"Hm? That's weird…"
Shinjō frowned and pressed the button again.
But still—nothing. The Pedanium Particle Cannon didn't fire.
"Is the ammo not loaded? That can't be—energy's at full. Don't tell me the button's broken?"
His confusion deepened.
"Die… Die… Die…"
Suddenly, a strange voice echoed in his ears.
"Who's there?!"
Shinjō immediately turned alert, glancing around—but there was only darkness, lit now and then by flashes of lightning. Nothing else.
"Die… Die… Die…"
The voice came again, this time clearer. Something about it unnerved him. It tugged at the back of his mind, making him feel a strange tension.
He was sweating profusely, and could barely keep his eyes focused.
The fear made him desperately want to get out of there.
He tried to steer King Gozard away, but—
No matter how he moved the control stick, nothing happened.
"Huh?! What's going on?!"
Panic set in. There had been no prior issues, and suddenly, all controls were failing?
"DIE DIE DIE!!!"
Now the voice was louder, and this time he could tell—it was a deep, guttural female voice!
"HQ, HQ! Something's wrong here!"
Shinjō quickly attempted to contact the command room.
But the screen suddenly turned to static.
"What the hell?!"
Frantically, he worked the controls, but no matter what he did, the screen remained a wall of visual noise.
Then he noticed something—those "snowflakes" on the static… they weren't particles.
They were faces.
Yes—countless human faces, blurry, twisted, yet eerily discernible.
He should've looked away.
But something compelled him to stare. His face unconsciously inched closer to the screen.
And then he saw it clearly.
It wasn't static. It was a mass of shifting human faces—moving up and down, writhing.
Until they suddenly froze.
Now the screen was filled with grotesquely distorted faces, mashed together—staring at him, pressing against the glass as if trying to come through.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
The terror made Shinjō scream. He recoiled, smashing into the back of the chair, his face twisted in horror.
BOOOOMMMM!!!
A thunderclap outside jolted the entire command center.
A flash of lightning lit up the room—
Shinjō instinctively turned to the external monitor, and what he saw made his heart nearly stop.
The view outside was now blocked by a swarm of identical women in white—clinging to the outside of the cockpit, smothering the visibility.
Each one stared at him with dead, soulless eyes.
It was as if they could see him through the glass.
"G-G-Ghost! GHOST!!"
His scream rose into a shriek. The fear took hold completely.
Then—suddenly—a massive sense of weightlessness struck him.
King Gozard was falling.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!
Screams of warning filled the control room as all instruments went haywire.
Shinjō was frozen in terror, unable to act.
"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!"
The strange voice now sliced into his ears like knives, its pitch sharpening until it caused real mental pain.
He clutched his head, screaming.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!"
—
In the TPC Command Room
Captain Iruma and the others watched in horror as Shinjō's screen turned pure white. They had lost all contact.
"Hurry and inform Hori's team!" Iruma ordered.
"Not good! King Gozard is falling!"
Nozue shouted.
His computer, connected to the ship's system, had picked up the freefall.
"But doesn't King Gozard have the most advanced systems? How can it just fall like this?!"
Sawai asked, shaken.
"No idea! The entire system's crashed—it's completely nonfunctional!"
Nozue replied while trying every command.
"If it crashes from that height, Shinjō will be killed instantly!"
Everyone turned pale at those words.
The Foundation immediately contacted the Swallow Jet pilots.
"King Gozard is falling—intercept and rescue!"
"How are we supposed to save it?!"
Hori yelled anxiously.
"We can't catch up!"
Rena, piloting Swallow Jet-1, had pushed it to max speed, but even then, there was no way to reach the descending King Gozard in time.
—
On the ground, Daigo had already received word of the fall.
Seeing no one nearby, he quickly pulled out the Sparklence and transformed.
King Gozard was about to crash into the earth.
If it landed, the resulting explosion would kill everyone nearby—and turn Shinjō to paste.
But at that critical moment—
A glowing beam shot in from the distance, forming a cushion of light that slowed the fall.
It absorbed the impact, protecting the ship and its pilot.
"HYAH!"
Daigo, now Ultraman Tiga, soared into view.
He was the one who saved them.
Everyone watching sighed in relief.
Tiga gently placed King Gozard on the ground, but then noticed something odd.
From his perspective, dark, eerie black mist was oozing from both the ship and the pilot inside.
However, the mist seemed to fear Tiga, and didn't dare approach him.
Tiga raised his right hand and sent a beam of light into the ship, extracting Shinjō from within.
Shinjō was wrapped in tendrils of black aura, as if possessed.
He was twitching uncontrollably, eyes rolling back—he looked like he was moments from death.
Tiga glowed faintly—
And in the next second, all the black mist—on Shinjō and the ship—vanished.
Shinjō's body slowly relaxed. He started to recover.
Tiga gently laid him down.
BOOOOOMMMM!!!
Suddenly, the thundercloud nest above erupted in a deafening peal of thunder.
Tiga looked up sharply.
The surface of the cloud roiled with violent lightning.
All surrounding electronic devices and systems short-circuited at once.
Even comms equipment began emitting a chilling, repeating voice—
"Die."
It was a voice filled with such resentment that even hearing it could incite sheer panic.
All combat aircraft nearby started malfunctioning and falling from the sky.
No matter how the pilots tried to regain control—they were crashing.
Tiga quickly took flight and intercepted the plummeting jets, catching each one and setting them safely on the ground.
BOOOOMMMM!!
But just as he touched down, a massive bolt of lightning descended from the cloud—
It struck Tiga in the back.
The explosive impact knocked him down—
And his falling body hurtled straight toward the planes and the people inside them.
(End of Chapter)
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