---o---
Phantylia is going to make a move on Zero? Stelle and Phantylia, both from the same universe, are about to meet?
This development truly cranked up the anticipation for the audience watching from outside the video.
After all, Stelle and Phantylia were both characters from the world of Honkai: Star Rail.
One of them was an Emanator of [Destruction], and the other had a connection to [Preservation].
Although they currently held no grudge against each other, the Amber King had brought Stelle to this world precisely because the Aeon of Destruction had sent Phantylia over.
One thing was certain: a battle between Stelle and Phantylia was inevitable. It would be a clash between Preservation and Destruction!
[Light Curtain Comments]
[Galaxy Baseballer: "Since when did I start symbolizing [Preservation]? Does Akivili know one of his Nameless has been dragged over here to be a grunt for Preservation...?"]
On the Astral Express, upon learning that she would have to fight Phantylia no matter what, Stelle's expression immediately soured.
Even if someone was weak, they were still an Emanator. She'd had a hard enough time taking down a single Doomsday Beast back at the space station. Now she had to face an Emanator directly? Even with the power of an Ultraman, it wasn't going to be easy!
More importantly, she was clearly on the side of [The Trailblaze]. Why had she gotten inexplicably tied up with the Amber King? Was it just because of that flaming lance?
[Stellaron Hunter Kafka: "Has it already come to this? Although this is completely different from Elio's script... even in another world, Stelle must still face Phantylia?"]
In a certain corner of the Xianzhou, a hint of worry flickered in Kafka's pale purple eyes. A Lord Reaver... even Phantylia, whose direct combat abilities weren't the strongest, was by no means someone an ordinary person could handle.
[March 7th: "Hey... you bad woman, what do you mean? You mean even if Stelle and Phantylia hadn't crossed over into that universe, they would have had to fight eventually?"]
[Stellaron Hunter Silver Wolf: "Pretty much. But Elio's script shouldn't be that simple. Otherwise, having Stelle face Phantylia alone would be no different from sending her to her death." ]
---o---
[The video continued on the light curtain. With the shift in the scene, the three components of Saga's fusion landed smoothly on the ground.]
"Looks like the crisis here on Earth has been more or less resolved."
The compassionate warrior gently touched the earth with his hands, gradually sensing the changes in the planet.
With the disappearance of the Swarm, the concept they brought with them also faded away.
The monsters that had originally lived on Earth and been insectified were now seeing the traces of that transformation gradually vanish.
Not only that, but even the destruction caused by Alien Empera had mostly been repaired.
It had to be said, after experiencing so many monster invasions, Earth had developed an extremely strong capacity for post-disaster recovery.
One must remember that the devastation Alien Empera had caused back then had nearly wiped out the entire surface of the planet.
From this, one could imagine just how astonishing humanity's current level of post-disaster reconstruction was!
After briefly observing the state of the Earth, the three Ultras reverted to their human forms.
And just at that moment, as the three of them let down their guard and returned to their human forms, a group of well-prepared humans swarmed forward, leveling their guns at the Ultra Warriors who had just reverted.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Asuka wore a look of utter exaggeration, but he quickly used his body to shield Stelle and Musashi, protecting them from harm.
"You've got it wrong! We're not monsters, and we're not the Swarm!"
Musashi stared at the soldiers before him. After confirming they were human, he spoke with a solemn expression.
In truth, they had sensed the approach of these troops earlier. They had only let their guard down out of their trust in humanity.
As for the weapons in their hands, Musashi had assumed they were for cleaning up the remaining insectified flora and fauna.
After Musashi spoke, the leading soldiers exchanged glances, their voices cold. "I know you are Ultramen, but as of now... the Ultra Warriors are the enemies of us humans!"
"What?"
Hearing this, not only the human hosts but even Zero, hidden within Stelle's body, wore a look of shock, unable to comprehend what was happening.
"Surrender immediately, or... we will be forced to take drastic measures!"
As the words fell, the fully-armed squad slowly closed in on the group. The specially designed handcuffs they carried could restrain even the most powerful beings in the universe.
