Authors: Connor Clennell & Matthew Freese | Banner: Andrew Sudomerski

Long, long ago, in the ages before history, the world was ruled by monsters. The word itself has loose definition, for it is easy for those without the proper knowledge to label the inhabitants of the old world, which were far from resembling anyone alive in the modern age, as monsters. Only those that dedicated their minds to their study could recognize them as equally natural creations of the planet’s line of evolution. It was fear of the unknown and the inhuman that labelled the first fossils of prehistoric life as monsters in the early history of mankind, where religion reigned before the takeover of science.

But in fact, the mistaken diagnosis was almost close to the truth. At the same time that the dinosaurs began to colonize Pangaea, the real monsters, the titans of history, were already spread across the planet and had claimed it as their own. Through extinction after extinction, where billions died in the wrath of fire and ice, they persisted. As the world advanced, the population of the giants weakened as resources and space ran short, leaving the survivors with the choice to slumber until a time where the planet could support them again, or fight amongst one another for what remained.

Across continents and civilizations, through preserved texts and weathered murals, insight into the shared history between men and monsters could be revealed, but these are only mere glimpses into the past, and offer only part of the full picture. Much of recorded and unrecorded knowledge has been lost to the sands of time, but it remains in the collective subconscious, warped by imagination and misinformation into the tales of majestic creatures of fairy tales and the horrific terrors of nightmares.

Over time, investigation into the source of these stories has separated the facts from fiction and revealed the truth of the fantasy world. The unicorn was a rhinoceros, the mermaid a manatee, the werewolf merely humans with rare disorders. In the end, logic usually prevailed.

But then the monsters returned, as if to challenge the order of the world and humanity’s understanding of its operations. In an age where science and nature competed for dominance, a third party had been awoken and re-entered the ancient competition. The ageless titans of the mystic age, hailing from a period no longer found in the tomes of time, now clashed with the creatures that had replaced them for control of their ancient home. A three-way war that would determine the supreme force on the planet, and the founders of the new world.

And slowly, Man remembered. They remembered the time where they lived in the shadows of giants. Where they built civilizations under the protections of the colossi that turned a kind hand to them. To the age where the world showed the nightmares behind its façade of beauty and unleashed them to cleanse the surface and let life start again.

The world was safe because mankind had forgotten what came before, because the demons required their primeval fear to exist within the mortal plane. For centuries, the planet was safe, but as the people remembered, the knowledge of these unearthly creatures returned as well…

With knowledge came fear, and with fear came power. The power for those from the darkest pits to rise and live again.

*****

Tokyo, Japan – 10:00 AM JST

On an average day, this would be the midst of rush hour, with the city’s spacious streets packed to the brim with people, ranging from tourists in search of the nearest and hottest attractions, to businessmen scrambling to reach meetings that held the promise of future power across the stock market, to rebellious children taking the risk to skive off from school and enjoy the baser pleasures of youth. It was a city of life that operated on organised chaos, and yet managed to not only function, but flourish across the local and economic market.

But this was far from an average day.

The streets that could be bustling with activity lay empty of life, populated only by the corpses of the drowned and the sea creatures that sought the opportunity to invade this new territory. Faint beams of sunlight illuminated the gloomy depths of Tokyo’s flooded avenues from the distant surface wherever it could through the dark veil that hung across the entire coastline of the capital city. It rained heavily, as it had for the last two days non-stop. The clear blue sky was shrouded under layers and layers of dark clouds, pelting the buildings and hills that stood above the flood with heavy showers, as well as the pulsing geodes that now populated the metropolis.

This was the state of the capital from the effects of a mysterious meteor storm that had affected the entire planet. Wherever they landed, alien crystals surging with foreign cosmic power sprouted and spread like cancer, generating supernatural meteorological events on an apocalyptic scale. The Earth’s ecosystem was thrown into chaos, and with every hour, the breaking point of no return edged closer and closer.

At this moment, battles raged across some of the planet’s most recognized cities between the forces of good that sought to remove the crystal infection, and the opposing factions that wanted to harness their extraordinary energy surges for their own goals. And here, in the drowning hub of Japanese culture, the next clash for ultimate supremacy was ready to begin.

Standing amidst the abandoned, rain-soaked towers of concrete and steel, two goliaths faced down between the streets of the Minato ward, with their titanic bodies submerged to their knees within the murky, polluted waters. It was only a minor concern for both giants, whose focus was directed on the form of the other and the obstacle that they presented. Tokyo was rich in power crystals and massive in size, spanning across hundreds of districts across twenty-three special wards that formed the metropolis, making it an ample breeding ground and a desirable territory to gain control of. But there was no plan in sharing this bounty with the other.

The first creature was an organism incomparable to any other life that originated on Earth. Its huge body was layered in rough, thick, crimson plates of chitin and imposing spikes that jutted out across the horror’s shape. Behind it, a segmented, serrated tail splashed in and out of the water, with the pincer upon its tip twitching beyond the beast’s control. Two sets of colossal, bat-like wings lay tucked to its sides while it raised its head, which was decorated with axe-shaped frills of jagged spikes, a tall, amber horn that protruded from the top of its skull, short jaws lined by tusks and loaded with needle-like teeth, and a pair of orange eyes, flickering brightly, and yet at the same time, utterly soulless.

It seemed impossible that such a nightmarish abomination could have developed on this planet. Many would claim that it most resembled the image of the Devil, Satan himself, but Destoroyah was a creature of mortal origin, with possession of power that could be said to rival the gods, and the desire to destroy every speck of life he shared this rotten world with. The mutated horror had come here with a mission and a purpose, but now those goals were cast aside with the presence of the being that stood against him. Something took root in Destoroyah’s soul, an overwhelming feeling that required appeasement as top priority…

The second invader bared no flesh upon its structure. Unlike Destoroyah, it was not born, but made, for it was no living creature, but a metal duplicate of the Monster King himself. The unearthly element known as Space Titanium was the basis of the machine’s shimmering armor, internal systems, and weapon production. Within and across the silver giant’s mouth, throat, hands, knees and feet, kaiju-scaled missiles lay primed for ignition. Rows of ‘m’-shaped dorsal plates lined the back of the machine from the tip of its bladed tail to the base of the head, constructed in a manner to almost resemble the skull of the titan it had once intimidated. Stiff hands rotated in their sockets, its jaw clicked open and shut, and crimson lens flashed brightly, designating its operating systems at 100% functionality.

Mechagodzilla was designed as a force for ultimate destruction and conquest. Although the engineers and technicians of Earth’s Global Defense Force had tried to emulate its abilities through the second and third generations of the robot monster, there was no contest with these inferior creations against the original and real deal. Humans had not yet perfected the technology of autonomous operation, forcing them to take up the controls of their creations and pilot them into battle. With the use of the Cybanek system, the Vortaak’s Mechagodzilla did not suffer from the same weakness of its false pretenders. It would not hesitate or deviate. As the orders were received, the unfeeling machine would execute them, and its target, with utmost efficiency.

The war machine unleashed a high-toned, metallic screech. It wasn’t a challenge, but a warning – the only warning – for Destoroyah to abandon the battle and retreat while the chance remained open. The demonic crustacean rejected the pathetic offer with a hellish shriek from his crooked jaws. It was followed with a web of crackling, golden sparks that surged across the behemoth’s frills, gathering power to his mouth with terrifying speed. He spat forth a swirling helix beam of flesh-dissolving power, which crashed into and assaulted Mechagodzilla’s upper torso in a cascade of smoke and embers. The force caused the mechanoid to topple backward, crying out again with its grating cry before it splashed down hard into the turbulent waters.

The laughter that blossomed from Destoroyah’s maw was like nails against a chalkboard. With only one demonstration of the unnatural power he wielded, the defiler was down for the count, and the demonic titan now moved to ensure that the deed was done.

As he trudged through the thigh-high water, Mechagodzilla’s head swiveled up. Its calculating red lenses acknowledged and processed Destoroyah’s immense structure, shifting its servos into action as the beast bore down and lifted a spike-decorated, tree trunk-like leg with the intent to crush the robot reptile’s skull. The titan failed to meet his mark as Mechagodzilla rolled out of the impact site, instead slamming down onto the submerged tarmac underneath, launching an impressive spray into the stunned Destoroyah’s face. He cried out, more surprised than hurt, blinded by the sudden surge of sea water that now clogged the pits and grooves of his eye sockets, impairing the prehistoric killer’s vision of the environment surrounding him.

Mechagodzilla saw the opportunity to take action with the rogue beast’s defenses now lowered. With a loud click, the panel located upon its chest flipped down, throwing away droplets of water as it revealed the deep orange gem concealed behind, from which a jagged energy beam fired, cutting into the armor and flesh of Destoroyah’s right knee and thigh. The demon screamed louder than before as armor chunks and sickly, yellow fluid burst from the assaulted site. Unable to carry his mass on the support of one healthy leg, Destoroyah fell over into the swell, throwing heavy curtains of the polluted water across the deserted skyscrapers, which trembled from the impact of the behemoth’s fall.

Without hesitation, the waterlogged robot marched to intercept Destoroyah as the creature struggled to recover. His pained hisses and growls drowned out the clanking steps and turbulent splashes, edging closer and closer to the sinful titan as he managed to get off the street at last and find his balance. When the prehistoric demon turned, for a brief moment, his miniscule, burning orbs found themselves into empty, unfeeling, crimson lenses of glass. Destoroyah’s responding cry was an uncertain mix between anger and panic, which turned to a sound of utter agony as the pointed fingers of the metal contender thrust into the carapace of his stomach, inflicting cracks and splinters in the organic armor. Once again, the unknown sensation flared bright and hot in Destoroyah’s mind and heart, incentivizing him to fulfil the urge taking root as invisible tendrils of agony curled around the crustacean’s body.

