
Author: Declan Coughlin | Banner: Dao Zang Moua
The battles of good and evil have been a topic of many stories since time began. Homer’s Odyssey, the tales of the mighty Hercules, the War in Heaven between the Archangel Michael and the Devil. Each of these stories convey a message of good and evil, each side battling for supremacy. Sometimes good would triumph, while other times evil would rule the day. Even in the modern time of man, these struggles continued.
But what happens when two sides of complete evil meet in combat? A battle that would shake the universe as we know it.
Satellites circled the celestial body above Earth known as the Moon, each machine capturing dozens of pictures while rovers collected samples of Moon rock. On the surface, the footprints of Neil Armstrong were still embedded into the surface, serving as a reminder of mankind’s greatest achievement of successfully landing a man on the Moon.
In mere seconds, those signs of achievement would be wiped out.
The surface of the Moon began trembling, as if it was experiencing an earthquake. It split open like an egg, sending fire raining into the empty sky, heralding the apocalypse. The footsteps that had been left by the first man on the moon became little more than empty sand as a monstrous entity began to crawl out of the crack, its sheer size putting the tallest mountains to shame. Its crimson hide carried with it eight serpentine heads, each one silently screaming its hatred into the void.
The vessel of Tsukuyomi, Yamata no Orochi, was finally freed.
The eight headed beast began slowly walking, groaning as its body ached from his imprisonment. Thousands of years ago, when mankind still lived in small farming villages, he had been beaten by an armored paladin of light, with his human form ending up sealed on the Moon, ensuring that his wrath would never be released again. Unfortunately, it seemed the seal wasn’t permanent, and now he was free.
Scanning his surroundings, he saw several of the small drones and rovers recording him, the ones behind the machines watching from Earth in utter shock and fear. Two of Orochi’s maws shot waves of flames, turning the observing crafts into little more than melted scraps. Orochi glanced at Earth, seething in rage. It was time to begin his quest for vengeance on those who wronged him.
Just before he could begin his flight to the planet, he sensed something else arriving. Something alien.
Orochi turned his massive frame around, being utterly shocked by what he saw behind him. The floating entity was as large as him, at least in length. Its body looked nearly transparent, its light blue skin not complementing its true purpose. It was armed with several long, thin tentacles. Perhaps what was most unnerving about the entity was the lack of a mouth, or any facial features for that matter. It was utterly silent, something that even unnerved the mighty Orochi. But the space faring cell was not here by mere coincidence, it was here for one reason and one reason only.
To feed.
Orochi snarled at the multi-armed form in front of him. As little as he knew about the entity, he would not yield to the strange creature. All would know his power, including the alien predator. Immediately, three of the dragon’s heads discharged crimson lightning from their eyes, tearing through the jellyfish like paper, creating gaping holes in its transparent skin. The god grinned in delight, only to see the holes be filled in seconds, the trillions of cells making up the colossal floater repairing its body. Dogora responded by lashing out with two of its tentacles, planting into the dragon’s back. Orochi screamed in agony as he felt his skin dissolve and melt under his foe’s acidic grip.
Before the alien could attempt another move, the draconic kaiju turned four of his heads around to cast hellfire on the tentacles, severing them from the main body where they slowly fell down to the Moon’s surface. Dogora jerked itself back while its tendrils quickly healed. The crimson serpent turned to gaze upon his wounds. Long, stinging scars lined a part of the hydra’s back, every movement only worsening the pain. With a silent hiss of frustration, the titanic destroyer glared at Dogora, declaring no mercy with a screech that went unheard in the depths of space. Orochi once more began shooting more lightning, this time out of his mouths, which shredded the anomalous monster’s jelly-like skin before more tentacles shot forward. They wrapped around one of Orochi’s heads, slowly tearing through the scaly flesh. Orochi screamed as he felt the trapped neck begin to creak, each yank from his opponents tentacles bringing it closer and closer to decapitation.
An unheard tearing made it evident of what happened.
Eventually, the neck could take no more, and was decapitated from the eight-headed dragon’s body. The serpent howled in rage at the loss of one of his heads, watching the head be absorbed into the alien’s body, the nutrients actually making it slightly grow in size. Upon seeing this, Orochi could only see red as he flew towards his opponent. For the first time since the battle started, Dogora showed something reminiscent of a personality, visibly jerking back in surprise before throwing more tendrils at the dragon. Despite its efforts, they were blasted apart by waves of fire and lightning, another tentacle slowly falling to the Moon’s surface as it was blasted off.
