Author: Landon Soto | Banner: Matthew Williams

On a remote island far off in the Pacific Ocean, Gamera, the guardian of the universe, was bathing in the late afternoon sun. He was resting after having defeated an entire flock of Gyaos single-handedly. Laid out on his belly, taking in the heat of the sand and sun, it had been quite a while since he had enjoyed the luxury of sunbathing.

However, his relaxation would soon come to an end as a foreign sound filled his ears. Gamera cocked his head up and spotted a giant golden orb making its way through the clouds. Gamera tucked his limbs in his shell to give the illusion that he was a rock, and when he felt the coast was clear, he arose.

Stretching his arms out, his limbs transforming into flippers, the large turtle retracted his legs, fire roaring from the vacant holes. Gamera took to the sky and made sure to stay a safe distance away from the craft.

After what seemed like hours, the guardian of the universe had finally discovered where the golden ball had decided to halt. It was Odaiba, which meant trouble no doubt. Gamera landed on the outskirts of the city and kept his eyes on the ship, preparing himself for whatever it may try to do to the helpless people below. Gamera emitted a low growl and clenched his reptilian fists.

Many beings were running about within the golden sphere, preparing in a haste a grand undertaking. Some were silver and black humanoids, others looked exactly like humans. The Xiliens had arrived. Amongst the hustle and bustle, in what appeared to be the main control room, two human-like beings surveyed the city on multiple monitors.

The first was a tall, pale young man with messy black hair. He was cloaked in an obsidian black trench coat that extended down to his knees, a navy blue armored vest underneath, along with black leather pants, gloves and boots. The young man had his hands behind his back, glancing at the many monitors before him. Ebony sunglasses hid his eyes, his straight face occasionally cracking into a grin.

Beside him was a young lady, a brunette with hair touching her shoulders. She wore a sleeveless black tank top, and a large black collar with white rims that rested on her shoulders. A dark leather cape gently swayed behind her, occasionally brushing against her emerald green pants. Donning black gloves and boots as well, the woman smirked as she fanned herself with a fuzzy pink hand fan that looked like cotton candy. They both stood silently, concocting plans in their minds.

“Brother, what do you propose we do to make the Earthlings grovel at our feet?” The female Xilien stated.

“The same thing we always do Landes, send out the fighter ships and decimate the planet until they beg for our mercy,” The young Xilien snickered.

“Then in that case, I’ll send out ultimatums to the leaders of this world, ‘Surrender willingly, or perish’, a simple yet effective message,” Landes let out a haughty laugh as she rapidly fanned herself. Her brother rolled his eyes, that ultimatum would need extensive work.

Landes settled down as she eyed the many monitors before her, her brother meanwhile conversed with another Xilien and ordered the nameless soldier to deploy the fighter ships. Suddenly, Landes let out a gasp as she turned to her sibling and motioned the commander to come to her. The Xilien commander crossed his arms as he looked at the screen, his face cracked a smile as he grunted.

“It seems as though we have an uninvited visitor,” The commander said in a sly tone.

Gamera watched as the miniature ships began tearing the city apart. Although most people had evacuated when the Xilien Mothership arrived, some decided to stay to see out of pure curiosity, now regretting it greatly. Gamera took to the afternoon sky once more and began to shoot down waves of UFOs with a single plasma fireball.

Aboard the mothership, both Xilien commanders watched as Gamera obliterated fleets of the small ships. The commander gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, watching as the guardian of the universe swept the floor with the ships.

“That damn turtle is going to ruin our plans!”

The young man fumed, before he regained his composure, looking to his sister, another twisted grin stretched across his face. “Oh dear sister, what do you say we give this turtle some playmates?” The Xilien commander focused his gaze at the large monitor in front of him.

“You took the words right out of my mouth! Our super monsters could use the warm up.” Landes stared coldly at the guardian before letting out another hearty laugh. The alien duo snapped their fingers in unison as the commander joined his sibling in her cackling, both laughing like hyenas.

Back in the city, Gamera continued to rid the humans below of the swarm of ships and shot another fireball to eradicate more UFOs. The fighters tried to take down the flying turtle, but all attempts to bring him down were futile as their energy weapons did little to nothing to harm him.

Eventually, all of the remaining fighter ships returned to the mothership. Gamera landed on the street beneath him and surveyed the area, smoke rising from freshly damaged buildings as small fires bloomed throughout the streets. The damage was minimal at best, nothing the humans could not fix. At that moment, a nasty feeling washed over Gamera, the guardian turning his head to the sky.

In the cold depths of space, two objects were hurtling towards Earth, two large asteroids threatened to slam into the planet. Gamera instinctively retracted his legs and took to the sky like a rocket. The turtle flew past clouds, flying higher and higher until he breached the stratosphere and prepared to blast the incoming asteroids.

Gamera fired a barrage of plasma fireballs toward the space rocks, but it did little to impede the speeding projectiles, at most the fireballs chipped some pieces away. The guardian snarled as he realized he couldn’t stop the inevitable impact. He flew downward towards Earth, his heart racing as the two glowing orbs sped past him, a loud boom following suit.

The guardian of the universe descended from the smoky heavens and gazed upon what was once Odaiba, the beautiful city was literally wiped off the face of the planet. Nothing but smoldering ashes, scattered debris, and a few lucky buildings miraculously standing.

Gamera spotted two craters with plumes of smoke rising from them. Gamera landed and looked around, spotting only the golden ship in the sky, glistening with the few small rays of light that broke through the ash.

Suddenly, two golden eyes shone through one pillar of ash. Gamera snarled and clenched his fists, sensing the presence before him. A relatively small sphere rolled out from the smoke, and stopped a few hundred meters away from the turtle. The Xilien super monster, Gororin, had arrived.

Covered with prickly needles, the blue, spherical alien let out a low rumble at Gamera, two golden half crescent eyes glared at the heroic monster. The Atlantean bio weapon stared back at the alien cactus with curiosity, it definitely was one of the weirder enemies he’s encountered so far, a unique sight indeed.

Feeling another presence, Gamera jerked his head to the side, keeping the azure gymnocalycium in his vision. From the second crater, a humanoid shape emerged, one that gently descended down towards the turtle warrior. The being planted his feet firmly on the charred ground, his appearance no doubt intimidating.

Covered head to toe in bony armor, with bulging muscles as black as oil underneath, the skeletal alien flicked his forked tail like a whip. Pearl white claws flexed in anticipation. On each shoulder rested half of a draconic skull, complete with a single red eye. The head was adorned with a similar but complete draconic skull, with black horns jutting from the top of the head, the skeletal dragon-like humanoid, Monster X, stared at Gamera with his six blood red eyes.

Gamera bellowed into the air, warning the two aliens to go back to where they came from, although he knew it was futile. To no surprise, the Xilien war machines made their way towards the turtle monster, ready to carry out their masters orders.

“Monster X, rip that beast apart!” X yelled as he reached out to the main monitor.

“Gororin, flatten that nuisance into paste!” Landes exclaimed as she lifted her arms into the air.

Monster X flexed his muscles as steam rose from his maw, the skeletal dragon letting out a deep growl before he sprinted towards Gamera with unbelievable prowess. Gamera prepared for a head-on collision, but was caught off guard when the boney alien began performing a cartwheel, one after another.

When the dragon came close, he effortlessly somersaulted over the guardian and landed a few meters away from him. Gamera was still processing what he just saw when Gororin sprung upward, slamming into his lower jaw before rolling away.

The turtle monster coughed as sharp needles stabbed into his throat. Gamera ignored the pain and turned around to face the cactus monster, only to get punched in the snout by a sharp bony fist. Reeling back in discomfort, his mouth lit up with flames and a large fireball shot from his maw, incinerating the lodged spikes in his throat. Both Xilien beasts evaded the blast, barely singed at best.

Monster X bursted forward and smashed his fist against Gamera’s jaw, Gororin following suit by slamming his bulk into the turtle’s left bicep, bouncing off of it. Gamera grunted as he raised his fist and struck Monster X in the chest, causing the dragon to stumble back.

The skeletal humanoid stretched his arms out to his sides and fired golden gravity beams at Gamera. The bolts of energy exploded against Gamera’s skin, rewarding the space dragon with a cry of pain from the turtle.

Gororin fired more spikes that struck Gamera’s underbelly. The guardian groaned as his body took the punishment, before lunging forward and grabbing X by the waist. With his impressive power, Gamera hoisted the armored alien and performed a belly to belly suplex, knocking the wind out of the Ghidorah with his immense weight.

Gororin attempted to launch himself into Gamera’s shell but harmlessly bounced off the organic shield, rolling away once more. Gamera rose up and placed his foot on Monster X’s armored gut and began to apply force, trying to crack the armor and expose the skin.

Gororin, seeing his comrade in trouble, rolled to the side of Gamera and fired a needle just below his foe’s eye. He clutched his face in pain and pulled back his foot, giving X the opportunity to use his gravity beams and topple the guardian of the universe. Gororin seized the moment and bounced atop the fallen turtle monster, the force of the blow knocking the air out of Gamera’s lungs.

Monster X rose up and fired another round of gravity beams, shoving Gamera across the ruins and through whatever still stood in them. The flurry of shining blasts ceased.

Gamera propped himself out of the dirt, his body scratched up and coated in black soot which he swiftly shook off. Turning around, the hero stared down his opponents who seemed to have suffered only minor injuries, as opposed to himself. The odds were certainly not in his favor.

Gororin and Monster X unleashed their respective cries and rushed towards Gamera. X jumped forward, dodging a right swing by the turtle guardian and using Gamera’s face as a springboard. The fiend took to the air as the righteous reptile stumbled.

Trying to keep track of both opponents, Gamera was being overwhelmed as Gororin fired more needles into the turtle’s face. Fighting the pain, Gamera created another plasma fireball, hoping to incinerate the cactus ball, but was stopped dead when Monster X dropped in front of him and used his levitation to perform a deadly roundhouse kick.

Monster X spun in the air before planting his feet in the ground, landing a couple meters away and giving a taunting bow to the guardian. The fire in his mouth dissipated as Gamera struggled to stand. These opponents were very different from the ones he fought before, but when things looked bleak, he always found a way.

Gamera then perked up as he thought of a new strategy. Tucking his head and limbs into his shell, fire erupting from Gamera’s shell as he flew straight into the two alien invaders. Gororin barely escaped, but the airborne chelonian aimed towards Monster X. The skeletal dragon tried to leap back into the sky, but like a homing missile, the spinning shell swerved upward and slammed into Monster X’s gut.

Sharp edges of the shell grinded into the armor of X, sparks flying as the buzzsaw-like shell chipped and cracked the armor at breakneck speed. Gororin was helpless as he could only watch Gamera and Monster X fly higher into the blackened sky. Monster X continued to howl in pain as the blades started to cut open his thick skin, soon black blood oozed out of the fresh wounds, coating Gamera’s carapace.

Mustering up enough strength, the white dragon fired wave after wave of gravity beams. Most bounced off the shell of the turtle harmlessly, but one managed to find its ways into one of the empty sockets. Soon, a muffled cry was heard from within and the spinning came to an almost immediate halt.

Now the two were falling back down to Earth. Gamera stayed within his shell, X tried to slow down his impact by manipulating the gravity around him, both monsters seeing the ground rise further with each second.

They collided into the planet with an earth-shattering force, a plume of smoke shooting into the air. Gororin waited to see who was about to emerge, if he had fingers, they would be crossed no doubt.

Out of the smoke was a dusty Gamera, wheezing from inhaling the foul soot around him. He raised his head high as he roared into the sky, hoping one of his opponents was dead somewhere in a crater.

Gororin emitted a low rumbling noise, cursing the guardian. He rolled towards Gamera like a steamroller, the turtle hero wasn’t out of the woods yet. Gororin bounced off the ground straight into Gamera’s chest, hoping to impale the Atlantean bioweapon.

Gamera grunted as the needles stabbed into him. Grabbing the blue cactus in frustration, Gamera held him in place and opened his maw. Gororin stared right into the inferno as the air around him was sucked into his foe’s mouth, orange flames dancing inside.

