"Thank you both so much, Zero, Seiya." Emerana expressed her gratitude sincerely.
Aria and Zero both scratched their heads in embarrassment. "Don't mention it. Besides, it's way too early to thank us."
As Aria turned her head away, she suddenly noticed that one of the lights on Zero's Ultra Bracelet had gone out again. In that instant, her smile vanished and her brow furrowed.
"What's going on?" Aria pointed at the Ultra Bracelet on Zero's wrist. "Why has another one of its lights gone out?"
"Ultraman Zero, Ultraman Seiya," the voice in the mirror suddenly rang out once more, cutting off Aria's question. "Thank you for passing the light to us. Perhaps you are the hope we've been waiting for! Go take the Shield of Baradhi!"
Zero and Aria exchanged a smile, and Aria temporarily pushed her worries to the back of her mind—hoping she was just overthinking it.
Amid a violent tremor that shook the earth, through the mirror in the sky, they caught sight of countless battleships of the Belial Army.
"The Belial Army!" Mirror Knight looked up at the sky full of warships, then turned back to face Zero, Aria, and the others. "Leave this to me. You guys go get the shield!"
"Where is the shield?!"
"Head to the underground temple, and go upstream along the river!" With that, Mirror Knight flew off toward the fleet of warships.
"A river?"
Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet gave way, and they plunged through the mirror beneath them, landing deep underground.
"Over there!" Nao pointed straight ahead and strode off in the lead.
"This is..." Aria's pupils suddenly contracted. This was her father's statue!
Assuming she was confused about whose statue it was, Nao explained, "This is the legendary giant, Noa."
"Noa..." Zero muttered under his breath.
"Then... this must be the Shield of Baradhi?" Emerana gazed at Noa's color timer.
"That's right! There should be a place to insert the shard." Nao walked up to the statue and searched around. "Found it!"
Nao pulled the shard from around his neck, slotted it into the recess, and took a step back. "There, he's going to revive."
What on earth? Who is going to revive?
Aria stared at him in horror. Since when was her dad dead? Her dad needed this shard to revive?! What kind of cosmic joke was this?
*Dad! Dad! Are you still alive? Say something!* She frantically tried to reach Noa through telepathy.
Far away in another universe, Noa rubbed his temples. Aria definitely learned this from Noa! No, he had to find a chance to give her a good thrashing!
Teaching his daughter bad habits!
*What is it, my little Aria?*
*Dad, why does everyone in this universe think you're dead? And what's with this statue of yours...*
*Aria, that's just a rumor...*
Before Noa could finish, Aria heard a loud crash coming from nearby. "What's happening?" She looked at Zero.
Zero shook his head in bewilderment. "I have no idea."
"That's not right. Are we seeing things?" Nao stared at the scene before him in disbelief. "The stone shield is supposed to glow by now! That's what my dad said! Did my dad get it wrong, or what?" Nao turned his head and looked at Zero for answers.
"Nao," Zero placed a hand on Nao's shoulder. "You have to believe in your father."
"There has to be a reason for this," Emerana comforted him.
*Dad, what's going on here?*
*What?*
*Well, this kid put the Baradhi Shard into the slot on your statue, but nothing happened, and now he's having an existential crisis.*
*Oh, that's because you haven't met the conditions to awaken the Shield of Baradhi yet.*
*Then what are the conditions?*
*...My little Aria, this is your trial.*
*Fine... Dad, wait—Dad! Someone's blowing up your temple!*
*...*
A sudden, violent tremor shook the temple, shattering the structure and Noa's statue alike.
The ground beneath their feet split apart. Zero and Aria stood on one side while Emerana and Nao stood on the other, separated by a massive chasm.
A stone pillar came crashing down, and Emerana and Nao dropped to the ground, about to be crushed.
At that moment, Zero cast aside his final chance to transform. He drew his transformation glasses, hesitated for a fraction of a second, but before he could transform, the stone pillar was already about to crush them.
He folded his glasses a few times, reconfigured them into an energy blaster, and fired at the pillar.
A massive boulder suddenly slammed into his hand, knocking him off balance and sending his transformation glasses tumbling down into the huge chasm below.
Without a moment's hesitation, he jumped after them. Seeing Zero leap down, Aria snapped out of her daze and, with no other choice, jumped in after him.
When Aria regained consciousness, she found herself face-to-face with her father—Noa.
