The appearance of the insectified monsters was clearly no coincidence.
Just like the sense of unease felt by the GUYS team, the audience watching the light curtain across the infinite multiverse also found it abnormal.
With their god-like perspective, they easily deduced that this emergence of insectified monsters was connected to the woman who had transformed an ordinary bug into a hundred-meter-tall behemoth.
---o---
[Ace Pilot of the Death Squad]: "Have these monsters lost control due to the insectification, which is why they're attacking Mebius?"
[Yukino Yukinoshita]: "They were originally life forms of Earth, and now they've been twisted into such a frenzied state. The Swarm King truly deserves a thousand deaths!"
[Ruan Mei]: "Insectification, much like the Swarm's propagation, became a nightmare for the entire cosmos after the Swarm Disaster erupted. This phenomenon only occurs when the number of Swarm accumulates to a certain level."
[Dr. Roman]: "The Swarm Disaster truly lives up to its name. Once it fully erupts and goes out of control, it will drag the entire universe into a quagmire. At that point, even the Ultramen will be powerless."
[Utaha Kasumigaoka]: "That's true for a full-scale, out-of-control outbreak. But the Ultramen did try to stop the disaster before it spread. Unfortunately, they had Belial betraying them at home, and the gray mist in the multiversal gap kept Ultraman King and Noa tied up, so they could only watch as the Swarm grew stronger."
[The Old Trickster]: "Interesting. The Swarm Disaster is a disaster, and while it may be terrifying, it is not invincible. The truly fearsome ones are the opportunists who hope for chaos in the universe. Whether it's Phantylia or Alien Empera, they are all cut from the same cloth."
---o---
Light Curtain Footage
With the entry of the monsters, the scales of battle tipped.
Mebius, who had been dominating the giant bug, was now being besieged by the combined forces of the monsters and the insect.
Although he wouldn't be defeated in the short term, this was Earth, where an Ultraman's activity was inherently limited.
If this turned into a battle of attrition, Mebius would eventually run out of energy and turn to stone.
"The outcome is decided. My children will devour you completely, Ultraman Mebius."
Atop a dilapidated skyscraper, a wicked smile stretched across the woman's lips, making her look just like a villain from a movie—though she was, in fact, the villain.
From the deserted high-rise, she observed the battle between Mebius and the Swarm.
Clearly, she was the one who had orchestrated the appearance of these insectified monsters by controlling the Swarm.
The Swarm had no intelligence, but that didn't mean she, having received the Swarm King's gaze, didn't.
Prioritizing the control and insectification of Earth's native monsters was indeed a brilliant move. It allowed her to gather enough power to subvert Earth's civilization before the swarm she commanded had even reached its full strength.
However, despite having some tricks up her sleeve, this was the limit of intelligence for a woman whose mind was filled with nothing but bugs and propagation.
Just as the woman was getting carried away by her own cleverness, a gentle breeze blew past, and a gun was suddenly pressed against the back of her head.
The smile on her face vanished instantly, and she froze on the spot.
Then, a male voice came from behind her. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'll need you to assist with an investigation… no, I suppose an investigation is no longer necessary."
"A woman who can move freely amidst the Swarm's maddening insectification powder and has not a trace of a human aura about her… only a fool would think you're an innocent citizen."
The voice from behind sent a cold sweat down the woman's back. She had only received a minuscule gaze from a god. While she had some mysterious power that could block ordinary firearms, it wouldn't stop GUYS's advanced technology.
After a brief hesitation, the woman spoke. "The wing dust produced by the Swarm's flapping wings is something that even aliens with special abilities cannot withstand. Even gas masks are useless against it. So… who are you, and why are you here?"
The pupils in her eyes shifted from their original black to purple. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the woman's body was also beginning to show signs of insectification.
Unlike other ordinary people, however, she was entering this state willingly, not by force.
At that moment, the camera on the light curtain panned from the woman to the person behind her.
A being with a blue and silver color scheme, clearly not of Earth, was holding a pistol to the back of the woman's head.
