Author: Joshua Strittmatter | Banner: Dao Zang Moua, Landon Soto, Tyler Trieschock & Matthew Williams

Dinosaurian jaws expelled a cloud of bubbles through the oceanic void, a warbling vocalization echoing into the water. A powerful orange body swam with beautifully fluid efficiency that contrasted with its colossal bulk, yellow eyes gazing ahead with an ancient intensity. A great tail undulated from side to side like that of a great crocodile, powering the huge body forward at speeds that outclassed any and all of the fastest constructs of humankind. With eyesight that rivaled the most efficient predators on Planet Earth, Titanosaurus looked to and fro as he searched for something living amidst the ocean he called home, but so far he sensed nothing. The aquatic dinosaur had no idea why, but these parts of the ocean were significantly different from what he had grown up with all his life. One key attribute–and one key attribute alone–stuck out like a crushed thumb blackened by purple bruising.

The water was blood red.

Titanosaurus couldn’t comprehend why such a sudden change had occurred, or what these strange particles that painted the water this color were. What was this strange crimson that mixed with the water to bathe it in this shade? It wasn’t blood; he knew the scent of blood, and none of it was present here. So what was it? And why here? Why had such a change occurred here of all places?

The dinosaur kept swimming, his eyes peeled for any standout differences in the scarlet void, his nasal region emitting active sonar to navigate his way through the red. As he swam on, Titanosaurus did catch a few signatures far up ahead, but they were too large to be fish or whales. But there was something else mixed in here with these detections, something he wasn’t sure how to react to. Normally when he detected the presence of anything larger than a whale, the oceanic saurian would prepare himself for the possibility of territorial conflict. But these scents had a sense of strange familiarity to them–they seemed to belong to something he had encountered before. But there was one hitch that caught him off-guard:

They both were identical, as if there were two versions of the same individual in one place.

Titanosaurus would’ve shaken his head had his mind possessed the notion to do so. No, that couldn’t be correct! How could something or someone be in two places at once?

Powering his tail, the aquatic theropod began to boost his swimming speeds. Equal mixes extreme curiosity and a little bit of anxiety powered him forth at higher velocity than normal. The dinosaur needed to get a visual on these duplicate scents as quickly as possible. The red around him actually seemed to partially part as he swam, as if the red were not the water itself, but some kind of dust or cluster of microorganisms that simply made it look as if it had shifted the water’s color. But that mattered not; Titanosaurus was gaining on the sources of the duplicate scents. Faster he swam, like an organic torpedo building towards the speed of sound, the strange crimson powder whipping in clouds as he sped through them. As he flew through the water, he noticed that the red dust was beginning to clear ever so slightly, providing a better view of the scenery around him. And that’s when he saw… … …

Seaweed-green flesh seemed to shine like a beacon amidst the clouds of red, weaved in a lengthy, recognizably serpentine body. Floating motionlessly amidst the red water, clouds of more crimson poured from huge, gaping wounds in the creature’s body–and this time, Titanosaurus smelled the blood before he even saw it. But it was not the blood that shocked him out of his mind; it was the sight of the creature itself, and its initial physical outline.

Manda?!

Titanosaurus drew closer, and that was when his mind was assailed with a whole avalanche of confusion. For one, the scent of the creature was exactly identical to the Dragon God of Mu that he remembered–but such had to be impossible, because its actual appearance was almost entirely different. It was segmented, like a crustacean, with a fish-like fin running down its back. Its head was more reminiscent of a shark than a dragon, but still retained the distinctive horns and barbels. Its limbs were very long and thin, almost like the jointed forelimbs of a shrimp. But despite these differences, Titanosaurus sniffed the creature once again, and still his nose detected no lies; its scent remained exactly identical to the revered God of Mu. It was Manda.

And he was dead.

Titanosaurus looked around, inhaling the water as he scented the area, and his eyes spotted what he was looking for. And it too, shocked him to his core: another Manda. And its scent, like the first corpse, was identical to the Manda he knew–and it too, was dead. He looked around, and his eyes spotted a third, horribly maimed Manda floating lifelessly in the clouds of crimson, its lifeblood mixing with the red dust that permeated the water.

Titanosaurus didn’t know what kind of warped graveyard he had stumbled upon. This place was insane, it made zero sense whatsoever. Manda was in three places at once, looked completely different than his usual self, and was dead in all three forms. Something that shouldn’t be possible, shouldn’t exist… … …existed right before his very eyes. It was all too much for his animalistic mind to comprehend, intelligent as he was. He didn’t even know if he would be able to stay here any longer, lest these existing impossibilities drive him insane… … …

A new scent entered his nasal passage.

And this one, too, was familiar–but in a completely different manner. This scent sent entirely different memories flashing through his mind; memories of pain, possession, and agonizing defeat. At the hands of a dinosaurian giant somewhat like himself, with a breath of searing heat… … …

Titanosaurus froze, startled and spooked alike. Could it be? He was here?!

As if to accommodate his thoughts, he heard a sound echo through the water. Like the growling of some fearsome leviathan, but at a pitch he recognized all too well. Titanosaurus growled with frustration and changed direction, beginning to swim towards the nearest spot of land that he knew to be not very far away. He was in no mood to get in a fight today, especially with the same creature that beat him so many years ago. But as he swam onward, the scent of his long-ago rival never wavered or disappeared; in fact, ever so slightly, it seemed to be getting stronger. As if his old rival was on his trail.

As if Titanosaurus were being followed… … …

*****

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland.

A tri-taloned foot stomped upon the ground with a magnitude that made the earth shudder. 47,000 metric tons of prehistoric predator towered an incredible 90 meters above the earth, strong legs carrying it on the move. Gorosaurus rumbled as he lumbered along the edges of the cliffs, his avian eyes staring with uncertainty at the crimson ocean that waved and frothed below; a strangely unnerving contrast with the cloudy, overcast sky. The giant Allosaurus sniffed in the water’s direction, but detected no abnormal aromas. No blood, no alien properties, nothing. It was as if there was nothing wrong with the water. So why was it red? From what Gorosaurus knew, water was never supposed to be red unless stained with the blood of a hunter’s prey. Something was definitely off here… … …and yet his nose told him otherwise.

How very strange.