Soon, Gororin was completely enveloped in flames. Gamera fired three plasma fireballs, powerful explosions engulfing both fighters, before the flames slowly dissipated. Gamera dropped the smoldering cactus ball and stared back into the sky, that golden ship was next.

Gamera began making his way to the craft but soon found himself lying on the ground, forcefully pushed down. The turtle grunted as he got up, turning to see Gororin, who was staring him down with yellow beady eyes. All of his needles were burned off, but his thick skin kept him alive.

Gamera roared in shock, but also in sickness of this thing’s presence. With an unusual burst of speed, the chelonian ran up to the de-needled plant and kicked it with all of his might, sending the live kickball skyrocketing.

Finally unopposed, Gamera began trudging toward the Xilien ship, a plasma fireball churning in his mouth. But it wouldn’t be so easy. Behind the turtle, an unsettling sound filled his ears, like a chorus of banshees wailing into the sky. Gamera turned around to see what had now decided to deny him of his duties.

Out from a pillar of smoke, a third beast marched out of the sickly gas, adorned with gold and black scales, terrifying wings and four thick legs that supported its bulky body. Three heads continued to cackle wildly, as if mocking the guardian of the universe, Gamera sighed, one more nuisance and then he could finish his job, but, where did this new monster come from? It didn’t matter, this beast would fall like the rest.

Gamera spat out his signature fireballs, speeding towards the hydra. Plasma fireballs erupted against the golden dragon’s armor, but still it continued to howl wildly with pleasure. The guardian stared in shock, that onslaught had hardly left a burn mark on its chest. Hiding in his shell and beginning to spin with intense speed, the turtle hoped to slice open the dragon and make it bleed out. The new monster continued its march towards Gamera, unfazed by the incoming blades.

Meanwhile in the Xilien ship. “Foolish creature, Monster X still had his trump card. Now he will feel true suffering, at the hands of Keizer Ghidorah,” X grinned with malevolence. “Well, I think it’s obvious who the superior monster is right, sister?

Landes frowned at the statement. “Oh shut up, at least my monster doesn’t need a transformation to get the job done.” Landes smirked at her sibling.

Gamera sped faster and faster, closing the gap between him and the armored dragon. Keizer Ghidorah, however, opened its right jaw and unleashed a hellish gravity beam, manipulating Gamera’s trajectory. It forced him to do a complete 180 and tossed him into the air.

Not far away, Gororin rolled out from the smoke and greeted his evolved comrade, his spikes almost fully regrown. The living cactus ball immediately rolled to Gamera’s location, seeking revenge for that kick.

Before the turtle hero could slam into the ground, two more gravity beams held him in place, allowing Gororin to fire a barrage of needles into the turtle. Most bounced off Gamera’s shell, but some managed to lodge themselves into his underbelly.

Keizer Ghidorah slammed the turtle into the burnt earth, ash and dust flying in the air. Gamera pulled himself up, dazed by the attack, but still in fighting condition. The turtle then had an idea. The chelonian retracted his legs and launched into the air like a rocket.

Keizer saw this and cursed under its breath, wondering what it would take to put down the turtle. The black and gold hydra opened its three draconic mouths and spewed more gravity beams. Gororin, meanwhile, tried to shoot the turtle down with another wave of needles.

Gamera evaded each projectile and concentrated his fiery power into his right fist, flickers of flame igniting around the scaly fist of the guardian. Keizer Ghidorah reared up onto its hind legs and cackled furiously, golden energy forming once more in each mouth.

Sweat began to roll down Gamera’s face, seeing the three headed terror at full height, it unnerved him, but he had to land this hit, he was betting everything on this. Keizer Ghidorah was ready to fire another round of gravity bolts, then crush the turtle under his foot, however, Gamera fired a weaker plasma ball at the central head. A miniature explosion followed, obscuring the dragon’s vision, howling in anger and confusion.

The three-headed dragon was then completely dumbstruck when Gamera rammed his flaming fist into its chest. Momentum helped push the punch through the thick golden skin, cracking the sternum and cooking the flesh within. Keizer howled in pain and tipped over backwards, both monsters causing dirt and debris to shoot into the air as they both fell to the ground.

Gororin stared in shock at what he had just witnessed. Gamera lay on Keizer Ghidorah’s belly, staring at the dragon with a rage like never before. He clutched a chunk of bone and organ and forcefully ripped it out of Keizer’s chest, oily black blood and ichor flowed profusely from the nearly cauterized wound.

Gamera looked at his right hand and examined it. Drenched in blood, Gamera tossed the chunk of Keizer Ghidorah away, flames had burned up to his forearm and it was on the verge of breaking. He hoped his regeneration would kick in quickly.

While Gamera tended to his wounds, sharp needles dug into his neck, prompting a pained howl as he felt blood oozing out. Gororin was still here and he was enraged by the loss of his comrade, the blue cacti slammed his body into Gamera and forced the guardian off of the dragon.

Gamera tried to get to his feet, but each attempt allowed Gororin to knock him down repeatedly. He cried out in frustration, unable to properly defend himself against this bizarre foe.

The turtle then retracted his head and limbs once more and began spinning like a top, plumes of fire erupted from each hole as Gamera sped away from Gororin. The cactus ball gave chase, the two crashing their bodies into one another as sparks erupted from each strike. Gororin was too focused on Gamera, losing focus of what was in front of him.

Soon, the cactus ball heard a loud splash as a cold sensation seeped throughout his body. His movement came to an immediate halt. Gororin tried to move, but was unable to, the realization of his predicament hitting him like a truck.

Gamera meanwhile soared through the air, before landing at the bank of a large murky river. He had successfully led his foe into the water, now with his foe helpless, the guardian prepared to take down the mothership.

However, a familiar golden beam of energy carefully picked up Gororin and dropped him onto dry land, the cactus ball shivering as the cold had crept into him. Gamera stood with his jaw dropped, staring at the sight before him. Keizer Ghidorah, with a gaping hole in its chest, was standing before him, soft cackles rising from each head as the hydra struggled to stand.

Gamera, at wits end, decided to use an attack he had hoped to never use again. He at least knew how to control it, he didn’t have to haphazardly unleash it all in one go. Keizer and Gororin stared down the turtle as they watched fiery orange energy move towards the hero. A hole in the center of Gamera’s midsection opened and absorbed the mana of the planet, the wielder of this tremendous power snarling as he focused on not overdoing it.

Keizer Ghidorah charged golden energy in each maw as Gororin prepared a barrage of needles. Gamera howled to the heavens as a large beam of orange and white carved a massive trench through the earth in front of him, his enemies firing their signature weapons. Needles and gravity beams struck the Ultimate Plasma, the colliding forces coming to a standstill. However, the mana blast began to creep closer towards the aliens, before it overwhelmed the combination of gravity bolts and needles as it rapidly approached both Xilien war machines.

The pair went wide eyed as their vision was filled with the warm orange light. It was the last thing they saw before their bodies were engulfed in the mana stream, taking the full brunt of the attack. Their senses went numb as their bodies broke apart, disintegrated into nothingness.

Gamera ceased the attack as a massive explosion erupted from the ground where Keizer Ghidorah and Gororin once stood, a powerful shockwave sending dust and rubble flying as Gamera felt the pressurized air wash over him.

Nothing. That is what the turtle hero saw. Gamera looked around, the ground barren as far as his eyes could see, aside from the occasional building left standing. Confident that he had obliterated the vile villains, no creature could withstand the Ultimate Plasma, Gamera glared up towards the ship that started this battle. He was ready to shoot it down, until he heard an unforgettable sound in the distance.

Gamera turned and groaned at what he saw. A large flock of Gyaos, that no doubt had felt the disturbance from the mana beam. Gamera cringed, now he had two problems to deal with… or did he? The turtle quickly made his way to the murky body of water he had tried to drown Gororin in previously, leaping in and carefully positioning himself to see the glowing ship in the sky, the turtle tucked his limbs into his shell as to blend in with the rocks and sunken debris.

Meanwhile, in the massive Xilien ship, the Xilien commander and Landes were furious. The siblings scorned and cursed the turtle before arguing with one another, trying to place the blame on the other.

An Xilien soldier working a nearby monitor called to the Xilien commander, who twisted around and whipped out a silver ray gun aimed at the soldiers head, threatening to blast his brains out for interrupting.

“This better be good.” He said coldly, the eyes behind the visor staring daggers at the underling.

The alien flinched before regaining his composure. “Sir, we have multiple life forms converging at our location,” The soldier stated, hoping his brain would not be fried.

The Xilien commander looked to the large monitor that displayed a flock of bat-like lizards flying towards them. Landes groaned, before commanding the nearby soldiers to release the fighter ships.

Gamera, watched from beneath the water as the small ships were released from the big one once more, like insects emerging from a hive. Small triangular ships shot down multiple arrowheaded Gyaos. Smoldering corpses fell to the scarred land below, the Gyaos retaliated as they cut down waves of Xilien fighter ships with yellow supersonic rays.

Gamera watched as the two opposing forces engaged in the largest dogfight he had ever seen, the two sides seeming equal to each other. He needed to regain his strength, for it mattered not who won this battle.

In the end, he would be the one to win this war.

Winner: Gamera (Heisei)

Author: Matthew Freese | Banner: Matthew Freese

Once, there was a serpent.

With three tongues he tasted the air as he crawled across black, barren fields in search of oasis. A golden streak against the dark, the sight of him sent fear crawling down the spines of any unfortunate enough to bear witness. When he found patches of life amidst the wastelands, he feasted like a king. Life disappeared down his gullet, fangs sank into flesh as he messily consumed whatever he could reach. Venom dripped from his fangs, yellow and bright as it burned away at the victims like fire. Any who tried to fight back either fell victim to the searing drippings of his maw or were crushed by his thick and powerful coils.

It took little time for whatever lively spots he found to become dead, just like the expanse surrounding them. Once he had his fill and digested the inhabitants, he moved on, returning to the darkness where he was uncontested.

That life was good. The snake lost track of how many he’d slain, how many oases he’d made indistinguishable from the endless wasteland. Time became a blur, something wholly unimportant to the serpent. The black field never ended, another sanctuary always somewhere to be found and pillaged. He would do this for all eternity, and that was just fine with him.

Until one day. When the mundanity was broken.

A sound caught the snake’s ear as he feasted, one he had not heard before. Swallowing the gigantic blue amoeba whole, only memorable for being the last thing the serpent tasted, he slithered forth to investigate. A constant low roar, which he soon discovered to be a rushing river of scarlet. It kicked up dust as it raged, a crimson haze which settled at its sides and stained the vibrant surroundings in that single color. Spiders skittered out from the fog, pteranodons sailed up from behind it on leathery wings, and a green troll prowled the outskirts of the mist in search of prey.

Twisting through the fog, the ophidian menace sought further knowledge. Tongues flickered into the dust, recoiling at the bitter taste. Red clinged to gold, as if it were trying to blot out his beauty. Finally he pushed through the wall of particles, reaching the rapids and plunging himself into them. The stained water tried to carry him away, but the serpent held strong as he swam through the river.

He had seen much in his travels, but nothing even remotely like this. He demanded answers, refusing to let such an oddity elude him. The red water parted as a crocodile rose from it, scales as black as coal and bearing bloodshot eyes sparkling with madness. Snapping his jaws, the hulking brute sought to end the life of the intruder, racing forth like a bullet.

Water splashed and mixed with blood and venom as they tore at one another, sailing down the river’s length at the rushing water’s behest. They rushed past other pockets of life, even into other long expanses of black dotted with those fertile lands. Other snakes and crocodiles tore into one another while they passed by, as if the fervor of their war was infectious.

Eventually, they ceased. Their scales grinded against the coast, halted by their bodies being thrown to the sides of the river. Unfurling himself, the snake crawled off the brute’s twitching carcass, stained with blood which was hard to distinguish from the water. Smoke peeled off holes in the crocodile’s skin, where venom had beset and scorched.

