Author: Kenneth James | Banner: Jackson Morris

The people of Osaka fled for their lives as the shape of the Smog Monster, Hedorah, flew over the city, searching for food. The mineral alien  didn’t care about the tiny annoyances running below her, or the fact a great number succumbed to her choking sulfuric mist, all she cared for was sustenance. It was quite ironic, the very creatures she cared so little for were the ones that provided the very thing she loved to eat, and should her constant growth bring about the end of mankind, she herself would die from starvation… but of course, being such a simple creature, this fact escaped her mind. As her bulbous red eyes caught sight of a smoke stack in the industrial district, the oozing terror  prepared to descend and begin feeding, only for an unearthly screech to tear into her thoughts. Before the acidic extraterrestrial could spin around to find the emitter of this challenge, something slammed into her from above, sending the spewing disc  plummeting to the ground below.

Destoroyah’s yellow eyes gazed upon the toxic titan’s prone form as he himself descended from the sky. His motivation for this attack was as simple as what drew the pollution devourer to the city; he enjoyed it. Serizawa’s bastard was at his core, a sadistic demon. Unlike most kaiju, he liked killing things. It was literally his entire purpose for existing. He saw the invading monster not as a bane to life on Earth, but as another victim to his bloodlust. As the living Oxygen Destroyer approached, the living sludge’s form glowed and to the precambrian devil’s surprise, reconfigured itself into a towering adult form. The colonial evil took a step back, not from fear, but surprise that this creature could perform a similar feat to his own powers. Curious, the malevolent crustacean took a look around, seeing the death and destruction this other entity left in its wake, and how it had done it, by robbing them of their ability to breathe and reducing them to skeletons.

The destroyer quickly realized how similar he and her were… and it made him all the more enraged. The prideful demon  took pride in his status as the bane of life, the deadliest creature on the face of the Earth… and he didn’t want to share that sadistic title. His multifanged jaws let out a roar of fury and challenge to the Smog Monster, receiving a gurgling cry of acceptance to his challenge. The fight was on.

The living extinction  was the first to strike, energy crackling about his frill before a beam of Micro-oxygen erupted from his maw. The space ninja held her ground, but soon roared in agony as the beam struck her shoulder, destroying the oxygen making up the water in her body, leaving a dried and cracked area in its wake. The microbial demon seemed to laugh with sadistic glee at his opponent’s pain, only for the evolving evil to take advantage, firing a jagged red ray of energy from her eye. The larger of the titans didn’t react at first, believing his armor would protect him, only to let out a bellow of pain when the beam smashed into his shoulder. The beam’s corrosive secondary effect actually left a painful burn on the Precambrian terror. The horned horror let out a roar of fury, charging at this being that had actually caused him harm, as the malformed monster held her ground. The two collided and pushed their weight against one another, until the suffocating villain forced his claw into a grey chest. Destoroyah seemed to smile as his clawed hand tore through his opponent’s flesh, only for a roar of agony to replace it.

The cruel crustacean quickly tore his hand free from Hedorah’s torso, finding the armor on his hand melted and deformed. While his thicker hide had withstood it better than the Monster King himself, the sadist had learned his lesson. Piercing this blob’s hide wasn’t a good idea. Before the micro-oxygen killer could recover, the triphibian smacked him hard across the head with one of her amorphous hands, leaving a slight burning sensation in its wake. As the multipiece terror turned his attention back to the shadow walker, ignoring the pain, he received a blob of acid to his shoulder, causing another roar of agony to emit from his fanged maw as he tried desperately to wipe off the burning, unpleasant sludge, managing to do so before too much of his armor was melted away.

This, however, gave the Smog Monster the opportunity to tackle her foe to the ground, trying to smother him with her acidic body. As the acidic alien attempted to force the bladed head into her toxic form, she suddenly shrieked in agony as a glowing orange, energy blade erupted out of her back. The poisonous terror pulled herself off the blazing Laser Horn, the wound cauterized momentarily before her acidic insides ate away at the useless flesh and restored the hole. Destoroyah rose to his feet and, Laser Horn extended, sliced it down across the flanged body, cutting a deep slash in his hide, sending sludge flying and inflicting another cauterized wound. As the chemical eater shrieked in pain, the armored giant swung his katana around a second time. For a moment, the walking biohazard appeared unaffected… until her head toppled from her shoulders to the ground, her body following suit. The prehistoric devil shrieked in victory, taking delight in watching his seemingly dead foe collapse to the ground. Considering himself victorious, yellow eyes turned to redirect his bloodlust to the city itself… only to hear another gurgling howl from the “corpse”.

