Author: Matthew Freese | Banner: Andrew Sudomerski

Thick boots crushed shards of broken glass into powder as he walked in front of a ruined store. A glance inside revealed to him a homeless man downing a bottle of booze, his body caked in filth. Despite turning his eyes away, the rancid stench of someone who hadn’t showered in years and had stopped caring about their hygiene for roughly as long stung the wanderer’s nostrils.

Though clearly the worst off of anyone he could currently see, the alcoholic was far from the only person in Seattle that was living in wretched conditions. Packed streets of people begging, their lamentations rising and intermingling with distant gunshots and police sirens.

Mathias Brownstone did not want to be here. Dressed in dull, beige clothing, he did not stick out much amongst the crowds as he made his way down the sidewalk. But he had to, his contact had chosen to hole up here of all places, so that was where he had to be to get what he needed.

He saw someone walking up to him, hand at their side and an ill-intentioned look in their eye. Almost casually, he brushed his jacket to reveal the holster of his pistol, letting the article of clothing fall back over it. The stranger ceased the approach, and started to walk away, doing their best to look non-suspicious.

Mathias shook his head, the short, dark hair that had gray creeping into it rustling as he did so. He remembered fiction from his youth of the bright, glorious future, where flying cars would be all the rage and robots would do all the hard work for everyone. It had all been a load of shit, because here he was now, the year 2031, in a major metropolitan city, and he felt like he had stepped into the aftermath of a war.

As he continued walking, he decided to give some leeway to those old storytellers. They could have never predicted that in 1999, the world facing a new millennium, a giant mantis would erupt from the ground and turn Boston into a feeding frenzy for it and its brood. The fear of “Y2K” was gone faster than a deer hearing a lion’s roar, as a tangible threat had made itself known.

And kept getting worse. Invaders from the stars, more prehistoric relics, mutants that had practically stepped out of an old sci-fi pulp comic, they all paraded from the darkness they had been hiding in and made themselves known. Humanity could fight them, at least, and had done so to mixed success. But then…

A man lying on the side of the road, his body covered in burn marks, let out a death rattle. His family, their own skin pockmarked with similar wounds, wept bitterly. They were not fresh burns, but Mathias knew full well what they truly meant.

Last year, three kaiju had begun a war for territory in California. San Francisco had been the final battleground for this struggle, the prehistoric reptiles refusing to back down as they sought to settle things once and for all. A massive regiment of troops and artillery met them, seeking to take out all three at once.

But before the battle could begin, it was swiftly ended. From the ocean emerged a god of death. Jaws filled with needles opened wide to spit forth a stream of nuclear annihilation, reducing the three dinosaurs to molten heaps of carnage. San Francisco fell in a sea of fire. But the new beast, Godzilla as he would come to be called, did not stop there. Los Angeles came next, along with large swathes of the rest of California, leaving the state uninhabitable. Godzilla returned to the waters, as suddenly as he had arrived.

Now the states surrounding California were buckling under the pressure of accommodating all the survivors. Mathias hoped that Washington had the worst of it, simply because if this was not as bad as it got, he shuddered to think what the true depths were.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking the text message just to be fully certain. ”Meet me at the base of the Needle.”

He looked up, seeing the towering structure known as the Space Needle. He sighed, the full weight of the situation hitting him. “Christ alive, Jack, you pick the most obvious spot in the damn city…” he muttered.

Mathias needed medicine. Not for himself, but for another, someone who could not make an arduous journey. It was medicine nigh-impossible to obtain due to the plague it was made for having supposedly gone away over a decade ago. But this certainly was not the case.

The middle-aged man’s heart skipped a beat when sirens blared.

”Attention civilians! A kaiju has been sighted heading towards Seattle! This is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill!”

Mathias’ pace quickened, only for his phone to buzz. He pulled it out and looked at the message, trying to focus on it and not on the murmurings of a specific kaiju approaching. ”The deal’s still on unless it’s Godzilla, get the hell over here.”

The sirens suddenly changed, becoming louder and faster.

”Godzilla has also been sighted approaching Seattle from the ocean! He will most likely engage the other kaiju, who has been identified as Gamera, within the city! Please evacuate immediately!”

Still holding his phone, Mathias saw it light up with a new message. ”Son of a birch, shit, deal delayed, gtfo the city.” Any amusement he would have taken from the typo was not present, and he quickly stuffed his phone back into his pocket. He overheard the announcement saying to leave in a calm and orderly fashion, but that was not what anybody was doing. Screams filled the air as waves of bodies surged to get away from Seattle. Mathias steered clear of the crowds as he made his way into a back alley, knowing that the standard paths to evacuation would swiftly be congested and only make for massacres once the danger arrived.

***

Burning, blue jets propelled his colossal form through the heavens. Gamera chose to keep his scaly arms and head out of his fortress-like shell, only moving with two jets, due to the fact that he had to be immediately ready for battle.

