Ion Dragon イオン・ドラゴン

Emerging from the depths of the Pacific Ocean in 1943, the Ion Dragon attacked without mercy or warning the crew of the USS Lawton. As it slaughtered the destroyer’s defenders, missing only one human who could recount the massacre, the Titan proceeded to drag the vessel toward its native territory – the Philippines.

Over the island chain the Ion Dragon flew without another violent encounter with man for nearly nine years. Only when Bill Randa, the sole survivor of the first encounter, and Dr. Keiko Miura discovered the nacre filled wreckage of the USS Lawton in 1952, was the Ion Dragon spotted once again by human eyes. Steel squealed. Claws tore. The mighty triphibious Titan ripped what was left of the destroyer asunder, scaring off the human intruders and visually confirming that monsters did indeed exist on Earth.

Ten years after that fateful encounter, humanity would court the Ion Dragon’s wrath once more using a Gamma Ray Simulator. Operation Hourglass, the planned calling of a Titan so humanity could venture for the first time into Axis Mundi, proved successful in luring the triphibious beast, merely for things to fall apart upon the portal’s opening. What souls did survive the trek into the new part of the Earth were quickly set upon by the ravenous beast, leaving only one to tell the tale.

So, when a group of survivors within Axis Mundi activated a similar Gamma Ray Simulator to escape, the Ion Dragon appeared. Without mercy or warning the Titan descended once more, attacking the defenseless humans within the territory it seemingly claimed; however, another Titan also detected the anomaly. 

The Alpha amongst Earth’s Titans – Godzilla.

Rock trembled. The heavens quaked from an earth-shattering roar, but without reason or thought, the Ion Dragon aggressively pivoted away from the survivors to the far larger leviathan. Claws and teeth and nacre proved insufficient against the legendary Titan, so when Godzilla unleashed atomic fury and unmatched strength, the triphibian possessed no defense. Ripped in two, the Ion Dragon was tossed into the Axis Mundi network, its fate to this point unknown.

• Executive producter and director of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Matt Shakman, described that the creature originally went through numerous designs before settling on the Titan's main traits - the aquatic, angler-fish inspired features. This was to maximize the "fear-factor" of the Titan and also for it to fit the terrain this creature would have originated from. In this case, the Philippines and the Pacific Ocean. Noted in a Newsweek article.
• While not shown, one can deduce the Ion Dragon's proficiency within water due to the creature's gills, Bill Randa's comment that the Lawton crew first believed they hit a Japanese submarine prior to the Titan's attack, and finally, the aquatic animal features used for the design.