Authors: Zeb Dennis & Connor Clennell | Banner: Connor Clennell

For days now, Japan had been at the mercy of not one, but two giant monsters. Hailing from completely different environments, their trails of destruction had inadvertently led them to a confrontation.

One of the titans resembled a dinosaur from a living nightmare, but the truth of its origins could not be determined. Some type of aquatic organism that had consumed radioactive materials over the span of sixty year, transforming it into its current form; an ever-evolving icon of destruction. It was like a god in many ways, and so it was fitting that the name designated to it translated from the tongue of Odo Island to “God Incarnate.” Godzilla.

The other monster was a fugitive from beyond the stars. Strangely, it resembled the reptiles of Earth, especially the thorny devil and horned lizard, but larger, slimmer and bipedal, with a dark green colouration and the physique like that of a tyrannosaurus. Across many worlds, it was known as Bemular, a sworn nemesis of the Space Garrison. The space kaiju had come to Earth to destroy the planet, as it had with all other worlds before, and had chosen to start with the Land of the Rising Sun.

The Japanese Self Defence Force had tried to destroy the monsters, but their weapons were no match for the creatures’ might. While both Godzilla and Bemular had terrorized Japan at the same time, neither had had any idea of the other’s existence due to attacking different locations. But today, on this sunny day in Tokyo, Bemular and Godzilla had finally met.

The two kaiju faced off at either end of a deserted street, eyeing up their new competition. Godzilla saw Bemular as an intruder to his new home, while the alien being himself saw the saurian organism as something that would get in his way of destroying the planet. The towering Godzilla let out a roar, telling Bemular to leave his home. The reptile responded with a cry of defiance, unwilling to be intimidated by the taller entity. So Godzilla began to step forward, taking slow, heavy strides down the trembling street.

Bemular opened his mouth and fired a blue stream of flames at Godzilla. The flames exploded against Godzilla’s chest, causing the mutation to flinch on instinct but kept on moving, barely phased by the attack at all. This angered Bemular, and he let out a roar as he came charging towards Godzilla.

As Godzilla continued walking, the inside of his mouth glowed purple, along with the bottom of his jaw splitting open, and with the fins on his back lighting up as well. A scorching hot, purple laser launched from the depths of the abomination’s throat at the charging Bemular. The space fugitive cried out in pain as the laser stopped him in his tracks and cut into his chest. Bemular was in so much pain that he fell down onto his back, shrieking and squirming as smoke rose from the point of contact. The assault lasted only briefly before Godzilla ended the attack, his bottom jaw closed back together and shutting as he marched forward once again.

When Godzilla reached the fallen Bemular, he raised his foot and slammed it down on the space monster’s body. Bemular cried out at the impact and his assailer lifted their deformed limb to repeat the action, slamming his heel upon the grounded alien over and over. As blood dripped from the punctures in his flesh formed by Godzilla’s talons, the fugitive shot out a stream of flames again, this time at the creature’s face. Godzilla roared as a ball of fire consumed his face, causing him to cease stomping and stumble away from Bemular. Quickly, Bemular began to stand, pain coursing through his body like fire, but the reptilian convict managed to stand and rammed his body against Godzilla. The fiend from beyond the stars reached out with his small, lanky arms to Godzilla’s pointed sternum, his claws trying to cut through the tough, scab-like tissue. Godzilla’s own diminutive forelimbs reached out, fighting against Bemular’s slashing talons and raking across his emerald scales.

The two short-armed monsters went on clawing at each other, but it was obvious that the strategy was leading nowhere for both combatants. Bemular broke the stalemate, lunging forward and sinking his teeth into the right side of Godzilla’s very tall neck. The atomic leviathan felt the teeth tear into his flesh, earning a deafening cry from its unnatural maw as he tried to free himself. As he struggled, Bemular used the organism’s movements to his advantage, and pulled his jaws back as Godzilla jerked into the opposite direction. A huge portion of flesh was ripped from Godzilla’s neck and the ravage of worlds backed away from the wounded monster with his prize staining his frog-like maw. But while blood came gushing out of the open wound, Godzilla didn’t show any signs of being hurt. Bemular’s head tilted to the side, confused and frustrated by his foe’s lack of emotion.