His green eyes focused on the city he was swiftly approaching. He saw the poor masses surging away, heard their panic and fear. The guardian’s heart ached.

Gamera had awakened from millennia of slumber to find the human race in exactly the same predicament as when he had fallen into hibernation. The greed of the powerful let loose legions of monsters which destroyed everything in their path, just as it had been for the Atlanteans. And just like then, it left so many in agony and fear, death perpetually crashing down on them.

His claws flexed. He steeled himself. Years he had been fighting for humanity, but they still saw him as an enemy. It saddened him, but he could not blame them. He had awoken in the midst of their war with the colossi, and without a way to directly tell them his motives, they were justified in paranoia. He wished a human could have taken one of his amulets and bonded with him, but the time for that was past.

The beast he knew as Dagahra had accidentally awakened him in its rampages, and the amulets that let him forge connections to humans were lost in a sea that was soon turned into an uninhabitable wasteland of crimson biohazard.

As long as humankind did not continue the course of the mistakes the Atlanteans made and create their own kaiju to fight, he would be happy to fight a solo war.

His target caught his eyes. Trepidation shot through him, but he suppressed it with the sense of duty he lay upon himself. The black monolith was the most horrific creature he had ever seen. But he would still charge forth into battle, for he was the only one who could.

***

A hulking, clawed foot crushed a building into dust. Red flesh peeked out of the cracked, ebon hide as dark as a cave’s depths. The other leg moved forward, continuing the slow march towards the city.

Miniscule eyes surveyed the area ahead. Towers of steel and concrete stabbing up from the ground, between them paved roads filled with the tiny, pathetic humans trampling over each other.

Muscles stretched, sending the colossal tail soaring through the air like a whip, cracking against a building to launch the top half. The eye embedded in the mass of raw flesh at the limb’s end stared at the results. Thousands of screams fell silent as a crowd was crushed, debris and dust flying to fill the streets.

This twisted, constantly agonized form was their fault. They would know that pain. Every last one.

People leaving a nearby building were crushed beneath his foot, the impact cracking the ground hard enough to make the tower tilt. There was no sadism, no lingering, his walk continued as if nothing had occurred.

A shriek filled the air, drawing his attention. He saw another giant, rapidly approaching from the sky. The look in the turtle’s eye told him it was here for battle. Godzilla just stared. He felt no emotion at the declaration of war, the challenger would accomplish nothing more than their own demise, as it was with all before and would be with all afterwards.

He could not die. Mortality had left him long ago.

That same apathy continued as fireballs raced out from the enemy’s maw, approaching Godzilla swiftly.

***

Mathias cringed as the booming explosions assailed his eardrums. He exited an alleyway, running in the opposite direction of the two gods colliding. Another reverberation shook the city, which he learned with a glance back was the sound of Gamera bodily crashing into Godzilla. The guardian screamed in the abomination’s face as his jets only grew more intense, trying to shove him over.

What many people believed to be the beast of the apocalypse just stood his ground, his horrid tail rising overhead before coming down like a hammer onto the turtle’s shell. That was Mathias’ cue to stop gawking like a rubbernecker, resuming his fleeing.

Gamera was a kaiju that drew mixed feelings. He was only seen fighting other kaiju, and doing so in such a way that minimized damage and casualties. That made many proclaim him to be a hero, a guardian angel to protect humanity in its darkest days. Others only saw another monster, a threat to humankind that had to be purged like the rest. The carnage wrought by his battle with Dagahra, along with the aftermath of Barem spilling everywhere, had led to the fall of Australia. That damned him in many’s eyes.

Mathias himself was unsure. Perhaps he truly was a warrior fighting for humanity’s freedom from this hell they were slowly being plunged into. He doubted that the military would have handled the situation with Dagahra any better. But he was hesitant to rest on such a belief, some part of his brain writing it off as childish fantasy.

Another scream from Gamera, but this time it was met with a deep bellow. That sound made Mathias’ footsteps cease for a second as it rolled over the whole city, all other sound extinguished for a brief moment. He turned back, seeing the shelled warrior standing before his foe. Godzilla towered over him, but Gamera stood steadfast.

Mathias did not care about Gamera’s ultimate motivation or true nature. He had something that drew his focus much more, something he was willing to stake his life on, but more importantly for the whole of humanity, the living fortress was in opposition to that thing.

For the human race to have a future, Godzilla had to die.

***

Gamera backed away as the colossal foot of the aberration swung towards him. His foe was sluggish, the strike missing, but the few hits it had already landed ached. An immense musculature lay within that grotesque form. Lunging forward, he scraped his claws across the ebon nightmare’s chest, sending sparks flying.

Opening like a steel trap, the atomic leviathan’s jaws shot forth. Though poorly designed for any sort of ripping or crushing, the needle-like teeth served excellently to puncture Gamera’s hide with ease. The guardian cried out in pain as he swung his fist into the abomination’s skull several times, each one resounding across the city.