Indeed, this person was Rei of the Space Pendragon, the Reionics who controls monsters, the human who passed Noa's trial.
Possessing the genetic material of Alien Rayblood, Rei naturally paid no mind to the Swarm's wing dust. His physical constitution had long since surpassed the limits of a human.
This was true for everything from simple strength and speed to his five senses.
Therefore… as a Reionics, Rei was able to sense the strange insectification on the woman. But before he could act, a five-meter-long Sting-Wing suddenly burst from the floor of the skyscraper.
"BZZZZZ~~~"
The appearance of the Sting-Wing caused the already teetering high-rise to collapse instantly. Flying rubble and dust knocked the gun from Rei's hand.
It was at that moment that the woman gave the bug an order: "Eat him!"
At her command, the tens of thousands of bugs crawling within the building, whether flying or crawling, swarmed towards Rei.
Rei merely looked at the insects with a hint of disgust and snorted. "Looks like I'll have to fight too."
"Go, Litora!"
The Battle Nizer activated. A golden light shot out from the device in Rei's hand, and the primitive monster bird Litora materialized from it.
At twenty meters tall, it would struggle against a typical monster, but it was more than effective against these combat-inept members of the Swarm.
With a single flap of its wings, Litora sent countless tiny bugs flying. It then opened its beak and swallowed the larger, several-meter-long bugs whole.
The woman had expected Rei to become food for her Swarm, but she never imagined that her bugs would instead end up filling the stomach of Rei's monster.
"Impossible! A monster? You can control monsters?"
The sudden appearance of the monster left the woman's already dizzy head even more confused.
Looking at Litora's body, she suddenly felt a wave of nausea.
The Swarm followed its biological instincts, and in the natural world, birds eat bugs. Therefore, from a general perspective, Litora was the natural enemy of any Swarm under twenty meters.
And she, who was one with the Swarm, would naturally feel an innate disgust and hatred for Litora.
"Get me out of here… Ah, Aaaahhh!!"
Just as she was about to issue another command to the Swarm, Litora's talons seized the woman and carried her high into the sky.
"Your interrogation and judgment will have to wait until after the battle is over," Rei said, looking up at the woman in the sky.
Then, he activated his Battle Nizer again. "Go, Gomora! Help Mebius!"
Another golden light appeared. The ancient monster Gomora landed on the ground, smashing a large crater in the already fragile surface and kicking up countless clouds of dust.
"ROOOOAR~~~"
Letting out a deafening roar to the sky, Gomora then fixed its sharp gaze on the monsters that were ganging up on Mebius.
With heavy footsteps, Gomora charged straight for the insectified Red King.
---o---
From a species perspective, Gomora, as an ancient monster, would naturally be outmatched fighting against several monsters buffed with a berserker rage.
But Rei's Gomora was an exception. After all, this was a Pokémon he had raised from the beginning to max level.
Its strength was comparable to that of an Ultra Brother, and with its alternate forms, it could even surpass them.
[Ash Ketchum]: "Waaaah!! Gomora is so strong! I want to catch a Pokémon like that too!"
[Cynthia]: "Catch it? A Pokémon of that size is very rare. The only one in the Pokémon world similar to Gomora would be the legendary God of the Land, Groudon. However, I wouldn't recommend you try to catch it. It can't fly."
[Groudon]: "Sinnoh Champion, is that right? You just wait. Wait until you taste my Precipice Blades!!"
[Ace Pilot of the Death Squad]: "To be a human yet able to control monsters… I really want that ability too. That way, the next time a monster appears, we won't have to rely solely on Tiga."
[Ultraman Tiga / The Horn-Breaking Demon]: "This monster has one horn on its nose and two on its head. They're all quite thick. It seems they won't be easy to break off."
[Gomora's #1 Fan]: "Excuse me? What did Gomora ever do to you to deserve having its horns broken?"