Godzilla spun around, smashing the tip of his repulsive tail into the right side of Bemular’s head, which knocked the piece of flesh from the reptile’s mouth. The extra-terrestrial was quick to recover, spinning around and bringing his own tail across Godzilla’s face. The spiny limbs impacted with a loud smack, causing the scarlet entity’s head to snap to the side. His own tail raised in response, acting as if it were a separate organism as it wrapped around Bemular’s still exposed extremity.

The two reptiles found themselves in a tug of war with each other, pulling against the other with all their might. Ultimately, Godzilla proved he was the strongest, as his serpentine tail pulled Bemular’s tail up in the air, yanking him off his feet and sending the convict toppling to the ground. The dinosaur-like organism began to spin around with Bemular in a tight grip, dragging him across the rough ground at a violent pace before unwrapping his tail from the other reptile, which sent the fugitive skipping across the ground.

As he came to a stop amidst the rubble, the agony came rushing to the emerald reptile and he groaned in discomfort. His throat, chest and legs were bruised black and blue from being dragged across the terrain and his hide was peppered with lodged debris and nasty cuts. A lesser monster like him would have called their losses and retreated at this point, but the alien’s pride would not permit such an act of cowardice. This was the first time that he had faced a true obstacle in an invasion, and it would do nothing to just give up when he had yet to determine if he had the strength to overcome it.

Thick, protective membranes slid over Godzilla’s eyes as his spines and mouth reignited their purple highlight and he once again opened his jaws. But instead of a beam, a large cloud of smoke came pouring out of the reptile’s mouth. Within seconds, the black cloud had spread across the city, covering ground at an extraordinary rate. Bemular stood up from the smoke-covered ground and watched as the coal black smog continued to spew from Godzilla’s gaping jaws.

The green kaiju was confused – as far as he could tell, the smoke wasn’t dangerous and wondered exactly why the odd creature was producing such a useless attack. Bemular got his answer as the stream of smoke was replaced by a wave of raging fire. The inferno erupted from Godzilla’s mouth and spread across the area, burning up everything in its path. Bemular roared in pain as he was engulfed by the flames, unable to escape the sea of flames surrounding him.

The area had become a massive inferno, with the detached Godzilla at the middle of it all. The titan’s jaws clicked together, cutting off the firestorm’s source and allowed the flames to take their course. His blank eyes watched the land burn and Bemular writhe as he was cooked alive. But then there was a bright flash from the space criminal’s chest, and suddenly, Bemular transformed into a giant hovering ball. Godzilla went on staring without reaction to Bemular’s transformation, trying to process the event and the action he should take. Not only did the travel ball protect the reptile from the flames, it also began to absorb them. The fire began to dim as its heat was drawn into the sphere, enhancing its power dramatically within moments. Like a bullet, it shot towards Godzilla and slammed into him before the ever-evolving organism could do anything, pushing him out of the sea of fire.

Once they were out of the burning area and into another part of the city, Godzilla fell to the ground while the ball flew away from him. His eye membranes retracted as his tail and arms pushed him back up, only to be slammed back down by the travel sphere. After getting some distance, the ball form of Bemular turned around, ready to ram into the leviathan once again as its stored energy flared brightly throughout it. When Godzilla stood back up once again, he saw the incoming ball and was ready this time. He spun around and his tail lashed out like a hissing viper, knocking the sphere away. The ball crashed into a row of buildings, shattering the structures and the orb and sending Bemular bouncing along the ground before coming to a stop.

As the space reptile staggered upright, Godzilla’s open, glowing maw caught his attention. Knowing that the unearthly creature was about to attack, Bemular quickly fired a Pale Heat Wave at the nightmarish being. At the same time, an ultra atomic heat ray shot from Godzilla’s throat. The two energy attacks clashed, fighting intensely for dominance as each creature tried to overpower their rival’s weapon. The two monsters put more power into their attacks, but the deadlock remained.