The lower jaw detached from Gamera’s arm, blood pouring down and filling it. But the guardian timed his next strike perfectly, finally accomplishing damage as the upper jaw’s teeth were ripped from their roots by the impact. The nuclear menace screeched as it fell over, its ichor spraying out from the ravaged gums.

Claws dug into flesh as the last remnant of Atlantis dug the organic needles out of his arm, cringing as more blood spilled with each moment. The dozens of teeth fell free, clattering to the crimson ground, along with chunks of flesh.

Despite the pain filling his limb, Gamera’s awareness never drifted from his foe, a fact he proved when the abomination’s lunge at one of his feet was met with a stomp, pinning the head to the ground. A purple glow began to overtake the mutant’s back. The guardian put more weight onto his foe’s head, lifting his other foot onto the fiend’s side to ensure he would not be struck by whatever this was.

***

This had been the first colossus he had engaged in physical combat with. It had strategized to ensure melee, attacking swiftly and in such a way that interrupted any charging of energy. Godzilla was unsure if every fellow giant was this capable in the ways of combat he had known before his mutation, or if this one was particularly dangerous.

It mattered little. The shelled warrior did not know of the tricks hidden in his labyrinthine DNA.

His tail shot up, “mouth” pointed towards the enemy’s body. The turtle recoiled, before a purple ray of burning photons shot out. Flesh parted before the beam, glowing as the reptilian stumbled backwards, allowing Godzilla to rise. The tail beam continued to fire, his foe having managed to turn to let its shell withstand the brunt of the impact. Smoke rose as the armor began to fray under the attack, like a string coming undone.

The guardian of humankind dropped, limbs tucked into its shell as fire roared from the openings. Taking off, it escaped Godzilla’s assault as it spun through the air, circling around to crash against his side. The ebon colossus staggered, roaring in pain as the blazing heat and sharp blades adorning his foe’s shell combined to tear into him. Scales flew, and blood came next. His tail swung towards it, but the enemy avoided the strike, flying away and doubling back to crash into the outstretched limb.

Godzilla cried out as his tail was severed at the end, the mass of meat and bone crushing a small apartment building several hundred meters away. The atomic leviathan found himself in more anguish as his enemy slammed into his front, grinding away at his stomach. If this continued for too long, he would be cut in half.

Slamming his thick tail into the earth, the tormented colossus charged his energy once more. His jaws opened wide, ready to unleash the atomic ray, only for the guardian to lunge upwards, knocking him to the concrete with a shriek as blood spilled from his wounded lower jaw.

***

Gamera released his arms and head from the confines of his shell, unleashing a barrage of fireballs at his downed foe. The abomination screamed as a wall of explosions surrounded it, prompting the righteous warrior to keep up the assault.

The wall of orange flame was parted by a purple streak, punching a hole in Gamera’s wrist. The guardian yelled out, no blood falling from the instantly-cauterized wound. The beam flicked upwards, worsening the damage as the last remnant of Atlantis now found one of his hands dangling by a thread. He raced out of the way as the violet assault moved towards him, catching in the side of his vision the aberration rising up.

Craters marred its form, but the nuclear demon was no less ready to exterminate all in its way. It swept the nuclear desolation across the city, cutting down hundreds of buildings like a row of crops. They fell apart, smoke billowing out as molten metal fell alongside shards of concrete. Thousands of screams fell silent, many more rising up as people were swallowed by debris and poisonous smog.

The fiend bellowed horrendously once more, and Gamera felt like a blanket of fear coated the city. Every crying child, every mother and father trying to comfort them despite the horror gripping their own heart, it all weighed on his mind as if he were seeing it directly. This city had become a wasteland due to his enemy, due to the enemy of all life. So many people here had already lost their homes, and fled here in hopes of sanctuary.

It made him sick. It made him hateful.

Gamera looked at his ruined hand, the movement of his arm to put it before his face making it swing grotesquely. Without hesitation, he grabbed it with his good hand and pulled it off, letting the limp hand fall to the earth below. Paying it no mind, waves of fire left his maw and coalesced around the stump, forging a facsimile of a fist made of plasma.

This was not a move he would have wanted to use so early on in a battle, but he realized now there was no time to delay and wear this nightmare down. The atomic leviathan needed to be destroyed, swiftly.

Rearing his arm back as he shot forth towards his foe, Gamera roared at his grotesque foe. Meeting his gaze, the fiend prepared its ranged assault again, aiming it at the guardian’s head. It struck the top of his shell as he retracted his head, trusting his intuition as he continued forward. He swung a punch, the Banishing Fist meeting its mark.

***

The colossal explosion that shook the entirety of Seattle sent Mathias spilling over. He cursed as he hit the concrete, tearing a hole in his jacket’s sleeve and leaving a mark on the skin beneath. Getting to his feet, he looked back at the immense conflict, seeing Godzilla stagger back with a gaping wound in his body. The potential destroyer of the world was screeching, fluids spilling out of the cavity punctured into his chest. Gamera did not let up, landing just before the destroyer and swinging his claws into the wound, worsening the damage.

