants in a liquid state, and then bounced itself back towards the wishing ball like a water arrow.

This scene seems familiar.

"Want to destroy it?" Samuel followed the direction the metallic lifeform had fled, gazing at the wishing sphere that was devouring its companion star. Nourished over the years, it had swelled to the size of a planet. Aliens built bases on it, and after the wishing sphere "absorbed" one mine, it would drag it to the next. It was unclear whether they were using the wishing sphere or whether the wishing sphere had successfully captured its companion.

“Madman’s Container, this is the enemy’s lair,” the slime said, “but… destroy it, destroy it, destroy it! If you escape, I’ll come back in a monster body! I’ll destroy it even if it kills me!”