Chapter 160

The victory of Ultraman Seiji was not merely a matter of overwhelming force.

It was a declaration at the level of law, its resonance piercing the barriers of myriad worlds, planting a seed named "choice" in the heart of every viewer.

The Land of Light.

Beneath the radiant glow of the Plasma Spark Tower, Ultraman Father stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

His deep gaze seemed to pierce through spacetime, beholding the ultimate fate of that universe.

"The birth of Seiji is the triumph of human will."

He let out a relieved sigh,

"What we have guarded has never been fragile life, but the courage within life that never extinguishes and dares to strike despair."

"When they choose hope, they themselves become miracles."

The Three-Body World, Earth.

Inside Luo Ji's manor.

He and Shi Qiang stood side by side gazing at the sky curtain, silent for a long time.

"Old Brother Luo, I think I understand a little now."

Shi Qiang exhaled a smoke ring, breaking the silence,

"I used to think the dark forest was a dead end, everyone guessing who would strike first and survive. But now it seems there is another path."

Luo Ji nodded, a flash of realization crossing his eyes:

"The essence of the dark forest chain is survival. But if a civilization's will to survive is not built upon destroying others, but upon 'guardianship' and 'hope'?"

"When such will condenses to the extreme, perhaps it can truly illuminate the entire dark forest."

"Of course, this requires a civilization as pure and benevolent as Ultraman to serve as the ranger of the dark forest."

"When all civilizations release benevolence, perhaps we need not experience a war like ours with the Trisolarans to eliminate Cai Yilin."

The Armor Hero World.

Inside the Happy House, Duanmu Yan cooked noodles swiftly while staring at the Hypajeton turned to dust on the sky curtain, her eyes bright.

"This monster that feeds on despair... is very much like the Ouxi, but stronger."

He muttered to himself, the spoon in his hand unconsciously gripping tighter,

"I might as well kill all the Ouxi first; such monsters may have a chance to return later."

The Star People United Fleet.

Marshal Sidney gazed upon the earth restored to light, letting out a long breath, his face showing genuine relief.

"Archivist, record the events of the Seiji universe as 'Verification of the Hope Law,' and list it as a top-priority research file."

She ordered,

"Notify all frontline units: our enemy may be strong, but never underestimate the people we protect—they are the ultimate source of our strength."

Above the sky curtain,

Seiji's figure gradually faded.

In its place appeared a comparison of two cosmic star maps.

On the left, the Seiji universe: a lone Earth adrift in darkness.

On the right, the Warhammer universe: a dark galaxy torn apart by Warp rifts, riddled with countless wounds.

【The despair of the Seiji universe is dynamic despair. It grants hope, then crushes hope, until nothing remains.】

【The despair of the Warhammer universe is stagnant despair. It is like a frozen swamp, dragging all things into endless decay and numbness.】

【Humanity in the Seiji universe possesses nothing—no empire, no star warriors, no Emperor.】

【Humanity in the Warhammer universe possesses everything, yet under the shadow of the four Chaos Gods, they merely linger, having lost hope.】

【Yet the fundamental laws of the universe remain unchanged.】

【Only the deepest despair can give birth to the strongest hope.】

【When a civilization is backed into a corner with no retreat, they will unleash a power that moves even the gods.】

The words fell,

The dark star map on the right representing the Warhammer universe suddenly flickered with a barely perceptible, colored halo.

That light was extremely faint, yet like a stone cast into dead water, it stirred ripples upon ripples.

【Guidance from the Miracle Universe……has been delivered.】

……

Warhammer Universe.

Holy Terra, deep within the Imperial Palace.

Roboute Guilliman sprang up from his seat, attempting to analyze this sudden change.

He felt it.

Not a psychic surge, not a physical phenomenon.

But a kind of……emotional resonance.

A pure, unadulterated……hope he had not felt among Imperial citizens for thousands of years.

He strode forward, overlooking the hive city.

Among those who once walked like numb worker ants, some stopped, lifted their heads blankly, as if sniffing a different scent in the air.

A logistics soldier responsible for hauling supplies, looking at his hands covered in old calluses, saw for the first time no numb resignation in his eyes, only a flash of light.