“Kick his ass!” He overheard from a nearby crowd, along with further cheering. If he was not trying to get out without attracting any attention to himself, Mathias would probably have joined them in their raucous applause.

Entering another alley, he found another person waiting. They skulked through it, carefully looking around the corner on the opposite side as him. It was a man, short brown hair surrounding a clear bald spot. Casual clothing adorned his body, a simple t-shirt and jeans. Something was wrapped around his waist, which was the last clue Mathias needed to piece together the man’s identity without seeing his face.

“Jack? The hell are you doing over here?” He exclaimed, making the slightly shorter man jump. The mysterious object around his waist was a fanny pack, a small, cloth bag with a zipper on the front. Jack Macgillicuddy always carried the “goods” he sold in one.

“Same thing as you, getting the hell out of here!” He replied in his Brooklyn accent.

Mathias sighed. “Why do you insist on carrying the pills I need to save my wife’s life in a goddamn fanny pack?”

“This town’s filled with junkies who’ve got nothing to live for, they’d shank me if I was running around with a suitcase!” The balding smuggler replied. “Wouldn’t get shit from it, you might be the only person in the world who has any use for these damn things.” He mumbled.

“You have them, right?”

“Yes! What, do you wanna do the deal now?” Another distant blast shook the city. “Do you have the money, since you apparently are standing on such a pedestal as to look down on me?”

“Of course.” Mathias pulled out a wallet, stuffed with dollar bills, and handed the wad of money over.

“Oh,” Jack said with a mocking tone, “you kept the money in a wallet? The money to save your wife’s life in a wallet, what a stupid thing!” He continued in an exaggerated voice, before adding “doesn’t feel so good, does it?” He unzipped the bag at his waist, pulling out a bottle of pills, looking like something one would grab from a pharmacist.

“I’m not the ‘experienced smuggler’, Jack.” Mathias shot back, taking the pill bottle. “I haven’t been in any ‘shootouts’.” He chuckled as he said it, referring to an incident involving a misidentified airsoft gun.

“Fuck you.” There was a brief pause, before both broke out into laughter. “You’re a dick, you know that?”

“Least I’m not wearing a bag over mine.” They continued laughing, only for another rumble across the ground to break them of it. “We need to go.”

“Agreed.”

They both ran together, leaving the alleyway and continuing on their escape route away from the ones most people were taking.

“How’s she doing?” Jack questioned, voice fully serious.

“As good as she can be. This should be the last batch she needs.” Mathias answered.

“God, they better. I don’t know if my people can get anymore, Crimson Scourge ain’t exactly a disease a lot of people have nowadays.”

“You’d think that’d make it easier to just make these damn pills, but apparently not…”

2017. A kaiju known as Dagahra attacked Australia, spreading a horrific disease via bacteria in its body called “Barem”. After being slain by Gamera, Australia was surrounded by a biohazard, crimson waters bearing the deadly disease. A cure was developed swiftly, saving the lives of many after the disease had claimed millions. It was not a simple cure, requiring consistent dosages for a lengthy stretch of time. Despite the best efforts of the scientific and international community, Australia collapsed, the waters surrounding it quarantined.

Far more recently, terrorists had snuck past the quarantines. Motivated by a belief humanity had brought about everything that was afflicting it, they gathered some of the infested water to create biohazardous bombs. They would have been detonated in multiple spots across the city of Philadelphia, infecting thousands, if not millions. The plot was foiled before the detonations could begin, a mole inside the terrorist organization giving them away.

However, one still went off. Very few people were caught in it, ten to be exact. With the cure no longer in circulation, the Dagahra incident having happened over a decade ago, they were essentially abandoned by the government. Nine had already perished, the disease essentially guaranteed to be fatal without the proper medicine.

The last, Shelby Brownstone, was only still clinging to life thanks to her husband’s refusal to let her die and connections to an old friend.

“We’re gonna get out of here. You’re gonna get back to her, and you two will be able to live life without this bullshit weighing you down.” Jack reassured his friend.

“Thank you. For all of this, Jack.”

Jack was technically an illegal drug dealer, though even back before he got into it with a group more dedicated to helping people the government abandoned than just making money, he hadn’t exactly been a hardened criminal. The worst thing he had done beforehand was move marijuana to a state that hadn’t legalized it yet. He just liked to pretend he was a fearsome man who wasn’t to be messed with, but Mathias could see through it every time.

Screams of terror filled the city, before a howl left Gamera’s maw that made both men stop in their tracks. Turning, they felt their hearts beat madly at the sight that greeted them.

***

The guardian of the earth backed away, blood pouring from three deep lacerations in his chest. One arm of his foe was gigantic, raw muscle that was slowly being covered by black armor crawling up its length from the base. The hulking limb swung again, Gamera managing to parry it with a backhand.