His eyes scanned his surroundings, revealing to him that they’d come to a colossal tree. Its leaves shined red, decorating twisting branches that as far as the eye could see branched into smaller and smaller points. All around it was a jungle, one which contorted in unnatural ways and seemed to breathe like the beasts within it.

Tired and wounded, he wished to sleep, but such a thing would not come to him. The same predators he’d seen when he first reached the stream lurked all about, in greater numbers and with more variance and ferocity. He would not be able to sleep out in the open, they would have posed no threat to him at his prime, but his war had left him in gruesome shape. The denizens of this twisted oasis would pick him clean, crawl into his wounds and feast upon his organs.

The serpent crawled to the tree, slithering up the trunk with the last of his strength. He knew that something had to be lurking in that dense wall of cruel foliage, but it would be better than what was below. Reaching a branch, the ophidian wanderer nestled himself into the thick mass of leaves. His wounds burned as thorns pricked them, leaves dragging over the raw flesh and leaving the strange droplets they gathered.

It was only from this vantage point that he realized the river that had carried him here did not just end at the tree’s shadow. It also began from the timber, the roots encircling the start of the stream like embracing arms. Sleep claimed him, the revelation too much for his weary brain to bear, unconsciousness almost a defense mechanism for the simple mind.

The snake did not awaken, despite shedding his skin.

Instead, the next morning, vines stretched down from the branches. Even brighter gold than the serpent had been, they bristled with hateful thorns. Like fingers they ensnared a quadruped wrapped in armor and spikes, his brown hide splitting like upturned dirt as the venom which had once spilled from the ophidian jaws now sprayed out from the thorns whenever they so desired. He roared, his mind supposed to be able to foresee any occurrence, but falling so short in the face of this new horror. Bone crunched as the vines constricted him, lifting him off his feet and up into obscurity to never be seen again.

Not even blood or viscera fell, his totality subsumed by what had been born in that crimson brush.

The great tree shuddered, as if rejecting its new parasite, sending a tangled mass of yellow spite tumbling down to the dirt below. The vines tried to wrap themselves around the trunk again, seeking this time to strangle the life out of it. Like insects of a colony, the beasts of the forest, no matter their appearance, raced towards the aberration and attempted to tear it away from the centerpiece.

And like moths to a flame, they were merely consumed by something grander than themselves. Even crocodiles, like the one that had nearly killed the serpent, snapped their jaws onto the vines, only to find themselves biting nothing before their maws were latched shut.

But this conflict was not changing. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, time was once more losing meaning as nothing shifted. More servants of the tree would thrust themselves into the fray to be swallowed whole, the tree would hold strong against the vines’ crushing grip, and what was once a serpent was unassailable.

Unlatching itself from the tree, the thorn-decked destroyer departed. Through the illogical forest it writhed, uncaring of the biting teeth and lashing claws, until it finally found the flowing river. Plunging itself into the red waves, the stream carried it off, out of the purview of the fractal tree.

Eventually, with a vine digging into the side of the brook, it pulled itself back out and into the black plain it had first left. However long has passed, it could sense that life still flourished all across the expanse. But what it had done before would not be sufficient, not for the new golden one.

Instead of slithering, it sat still. Vines dug into the dark soil around it, spreading in all directions. When they found life, they would rip their way free from underneath it and drag whatever victim they discovered down into the abyss. There was no more concern for taste and enjoyment, only feeding the void inside itself. Eventually, this dark expanse would run dry, like a corpse rotted down to the very bone. It did not matter. When that day came, the aberration would go to another endless field.

And after that, another, and then another, for the rest of time. Until there was no time.

Once, there was a snake.

But now there were vines.

Vines wrapping around the throat of life, and slowly but surely squeezing it closed.

On July 21st, 2025, I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with director Gareth Edwards, known for his work on Godzilla (2014), the recent Jurassic World Rebirth, and more. Originally, the plan was to ask him just a couple of quick questions about Godzilla before diving into Jurassic World Rebirth. However, once we started talking about the King of the Monsters, the conversation naturally kept drifting back to that film. It turned into a much more Godzilla-focused discussion than expected, and I think fans of the franchise will really enjoy the insights Gareth shares.

Just a quick heads-up: there are a few moments where Gareth’s WiFi cuts in and out, but I’ve done some light editing to smooth out the flow for clarity. (more…)

Author: Brendan Sheehan | Banner: Vincent Rodger

“Sorry to have interrupted your lunch, S.” the giant of light said apologetically, leaning against a jagged mountain.

“Isphine,” the Last Son spoke between chunks of beef before swallowing and clearing his throat. “I had time to grab it after I saw the sign. You sure you don’t want some?”

“Nah, I hate manifesting a form. Feels like a headache in every part of your body, have no idea why the old guard insists on it.”

“Yeah, now that I say it out loud, doing it for half a Big Belly Double and fries is kind of stupid.” Clark said, sipping at a soda.

“That’s a terrible name. I would do that for anything but something called a Big Belly, ” the Land of Lighter said, stretching his shoulder as he regarded the horizon.

“I mean, it’s memorable.”

“‘Come on down and eat Big Belly, don’t you want a Big Belly, kids? Oh, honey, get me a Big Belly!’” The young legend prattled on in a variety of voices, before tilting his head so his yellow lenses side-eyed the smaller hero. “I mean, you’re hearing this, right?”

“Well, yeah, but it’s common knowledge. I mean, I’m sure people at home don’t blink hearing about “Emerium Beam”, “Eye Slugger”, “Color Timer”, but-”

“Because those are good names. We don’t call it “Gonna Die Timer”.” The giant alien gestured.

“That is not the same, Zip!” The Kryptonian stammered, turning to the blue titan.

“‘Slashy Head Thing’. And you know I hate that nickname.”

“It’s a good nickname, it reflects your actual name. Anyway, you are being overly-”

“‘Blow Up Good Beam’.”

“Darn it, alright, it’s a bad name!” the Man of Steel shook his head in frustration as he raised his hands. He sighed and leaned further into the crater edge he found himself on, glaring at a triumphant chuckle to his left.

A long moment passed for the two heroes waiting in the valley. Nothing but the sound of wind blowing grey ash and the stretching sky lit with purple swirls and white dots. The horizon they watched remained, the mountains touching the endless night as they looked on, patient.

“How long did those folks say it would be?” The Smallville native spoke, picking at a dab of ketchup with a cold fry.

“In Earth time, twenty minutes. But they got a lot coming so…” A blue hand flip flopped as the son of Seven leaned against the side of the mountain, one leg stretching. He stopped to wave off dust forming on his mantle as he regarded the area.

Standing up, Metropolis’ protector knelt down and grabbed a couple of rocks from the edge of the crater he sat upon. Tossing one in a firm but gentle hand, he narrowed his blue eyes before he tossed it. It clinked against the ground, once, twice and then disappeared in the distance. Flashing a warm smile, he continued with the rest laying upon the ground, making further and further distance with a snap of a blue clad arm. His titanic ally lazily watched him with waning interest. Eventually, the pile disappeared and the sentinel sighed as he let his cape wave. Still looking in the distance, he spoke.

“So…how’s your dad?”

The azure protector snorted, scratching at his silver chest armor as he looked off. “He’s Dad. Always proud papa in private and the commander disapproving of ‘your unnecessarily dangerous methods!’ in public.”

“That’s frustrating. I’m sorry.” He turned to regard him with a disappointed look, only to be waved off by a giant hand.

“Ah, it’s how he shows his love. Older generation, you know?” His crested head turned to his friend. “Speaking of, though, how are your parents?”

The Big Blue Boyscout froze in place, curl in his hair bouncing before becoming still. “…My..?”

“Yeah, uh. What do you call them…Ma and Pa?” Despite a permanent face expression, the tone of the echoing voice seemed to cringe a bit at the antiqued term.

“Oh!” Clark seemed to relax as he shook his head. “Yeah, they’re…they’re good! Just saw them, calving season is coming so they need my help, you know? But good.”

The larger alien did not know but did note his ally’s strange reaction. He debated asking but decided against it. They had a battle coming soon and his experience told him bringing up that sort of thing might throw him off balance. He didn’t want to make things worse.

He decided to change the subject, clearing his throat. “Right. Good to hear. And your cousin?”

“Ah, typical Kara. I only just saw her a few weeks ago. Took Krypto too so…Fortress is quiet.”

“Oh, good, so no bruises for a bit.” His silver mouth would have smirked if it could.

“Hey, now, he’s…getting…maybe a little bit better.” Clark said, a stage whisper as he looked down at his shined red boots.

The stoic silver face of the Ultra could not have been more deadpan as it turned to the right, casting a slight shadow over the metahuman.

“I mean. It’s marginal but- anyway, how’s Zett?”

The Ultra sighed in frustration as he leaned back against the mountain. “Driving me nuts, is how he’s doing.”

“Pushing back against what you’re teaching him? Dealt with that with the interns a bit.”

“He’s not my disciple, so it’s not that.” The Land of Lighter said as he wedged his finned head into the cliff face, missing an eye roll from his smaller friend. “He keeps sneaking off from our sparring sessions and rushing around secretly. I don’t know if he’s working on some secret technique or seeing someone or what but it’s driving me up the wall.”

“Have you tried talking to him?” The farmboy stated, crossing his arms as he pondered it with a quirked brow.

“Oh, yeah.” The emissary from M78 chuckled darkly. “That’d go great. ‘N-no, Master Zero! I would never! I am just trying to live up to your ideals!’ Even now, he’s still too starstruck to talk to me.”

Clark frowned deeply at the bitter tone of his massive friend and thought for a moment before clapping his hands. “So, make it even. You said you’ve been sparring. Bring it up after then. Nothing that clears your head better than even grounds. Had that happen with…a friend of mine.”

The red marked giant of light was still for a moment but eventually, nodded, looking towards Kent and speaking with a grateful tone to his projection voice. “Maybe that will work. Thanks, S-”

Any further conversation was cut off by the bars of a heavy guitar riff echoing through the void. The smaller hero jumped back and suddenly disappeared to the crater in a streak of blue and cloud of ash. Digging within the stellar rock, he pulled out a cellphone and held it up to his ear.

“Hey! Yeah, yeah, no, I uh…I got caught up in a thing. Yeah, I know. I know. No, not with the Justice Gang, it’s actually with another alien, uh, Ultr- Uh, Zip.”

“Hi, Lois! That’s not my name!” An armored arm waved out with an echo.

“He says hi. Yeah, he’s the big guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeaaaah. I don’t think I’ll be back in time, no. So if you could- oh you already worked it out with Jimmy? Thank you so much. I owe you, okay? I mean it. Yes, beef bourguignon from the place in Happy Harbor. I love you, too.”

The phone clicked and he sighed wistfully as he placed it with reverence back in the crater and turned around to regard the horizon. The boy born as Kal-El looked out with a smile…but felt something off. He slowly turned to his right to see his giant ally looking over with his arms crossed and his head tilting to give the impression of a wide grin. The soft grin turned into a quiet frown.

“What?”

“You’re at the “I love you” stage….” The powerful voice of the multiverse’s defender sing-songed.

If it was possible, a blush would have come to the farmboy’s face. “Dude, come on!”

“You know the Land of Light has some great places for a wedding~”

“Oh my gosh.” A hand that could crush concrete gripped a face in embarrassment.

“Zero is a gender-neutral kid’s name too, you kn-”

“Dude!” The caped wonder stood up, gesturing in frustration. “Come on! You’re 6,000 years old!”

“That’s about your age in Earth years, S. Come on, I’m only teasing.”

Clark sighed as he turned away, eventually sitting back in his chosen crater with a huff. A moment passed, with the prodigy chuckling to himself as he shook his head. After a moment, he turned and kicked his foot forward, dusting the Man of Steel in dust. The man sized hero shook himself and looked up in frustration as the redeemed outcast leaned forward.

“Seriously, I’m happy for you. Not everyone can find someone. Cherish it. Especially someone as spirited as she sounds.”

The Earth raised alien listened and smiled after a moment. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it. And yeah, she is pretty punk rock.”

“Punk rock?”