"Dad? What are you doing here?" Aria rubbed her head.
"I had some business, so I came to check on you." Noa patted her head. "How has our little Aria been doing lately? What have you learned?"
"..." Ever since she came to this universe, it felt like she had just been searching for the Shield of Baradhi the whole time, and hadn't learned a single thing.
Noa sighed. "It doesn't have to be new scientific knowledge or new combat techniques. During this time, have you learned anything you didn't know before?"
Aria fell silent for a moment, then looked up earnestly at Noa. "Dad, do you think all living beings are destined to suffer?"
Noa nodded, then shook his head.
Aria didn't pay it much mind and rambled on. "I've seen so much suffering. I've heard so many cries. I've seen resentful souls perish in war, and I've witnessed the most dazzling fireworks in the universe, ignited at the cost of lives."
"Dad," she rubbed her head against Noa's finger, "why does it have to be this way?"
Why must they endure so much suffering? They didn't do anything wrong, so why do they have to pay for others with their lives?
"This is the universe," Noa stroked her head with pity. "The universe you knew before was just the one we told you about. That wasn't the real universe. The real universe—it is both bright and dark, filled with hope yet steeped in despair."
Aria nodded. "I've seen it."
"Oh, right, Dad!" Aria abruptly raised her head to look at Noa. "Do I have a brother?"
Noa was momentarily caught off guard. "Huh?"
"Well..." Aria gestured with her fingers. "I met an Ultra who looks just like me! He's practically the male version of me!"
Noa nodded. "Well... you do have an older brother."
"Then why didn't I know about him before?"
"I only found out not long ago myself."
"I'm not your biological child?!"
Noa fell silent. How on earth did you think the Light of Beginning could give birth to the Light of Destiny? Besides, just look at your red and blue color scheme, and then look at my all-silver body.
"Say, Dad, where is he anyway? And where did my friends go?" Aria looked around, failing to spot Zero and the others.
"They've gone to fulfill their original destinies."
Aria clicked her tongue. She hated riddles more than anything, but her dad was a textbook riddle-maker, not to mention her uncles and aunts.
Poor thing, she had been hoodwinked by them her whole life.
"I'm going to go find them," Aria hopped down from Noa's hand. "Hey, Dad, do you know about Emerallad Ore?"
"I do. Why?" Noa had a gut feeling she was up to no good.
"Emperor Belial used Emerallad Ore to mass-produce Darklops to invade the universe, so I'm going to develop Darklops to defeat him!" Aria swiped at the side of her face and proudly announced her plan.
Just this little matter? Noa shook his head and casually tossed her a pile of ores to tinker with.
"Thanks, Big Dad!"
Aria flashed a grin and pulled all sorts of experimental equipment out of her pocket dimension.
"Oh, right, Dad, do you know what Belial looks like?"
Noa nodded. Noa had shown him images, back when they still lamented how a once-glorious warrior of the Land of Light had fallen into such a blackened, twisted state. "Why do you ask?"
"He used Zero's and my images to create Darklops to conquer the universe, so I'm going to create Darklops based on his image to protect the universe!"
Amused, Noa shook his head and requested footage of Belial from his days of light.
A massive light screen appeared before Aria. Line after line of data flashed rapidly across the display as her fingers flew over the control console, bringing string after string of core code to life beneath her hands.
Aria was an undisputed genius—a fact even Delasion acknowledged.
She possessed a brilliant intellect and an insatiable curiosity for researching everything. After all, she was the one who had almost dismantled Giga Enda! And the fact that she could put it back together only further proved that she was an undeniable, born-and-bred scientist.
The first Darklops was born under Aria's hands. She circled it, inspecting it from every angle, thought for a moment, and then added a bit of life energy crystal to grant the robot the capacity for independent thought and adaptability.
Once the first Darklops was built, the rest was simple—she set up an assembly line for mass production.
"Dad," Aria patted her hands together in satisfaction, turned around, and shook Noa, who had been resting with his eyes closed. "When you get a chance, send me and these guys to my friends. And also that... Zero..."
Aria hesitated. "Is Zero... really my brother?"
Noa reluctantly opened his eyes to look at her. Hearing her question, he nodded affirmatively. "Yes, he truly is your brother. Both in terms of blood and life, he is your brother."
After all, the Light of Destiny was a pair of twins.