The assault from Mechagodzilla was brutal, merciless and efficient. Each strike that hammered into the chest or gut of its mark was ensured to shatter the demon’s exoskeleton, which bruised the softer flesh and muscle underneath and embedded splinters of the material into his body, strengthening the torment Destoroyah was inflicted by, though only by a side-effect of its actions, not a choice by a machine. The torture of living flesh was a waste of time and resources, and Mechagodzilla was designed for efficiency as one of the highest priorities in its machine mind. However, as the assault prevented its enemy from pulling together the willpower to fight back, the cold killer chose to continue its actions. Blood and armor splattered and bounced across Mechagodzilla’s shape as it drove back Destoroyah with each thunderous blow, with the creature’s horrific screams growing louder by the second.

Movement flashed in the corner of Mechagodzilla’s vision. Had it not been focused upon the attack on his foe, the android Godzilla could have easily deflected the strike, but as a consequence, Mechagodzilla’s reflexes failed to kick in. Destoroyah’s flexing tail whipped around from the side of the titan and struck out like a scorpion at the metal fiend’s neck, grasping the alien metal frame with its serrated claws in a tight and secure hold. As the connection was established, molten trails of power surged through the grooves and channels of Destoroyah’s exoskeleton into Mechagodzilla’s shining armor, and the effect was immediate. The Space Titanium plating offered no protection against the power of Micro-Oxygen as it ravaged the robot’s external and internal systems. Smoke billowed from its twitching head through the whirring jaws and seams of its neck. It could not form any type of action under the relentless waves of destructive power.

At last, Destoroyah considered the contender bested. With a flick of his tail, and twirling with the momentum, he tossed the sparking machine to the sunken asphalt that lay behind him. The satanic beast bellowed out a loud, atrocious cry as Mechagodzilla lay sprawled in the flood waters, confident in the machine’s defeat, and his subsequent conquest of the deserted metropolis. Already, the pulsating energy of the crystals sang out like a siren’s song to Destoroyah’s malicious soul with the promise of absolute power, with which the mission against all life could be fulfilled.

The armored colossus found no reason to hesitate, until he heard the sound of disturbed water and whirring machinery. As the killer turned, his jaws let out a hiss of utter hate toward the rising shape of Mechagodzilla, slowly emerging from the dark grey swell. However, Destoroyah noticed the stiffness and slow responses in the robot’s movements, and determined that, while he had failed to terminate it, there was the opportunity to finish it while its systems continued to reboot and update.

The water around his ankles rose up in a surging bow wave as the demonic titan charged forward, unable to be hindered or deterred by the liquid’s resisting force as he bore down on Mechagodzilla. The alien war machine, with its Cybanek receivers not functioning at optimal efficiency, managed to force up its head, the gears and pistons within grinding and screeching in protest of their damaged state, to locate Destoroyah’s towering shape. It took notice of the creature’s jutting horn as crackling bolts surged upward into it, followed by the extremity becoming aglow in a luminous, golden aura. It took no time for Mechagodzilla to determine the glowing katana’s purpose and moved to counteract. But it lacked the ability to use its weapon systems until the Cybanek had completed its reboot, rendering the Vortaak machine’s offensive capabilities below effective parameters. As such, Mechagodzilla had no choice but to act on the defensive.

As the crimson monstrosity swung his neck down, it raised both arms upward in a cross and caught the flickering blade. There was a flashing spark upon meeting, and the force from the strike brought Mechagodzilla down to its knees, emitting a reverberating screech from its creaking jaws as it summoned the full power of its servos to hold Destoroyah’s knife at bay. Although the extraterrestrial mechanoid’s armor plating had resisted the maximum strength of the Variable Cutter, despite the lack of power within the blow, it had managed to break through the outer layer of Mechagodzilla’s forearm. The energized horn now lay embedded inside a groove as deep as a third of the mechanical titan’s arm width, but that was as far as it would go in spite of Destoroyah’s efforts to force the blade deeper.

Mechagodzilla’s joints groaned in protest but managed to hold back against the malicious beast’s pressing strength, but it would not last. Inch by inch, the machine was pushed toward the ground, without any means to disrupt its assailant’s efforts at the moment. Destoroyah shrilled in delight, grinding his glowing horn into the forged nook in Mechagodzilla’s arm, and pushed hard, nearly forcing it to double over backward under the pressing vigor. Its servos and gears scrapped and screamed in protest under the inflicted pressure…

All systems ran green as the weapon control system was restored.

Flames burst from the metal warrior’s spiked kneecaps, propelling the cone-headed projectiles on their straight path into Destoroyah’s lower body. Upon contact, they breached the external armor without resistance, but rather than detonate on impact, the Homyu shells burrowed deep into the mutated flesh as the timer ticked down. Seconds later, the scarlet terror’s side burst open from the delayed explosion, throwing chunks of meat, carapace, bone, and splatters of mustard-yellow blood. Immediately, Destoroyah withdrew from the assault, stumbling and quavering as anguished screams rolled from his slathering tongue.

With creaks and groans, Mechagodzilla forced itself to stand upright. A mixture of coolant and oil dripped from the gash in its right forearm, from which split tubing and sliced circuitry dangled. Its offensive potential, however, remained within optimal parameters. With further noises of protest, the deadly pretender of Godzilla raised both arms, pointing the sights of its stiff hands at the reeling form of its adversary, then opened fire. Destoroyah cried out again as dozens of high power missiles rocked his form in powerful explosions. The living Oxygen Destroyer’s thick carapace offered no defense against the never-ending volley of weapons, with each blast taking off chunks of the demonic lifeform’s armor as if it consisted of paper mache.

As sprays of fire, shrapnel, and his own fluids and flesh pelted Destoroyah’s deteriorating body, he acted on the first instinct that came upon him in desperation. In spite of the instincts screaming for him to get clear, he forced himself into the heart of the barrage, gritting his fangs hard in order to ensure the trauma. The devilish creature challenged power to his horn and swung outward in a diagonal strike, drawing the energized blade across Mechagodzilla’s bare torso with everything he could muster.

Flashes of sparks, light and fire blossomed from the horn’s trail across the Space Titanium alloy armor, bringing a sudden halt to the automaton’s attack. It staggered back with a powerful screech to assess the damage. On most occasions, Mechagodzilla’s structure was nearly impossible to break or dent, but for the second time, Destoroyah’s might had overcome its defenses, imbuing a long, jagged, shallow slash across the invading mechanoid from hip to shoulder. The damage it was receiving was unacceptable in Mechagodzilla’s computer mind. If victory was to be achieved, a reanalysis of the scenario would need to be conducted.

As he hastily retreated, Destoroyah wheezed and retched from the destruction inflicted upon his form. The grey waters swirling around the colossus turned to a cloudy yellow as the titan’s blood drained down the grooves and segments of his broken armor, polluting the tainted liquid even further and to a far greater degree. His crimson carapace and ivory spikes lay shattered and burnt in craters across his breast, shoulders, gut, and thighs, with the internal organs that were once protected underneath also scarred and traumatized. In the face of injuries that would have killed any other creature stone dead, the taker of life spat in Death’s face instead. The light of his diminutive eyes glowed hot like flames with the bubbling hate and rage that filled his veins and muscles, keeping the demon’s heart pumping for longer than it should. He would not accept the embrace of death until every living being had experienced it first. Not until he had settled the challenge to his purpose by Mechagodzilla and its existence.

For the many years since his birth, Destoroyah thrived on destruction and hate. Forged from the terrible power of the Oxygen Destroyer, his prehistoric ancestors had grown and mutated in torturous solitude. Alone and trapped beneath the ocean, knowing only pain for the duration of their forty year evolutionary cram fest, drove the creatures that would become Destoroyah utterly mad with hate. Around him, life flourished outside of the living hell that forged him as if to mock his own pained existence. For this, he vowed to introduce the world to the torment and agony that spawned him, taking the name of their “Destroyer” to perfectly embody the force he represented and had come to embrace.

In time, however, he had lost sight of his original purpose. In taking the personification of one sin, it was with such irony that the killer fell victim to the temptations of another. He grew addicted to the feeling of pleasure that was felt with the destruction of life, and came to crave that over the fulfilment of his vendetta. The new lease on his life would drive Destoroyah further down the pit of insanity from whence there was no return. He saw a new meaning to his traumatic origins, for without the suffering his predecessors had endured, the power that let him take away life, that had molded him into the ultimate force of terror, would not be. It made him unique upon the planet and amongst the universe.

But Mechagodzilla spat in the face of that uniqueness. Although his collective mind had fallen into the grips of madness, Destoroyah was anything but a mindless brute. He could recognize potential, and upon the first sight of the robotic interloper, he saw within it the potential for grand, chaotic, delicious destruction at the hands of an entity other than himself. If a weapon like that could be so easily manufactured, what did that make him, if no longer unparalleled?

If Mechagodzilla existed, all of the events responsible for his creation no longer meant anything. It was a demonstration that, in the eyes of the universe, Destoroyah’s appointed role could be overthrown and replaced. It awakened a burning rage deep within the altered monster’s soul unlike nothing felt before by his cold and empty heart. A combination of jealousy, anger, pride, and fear lit the fire that motivated the vilest creature in Earth’s history to continue the fight, for unlike the many battles fought in the past, he had something to prove. He needed the creators of the metal heretic to understand why he was irreplaceable and where their place lay. They would be shown and made to understand that the machinations of nature were superior against the creations of science.

