According to the original lore, as long as one becomes light, they can enter the statue and obtain the Giant of Light's power.
There wasn't much difficulty involved.
Except for one thing—timing.
Transforming too early might prevent Daigo from ever merging with Ultraman.
That would leave Hajime to fight two monsters alone, which would be risky.
But if he transformed too late, Daigo might beat him to it—after all, he's the protagonist and might have some kind of plot armor helping him.
After some thought and weighing the odds, Hajime made a decision.
Better to act now than let something unexpected happen.
In the original story, even Daigo—just freshly merged with Tiga—managed to handle two monsters.
And he didn't even use Tiga's full potential, turning that powerful mage-like giant into a close-combat fighter.
Hajime, who truly inherited the essence of magic, would never lose.
Even if he couldn't immediately master Tiga's abilities, he had one ace up his sleeve—the ultimate magic: Fairy Law.
Using Tiga's power to unleash that super spell? Two monsters wouldn't even be a challenge. Ten might not be either.
After this analysis, Hajime was confident—even in the worst-case scenario, his chances were solid.
He immediately activated his light-element magic, transforming into a small glowing orb.
In an instant, the light orb shot straight into the center statue—into the forehead crystal of Ultraman Tiga.
A brilliant light flared.
In the next second, the dull gray statue shed its stone shell, revealing Tiga's signature metallic, multicolored body.
The giant had awakened.
"So this is the power of Ultraman Tiga… it really is incredible."
Controlling the giant's body, Hajime clenched his fist, sensing an overwhelming power flowing through him.
A light punch could shatter mountains.
A light step could shake the earth.
And this was just the basic physical strength—he hadn't even used any beam attacks yet.
"No wonder some people in the story saw Ultraman as a god, and others as a demon."
Now Hajime truly understood.
"In modern society, anyone with the power to wipe out a civilization is no different from a god—or a devil."
After merging, all of Tiga's skills and memories flowed into Hajime's mind.
"No doubt about it. Among Heisei Ultramen, Tiga really is the ultimate spellcaster. Just striking a pose triggers a skill!"
Amazed by the sheer number of Tiga's abilities, Hajime focused on memorizing the key battle techniques and finishing moves.
Once he had a rough grasp of the skill mechanics, he immediately reverted to his human form.
Now, in the pyramid, only two stone statues remained.
Hajime glanced at his left hand. Around his wrist was a new accessory—a silver bracelet with a sapphire embedded in it.
This was his transformation device.
Strangely, it was different from Daigo's original Spark Lens.
But Hajime preferred the bracelet anyway. It was less likely to get stolen compared to a wand-like device.
"Good, I didn't waste too much energy."
He felt the remaining stamina in his body and let out a sigh of relief.
Transforming into Tiga consumed stamina. If he ran out, the giant form would collapse.
Contrary to the "three-minute limit" myth, Tiga's duration wasn't hard-capped—it was limited by energy.
As long as the energy held up, the transformation could be maintained. If not, he'd revert and need time to recover.
Luckily, he hadn't used any energy-consuming skills yet, so he was still near full strength.
Even in human form, the knowledge of Tiga's abilities remained in his mind.
So he closed his eyes and continued mentally syncing with the giant's power.
A few minutes later, Daigo finally arrived.
"A pyramid… and giants!"
He looked at the two remaining stone statues in awe, not noticing anything was missing.
After all, Yuzare never said how many statues there were in the first place.
When the excitement passed, he spotted Hajime standing nearby and rushed over, thrilled.
"Chief! Did you see that? Giants! You were right all along!"
"Yes, yes. I've been here for a good few minutes already."
Hajime casually waved it off, then added,
"We've found the giants, but the question now is—how do we awaken them?"
Saying that, he gave Daigo a meaningful look.
"Oh, right!"
Daigo scratched his head, clearly not picking up on the subtext.
"What do we do? HQ just sent word that both monsters are heading toward the pyramid. If we can't wake the giants, the statues might be destroyed!"
He was growing anxious.
Just then—
"There might be a way… to awaken the giants."
Hajime casually dropped a bombshell, leaving Daigo dumbfounded.
"What? Chief, are you serious?!"
If they really could awaken the giants, they might have a shot against the monsters.
Daigo looked at him with hope in his eyes.
Hajime smiled faintly.
"It's just a theory. But it's certainly possible."
Then he paused.
Seeing Daigo's expectant gaze, he grinned mischievously.
"But now's not the time to talk about it. I'll tell you when the conditions are right. For now—keep it a secret."