“Oh, it’s just…a thing we talked about. You know, like the musi-”

“I’m from the Land of Light but I’m aware. Mayu is obsessed with it now.” The gigantic hero said, shaking his head with fondness now. “Dragged me and Leito to so many bad concerts. Geez. Anyway, just didn’t think you’d like someone…punk rock.”

“What, why not? Is this a music thing again, I swear if I have to defend the Crabjoys again-” A finger pointed from the crater.

“Not what I meant,” The kaiju slayer said as he leaned forward, going into a thinking pose with his knee supporting his elbow as he laid a finger over his mouth. “Just..I always thought you’d prefer something stable. Two lives, two worlds you call home…too much for someone so spirited.”

“I mean..that’s kind of what made me fall in love with her,” The defender of truth and justice said, leaning his own elbow against the crater’s edge. “I always try to be the best for everyone, so…I see the best in everyone. She…she considers everything. She said she’s a realist and a cynic but…”

“But?”

“I think we do see the same thing. I see the good in everyone because I believe in them. She sees the good in the world and looks out for the things that can ruin it. We compliment each other, because we’re both looking for the same thing. A better tomorrow. That my p- that we always wanted.”

Silence stretched for a while. The blue titan nodded his head. It truly was beautiful. But there was that hesitation again..

The giant of light debated bringing it up once more but decided to avoid it as he nodded his head.

“Beautiful.”

A curl bounced in perfect hair as the Man of Steel smirked and shrugged. “I am a reporter.”

“Ah, yes, the warm hearted and the punk rock reporter.”

“I’m punk rock!”

“You are not. And it’s not a music thing. I know because I’m punk rock.” The Ultra said, placing a blue hand atop his silver protected chest.

“What makes you punk rock but not me?” The flying optimist asked, tossing a rock halfheartedly.

“Because I’m an alien giant who got kicked out for breaking the law and literally disobeying my father, came back to save the day, and now am its lauded defender?” His finned head tilted in response as an open fist snatched the rock and tossed it casually.

“…that is pretty punk.” The Kryptonian said, placidly.

Satisfied, the Land of Lighter tossed the rock off in the distance, leaning back against the cliff as it flew off. With vision intense enough to go through solid rock, the Kryptonian watched it fly off and bounce against a mountain, startling an alien creature with six wings and eight legs to fly off. He nodded and sat back thinking.

“Hey. Zip.”

“Hmm?” The giant alien looked down, ignoring the nickname for once.

The Man of Steel looked down, unsure. Hands dug into the gray ash, as he sighed.

“Alright, S?” The Ultra stood looking down. After a moment, he cocked his head and sighed dramatically. “Please don’t ask about my love life, I get enough of that from Grandaunt Marie-”

“That wasn’t what I was going to- why would..whatever!” He sighed and took a shaky breath before he stood up and regarded the titan ally. “Did you mean that earlier?”

His yellow eyes gleamed as he cocked. “Mean…what?”

“That…it’s pretty punk to stand up to your parents?” The cape seemed to hide the man as he looked down into the ash.

The giant of light started to inquire why his friend would say this…

And then it clicked.

He should have known. He had heard from the Green Lanterns of a disaster reported from that tool Guy. The fear when his parents were mentioned. What he had heard from the rest of Zero Force of other Kryptons. The Ultra sighed internally. He would have to get him to actually talk after this, but for now….

The giant alien tilted his head back and then after a moment looked back, before nodding and shooting a gesture with an extended thumb and pinkie.

“Yeah. It’s very punk rock.”

The Last Son smiled kindly. He knew his friend knew. And from one in similar shoes, it helped.

“Thanks, man.”

The two sat back down and regarded the sweeping horizon. A comet lit the sky, blue crossing through the purple and white.

“….would you say I’m more or less punk then a certain gentleman from Gotha-”

A hellish roar echoed through the valley, sending both heroes to their feet. The ground, black and molten, cracked with the gray ash flying as a nightmarish beast stuck its fang filled jaws from the ground. It screeched, dragging its thick body out to reveal a metallic harness on top of it, a screeching army of soldiers atop whipping and pointing. From behind it, the ground burst to reveal another, and another. And from the mountains, thick crafts flew down, energy coursing to keep them afloat. From the largest, an armored general snarled and pointed with an alien curse.

Standing firm, a sigil of hope gleaming against the moon as a crimson cape billowed, Superman turned to his ally.

“Right. Ready, Zip?”

Ultraman Zero flipped his blue mantle and turned, a gleam in his yellow eyes as his Sluggers shined.

“Race ya there, S?”

The Big Blue Boy Scout smiled.

And then, they were off.

I recall in the mid 2010’s seeing pages on Toho Kingdom, and other Godzilla fansites, about Godzilla manga from the 1990’s. Manga such as Monster King Godzilla and the anthology The Godzilla Comic, seemed like hidden treasures, relics lost to time that had not been preserved and remained trapped and untranslated in Japan. It gets even wilder when you go even farther back to comics like Rampage Godzilla which were published before Godzilla was even a proper franchise. While many of these comics still do not have official western releases, the situation has gotten better, and more attention is being given to them. Thanks to the efforts of Nick Driscoll and other Toho Kingdom staff members, much of this manga is being preserved, including stuff as far back as 1963’s manga adaptation of Matango. (more…)

Author: Maddison Foust | Banner: Landon Soto

Heavy crimson wings flapped, pulling a blood red predator through the star speckled expanses of space. Bagorah, as the bat-like monster had come to be known, was on the hunt. Her hyper-advanced hearing was utterly unrivaled, capable of picking up a scream from galaxies away. And that was exactly what had happened. A series of shrieks, falling somewhere between sheer panic and blistering rage, told the Korghan beast exactly where her next meal was.

But, as it flew through the Milky Way, the scarlet huntress’ ears picked up a new sound. One much fainter, more subdued, but detectable nonetheless. A strange industrial humming, interspersed with occasional beeps. And, from the sound of things, it was coming closer. Bagorah’s emerald orbs narrowed, pupils darting to the sides as she came to a halt. Quietly she hovered in place, ears perked up, tentatively holding her breath as she focused on the rapidly approaching object. Tension filled the empty void surrounding the extraterrestrial chiropteran, growing so thick it felt as if it would crush her. Then, in an instant, it disappeared as a quartet of zagged electric rays pierced through the cosmos. At once, Bagorah leapt out of the way, elegantly gliding out of the blast zone at the last possible second. The goliath space bat spun 180 degrees, angrily laying eyes on her attacker.

Four glimmering golden spaceships, each radically different in shape than the next, ominously drifted through the void as if they were one, keeping perfectly in formation. They continued to emit that same industrial humming as they approached, perfectly monotone and flat. Bagorah could do nothing but glare at the armada. She immediately recognized the metallic fleet as creations of lesser beasts, bite-sized creatures utterly powerless by their lonesome. There were many of those scattered among the stars. It was a fact learned from centuries of experience, for her countless travels had introduced her to just about all of them. So often did they deploy such feeble machines, whether it be in an attempt to repel her insatiable hunger or to hunt her down. But time and time again they proved inferior, and even worse, they proved repulsive to the taste.

Both disturbed from her travels and cheated out of a meal, the Korghan beast snarled, before stretching her jaws as far apart as she could muster. As far as the space demon was concerned, this nuisance was just that. It had no use to her, and as such, she opted to end it with haste. From Bagorah’s cavernous maw, a deafening blast of weaponized sound waves erupted forth, entirely consuming the beeping pests. Throughout her countless years of life, such an attack had proved truly formidable, shattering the hardest of metals and rupturing the sturdiest of armor.

That’s why the huntress was blindsided when four more beams punched straight through her scream and converged upon her chest, detonating directly above her lungs. A tremendous shockwave exploded forth, violently jerking the chiropteran backwards against her will. Weaponized shrieks turned into those of shock, and then to fury.

A quick flap of the bat’s wings righted her unbalanced form, with a second making her shoot across the void like a torpedo. The hovering armada prepared to fire yet again, only for the huntress to spin out of the way at the last possible second. Without a moment to waste, Bagorah unleashed another one of her ear-breaking screams. Except, this time, she focused in, concentrating the rampant flood of sound waves into four thin beams, one for each of the offending ships. Bursts of sparks flew from their shining metal hulls upon contact, but no more than that. The crimson scourge snarled, cursing the resilience of the golden machines. It seemed as though this battle would be more time-consuming than she anticipated, as much as she hated to see it. The ships began to reposition themselves as if they had never been hit at all, clearly preparing to unleash yet another volley of energy rays. Bagorah hadn’t the time to inspect the damage from the first time they had struck, but the lingering pain was enough to tell the Korghan beast everything she needed to know.

Sickly orange talons crashed against carefully polished steel, clamping down as best they could. Teeth soon followed, snapping shut around the golden fortress’ hardened exterior. The natural weapons failed to pierce through, but the space monster had expected as much. Bagorah’s ears stood perked, anticipating the slightest shift in the audio output of the small ship’s larger companions. She didn’t have to wait long. The moment she heard the sound, she leapt away from her perch atop the runt at the quickest speeds she could muster, allowing an onslaught of dazzling rays meant for her to zip right on by, finding their mark upon the impenetrable hull of her former target. A mighty explosion rang out, ever so subtly blackening luminescent golden armor as small fires broke out on the point of impact. Bagorah took no time to watch such things, however, already barreling toward the next one. A mighty headbutt crashed into the twin rainbow panels of the second smallest ship, sending it backwards but a few meters. The bat-like beast reeled from the impact, her skull feeling as if it would split in two. Nevertheless, she thought fast and kept up the assault, spinning around to strike the machine with her spear tipped tail.

The appendage cracked like a whip as it fell upon its intended target, transmitting enough force to scar the toughest of hides. Just as before, however, the spacecraft was pushed back no more than a meter or two, and Bagorah soon found that her tail had been bruised in the attempt. She snorted. So be it.

Jagged beams came from every direction as the bat fell back, forcing her to veer off course in the effort of self preservation. The hideous beast flew through the inky void with the precision and grace of a seasoned acrobat, making the task of avoiding such a terrifying onslaught look like the easiest thing in the world. Her sights fell upon the largest of the formation, leathery wings propelling her toward it. However, at the last moment, she abruptly banked to the side, diving again for the smallest. Predatory claws fell upon the simply shaped UFO, picking it out of the void and carrying it at speeds faster than it ever naturally moved. In but a moment, Bagorah released her quarry, sending it hurtling toward the ship she had nearly busted her head open against. The two collided with a deafening boom, forming a shockwave which nearly launched the chiropteran away. For the first time, she stopped for a moment to flash a smirk, admiring her handiwork. But the pause lasted no more than that, as she went right back on the offensive.

As the impacted ships drifted away from one another, the Korghan beast’s talons stretched out once more, reaching for the runt of the fleet to repeat the maneuver. But, to Bagorah’s absolute shock, the golden machine shot to the right so fast that it nearly became a blur. Her eyes shot open as wide as could be, her mind failing to compute what had just happened for the few crucial seconds required to stop the second craft’s energy ray from lancing into her chest. Chunks of charred skin fell from the point of impact, a pained wail leaking from the scarlet huntress’ maw. The agonized cry faded in but a second, transforming into a deafening, rage-fueled howl. A great audial shockwave flew forth, its grandiosity wasted upon nothing but empty space as the intended recipient of its earth shattering might zipped out of the way. Bagorah’s eyes narrowed at this and, with a snarl, she flipped around, just in time to bear witness to a most unexpected display.

The quartet of machines flew through the void in circles around one another at speeds their enemy had thought them incapable of, twisting and contorting. Antennae retracted deep into the bowels of the still-pristine steel, the lower half of the fleet’s greatest splitting in two as if to form arms. The second did the opposite, seeming to sprout such extensions. Then, one by one, the ships slammed atop one another, letting out firm clicks as they did. The Korghan beast’s eyes went wide, her mouth parting slightly as she watched in sheer awe at the sight. In the span of seconds, before her very eyes, the fleet had become one, forming a magnificent golden fortress. An invincible automaton. The pinnacle of the universe’s scientific knowledge.

King Joe.