With a whirr and a click, Mechagodzilla raised its undamaged arm toward the wounded crustacean terror. The hands flipped sideways to allow for a wider firing spread and a clear sight for the robot reptile’s targeting systems, dead locked on the fractured front of the obstacle impairing its prime objective. It seemed like Destoroyah had nowhere to go, but in spite of his mutilation condition, there were other tactics and abilities to employ against the mechanical titan, and Destoroyah was eager to demonstrate each and every one of them to prove of Mechagodzilla’s inferiority.

The demon creature’s wings unfurled and spread wide, spanning over twice his own height in length from tip to tip. Great gusts of wind were launched from the extremities, which whipped up massive sprays of dirtied sea water that splashed against the surrounding buildings, completely drenching the emptied structures. The resulting backsplash obscured the crimson abomination from his enemy’s sight at the moment it fired, allowing Destoroyah to take an enormous leap into the air with his powerful leg muscles and a flap of his demonic wings.

All that Mechagodzilla’s electronic eyes saw was the colossal eruption of white water as the missiles impacted the empty spot, and when there was no responding cry from the mutation, it began to deduce that something was amiss. Before the dinosaurian war bot’s artificial brain could start to calculate, it heard the familiar scream of its enemy from high above. Craning its head up toward the sky, the machine’s front was coated in shadow as it recognized the descending shape of Destoroyah, falling straight down toward the Vortaak terminator with both clawed feet outstretched. That was nothing Mechagodzilla had within its arsenal to halt the attack.

The connecting kick drove the metal killer down into the waterlogged tarmac, where it was pinned with its back against the road surface beneath the immense weight of its adversary. The machine’s outer frame buckled inward as it struggled to hold up Destoroyah’s entire mass with the supporting structure of its chest, a task that, for the moment, held firmly. Mechagodzilla shrieked out in defiance at the monstrosity, thrashing with all the power at its disposal under Destoroyah’s scrutinizing gaze.

The demon replied with his chilling cry and prepared for the finishing blow. From his open, jagged jaws, purple light gathered and rose up the esophagus, as brilliant lavender sparks surged across the evil one’s skull once more. The only regret that came to his diseased mind as he looked down at the helpless Mechagodzilla was the inability to draw out its torture for longer, robbed of his greatest desire simply by the nature of the artificial defiler. The unquenchable rage brought about by this fact was vocalized by an enraged cry, rearing his axe-like skull back as if to sound his fury toward the heavens themselves.

From the edge of his vision, light flashed for the briefest milliseconds as Mechagodzilla’s head rose and aimed. Unlike with Destoroyah’s Micro-Oxygen energies, there was no precursor for the discharge of the robot’s deadly Space Beams, which surged from its luminous eyes under the speed of light itself and sliced into the satanic giant’s exposed neck. The howling screech was cut short and the building power dissipated, replaced by wet gurgles and splatters of ichor as the rainbow rays cut clean through the malevolent being’s throat and severed the spinal column near the base of the skull. Destoroyah’s eyes bulged wide as he was harshly introduced to the sensation of terror, the confidence draining from his mind as quickly as blood gushed from his gashed throat. His tiny arms raised upward upon the vain instinct to prolong his survival, but lacked the reach to attend to the injury and wiggled uselessly as the armored horror spluttered and gagged upon his own vile blood.

Mechagodzilla ignited the thrusters in its soles, granting it a new form of mobility as it rocketed out from under the paralyzed Destoroyah’s weight. Its velocity knocked the crustacean life form clear off, sent tumbling helpless into the surf, while Mechagodzilla grinded its back against the street surface amidst its travel, scuffing up the machine’s gleaming paintwork as it carved trenches into the underwater tarmac with its dorsal spines. When it had cleared enough distance, the terminator pitched upward, rising out of the water toward a horizontal stance until it could identify the target’s writhing mass, then shut off power to the boosters, letting it drop the short distance back to Earth.

Though it possessed no independent thoughts of its own, it could create ideas and strategies from the orders and information received through the Cybanek from the Vortaak mother computer. From this, the robotic duplicate acknowledged that its masters would want to make an example of this self-proclaimed “living destroyer.” It failed to match the standards set by decades of Vortaak science and engineering within the same span of time; failed to compete against the true face of personified destruction in the eyes of its empress. And within the laws of the Vortaak, to ensure within their race and society, all failures must be extinguished from history.

Mechagodzilla locked itself in place for anchorage. Amidst the chorus of wild splashes and his own choking cries, Destoroyah overheard the metal monster setting up for its attack and managed to twist his head in its direction. His soulless orbs scanned as the warrior robot prepared to fire, watching on in paralyzing suffering, glaring hard at his new nemesis with overwhelming hate within his eyes…

But not fear.

Space Beams, Cross Attack Beams, Desto-Fire, and all forms of missiles from across Mechagodzilla’s walking artillery of a body converged upon Destoroyah’s prone body, tearing the living horror’s form asunder as his haunting screams filled the air. Fire, ash, smoke, and water spray rose up and engulfed the fallen one as Mechagodzilla continued firing without hesitation, programmed only to stop until there was nothing left of its adversary to be found. Its receptors listened out amidst the bangs and roars of its assault, taking note as the cries of the mutation grew fainter and fainter. Within seconds, the deed would be complete.

Suddenly, Mechagodzilla’s sensors were overwhelmed by a burst of white smoke. The machine Godzilla shut off its attack at once and attempted to recalculate under the presence of the surprise phenomenon. It took only a moment to complete, and a few seconds longer to realize that the source of the mystery cloud was the site of bombardment. Where Destoroyah was. But as it peered through the fog, although the spot showed the ravages of the assault, there was no longer any trace of the mutation in the area. The error boggled its cybernetic brain; how could a creature of such mass simply vanish into the air?

Silence no longer filled the air, broken and dispelled by a haunting screech that had become familiar to the artificial Godzilla’s audio receivers. It had not the time to comprehend how the creature had returned, immediately switching back into its attack protocols and swerved its head in the direction of the sound’s source.

Destoroyah’s grotesque features greeted the flashing lenses of Mechagodzilla with a horrendous shriek of deafening volume. The demonic anomaly’s wings beat the air with vigor to propel him across the city skyline, gathering up speed that, combined with his latent kinetic power, sent Mechagodzilla sprawling and crashing into the earth hard from the collision of the deadly mutation’s flying mass to its metal skull.

Static crackled across the machine’s vision as sparks flew wide from the point of impact. The structure was left dented from its encounter with Destoroyah’s ferocity, but in the face of such strength, the extraterrestrial material held out, relegating the inflicted damages to minor cosmetic damages. Even as it struck the ground, Mechagodzilla remained operational but dazed, registering the few seconds it would need in order to recover and retaliate. In the same short space of time, Destoroyah flew clear over the fallen war machine in full view. On its neck, Mechagodzilla registered an impact before it was dragged away outside of its own power, with the only reaction it could form a scratchy shriek.

With its adversary locked tight once again in the clawed grip of his tail pincer, Destoroyah pulled along the most hated creature in his existence to this point on his flyover across the sunken maze of streets. His eyes glimmered upon the sight of a suitable target, and as the united pair came into proximity, the crustaceous beast relinquished his hold upon Mechagodzilla and pulled upward to avoid colliding with the structure himself. The momentum carried over to the helpless Mechagodzilla, sliding down the tarmac behind the colossal wave that headed its path to the destination Destoroyah had intended – the massive towers of the Ebisu Garden Place.

It cried out once more before it slammed first straight through the museum and commercial district, then careened dome-first into the base of one tower. Layers of plasterboard, concrete, steel and glass, already weakened by the surging floodwaters, crumbled without resistance against the sliding mass of the drenched robot. Within a second, stability was lost and the building collapsed, toppling straight down upon the impaired form of the alien invader. In the process of falling, it caught the surrounding towers as well, dragging them down with it in a colossal downpour of debris that covered every inch of Mechagodzilla. Within moments, one of the capital’s famous landmarks was demolished and transformed into naught but smoking rubble, which had completely entombed its destroyer in the process.

High above, circling the rising column of smoke wafting from the burning wreckage, wicked laughter blossomed from the pits of Destoroyah’s throat. It was followed immediately by surging bursts of destructive violet power as the devil’s imposter bombarded the tomb of Mechagodzilla in a ceaseless volley of Micro-Oxygen beams. Each subsequent blast stripped away the collected rubble with terrifying ease, replacing it with wide bursts of scorching flame. The explosions ripped apart the debris in the space of a minute, reducing the small amount of material that stood above the water’s surface to a heap of burning slag. Destoroyah let up on the barrage, circling the growing tower of black smoke wafting up from what he considered to be the rebellious machine’s final resting place.

Destoroyah’s crooked jaws opened wide into the approximation of a victorious grin. Every fiber of his body beamed with pride and glee over the deed he had committed, rewarding his horrendous task with the feeling of satisfaction he had come to crave. Throughout him, the countless numbers of microscopic creatures shared in the pleasure. Their multitudes was the secret to Destoroyah’s survival in the face of death again and again, ensuring that his malice would continue in whichever forms the colony would take. The simple task of splitting down the colossal mountain of muscle and chitin into billions of infinitesimal forms made Mechagodzilla’s powerful arsenal incapable of landing the finishing blow or lasting damage of any kind. Through the Oxygen’s Destroyer’s properties, he had control not only of the forces of destruction, but evolution.

It was why Mechagodzilla was doomed to failure. It was the power of one against the will of a billion billion, with the chances placed unfairly within his favor. An example, once more, of his superiority through the power of evolution against the advancements of science!

