Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

No one would believe that a stone statue could come back to life unless they saw it with their own eyes.

As Melba swung his pincers, about to destroy another stone...

In that instant, the stone statue enveloped in the light suddenly moved.

The arm, still covered in stone, was blocked by the pincers, and Melba's powerful blow sent dust flying—revealing the strong, warm arm beneath.

The prophecy of Yulian unveiled a corner of the vast and ancient past.

When monsters and giants actually appear before humanity, the clash between ferocity and holiness, chaos and order, is something no legend can adequately describe.

"Giants?" Fujisawa Sosuke and Ralf's β hovered at the edge of the defense zone, waiting for orders. They couldn't approach Melba within visual range, but they could hear the shouts that were blasting through the channel.

Police subordinates, from the ground to the sea, from control towers to satellites, and even communications from space bases—everyone watching the pyramids gasped in unison.

"A giant resurrected in the light," someone said.

"Captain!" Fujisawa Sousuke called out instinctively, "Captain, did you hear me?"

"Keep the channel clean." Aiba Yu lowered his head, in front of an embedded screen.

Footage from satellites and city surveillance cameras was clearly displayed on the screen. The giant first kicked Golza away, then used one hand to protect Daya's statue and the other to grab the head that Melba had pecked off.

Melba looks a lot like the pterosaurs that soared over this planet many years ago, except that its abdomen and lower limbs are much heavier, and it's a wonder how its relatively "thin" wings can support its flight.

Regardless of how it mutated, birds have always been afraid of being grabbed by the neck—as were their ancestors.

Melba's neck was quite easy to grab, and the resurrected giant bent down and, using the momentum of his charge, slammed it into Golza, who had just regained his footing and was charging at him.

"boom--!"

The screams and thunderous roars overlapped, mixed with the sound of flesh breaking as it was crushed. When Golza was knocked down, the ground shattered along with him. The giant turned around, and his body had somehow lost its mysterious purple color.

Melba's wings flapped wildly through the air, the force that tore the sky apart whipped up a raging storm, while the giant, with his arms raised in front of his chest, charged straight in.

"Wow, that's amazing." Fujisawa Sousuke heard on the channel that a giant kicked a monster away and then grabbed the flying one by the neck and slammed it to the ground like a chick. He thought that it must be really exciting, but it was a pity that he couldn't go and see it live.

Only distant rumbling sounds and small, visible earthquakes rolled in. In his mind, he imagined a humanoid figure formed from radiance grabbing a monster and beating it mercilessly. Melba, which could fly at Mach 6, was fragile and helpless in his hands. Golza tried to burrow into the ground to escape but was grabbed by the tail and dragged out like a radish.

But reality always exceeds imagination.

The giant spread his arms, and a thin horizontal ray of light extended out along the path his hands traced, like the horizon at dawn.

As the light reached its zenith, dawn leaped from the ground, and the giant unleashed it. A magnificent torrent instantly vaporized half of Melba's pincers and struck its chest. Its hard body had barely flapped into the air when it was mercilessly swept away by the torrent, losing a significant portion of its body.

It only managed to let out one last screech before the monster that had torn the sky apart was ripped apart by the explosion.

A rain fell on the charred bones and flesh, drenching Golza's back.

It once again staged a scene reminiscent of the Mongolian plains—digging its way out.

The resurrected giant seemed much weaker after releasing the stream of light; his movements were slower, and Golza's tail slipped from his palm.

“They escaped…” Lina stared blankly at the deep crater that had appeared on the ground.

The lamp on the giant's chest turned red. He turned around, slightly out of breath, and looked back at the stone statue that remained in place.

"Dayo." Daigo inexplicably uttered his name.

He had never seen a giant, nor had he ever heard of the ancient legends before he knew about the time machine, yet he still managed to utter the name Daya, and the name Solka, which he found quite familiar.

Like long ago, in the pitch-black night, they walked side by side, their light as bright as the blazing sun, making even the deepest darkness nothing more than a petty trick.

They crossed mountains and wilderness to reach the vast ocean.

The snow evaporated before it could get close to them. The sea surged and roared. At the crest of the storm, under the sky covered with a thousand layers of snow, a strange beast with a long, thin tail tore through the wind and waves.

That's not snow.

Daigo suddenly "remembered".

The strange beast couldn't fly, so how could it fly towards them as easily as the wind across the sea?

It gazed at them with eyes as large as giant candles, their silvery light like snow, leaving a long trail behind it. It held a fluorite in its mouth, silver light flowing from the gaps in its scales, blooming as it extended to its back—and so, on the inky sea, a vast expanse of white snow fell.

The beast emitted a low growl from its throat.

Daigo "saw" himself waving at it.

That wasn't the giant's hand.

The eternal night remained, and no towering giant broke through the darkness to call forth the first ray of dawn.

It was humankind, humans who had awakened from their dream, carrying the statue of the giant, trekking through mountains and rivers to reach the seaside.

He could pronounce the names of some of the statues: Soruka, Daya, and Tiga.

Snow woven from light shone above people's heads, while strange beasts, carrying fluorite in their mouths, tore apart the flesh and bones of every enemy with their sharp claws.

Blood dripped down, and thus snow and blood became intertwined.

They sank islands, boiled the sea, caused thick blood to sink into the ocean, and melted light snow into the air. The strange beasts slapped the surface of the sea with their long, sharp tails, producing a deafening sound like striking steel plates, and scalding waves piled up like mountains.