Bagorah was snapped out of her stupor when the robot shot itself like a missile, slamming right into her tattered chest. A mix of blood and saliva sprayed from her twisted lips and crooked teeth, flowing freely into the abyss. The crimson bat, on the other hand, was not given the same quarter, hopelessly trapped under the war machine until they crashed into a rogue asteroid no larger than two hundred meters across. Her spine felt as if it would shatter right then and there, and her ribs felt as if they already had. King Joe gave her only a moment of reprieve, backing off for the sole purpose of rotating 180 degrees and slamming feet first into the beaten predator. One hundred thousand tons landed upon her, splitting the rogue mass of rock in two and allowing the warring pair to rocket through to the other side. Bagorah screamed, but not out of pain. A hyper-concentrated ray soared across the abyss, spearing into the golden machine’s ever-so slightly blackened midsection.

Sparks flew from the point of impact as the space robot froze up, its dreadful industrial ambience ceasing. As fast as possible, the hunter-turned-hunted slipped out of her attacker’s grasp, her wings blurring into mad streaks of red. Not a moment too soon, either, as King Joe came back online after but a second of malfunction. The machine’s spotlight eyes suddenly failed to locate prey that had been right beneath its feet just before, something Bagorah would have cocked a sly smile at if not for the dire circumstances. King Joe was caught entirely off guard when talons clamped around its left shoulder, a lengthy tail slithering around its right. Bagorah stomped her free limb down onto her foe’s back, beginning to both push and pull with all her might in a bid to tear the machine’s limbs clean off. A blinding flash consumed the robot’s bulky form, heralding the formation of a lethal field of energy. Golden power scorched the Korghan beast’s three appendages, electric currents traveling up her entire body.

The moment she found herself capable, Bagorah let go of her quarry, attempting to fall back yet again. Unfortunately, such an attempt was quickly thwarted when a cold, metallic hand snatched her ankle in its grasp. The bat cried out in agony as her bones snapped in two under the pressure exerted by the rogue fortress’ mighty grip, flailing her tail madly in the vain hopes of taking an eye from her foe. A second reached out to snatch the tail all the same, but it fell just short of the unpredictable appendage, inadvertently allowing Bagorah to wrap it around the Pedanian machine’s wrist. Turning around, the predator opened wide, gathering everything she could for what may well have been the most powerful scream of her entire life, focused directly at the robot’s self-inflicted weak point.

Two dazzling rays became one, punching effortlessly into the huntress’ chest, her lungs detonating in a sea of flame.

It was not a planet shaking sonic blast, but a feeble gurgle which left Bagorah’s throat. Her movements ceased as her mind went into a state of shock, allowing King Joe to take back its tethered arm, fingers closing down upon the crimson tail as was intended. A horrible crunch rang out as the appendage’s bones were crushed, snapping the Korghan beast back into reality. Her mind raced, staring with abject terror at the blank faced automaton. If she didn’t do something immediately, she would surely be torn limb from limb by the rogue machine. But what was there to be done? The answer became painfully clear when a shield of energy formed around King Joe’s body, zapping Bagorah’s captive limbs until the crimson hide became black. Zagged bolts of power traveled throughout the monstrous bat’s entire body, frying her remaining organs and charring any bit of flesh left untouched until she was nothing but a floating husk.

A series of clicks denoted the detachment of the ships which made up the seemingly indestructible weapon, not that anything was alive to hear them. The automaton’s computers began to calculate, putting the data it had acquired from the strange bat through its systems. In no time at all, the fleet had determined Bagorah’s intended flight path, pinpointing exactly where they would be headed next. A small, seemingly insignificant blue planet. King Joe did not know what its prey had wanted there, but it must have been something, and in time the machine would find out. The golden armada began to move once more, deep industrial ambience never ceasing, on a direct course for Earth.

Winner: King Joe

First revealed during Godzilla Fest 2024, a new manga series centered around the king of the monsters has hit the pages of Young Champion magazine.

(more…)

Author: Alex Williams | Banner: Alex Williams

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Elita-1
Chapter 2: Thundercracker
Chapter 3: Arcee
Chapter 4: Soundwave
Chapter 5: Megatron
Chapter 6: Wheeljack (more…)

Author: Jack Blackburn | Banner: Matthew Williams

Screams threw themselves at the heavens as mighty works of mankind were laid low, every skyscraper a Tower of Babel sent hurtling down upon the uncountable fleeing masses. Whether death by lightning strikes from the omnipresent downpour, surging tidal waters that drowned to the streets, or the crumbling monoliths that had once been homes crushing their inhabitants; the fatality count was skyrocketing by the second. What had once been a city of millions would become a city of a few hundred by the time the living embodiment of mankind’s extinction departed.

Titanus Ghidorah flapped his wings amidst his ever-growing hurricane, all too happy with his own progress. During his rampage in the past, mankind, gods, and monsters alike had fallen before his might and became nothing but food in his ever-craving hunger for energy. The sun had not passed overhead not but several times since his release, and he was already off to the races. So many matters had paid off so well. Many a human personally snuffed out by his direct acts, an incalculable number of the small, disgusting wretches dying by the moment by his own hand with the storm or the instruction given to his new dominion of titans; and his greatest opposition already dealt with.

It was the dominion of nature that the powerful made way for none. That was as simple as law as one could comprehend, even to a mind as alien as one could imagine.

There had been a brief time that he feared, yes. Not necessarily of being afraid in itself, but rather of failure. He was weak upon first emerging from the icy prison, and the resident, now disposed king, had virtually been right there waiting for him. The recharge on the long flight that had generated the storm heralding him had been necessary for revitalization, absorbing every lightning strike upon his golden majesty to reignite sparks of power. It was more than sufficient to deal with a pestering fire demon that he had swiftly brought low. Not even interference by Godzilla in a surprise attack had averted his plans, though some trouble had been found there.

Ghidorah did not know where that green eruption of light had come from, nor the strange sensations his alien body experienced on contact with it; but he could comprehend his fortune upon seeing the disastrous damage it wrought upon his most hated foe. After a quick stop at Rodan’s radioactive volcano to repair one of his lost heads, his dominion of this world as its new ruler was made clear with his self-appointed crowning as Alpha of the Titans.

They, the slain king’s once subjects and caretakers of this world, obeyed him now. Hunting and ravaging the annoying pests called mankind together. He would soon partake in more of the carnage, but a brief detour was in order. Something tantalizing was tasted on the wind, detected across the magnetosphere he was so attuned to. Ghidorah had chased such power before, long ago. That was what had led him to the southernmost continent of the planet in that bygone age where giants roamed the earth, sensing something potent to scour and consume within the world with an access point in the southern wastelands. Godzilla and his company of fellows had led to his defeat just before Ghidorah could crack into the fragile crust of this planet and fully expose the doorway to what he detected beneath on his first venture to this world. He’d been denied then of the vitalizing energy that was rightfully his as the new alpha of this dominion.

Ghidorah would be denied no longer. If there was another doorway opened up to the world beneath and what it offered, the only thing in his way was the time taken to fly there.

The Death Song of Three Storms emerged from the storm clouds at his back, mist and plumes rolling over his body in contrails as his crackling and electrified form glided towards dry land up ahead, which he was almost surprised to see.

The landmass ahead was one he had recognized from his first incursion upon this planet, a large plane of rock jutting out of the South Pacific. The civilization had once been here, before his arrival and subsequent storm after slaying its guardian sent the whole of the destabilized subcontinent hurtling into the sea. There hadn’t been a single survivor, something he had gleefully ensured after crushing hope like he crushed its protector.

Apparently, an upwell of volcanic activity had started pushing this lost land back to the surface recently. The landscape was a barren and fiery mass, occasional pyroclasts and lava flows still crisscrossing the span of it that was devoid of soil and plant life currently. Shattered remnants of stony buildings, perhaps once encased within the ash laden flows of the many volcanoes still erupting on the surface, were slowly being made visible. Ghidorah’s oncoming arrival had whipped forth the gales of wind, depositing ash and smoke across much of the air. Still, even without a single inhabitant in sight, his arrival was not alone for long.

Hordes upon hordes of flapping darkness rapidly made their hasty retreat from the interior of the island, literally flying in the exact opposite direction that Ghidorah was heading. The One Who is Many recognized the horde from the times before. Their master had both quarreled and at times been a lukewarm ally of his in that past. He didn’t see their master amongst them, and that oddity of the swarm caused one of Ghidorah’s extensions to narrow its eyes.

He followed the trail of gigantic bats to find one even larger.
***

Titanus Camazotz had been jarred awake by Ghidorah’s usurpation, but was not keen to oppose unless the opportunity came. Though it definitely gave an opportunity all to its own by permitting him free reign to unleash his hell swarm upon the unsuspecting human settlement. His thirst for destruction and their thirst for flesh was well satiated upon the plundering of San Diego. Falling back to the hollows he uniquely amongst titans knew so well, his eye too had been drawn to this lost land. The bio signal of its protector, snuffed out by Ghidorah long ago, had been absent.

Camazotz had been previously weighing options between new lands to ravage or settle, and there were many human hives nearby that were appealing targets. But the lost continent had proved more appealing. Its tantalizing dominion had not been as vacant as the king of bats had been expecting.

The stony fist smashing into his face and breaking off one horn however, was not very appealing at all really.

The bat-like demonic beast shrieked, whirling back around and unleashing the strongest sonic screech he could. The supersonic waves visibly distorted the air in a cone, the atmosphere thickened with volcanic ash, whilst the shockwaves began cracking the rocky landscape below. His opponent instead just continued advancing, literally walking through the cone of destruction that would deafen most anything living. The lava elemental didn’t quite constitute a typical definition of living however, lacking eardrums to rupture and blood vessels to vibrate.

Their stony exterior was fractured in places by the sound waves, and that did spur a reaction. The wide, froggish jaws parted in a bellowing roar emanating from the golem’s internal furnace that sounded like a stoked pyre. In a motion surprising for its bulk, Obsidius barreled forward and leapt multiple times its height off the ground. Catching Camazotz by the tail, all 78,000 tons of the mutant’s mass acted upon the titan to yank him out of the air.

Camazotz was no weakling. But his opponent had been a completely unexpected variable. There had been no prior knowledge of the mutation or what it could do, for it hadn’t been present on the surface or much less existed during the ancient past. If the bat titan knew of Obsidius’ capabilities prior he very well might have had far more success. Still, the end result spoke up for itself once the elemental got a hold of the bat after catching Camazotz intruding upon the space it had claimed.
***

King Ghidorah landed several hundred meters away just in time to see the end of the fight, amused at the entertainment. Camazotz was swung back and forth by his tail, repeatedly beaten into the ground like a bat-shaped club before going still. Obsidius lifted and inspected the battered titan before throwing him down the slopes of the volcano. The defeated titan tumbled end over end until coming to a stop directly beside the onlooking King Ghidorah. The echoes of Obsidius beating its chest with the cracking smacks of stony fists on a torso, along with a reverberating roar that again sounded like a burning pyre mixed with a human cry, shot past the bemused dragon’s ears.

Camazotz was still, burned in multiple places and clearly battered. Only a slight movement in the chest with a pained, low wheeze of a groan indicated he was still alive.

King Ghidorah hissed contentedly, rattling his scales and spines upon detecting the palpitations of the power from beneath the planet nearby. He could literally taste it in the air, the energy he’d been tracking was indeed here now. This connection to the hollow beneath might have been present in the past, but was far weaker back then as to escape his notice. The tectonic activity that brought this lost land back to the surface must have opened it up further. In comparison to Rodan’s volcano, this was easily a dozen times more potent if he could get closer to the source.

One of the volcanoes was the simplest deduction, given how many were constantly erupting across the island.

King Ghidorah grunted and cast his eyes all about to scan and survey the blasted, burning lands for the tantalizing palpitations of the world’s pulse.