The moment was cut short by the emergence of a faint rumbling noise, pulling the monolithic crustacean away from his thoughts of a concrete victory, and observing the smoking rubble once again, hoping that his hearing was deceived. No longer were there no signs of movement, for to his horror, waves of debris rolled down the slopes of the artificial mountain as it quaked violently, falling apart at the seams before Destoroyah’s horrified eyes. This should be possible after the amount of raw Micro-Oxygen power it had been bathed in. In all the powers that governed this wretched oasis of life, how could the machine, the defiler, survive?!

The reality of it all stirred up the flames of hatred that burned within him, but also allowed a spark for another primal emotion to ignite a separate fire inside the collective’s soul, which burned far slower than its counterpart… for now.

A blinding luminance flashed brightly and rhythmically through the cracks of the wreckage, lasting only for a few short seconds before the summit exploded outward, launching clouds of choking smoke and dust and falling debris high and wide into the air like a miniature volcanic eruption. Destoroyah swerved to the side but not in time, taking a face full of the suffocating cloud, sending him into a brief fit of hacking and wheezing as his eyes watered up to expel the pollutants. It was a momentary distraction, but almost a deadly one. From the dying sound of the explosion, the noise of blazing jet fire took over as Mechagodzilla’s shape shot out from the smog, wrapped in trails of the unhealthy smoke while it boosted toward the figure of its abstracted target.

Although his visual senses were impaired, Destoroyah was not foolish enough to not recognize the ruckus generated by the shimmering terminator’s approach. Without time to calculate, the demon rolled aside at a guess to narrowly avoid the pair of Space Beams that zipped past his vision. With his sight fully restored seconds later, the cretin snapped his head in the direction of the beams’ source, taking note for a brief moment of the robotic creature’s body and condition. It was charred, dulled, cracked, dented; but not to the degree that he craved. It continued to function in spite of the destructive power wrought upon it with only minimal damage. Even with the lack of emotions in its positronic brain, it mocked the Oxygen Destroyer’s ability, the element and the creature, through the nature of its perseverance alone.

Quickly, Destoroyah was beginning to lose patience and confidence within the presence of the mechanoid blasphemer. He would not rest until his position upon the ladder of supremacy was safe and established, and for that required the destruction of his nemesis. He would find a way to defeat the imposter, refusing to consider any alternative outcomes.

He retaliated with a flowing stream of Micro-Oxygen energies from his maw that struck and carved down Mechagodzilla’s rows of stubby spines. To his satisfaction, shards of metal were blasted into the air from the resulting explosions, raining down through the air like a sparkling hail. The result was pleasing to the malicious crustacean, for he now understood that the efforts of his previous assault were not in vain. When the smoke cleared from the automaton’s back, however, Destoroyah’s glee died and was replaced with an agitated scowl. While Mechagodzilla’s armor had lost a percentage of its durability, the dorsal spines sat dented and chipped, still attached to the machine’s body in a mocking show. In total, a small victory, which wasn’t enough.

Within the air, the airborne titans curved and twisted around each other, trying to catch the tail of their opponent while, at the same time, trying to avoid the same fate. Crackling beams shot across the polluted air space from the jaws of both killers, with limited success in finding the flesh or armor of either. A death ray shot wide there, while another missed only by the breadth of a monster-scaled hair. To the observers that might be watching, the duel appeared evenly matched, set to go either way at a moment’s notice, but there was an element that would turn the tables, known only to Mechagodzilla, and would benefit the metallic reptile’s favor.

As the flying fight progressed, Destoroyah’s reflexes began to slow down, little by little with every passing second. The stoic beast began to pant heavily, gasping desperately for air in order to appease the growing ache within the muscles of his gigantic wings. In creating a body plan designed for effective operation upon the land, in the sea or the sky, sacrifices had to be made to balance out between the three, and Destoroyah suffered for his grand power by means of his own hefty weight. His wings exerted themselves beyond the titan’s limits just to keep airborne, and the issue grew more prevalent as the air battle forced the demonic entity to increase elevation. The higher he climbed, the less oxygen he absorbed to recharge his tired muscles. Through his own hubris and the limitations of his body, the crimson mutant had been forced into a trap by his autonomous foe.

Destoroyah was forced into a no-win scenario. If he continued to ascend, eventually, the last of his strength could give out. If he tried to escape, Mechagodzilla would simply shoot him out of the sky at a moment’s notice. Either way, it would end with the prehistoric terror falling to the hard ground far below, which was a fate the destroyer could easily survive. However, it would create a small window of opportunity for the alien terminator to launch an all-out attack without hindrance, recovering from which would expend most of Destoroyah’s depleted energy stores.

Although he despised admitting it, he found himself impressed by the machine’s flawless strategy. In essence, it was the perfect plan for hunting down an aerial opponent, of which Destoroyah had yet to consider in his long, violent history. But there remained countless potential errors and miscalculations that could be exploited, given that the target creature was smart enough to recognize and exploit them. Destoroyah’s sharp mind was eager to test the scope of the robot monster’s planning, with a confident grin across his features and a devious glint in his amber eyes.

In spite of the fatigue spreading throughout his body, Destoroyah pushed further toward the shroud of dark clouds that hung above. With every wing beat, utter agony raced through his veins, as if to try and convince the tired and ancient goliath to give up, to accept defeat and simply pass on the title to his rival. This idea only spurred him to carry on, fighting with every ounce of fading stamina to complete his objective and satiate his scorned pride. The blanketing rain and surging wind currents howled within the demon’s hidden ears, but within the distracting chorus, he located the sound he wanted to hear, faint as it was, which confirmed that the stratagem was proceeding as planned. Mechagodzilla was in pursuit, climbing higher along the path being laid by the crustaceous giant and closing the distance, proven by the increasing volume of its thrusters as it chased after Destoroyah’s trail.

Exactly what he wanted the heathen to do.

At last, the scarlet titan reached the storm cloud layer and dove within the turbulent mass without a second thought. Inside, it was almost impossible to see or hear at all, with the black, rolling fog and hammering rain, broken only by the briefest flashes and booms of distant thunder and lightning. It was a struggle for Destoroyah to determine his position, overloaded by the rough and unstable conditions inside the body of the storm. If his senses failed to work inside the clouds, by the scheming killer’s logic, the sensory equipment of his robotic foe would encounter similar difficulties within the turbulent environment.

For this brief moment in time, he was completely off the machine’s radar. For how long was an unimportant question to cross the cold-blooded beast’s mind. They were both in position for Destoroyah’s plan, and thus, no longer a reason or chance to hesitate, as the colossus’ wings gave their last strokes, and he let gravity take hold to drag his massive form back down.

Mechagodzilla recognized that there was something peculiar in the actions of its adversary. As such, the Godzilla android remained on guard as it approached the surface of the storm, slowing its velocity and scanning the shifting darkness for a sign of the malicious entity lurking within. Visual and audio sensors attempted to process data on where it may be, but were inhibited by the electrostatic fluctuations of the soup-thick cloud layers, leaving their reports to the central mainframe of Mechagodzilla inconclusive. Instead, it had to function on traditional, organic-like senses instead, an area of its capabilities that was inferior in comparison.

Several seconds passed, the air polluted with a chorus of whistles and rumbles from the storm, conjoined with the deafening thrum from Mechagodzilla’s feet rockets as it maintained its altitude, diverting its primary processors to analyze the situation and ascertain the most logical course of action. Millions of scenarios and stratagems were generated, reviewed and logged within the tiniest window of time before a conclusion deemed satisfactory was met.

Tilting its head toward the core of the cumulonimbus, the war machine let loose a set of bright Space Beams, which sliced through the layers of condensed water vapor and illuminated the dark void that lay within for a small moment. Any human mind would struggle to locate and identify anything within such a timespan, and in this scenario, Mechagodzilla’s artificial senses proved superior in gathering information. It saw what it needed, and what it saw was not what the armored colossus wanted. Alarms blared a warning for immediate action upon digesting the image of the dark mass plummeting toward them, and Mechagodzilla did not require any further time to discern the intentions of its rival. It had to act, but with how close Destoroyah already was combined with the velocity he was travelling at, would there be time?

Mechagodzilla’s tail altered its position immediately, the booster on its tip flaring brightly as the autonomous reptile sent as much power as it would safely spare in order to adjust its current position with dreaded haste. From the clouds above suddenly hailed a warm orange glow, bringing color to the bleary weather for the first time in days. The light’s source came hurtling through the dark smog as Destoroyah’s bruised and cracked body shot down like a living rocket, racing toward the repositioning Mechagodzilla, his cranial horn alight with molten energy and a hellish promise of destruction from his wretched maw. With the combination of velocity, power and the Variable Cutter’s inherent carving talent, the resulting blow would be utterly devastating to even the reinforced metal coating of the extraterrestrial mechanoid.

Mechagodzilla was switching its positioning, however, a factor that had not been taken into account by the mutated beast. As Destoroyah rapidly descended, the artificial adversary moved with matching haste to counter the surprise move. But instead of attempting to get clear from the path of contact, the automaton stayed its position, rotating its stiff frame to point toward the ground to swing the stumpy tail, and the curved blade positioned within, jutting from the tip, at the hellish monster’s closing form, to Destoroyah’s horror and late realization.

The surprise counterattack was, however, flawed by the machine’s impaired flexibility, unable to stretch or contort in ways an organic lifeform could in order to achieve a secure strike, and as such, the algorithms calculating for the scenario of blocking Destoroyah’s incoming blow could not accurately confirm whether this stratagem would be effective or not. So instead, the limited conscious thought of Mechagodzilla was compelled to rely on a concept developed and hoped on by the organics it was engineered to completely surpass; luck.

