"Careful!" Gustave shouted, lightning crackling between his fingers as he hurled a bolt of thunder at the writhing tentacle. The electrical discharge illuminated the dark forest in stark blue-white, jolting Tu Shanyan from her momentary daze.
The tentacle recoiled from the lightning strike—but only for an instant. Within seconds, it resumed its relentless advance toward them both, undeterred by the power that could level buildings.
Gustave unleashed another barrage of thunder, his Rumble-Rumble powers painting the night sky in brilliant arcs. Yet for all his electrical fury, the appendage barely seemed inconvenienced.
"What is this thing?" Tu Shanyan's voice carried genuine shock. As a fox spirit who had witnessed the devastating might of thunder techniques, she understood better than most just how formidable Gustave's attacks truly were. The fact that this tentacle could shrug off such power...
Gustave felt his strength waning, each successive lightning bolt weaker than the last. But the tentacle's resilience told him everything he needed to know about whatever creature it belonged to.
"Merde! It's a space beast!" The realization hit him like a physical blow. The forests of the Nexus world, especially after dark, were hunting grounds for horrors beyond imagination.
"A what?" Tu Shanyan asked, bewildered.
"No time to explain! Just know that even if we combined our full power, we couldn't defeat one of these creatures!" Gustave's voice carried urgent authority. "Get airborne—now!"
The cosmic-level battle between Tiga and Camearra had taught Gustave a harsh truth about the Ultraman multiverse: its power scaling defied all logic. These space beasts might be smaller than Sea Kings, but size meant nothing here. Most barely reached sixty meters in length—dwarfed by Gustave's hundred-meter thunder avatar or Tu Shanyan's six-tailed fox transformation. Yet either beast could crush them both without breaking stride.
Hearing the desperation in Gustave's command, Tu Shanyan immediately took flight, her fox-fire trailing behind her like crimson ribbons. Gustave followed, his body crackling with residual electricity as he launched himself skyward.
ROOOOOAAAAR!
The creature that emerged from the forest depths defied description—a grotesque mass of writhing flesh topped with two massive tentacles, its surface pulsing with veins of sickly bioluminescence. The moment it fully manifested, an oppressive aura descended upon them like a suffocating blanket. Every shadow in the forest seemed to bend toward it, drawn by its malevolent presence.
"Impossible..." Tu Shanyan whispered, her usual composure cracking. "This pressure... it rivals the immortal ancestors who achieved Daluo!"
She stared at the abomination in disbelief. Gustave's earlier warnings about this world harboring beings comparable to Daluo Golden Immortals had seemed like exaggeration. Now, faced with a random space beast radiating such crushing spiritual pressure, she understood the truth of his words.
Suddenly, radiant light pierced the darkness. Nexus materialized before them, his silver and red form blazing with heroic resolve.
"Jun!" Relief flooded Gustave's voice like a man reprieved from execution.
Nexus turned and nodded at Gustave—a small gesture, but one that conveyed recognition and reassurance.
"Gustave!"
Daigo's familiar voice called from the forest edge, the young man waving energetically despite the cosmic horror looming nearby. Unlike Jun, he remained in human form, trusting in his allies' strength.
"This way!" Gustave called to Tu Shanyan, banking toward Daigo's position.
Tu Shanyan hesitated only briefly. The silver giant radiated an aura of pure light—holy and protective, the antithesis of the space beast's corruption. If Gustave trusted these beings, she would follow his lead. After all, this world clearly harbored powers far beyond her understanding.
"Gustave! What brings you here?" Daigo's face lit up with genuine joy, his exhaustion temporarily forgotten. During his extended stay in this nightmare world—fighting unkillable space beasts under Camearra and Jun's relentless training regimen—familiar faces had become precious rarities.
"Haha, of course I came to see you," Gustave replied with forced cheer. He could hardly admit that the Gate of All Worlds had detected Tu Shanyan as an "illegal intruder" and unceremoniously dumped them both into the Nexus world.
"Wonderful!" Daigo beamed, then noticed the fox-eared woman hovering beside Gustave. "And who might this be?"
"This is Tu Shanyan, a friend from another world," Gustave explained.
"Hello, Miss." Daigo extended his hand with a warm smile.
Tu Shanyan stared at the offered hand in complete bewilderment.
"Ah..." Gustave cleared his throat diplomatically. "Daigo, think of her as someone from ancient times. Tu Shanyan, when someone extends their hand like this, it's a gesture of friendship—you clasp it briefly, like so."
He demonstrated the handshake motion between his own hands.
"I see," both said in unison, understanding dawning.
Before they could complete the exchange, Nexus began to glow. His form shifted from silver to crimson—the juvenile red mode. Light erupted from his right wrist, and reality warped around the space beast. The Meta Field expanded like a soap bubble made of starlight, engulfing both Ultraman and monster before whisking them away to another dimension entirely.
"They vanished!" Tu Shanyan spun in midair, scanning the empty forest. "How did they disappear so completely?"
"That's the Meta Field," Daigo explained patiently. "Nexus creates an alternate dimension to contain his battles. It prevents collateral damage to our world."
"Smart thinking," Gustave added. "When beings of that power level clash, entire cities can become casualties. Humans simply can't survive that kind of destruction."
Tu Shanyan nodded slowly, still processing the alien concepts.
"By the way, Daigo," Gustave's expression grew curious, "where's Camearra? I expected to find her with you."
Both Daigo and the distant sounds of battle carried an odd tension at the mention of her name.
Gustave waved his hand, electromagnetic fields weaving together into a shimmering dome around the three of them. "There—now we can speak freely without eavesdropping."
Daigo's shoulders relaxed slightly. "Not long after Camearra and I followed Jun here, we encountered a giant called Dark Faust. Between Jun and myself, we nearly had him captured."
His expression darkened. "But Camearra realized Dark Faust was just a puppet—someone else was pulling the strings. So we staged his 'escape,' and she's been tracking the real mastermind ever since."
Daigo rubbed his temples wearily. "Honestly, this world is exhausting. Fighting regenerating space beasts is bad enough, but all this cloak-and-dagger intrigue with shadowy puppet masters... If I didn't have Defense Force training, I'd have cracked by now."
Gustave nodded thoughtfully. Camearra's dark power origins gave her unique advantages in detecting what Daigo and Jun might miss entirely. As for the mastermind behind Dark Faust—that would be Dark Mephisto, born from Shinya Mizoroki's transformation. But behind him lurked Mitsuhiko Ishibori and the true horror, Dark Zagi.
Like Russian nesting dolls, each revelation concealed another layer of deception.
"Understood," Gustave said simply. Though he knew the answers, this was Daigo and Jun's story to uncover. Besides, revealing Ishibori's true nature too early might provoke Dark Zagi before Komon could find the system's core password. Unless they retreated to the Bamboo Staff for the Moral Lord's assistance—and even then, his master's willingness to intervene remained questionable.