Orochi, having a plan, braced himself for the pain that was to follow before tackling Dogora in midair, actually bringing the multicellular organism down to the Moon’s surface, feeling his body being swallowed by his opponent’s acidic touch. Every second brought more waves of agony as Orochi’s flesh boiled and melted, his opponent gorging itself on nutrients. Orochi, fighting through the pain, began to fire waves of fire from four of his maws, while his three other heads discharged crimson lightning from both their mouths and eyes. Dogora attempted to float back to the depths of space, only to find it impossible with its foe’s immense weight.
Even when two more of Orochi’s lengthy necks fell off from the agonizing acid, he still continued blasting the jellyfish, with Dogora unable to heal fast enough. The alien could feel itself shrinking, each second making its colossal form become smaller and smaller.
Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, Orochi’s skin stopped burning. He took a big gulp and slowly stumbled out of the haze he had created before his remaining heads glanced at his body. There wasn’t a single part of his body with clean skin anymore, bone being visible on his back. His legs, once mighty and full of muscles, were now little more than red twigs held together by nerves. The eyes on two of his five remaining heads were utterly melting, now being holes of slag. Despite the agony that permeated through the titanic basilisk, Orochi gave another silent roar of triumph to the black horizon. He had conquered the creature that wished to make a meal out of him. The prey had toppled the predator.
Orochi once more turned to fly to Earth, only to stop as he sensed a familiar presence, one that the dragon thought he had taken care of. He spun around in unbridled fear as he now saw three diminutive Dogoras floating towards him. To say Orochi was confused would be a severe understatement. How could his foe survive from nothing? He had made sure there wasn’t a single part of the alien left. Suddenly, Orochi had an epiphany.
The tentacles he had blasted off at the beginning of the battle, they must have regrown into new Dogoras!
Orochi cursed to himself for his negligence before snarling at the approaching extraterrestrials. Two of his maws fired more crimson light, blasting one of the Dogoras backwards in a burst of sparks and exploding skin. The other two gelatinous fiends quickly sent their tendrils at Orochi, once more burying into his scarred scales and injuring him further. Orochi howled silently as he stumbled backwards, biting the tentacles of one of the new aliens and smashing it down hard on the Moon’s surface. A new crater formed as he viciously smashed the ravenous being, not caring if his soles burned with every stomp.
Before he could attempt roasting it with fire, the other two Dogoras yanked on his tail, actually pulling him backwards off of their brethren. Orochi screamed in surprise before swinging his tail fast enough to dislodge them, turning his multiple heads and bathing them in hellfire. Unfortunately, this allowed the Dogora which had previously been pinned to latch onto one of Orochi’s remaining heads, slowly pulling back once more.
With the skin worn down from Orochi’s bout with the original Dogora, the neck was easily torn off, spewing blood into the zero gravity space. The crimson devil tried to use his remaining four heads to blast the predator off, only for the two other gelatinous jellyfish to latch onto his body, once more bringing agonizing pain to the dragon. Orochi howled into the depths in misery, the vibrations left unheard until they found their way to Earth, being so loud that some were convinced they heard something from space.
Orochi screamed as he felt his tail slowly dissolve, his lower body following suit. He desperately shook his colossal structure left and right to attempt to remove the Dogoras, but they stayed attached to his mighty body like leeches. Orochi soon began to lose all feeling as his four remaining heads began to disintegrate from his opponents’ acidic feelers. Eventually, the hydra’s body and dark heart were also wiped away. Soon, nothing was left.
The three Dogoras, satisfied with their meal, floated towards each other and recombined into a new, single Dogora, now a being larger than even the original that Orochi had faced. Even one of the most mightiest gods was little more than a meal to the imposing entity. Setting his sights on Earth, Dogora began to move towards the beautiful planet, for his hunger knew no bounds.
It was time to feed once more, and nothing would escape.
Unbeknownst to the alien, there was something watching him, a type of satellite similar to the ones under use by NASA, only farther away…
****
Deep in a hidden facility, off the coast of West Africa, a man watched the beast float to the planet. His white aging hair contrasted nicely from the walls of darkness which held screens that spied on several points of interest. Monster Island, The Moon, Tokyo, but there was one that the mogul paid extra attention to.
H.E.A.T. Headquarters
The man grinned as his satellite stationed at the Moon began collecting what few tissues that remained of Orochi. The satellite, after collecting sufficient material and tissue, began floating back to the man’s base. Cameron Winter stood and began to walk away from his desk, going to his lab to prepare the cloning process.
“You have bested me before Nickles, but what will you and your lizard do when faced with the ultimate power?”
Winner: Dogora