The two blades clashed with a blinding flash. From ground level, the dreary sky was illuminated for a second by a great, blinding diamond, like a miniature star burning up as space metal and energized bone reacted to one another. Destoroyah howled in rage and Mechagodzilla shrieked, but the situation was about to turn in a favor that would help and hinder both of the colossal killers. As a result of the momentum from both strikes, and the smooth edge along each blade’s length, the connection failed to hold, and as the warriors roared their piece, they slipped past one another to continue on their original path. Before either could react, the weapons found their mark upon the wielders’ chests.

A horrible, grating, ear-splitting nightmare of sounds eclipsed the city landscape. The screams of the titans dragged on and on as they fell, declining along separate paths to the desolate city streets awaiting far beneath them. Mechagodzilla struck the ground first, impacting with a ringing clang and enough force to rock the surrounding structures, swaying like trees in a strong breeze. No sooner after, Destoroyah’s bulk crashed down into the filthy floodwaters, throwing up a gargantuan geyser of the liquid, taller than the height of the living Oxygen Destroyer himself, who finally fell silent underneath the rubble and rushing froth. As the heavy rain pelted down, it was joined by a hail of solid fragments, broken pieces of sanguine carapace and Space Titanium, accompanied by a second polluting rainfall of internal liquids from Mechagodzilla and Destoroyah both.

With its mechanical nature, Mechagodzilla was the first to recover. Slowly, it sat up as systems rebooted, running diagnostics to quickly identify the space machine’s functional status and the extent of the sustained damage. The horn of its target had struck firm and true through its seemingly impenetrable armored body, leaving a diagonal tear down across the metal warrior’s torso, beginning from the right shoulder and terminating above the left hip. While it was not a deep incision, it still left Mechagodzilla’s vulnerable and sensitive internal parts exposed to the moist, dirty air. Severed tubes and cables dangled from the seams, leaking a combination of oil, fuel and coolant across the damaged warmonger’s lower half.

The full diagnostics revealed further damage to the body and systems. The left eye lens had cracked in the fall, functioning at slightly below acceptable levels for data collection and optic functions, but the beam emitter located behind the glass case was completely out of use. When it reached its full height, Mechagodzilla flexed its arms, but the right limb struggled to bend at the elbow, sustaining structural damage at a location the bionic monster was not flexible enough to visually analyze. It tried again to move the joint, as smoke and horrible grinding sounds poured out until, with a sharp snap, something broke internally, and the arm was left fixed in a stiff position, but still fully functional.

The churning waters arose and cascaded over the rising Destoroyah, climbing from his would-be watery grave under the disorienting effects of his ungraceful landing. Unlike his metallic adversary, the damage adorning the organic beast’s outer shell was more numerous and noticeable, ranging from small chips and cracks up to entire pieces missing from the sections of natural armor coating the triphibious titan. His nightmarish wings now hung limp across his back, and the left half of his axe-like crest was no longer present, allowing hanging strips of flesh and streams of blood to pollute that side of the demon’s disfigured face. And across the center of his chest, crossing through the floral pattern from shoulder to shoulder, was the enormous gash delivered by Mechagodzilla’s tail blade, cutting so deep into his body that the thumping beat of his heart could be seen upon the exposed flesh.

Through his blurred and blood-soaked vision, he barely recognized the form of Mechagodzilla, standing opposite from many street blocks away, taking sight of the extensive damages set across the artificial contender and the similarities to his own ghastly wounds. For the entirety of his life up until this point, the scope of emotions Destoroyah had understood was limited to the experiences of joy and rage, and to not be immersed in the sensation of either allowed for the introduction of a third emotion that he struggled to understand.

He had been led to believe by his own experiences that in the balance of the world, there would always be those that were supreme above all, dictating order and fate to the creatures that cowered beneath them. If this status was challenged, then it would be put in its place, or lose the position that it lacked the power to hold. But never before could the concept of equality have entered the destroyer’s thoughts. Science and Nature had clashed, tested their strength, and delivered horrendous blows, but there was no clear winner. Did this mean… there was no superior force? That they were equals in the mission they had taken?

The strange emotion was drowned in a familiar flood of boiling rage as Destoroyah cried out with all the strength in his body and breath in his crippled lungs. The idea of an equally matched force spat in the beliefs that had forged and driven the collective consciousness that formed Destoroyah into what it had become today. He would not share in his status or accept the presence of this pretender. He was the ultimate destroyer, accepting no imitations. But the metal fiend was the proof of Nature and Science’s equal potential, and thus he must bury the proof from the rest of the world to protect his most-prized reputation.

Only his truth would be spread and embraced. Only his originating source was the supreme power.

From the fringes of the battlefield, the most bloodcurdling sound in history screeched out in response to Destoroyah’s war cry.

The warring colossi turned to see the strangest thing either had ever witnessed. Another towering beast trudging through the murk, looking like three beings had been mashed into one body. Its top half was that of an ape bearing curved horns atop the head, scaly arms ending in three-fingered hands flexing with each step. Where the torso ended was another head, a fish-like cranium of azure that lay limp and lifeless, legs of the same color as the piscine entity supporting the entity’s bulk. A folded-in pair of crimson wings adorned its back, but they were upside down. Finally, a draconic neck and head, eyes shut and mouth closed, dragged along the ground like a tail.

Destoroyah found himself stepping back, utterly baffled at this thing before him.

Mechagodzilla’s scanners turned up no record of a similar being, and struggled to turn up any meaningful data.

The Monkey God Beast charged forward, snarling.

Destoroyah and Mechagodzilla glanced at one another, almost daring the other to engage the new arrival and be open to an attack from behind. The Precambrian menace braced himself as he realized it was coming for him, hissing in displeasure at having to face this strange demon.

Opening its maw, the chimera sprayed a stream of flame upon the gestalt crustacean, earning a screech of agony from Destoroyah as the fire scourged his exposed and open flesh. Fighting past the pain, he lunged forward, swinging his claws across the chest of his foe. The Monkey God Beast did not react despite the bloody marks on its skin, just retaliating by closing a fist and crashing it against Destoroyah’s face. He stumbled back, yellow blood flowing from between cracked armor. Screeching in fury, the bringer of death began to charge his power.

An Oxygen Destroyer Beam spewed forth, striking the chimera in the gut. It was forced back, flesh peeling away before the ray, but it showed no signs of pain. Destoroyah saw nothing in its eyes, no sparks of emotion positive or negative.

The demon, a sizzling hole drilled into its form, just charged again and swiped madly with its claws. Destoroyah, further blood spewing and chunks of armor being torn away, decided to match its ferocity with his own. Black ichor sprayed from its flesh as the crustacean’s talons pierced flesh, ribbons of skin being torn away and left dangling as it continued to attack.

Like a wasp’s stinger, Destoroyah’s tail lashed forward, the pincer latching onto the abomination’s leg. Electric power coursed through the limb, blazing into the Monkey God Beast. Its muscles seized, halting its assault as it tried to break free. Cackling madly, the prehistoric demon lifted his foe off the ground, swinging him through the air before releasing. The chimera roared as it soared, before crashing into the waters.

Mechagodzilla lifted its fully functional arm, aiming it toward the fiend it had already been facing, as it positioned itself to aim the unbending arm at the new arrival. Missiles blazed from both hands, soaring through the air and crashing into its foes. Destoroyah cried out in pain, whipping around to face the extraterrestrial machine with a growl, as the unfeeling chimera just got back to its feet, craters having been punched into its flesh. The multi-headed cretin charged forward, its aquatic legs moving through the floodwaters with ease as the distance between it and Mechagodzilla closed swiftly, even as missiles peppered its hide and tore into it further.

Gears grinded and protested as the alien warrior moved swiftly out of the path of its foe’s opening swing, but the second landed true, releasing a mighty clang of muscular scale on metal. Mechagodzilla’s innards shook with the strike, the steady stream of fluid flowing from its front intensifying. The Monkey God Beast roared as it lashed with its claws again, only to be halted as Mechagodzilla’s undamaged eye released a rainbow beam to blaze into the palm, releasing a geyser of blood as muscle was parted.

Fire gathered in the primate’s throat, causing alarm bells to ring loudly in Mechagodzilla’s artificial mind. It could withstand fire with ease usually, however, there was currently a gigantic hole in its torso that the heat would ravage. The false saurian opened its maw as well, unleashing a yellow stream of energy. The facsimile of a hero’s blazing weapon crashed against the gout of flames, the focused beam piercing through the disorganised gas and scorching the Monkey God Beast’s face.

It stumbled back, eyes boiling and flesh melting. Before Mechagodzilla could attack further, Destoroyah smashed into the demon’s side, sending it crashing to the ground. The fiend born of a weapon of mass destruction turned toward his mechanical enemy, smiling at the sight of its damage. His ray began to charge once more, only for Mechagodzilla to open its mouth once more and belt out a cluster of missiles, aimed for the still raw flesh of its target, halting the attack as Destoroyah cried out in pain while stumbling back. The chimera stood up, the two barely noticing as they prepared to tear into each other once more.

Until its torso suddenly twisted a full one-hundred eighty degrees, with a sickening popping and cracking that echoed across the city. All of its wounds healed as this occurred, like it had just arrived at the battle, as what had been its torso bent downward to place its palms on the ground. The azure, fish-like legs lifted upward like they were a set of arms, the now properly oriented wings opening up to spread their membranes. The monkey’s eyes closed as the dragon’s neck unfurled, its eyes opening as the mouth let loose a hellacious shriek.