He had thought this territory to be his and his alone, but the suspicion that what he was seeing was the prelude to the advent of a possible intruder was beginning to set in. And it made the Allosaur angry. He hadn’t come all this way just to be usurped by some unforeseen newcomer, so if an unwanted intruder did indeed show its face, the ill-tempered carnosaur would not hesitate to pick a fight with it. This was his domain, and no one else’s, and he was gonna tear anyone who disagreed apart to prove it.

Suddenly, his eyes spotted something up ahead. A familiar sight, an inhabitant he recognized from Monsterland–and his blood boiled with rage. His jaws gaped to utter a deep growl at the four-legged reptile that stood approximately five hundred meters from him, and a response was made. Turning about in surprise, Varan faced the primeval carnivore with a mighty screech. Hearing this, Gorosaurus howled back his own roar, the meaning loud and clear: this is my territory! I’m the boss!

Get out!

Varan narrowed his eyes and snarled at the theropod, offended by the display. He had not come looking for a fight, but if Gorosaurus tried starting one he would give him the battle of his life. Holding down on four legs, the Great Mountain God Baradagi glared fearlessly as the predator of Mondo Island roared at him again. Varan cried back, keeping his defensive position as he informed the dinosaur he wasn’t in the mood for a battle.

Gorosaurus was able to get a clearer scent of the creature now that he was closer, and what his nose told him somewhat surprised him. This Varan was not the same individual he knew from Monsterland; this one was a great deal larger and older than the golden youth that wandered the reaches of the island home of the world’s kaiju.

The two giants exchanged chilling cries that echoed into the distance–but before any type of conflict could come to pass between them, a distant splash of water caught their attention, stopping them short. Both of their saurian heads snapped away from one another to point towards the frothing red ocean, where their sharp eyes were able to make out the last remnants of white water falling back to the scarlet surface, the aftermath of something moving about in the normally clear veil. And just like that, the atmosphere had gone from wrathfully loud, raging with the echoing shouts of primeval giants, to more deathly silent than the sandy fields of Mars. Only the waves below made any noise; the air itself was windless and still, both kaiju entirely quiet as they watched the surface of the crimson water like a bald eagle watching for fish. Waiting for even the slightest hint of movement larger than your typical ocean wave, any sign indicating the presence of an entity like themselves that they now suspected heavily lurked within the strangely scarlet sea… … …

The surface parted in froths of white as an orange-skinned form knifed through the water like a shark, an orange fin adorning the back. It wasn’t long before the organic lump suddenly came to a graceful stop, before then rearing up out of the red water in an upturned splash of water that fell back to its source. A tall, bipedal dinosaur much like Gorosaurus stood waist-high in the sea, its head and back adorned by that same orange sail-like fin. Twin antennae-like appendages of unknown function lanced from atop its head, its long arms curling clawed fingers. Gorosaurus recognized this creature, a past visitor to Monsterland’s shores–but that was not what kept his attention on the animal.

Titanosaurus warbled a loud cry as he rose from the depths, surprised to be greeted by the sights of two fellow prehistoric reptilians that he recognized from the past–or at least, one of them looked similar enough. Eyes wide with stress, the aquatic dinosaur panted as he regained his breath from his swim inland, the other two saurians continuing to stare at him like bewildered crows. Nobody really knew what move to make, not even the usually ill-tempered Gorosaurus–and it was unnerving. Everything had happened so suddenly and out of nowhere; the water turned red with no explanation, two territorial beasts discovered one another in the same vicinity, and now a third had made an abrupt appearance from the deep. The trio of behemoths couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed at one another for a moment, still unsure of how to act… … …

… … …before Gorosaurus’ eagle-like vision just caught sight of a fin-like appendage briefly breaking the surf before submerging out of sight once more.

Titanosaurus’ left ear-fin twitched, and the dinosaur began to turn his head before–

WHOOSH!

In a thunderous display, the water two hundred meters from the orange dinosaur suddenly columned upward in a colossal geyser of H2o–and from the massive eruption of water, something vast leapt forth like a dolphin into the air, and into visual range. A huge, crimson Kronosaurus-like beast with clawed flippers and a gigantic tail ending with a fluke-like fin, soared powerfully through the air, water trailing behind its red body like a comet in a moment that almost seemed like time itself had slowed down. The beast’s head was triangular and massive, but what caught all three kaiju–Titanosaurus most of all–by complete surprise the most was that the creature possessed the same-shaped fin and antennae-like appendages on its whale-like skull. While significantly different, it also bore a striking resemblance to Titanosaurus himself–!

WHAM!

So taken aback by the unexpected appearance of this beast, that Titanosaurus barely had a third of a second to register that it was soaring in a perfect arc on a collision course with his own body; thus, the great dinosaur reacted too late when his strange lookalike slammed into him with grand force, tackling him off his feet with a warbling screech. Up on the cliffs, Varan and Gorosaurus actually jumped when the creatures made impact with the shallows, watching the shocking spectacle with chilling intrigue. It was then that all three beasts, including Titanosaurus himself, took notice of two more attributes this newcomer possessed: one was its eyes. Gorosaurus himself, a veteran of many battles, had looked into the eyes of many entities throughout his life, from King Kong to King Ghidorah. Some eyes looked fierce and primeval like his own, perfectly painting the picture of a feral animal just doing what it does to survive in a harsh world. Some eyes looked firm and strong, like those of the King of the Monsters himself, signifying the personality of a creature with a strong heart and an unbreakable will. Some eyes were downright pure evil and horridly psychopathic, like the terrible eyes of the long-vanquished King Ghidorah, emanating an identical personality. Had either Varan, Gorosaurus or Titanosaurus possessed a thought process to determine human words, only one word would’ve described the look of this mysterious new creature’s eyes:

Mythical.

The eyes of this pliosaur-like beast looked downright mythical. Like the eyes of not a feral animal or a demonic destroyer, but of a mythical God or deity carrying out whatever unknown tasks the fates had designed for it. Looking at the beast’s face was like looking upon the face of some legendary dragon or sea spirit from the humans’ mythologies. Just taking one glance upon those eyes and all three prehistoric reptiles were ridden with chills.

But it was the second attribute that froze their souls solid like ice.