That was a ferocious beast with bony horns, and people...

Holding it, no, raising the statue high in the light.

He saw chaotic mountains and flying clouds—the sea tide like mountains, and silver fluff like clouds.

Snow falls, blood falls.

Chapter Sixteen: Post-War Conference

"Judging from the monitoring results, the red form of the Titan has a stronger explosive power, and can be described as a power type."

On the second day after the giant's resurrection, Daigo thought about the scene he had "seen" the day before, while listening to Nozue's serious analysis.

He seemed somewhat distracted.

From Zongfang's command to the other team members, everyone nodded in agreement; Ye Rui's data analysis was always reliable.

“Look, the purple color on the Titans faded after they transformed into a more powerful form. Based on this, we can infer that the Titans might have a form where the red color faded and the purple color became the dominant color,” Nori said, finding the argument increasingly plausible. He continued, “Next, we just have to wait and see if the Life Science Research Center can produce any results.”

"Giants, what kind of life form are they?" His question piqued Horii's interest, who replied, "The statues come to life when light drills into them. Perhaps it's some kind of special way of injecting energy? Like charging a robot."

"Robots? You mean the giants are 'recharged' stone golems? Maybe they're something aliens made, and those lights are how they activate them?" Shinjo leaned closer; he especially loved the sight of Tiga releasing beams of light—how dazzling! Why doesn't the Flying Swallow carry weapons!

"Thinking about it this way, the giants are actually quite environmentally friendly! If those lights were just what we visually estimated..." Shinjo stroked his chin, "They could unleash such attacks by absorbing solar energy!"

Horii was inspired, and his eyes lit up: "Perhaps the giants possessed extremely high energy conversion efficiency. Didn't we detect energy fluctuations when we went to the pyramids? What if we started with that..."

Daigo was jolted awake by Shinjo's shout of "Stone Man." He struggled to suppress the urge to jump out and refute, while Horii had already jumped from "energy conversion rate" to "how he was activated." He pondered how to guide their speculations about the Titans back onto a normal track.

"Daigo, Daigo!" The people in the heated discussion turned their attention to him: "The Titan didn't save you; it must be an intelligent being. Did you two have a conversation?"

Daigo froze for a moment. Captain Megumi's gaze swept over him, and he realized that his reaction hadn't been natural enough. If he said "no" now, it would only arouse suspicion. Perhaps...

“We talked,” he said, sitting up straight as if deep in thought, clutching his pen as if he wanted to crack it on the spot, “but it was all in a language I couldn’t understand.”

"Is it similar to what Yuzare said?" Lina's eyes peered over through the partition in front of Nori's control panel. Like Shinjo, she was fascinated by the surveillance cameras showing giants and monsters, but her focus was on the giants' fighting movements.

Honestly... aside from the obviously inspired moves, some parts really resemble the basic boxing routines that the TPC executives have to learn, except the punching bags have been replaced with monsters.

Although Lina is not a skilled fighter, she has the best eyesight.

“Pretty much,” Daigo nodded seriously: “Things like ‘I want to stay’ and ‘It would be so good to see him one last time’.”

Although Tiga didn't say anything, Solka was also a giant, and he did talk to the giant, so it wasn't a lie.

Everyone marveled at this. Megumi asked him to write these words into the report, as it might help with communication between humans and giants. Daigo silently accepted the pit he had dug for himself.

While the Victory Team conducted its post-battle debriefing, other related departments of TPC were also busy.

"Captain, Captain! How did I do this time?" Fujisawa Sousuke placed the plate in front of Aiba Yu, hoping the captain would say a few good words—he felt his performance was alright, having strictly limited his firing actions according to Ralf's orders and successfully guided Golza around the city.

This is a truly meritorious act!

Going solo is just around the corner!

Aiba Yu nodded as he wished, and Fujisawa Sousuke instantly felt as if he had flown to the sky.

But the captain added, "It would have been even better if you hadn't been listening to the channel conversation and spacing out when the Titans appeared later."

"How did you know..." Since he couldn't see the actual event, he could only rely on snippets of conversation from his colleagues who had gotten a glimpse of it to brainstorm—he swears he only spaced out for a short while!

Aiba Yu didn't even look up: "I guessed."

Yota Watanabe chuckled to himself.

The captain continued, "You admit it, you know what to do when you lose focus in the heat of battle."

The heart that had taken to the skies was thumping in the water like a 5255B: "I've memorized all the captain's rules, you've reviewed them. I feel I'm particularly lacking in practical experience, just like every pilot needs. There's no future in sitting in a room memorizing materials."

Aiba Yu saw Watanabe Yota shoo a fly off Fujisawa Sousuke's plate and casually pick up a fish ball without the latter noticing.

Sōsuke Fujisawa leaned forward, almost burying his clothes into the food.

Yota Watanabe and Ralf moved the soup bowl and the plate respectively, finally managing to free his food from his clothes.

The two exchanged a glance and decided to be good people, letting him have his last two braised fish balls.

"Practical experience..." Aiba Yu seemed to be genuinely persuaded.

Fujisawa Sousuke nodded like a chick pecking at rice.

“Then let’s find a more practical form of punishment,” he said with a friendly smile as he saw the captain start the chopsticks again after a brief pause. “Go help with logistics, maintain and repair our battle equipment.”

"I'll definitely take better care of the plane that I repaired myself. Next time I'm daydreaming, I'll think about the hours I've spent working on it."