[Ultraman Tiga / The Horn-Breaking Demon]: "Sorry, it's become a reflex now. Whenever I see a monster, I can't help but think about it. I can't control it."
[Gomora's #1 Fan]: "..."
---o---
Light Curtain Footage
The story continued.
Gomora's appearance had clearly made the already frantic GUYS team even more nervous.
However, once they noticed that Gomora showed no signs of insectification, their panic subsided somewhat.
But based on their long-held negative impressions of monsters, Gomora's appearance did little to ease their concern for Mebius.
CRASH! RUMBLE!
Dragging its heavy body, Gomora slammed the group of monsters to the ground with overwhelming force.
Even the ferocious monster Red King was like a petulant child in Gomora's eyes now, and it was quickly beaten into submission.
Freed from his predicament, Mebius glanced at the suddenly appearing Gomora, his eyes filled with utter confusion.
But he quickly understood that Gomora was here to help him. After nodding to Gomora, he turned his attention back to his own target.
With the combined efforts of one Ultra and one monster, the giant bug and the other monsters soon couldn't hold on any longer, all of them reaching their physical limits.
It was also at this time that Mebius's chest timer began to flash, due to his presence on Earth.
Seeing this from a distance, Rei shouted to Gomora, "Alright, Gomora! Give them the final blow! Use the Super Oscillatory Wave!"
At his command, the two horns on Gomora's head began to glow red as if scorched. It transferred the condensed power to the short horn on its nose, clearly preparing to unleash its ultimate attack.
Seeing this, Mebius also stood alongside Gomora. He crossed his hands in front of his chest, concentrating the fiery energy from the Mebium Brace into a massive, super-heated energy fireball.
Then, the crimson energy wave and the Mebium Burst were fired simultaneously, surging endlessly towards the giant bug and the few remaining monsters.
BOOM!!!
An explosion roared. The most threatening insectified monsters and the giant coleopteran of this swarm fell on the battlefield.
Of course, the Swarm had not yet been completely eliminated. The battle was far from over.
At this point, Mebius, having used his Burning Brave form for an extended period for the first time, was exhausted and had reverted to his base form.
But Rei's Gomora still had plenty of stamina.
"Gomora, continue to eliminate all the surrounding bugs!"
Following Rei's command, Gomora quickly went into action, rapidly clearing out the nearby Swarm.
At that moment, the woman held by Litora's talons in the sky, her eyes burning with fire, roared like an enraged leopard, "No! Don't hurt my children!"
Watching the number of Swarm drastically decrease, the woman's heart felt as if it were bleeding. She struggled ceaselessly in the air.
Even as Litora's sharp talons tore her flesh, it couldn't stop her frantic movements.
Rei's superhuman hearing caught the woman's voice, and he looked up at the sky.
Children? Those bugs… are her children?
Knowing some of the Swarm's characteristics, he quickly pieced together the story.
So, she's a pitiful person driven mad because she couldn't accept giving birth to bugs?
Rei thought to himself, but he still had no intention of letting Litora release her. This pitiful person had just annihilated an entire city.
He wasn't so soft-hearted as to release such a terrorist, especially since the woman's body no longer had a trace of a human aura.
Rei sighed and ignored the woman roaring in the sky, continuing to clear out the bugs scattered throughout the city.
However… engrossed in the battle, he failed to notice that in the distance, another 'person' was silently watching him.
"Rei, the Reionics of Earth."
A dark shadow spoke slowly, then curled its lip with a hint of amusement. "It seems he and I are brothers, heh heh. How interesting."
But his tone quickly shifted. "I might have been interested in the past, but right now… I just want to know where that Phantylia is hiding."
Indeed, this 'human' figure was the dark Ultraman who had chased Phantylia all the way from Alien Empera's territory to Earth—Belial!
But evidently, he had lost her trail.
"Running into a Reionics here is a good omen. I just wonder… if I'll run into a battered and bruised Ken. I'd love to see the look on his face right now, heh heh heh."
Letting out a bizarre laugh, Belial vanished from the spot.