A very familiar row of ivory-white plates of solid bone ran down the leviathan’s back, weaved in the shape of maple leaves. Both Varan and Gorosaurus widened their already shocked eyes. Only one other kaiju possessed such a feature. Amidst the struggle against his crimson attacker, Titanosaurus also took notice, and his pupils narrowed. But even the initial shock of that was nothing compared to what followed when his attacker’s scent entered his nasal passage. Like his other dinosaurian relatives, Titanosaurus’ nose never lied; it fed him a wealth of information upon every whiff, and when it didn’t know something, that means he wouldn’t know it either. And when it did know something, it knew. Never in his life had Titanosaurus mistrusted or even so much as questioned his incredible sense of smell and the information it fed him.

Never, that was, until this eye-bulging moment.

Titanosaurus had dangerously lost the will to move in his shock. No, there was absolutely no way, that was just downright impossible. There was no way it was him! One vague resemblance versus an entirely different appearance means an entirely different creature! This animal bore almost no resemblance to the atomic monster–and yet, his nose told him otherwise. The scent was clear. Its aroma was exactly identical to his old rival from the past. Not a relative, not a lookalike, they were the same creature. Deep down, he knew his nose wasn’t lying. In his shock, Titanosaurus uttered a screech.

… … …Godzilla?!

It couldn’t be, it should’ve been completely impossible, but it was. Godzilla was tackling him to the shallows with a body clad in crimson scales and a head that resembled his very own, clamping upon his neck with pointed-toothed jaws. A completely new red spurted from the punctures in his orange flesh to flood into the water of the same color, lost from sight.

Titanosaurus’ shock finally gave way to pain and he screeched with it, but as such the pain snapped his survival instincts back out into motion, and at last Titanosaurus retaliated. Curling his right hand into a fist, the dinosaur smashed it against the leviathan’s neck with a powerful blow that rippled the creature’s skin. Just by a slight margin, Godzilla’s toothy hold loosened, and Titanosaurus capitalized on it. Throwing his fist forward again, the dinosaur punched his strange rival in the neck a second time; this time Godzilla recoiled back with jaws agape, releasing the orange saurian entirely. As the Monster King lurked backwards half-submerged beneath the shallows, Titanosaurus planted his hands against the ground beneath the crimson waters as he pushed himself back to his feet, a shrill bellow echoing from his jaws. Godzilla continued to hold his position, legendary eyes breaking the surf to stare at him like a crocodile.

Varan and Gorosaurus continued to stare at the scene with anxious, wide-eyed uncertainty; their eyes darting to and fro between both Titanosaurus and ‘Godzilla.’ Both of them had caught the scent, and they too were every bit as shocked out of their minds as the aquatic dinosaur at what their nasal passages told them. And as if that weren’t enough, now the two oceanic titans were at a tense standoff, each eying one another from a decent distance as they waited for one to make the first move. Titanosaurus growled as he straightened his 115-meter body into a combat-ready position, flexing his muscles into place as he eyed this strange, new version of his rival from the past. Godzilla Aquatilis made no noise as his draconic eyes followed Titanosaurus’ every possible movement, fixing him with a most bone-chilling gaze. The two lookalikes were like two cowboys in a Texas standoff, or two honorable Japanese warriors facing one another in a silent preparation for law-abiding combat; the dead-quiet atmosphere so thick with heart-pounding tension that anyone could break it with so much as the prick of a decaying pine needle… … …

The fates took such a notion personally when they instead blasted a wide, clean hole in it with a shotgun.

Godzilla burst forth in an explosion of frothing water, jaws agape–but this time he jumped not in an arc, but in a straight line like a torpedo. Titanosaurus, surprised as he was, reacted with the half-second he had and threw his hands down together in a fist, smashing Godzilla in the left shoulder just as he reached mere inches from his shin. With a cracking THUD! that sent a burst of water into the sky and shook the cliffs with the force of a Mercalli Scale VI earthquake, Godzilla was slammed flat onto his stomach with painful force, jaws clamping shut instantly. Titanosaurus roared as he quickly reached down and snagged the Monster King by the neck, but the moment his claws applied pressure to their grip the amphibious reptile immediately began to roll like a crocodile, the water splashing in huge bursts as he did so. Titanosaurus staggered as he lost his grip, and Godzilla took advantage of it quicker than the orange dinosaur thought he could.

Lunging forward a second time, Godzilla successfully snapped his teeth upon Titanosaurus’ upper leg, drawing blood immediately. And before Titanosaurus could even cry out in pain, the King of the Monsters went into another alligator-like death roll; the bodily force was easily enough to force the dinosaur off his feet with a quaking splash. Like a crocodile wrangler, the screeching aquatic dinosaur wrestled fiercely with his rival amidst the crimson tide; their conflict a visual mess of towering splashes of H2o, huge bodies thrashing amidst the crimson water, and massive tails whipping about with enough force to shatter ocean trenches. Neither Varan nor Gorosaurus could clearly make out what was happening amidst the dreadful combat, nor could they tell who was gaining an advantage over whom–if either of them even were in the first place.

And through the spattering haze, Godzilla’s legendary dorsal plates stuck out to the eye like a warhammer in a silverware shop.

Amidst the titanic struggle for survival below the cliffs, a new red haze was gradually beginning to obscure specific details of the battle. A strange cloud of crimson vapor or dust was, albeit very slowly, beginning to make the task of seeing the combatants harder as they thrashed in their aquatic dogfight. None of the prehistoric cretins knew what this strange material was or where it was coming from, but so far none of it really mattered.

Titanosaurus snarled as he bit down upon Godzilla’s neck with all his jaw strength, and a bellowing roar was forced from the Monster King’s whale-like jaws. Blood flooded the dinosaur’s teeth, and Titanosaurus felt a feeling of satisfaction grace his brain. He would not deny that a part of him had always longed to get some form of payback against his rival for the pain he had inflicted all those years ago–even if it was in a form that should not exist. His brain putting such questions out of his mind for now, Titanosaurus began to shake his head like an angry dog, trying to open new wounds in the leviathan’s flesh–but Godzilla responded by twisting his gigantic body about and rolling over once again, yanking Titanosaurus along with him. Water and light patches of red dust whipped and splashed about as the pliosaur-like beast moved with powerful force.

In a tremendous display of physical might, Godzilla wrestled out of Titanosaurus’ toothy grasp with a spurt of blood and powered sideways with his tail, leaping away from the orange dinosaur and splashing back down in slightly deeper waters.