Shocked, the living extinction spun around to see two smaller, flying form Hedorahs where the head and body of the original had once been. The two flew up into the air, recombining into one and dropping their sulfuric acid on the crustacean, hoping to kill the creature as she had the humans. But to her surprise, the demonic titan merely took flight, shrugging it off! The mutated monstrosity came from an oxygen-free time period, where highly volatile gases were much more common. Compared to that extremely hostile environment, a little sulfuric acid was nothing. The hovering alien  managed to dodge her foe’s charge and countered with her eye rays, only for the winged demon to dodge as well, firing his Micro-Oxygen Beam in retaliation. The ray tore into a sludgey back, causing her to roar in agony as her body was dried out, but managing to keep flying and turned tail, trying to keep the looming reaper  off long enough to counterattack, her  primitive brain trying to find an effective way of killing the living Oxygen Destroyer when her normal methods were useless.

Destoroyah didn’t give him time to think as he sent a Micro-Oxygen Beam after her, the ninja monster narrowly dodging the beam and causing it to destroy a section of the city below. The noxious villain counterattacked with her eye beams, catching the pursuing devil in the wing and burning it, slowing the demon down. With the giant’s speed reduced, the poisonous kaiju spun around, firing a barrage of sludge at the Precambrian monster, the acidic slime impacting crimson flesh and burning away the thick hide. Though wounded, the microbial monster refused to give up, as frustrated as he was at his inability to make lasting damage to this enemy. He extended his Laser Horn and dove at the strafing disc, intent on impaling the Smog Monster on it, only for the nimble triphibian to narrowly evade and latch onto his back, using her body to dissolve the destroyer’s armor. Roaring in agony, the prehistoric  killer tried hard to dislodge the toxic titan, but found his attempts useless. Realizing it was only a matter of time until she dissolved away his wing joints, Serizawa’s “son”  made the choice to launch his tail up, driving the pincer-like edge deep into a bulbous red eye. Roaring in agony, the mineral alien immediately released her grip, flying away from the demon.

The winged beast  hovered, observing the damage to his body, armored plates flaking off his now severely burned back and falling away, his tail tip burned to the bone and severely deformed. Rage now burned in his  black soul at this kaiju that so badly wounded him, and making his rage grow even hotter was the fact that none of his attacks seemed able to kill the whelp off for good. He needed to finish it. He looked to the harbor, realizing that a beast of sludge was in no way immune to his Oxygen Destroyer-like power underwater. The massive demon suddenly spun around, flying out towards the sea.

Hedorah, her  eye now shut and for the moment, unable to heal, saw her foe make for the ocean. Assuming a retreat, the gluttonous kaiju also came to the realization of how the advantage being underwater would grant her as well, and pursued her enemy. As the two flew away from Osaka and out into the bay, the crimson horror suddenly spun around, grabbing hold of the pollution beast, sending both plummeting towards the water below. Reverting back to her  final form, the glittering giant  grappled with her foe, both trying to get the advantage and slam their foe into the water, who won out unclear as the two titans slammed into the ocean, sending a cascade of water high into the sky.

Below the surface, the Smog Monster watched her opponent, prepared to strike, only for Destoroyah’s body to vanish into a cloud of Micro-oxygen. The incarnation of pollution looked around for her opponent, only to suddenly feel agony over every inch of his body as the hidden devil assaulted her as a colony of microorganisms, dissolving her form. Realizing what her opponent had done, the mineral monster  broke herself apart into a massive swarm of tadpole-like creatures, breaking down further till she matched Destoroyah’s size. The two swarms continued to battle it out at a microscopic stage.

At the surface, humans watched the water flash and boil as the unseen battle between two armies of microbes still caused a great upheaval in the ocean’s surface, simply due to the sheer power each swarm processed. But gradually… the disturbance became smaller and smaller until it stopped altogether. All that remained were fish skeletons floating to the surface in huge numbers, either the result of acidic sludge burning them to the bone or oxygen-destroying powers having dissolved them.

Below the surface, only one of each monster survived, all others having been completely wiped out. The two microscopic creatures charged one another full speed. The two collided, Destoroyah trying to dissolve Hedorah while the Smog Monster tried to smother the living Oxygen Destroyer with its acidic body. The two continued to struggle until finally, both dissolved away to nothing. In their desire to destroy one another, both had succeeded and wiped each other off the face of the Earth…

Draw: Hedorah (Universal), Destoroyah