A layer of scar tissue interlaced with that same ebon armor coated the hole in the abomination’s chest. But the last remnant of Atlantis could barely focus on that as the fiend’s other arm suddenly expanded, breaking apart the thin coating of rock-hard skin as it ballooned with muscle. Claws extended like scythes, which made the swipe that followed brutal as it tore open the protector’s plastron.

Plasma condensed into a volatile sphere launched from the guardian’s maw, tearing into the chest cavity once more. The abomination lurched back, staggering as smoke rose from its body. Lunging forward, Gamera extended the spike on his handless arm’s shoulder, driving it into the mass of wounded tissue in the hopes of piercing something vital. His other hand came up, ready to dig in as well, only for one of the fiend’s claws to grasp it tightly, restraining it.

The other hand wrapped around the guardian’s skull, squeezing tightly. Gamera cried out as he felt his hardened skin begin to crack under the pressure. Fully wrapped in black armor now, the demon’s arms had become colossal, muscular limbs that could easily tear through him.

Gamera realized his foe’s teeth had regrown during their battle, no longer needles but thick, triangular blades which sank into his neck as the nuclear demon bit down upon him. Blood filled his throat and poured down the front of his shell, joining the ichor pouring from his head as the claws dug in.

Groaning, the guardian lifted his arm from his enemy’s chest, holding his elbow claw in front of his face. Plasma left his mouth, coating the blade like a burning sheathe. He thrust his arm to drive the blazing blade into the abomination’s throat, forcing it off of him as the grotesque beast howled in agony. With a burning hole punched into its neck, it staggered away, spasming. Gamera shook as well, rivers of blood flowing down his form.

The nightmare made flesh reared its tail up, the limb almost fully healed. Sinew crawled like worms across the stump, growing like bread in an oven as more tissue formed. Lunging forward, the last remnant of Atlantis bit down on the regenerating mass, ripping it away. He dug his remaining hand into it, clamping his jaws around it as well to tear a gigantic gash into the appendage.

The abomination looked at him, maw opening as energy gathered within. Its hand lashed out, getting impaled through the palm by Gamera’s elbow claw.

Making a split-second decision due to the disadvantageous position he found himself in, Gamera retracted his legs and fired up his jets. His foe cried out in shock as they left the ground, the warrior of righteousness keeping a firm grip.

***

The city shrank as he was pulled skywards, a beam leaving his mouth and scourging a hole into the distant earth. The forces being inflicted upon him made it difficult to turn his head towards the protector of his targets, wind racing. Another ray of Godzilla’s might, splitting a cloud in two, but accomplishing nothing otherwise.

He tried to squeeze his foe’s elbow, digging bloody grooves into it, but he could not dislodge the spike within. It dug into bone, embedded deeply.

The nuclear leviathan stared into his foe’s eyes, the emerald orbs reflecting hatred. He felt the same. This being he knew nothing of made him feel violently angry, due to what it represented. The living fortress was guarding humanity, he could tell from the fervor with which it fought. Something simply seeking territory would have fled the moment its hand was rendered useless by his power.

Why? Why fight for these wretched apes?

Toxic waste spilled into the waters was what had made him what he was now. They had done it, he saw them atop their vessels, pouring the sludge into the blue waves. He saw death fill the waters for miles around, as life ate it, unaware of its true nature.

Godzilla would have met the same fate were it not for something different about him, something he understood not. Humanity could understand it, he knew that much. He saw one looking at him every day as his body twisted and mutated into a vile, unnatural form, atop their vessel. Fascinated and intrigued, scribbling something onto that pad he carried every time. As his bones twisted while flesh contorted and bubbled, that man had stared with fascination like a child.

Crushing that vessel, with the man inside, between his teeth had been the best he’d ever felt.

Cold bit at his flesh now, so far above the land that the city below was nothing. Blue gave way to black, revealing a tapestry of distant stars like night had fallen. They ceased their climb.

The protector of the wretched apes opened its mouth, firing a ball of burning plasma that tore Godzilla’s arm off. He screamed, firing an atomic ray that carved a hole into the turtle’s chest. It released its grip on his tail, shrieking as well, leaving the mutant to begin to be pulled in by gravity.

Retracting fully into its shell, the enemy chose to speed the process up by launching forward, spinning rapidly. Godzilla was shoved violently downwards, sparks and blood spewing out as blue filled the sky once more. He swung his intact arm into the underside of his enemy, launching it away. He twisted in midair, now seeing the ground rapidly racing toward him.

He remembered seeing a bird grab a fish from the water, long ago before he had become this grotesque beast. Another bird had attacked at that moment, causing the first to drop its prey.

The fish had landed upon rocks, being split open. Blood and guts spilled out, staining the stones and the surface of the waters. It has spasmed as life swiftly left it, pain wracking it as it suffocated and bled out at once. Ever since then, he had rarely dared to even approach the surface, remembering the dead look in the fish’s eye.