Bursting to his feet with a booming shrill, Titanosaurus reared his tail up off the ground and slammed it down–and then, with one quick motion, the end of his tail snapped open like a pair of scissors to unfold the yellow fin. Quickly turning about on his heels, Titanosaurus whipped himself around a full 180 degrees and began to sway his tail back and forth. Harder and with more power added to each movement he swished, and before long a series of vicious winds kicked up from the motion to assail the Monster King. The waves which once frothed against the shores of the Moher Cliffs now not only blew backwards, but grew in size and power tenfold. Red dust and powerful waves alike crashed and slammed against Godzilla’s position with impacts that would shatter a crowd of grown human beings to pieces, obscuring the leviathan from view. Even still, Titanosaurus continued to power his tail harder than ever; not letting up in the slightest as he continued to batter his strangely transformed old rival with his gale force winds until he deemed it fit to cease. The ocean itself was a roaring locomotive of harsh windstorms and crashing waves that extended farther back than just the shoreline, as if Poseidon himself were venting his rage.

Only when a truly impressive forty-nine seconds passed and Titanosaurus’ tail began to hurt with fatigue did the bipedal saurian finally begin to slow his gust attack, his mighty tail gradually losing its pace with each passing second. As his tail finally came to a graceful halt the dinosaur allowed himself a moment to pant with tiredness. Such a task had taken a decent toll on his muscles; it was necessary he take a breather to replenish his strength, and ease the ache his tail had acquired. As he breathed, Titanosaurus looked over his shoulder to view upon the calming seas. Up on the cliffs, Varan and Gorosaurus looked and sniffed about, their eyes seeing nothing else on the battlefield.

Godzilla was nowhere to be found… … …

The water offshore rippled in a straight line as something massive powered through the veil at mach speeds. Yellow eyes widening and pupils narrowing into slits, Titanosaurus had only just begun to contort his muscles to begin turning around when the massive form broke the crimson surf and burst forth with an agile leap. On the cliffs, Varan and Gorosaurus jolted back in shock, a twinge of fear fighting to grip their mighty souls. Godzilla’s aim and timing was spot on; the King of the Monsters struck the sea-dwelling dinosaur like an organic asteroid, his massive jaws slamming shut upon his neck like a giant bear trap as they landed upon the shore with a splashing quake. Titanosaurus howled painfully through the haze of water and dust; Gorosaurus and Varan gazed at the shrouded spectacle with bulging eyes, taking a second to actually look at one another before turning back to the almost indiscernible combat. Everything had suddenly shifted so fast, changed in the blink of an eye, they could hardly keep up with it all.

Titanosaurus felt his claws slash across Godzilla’s hide, but such a blow did little to stem the leviathan’s wrath. With a growling roar, the Monster King gaped his jaws before biting down upon the dinosaur’s neck a second time. The saurian warbled in pain as blood flowed from the holes punctured into his flesh, his neck vertebrae actually cracking from the force of the bite. He tried to fight back, but Godzilla was out-wrestling him viciously, physically overpowering him with sheer might alone. Titanosaurus struggled, slashing feebly away at the creature’s neck with his right hand, but the aquatic menace had him pinned where he wanted him. The dinosaur couldn’t fight back the way he needed to, couldn’t shove the leviathan off of him.

He was trapped.

Godzilla applied more pressure to his toothy grip, his jaws like a diamond-forged vice. Titanosaurus’ bellows of pain became louder as the Monster King bit once again, and yet another painful crack was heard even by the other two monstrous occupants watching the shifting combat from above. Still, the dinosaur continued to attack the only way he could, and slashed at his rival’s neck harder while trying to push with his other hand… … …

Godzilla opened his jaws with a guttural bellow, then bit down with an all-resounding CRACK!

The ground thudded from a reptilian head impacting the rocks. The blood that shed unto the shoreline could not be seen amidst the scarlet water and red dust, but the shift in audio that followed was a spine-chilling warning in of itself: Titanosaurus’ roars had ceased, and the mighty dinosaur had stopped moving. Varan and Gorosaurus took a step back with widened eyes, their hearts nearly thudding to a complete stop. Even with their spectacular eyesight that put an eagle to shame, they could barely see the once-powerful aquatic dinosaur through the clumps of red dust–and his massive form wasn’t moving.

And like knives in the water, Godzilla’s legendary dorsal spines weaved through the crimson clouds towards the base of the Moher Cliffs, coming to a quaking halt as more plumes of the scarlet material puffed upwards to obscure the Monster King from view.

A screech of mixed confusion and nervousness left Varan’s jaws as he took three steps back, the silence a deafening bang to his ears as the realization began to sink in like a molten dagger into his flesh. Even the normally stoic Gorosaurus took a step back as the cliffs shuddered, the unmistakable tremor of Godzilla’s body meeting their build rattling soil and soul alike. At this, Varan pawed the ground beneath him and roared a thunderous warning at the aquatic leviathan, a warning for him not to come any closer.

The Great Mountain God couldn’t have picked a worse time to issue such a warning, because as if by sheer lazy convenience, Godzilla echoed a threatening bellow from below–and began to drag himself up the rock face. Amidst the clouds of red dust that were now thicker than ever, the King of Kaiju could barely be seen at all by even the sharpest of eyes; only the outline of his iconic dorsal plates could be properly made out. But regardless, his massive weight could be felt dragging upwards along the solid rock. Just by feeling it, both Varan and Gorosaurus knew exactly what was happening. It made no sense, especially knowing the Monster King’s new physical build, but it was happening.

Godzilla was climbing up the cliffs to meet them.

Plumes of the red dust pillared upwards as the leviathan moved, and both giant saurians gave the scene a wide berth as the powerful rumbling of the climbing goliath grew in intensity… … …then, through the haze of crimson particles, a clawed hand reached upwards to slam upon the edge of the cliff with a thunderous BOOM! The claws sank into the soil to grip the earth with an incomprehensible force, and through the spreading cloud of red dust a massive shadow began to loom from behind the edge of the Moher Cliffs. A sonorous growl reverberated from the scarlet fog like the aftershocks of the most powerful earthquake, and the huge shadow of the King of the Monsters continued to rise into view, his other limb colliding with the ground with yet another powerful quake. The earth trembled as thousands of metric tons of colossal reptilian flesh dragged their huge body forward, the ground rattling yet again as the unseen beast lumbered forth. Then, as a scaled paw reached out of the red dust to plant against the ground with yet another grand impact, the monolith came to a halt… … …and reared his draconic head out of the crimson haze.

What the two saurians saw left them soundless–especially the great ‘Baradagi’ himself.