Beating its now functional wings, the Dragon God Beast flew forth. From the depths of its throat came a bolt of lightning, which it swept across its two foes, making them stumble and cry out as electricity scourged them. Destoroyah took off toward it, roaring mightily. The two collided, the greater weight of the living Oxygen Destroyer favoring him as they crashed to the ground, the gestalt crustacean straddling his foe as he tore away strands of skin. As blood poured from his foe, coating him and staining the waters like oil, he looked into the dragon’s eyes, hoping to see fear of any kind.

Yet again, nothing.

What was this creature, and why had he never seen it before? Destoroyah should have been boiling over with hatred from the sheer presence of the interloper for daring to interrupt their challenge, for having the audacity to ignore everything around as his destructive powers and bladed weapons laid waste upon its mismatched body, for just outright existing in this wretched and cursed world along with him.

But instead, every fiber of the colony’s unified being was screaming out, begging for the titan to look away and avert his gaze from the chimera. His own body couldn’t tolerate standing the piercing, unfeeling eyes of this creature, and Destoroyah was utterly confused as to why, yet unable to comply with the demands no matter how much he tried.

The strange emotion washed over the crustaceous colossus in heavy waves, except now he had an understanding of what sensation flooded his nerves, paralyzing him to the spot. He hadn’t recognized it before he was used to spreading it over experiencing it, letting it blossom in the hearts of the victims and utterly consume them in the bleak final moments of their lives.

It was fear. Destoroyah, the bringer of death, destruction and malice, was afraid for the first time in his life of something else.

A Space Beam struck him in the back of the head, thrusting it forth as Destoroyah cried out from the spray of his own vital ichor, allowing the Dragon God Beast to lash out with its jaws, clamping them down on its foe’s throat. Yellow blood stained its teeth and flowed down its throat, Destoroyah beating at the lengthy neck in an attempt to dislodge it.

Mechagodzilla, who had closed the distance between it and them, slammed a chop across the Precambrian beast’s face. Destoroyah and the dragon stumbled over one another, allowing Mechagodzilla to fire another volley of missiles at both. However, this only allowed the Dragon God Beast to break away from the toxic colossus and lunge at the mechanized warrior.

The hole in Mechagodzilla’s torso was widened, more wires snapping and spraying sparks and fluids, as the reptilian head crashed against it. Shrieking, the dragon swung its bulky arms like clubs, battering dents into the Space Titanium armor as Mechagodzilla struggled to fight back with only one workable arm.

The machine got a foot up, planting it on the Dragon God Beast’s gut and shoving it back, but its follow-up attack of a ray from its eye was foiled by the chimera taking off into the air, sending waves out which got dangerously close to Mechagodzilla’s innards. Screeching, it swept down, legs raised up and curled in to deliver a powerful kick.

Immediately, Mechagodzilla’s head began to spin rapidly, the rest of the body remaining stationary. Moments before the chimera made impact, a crackling barrier of blue light formed around the alien war-machine, resembling a cylinder. The Dragon God Beast’s feet slammed into it, sending up cascades of smoke.

Mechagodzilla took the moment to examine its enemy. Despite the skin sizzling off the soles of its feet, the dread beast refused to back away, still pressing its assault. Another bolt of lightning spewed from its mouth, making the shield bend further inward.

This thing, whatever it was, had an automaton-like ignorance of pain, yet without even the self-preservation of a machine gifted with an AI. It just attacked and attacked, uncaring of damage, likely because it could simply heal it all away through whatever methods it had used to initiate this transformation.

Destroying it would require a thorough and unyielding assault that covered all of it.

Destoroyah announced his presence with a piercing cry, swinging the Variable Slicer into the shield as well, generating a massive cascade of sparks. Mechagodzilla ceased power to its barrier and backed away from the energy blade as it sliced through the air. The Dragon God Beast was struck by the crimson sabre, losing an arm which fell into the waters below. The Variable Slicer faded after that, the gestalt nightmare’s yellow eyes looking over both his foes.

A trio of booming roars echoed across the city as the three combatants charged.

Claws scraped against Space Titanium, spraying sparks. The dragon’s teeth clamped onto the flesh of the gestalt fiend, staining them with yellow ichor. Before the chimera could pull its teeth back, a chop to its neck cracked scales, and forced the mouth away, tearing off a chunk of Destoroyah’s skin. Pushing past the pain, the crustacean shoved both back hard. Before either could respond with another attack, the Precambrian horror fired his Oxygen Destroyer ray and swept it over both. Mechagodzilla was able to put its arm in the path of the attack, protecting its wound, while the Dragon God Beast was shredded into by the attack.

The chimera expanded its wings, crashing one against Mechagodzilla’s head, sending the machine stumbling forward. It managed to avoid falling, only for the demon to leap onto the machine’s back. The water exploded upward as both fell into it, thrashing as they struck each other.

Clumsy hands found the edges of Mechagodzilla’s damages, trying to grasp and pull but failing to do so due to the club-like nature of the limbs. Ignoring a series of detonations upon its body, the source being another barrage of missiles from the artificial saurian’s maw, the Dragon God Beast just started bashing at its foe’s chest like the primate its previous form resembled. Destoroyah lunged toward them once more, only for both Mechagodzilla and the chimera to turn toward him and open fire with their respective mouth beams. The laser and the lightning bolt combined and speared into the gestalt crustacean’s chest, shattering the bone spikes and piercing deep.

Geysers of gore vomited up from the man-made demon’s maw, painting the scarlet carapace a bright yellow as he collapsed, exploding into a cloud of mist.

The Dragon God Beast seized upon its foe’s temporary distraction and bit down on the snout of Mechagodzilla, teeth grinding against the otherworldly steel. A living thing would have likely panicked at this, been too overwhelmed by the feelings of seeing a foe explode and then immediately being attacked on the face. However, an AI had no such weakness, so instead of doing superfluous actions, Mechagodzilla simply activated the explosives stored inside its nostrils.

The Desto-Fire instantly shriveled the dragon’s tongue, burning the inside of its throat. Blood dripped from its mouth and down Mechagodzilla’s face, yet still the fiend continued to bite and smash like no injury marred it. Baffled was not entirely accurate in describing the war-machine’s reaction, but it was the closest word one could use to describe the AI in that moment. More firepower was necessary, much more.

A panel in the center of the walking fortress’ chest opened, revealing a red orb nestled within a compartment. The chimera lifted its arms once more, intent on smashing them into the compartment, when an attack like a bolt of lightning in appearance shot forth. The Cross Attack Beam blazed a gigantic hole in the beast’s guts, sending organs spilling out. The waters turned black around them as Mechagodzilla swiftly closed the panel to avoid it being contaminated with the sloshing viscera. One of the beast’s feet slipped off the machine, falling into the water. The draconic head stopped biting, its eyes closing as it pulled away. For a moment, Mechagodzilla thought it had managed to kill its foe with that attack.

The head’s wounds healed as the wings folded back up, contorting inward as the neck fully bent backward. The hole in its stomach sealed shut, severing organs that had been dangling down. It looked sunken in, only to fill back to its usual size as, Mechagodzilla assumed, the organs regrew within. The fish-like head, which had sat still like a corpse, opened its eyes and filled with un-life as it moved. Its wide eyes stared emotionlessly as it let loose a gurgling roar.

The Water God Beast put its forelegs, which had been arms before, firmly on the machine’s chest, further ravaging its dented and wounded body.

The piscine maw opened wide, water gathering in its throat, before a chorus of shrieks accompanied by a cluster of flashes all around the two interrupted it. A high-pressure stream of water flew forth from its mouth, going through the air and striking nothing as a group of crimson crustaceans leaped from the floodwaters and tackled the chimera. They bore the unmistakable crest of Destoroyah, crab-like claws, spiked limbs protruding from their backs, and mandibles instead of the more arthropodic jaws. As the Water God Beast snapped and clawed at them as they crawled across its body, Mechagodzilla found itself being assailed by another group of the Aggregates, slamming their limbs upon the war-machine’s body.

The jets in its feet flared to life, lifting Mechagodzilla into the air as it rained down a hail of missiles upon all its foes. Chunks of carapace flew along with yellow blood, the crustaceans crying out in anguish and rage. The Water God Beast reared up, crushing one of the Aggregate’s skulls in the meantime, as its maw opened once more. The Hydrocutter ray shot out, aimed at Mechagodzilla. The alien warrior tried to avoid it, but only succeeded in making it a grazing shot as it struck its foot.

Metal dented and began to peel away beneath the stream, as the blue flames of the rocket were extinguished and turned to rising vapors of steam and smoke. Mechagodzilla fell once more with an artificial shriek, crashing to the waters.

A Destoroyah Aggregate leapt onto its chest, firing a Micro-Oxygen Beam into the chasm in the machine’s torso, sending up a spray of sparks and steel shavings. Alarms blaring in its mind, Mechagodzilla reared up and slammed a punch into the side of the crustacean, earning a shriek of anguish as now broken legs sprayed ichor. The Aggregate fell off of it, allowing Mechagodzilla to rise just as two more of the fiends leapt at it, screaming violently.

Secondary jaws protruded from between mandibles, then were driven into the Water God Beast’s flesh. For some reason, the chimera was immune to the microbes’ efforts to deteriorate its body beneath the churning waters, but the Aggregates could still steal its essence. The crustacean pulled its jaws free and swiftly crawled up its foe’s body as the mindless beast rolled to crush its attackers, succeeding in splattering one of the unfortunate Aggregates. Micro-Oxygen Rays danced across the chimera’s flesh as three of the Precambrian demons fired, the one still on its back continuing to hack away and drive its inner maw into the oddly colored skin. The Hydrocutter ray fired once more, cutting off the head of one of its attackers, sending the head falling to the waters beneath.