Now, cloaked in fire as terminal velocity was swiftly reached, he was that fish. He would be broken upon the rocks. Godzilla’s heart pounded in his chest, his mind unable to conjure a solution as the ground approached. All his suffering would be ended soon, but without vengeance to satisfy it.

Something coursed through his body. He screamed once more, flesh and bone rapidly mutating beneath his back. The pain just made him more spiteful, more willing to burn this world down. Even his salvation was agonizing, but salvation nonetheless. He would not complain about his body’s most lethal capability, for it would ferry him to the ultimate goal he sought.

***

Gamera’s eyes widened as he watched colossal wings burst from his foe’s back, blood and flesh flying out as the new limbs stretched out. Coated in crimson, they looked like a bird’s wings, coated in sharp “feathers” like knives. Fear crawled through his body, digging into his heart.

***

“Jesus Christ!” Jack yelled out, drawing Mathias’ gaze to the most horrific sight he’d ever witnessed.

Godzilla had grown a pair of wings, so grandiose that their span was greater than his height. They beat, sending out a shockwave of air pressure that blew down entire city blocks like a bomb had gone off. This was enough to halt the descent, gore spraying out from all across the demon’s body as physics enacted a heavy toll of such a sudden reversal of momentum. Despite the countless cracks spewing his blood, Godzilla stood tall as he landed upon his feet.

Another roar, this time triumphant as the black angel’s wings spread wide. They cast their shadow over the entire city, and in Mathias’ mind, over all humanity. He felt his grip on the pill bottle tighten.

He had never been a religious man. His parents had made him go to church when he was young, but once he was able to exercise his own freedom, he ceased attending. It had just never clicked with him. No overarching reason digging down to the core of who he was as a person, it just simply was not for him. But, looking at Godzilla now, seeing the gaze of the beast of the apocalypse fall over him and everyone else in the city of Seattle, there was a thought he could not shake. It bore into his brain, refusing to leave.

There was a higher power.

It hated humankind.

And there was nothing they could do to stop it.

A hand grasped his shoulder, shaking him. “Come on, we gotta get the hell out of here!” Jack shouted to him. The look on the smuggler’s face was little better than Mathias’, telling him that his unexpected friend was not thinking much better thoughts. “Let Gamera deal with this, right?” He stammered.

A deep rumbling drowned out their thoughts, as the shadow grew darker. They barely caught Godzilla flying just close enough, before a building collapsed towards them.

***

Each beat of his wings elated Godzilla, feeling himself rise up by his own power. What had made him fearful mere moments ago was now an immense triumph, the boundaries holding him broken as he became dominant over land, sea, and now air. His foe gave the same determined face as it charged towards him, but he could see in the chelonian’s eyes the fear and trepidation creeping in.

Impact made the front of bravery melt away as his regenerated claws pierced ribs, the colossal turtle crying out in agony. The apex of evolution folded his wings over his foe’s body, digging the feathers into the shell like hundreds of razor blades. They began to free fall, the guardian’s jets unable to sustain their combined weights.

Godzilla let go, ceasing the fall as he swung one of his wings into the warrior’s face.

***

Gamera had cried out many times in his storied life. Pain was familiar to him, he knew it far too well.

So when he could not yell at the worst pain he had ever felt in his life, he knew something was horrifically wrong.

The abomination’s wings were like thousands of knives bundled together, beds of spikes protruding from its back. So while their effect on his shell was muted, it was when they struck flesh that he realized the fight had fallen out of his favor.

Flesh and muscle were peeled away, getting stuck in the vile constructs that let the crime against nature soar. The righteous defender had his eyelid shredded apart, the membrane barely protecting the eye beneath. Almost half of his face had been degloved in the process, and it was a single strike.

Adrenaline faded, allowing the agony of every wound on Gamera’s body to be clear.

The nightmare’s tail, fully healed, wrapped around the defender’s throat as he was rendered briefly paralyzed by the sudden change in the battle. Shooting down with its dread wings, the beast of end times slammed Gamera’s face into the cityscape.

Then began flying parallel to the ground, carving a great trench into the earth with Gamera’s ravaged body. Gravel and glass flew into open wounds, and the guardian felt his form flatten scores of innocent souls.

He realized that nothing he had actually done to his foe had stuck. The gaping wound punched into its torso was practically gone, the protruding ribcage of the leviathan having settled into a less deformed state to properly accommodate the bulky arms.

The tail unwrapped from around Gamera’s throat. His foe flew upwards, settling several kilometers above ground. Heart pounding so hard in his ears that he could hear nothing else, the failed protector of Atlantis got to his feet, flying away with the remaining energy he had.

He needed to escape. Recuperate, strategize, find allies, anything. He would rather dig through the crimson seas in hopes of finding one of his magatama in order to bond with a host than stay here, where he knew he would die. How had this gone so wrong, had he underestimated this foe?