The dust blew about the legendary monster’s great form, revealing the results of what should have been an impossible transformation that had gone entirely unseen by the reptilian duo. Stripes of black lined a bulky four-legged body covered with bumpy orange scales, like the coat of a tiger painted upon a giant lizard. At first, Varan’s mind registered the beast before him as a mirror of himself; it shared the same head and body! It looked almost identical to him–but his nose told him otherwise. There should have been no way it was possible, but his nostrils confirmed the creature’s identity without a single falter–and if they didn’t, then the row of maple leaf-shaped spines that still ran down its back did the job. Re-forged in a physique mimicking Varan’s own bodily outline, Godzilla stood before him in a new and larger form. The flipper-like limbs had now shrunk a bit to make way for extended ‘fingers’ tipped with claws, repurposed for the task of terrestrial locomotion. A lengthy tail of gigantic proportions swayed behind him, even longer than his own body. His legendary eyes still holding their aura of pure mythical fierceness, Godzilla Amphibia gaped his jaws and roared forth a pure mimic of Varan’s own terrifying war cry, as if mocking the Great Mountain God; the force of the bellow blowing away the red dust to make room for the giants to do battle.

Neither Gorosaurus nor Varan could be happier about it.

Snarling with a vengeance, Varan charged forth with the prowess of a giant stallion, teeth bared and claws tensed to rip his lookalike apart. Not far away, Gorosaurus broke into a sprint, howling with feral fury. He didn’t care that this was the revered King of the Monsters himself despite his radically different appearance; he never even liked Godzilla anyways. He was more than content with the idea of him dead by his jaws.

But unfortunately for both kaiju, neither of their wishes seemed destined to come true as easily as they so desperately longed.

Turning his gigantic body on his heels faster than he looked capable, Godzilla contorted his mighty build to swing his huge tail with impressive velocity. By the time the saurian duo had an idea of just what they were in for, it was oh so way too late; Godzilla’s tail struck both prehistoric beasts with breath-ripping force, sending both flying back like pinballs. The Moher Cliffs shook with rippling shockwaves as two massive bodies impacted the earth to skid along the soil like drunken brawlers, dragging huge trenches through the ground as they did so. Loud retches managed to seep from their jaws in place of roars of pain, the blow having been so powerful it knocked the air out of their mighty lungs.

Varan’s jaws inhaled an excruciating gasp of air as he lifted his head off the ground, muscling through the pain as he panted to regain a much needed dose of oxygen into his lungs. His side ached tremendously from the force of the blow, but his limbs could still hold him up, and if he could stand then he could fight. Panting a little softer to ease up on himself, the mighty triphibian pushed himself back to his feet, snarling viciously as he turned on the Monster King.

Godzilla barely moved, sans the swinging of his massive tail, but his mystical yellow eyes still held their chilling gaze on the prehistoric Obake. Varan bounded towards the quadrupedal colossus like a giant hare, taking note of that massive tail for future reference. Sure enough, the King of the Monsters was beginning to tense his massive form, seemingly preparing to swing that huge tail once again. Then, right as the gap between him and the mountain god had narrowed to the point of almost nonexistence, Varan suddenly spread his limbs wide and leaped into the air. Spreading flaps of skin like a flying squirrel, the great lizard took to the skies with a loud screech, now gliding on the winds out of Godzilla’s reach!

Godzilla’s xanthic eyes remained transfixed on Varan, his head moving slowly as he watched him soar like a giant albatross. So focused on Varan was he, however, that the reptilian yokai did not pay notice to another presence looming behind him, moving at a leisurely pace like a black leopard stalking a deer. Planting his feet against the ground so softly as to not be detected, Gorosaurus bared his teeth as he gradually closed the distance between him and the… … …even in his hunt, the Allosaurus couldn’t help but mentally smack himself. It couldn’t be the Monster King, just… … …couldn’t be. There had to be some kind of trickery going on, this had to be a different creature merely mimicking Godzilla’s scent to frighten newcomers. An otherworldly shape-shifting entity that was trying to play some kind of ploy to catch them off guard before it took them by surprise.

Suddenly realizing that he was beginning to lose his pace, Gorosaurus put those thoughts aside and re-steadied himself, grateful that the tiger-striped mimic of Varan hadn’t noticed him yet; he was still paying attention to the still-airborne Baradagi.

Good. That gave the carnosaur exactly the opportunity he wanted.

‘Godzilla’ uttered yet another thunderous challenge to the gliding squamate–and Gorosaurus judged the time to be exactly right. Not a single golden opportunity shone brighter than now, and the dinosaur struck. So close to Godzilla he could reach over and touch him with his snout, Gorosaurus snapped backwards to lean on his tail like a kangaroo, then lashed out with both legs. The Monster King didn’t even notice the primeval carnivore until the Kangaroo Kick crashed against his side with a reverberating CRACK! and sent him toppling onto his side. His jaws gaping wider than ever, Godzilla roared in pain for the very first time, and Gorosaurus didn’t waste a second to act. With the prowess of a hunting wild dog, the giant Allosaurus pounced upon the reptilian ghoul and clamped his long jaws upon his neck. The dinosaur’s wishes came true when his teeth successfully pierced Godzilla’s flesh, and he suppressed the urge to purr with delight when the Kaiju King’s blood flooded his gums.

He was lucky he hadn’t, because if he had, then he would’ve been shut right up when Godzilla gathered all the uncontested power in his muscles and pushed himself right back on his feet, rearing his head with a roar that threatened to break Gorosaurus’ eardrums. Gathering more ounces of his legendary strength, Godzilla whipped himself to his left with yet another angry roar, then to his right, trying to thrash the theropod off of him. Gorosaurus held on like a bulldog, but even his incredible jaw strength was being tested to his limits by the sheer physical power fueling the Monster King’s might. Godzilla bellowed and whipped himself to the left again–

–and was knocked back on the ground when Varan tackled him from the air!

The mythical shape-shifter’s huge tail pulverized the earth as his huge body hit the ground, a furious howl leaving his jaws, but was heightened to a painful pitch when Varan slammed his tail down into Godzilla’s face, smacking it back to the ground. Roaring his dominance, the Great Mountain God assailed the downed behemoth with a vicious fury, slashing and biting away at his tiger-striped scales like a frenzied Kodiak Bear. Gorosaurus roared and reared back on his tail once again, slamming the King Kaiju with yet another Kangaroo Kick before he joined in the brutal mauling. With extreme delight, he bit down on Godzilla’s neck once more and shook his head to slice his knife-like teeth through his flesh, all the while reaching forward to scratch bleeding trenches into his skin with his clawed forearms.

