As the giant robot known as Leopardon smashed a fist into the skull of the giant alien called Zarab, Tony felt as though his own brain was shriveling up right alongside the latter's.
The clash between the two colossal beings, each standing dozens of meters tall, sent the entire area trembling and shaking.
According to JARVIS's calculations of the impact, Tony estimated that for destruction on this scale, both monsters had to weigh at least tens of thousands of tons.
Even for Tony Stark, the scene was a little too unscientific.
Whether it was Leopardon from M77 or the Alien Zarab, to a Tony who was still in the early years of his Iron Man career—before he had begun encountering all manner of gods, monsters, and cosmic weirdness—what stood before him wasn't merely unscientific.
It was downright surreal.
"How are they not being crushed by their own weight?"
Dragging the unconscious Joey out of the danger zone, Tony still found time before taking off to unleash every weapon in his armor at the Alien Zarab, whose body looked suspiciously like a two-dimensional lifeform.
The result was obvious.
That is to say, there was no result at all.
A battle at this level was clearly far beyond the reach of an Iron Man whose armor technology had only advanced to the Mark 11.
"Not enough firepower. Nowhere near enough firepower."
With no way to participate and forced to stay on the sidelines, Tony let out a long sigh and resolved that in the future he would spend less time chasing women and more time climbing the tech tree.
Of course, there was no need to build a giant robot as absurdly large as Leopardon.
A machine that big was completely unnecessary. It would constantly be constrained by material strength, structural integrity, and joint limitations.
Simply fighting gravity would require enormous amounts of wasted effort. From a research and manufacturing standpoint, it was completely—
BOOM!
In the distance, Leopardon charged straight through Zarab's ion wave attack and delivered another punch, sending the alien flying into the side of a mountain and triggering a small earthquake.
Completely without any reason to refuse.
"JARVIS, add a memo—I absolutely must build a giant robot."
To hell with practicality. In Tony's mind, the blueprints for a giant Mark 99 mechanical armor were already halfway complete.
No one could resist the temptation of piloting a giant robot.
Not even billionaire genius playboy philanthropist Tony Stark.
---
Having been carried high into the sky, Joey slowly regained consciousness. Nearly sent to another world by the Ultraman dump truck, he finally recovered some strength under the sunlight.
The driver responsible for the accident wasn't doing much better than Joey.
The collision had forced the two severely injured individuals to merge into one.
Joey could rapidly recover by soaking up sunlight.
The original Ultraman, however, was having a much rougher time.
[I intended to give you half of my life energy. Unfortunately, after doing so, I realized it was completely meaningless.]
Realizing that Joey's life essence was far stronger than that of an ordinary human, Ultraman's initial energy transfer had effectively been poured into a bottomless pit.
As a result, Ultraman's own energy reserves had become even more depleted, leaving him unable to appear and fight for the time being.
[I came to this universe while pursuing the Alien Zarab, who crossed dimensional boundaries. It obtained an unknown power from its new master. Everywhere it passes, worlds fall into silence and extinction. The Land of Light cannot allow it to continue its evil deeds.]
The Alien Zarab was the strange creature currently battling Leopardon—a bizarre being that appeared to have only a single visible surface.
Its species was infamous throughout the cosmos for optical camouflage, deception, and meticulous planning.
Whether turning invisible or transforming into other beings, the precision of their disguises was so extraordinary that even the Land of Light's detection methods could be fooled.
As for the giant robot fighting Zarab, Joey had spent quite some time comparing it against countless giant robots such as King Joe, Windom, and Deathfacer, yet still couldn't identify it.
Only the spider-web pattern on its chest seemed oddly familiar.
Then the pilot, Takuya Yamashiro, struck a dramatic pose with his arms crossed and shouted:
"Leopardon!"
"What the fuck—?!"
Now Joey understood.
The legendary Supaidaman, Takuya Yamashiro himself.
And his legendary giant robot, Leopardon.
Where the hell am I? Is this still Marvel?
Just as Joey was muttering internally, a sword hilt suddenly emerged from Leopardon's right leg.
The giant machine grasped it and pulled.
Wrapped in lightning and flames, a divine sword dozens of meters long materialized in its hand.
The weapon radiated a terrifying cosmic energy.
Yet Leopardon had no intention of using it for close combat.
Instead, it hurled the blade directly at the fallen Zarab Alien in the distance.
"Finisher—Sword Vigor!"
There it was.
The legendary Sword Vigor.
A causality-defying weapon empowered by cosmic energy—once thrown, it would always hit, and once it hit, the target would always die.
The Alien Zarab's luck was truly awful.