Rising like an entranced cobra, Godzilla’s tail appeared on the organism’s left flank, its bulbous tip pointed at Bemular. Before the criminal could understand its intention, another purple atomic ray burst from the disgusting appendage’s tip, slamming into Bemular’s stomach and cutting into his stomach with the immense heat and force it carried. The blue flames vanished from Bemular’s maw, replaced by a shrill scream of sheer agony. Now without resistance, Godzilla’s oral laser was free to shoot forth and slam into the evil creature’s forehead, exploding on contact and throwing him to the blackened asphalt.

Godzilla’s beams cut off, steam rising from the tip of his tail and from between his rows of deformed fangs. He stared at Bemular’s twitching form, his gaze lacking emotion as the spiked reptile struggled to recover. Yet there was no malice felt towards the extraterrestrial from Godzilla. No thoughts of anger or sinister intent, for he had no reason to feel these emotions. They did not aid in his survival, which, for the majority of his existence, was the most important factor in his life. He lacked the imagination to consider anything other than merely existing, and so his aimless wandering had drawn him into the world of Man. It was here where he was taught pain, and so he adapted to bring them pain. The only thing he understood about Bemular was that he was there to bring him pain. So he would bring the convict pain in retaliation.

As Bemular regained the ability to move painlessly, the enemy of the Space Garrison noticed his proximity to a nearby building. He rolled away from the structure, allowing his tail to smash the building and launch rubble in Godzilla’s direction. While the slabs of concrete failed to do any damage to Godzilla, it did make him halt in his tracks. As soon as Bemular got up, he came charging at the mutation, screeching aloud with vengeful intent. The mutant dinosaur fired his atomic heat ray once more at the charging Bemular, but the green fiend ducked under the beam and continued his sprint. Unable to defend himself as Bemular closed the distance, Godzilla could do nothing to stop the space criminal from ramming his head into the reptilian entity’s stomach, with the two hard fin-spikes on his head cutting into the towering monster’s body. Godzilla’s deadly beam cut off as he let out a pained roar and writhed desperately to remove the attacker. Bemular kept on pushing, digging his crown of horns deeper into the abomination’s belly. Suddenly, Godzilla’s right foot raised off the ground, taking the invader by surprise as it slammed into his chest and threw him back across the decimated earth.

Godzilla’s tail cracked the air like a whip as the main creature spun around, lashing out at the recovering Bemular. Moments before contact, the emerald fugitive aligned his open maw with the limb’s path, allowing Godzilla’s tail to swing directly in. Godzilla shrieked as the fiend’s teeth sank into the side of his tail’s grotesque tip and tried to pull it free, but Bemular refused to let go. He quickly began to regret not doing so, as the flesh of the tail suddenly became scorching hot, the tiny fins along its length illuminating purple. The tail laser fired again, missing Bemular due to his proximity and firing wildly as the limb attempted to remove the interloper. The unfortunate buildings surrounding the two kaiju were sliced apart by the laser, falling to the clogged streets as another section of Tokyo was set ablaze.

Bemular used his head to turn the tail, pointing the blazing tip at Godzilla’s back to use the atomic beam against its owner. Feeling the stinging pain upon his back, Godzilla shut off the attack and focused and tried to dislodge the reptile, to no success. With the titan’s tail still in his mouth, Bemular fired his heat beam at point black, blasting apart the end of Godzilla’s lengthy tail and throwing him back in the process. Godzilla’s head snapped over his shoulder to examine the injury, strangely unfazed by the loss of his most important extremity. However, as he watched his own blood spurt from the mangled remains, a brief motion of imagination came to the unemotive organism. For the first time in his existence, an original thought came to him that could assist in his survival. Listening to his instincts, the entity went with the idea.

With a flick of his ravaged tail, the great destroyer launched a spray of blood into Bemular’s face, blinding the reptile. Godzilla turned around, swinging out low with his jaws to bite onto Bemular’s small right arm, drawing a cry of many emotions from the blinded menace as he tried to pull the appendage free. But with one mighty pull, Godzilla ripped the limb from Bemular’s body. The killer from the stars cried out as he felt the loss of his arm, blood shooting from the torn stump. Spitting the limb from his blood-stained mouth, Godzilla backed away, letting out a roar at Bemular to try and discourage any further conflict.