As the two prehistoric animals mauled their strange opposition, Godzilla began to push himself up and down, undulating his thick girth like a seal as he tried to reposition himself. Still, his enemies continued to bite and claw viciously into his flesh, tearing more painful wounds that drew streams of red to stain the grass and dirt he lay upon–but none of that meant he was helpless in the slightest.

And both Varan and Gorosaurus were about to learn this the hard way.

Gathering all the strength in his lower body he could, Godzilla reared his tail as high off the ground as he possibly could, waving it like a mythical sea serpent–and then, with all his might, he slammed it back down upon the earth with such force that it gave him a large enough boost of momentum to roll him off his side, and back onto his feet. And despite his blubbery weight and girth, Godzilla attacked faster than he looked capable of; powering both of his flipper-like forelimbs forward, the draconic Oni lunged forth and clamped his strong jaws around Gorosaurus’ right leg. His fangs buried themselves deep into his flesh and actually managed to ever-so-slightly pierce the bone, and Gorosaurus reared his head to howl to the sky in excruciating pain. Seeing his ally’s predicament, Varan lunged down and plunged his teeth into Godzilla’s neck as hard as his jaw muscles could allow, drawing squirts of crimson from the evolved creature. The Monster King growled in pain, but amazingly muscled through it, and concentrated all his strength and momentum into yanking himself at an impressive 90o angle, throwing Gorosaurus across the battlefield as if he weighed no more than a football. The impact of the dinosaur’s 47,000 metric ton body smashing against the ground was painful enough to knock the wind out of the great predator, but the repeated impacts followed by the long skidding to a dirty halt made it even worse.

With the giant Allosaurus out of the way, Godzilla bellowed mightily and set to thrashing his heavy body from side-to-side, fully intent on dislodging Varan. The great lizard was hanging on with all his strength, keeping his teeth buried beneath Godzilla’s orange flesh as if his life depended on it–which he strongly suspected it did. But no matter how hard he held on, no matter how much strength he applied to his grip, even the mighty Baradagi was slowly reaching towards his limit against the powerful thrashing of the King of the Monsters.

With one tremendous, bodily yank to his left, Godzilla sent Varan flying off of him, but before he could hit the ground the revered Baradagi spread his limbs wide and kept flying. Straightening himself out, the squamate took to the skies with a roar, gliding out of Godzilla’s reach yet again. But he couldn’t keep his flight up for long; his body was tired, and he needed to replenish his energy. So, being sure as to keep a careful distance from the shape-shifting Monster King, Varan glided down carefully until he landed as softly as he could upon the earth, panting tiredly. A distance away, Gorosaurus uttered a barely-audible growl as he shakily managed to return to his feet, dry-heaving to regain a good dose of air himself.

It was hopeless to believe Godzilla would give them such an opportunity.

A strange, screaming hiss began to emanate from Godzilla’s parted jaws as he gaped at his prehistoric foes. At first, neither Varan nor Gorosaurus had a clue as to what he was doing, only perceiving the strange noises as a vocal threat display of some kind. But as both kaiju began to stalk closer, they suddenly felt a change in the very air and earth around them. They couldn’t quite tell how or why, but the already cool temperature of the area had suddenly started to drop rapidly. Within seconds, both archaic reptiles felt the air become hostile and downright frigid–and that was when they noticed why. His head aimed down, Godzilla was vomiting some kind of transparent vapor from his jaws, spewing it on the ground and allowing it to spread rapidly like the waves of a tsunami. That strange, screaming hiss still echoing from his fanged maw, Godzilla jutted his skull up and, with a deep roar, breathed forth his frigid ice vapor, directly washing it over his two reptilian enemies to bathe them in a continuous, sub-zero breeze.

It was so cold that in only a few moments, neither Varan nor Gorosaurus could find the strength to move. Their skin had already become coated in an outer layer of ice particles, their massive bodies being chilled to the very bone. Varan roared in distress as he tried to summon the strength to move, to get out of the frozen winds, but he was so cold that his muscles were beginning to fail him and his movements to become slow and sluggish. Not too far from his position, Gorosaurus was only barely able to wade through the freezing assault–and his movements were slowing by the second just as well, the cold taking its own effect on him to the point where he practically limped towards Godzilla if anything.

Varan had only managed to take three steps to the side, no more, before his legs began to shake like dying trees. His head drooping like a tired dog as his body began to lower to the ground, even the great Varan could bear this kind of freezing cold no longer. His monolithic body wracked with terrible hypothermia, his scales coated with frost, his eyes slowly beginning to flutter closed, Varan managed to bemoan one last roar before slumping to the ground with a booming THUD!

Crouching low to the ground like a giant rooster, Gorosaurus watched the Varanopode fall to Godzilla’s sub-zero wrath. As of right now, he was the only one left standing in Godzilla’s path–and his instincts told him that unless he found a way to avoid or at least resist this frigid cold in some way shape or form, that would not be the case for much longer. The giant Allosaurus shivered all over, his greenish-brown scales gradually beginning to become covered in a new shade of whitening gray as the terrible temperatures assailed his body. Growling as fiercely as his lungs could allow, he tried his hardest to keep his eyes open just enough to keep Godzilla in his visual field, and even that was a near-impossible task in of itself. Quivering like a surfer in the middle of a blizzard, Gorosaurus could only manage a weak rasp of a growl as he held flat on his stomach, his talons digging painfully into the frozen ground as he held on with whatever strength he had left to weather this storm.

He was so cold, his mind battered so viciously by the mental battle to try and stay conscious, that he didn’t even notice Godzilla’s ice vapor come to a sudden halt.

The evolved yokai had ceased spewing his frosty blast, his jaws slowly beginning to close as his head began to lower. The entire land was now caked with ice and small layers of snow, Gorosaurus and Varan looking nothing more so much as frozen statues; nobody was going to be moving for quite some time. With a hollow, echoing rumble, Godzilla drooped his draconic skull as his massive tail fell to the ground…

Mondo Island’s great predator was steadily losing his battle to stay awake. Not even the likes of his might was immune to such brutal powers of nature as this. It was a most woebegone sight, to see such a majestic and powerful apex predator who once prowled unopposed as the biggest fish in the sea, reduced to a pathetic creature trapped in a position of helplessness against a bigger beast that wielded the most formidable powers of Mother Nature; a fearful prehistoric hunter reduced to a pitiful state as a withering, frozen shadow of his former self. And yet, even as unconsciousness began to start its process of taking hold of his mind, the giant Allosaurus fought against it; a breath of frigid vapor wisping from his ice-covered jaws as he tried with everything he had to take a trembling step forward.