Yes, he could pinpoint the location further up the largest slope. The one at the heart of the lost continent and constantly spilling out charged lava in a burning river that ran all the way to the shores of the steaming seas. The Hollow Earth’s lifeblood, trace amounts as it might be, was emanating from that towering pillar of rock that dwarfed even him. It also just so happened the slopes leading up to the source of the energy coincidentally led directly to the other source of Ghidorah’s curiosity. Said curiosity of which had turned its back to him and was walking back up the slopes to the top of the volcano, not even registering or caring the dragon from the stars was there.

Obsidius was soon right back where the first invader had found him, having walked back like nothing had ever happened and having parked itself within a crevice at the top of the slopes that carved into part of the collapsed wall of the caldera. Standing still in this valley of stone walls and knee-deep in flowing lava, the mutation just stood by and absorbed the never-ending stream upwelling from below that was carried on the lava flow it was using like a bath. Its simple mind didn’t even comprehend the possibility of getting into the caldera itself to figure out the source. Figuring out complex cause-and-effect such as that was beyond the golem’s faculties. As far as the elemental was concerned, it had followed the upwell of energy from the lithosphere to here and had a near never-ending buffet in the magma being pushed out.

It had only moved when the annoying flying thing had gotten too close to its new territory and interrupted it. Obsidius didn’t even care nor had the capacity for emotion to have enough spite towards Camazotz to care. The intruder had been removed and it went right back to feeding.

Something else was approaching now, but Obsidius didn’t even care. If it got too close the golem would give it the same treatment. Rain started to fall from the sky, instantly vaporizing and misting the moment it touched the scalding golem’s body and river. The surrounding heat was soon so high that most drops didn’t even touch the ground or the mutation’s rocky exterior, turning back into vapor from the force of convecting thermals in the air.

King Ghidorah landed after a few lazy wingbeats to propel him off the slopes of the volcano. He could’ve flown over and gone to the caldera directly, but the curiosity of what he thought was an inactive titan had gotten his attention. That this unknown giant whom Ghidorah assumed was just a titan he hadn’t encountered in the past had proven themselves a capable fighter by besting Camazotz, who had been easily within the top ten or so most powerful titans in the bygone age, was a bonus.

The dragon observed how Obsidius was simply standing in the lava flow a few hundred meters away, taking no action but clearly noticing him before making his intentions clear. King Ghidorah sucked in a great volume of ashy air and released his echoing cry, the death song of the three storms reverberating across the island as his growing hurricane shook the heavens high above. The restatement of his Alpha call declaring his status and dominion. As with the others, he would permit Obsidius’ life for the now to do his bidding. Remake this world, destroy the pests and those who opposed him; and surrender to him domination of the realm.

The call shook the whole island and many a giant beast, some once considered gods, around the world obeyed. Cowed by the demon from beyond which had assumed rulership of the world.

The last echoes of the call eventually petered out and King Ghidorah gradually looked forward to his new subordinate. Obsidius just stood still as a statue through the whole display and continued to do so afterwards.

King Ghidorah was not of Earth, but he did bear an beast-like capacity for emotion like its inhabitants. And the look across all three faces could be best described as perturbed as three sets of eyes glared forward. A momentary pause to look for a response found none in the magma mutation. They were just standing there right where Ghidorah had found them, passively absorbing the very energy he’d come here to claim from this otherwise worthless rock.

Making sure to spread his wings wide and tower over the golem at a distance, King Ghidorah made his grandeur well known. The raging storm, the cowed titans ravaging mankind, and the greatness of his span; the very world obeyed him now and Obsidius was to follow the same. The golem had proven its might and could be most useful in the campaign of domination for this planet, if they would bow down and join their new king.

Obsidius just stood forwards, less facing Ghidorah and more keeping its back to the caldera and the flowing latent power. A bit of magma even seemed to drool from its blank face, like it had gone limp or nonresponsive.

Ghidorah did not hide an annoyed sneer. Falling back on knowledge that the various titans of this world had various expressions and degrees of intelligence, the new king of the monsters wrote off the odd behavior as agreement from a dullard. Obsidius had not made any hostile motions towards him despite clearly brutalizing Camazotz, so Ghidorah chalked up their nonresponse to compliance. He could certainly kill the mild annoyance, but they might make for a useful subordinate yet like how Rodan had at the scourging of the northern continent.

Slow-in-the-head subordinates were put aside as a non-issue for now, the caldera beckoned. Striding forward, King Ghidorah made for the opening to the volcano’s maw that went right past Obsidius’ post. He stopped mid stride when the golem got in front of his path and let out the same territorial roar as he had upon defeating Camazotz. Up until now the golem had been very noncommunicative but the notion they were espousing now was pretty evident, for they’d let none pass by them to their caldera; kingly monster or not.

King Ghidorah hissed in discontent, snarling his exposed ivories and rattling tail quills. Rearing up on his back legs, the One Who Is Many made his intentions more thorough for this apparent moronic titan. A wingspan a quarter of a kilometer long was spread as he towered over Obsidius. His awesome power was evident in his radiating scales and glimmering lights built up behind his flesh, trails of energy visible as crackling strands of lightning along his necks and threatening to escape his maws. In tandem with its master’s lightning, the hurricane intensified its winds into ravaging gusts that whipped across the lost continent.

So strong were the gales that they, combined with the falling torrents of rain, caused masses of smoke and steam to choke up the airspace of the whole landmass. Rocks shuddered and fell over, lightning ripped the sky apart with flashes, the heavens became a near constant booming of thunder, the limp Camazotz slid down the long mountain slopes, and the follow-up Alpha call was heard around the world.

Ghidorah’s display of grandeur and power carried a strong warning. Obsidius would yield. It had respectable power and fought with the strength of many a monster, it would join Ghidorah’s crusade of conquest and would see to an end to the current world. All other titans had already done so, as all on this planet would as he re-forged it in his own image. The message and display was perfectly clear to anyone with a working brain.

The golem was to yield and join its new king, or be destroyed where it stood as all others could and would eventually be.

Obsidius just stood there through the whole display. Several very long moments passed before the interrupting golem snapped to action with its own roar yet again, reiterating the prior message that none shall pass beyond it. This was its island, its power source, and it didn’t know nor care about anything beyond its new home.

But for all of Obsidius’ literally brainless fueled bravado, there was one surefire way to get someone down and out in Ghidorah’s memory.

The charge of energy King Ghidorah had brought up however, was not just for an intimidation display. Three maws parted and unleashed their torrents, Gravity Beams smashing into Obsidius’ chest and knocking the golem into the rocky slope of the volcano. Electrical energy conducted off the concussive force of the beams coursed over Obsidius’ body. King Ghidorah continued the onslaught for several seconds before cutting off the flow to modulate his energy and having felt like he’d made his point. Very few proved resilient against his onslaught and if this was how he needed to assert his status so that the imbecile understood, so be it. If they survived that, they must be useful.

He still made a gleeful point to blast the downed golem several more times with quick salvos that further knocked it over, casually firing a few more bursts out of one side head as he moved past Obsidius’ dogged guard posting. Obsidius fell over backwards end over end before doing something not even Ghidorah frankly expected even with his long list of victims.

The lava elemental, thrown backwards as electrical energy coursed over it, curled up into a ball and rolled about. They shifted around their momentum back the way they’d come and were now rapidly rolling towards King Ghidorah despite the blasts. The blazing Gravity Beams were still registering, but it was becoming quickly apparent they had a greatly diminished effect on the golem’s heavily insulated and blazing body. The kinetic impact of the beams was being felt, but the energy and electrical discharge were being virtually negated. Obsidius did not have any nerves or muscles to fry, and adding more heat to its body really didn’t do anything.

Obsidius continued to roll directly at King Ghidorah at increasing speed until barreling directly into the larger kaiju. Even if the golem weighed significantly less, the sturdiness of its body and built-up momentum was enough to bowl over the three-headed dragon. Obsidius uncurled from its tight ball atop the invader, raising its burly arms upwards and smashing stony fists into Ghidorah’s chest. The force of strength was more than enough to be felt by the large dragon, as the two started tumbling down the mountain slope.

In total vertigo of being upended and spun about, their backs crashing through ancient ruins and recent lava tubes, the quarreling giants fumbled about many hundreds of meters in their melee. Obsidius connected a solid backhand smack to one of Ghidorah’s heads, knocking several teeth out before the great dragon smashed either side of the golem’s body with the great hands forming his wings being swung inwards. The force was sufficient to crack areas of Obsidius’ rocky body, and keep the previously stubbornly taciturn golem audible with its angered roaring.

Seizing a brief opening, King Ghidorah grabbed onto Obsidius’ upper arms with his tails and wrenched the golem backwards off him. With some space freed up Ghidorah braced both of his taloned feet against the meddler’s chest and kicked back with great force.

Obsidius was already lighter than the giant dragon, slightly more than half the mass and relying mostly on close quarters and far greater than average physical strength to engage in the melee. To say the lava elemental went flying when the giant titan almost punted the mutation would be an understatement. Careening upwards through the air in an arc, Obsidius came crashing back to earth with a tremendous impact which left ash from the volcanoes shaken from the ground. The magma golem mutation had landed on top of a large volcanic vent, the broad edge of which directly connected with the golem’s shoulder between the seams of rock composing its exoskeleton. A loud crack of splitting stone was audible even over the boom of 78,000 tons hitting terra firma.

King Ghidorah managed to break his backwards fumble with his wings, flapping erratically to stop his fall and get his feet underneath them. They had been fighting virtually down the entire length of the mountain slopes and the invader was now back at the shoreline, amidst the steam and broil where the sea water met the lava flows.

Through the haze, he could see Obsidius rise. However, their fall hadn’t been an affair they recovered from unscathed. The golem’s left shoulder, the one that had taken the impact, was bent at an abnormal angle; with lava flowing out of the seam between the rocky shoulder and torso far more than on the right side. Whether one could call it bleeding or not was subjective, but Obsidius had been damaged.

It’s just that the golem barely even seemed to notice. Instead it was turning around and walking right back to its caldera again. Not retreating to seek power or a home field advantage. It was just about-facing and marching back to its designated spot like there wasn’t a dragon twice its size not a few hundred meters away.

A mind as alien as Ghidorah’s was difficult to comprehend and describe in succinctly human terms, even by the standards of such inhuman titans which roamed this world. But one could perhaps swear they saw a distinct twinge of annoyance in his twitching brows, right before the salvo of Gravity Beams smashed into Obsidius from behind.

Struck across the shoulders and its damaged left arm, the golem promptly doubled over and face planted into the volcanic slope in an uproar of shattered rock and accumulated ash. Soon enough, splashes of lava from a breached magma chamber came spilling out. King Ghidorah continued the salvo for several long moments before cutting off the torrent.

The rubble and debris thrown upwards slowly started to rain down across the volcanic slopes, some swallowed up by the new river of magma spilling out from the hole Obsidius had been blasted into. The dragon beat his enormous wingspan, blowing away the smoke, dust, and ash to reveal the mass of fallen and broken stones. Sharp ridges of broken igneous ores and obsidian glass oozed glowing lava flows like a gaping wound.

A gaping wound which lacked a body, just a cavity in the ground Obsidius had been blasted into. There was stillness and quiet, nothing but the trembling earth from the erupting island and the flows of ashy winds as Ghidorah’s storm continued to grow overhead. High above, lightning struck the pillars of ash gushing from the calderas, arching spires of electricity conducting and seemingly clashing with the sooty air and fiery pyroclasts.

Ghidorah detected the shaking earth intensifying and didn’t fall for it. The dragon fired into the cavity Obsidius had dug itself into, causing tremors to burst across and tear open the ground in all directions from the kinetic force. Lightning spewed out from several fissures before it was shouted out by Obsidius’ telltale roar.

But when the golem showed itself, it wasn’t still at the point of impact. The ground underneath Ghidorah split open suddenly and rocky hands grabbed the dragon’s feet. King Ghidorah cut off his energetic assault and shrieked. He turned the seizing grab around, stabbing his talons into the stony exterior of Obsidius’ forelimbs and rapidly beating his wings. Like pulling a stubborn vegetable from the ground, Ghidorah pried Obsidius out from under the craggy earth as the two mutually held onto one another.