Yes. He had, for treating it as anything less than a cancerous divinity that would never stop growing. The next time they met he would not hesitate, and immediately subject it to the Ultimate Plasma technique. It would ravage the Earth’s mana supplies, but it was better than anything that would occur as long as it remained.

But what if even that failed?

That question billowed out into the forefront of his mind, sending chills down his body.

***

He was back in the hospital room, the news that his world was being torn asunder accompanied by an occasional harsh beep of some machine he didn’t know the function of. The doctor telling him that his wife was doomed, Crimson Scourge guaranteed to be fatal without medicine that hadn’t been circulated in a decade.

Surrounded by soulless white walls, he crouched by her side, felt his guts churn at the sight of her pale, pained face as her organs were ravaged by parasites and disease. They had her doped up on morphine, yet she still hurt. He tried to comfort her, but he could do nothing but watch.

It was hazy, he knew on some level this was recollection in a mind currently swimming, but he still remembered the hatred he felt for the world. For the terrorists who ruined lives just due to what they believed, for the governments who would still pump trillions into useless things yet couldn’t bother to make some medicine just in case someone suffered from the biohazard wrapped around an entire continent, for everything that made this world what it was.

“There’s nothing you can do, so don’t tear yourself up over it.” She spoke, voice immensely weak. Her dark hair fell off her face as she tilted her head to face her husband. “Let’s just make the most of what we have left, Mathias. Please.”

His ears could barely pick up Shelby’s words, but his heart twisted nonetheless. Staring death in the face, the reaper’s scythe dragging across her neck, she was worried about him?

But some part of his brain latched onto the choice of words. “Nothing he could do.” This was true.

Yet, perhaps someone could.

Some time later, after the hospital made him leave due to visiting hours ceasing, Mathias pulled out his phone and called the next closest person to him. “Jack, you there?”

“What is it, Mat? Awfully late.”

“I need to know if you can get me…” it would technically be illegal, so he shrouded it. Jack would know. “A certain something. For Shelby, you saw the news, you know what.”

There was silence. Jack sucked air in through his teeth. “I can talk with my people. No promises, they’re still trying to turn a profit even if this is more charitable than it used to be. Getting… that is gonna be difficult. Gonna be pretty expensive for ya.”

“That’s fine, I don’t care. Just get it, please. I’ll pay anything.”

“Alright, miracle cure, coming right up. Hopefully.” Jack hung up at that, leaving anticipation and anxiety to gnaw at Mathias for the time being.

***

He awoke. Reality slammed back into Mathias’ mind. A chunk of concrete next to his head made him jump, before realizing it had not struck him. He breathed a sigh of relief, only to have it melt away as he fully remembered what he was faced with. The man on a mission felt envious of the past self he had been put in the shoes of.

Mathias got to his feet. A scream as loud as a thousand car alarms echoed across the city, drawing his eyes to the scene of Godzilla utterly overwhelming Gamera, every further moment making him nauseous. All around him was horror and devastation.

He looked away, searching the surrounding debris for Jack. A low groan revealed his friend’s location to him, pinned under multiple gigantic chunks of rubble.

“Jack, oh my god!” Mathias crouched down, trying to lift some of the debris off his comrade. He could not make it budge.

“Don’t bother.” The smuggler rasped out.

Mathias stood there, unable to process what to do next. He felt the pill bottle in his pocket, unbroken. He wanted to run, but he could not, not while-

“Leave me, Mat. I can’t feel my legs, I’m doomed.”

“No, Jack, you can’t…” he trailed off, noticing a piece of rebar jammed through his friend’s stomach, embedding into the ground below. “Oh god…”

Around him was nothing but terror and death, but all he could focus on was what was before him. Jack was his best friend, the person he cared about most in the world besides his wife. They had known each other for decades, been there to help each other in dark times and to celebrate the bright times.

His friend was not nearly as hung up on the past at this moment.

“I don’t have anybody.” Jack continued to wheeze out, blood flowing out from under the rubble. “Nobody’s waiting for me but my boss, Mat. Go be with Shelby, spend the end of the world in joy.”

A purple glow was cast over the whole city as Godzilla charged his atomic ray to levels unseen before, his mouth looking like a case containing a miniature star.

“You’ve been a great friend. I hope I’ve been the same. Just, leave me.” Tears were streaming out of both men’s eyes. “I wouldn’t want to see what happens next anyway…”

“You’ve been the best friend I could have asked for.” Mathias affirmed to the man being claimed by the reaper, before turning and running away from the apex of evolution. He wanted to say so many things, give him more comfort as he left this life, but knew he couldn’t. Leaving swiftly was the best thing he could do.

If Mathias stayed behind, Jack’s struggles would have been worth nothing. He wondered how many people in this city had died meaningless deaths, unable to accomplish what they dreamed of due to the abomination that humanity found itself afflicted with.