He managed to take two steps before unconsciousness finally struck the victorious blow against the mighty Gorosaurus.

*****

He had no clue how long he had been out.

Intelligent as he was, the specifics of the concept of time were lost on the awakening, feral mind of the primeval carnivore known as Gorosaurus. Not that a creature like him needed it; such human mindsets were of no requirement for apex predators such as himself to survive in a harsh and unforgiving world. What WAS required, however, was a great many things involving doing whatever possible to not push one’s bodily functions to their limits–and what a truly grueling assault past his limits, the dinosaur’s huge body had indeed endured.

A loud crack echoed across the frost-ridden cliffs as an eyelid drenched in a layer of ice managed to snap itself open, its owner’s once-incredible eyesight now tediously blurry and uneven. Waking up after being out for who-knows-how-long was a traumatizing, painful experience for Gorosaurus–and it was only just gonna get better. As the Allosaurus managed to push open his other eyelid and assault his eyesight with yet more additions to his blurry visual hell, the other senses of his brain slowly began the process of waking up, one after another.

First, his sense of bodily thermoregulation crawled back from the grave, and half a second after merely twitching the dinosaur suddenly shut his eyes tightly as he failed to muster the energy to growl, his scaly form suddenly beaten to a pulp by the horrific below-zero temperatures that still ravaged him from the inside out. Next were his pain receptors; Gorosaurus’ eyes snapped back open when full bodily sensation returned in complete and brutal force, and as a result, the carnosaur realized that he was so cold he felt like he was burning in the pits of Tartarus. Summoning just enough air in his lungs to moan miserably, Gorosaurus voiced his frigid torment to the world as best he could, his eyes bloodshot red with wrathful agony.

His sense of smell returned before his eyesight did.

Freezing pain still wracking his body, Gorosaurus suddenly forced his frozen upper lip to crack and curl upwards to bare his teeth, a hoarse snarl suddenly rippling through his sore throat. A scent he hated with a passion had entered his nostrils, and memories began flooding his primeval mind with a vengeance. Just like that, he remembered everything that had happened prior to his frigid torture–and more importantly, who had inflicted such torment. Gathering all his strength to shake his head, Gorosaurus blinked once to clear his eyesight as he began to fight back against the hypothermia brutalizing his body once again, straining to move as he managed to face his head in the direction of his opponent who’s scent he very clearly detected in the area… … …

Gorosaurus’ vision was as spectacular as it was supposed to be once again–but out of all the emotions running through his brain, utter and complete confusion reigned king among them.

Godzilla still remained on the battlefield, still resided a good few hundred meters away from the freezing dinosaur–but there was something strangely off about him. The Monster King’s entire quadrupedal form was covered in a glimmering, seemingly crystalline layer of charcoal-black rock and minerals, centered in a crater that had long since evaporated the nearby snow. When looked at from certain angles, the light reflected off the smooth surface of the minerals seemed to give the impression of different beautiful colors, from red to green to some shades of purple and pink. The shape-shifting yokai was frozen in place entirely, as if he had been turned into a giant black mineral statue vaguely resembling his former self.

Not too far away, the frozen, unmoving body of Varan lay upon the earth, nearly all recognizable features muted by the coats of ice and snow adorning his fallen body, but Gorosaurus barely paid him any attention.

Gorosaurus stared intently at the black quartz-covered Kaiju King. He wanted to run at it, to attack his enemy while he was still and vulnerable, but he couldn’t. The theropod could barely move; it was a battle just trying to take a step. Just like when he had actually been enduring Godzilla’s freezing vapor, the dinosaur was in a losing race against the furious cold that wracked his body now. Gorosaurus cursed his withering condition with a growl, then strained once more as he tried to take another step forward. The carnivore nearly toppled off his feet from the enormously torturous pressure in his one leg as he carried his other foot forward, just barely managing to place it upon the frozen ground. His talons cracked the ice and frost below him as he moved, a surge of half-pain, half-numbness shooting though his foot and making him stop to pant it out.

The ice beneath his talons cracked further as the dinosaur put more pressure on his foot–which overshadowed a different crack from a considerably different source. Gorosaurus was so preoccupied with his own predicament, that he hadn’t even noticed a tiny chunk of Godzilla’s crystal chrysalis break off his lowered head and fall to the floor. Gorosaurus panted his last and summoned his sapped strength once more to spend it on taking another step, his claws successfully making contact with the ground yet again, but still making him stumble with pain.

A crack echoed off the frozen King of the Monsters as yet another piece of mineral fell off his cocoon–and this time, the weary Gorosaurus heard it loud and clear.

His pupils suddenly narrowing into alarmed slits, the giant Allosaurus coldly, shakily reared his head up to stare at the blackened leviathan, keeping him within his gaze–and sure enough, another piece suddenly broke off and tumbled down the quadruped’s crystal-covered bulk to the ground below. And yet another piece… … …and another followed suit. And yet another in quickening succession. Loud, powerful cracks began to echo from within the layers of breaking rock, as if the plates of the earth’s crust itself were shifting and grinding like gears in a machine. More and more pieces of black, reflective rock began to break and fall off the ogreish lizard as Godzilla’s chrysalis gradually began to crumble apart right before Gorosaurus’ very widening eyes.

And there, as the cocoon began its death, the frozen Monster King moved.

The once-frozen yokai had suddenly begun to rear up off the ground, gradually rising taller and taller as more and more glass-like reflections of red, green, blue, purple and more fell off of it to scatter the ground around him… … …giving way to revealing something underneath. As more reflective rocks and minerals descended off the creature, its once Varan-like shape began to crumble away with it–and in turn revealed surprising, fresh features of a brand-new design. Jade-green, crocodile-like scales adorned a sturdy, reptilian beast cast in the image of a theropod dinosaur; with lithe, strong legs ending in three-toed talons and long forearms that curled fingers tipped with wicked claws. A long tail swung behind the transformed beast, balancing its new theropod-shaped structure. A head that resembled a terrifying, yet mystical cross between a giant snake and a legendary Japanese Oni opened a mouth filled to the brim with several rows of hooked, python-like teeth–baring twin tusk-like fangs that curved sideways out of the mouth even when the jaws were closed–and roared a powerful bellow that made the earth tremble for miles around. Two yellow eyes glared their mythical wrath upon the primeval carnivore, eyes that were so tightly close to one another and so far down the snout that for a moment Gorosaurus thought they were part of the beast’s nostrils.