The golem had clearly been affected by the salvos of Gravity Beams, but not nearly as much as was typical. Very few short of Godzilla himself could withstand a three-pronged barrage and get back up so quickly. Obsidius’ exterior was cracked in numerous spots and the damage to their left shoulder more obvious in how more rocky skin had been blown off; but it didn’t seem to affect strength or stubbornness all that much.

Lack of organs to electrocute nor watery liquids to conduct the energy had some advantages. Aside from getting knocked around by the concussive force, Obsidius had weathered the storm admirably.

The golem dangled beneath the dragon, still hanging on regardless of the distance from the ground getting higher and higher. Ghidorah, having noticed the stubborn resilience to his rays, opted for plan B.

Like some kind of parody of a crane with a dangling wrecking ball, Ghidorah swooped low across the blasted lands and aimed for the ruins from a bygone time. The ash laden masonry which had withstood millennia beneath pillars of sea and in the shadow of burning mountains were no match for the alien king using the most recent nuisance for demolition. Obsidius blankly stared up at Ghidorah with an eyeless face as it was used to smash through building after building, even with the direct impacts aimed at its weakened left shoulder.

Foreign as he was to this world, Ghidorah had understood the native titans well. How their hierarchy worked as a means to seize power, how their function as natural shapers of the landscape could be used to his own ends; and how to inflict death to those that spurred trouble with no use and how to inflict pain to those who might prove useful alive.

So the fact his opponent seemed nearly unreactive, both to getting their forelimbs stabbed into by Ghidorah’s talons and unpulsed by the dragon slamming Obsidius into the face of a volcano to use them as a plow across the stony face, implied a few things. Either this one was colossally courageous in the face of such matters to a degree unseen before, thinking themselves invincible. Or they were too much of a looney to react properly.

Thought of which was interrupted. Ghidorah had just bashed the stubborn golem into another rocky face, carving a gorge with its body in the process amidst a shower of debris and magma, when the new King of the Titans opted to loose his energized judgment on the pest. But just as the glowing radiance of his might built up in each maw, the power left him. Ghidorah felt his whole body seize up to a degree. Electrical energy arching across the gilded one’s wings raced across their span and traveled towards the body, going downward.

Right into Obsidius’ hands, where the power flows changed from crackling yellow to burning red from the essence absorption. The golem was draining his energy stores on contact, an ability not entirely unlike Ghidorah’s draining bite he so often used to top off his power whilst weakening a foe. Suddenly the sharpened, recurved talons that were dug into Obsidius’ body to hold it close were not so welcome to the feet attached to them.

Monster Zero loosed a wrathful outcry as his blazing pupils contracted and he dove towards the broken face of a volcanic vent, previously shattered into a jagged point of pure obsidian like a skywards facing sword. Obsidius, siphoning the stolen power to its gaping maw, seemed to almost swell up like a balloon to a degree. The cracks and vents in its stony surface showed inner magma lighting up brighter and more fiery.

What came spewing out from the golem’s maw wasn’t an energetic beam as much as it was a fiery column of vomited magma. King Ghidorah cackled and shrieked when the liquid rock spewed over his golden body. The greatness of his armor shielded him from the heat beyond some scalding where the lava breached underneath or around the scales, but the spattering of lava caused problems with them being so high up. The cooler air and rain left the vomited inferno to rapidly cool, solidifying across much of Ghidorah’s chest and wings. The dragon’s great strength was more than sufficient to crack and smash out of the loose bindings of half-cooled lava, but his balance had been disrupted and the alien Titan soon plummeted.

In a full free-fall, Ghidorah spun in midair as he felt Obsidius clamber up his body to get at his face. The igneous golem, ignorant of their plummet, swelled up again to spew out another Inferno at point-blank range. Twin tails seized the golem around the neck and headrests, constricting tightly and diverting Obsidius’ aim aside. In all his fury, Ghidorah chomped down on the golem’s left shoulder whilst wrenching at it with a leg. With fired Gravity Beams spewing into the gap between the limb and body just as they made impact with the obsidian spire, the collision and energy created an explosion that could be seen across the island.

When the smoke cleared, the spire was completely leveled and shattered to rubble. King Ghidorah emerged from the smoke, cackling at his success whilst swooping over the rise of a volcano to glide and land not far away from where he’d started this ordeal to begin with. Clutched in one of his maws was a torn free hunk of rock and slag approximating an arm.

Obsidius pulled itself free from the rubble, cracked and leaking magma from numerous wounds, and noticeably lighter with the loss of its left arm. King Ghidorah arched and snapped his neck outwards, tossing the limb mockingly at what he took for the island guardian’s feet.

Obsidius tilted its head down to observe where its arm had been thrown to, the slow hissing of its physical better echoing across the island. The igneous behemoth fell to its knees, using its remaining arm to steady itself and keep from crumbling over as magma leaked from the open cavity that had once been its shoulder. Stony fingers curled around the dismembered wrist before the living volcano started to stumble forwards. Its remaining hand curled around the torn-off-arm’s wrist. Either it was dying or kneeling, either which was good enough for the new alpha titan. They had fought well enough to prove useful if they lived through their wounds, but this was over. If they stood aside and accepted fate, Ghidorah might yet have a use for them in his gathering for the extermination of mankind and reshaping of this disgusting world.

King Ghidorah took to the wing, spreading the vast grandeur of his span outwards and resuming his dominion of the air. He had triumphed over the island guardian, and asserted his dominion as alpha over this land as he would the rest of the planet. Flying past the defeated nuisance, Ghidorah tasted the energy in the air coming from the center of this lost continent. Something at the heart of this place beckoned with power and he would have his price. He would-

Detect rapid movement in the air and turn his left head just in time to see an approximately Obsidius shaped blur moving rapidly towards him. A shockwave continued to reverberate across the lava rivers and volcanic ground the golem had sprung from in a mighty leap. Seeing them hefting something in their remaining arm, Ghidorah reflexively tried to fire off a torrent of gravity beams from his left and central head upon Obsidius but only managed to get off a glancing blow across the igneous golem’s resilient chest.

They just kept coming, treating having an arm blown off entirely like it was but a scratch. And one they intended to repay.

The sky splitting crack of Obsidius, putting everything they had into the swing along with their own momentum, clobbering one of the dragon’s heads whilst using its own dismembered arm as a club was not necessarily as much of a glancing hit. The dragon from the cosmos instantly lost a third of his vision when the leftmost head took the full impact, bone fragments and gore flying everywhere in a fleshy explosion. The sheer force also shattered the torn-free limb as a shower of pebbles and magma raining down on the ground beneath them.

They tumbled through the air, Obsidius latched onto the One Who is Many with its remaining arm wrapping around the base of the necks. In a full freefall, the combined mass of over 200,000 tons went hurtling closer and closer to the volcano. There had been enough distance to build up a great amount of speed and the flailing of Ghidorah’s wings had broken the fall somewhat, but being knocked backwards and with a thrashing angry golem on top of them had made it all but impossible to course correct mid-flight.

They crashed into the very river of lava Ghidorah had originally found Obsidius standing in.

Usually, Ghidorah was quite durable against extreme heat. He had grappled with and bested the fire demon while also withstanding many a blast by the fallen king of the monsters; and earlier he’d shrugged off Obsidius’ Inferno of a projectile attack with minimum damage he instantly regenerated back. Ghidorah’s golden scales were a near impenetrable barrier, and rapid healing helped negate away most wounds that could breach his ten thousandfold shields of armor. However, sudden mass blunt force trauma took time to mend. And his scales and underlying dermis were substantially more durable than the exposed innards of his left head had when they hit the molten rock.

The instant surge of pain was easily the greatest Ghidorah had ever experienced since waking up free of that ice. It even gave some of his past battles a run for their money. The clashes with giants on this world and others, tri-horned gods, flying storms, and many-limbed demons in every menagerie imaginable. All had been conquered so thoroughly until this planet started to give him far more trouble than it otherwise should have.

Flesh broiled into the vapors and bone shattered under the intense heat. The highly viscous liquid rock below went down Ghidorah’s left throat and scorched his innards. It was only by seizing up his muscles and letting the blazing agony cauterize his tissue did the dragon keep the lifeblood of the planet he had come to conquer from spilling into his chest cavity. The traces of latent power from the Hollow Earth did nothing to heal back the scalding damage, especially with the lava often solidifying and clogging tissue with hunks of rock.

Swimming through molten lava was even more difficult than trying to get free of the watery grave Godzilla tried to pull him into earlier, but there was something to be said about manic and frantic strength when the situation called for it. Ghidorah was just equal parts enraged and annoyed he found himself in such a situation. Monster Zero came bursting free of the lava, golden wings and brilliant body marred and singed in multiple places. Fiery ichors of the planet were sent flying in every direction in a raining of igneous hell.

His wing beats were frantic and uncoordinated, partially because of what amounted to his nervous system still being in complete chaos from all sense of balance being thrown off. Rapidly cooling and solidifying lava was still lodged in his scales beyond the shattered head, between his joints, and embedded in the wounds scattered upon Ghidorah’s body and wings. Chunks that would constitute whole boulders were being shattered constantly as the flesh they were stuck in flexed and shifted with the requirements of flight. Every time they did, pieces would just get driven in deeper and cauterize the flesh around them. Trying to expel them with regeneration would take time and focus, not to mention up and removing chunks of tissue to purge the obstructions.

The once three crowned king was missing a third of those now. The golem had actually managed to meaningfully damage the foe which had taken their arm.

Ghidorah’s leftmost head was a visceral mess to say the least of things. Beyond what was likely a shattered jawbone and some broken vertebrae sticking out of tumorous mass, the head was completely unrecognizable from halfway down the neck up. A mishmash of blackened and cauterized flesh, shattered bone, and rapidly cooling lava stuck inside the tissue and not letting it heal properly. The fact that it kept thrashing about and twitching at its base was as revolting to see as it was disgusting to feel.

Flying with that unsightly mess was hard enough as is, but the stubbornly refusing to die golem was still latched on across Ghidorah’s chest.

King Ghidorah split his stormy sky with a combination of a shrieking outrage and roar of hatred. Of any opponent the alien titan had faced, of every conquered foe, they at least made sense in their grandeur and how they had given him trouble. Those that called down the fires of heavens, where the primacy of animal life as a living juggernaut, and so many who had been revered as or even perhaps thought themselves gods. They were mighty, they were majestic or horrifying in equal measure, great and powerful foes of renown from the bygone time when giants roamed the worlds.

The burdensome golem was an insignificant pile of half melted rocks that barely anyone else noticed. Much less would assume much of. And yet they were giving them trouble far beyond their stature.

Ghidorah had broken worlds before, and a world was nothing but a domain to do with as he pleased. And he would have no use for this troublesome idiot in his dominion, there was only one purpose Obsidius would serve as all otherwise useless rocks would serve him.

Grabbing onto the golem’s chest with his taloned feet as he coiled constructing tails around the lava monster’s legs, the cackling Ghidorah whirled his two surviving heads around and bit down upon the stony shoulders. Whatever sort of life force it was that animated Obsidius, for there certainly was no living creature underneath all of that burning rock, it still had energy. And energy, as was all creation, was nothing but food to the alpha of alphas. Red lines traveled out of Obsidius and into King Ghidorah’s body. The burly golem paused before trembling, letting out a low bellow that sounded almost like a foghorn.

King Ghidorah growled gleefully. Finally, he was hearing something of a reaction that amounted to pain.

Ghidorah clenched down harder, talons digging into Obsidius’ rocky exterior as his jaws thrashed back and forth to try and rend what amounted to tissue underneath the stone. It was more a reaction based on his previous torture of past foes then anything he thought would actually register to the troublesome stone, but Ghidorah hardly cared about that at this point. His pride and status as alpha had been wounded arguably more than his head was and he was inclined to do anything possible to ensure Obsidius’ dim mind registered the agony before it was snuffed out.

Already the king from the fallen stars could feel the power of his foe flow into his body as it was drained away from Obsidius. New tissue was rapidly growing across the perforations in his wings, helping to pry free some of the stubborn fragments of rock and solidified lava that had become lodged in the flesh. Cauterized tissue was slowly but surely being ejected. Once he was done, he might’ve even had enough to make sure no lasting wounds of this embarrassing confrontation ever happened.

