Chapter 153

"Cough, cough..."

Yue Longze, having returned to his human form, reappeared staggeringly at the scene of the battle against Kill.

This place had been reduced to almost absolute ruin.

Thin layers of dust still lingered in the air, and snapped trees lay scattered at disorderly angles amidst the shattered, desolate buildings. Those people who had failed to escape in time were now locked in an eternal slumber beneath this rubble.

A sorrowful atmosphere instantly permeated the disaster-stricken area...

"If only I were a bit stronger..."

Yue Longze clenched his fists, feeling a profound sense of powerlessness.

...

Meanwhile, on the other side in an unpopulated zone, Mutsumi practically collapsed to his knees, panting heavily, large beads of sweat covering his youthful face.

Struggling to his feet a moment later, he knew he had to hurry back; he couldn't let the XIG commanders and teammates grow suspicious.

...

"Fumio! Hurry up!"

Elsewhere, Kenji Tabata of KCB Television led his crew, rushing back from the safety zone into the disaster-hit area.

"Make haste and film the affected zone! We must deliver the truest reality to the public!"

Tabata continuously urged Fumio, who was carrying the camera, while scanning his surroundings for any survivors or other anomalies.

"Reiko! You get ready too!"

"Ah, right away, Mr. Tabata!"

Clacking her high heels, Reiko quickly ran off to the side to touch up her makeup.

...

Yue Longze dragged his exhausted body forward in a slow walk, a dull ache throbbing in his left arm.

The left arm, which had not yet fully healed, had suffered further injury in this battle... The bone that had somewhat mended now showed signs of fracturing again.

Right now, he intended to go look for those three unreliable fellows known as the Three Hairs...

"Bzz—"

"What is that?"

Hearing the strange noise, Yue Longze instantly snapped to high alert. Ignoring the pain in his left arm, he keenly sensed his surroundings.

"That... that is that extremely familiar presence!"

Yue Longze's expression turned unnatural. If any other accident were to happen right now, he might be in deep trouble.

"This presence... to whom on earth does it belong?"

Yue Longze's brow knitted so tightly it formed deep wrinkles. The presence was intensely familiar, feeling just like someone he interacted with every single day.

Could it be Zero? Could it be Belial?

Could it be Juda? Could it be the Ultraman King?

Could it be Shoko? Could it be Mieko?

...

Yue Longze mentally ran through everyone he knew, including the Three Hairs, in his mind.

"None of them... Then whose presence could this possibly be..."

Yue Longze was utterly baffled.

"Bzz, bzz..."

Accompanied by the strange sound, a purple sphere of light suddenly emerged from the mutilated carcass of the slain monster.

It was heavily concealed; surrounded entirely by collapsed ruins, it was difficult for anyone on the outside to notice what was happening within the wreckage.

Furthermore, there was currently no one outside the ruins; only the government-dispatched rescue teams were still on their way.

...

"That is...!"

Yue Longze's eyes widened. The purple sphere of light appearing before him was radiating the exact, intensely familiar presence he had sensed!

"So it was..."

Yue Longze's tightly furrowed brow suddenly relaxed, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"This is the power I lost!"

Yue Longze finally experienced a flash of realization at that moment.

That purple sphere of light was none of other than his own power! It was his own aura, which explained why he had found it so familiar.

Yue Longze chuckled self-deprecatingly, realizing he had simply been scaring himself all this time!

In an instant, Yue Longze understood and figured out many things.

Back then, due to Juda's attack, his power had been shattered and scattered across this space-time continuum.

As for this monster, it had happened to absorb his power, thereby growing even more formidable. This had triggered a butterfly effect, causing subtle changes in the plot of the Gaia dimension.

Yue Longze reached into his coat with his right hand, drew out the Dark Sparklence, and raised his right hand to reabsorb the power that rightfully belonged to him back into the device.

...

"What is that!"

Fumio, carrying the camera in the distance, gasped in shock. Through the camera lens, he clearly saw Yue Longze absorbing a purple sphere of light that had emerged from the mutilated carcass of the monster.

"What did you find, Fumio!"

Reiko, having just finished touching up her makeup, walked over in confusion and pressed her delicate face against the camera to see the footage inside.

However, by the time Reiko looked at the monitor, Yue Longze had already put away the Dark Sparklence and left the scene, leaving Reiko to see only a stretch of broken ruins.

"There's nothing here at all, Fumio!"

Reiko said somewhat discontentedly, "You're a grown man, stop making such a fuss over nothing!"

"No, no, no, look at this!"

Tabata hurriedly explained, immediately pressing the replay button.

And once again, the shocking footage of Yue Longze reclaiming his own energy emerging from the monster's body appeared on the camera screen...

"It's this person... who is controlling the monster!"

Tabata stared at the screen in silence for a long time before speaking in a slow, deep voice.

"No way... Can humans control monsters?"

Reiko clearly found it hard to believe, yet the recorded footage lay right before her eyes...

"Mr... Mr. Tabata... what you said might actually be true!"

Fumio agreed with Tabata's judgment, his voice trembling.

The three members of KCB Television stood silently amidst the desolate ruins with heavy hearts, lingering for a long time before finally taking heavy steps to depart...

...

Yue Longze walked briskly, his mood a mixture of elation and heaviness.

Having reclaimed his lost energy, his physical condition had improved significantly. In particular, the injury on his left arm was almost entirely healed; he would be able to remove the cast in just a few days!

Yet...

Since a small fraction of his energy had been acquired by this subterranean monster, did that mean his other dispersed energies were likely to have been obtained by other monsters on this Earth as well?

"As expected, I really did alter some things in this Gaia space-time..."

Yue Longze could not help sighing. It seemed that time travel was nowhere near as wonderful as he had imagined!

One could not casually go meddling in other space-times...

At last, Yue Longze truly understood this lesson.

...

"However... it seems I have work to do!"

Yue Longze muttered to himself. He needed to track down the hidden monsters on Earth one by one, because his lost energy might just be attached to them!

However, Yue Longze's current mission was still to go find those three unreliable guys first!

"Looks like I'll have to go acquire a cell phone..."

Stealthily slipping out of the ruins, Yue Longze looked out at the vast sea of people and couldn't help feeling a massive headache coming on.

Deciding to give up on searching for the Three Hairs amidst this massive crowd, Yue Longze decisively turned around and headed straight home!

He would go home and wait for the Three Hairs to return on their own!

"I hope the three of you are safe and sound!"

Silently reciting this in his heart, Yue Longze quickened his pace...