And along its back, still remained those unmistakable dorsal spines–except now, there were three rows instead of just one.

For a brief moment, Gorosaurus allowed himself to be shocked, as it seemed the beast had saved its next mimicking of appearances just for him. For a moment, the giant Allosaurus looked upon the beast and registered it as a mirror of himself; yet another chilling mockery meant to take him entirely off guard–and it was working like a sorcerer’s magic. But still, that unlying all-too recognizable scent flooded his nostrils to let him know exactly who it still was–and now that Gorosaurus stared at him, he could see that it was starting to make sense. He was starting to see the traits he knew from memory in this new form. Right from the beginning he smelled the beast and he smelled Godzilla–and now, he was beginning to attest to it.

Plumes of red dust expelling along his body like gusts of wind, Godzilla Terrestris stood to his full mighty height and howled forth yet another mountain-quaking roar… … …then, as he lowered back into a traditional theropod stance, his dorsal spines began to glow.

Gorosaurus widened his eyes, knowing exactly what that meant by experience. Those spines shone with the exact same azure luminescence that he remembered, the glow that betrayed the coming of one thing and one thing only. And yet, despite this knowledge, he could do nothing. Godzilla’s previous attack had taken its terrible toll on the giant Allosaurus; his body was still chilled to the core, his once-mighty form was far too weak to dodge or jump out of the way, or avoid the inevitable oncoming attack in any way shape or form. He was trapped in the line of fire and he knew it, and as of this moment there was only one thing left to do: weather the storm yet again. His eyes furrowing into a determined glare of fury, Gorosaurus bared his teeth and managed to utter a savage snarl, preparing to endure the explosive outcome that was about to fly his way.

Godzilla roared and gaped his fanged jaws, and a beautifully haunting halo of azure energy formed in front of his maw. It was as if the Monster King were lining the dinosaur up in his target zone, locking him in his line of sight so his ranged attack would hit him with precise accuracy, like a veteran sniper taking aim at a target. Chiming like a demonic bell, the glowing ring grew gradually in size as it continued to hover in front of Godzilla’s gaping jaws, the dinosaurian yokai arching his neck back at a tortoise’s pace as he slowly started preparing to let loose. Still, the crippled Gorosaurus refused to show any fear in the face of defeat and doom alike; the radioactive ring casting his glaring, prehistoric face in a cerulean glow that seemed to illuminate his unbreakable spirit. Baring his pearly whites, Gorosaurus fearlessly snarled a wordless version of the same concept:

Hit me with your best shot.

With a roaring bark, the dorsal-plated reptilian jutted his neck straight and Godzilla fired. But rather than the atomic heat ray Gorosaurus was so used to, the King of Kaiju instead launched the atomic halo in front of his mouth directly at him, sending it speeding towards him like a rocket. The carnosaur growled as he stood defiant, only hoping he could endure the incoming impact… … …

CLANG!

The atomic halo collided with Gorosaurus with yet another sound akin to a bell chiming and dissipated in a burst of shimmering blue particles, and a blow of pure unequaled power rippled through the giant Allosaurus–and the outcome became sadly clear. Even the might of the magnificent predator could not withstand such a strike. Rearing back like a tree, the great apex predator of Mondo Island pointed his skull to the heavens and forced all the air in his lungs to utter one long, loud roar that rippled the waters and rattled the earth… … …and then, eyes drooping closed and his ancient voice echoing away to a halt, the 47,000 metric tons of prehistoric predator fell forward to collide with the frost-ridden soil with a BOOM! that reverberated through the landscapes of Ireland like the Lord firing a gunshot.

No further movement ever presented itself from the fallen dinosaur again.

The eerie glow of his dorsal plates beginning to fade, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, leered upon the unmistakably defeated form of Gorosaurus with his dragon-like eyes, not even bothering to bat so much as an eye in the direction of any other of his vanquished foes. The fanged yokai just proceeded to lumber onwards without a backwards glance, walking right past the prone forms of his adversaries as if they weren’t even there. With footfalls that shot the Richter Scale up sky-high with every step, the shape-shifting reptilian loomed through the engorging clouds of red dust that seemed to follow him wherever he went, looking like a malevolent god treading through some plane of existence beyond the mind’s understanding. Once a scene of natural tranquility so catching to the eye it attracted many tourists and photographers, the Moher Cliffs had been transformed into a scene straight out of an alternate dimension inhabited by eldritch monstrosities and deities humankind couldn’t imagine–and it wasn’t going to stop just there.

Lowering himself to the ground for just a moment, Godzilla then stood up as tall as he possibly could with an all-powerful roar that would’ve put the loudest thunder and the most powerful or hurricanes to shame–and at what seemed to be his very beckoning, red dust exploded everywhere to surge forth in all directions, encompassing all in their path like the ash of a volcanic eruption. A colossal mushroom cloud of the crimson particles burst thousands of meters towards the sky, encompassing the heavens to paint it a hellish crimson as if in defiance of any and all higher powers that may exist in this world. A pillar of scarlet light surged through the center of the gigantic detonation of red dust, pulsing with a terrifying glow as if to signal the end of days to all who could look upon it.

It was a mirror of the very terror that had begun the age of monsters in the first place, a visual replica of humanity’s greatest weapon.

And within the conflagration, so far within it could never be seen by human eyes, the King of the Monsters continued to march unequaled and unopposed through the blood-red sandstorm of his own making, his jade scales continuing to shed more wisps of the maroon particles. Draconic eyes stared unblinking at nothing in particular, hiding whatever mysterious thoughts that dwelled within the mind of the dinosaurian Oni. His head rising through the clouds of crimson, Godzilla let his dorsal spines light aglow once more as he ululated a planet-shaking howl of sheer unfathomable power. A roar that warned any and all who could hear of what was now coming their way.

A warning to all of a hopeless future.

Winner: Godzilla Ultima