While Bemular may have lost his arm, his vision had returned. While the trauma of losing a limb burned through his body, Bemular chose to use it to his advantage. He charged forward, using his own pain as a boost for his strength, and slammed his body against Godzilla. The two towering monsters fell to the ground with Bemular on top of Godzilla, using the claws of his remaining hand to cut away at the crimson giant’s chest. He didn’t achieve much before Godzilla’s jaws parted, spewing another wave of fire and pushing Bemular off his body. The spiny creature shrieked, rolling his burning body across the blackened asphalt in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

As the attack ceased, Godzilla pushed himself to his feet and turned his back to Bemular. The act seemed to confuse the reptilian invader, but that confusion quickly turned to rage. This creature just had him on the ropes, yet now it was turning its back on him like trash? Treating him as something not worth his time. Bemular’s pride would not allow this act to pass. Pushing himself to his feet, the alien criminal charged at the unaware Godzilla with an echoing cry for battle.

But Godzilla wasn’t unaware. He had predicted this reaction from his enemy thanks to another imaginative spark. In fact, the reptile was running right into a trap. His crimson radiance became that warning purple once more, but Bemular kept on moving. He knew that without its tail, the behemoth couldn’t fire behind it without turning around. But he was wrong. From orifices between the organism’s fins, dozens of atomic rays fired, slamming into Bemular’s body at once and throwing the injured alien back. The space monster roared in pain as the beams cut into his flesh, roasting his inner tissues. Even buildings that were near Bemular were sliced apart by the lasers.

The laser assault lasted only seconds before Godzilla ended the assault. Steam rose from his fins and jaws as he tried to vent the built-up heat produced from such extended use of his energy reserves. On the ground, Bemular whimpered and writhed. The one armed kaiju was in bad shape, sporting multiple third and fourth degree burns across his front. All of the strength that the psychotic killer once possessed was gone, leaving him a drained and beaten shell. Godzilla turned around, taking note of his foe’s vulnerable state and began to march towards the alien monster. Bemular knew he was beaten, unable to fight in his current state. But he could live and fight Godzilla another day. This planet was large and vast, full of other environments to hide in and recover. Just this once, he would retreat to recollect his power. Then he would be back to gain victory over this abomination of nature.

Sapphire energy flashed around the space villain, forming his travel sphere and taking to the sky. But Godzilla wasn’t going to let Bemular. It knew, somehow, what the reptile intended to do, and for his own survival, he would not let him escape. For the final time, the purple luminance flared and his deadly light fired into the sky, sweeping upwards after the ascending orb. Bemular tried to move faster, but his energy was at its limits. He could go no further.

The atomic ray sliced up the travel ball, carving a glowing line up the middle of the blue sphere. Godzilla’s jaws snapped shut loudly, and the ball began to fall apart. The sections slid away from each, spilling the remains of Bemular onto the ruined city below before both pieces exploded. Chunks of glass-like material and roasted meat peppered the streets like a vile hail, signalling the end of the world’s destroyer’s legacy.

Godzilla let out a victory roar. Once more, he prevailed in battle and his survival was assured. But what had been gained from this conflict? Another city had been ravaged and another foe vanquished, yet the atomic entity was still as aimless as before. There was no purpose for him to strive for other than existing. Was that all that he was destined for, to eat, drink and sleep until the day of his death?

There was a flicker of hope for the conflicted titan. Those brief moments of imagination, while small, were signs that Godzilla’s mind was evolving. Like his body, his intelligence was advancing with day, moving from a primitive mindset to something resembling sentience. Perhaps, when his mind had fully developed, he would be able to determine his own destiny and find his place in a world that was determined to reject him. Until then, he was doomed to keep on moving, searching for fulfilment.

Aimless.

Lost.

Alone.

Winner: Godzilla (Reiwa)