Volume One, Chapter 89: What remained was only emptiness, and an abyss of bottomless nothingness.

Tsuchizaki gave a faint smile as he watched the three men trembling with excitement ahead of him. With a single snap of his fingers, the corruption spell was already upon the King of Glass.

“Roar!!!”

The monster that had been obedient only an instant before suddenly became wildly ferocious, rampaging through everything around it.

The three aliens panicked. They spun around, only to find Tsuchizaki standing behind them.

“Who are you?!”

The three aliens instantly reverted to their true forms.

“Pawns like you are better off getting lost.”

Tsuchizaki cast them a cool glance. He did not move, yet a surge of energy already swept outward.

Whoosh—

In the howl of a hurricane, the bodies of the three aliens were torn to shreds in an instant, leaving no corpse behind.

At that moment, a deafening crash came from outside.

It was Taiga, making a dazzling entrance.

After yesterday's battle, Taiga seemed far more confident today.

The moment he landed, he charged at the King of Glass, trying to match it in brute strength.

But before even three seconds had passed, he was slapped away.

At once, the King of Glass released a barrage of luminous feathers, and Taiga could only defend himself in retreat.

“Yukio, use the ring now!” Taiga cried urgently.

“The ring? You mean this one?” Yukio took out the monster ring he had received yesterday, looking faintly puzzled.

“Yes, hurry!”

Without hesitation, Yukio immediately held it up against the Taiga Spark, just as he would with an Ultra ring.

“Garuberos Ring! Bond established!”

As the prompt sounded, Taiga’s hands flashed with light, erupting into a dark crimson glow.

The twin rays spun at high speed, and in an instant condensed into two razor-sharp blood-colored blades, which Taiga fired outward.

Boom—

The blades did not vanish when they struck the King of Glass. Instead, they whirled around its body, cutting at it at terrifying speed.

“Roar!!!”

The King of Glass let out a pained groan, and Taiga seized the chance to attack, hurling it away with a shoulder throw.

Boom—

With a thunderous crash, the King of Glass hit the ground on its back and suffered grievous damage.

“Stream!” Taiga murmured, raising both hands, ready to unleash his finishing move.

But Yukio stopped him. “Wait, Taiga. I think I know it. Let’s try to save it.”

The monster reminded him of the one he had met in childhood.

And it was precisely to protect that little monster that he had met Taiga.

And this one before him also loved chocolate; it might very well be Little Guy.

At that thought, Yukio had already unconsciously lifted his hand, recalling the gesture he had once used with Little Guy.

“One, two, open.”

“One, two, open.”

“One, two, open.”

“Look, Little Guy.” Repeating the motion, Yukio gazed hopefully at the King of Glass. “One, two, open.”

At first the King of Glass remained unmoved, but as Yukio kept repeating the gesture, it too seemed to recall the human it had met long ago.

Its slumbering memory deep in the mind was awakened. The King of Glass instinctively nodded, then opened its mouth.

Seeing this, Yukio’s eyes trembled, and at last a joyous smile appeared.

It really was Little Guy!

Taiga walked up to the King of Glass and gently stroked it.

The King of Glass behaved with great docility now, showing none of the ferocity it had displayed before.

The aliens in the auction hall, seeing this scene, all wore baffled expressions.

They had clearly implanted control chips inside the monster’s mind. It was one thing for the monster to run amok, but now it could actually be tamed by an Ultra Warrior?!

Tsuchizaki was equally displeased.

Since inheriting Grimd's power, his corruption spell had almost never failed.

This was the first time, and the last.

“Taiga, you are too naive,” Tsuchizaki muttered, taking out the Torrekia Eye.

The mask’s wings spread open, revealing a pair of dark, fathomless red eyes.

Tsuchizaki’s body was wrapped in darkness, slowly enlarging until he took the form of Torrekia.

His appearance instantly drew the attention of Taiga and the surrounding aliens.

“To... Torrekia!”

Inside the auction ship, the Fly Alien cried out in terror, nearly frightened to death on the spot. He hurriedly ordered the staff to shut down the auction.

“It’s over, it’s over! Today’s auction ends here!”

“Torrekia!” Taiga’s expression sharpened. “Why are you here?!”

“Of course I came to see you,” Torrekia replied in a flippant tone. “Do you believe that?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Before Taiga had even finished speaking, he was already charging forward.

Even after twelve years, he remembered every detail of what had happened back then.

Titas, Fuma, I’m avenging you now!

Taiga rushed up to Torrekia and unleashed a combination of punches, only for Torrekia to evade them with ease.

“Come on, come on.”

Torrekia, now thoroughly amused, taunted Taiga even as he dodged.

“Over here. I’m right here.”

Taiga had been driven mad with rage; his attacks had no pattern at all.

Seeing his reaction so abnormal, Yukio hurriedly asked, “Taiga, what’s wrong? Who is he?!”

Taiga gave no answer and kept attacking Torrekia as if his life depended on it.

“Good,” Torrekia said with a chuckle, ducking under a spinning kick before following with a swift knife-hand strike to Taiga’s abdomen.

His martial skill was not especially strong, but against a brat like Taiga, it was more than enough.

Struck hard in the stomach, Taiga let out a muffled grunt and fell to one knee in agony.

When he rose again, Torrekia had already gathered a vast power in his hand.

Seeing those flashing shadows of light, Taiga’s pupils contracted slightly, as if he had been dragged back twelve years.

Back then, Torrekia had used this very move to shatter the entire trio.

In Taiga’s moment of distraction, Torrekia thrust out his palm, and the dreadful energy came crashing down.

Taiga instinctively raised his hands to block.

But at that instant, a dark silhouette suddenly appeared before him.

Boom—

Under energy so violent it could have destroyed heaven and earth, that figure held for only a moment before it became a torrent of blazing fire, instantly swallowing Taiga’s entire field of vision.

“Little Guy!”

That cry belonged to Yukio.

His eyes flew wide, and he reached out a hand, as though trying to touch the monster.

But what his senses returned to him was an unbearable searing heat.

The flames gradually faded, and the silhouette of the King of Glass had vanished without a trace.

“Little Guy!”

Yukio’s eyes were bloodshot, fury flooding his chest in an instant.

“You bastard!” he roared, his gaze burning with crimson light as it locked onto Torrekia. “How dare you... how dare you kill Little Guy!”

At this moment, Taiga and Yukio were truly one, body and soul alike, even in their shared rage.

Taiga, in a fit of fury, charged at Torrekia and threw a vicious punch.

But the next second, his fist was seized tightly.

Looking at the Ultra Warrior so close before him, Torrekia smiled faintly. “If I hadn’t killed the monster, there would have been even more casualties.”

“Shut up!” Yukio cried in rage. “Little Guy is my friend.”

Torrekia ignored him and murmured instead, “This world is full of contradictions. There is no day or night in the universe, no good or evil.”

“There is only the vacuum, and the unfathomable void.”