"Can we……also win?"

Mars.

A high-ranking sage of the Mechanicus, gazing at the screen showing Seiji's birth, found his logic engine—composed of countless metals and circuits—unable to process the incoming data stream for the first time.

"Miracle……non-logical……born of will……violating physical laws……but……exists."

The entire empire,

From Terra to the distant frontier starfields.

Countless humans watching the heavens, upon seeing how humans from another universe summoned a miracle from despair,

Their hearts, long smoothed by endless war and harsh rule, began to beat again.

This is a crystallization called hope.

……

Cybertron.

Megatron and Optimus Prime exchanged a glance, seeing in each other's optical sensors an unbelievable ecstasy.

"In the Warhammer universe, they……those humans."

Megatron's low voice carried a slight tremor,

"Their originally lifeless mental state is changing!"

Optimus Prime nodded heavily, showing a pleased expression: "Hope, is hope! The story of Ultraman has made them believe again in the power of hope!"

Naruto world.

Uchiha Madara's eyes narrowed slightly, flashing with intense interest.

"Interesting, too interesting."

"If humans in this universe could also gather such immense hope……"

He licked his lips, a wild guess forming in his mind,

"Is that miracle called Ultraman……also going to descend upon the Warhammer universe?"

"If Ultraman descends into this universe, can it oppose the four Chaos Gods?"

Wandering Earth universe.

"MOSS," Liu Peiqiang said solemnly, "calculate—if Ultraman descends into the Warhammer universe, can it match the four Chaos Gods?"

MOSS's red dot blinked for several seconds, giving an unexpected answer.

"Report, Colonel Liu Peiqiang: cannot calculate. According to the 'Hope Law Empirical' file analysis, whether Ultraman King or Ultraman, the manifestation of their power highly depends on the will of the civilization they protect."

"If humanity has completely abandoned hope, succumbing to despair, even the Mysterious Four Ultras cannot create victory from nothing."

"Conversely, if humanity's hope is firm enough, they themselves will become the foundation of Ultraman's power."

"All of this ultimately comes down to humanity's empire itself."

……

In the warp, winds rose and clouds surged.

The four Chaos Gods, at first feeling, sensed in the real universe that "positive energy" which made them nauseous.

"Hope? Ridiculous emotion!"

On Khorne's throne, the Blood God let out an angry roar, invisible fury trying to cross dimensions to utterly extinguish those just-sprouted flames of hope.

In Tzeentch's labyrinth, countless eyes turned, it began weaving new conspiracies, trying to use lies and suspicion to split and collapse this hope from within.

In Nurgle's garden, the Lord of Decay stirred its great cauldron, wanting to spread deeper despair and numbness.

In Slaanesh's palace, the Prince of Pleasure played the ultimate tempting melody, attempting to drown this faint pure light with desire.

However……

The hearts of the myriad-worlds audience all rose to their throats.

They feared, feared history repeating.

They feared this just-ignited human spark would once again be easily snuffed out by the Chaos Gods.

But this time, the Chaos Gods miscalculated.

Their anger, schemes, despair, and temptations, like mud cows entering the sea, failed to stir even a ripple.

They horrifiedly discovered they could no longer, as before, easily draw negative emotions from humans, nor impose their will upon them!

Those humans' souls now seemed wrapped in a thin yet incredibly tough colored light membrane.

In their hearts there was no ecstasy, no excitement.

Only a faint yet incredibly firm conviction——

"We, too, can create miracles."

Within the warp, the four Chaos Gods collectively fell into unprecedented shock and bewilderment.

"What's going on?!"

"Their souls……have been 'contaminated'!"

"This power……does not belong to this universe!"

"It's Ultraman, Ultraman has contaminated their souls, damn it!"

Terra Imperial Palace.

Roboute Guilliman watched as the citizens below, whose eyes gradually grew clear and bright, and saw that faint hope-light on them, his clenched fists slowly relaxed.

He smiled.

It was a smile rising from the depths of his lungs, having laid down a burden of ten thousand jun.

"Our human empire has never abandoned hope."

"Father……the meaning you upheld, I finally……fully understood."

