The resistance fighters watched in horror as the three giants struck bizarre poses.
Then came the light.
Blinding beams erupted outward.
After that…
Nobody remembered anything.
The Ultramen Drex Valen created were practically idiot-proof. The moment someone transformed, instinctive combat knowledge flooded their minds automatically, including how to unleash beam attacks and combat techniques.
No transformation device was required.
They simply transformed directly.
The Ultraman and the host were one and the same.
Drex also hadn't mass-produced identical units. Each Ultraman possessed a unique appearance and traits. Besides, a single Ultraman was already more than enough to suppress an entire planet.
There was no need to create millions of them.
At the moment, the Kryptonian Empire only ruled several thousand inhabited worlds anyway.
Resource planets weren't even included in that count.
Three Ultramen per world amounted to less than ten thousand total.
Compared to the Land of Light's legendary sixty million Ultra Warriors, Drex's creations barely counted as imitation products.
Those originals had undergone formal training.
His were closer to high-end replicas.
Still…
Even replicas were terrifying.
BREAKING NEWS: Kryptonian Empire Develops New Super Soldiers — Giants!
BREAKING NEWS: Kryptonian "Giants" Destroy Dozens of Scauk Civilization Warships!
NEW KRYPTONIAN WEAPON REVEALED — ULTRAMEN
Information traveled fast across interstellar civilization.
Quantum entanglement communication made sure of that.
Before long, the entire galaxy knew the Kryptonian Empire had unveiled a new class of war unit:
One-hundred-meter-tall giants.
Several ancient civilizations nearly mistook them for Celestials.
The resemblance was genuinely unsettling.
Ultramen shared certain visual similarities with Marvel's Celestials, especially to species unfamiliar with either.
The Celestials were often referred to as "Star Giants" precisely because of their overwhelming size.
Whenever they appeared, they wore immense armor-like exoshells, and no one truly knew what existed beneath them.
Even their armor designs varied wildly from one Celestial to another.
From an outsider's perspective, Drex's Ultramen could easily resemble another branch of Celestial constructs.
Which wasn't entirely unreasonable.
The Celestials were among the most mysterious races in existence. Their abilities varied enormously between individuals, and even now, most civilizations barely understood them.
To be fair, ordinary Celestials were far larger than Ultramen.
Most stood over two thousand feet tall.
Roughly six hundred meters.
Still, Celestials differed dramatically in size and many possessed the ability to alter their dimensions at will, so hundred-meter variants weren't impossible.
At first, most civilizations dismissed the comparison.
The Celestials were cosmic entities capable of terrifying universe-level feats.
The Kryptonian Empire was powerful, yes, but challenging the Celestials sounded absurd.
Then people saw the beam attacks.
That changed things.
The Celestials famously manipulated cosmic energy, and energy projection techniques were one of their signature combat methods.
And soon, battle footage began flooding the galactic network.
Videos of Ultramen fighting entire fleets alone.
Previously, only monsters like Esdeath, Dueling Sword, or perhaps Darius of Noxus had demonstrated that kind of outrageous combat capability.
Now the Ultramen were doing it casually.
And somehow even more efficiently.
Against them, battleships looked less like war machines and more like stationary targets waiting to be vaporized by beam attacks.
In the vacuum of space, Ultramen maneuvered effortlessly around incoming fire. Most starship weapons were laughably slow by comparison.
Until now, galactic civilizations viewed the Kryptonian Empire as dangerous but manageable.
After all, they lacked conventional fleets and relied heavily on Bifrost-style rapid deployment assaults.
Terrifying.
But limited.
The Ultramen changed everything.
One Ultraman could potentially rival entire fleets.
And through Bifrost deployment, they could descend directly onto enemy worlds and begin planetary destruction immediately.
Very few beings could reliably defeat one.
Even base-form Thanos at the Skyfather threshold would struggle badly.
After all, Thanos possessed roughly fifteen hundred tons of single-arm strength.
An Ultraman's grip strength alone exceeded one hundred thousand tons.
The Precursors once conquered dozens of civilizations using giant monsters and ecological warfare.
Compared to that?
Ultramen were vastly worse.
"Damn it! It's the Kryptonian Empire's Ultramen!"
"Run!"
A planet bathed in rainbow-colored Bifrost light suddenly witnessed the arrival of two colossal giants.
The civilization below panicked instantly.
Even though they already knew about Ultramen from the galactic network, seeing two hundred-meter-scale gods standing above their cities in person was another matter entirely.
Still, many fighter pilots launched desperate counterattacks to defend their homeworld.
One of the Ultramen, a blue-type giant, casually raised his hand.
"Why do primitive beings continue resisting after witnessing divine power?"
A shockwave burst outward from his palm, detonating the incoming fighters instantly.
Beside him, a red-type Ultraman gathered energy in his right hand before unleashing a barrage of destructive light projectiles.
Each blast that struck the surface released energy equivalent to roughly three terawatts.
For comparison, the positron cannon used by EVA Unit-01 only generated around one terawatt.
Entire cities disappeared beneath the bombardment.
Just as the civilization approached total collapse, a streak of golden light shot across the sky toward the Ultramen.
Captain Marvel.
Carol Danvers.
Not the square-jawed cinematic version.
This Carol was a devastatingly attractive blonde whose combat presence burned like a living star.
Back when she confronted the Kryptonian Empire's Grey Knights, she'd suffered badly against their absurdly durable materials and overwhelming technology.
After that humiliation, Carol had deliberately avoided involving herself with the Kryptonian Empire again. Their technological level was ridiculous.
Even their standard troops had been difficult for her to handle.
Unfortunately, avoiding problems didn't make them disappear forever.
Carol happened to be on this planet conducting one of her usual "save the galaxy" operations when the Ultramen arrived.
And once she watched them massacre entire cities…
She stopped running.
Carol inhaled sharply.
Then charged.
The golden streak slammed directly into one of the Ultramen.
Under normal circumstances, a being with over one hundred thousand tons of mass was nearly impossible to move.
Carol Danvers was not a normal circumstance.
An absurd scene unfolded before the entire planet.
The colossal Ultraman was knocked off balance and hurled backward by a single golden figure vastly smaller than himself.