"Thank you, Senior Yuzhou!"
Though his head was still spinning moments ago, Asuka felt his entire body surge with vitality after receiving Yuzhou's light energy.
"Well then," Yuzhou said calmly, folding his arms, "the rest of this battle… you'll have to finish yourself."
He chose to watch from the sidelines — this was a chance to test Asuka's strength.
And with his energy now replenished, the so-called Colossal Super Power Giant was no longer a match for him.
Asuka's body glowed silver and red, transforming into his Strong Type form. He charged toward the monster that had just struggled back to its feet and slammed his fist down on its head.
Crack!
Sparks burst out. The Colossal Super Power Giant was dazed by the direct blow, flipping onto its back and crashing to the ground again.
Asuka rushed forward, grabbed the monster by its body, and hurled it far into the distance.
The creature only flailed mid-air for a moment before crashing headfirst into Mars's red-soiled terrain.
Returning to his Shiny Type, Asuka crossed his arms into an "X" and unleashed a blazing Solgent Beam.
The Colossal Super Power Giant, seeing this, mirrored his gesture — firing its own beam straight toward Asuka.
Two streams of destructive energy collided, clashing on the surface of Mars.
"This is… different," Yuzhou murmured, narrowing his eyes as he watched the beams meet.
"In the original timeline, Dyna never had a beam clash with this monster."
Now, the scene was unfolding before him — history rewritten.
From Yuzhou's current vantage point, Asuka was on his right.
According to the ancient superstition of "beam clash logic," the fighter on the left always loses…
—except for Dyna.
With that thought, Yuzhou frowned. "No, no, I shouldn't be standing here."
He leapt high, flipping gracefully over the colliding beams, and landed on the opposite side — now with Asuka on his left.
Almost as if to prove that absurd superstition true, Asuka's Solgent Beam began to overpower the monster's energy.
Slowly, steadily — it consumed the opposing light entirely.
BOOOOOOM!
The Solgent Beam broke through completely, striking the Colossal Super Power Giant squarely in the chest.
However — instead of exploding, the monster suddenly opened a cavity in its torso, absorbing the beam in full.
"What?!"
Down in the underground base, Daigo stared at the screen, stunned.
He had thought the fight was over — but reality proved otherwise.
"Asuka! Don't back down — finish it!"
Yuzhou clenched his fists, shouting across the battlefield.
"I know!" Asuka yelled back, echoing the lessons Yuzhou had drilled into him.
"No matter what happens — never be afraid!"
He dispersed the beam, only to raise his arms again and form the X-shape once more.
A fresh, even more radiant beam burst forth, aimed directly at the monster's head.
"This is… what it means to be an Ultraman!"
Asuka roared with conviction. The Colossal Super Power Giant trembled under the overwhelming power of light — and after a few moments of resistance, it finally erupted in a tremendous explosion.
Red dust and debris burst skyward, scattering across Mars.
"We won," Ryo said with relief, watching the screen from the base, a broad smile spreading across his face.
Beside him, Daigo also smiled, the earlier tension on his face fading away.
With Yuzhou at Asuka's side, there was nothing to fear.
The battle ended. The two Ultramen dissolved into particles of light, reappearing moments later on Mars's desolate wasteland.
"Senior," Asuka said softly, clutching his Flash Sword, squinting at the orange sky. "Mars really is a lonely place…"
Before he could continue, Yuzhou smacked him on the head.
"I told you not to trust that woman with the long black hair, didn't I? Yet you still followed her!"
"Ow! I was tricked by Lieutenant Gondou!"
Asuka rubbed his sore head, looking aggrieved.
"But that black-haired woman… isn't all that bad, honestly."
He looked up, watching the Victory Shadow descend slowly from the sky.
"Even at the end, she still risked her life to fight."
Yuzhou sighed and shook his head. He knew what Asuka was thinking.
"There's no such thing as pure good or pure evil in this world," he said quietly.
"Everyone has their own reasons — their own motives."
He looked up at the dust-filled Martian sky.
"Even monsters. Some of them were born on Earth. Some attack humans because their habitats were destroyed or taken away. From their point of view, they're protecting their homes.
To them, humans are the invaders."
He paused. "If you think about it that way… who's really the villain?"
Asuka stayed silent, listening intently.
Yuzhou's tone grew heavier.
"It's the same with others, too… Take Belial, for example."
He looked distant — as if remembering something painful.
"Belial once achieved countless victories for the Land of Light. But because of the Plasma Spark incident, he was exiled forever.
Anyone would feel anger and resentment from that."
"When he was later possessed by a Reiblood alien and attacked the Land of Light, what did the other Ultramen do?
Instead of purging the parasite, they sealed Belial away — locked him in a cosmic prison."
He sighed softly. "Was that really the right choice?"
"Belial wasn't entirely wrong… he was just broken by what happened to him."
Fortunately, because of Yuzhou's interference in the timeline, things had changed.
In Geed's world, Belial was eventually redeemed — returning to his original self.
Even so, Yuzhou knew all too well that future generations of Ultramen would still drag his name out to ridicule and "beat the dead horse" whenever they could.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Gondou was handed over to TPC headquarters for disciplinary action.
His status and political rights were stripped away, followed by imprisonment.
The last person punished so harshly… was Masaki.
But Masaki had since been fully redeemed — now reborn as a new Giant of Light: Ultraman Cain.
After returning to the Super Victory Team, Ryo said nothing about Yuzhou and Asuka's involvement.
He only reported that Gondou had attempted to use Asuka for an experiment — which led to everything that followed.
With the situation resolved, Yuzhou travelled to Chrono City, floating quietly above R'lyeh in space.
There, Masaki and Gamu were working together on a time-travel device — a machine designed to send Gamu back to his original world.
The Chrono City was the perfect place to build it — it housed materials capable of withstanding temporal distortion and dimensional travel.