"Hey, wait a minute..."
Asuka still wanted to reason with them, but it was clear the other party had no intention of giving him the chance.
Although they were the human hosts of Ultramen and were well-trained warriors, neither Asuka nor Musashi could possibly defeat such a heavily armed squad in their human forms.
"Hmm... so, why don't we just transform into Ultramen?" Stelle asked.
Gazing at the slowly approaching soldiers, Stelle felt no sense of pressure at all. This wasn't the first time she'd been a wanted fugitive; she was used to it.
Just then, the vigilant Musashi replied, "Transforming now will only make the misunderstanding worse. It will make a situation that could have been resolved through communication even more complicated."
"Besides, the Land of Light has a similar rule. No matter what, an Ultra Warrior must not take the initiative to attack."
Listening to Musashi, Stelle looked at the surrounding humans, who were cautiously approaching them as if they were monsters.
Any normal person would know that such a drastic change in humanity's attitude meant something was wrong. Musashi and Asuka were likely holding back for this very reason.
But Stelle was different. She had no intention of trying to talk-no-jutsu these people.
"Not take the initiative to attack? But it looks to me like they've already started!"
Pointing at the men before them, a powerful energy suddenly burst forth from Stelle's palm.
She glanced at Musashi and Asuka beside her, her tone indifferent. "Musashi... you're not even an Ultraman from the Land of Light, so why follow their rules? And besides us, it doesn't seem like there are any other Land of Light Ultras here except Zero."
"So... as long as Zero doesn't act, we won't be breaking any rules. And even if we are considered to have broken the rules afterward, it doesn't matter."
"Because... rules, are meant to be broken!!"
As her voice fell, a baseball bat materialized in Stelle's hand. The aura it released gently blew back the tips of her gray hair.
Seeing this, the soldiers were stunned. They shouted into their radios, "The suspect is resisting! Requesting backup!! Requesting..."
Thwack!!
Before he could finish his sentence, his head was struck by a heavy blow, and he passed out immediately.
Stelle nonchalantly hoisted her baseball bat onto her shoulder, looking at the remaining humans with a kind expression.
They were clearly stunned as well, holding their guns with a sense of uncertainty. To be precise, Stelle was the first human host of an Ultraman they had ever seen resist arrest.
But soon, they snapped out of it. They aimed their guns at the three of them in unison, and laser beams instantly shot out, trying to eliminate the Ultramen before they could transform.
"Get down, leave it to me!" Stelle shouted, transforming into the Galaxy Baseballer and appearing behind each of them with a bonk to the head.
While Musashi and Asuka couldn't have tanked those hits with their physical bodies, they easily dodged them all thanks to their human forms' powerful physical conditioning and dynamic vision.
Musashi and Asuka had only dodged the first wave of attacks, but Stelle had already knocked out the entire squad, leaving only one conscious human.
["Tell me," she said, "who gave you your orders, why are you arresting Ultra Warriors, and who is the mastermind behind all this!"]
[This series of three questions nearly scared the conscious young man into fainting.]
[But faced with Stelle's overwhelming presence, he spilled everything he knew.]
---o---
Across the infinite dimensions of the multiverse, when they saw humans being so easily turned against their saviors, declaring the Ultra Warriors their enemies, many in the audience were furious.
Although human nature cannot withstand testing, it shouldn't be so vile as to reach this point.
The people who had just saved your lives, you turn around and repay their kindness with enmity? This was even more ungrateful than a wolf!
Of course, there were certainly many people, like the crew of Phoenix Nest, who had not been affected by Phantylia's scheme. There were probably quite a lot of them. But unfortunately... these people neither controlled public opinion nor held political power. They could only watch as the reputation of the Ultramen was tarnished and as the authorities above issued orders to persecute them.
So, when Stelle didn't surrender like the Ultra Brothers and other ordinary Ultras but chose to fight back and break the rules, knocking out the entire arrest squad, the audience outside the video erupted in cheers.