It might not have gotten to experience the Land of Light's famous Ultra Slash, but it was definitely about to get a full serving of Sword Vigor.
Just as Joey relaxed and prepared to get a closer look at Zarab's corpse, a sudden change erupted.
"Interesting."
Zarab's pore-like eyes observed the Sword Vigor flying toward him. Then, after glancing at Leopardon behind it, the light around his body began to distort.
There was once a famous paradoxical fable:
What would happen if an unstoppable spear struck an unbreakable shield?
Joey didn't know what would happen when an overwhelmingly powerful attack collided with an absolutely perfect defense.
What he did know was what happened when two overwhelmingly powerful attacks collided with each other.
They exploded on sight.
Grabbing onto a gap in Tony's armor joints, Joey dragged him over a thousand meters away in an instant. When he looked back, the foothills where Leopardon and Zarab had been fighting were already unrecognizable.
The colossal energy release had completely reshaped the landscape.
A vast canyon now cut through the earth where mountains had once stood.
Seawater rushed into the newly formed fissure, creating violent and deadly currents.
"Tony! Two o'clock, four o'clock, and seven o'clock directions—go help them!"
After calling out the coordinates of civilians whose lives were now at risk amid the cataclysmic destruction, Joey sent Iron Man away and immediately flew toward the center of the battlefield.
He had clearly seen what happened.
The moment Leopardon threw Sword Vigor, Zarab activated his optical camouflage.
In an instant, he transformed into Leopardon.
Then he copied the move exactly.
Drawing a sword of his own, he hurled an identical Sword Vigor.
The collision of the two swords turned mountains into canyons and forests into waterways.
At the bottom of the massive rift, two giant robots stood firmly amidst the raging seawater.
Two Leopardons.
Completely identical in appearance.
"Is that really still Zarab?"
The Zarab race's optical camouflage was certainly powerful, but it was supposed to be limited to appearance alone.
What Joey was witnessing now was something entirely different.
The thing had copied Leopardon's abilities as well.
Sensing Joey's confusion, the Original Ultraman quietly explained while gathering strength:
[As I said before, this Zarab found a new master—one powerful enough to grant it abilities beyond its original limits.]
The Zarab Ultraman had been pursuing was no longer merely—
[We need to stop them fi—... never mind.]
Before either Ultraman or Joey could intervene, the two identical Leopardons charged forward.
They rushed past the shattered remains of the colliding Sword Vigors and immediately began grappling with one another.
Watching the chaotic brawl—fists crashing into armor, tidal-wave-sized surges of water and dust rising into the air—even Ultraman couldn't help but sigh.
[Now how are we supposed to tell which one is which?!]
"What do you mean, how?"
Although Joey couldn't visually penetrate Zarab's disguise either, he had never taken his attention off the battlefield since waking up.
Naturally, he knew exactly which Leopardon was the real one and which was the impostor.
More importantly, his super hearing could clearly pick up the furious shouting coming from inside one of the robots:
"Kuso! You're gonna pay for all this destruction, you identity thief!"
Seizing an opportunity, Leopardon wrapped both arms around the counterfeit in front of him.
Then he leaned backward, rotated one hundred and eighty degrees, and delivered a brutally powerful overhead suplex.
"The one who defeats you will be—The cold-blooded beast! The mechanical monster killer! The merciless man! Supaidaman!"
BOOOOM!
The earth shook once again.
Yet Leopardon's absurd durability allowed it to emerge completely unharmed.
Just as Ultraman had said, Zarab had copied not only Leopardon's appearance but also the incredible abilities that came with it.
After a brief silence, Ultraman finally spoke.
[Sir... would you be willing to lend me half of your power?]
Even Ultraman Lipiah found the request difficult to voice.
Usually, it was others who borrowed strength from him.
Now he had become the one asking for aid.
But for the sake of Earth's safety, he could only swallow his pride.
[It would allow my body to undergo giant-size deployment for approximately three minutes. You control the body, I provide guidance. Three minutes is enough to defeat our opponent twice over.]
"Actually, I can handle this myself—"
Joey paused.
To be fair, by his own estimate, teaming up with Leopardon against Zarab already gave them a victory rate exceeding ninety-nine percent.
Ultraman didn't really need to enter the fight at all.
But then again—
"I accept. So how do we do this?"
A clear, ethereal voice rang out.
Pure light followed.
A silver giant emerged from the dust and smoke, standing tall upon the earth.
Just as Tony Stark could never resist the temptation of piloting a giant robot,
Joey found himself completely incapable of refusing this offer.
After all—it was finally time for the Monster Neutralization Specialist to take the stage.