Spiked limbs bashed against the artificial saurian’s head, trying to break the other eye. A different creature’s set of claws clipped and pried at the arm which could not move, seeking to break it all together. Mechagodzilla roared at its attackers, opening its jaws and biting down on the legs of the Aggregate attacking its head. The crustacean cried out as it felt the limbs break, its pain only magnified as the extraterrestrial destroyer suddenly spun its head around, swinging the gestalt organism and cracking it against the other crustacean, sending both falling to the ground.

Mechagodzilla turned toward the flailing pile of limbs, detonating both with its facsimile of the Atomic Ray. The robotic leviathan, painfully aware of the further damages incurred upon its form, turned to see the Water God Beast still struggling with the Aggregates.

A purple ray danced across the machine’s back, causing it to turn as another of the creatures, this one lacking legs and with wings protruding from his back, soared overhead. He swept down, crashing his body into Mechagodzilla’s cranium, staggering the alien weapon. Mechagodzilla went to strike its foe, only for the Precambrian cretin to back away, slapping his tail across the robot’s face.

The Water God Beast clamped its hideous jaws around the throat of one of the crustaceans, crushing it and filling the maw with yellow gore. The Flying Destoroyah flew past the chimera, sending sparks flying as his sharp wings scraped against the rough hide of the creature. A Space Beam raced through the air toward the aerial demon, who beat his wings to avoid the ray, which tore a devastated building apart in the distance.

As he fired his Micro Oxygen ray upon the chimera’s face, carving trenches into the skin, the Water God Beast reared up on its hind legs. The flying Destoroyah shrieked in panic as the Hydrocutter ray was unleashed, nearly punching a hole in his wing membrane. Letting loose its gurgling roar, the mindless beast prepared to strike again, only for the Aggregate upon its back to strike the top of its skull, forcing the head down and sending the water stream into the filthy muck below.

Suddenly, the crustaceans dissolved, leaving the chimera with numerous holes and gashes in its body which it did not seem to notice. It turned toward Mechagodzilla, charging through the water toward the machine with a gurgling roar. The machine braced itself, ready to engage and destroy, only for a massive, strobing light at its sight to distract it. From the waters emerged Destoroyah, back in his final form, slamming a punch across the robot’s face, sending it into the waves.

The living Oxygen Destroyer’s wounds were healed, though it was clear he was not back to his full glory. The colossal musculature was greatly diminished, leaving Destoroyah looking almost gaunt. The wings were shriveled, the membranes being tattered at the bottom. His plan of dividing and attacking both foes at once had not gone as well as desired, that much was apparent.

Screaming with an insane wrath, Destoroyah opened the spikes of bone on his chest, revealing an orifice that glowed a bright red as he turned toward the chimera. The mindless fiend’s existence enraged the Precambrian killer to no end, and he would ensure it died and was no longer a thorn in his side before he killed the machine. The Stomach Beam blazed forth, slicing off the draconic head of the Water God Beast, sending it plummeting into the surging waves. It roared, continuing to run as its body began to twist and contort. Once more, it was the Monkey God Beast, its stride having never slowed. The dragon’s head once more moved like a tail behind it, the severed one dissolving rapidly in the liquid.

Destoroyah snarled, activating the Variable Slicer. His foe closed the distance, swinging a punch with the intent to strike the gestalt demon’s face. With a swing of the crimson sabre, the arm was severed with a spray of ichor, the limb falling away. Destoroyah went to swing again, only for the second hand to clasp around his throat, holding the blade back as the Monkey God Beast huffed and hissed. Fire escaped its mouth, bathing the Precambrian menace, but he cared not as he dug his own claws into the hairy limb.

Mechagodzilla observed the situation closely. Both of its foes were beginning to grow weary, the chimera was visibly slouching and struggling to keep Destoroyah back as the latter thrashed and screeched. Rising to its own feet, the robotic saurian pointed its knees at both foes, unleashing another Homyu Shot from both. However, both demons noticed this, turning and releasing their respective ranged attacks on the missiles, detonating them in midair.

The momentary distraction of his foe allowed Destoroyah to bring his tail up, latching it onto the arm and pulling it away. The Monkey God Beast was only able to turn and look upon the living Oxygen Destroyer for a moment before the Variable Slicer cut across its throat, parting skin, muscle, and bone beneath the shimmering sabre.

As the primate’s cranium fell with a splash, the colossus itself stayed upright. Destoroyah ceased power to the Variable Slicer, reaching out to shove the body. It stumbled back, but remained standing. This gave both the ancient fiend and mechanical warrior pause, unsure of just what was about to happen.

Hideous screams rose from the remaining two heads as their eyes and mouths opened wide with the horrid mockery of life that filled the entity. With the crunching and popping of bone and organ, the crimson dragon’s portion of the body twisted upward to crest over the monkey’s torso and arms, the now right-side up wings spreading wide. The fish-like head no longer dangled limply, yellow eyes wide open as its length sank into the body until just the face protruded. The bleeding stumps of the primate’s arm and neck regrew with flailing tendons, reconstructing the monkey’s head in a matter of seconds, its primal screeching joining the nightmarish cacophony. Destoroyah backed away as he found himself being towered over by the writhing and bellowing colossus.

The true form of a nightmare made manifest had returned. The wretched thing who only contributed destruction to all in its sight, from the day it had first tainted the world with its presence. Not of malice, for malice would only get in the way of desolation with its desires to draw things out for the sake of pleasure. It only lived to take life, only existed to annihilate. The Demon Totem Beast, who’s name was spoken only in hushed whispers for fear of the wind carrying the word away and drawing its gaze.

Bakan.

Destoroyah lunged forward, swinging his claws, only for lightning to blaze into his face and halt the assault as scaled hands wrapped around his throat. Carapace crunched and cracked beneath the horrendous grip, the gestalt beast crying out a choked call of shock. His chest opened once more, the crimson light shining brightly. Bakan turned and let go at the same time, hurling the diminished form of the living Oxygen Destroyer away. The Stomach Beam still blazed forth, grazing the Demon Beast’s side. Flesh melted away under the horrendous luminescence, leaving a molten crater.

Mechagodzilla’s artificial mind ran countless diagnostics as it tried to process just what was happening. The dread beast had suddenly gained an immense boost in height and strength, the way it displaced the water suggesting it had also somehow increased in weight as well. Everything about this creature defied the laws of physics. Matter could not come from nothing, yet it regenerated grave wounds in an instant whenever it switched forms and had somehow gained additional mass with this latest transformation.

Destoroyah rose to his feet, swaying. How could this be happening? How had the tide of battle turned so drastically, after he had cut off his enemy’s head! Was it like him, a collection of countless microbes forming a single body? No, no it could not be, his own microbes had attempted to dissolve the demon and they had sensed no such thing. This was one entity, or at least three sharing a mind, yet they seemed to have no mind at the same time.

The foul children of science and nature gone astray came to the same conclusion at the same time.

Bakan should not exist, yet it did. It followed neither nature or science, it was something else entirely.

Destoroyah beat his wings, racing forth with a shriek of rage. He slammed his reduced bulk into the totem demon, barely forcing it back. Before he could attack further, the chimera’s arms grasped him by the sides of the crest, pushing him back before thrusting his head directly into a skull-cracking headbutt from the monkey’s head. The Precambrian nightmare staggered back, before releasing an Oxygen-Destroyer Ray at the fiend’s stomach, trying to break through into organs with the attack. Bakan shot a jet of water up Destoroyah’s sternum, slicing open carapace and revealing pulsating, vulnerable skin beneath. The gestalt crustacean cried out in shock, just before a geyser of flame burned into the opening. Destoroyah backed away further, shrieking in rage. He opened his chest, preparing to fire his ultimate weapon, only for Bakan to stop him by beating its wings, propelling itself into a shoulder barge that sent the crimson column of death piercing into the waters instead of flesh and muscle.

They rolled over one another, ending with Destoroyah straddling the chimera’s stomach. Screaming with fury, the Precambrian gestalt began slashing his claws across Bakan’s hairy chest, lacerating the skin and staining the fur black with blood. Both electricity and fire raced toward Destoroyah, sending him tumbling to the ground with a shriek of anguish. Through the haze of pain, he saw Mechagodzilla still standing back, just watching, and cursed the machine with a venom-filled hiss.

Both demons got back to their feet, staring each other down once more, two eyes meeting six.

Such power. Such carnage. Such mindless insurrection. The wicked beast was everything that Destoroyah was, craved to be and more, and only through sheer willpower could he keep up the façade of hatred as the talons of fear sunk deep into the collective’s shared mind. Everything about the entity, even just its mere presence here, made the crustaceous giant’s instincts scream, urging him to turn tail and flee, to accept defeat and hide in the hopes that he might forget the unnatural thing’s existence and live on in ignorant bliss.

How could this beast disrupt the reality that he knew by the simple act of existing? And most importantly, for the sake of the crimson destroyer’s pride, how could it instill such terror, even in violent and heartless creatures such as himself.

Perhaps Bakan was not an entity, but an embodiment of an idea or concept. Could it be that the hybrid was the manifestation of terror itself?

New, unfamiliar ideas and concepts were suddenly opened to his consciousness. To find the answers he saught, Destoroyah tapped deep into the memories of the collectives, spanning back millions upon millions of years, to the source of life itself.

Humans had claimed many times that the planet was a living organism, and in truth, the reality was unlike anything they imagined. It was not “alive” in the sense like flora and fauna were, but it had a mind, and from that mind came dreams. Dreams that were channeled into Her ecosystem through the mystical force and lifeblood that was Mana. From it came the life that was known today, in various shapes and forms, enhanced and altered over the generations by the planet’s subconscious thoughts. She created beauty, but she lacked the capability to witness or understand the products of Her machinations. There were only dreams, from here to the end.