[Ace Pilot of the Death Squad: "Right, that's how it's done! Those guys have already been brainwashed. They're starting to lose their reason. Trying to reason with them is like talking to a brick wall!"]
[Detective Conan: "While I generally prefer to do things by the book, special times call for special measures. What Stelle did was completely correct. There's still a Swarm to deal with in the cosmos; there's no time to waste on Earth!"]
[Utaha Kasumigaoka: "The Ultramen are great and all, but it's really frustrating when they let themselves get captured by humans without fighting back. What could these instigated humans do, even if they transformed into Ultramen to deal with them?"]
---o---
[In the video, as the soldier captured by Stelle confessed, the three of them gradually understood the current situation.]
"So, it seems someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes... but... which alien would be so clever as to play both humanity and even the Ultramen in the palm of their hand?"
Asuka pondered. While he could be reckless at times, he wasn't unreasonable. This abnormal situation was definitely a sign of trouble.
"Whoever it is, to be able to turn public opinion on its head in such a short time and even gain almost complete control over the human leadership, their methods are not to be underestimated!" Musashi mused.
Stelle, however, was lost in thought. She had already guessed who it was but couldn't be certain yet.
From the moment she entered Earth's atmosphere, the power of the Path gifted to her by the Amber King had begun to faintly heat up.
Without a doubt... this was the aura of [Destruction]!
And it wasn't just the simple Path of Destruction, but one that contained the presence of the Aeon of Destruction, Nanook.
Such a person... in her understanding, was known as an Emanator.
"An Emanator, huh..."
Before, if Stelle had to fight an Emanator, it would have been absolutely impossible. Forget an Emanator; she couldn't even handle a being one tier lower.
But things were different now. With the power of Nexus, Stelle's confidence had surged.
Nexus might drain her life force, and using it too much would shorten her lifespan, but with the Stellaron inside her, that wasn't an issue.
Besides, given her lifespan, a little shortening was a small price to pay. She didn't even know how long she had left to live anyway.
"Stelle... have you already figured out who the culprit is?"
Sensing Stelle's expression, the familiar Zero spoke to her telepathically.
He remembered that old man, the Amber King, seemed to have sent Stelle over to deal with a character related to [Destruction].
It was just that he had sent her to the wrong place, which led to her serendipitously fusing with him.
"I've pretty much guessed it. The Amber King can give me guidance even from a universe away!"
"A Lord Reaver skilled in sowing discord, playing humanity in the palm of her hand, and causing Earth to fall into self-contradiction as it spirals towards destruction... this move, without a doubt..."
A glimmer of an ancient and mysterious aura flashed through Stelle's golden eyes. Far away in another universe, the Aeon of Preservation, the Amber King, who was regarded as a guardian deity by countless lives across the galaxy, bestowed a sliver of his limitless divine power upon Stelle on this other Earth.
"Is this the divine power granted by the Amber King? I can now use the power of two Paths at the same time... but it seems a bit redundant."
Feeling the change within her body, Stelle pouted.
She had gone through so much trouble to help the Amber King find an Emanator of Destruction, and this was all the power he gave her? It wasn't even enough to get stuck between her teeth. Not like Noa, who unlocked a new Ultra form for her right off the bat, one that could even evolve and fuse infinitely.
Compared to Nexus, this tiny sliver of power from the Path of Preservation was truly unimpressive.
Watching Stelle in the video, countless beings on planets that worshipped the Amber King were grinding their teeth in frustration.
That was a sliver of the Amber King's divine power! Across the entire universe, even members of the IPC would have to be utterly respectful upon meeting Stelle. And yet, she was complaining about it!
It might not be as strong as what Noa gave her, but the Amber King had bestowed it from an entire universe away.
This attitude, this sentiment... not only did Stelle not feel flattered, she was even complaining that it wasn't powerful enough. It was enough to make anyone jealous.
However... before the followers of the Amber King outside the light curtain could say anything, the Stelle in the video, along with Musashi and Asuka, flew off in the direction of GUYS Japan.
---o---