All sound was muted as a hellacious shriek pierced the air. Not an organic call, but the high-pitched whine of a colossal beam ripping out from Godzilla’s maw. Mathias could not look at it despite being miles away, so bright was its wretched luminosity.

***

Godzilla watched as the ground was split asunder by his beam, forming a burning canyon. City blocks fell into the crevice of molten rock and metal, like the mouth of Hell swallowing the works of man. It was wondrous, the power he had attained, even through the pain. Pain had brought him supremacy over all things.

And the guardian would be the proof of that for the whole world to see.

***

Gamera’s vision was suddenly parted by a flash of violet. Having been observing the ravaged landscape beforehand, he was unable to tell what had just happened.

Until darkness manifested in the midst of his vision, leaving two halves that began to fall in opposite directions. For a split second, he understood. For an instant, the purest, white-hot anguish filled his entire form.

And then, oblivion.

***

Godzilla bellowed in triumph. Overlooking a devastated city, he fired his atomic ray once more, ensuring that not a single speck of life would remain within. He flew overhead like a god delivering wrathful judgment, raining down death upon the human race.

He was the King of Destruction. And he would not be stopped until all knew it before their blazing demise.

***

Several days later…

Pulling the key out, Mathias twisted the door handle and pushed to open it. He stepped into his home, heart pounding violently. He had made it out of Seattle, having avoided being exposed to lethal doses of radiation as well. It had still been more radiation than a human should be exposed to, so it still clung to his mind, anxiety feeding off the thought like a vulture to a carcass.

Walking down the hallway, he soon reached the bedroom. There he found his wife, laying bundled up in a blanket as she watched the news. His eyes drifted to it, cringing as he saw the coverage of Seattle’s destruction.

In his travels back, it was all anyone could talk about. They always undersold it, the terror of anyone within the city, the sheer hopelessness, the absolute power of Godzilla. Never any footage except shaky cell phone recordings, which didn’t capture the moment the damned thing sprouted wings. Gamera’s fate was never mentioned, just stating he was “missing”. The government held back key details that he and anyone else who had escaped could confirm with their own eyes, just to avoid a complete panic. Godzilla’s whereabouts were actually unknown, though the fact that he now could fly ensured it could be anywhere on the planet.

Shelby looked at him. Her skin was pale, a combination of the illness and having needed to stay inside for so long due to it. He remembered earlier in the illness, how haggard and worn down she had gotten due to the toll it was taking, but on the edge of being done with it she just seemed like someone with a slightly worse than average flu. Her smile remained as beautiful throughout it all as it had been when he first met her.

“I was so worried about you, where have you been?”

There was a tense silence. Shelby saw right through him.

“Holy shit…” was all she could say, looking back at the TV showing images of the aftermath. Seattle would not be habitable by humans again for decades, at least. It was worse than the aftermath of any hurricane, earthquake, or tornado.

Mathias kicked off his shoes, sitting down on the other side of the bed. The Crimson Scourge was no longer contagious and hadn’t been for weeks, so he hugged his wife tightly. Her skin was clammy, her body temperature still abnormal, but he didn’t care. She returned the embrace.

“Jack’s dead.” Mathias stated. Shelby gasped.

“I’m so sorry. I—“

“He was crushed by rubble, like I almost was. He told me to run away, I couldn’t have done,” his breath caught in his throat. “I couldn’t do anything for him, and he knew that.”

“That’s awful.” She said softly, tears starting to well up in her own eyes.

“I got your pills.” Mathias continued. He pulled them from his pocket and handed them to her, which she accepted. “Should be the last ones you need.” He was silent as she placed them on the nightstand.

His next words shocked her. “I almost didn’t bring them.”

“Why?” She questioned, tilting her head.

Mathias took a deep breath. “Because I saw what Godzilla can do. The news is lying, they’re not saying everything because they don’t want mass hysteria. Gamera is dead! Godzilla… sprouted wings, Gamera tried to drop him from the sky and he grew wings!”

Shelby knew the way her husband thought. “You didn’t want me to have to see all this for myself? When he comes to where we are, for me to see humanity die?”

He nodded. Long ago, back when the kaiju began to constantly appear and they were still a young couple, the two had agreed that they didn’t want to have children. Bringing new life into a world that was starting to fall apart wasn’t something either felt they could handle. Perhaps others could shoulder such a responsibility, but that was not for them.

“But you still brought them. So, why?”

“Because I couldn’t live without you. Because Jack told me to enjoy the last days of humanity.” He looked her in the eyes, seeing in those brown gems his other half. “It’s selfish, I know, but—“

“It’s not selfish!” She raised her voice slightly, her illness making it still sound soft. “It’s not selfish to want to be with the people you love. If the world’s going to end, I’d want to see it healthy and meet it with you. You know that.”

“I do.”

They held each other close once more. Ready to finally be free of their burden and move forth, finding solace as the jaws of annihilation slowly closed over the world.

Winner: Godzilla (Reiwa)