But where there were dreams, there were nightmares. As time passed, life evolved and grew in intelligence, learning to become aware of itself and the world it was one small part of, tapping deeper into the well that empowered them. As sentience gave way to sapience, the children of Earth became greedy and deluded, and found ways to take more of their share of the Mana meant to be shared across the planet. As their power grew, so, too, did the connection with the mother’s dreaming mind, connecting the thoughts and memories of the people to the Earth, allowing for them to join into the dream as well.

The horrors of mankind were flooded into the mind of the Earth. With every catastrophe, disaster and genocide, the negativity was shared with the planet’s psyche, steadily polluting it with the collective sins and trauma of over a billion souls, mingling the bad with the good. In these fits, She lacked focus. Acting without reason, shaking in terror, rage, hate, and sorrow, unholy things of magic were spat out upon the surface world. Unfinished yet expertly designed, with ranging grades of cognitive functionality, these titans that rejected the natural way were unleashed to spread the concepts and feelings that Mother Earth had channeled into them. That is all that they were – husks driven by the planet’s will, contaminated by mankind’s folly.

Bakan was amongst their number, representing the fear experienced by the victims of the beasts its appearance was inspired by. As terror was what forged it, so would it forge terror in the hearts and minds of the world’s creatures, for what other purpose could it serve in its twisted state of being. Human dread had brought this wretched detestation into the world, and so long as it remained, so shall terror itself.

Destoroyah howled long and loud with mirth, finding humor in the situation before him where others would experience fear or hate at the revelation of such powerful knowledge. If this creature, unholy as could be, was the by-product of the corruption of the planet’s life force by its own creations, then as a child of the Mother Earth’s dream, it would be his duty to purge Bakan and spare the world from the horrors it had brought, and would bring if unchecked. This noble task had been placed upon him, whose own history was pathed with almost as much blood and fire as the three-headed demon, and Destoroyah had to cruelly laugh at the twisted irony present; a destroyer tasked with destroying a destroyer. Regardless, he would oblige, not for the sake of Her, but to remove the competition, and for the thrill of the challenge.

But an awful thought came through the scarlet crustacean’s mind; awful not in the sense of malicious intent, but in the sense of presenting unsettling consequences of forthcoming actions. If Bakan was the representation and essence of all terror within the world, would the element itself vanish together with it once the devil was slain?

For once in his foul life, Destoroyah had to consider the ramifications of his imminent decisions. To bring destruction and spread fear was all that his existence was molded around, his very reason for existing long after the age of his type’s prime. If fear were to vanish from the Earth, what would that mean for him? Would he become devoid of the powers and thoughts which crafted his character and had formed the satanic beast’s reputation for carnage, reduced to a simple creature of peace? Or would he keep that strength, but lose the ability to inspire that hopeless fear in mankind forever more?

Either way, Destoroyah would lose the greatest part of the amalgam of traits that made him what he was, and the horror of living in such a world was too much for the Oxygen Destroyer’s personification to fulfil Mother Earth’s tasks.

All three sets of Bakan’s jaws opened wide, releasing a bolt of lightning, a stream of flames, and a lance of water. Destoroyah screamed as they struck at once, shocking, burning, and carving into his form. Flesh bubbled and split, armor was sheared away and sent flying, and blood spewed like geysers. Billions of microbes flared with agony surging through them, a pure suffering unlike any they had experienced before.

A few seconds later, all that remained of Destoroyah was a ravaged carcass that collapsed in on itself, staining the filthy waves a myriad of disgusting colors. Small clusters of the hive escaped into the waters, what was once billions now only a few thousand as they swam away. The fight was lost, and in this primitive mental state without countless other minds linked to them, they had no concepts such as shame to hold back the desire to flee. To retreat so that they may live another day, it was the most natural thing about the crustaceans.

Neither Mechagodzilla or Bakan noticed this, for they were both too busy focusing on the other. Despite its increased size, the chimera could still fly, as with the beat of its wings it took to the air.

In a display of agility that made its gears grind and machinery protest, the alien destroyer leapt backward, avoiding the demon stomping into the ground hard enough to crater the earth. Missiles assailed Bakan’s flesh, but it cared not as they tore through scale and skin, just rushing forth with a speed that made no sense for a creature of its bulk and awkward build to have. Mechagodzilla unleashed another round of the Homyu Shot, but the horrid craters that they detonated into the chimera’s hide were treated like insect bites.

Claws sent sparks flying as they crashed into Space Titanium, denting and wearing away at the refined steel. A Space Beam fired from the solitary eye of the artificial saurian, seeking to strike one of the beast’s three faces, only for the beam to just rake across skin as Bakan grasped the rim of Mechagodzilla’s wound. The Cross Attack Ray’s hatch flipped open, unleashing its payload and burning a hole down to the bone in Bakan’s arm. That same limb reached up, ripping the panel off with a harsh sound of tearing steel, just as the dragon’s head lunged down and fired a bolt of lightning at the red diode, shattering it.

The demon’s movements were beginning to slow down, but not fast enough for the AI to deem it satisfactory. Mechagodzilla activated its barrier, stopping fire from washing over its ravaged form. The moment of sanctuary was taken for calculation and assessment. Its single strongest weapon was rendered unusable, the damage being incurred upon it was very swiftly reaching a point of termination, and it was locked in combat with a foe that would not stop fighting until it was physically incapable of moving.

Movement.

The demon’s movement had to be halted. That was the path to success.

First, the wings.

The barrier fell and Mechagodzilla immediately had to crouch to avoid the swinging fist of its foe. Unfortunately, a hydraulic grinded to a halt prematurely, causing the fist to crash against the spike atop the machine’s head, sending it falling over onto its side. As Bakan trudged forward toward Mechagodzilla, the war-machine propped itself up, aiming its unmoving arm at the wing of its foe, unleashing another discharge of missiles. The chimera looked at its wing as the membrane was shredded apart, snarling as it reached down and grasped the dysfunctional limb. Mechagodzilla attempted to rise, only for a jet of high-pressure water to force it back down as Bakan pulled and twisted.

Mechagodzilla’s internal computer switched tactics, deciding that losing the arm would be beneficial if the maneuver which it was currently calculating could be executed. With a spray of sparks and the grinding of metal, Bakan ripped the limb free, holding it in both hands. Immediately, Mechagodzilla’s head turned, firing jets of flame from its nostrils toward what had once been its hand.

The missiles that the metallic monster king fired were created by a factory inside its waist, and fed via chains to the varying ports from which they were shot. Explosives lined most of its body, and while typically great care was taken to safeguard against the obvious issue with this, that did not mean it was impossible to still happen.

Both of Bakan’s hands were burnt and broken, the fingers being severed and sent flying. Space Titanium shrapnel was embedded in the fish’s eyes, one shard in an eye of the monkey, and countless more of the fragments acted like daggers all across its front. Mechagodzilla was not unharmed either, one of the few things capable of breaking Space Titanium being itself, as sparks and oil poured from lacerations all across its body.

Where a natural being would have a delay between its actions, even if it had them planned in advance, Mechagodzilla was able to immediately execute the next action it had queued up in its electronic brain. Bakan stumbled in place, groaning, delaying the kick it had planned to drive into its foe’s face. Both the sole Space Beam and the pretend Atomic Ray fired at once, mimicking the multiple beams Bakan fired to execute the Precambrian menace. The two beams speared into the kneecap of the demon, blasting apart the joint. Like a tree with its base cut deeply into, Bakan fell with a booming, mind-rattling bellow.

Mechagodzilla’s jets flared to life, propelling it upward and toward its foe. Bakan swung its arms like clubs, but the machine was smart enough to avoid them by halting for a moment, then rushing forward once more. Its remaining hand went into the primate’s mouth, about to fire its explosive fingers. A stream of fire erupted from the mouth at the same time, causing a humongous chain reaction as Mechagodzilla’s hand detonated inside the maw.

A safeguard had been disabled in the other arm by one of the numerous traumas inflicted to it, to prevent a detonation of the hand from travelling all the way down to the body and destroying the entire mecha. Fortunately for the artificial saurian, this dampener activated in time for the connected arm.

So, when it stumbled backward, arm terminating in a burnt stump which spewed smoke into the air, Mechagodzilla saw that its foe was in an even worse state. Where the ape’s face had just been was now a bloody, burnt crater filled with shrapnel like a colossal shotgun had gone off. The dragon’s head limply hung low, a massive gash in its throat that cut down into the very esophagus. All the life that coursed through Bakan now was just in its aquatic head, which could barely rise.

Mechagodzilla took no chances.

Every weapon in its arsenal that still functioned was fired. The High Pressure Homing Missiles from its feet, the Homyu Shot, the Space Beam, mouth missiles, and the mouth laser. Bakan’s limp form was pulverized and eviscerated, meat and organs flew like confetti and further contaminated the floodwaters. The only sound the chimera made was a weak groan before its foul life ended.

Mechagodzilla, both hands missing, countless gashes and tears in its body that leaked power and fuel, stood alone. Victorious for its masters. Its mind had remained unfettered, unlike an organic being’s, yet still logical, unlike whatever foul nightmare Bakan was. The might of machinery had triumphed over both.

With a piercing shrill, warped with static from the battering its source had received, Mechagodzilla declared itself superior.

Winner: Mechagodzilla (Showa)

A very special thanks to Digiwip for some of the assets used in this banner for the K.W.C. Be sure to follow him on DeviantART, Facebook, Twitter, ArtStation, and Instagram.