He raised his head, gazing toward the highest point of the imperial palace, toward that figure sitting in meditation for ten thousand years.

From the moment he ascended the Golden Throne, the Emperor has never abandoned hope.

But rather, with his own body, opposed corruption.

And now, he, like the Emperor, chose hope.

Above the sky canopy,

The grand narration rang out once more, annotating this historic moment.

【In the ten thousand years of dark rule and endless war, humanity's hope was regarded as a useless luxury, even a heresy that needed to be corrected.】

【They were numb, obedient, praying in despair, burning in agony.】

【But today, after witnessing the miracle of another human civilization, they were awakened.】

【They remembered that they, too, had once gazed up at the starry sky.】

【They remembered that they, too, had once harbored dreams.】

【They chose hope once more, chose to become the burning light, rather than the firewood being burned.】

Within the Warp, the Four Ruinous Powers' shock turned into pure, unadulterated fury!

"Stop them!"

"Absolutely cannot let this evil 'light' take root in our 'feeding trough'!"

"This is the ultimate desecration of Chaos!"

"Quickly eradicate these sources of pollution called hope!!"

Terrifying energy began to gather in the depths of the Warp; they prepared to forcibly interfere with the real universe at any cost, to utterly extinguish this tide of hope!

However, at this very moment.

Hum—

A calm yet supremely majestic psychic fluctuation, like a stellar storm, instantly erupted from the Golden Throne of Holy Terra, sweeping across the entire Solar System, even piercing the veil between reality and the Warp!

This psychic power was no longer the kind filled with pain, repression, and the twilight air of decay from the past ten thousand years.

It was pure, vast, brimming with newborn vitality and... an unyielding will!

In the Warp, the Four Ruinous Powers' terrifying energy that was about to coalesce was actually forcibly scattered by this psychic shock!

【The hope condensed from all members of the Human Empire, like hundreds of millions of trickling streams, flowed into that Soul Sea which had long since dried up.】

【The slumbering will was awakened.】

【The rotten soul began to bloom with life anew.】

【The Emperor sensed his people... their choice.】

The scene cuts to the interior of the Terra Imperial Palace.

Countless Imperial mortal officials, Custodians, and servants who were praying and working — faint, multicolored light of hope emanated from their bodies.

This light converged into a river, flowing toward the deepest part of the Palace.

Atop the Golden Throne.

That desiccated corpse of ten thousand years, that skeleton connected to countless tubes — two points of golden light suddenly blazed to life in its eye sockets!

Immediately after, strands of multicolored miraculous light burst forth from the gaps of the Throne, from the joints of the Emperor's skeleton!

Finally,

The hope of billions of humans, billions of beams of light, converged above the Golden Throne into a massive, constantly rotating, multicolored miraculous nebula — indistinguishable from the one in the Segua Universe!

In this moment, the Human Empire, united as one!

Under the blessing of the light of hope,

The Emperor's body began to slowly bloom with radiance.

It seemed some power was silently completing a world-shaking transformation.

The power of the Dark King that had originally been pulling the Emperor toward the position of the Fifth Chaos God was now also quietly swept up into the dense, multicolored hope.

Covering the Heavens World.

The Void Great Emperor watched this scene, golden tears sliding from the corners of his eyes once more, but this time, they were tears of joy.

"Good! Truly a case of the masses' willpower feeding back into the self! Daoist friend, your ten thousand years of suffering were not endured in vain!"

Super God Academy.

Angel Yan stood watching that multicolored miracle, murmuring: "His people... have become his angels."

Battle Through the Heavens World.

Xiao Yan watched in shock at that Emperor about to revive: "Using all living beings as fire, reforging the Emperor's body... what a grand gesture! What formidable resolve!"

Naruto World.

Senju Hashirama pressed his hands together, moved to the point of hot tears welling in his eyes: "This is... this is true bonds! He protected humanity for ten thousand years, now it is humanity's turn to protect him!"

Above the sky canopy, that multicolored miraculous nebula rotated to its zenith.

A clear, firm thought, filled with boundless majesty and benevolence, transmitted from within the Golden Throne — for the first time so clearly — into the heart of every single human.

【I... heard your voices.】