Only his leftmost neck was being burdensome. The sheer mass of the damaged tissue and chaotic mishmash of heat cracked bone and solidified lava would be almost impossible to fully eject just by cellular growth. He’d have to tear it off at the base and fully regenerate it. The surging power he could detect at the heart of this landmass would be more than sufficient if the need came. Obsidius’ body went slack under his draining influence.

The golem weakly turned its head into the direction of Ghidorah’s rightmost cranium. Whatever it had giving individual input, for the eyeless golem didn’t have any obvious optics, seemed to register at least how it was being attacked. Obsidius raised its remaining arm on the right, shaking all the while before grasping the central head by the neck latched onto its other shoulder.
Ghidorah hissed contently at feeling the once admittedly Herculean strength his most stubborn foe had subsided, weakening by the second and unable to grasp with nearly as much force as it once had. Even now the burning lights visible at the golem’s joints that signified the magma flows within were starting to dim and solidify. The arm weakly and futilely tugged at that neck to try and dislodge it before slumping against it in a loose grip.

With nothing else holding onto Ghidorah, the limp golem was suspended in the air by the alien dragon’s power alone. Nothing but a lifeless rock that would shatter upon hitting the ground like the world’s most unsightly statue.

But just as Ghidorah’s grip started to loosen and bear witness to such a satisfying sight, the last gasps of the lost continent’s golem reacted. Obsidius turned its head and bit down on Ghidorah’s central neck. The bite was beyond ineffectual, toothless jaws not managing to breach the skin and there was no massive vomiting of lava like before. But instead, the exact same kinds of reddish lights that had been flowing out of Obsidius into his better, started to appear in reverse.

The golem was born out of uncanny energies embedding themselves into the lithosphere, giving animate energy and power to the lifeblood of this planet. Whether it was just inanimate magma before or perhaps some kind of silicon-based lifeform living within the mantle, the exact specifics of its origin were irrelevant beyond energy itself being its lifeblood. Its animation. Its food. That’s what drew Obsidius to this island to begin with, passively drawing power from the upwell that emanated through the lost continent’s many volcanoes.

Whatever consciousness, basic and virtually autonomous as it was, that propelled the igneous golem could comprehend the massive amount of energy within Ghidorah. It felt it before in passing and now was trying to seek it again. Like some kind of bizarre feedback loop, Obsidius latched onto Ghidorah and withdrew power back into itself. The magma monster’s arm, reinvigorated as the fiery lava ignited across the seams of its rocky body, grabbed onto King Ghidorah’s central neck and similarly drew in power at all points of contact.

King Ghidorah constricted the golem further, snarling and biting down harder to split the igneous rock forming the golem’s shell. He siphoned off its power and took it into his body. Where the visible lines of red light went up his necks, into his chest, and then right back into Obsidius from its points of contact.

The battle resumed anew, Obsidius draining Ghidorah as Ghidorah drained power out of Obsidius. At multiple points the conducted energy flows were traveling up the body of one before immediately circling back to the other. Ghidorah likely had a more potent version of the ability, but the high resilience the conducting power Obsidius’ exterior had shown before shrugging off gravity beams made his vampiric abilities go up against a high resistance. Meanwhile the golden scales of Ghidorah meant the exact opposite, with the very same conductivity that often went to draining away ambient energy and creating his storms effectively opening up a buffet for the golem.

Several minutes passed in an utter stalemate.

King Ghidorah had gone up against many a foe. So many that even when confronted with something brand-new as animate magma, the One Who is Many could often draw upon experience or his own raw power to make a good gauge as to what he was up against. A lot of Obsidius was obvious, being a big bruiser when a high tolerance for heat was self-evident. Being able to spring great distances off the ground, having surprisingly high movement speed and pulling off unorthodox attacks like rolling into a ball or vomiting lava was surprising but acceptable. Being able to drain away vitality and energy was not completely out of left-field.

It was like going up against an unpredictable hodgepodge of different monsters, the golem made no sense! And now it was doing everything it could to stay latched on to him, despite both of them being very ineffectual at actually damaging each other right now. Obsidius couldn’t be choked out and was too durable to be crushed. It likewise however had no means of directly attacking in the position they were in right now, having to use its only remaining arm as a means of hanging on. Ghidorah meanwhile didn’t have the physical strength to try and rend this pest with legs and tails alone, and if he unlatched his jaws for too long Obsidius might start draining away too much.

Neither weakening nor strengthening past the equalization point they were at when this draining nonsense started, King Ghidorah snarled after realizing he’d been caught in one of the most ridiculous deadlocks ever for several long minutes. Obsidius didn’t even try to attack anymore, just remaining latched on like a leech and not realizing nor particularly caring about its own predicament.

It didn’t thrash, it didn’t claw, it didn’t even try vomiting out another gout of magma point-blank. It only registered something resembling a food source and just stayed put, presumably just like it had on this island when Ghidorah detected and now tasted its power flowing through the lava monster’s system. King Ghidorah practically heard white noise at the dumbstruck realization.

The primordial, millions if not billions year old collective minds that composed King Ghidorah’s near incomprehensible consciousness perhaps now understood the truth of the matter.

Obsidius was not the guardian of this island, nor was it even necessarily part of the titan pantheon he had usurped. It really hadn’t refused to bend the knee out of some kind of bravado, nor resisted his alpha call as a challenge. It hadn’t even been halting his advance towards the energetic core of this land out of some protective duty. There wasn’t even some grand intent behind Obsidius proving surprisingly durable against the new alpha titan’s abilities, like it had been called forth or created specifically to counter him.

This igneous ignoramus had been acting so brave because it was an absolute looney and was too stupid to submit, let alone follow commands.

It just wanted energy as food and was only acting out of reaction. He had literally spent the better part of a day arguing with and wailing on a rock.

Ghidorah’s body tensed, boiling outrage coursing through every vein as the now two headed dragon shot upwards into the sky. Lightning started to conduct and strike his form, shocking and helping reinvigorate him as it lit up his dazzling scales with electric brilliance. Obsidius didn’t even really notice the electrical onslaught, his insulating body not even registering it. Ghidorah intended to give him something to react to as he drew forth the power of his storm.

The golden destroyer of worlds became the eye of his hurricane, lightning constantly striking his body from every angle and visibly charging it. The intensity of his magnificence became blinding for most to behold, crackling power arcing between every horn, every scale, and branch of his wings. The intensity was visible through the burning orbs of his remaining four eyes, as well as the increasingly erratic movements of the drake’s left head. Chaotic power was visible beneath his veins and throats, engendering a messy attempt at regeneration that attempted to regrow atop the embedded slag as much as it tried to expel it.

Unlatching from the volcanic titan’s body, blinding wrath emanated from Ghidorah’s two remaining heads. The raw power was brilliant, awe-inspiring like a glimmering star within the storm clouds. Obsidius had finally gone still and stopped draining power from Ghidorah’s body, tilting its head up and gazing upon its own demise.

The edges of Ghidorah’s lips curled up in maniacal glee. He still wasn’t quite sure how exactly this giant saw the world with no eyes and what detection means they had, but they clearly registered the grandeur of their status. It was only moments before their demise did Obsidius’ idiotic mind finally understand what was in front of it. Ghidorah opened the gates of his maws to unleash the floodwaters of crackling destruction.

Just as Obsidius grabbed onto the dragon’s face by the throat and lunged. Their hand closed down around Ghidorah’s central head tightly and their jaw shot open to its fullest extent. The last thing that Ghidorah’s central point of view registered was being shot directly down the wide gullet of the volcanic monster right before its internal magma perforated its eyes.

A molten core of equal temperature to the internal heart of the planet itself at over 1300°C was one of the last things the head could actually glimpse before the nerve endings were burned off. Obsidius shoved its frog-like mouth down upon the neck, burying it halfway down its gullet. That it just swallowed a combined kinetic force that helped blow its arm off earlier was perhaps not even considered. Fiery lines of energy started to conduct off of the swallowed head and into the volcanic golem’s body.

Either the golem was indeed smarter than Ghidorah gave it credit and had figured out a way around the dragon’s regeneration whilst weaponizing its resilience to energy based attacks. Or it was just going after the tasty looking energy source it spotted right in front of it. Obsidius didn’t vocalize which it was.

The kingly world destroyer meanwhile promptly became unbridled chaos. The heavily damaged left head completely ignited, lines of golden energy cracking through the misshapen stony and bone mass as the sheer kinetic force ejected several hundred tons of solidified magma and cauterized tissue clogging the throat. The upper end of the mangled extremity exploded with a crack, gore and rock flying everywhere as the misfired Gravity Beam went spiraling off into the storm in any direction possible without a head to point the torrent.

The rightmost head swung around, unleashing one of the strongest Gravity Beams the Alpha Titan had ever loosed directly into the stubborn imbecile that refused to die. Even Obsidius’ highly energy resistant and insulative stony body couldn’t withstand the blast’s kinetic force. It bore into the rocky chest, shattering igneous ores like a high impact drill. Obsidius started to splinter and fracture, the beam gouging through and rocketing out of the golem’s back.

The central head, too durable to instantly melt inside Obsidius’ internal furnace but rapidly becoming skeletal, attempted to fire. One could practically see a sun form inside of the magma, especially through the visible holes punched into the rocky body with the dismembered arm and opened back. The intensity oscillated back and forth, Obsidius absorbing too much power initially to let the salvo out. But if the golem was determined from its own stupidity, the usurping king and demon from the stars was determined for other reasons far more cognitive. Eventually, Obsidius could not hold back the flow.

The internal eruption was not pleasant, a gout of Gravity Beams shooting out from Obsidius’ chest before swinging upwards. Trails of red energy, what could be absorbed in the golem’s attempt to feast, trailed after the golden explosion. Obsidius’ chest from the torso up to its jaw was blasted open, fragments shooting off into the storm.

With surprising speed for its form however, Obsidius’ life spark was not quite snuffed out in an instant. It had absorbed much power from the alien invader and had enough fuel for one last act. King Ghidorah’s right head’s eyes bulged in their sockets as the jawless visage of Obsidius turned towards it, the half burned off and slagged remains of the central head still flopping around inside the open chest cavity and throat. Stolen golden energy crackled inside that furnace before being vomited out. The deluge of molten rock, fiery energy, and parts of Ghidorah’s own melted central cranium poured over the right head.

King Ghidorah fought back against the stream, so incredibly through his last nerve dealing with Obsidius’ brand of stubbornness. At this point the best the golem could do was literally bleed on the king, but that itself was nothing but chaos and agonizing trouble. Golden energy, shot out of the now mostly-destroyed central head, blasted through the magma stream despite the slag covering a good chunk of Ghidorah’s body. The central head’s blind fire connected with the right head’s directed Gravity Beams to cross streams with the left’s wild firing.

The crossed streams’ epicenter intensified in tandem with the point-blank Inferno Obsidius had unleashed. And everything went white.

The storm shattered for kilometers in a span. A massive shockwave blasting the clouds apart and dividing the eye of the hurricane. Plummeting several hundred meters like two comets, blazing giants crashed back into the island; throwing up thousands of tons of rock and debris on their respective impacts. And for what felt like the first time since Ghidorah had established his dominion, there was calm in the storm.

It did not last too long, when more earth was heaved aside to release King Ghidorah from the crater he had made.

To call his grandeur of form dampened was an understatement. His left neck was now completely gone halfway up, ballooning out like some kind of grotesque parody of a flower after managing to blow off what remained of its head. The central head was virtually skeletal, still covered in molten slag and warped bone as it hung down from its base. The right head was still active and responsive, but all of the tissue down to the bone had melted on the inner side to force an eye closed. Its jaw flopped about uselessly for several seconds before being snapped back into place, though it was still heat warped and would require regrowth. All across his body scales had been melted or completely burned off, and most of the wing membranes had been perforated.

Gathering himself up at the shore of the island, Ghidorah looked for any signs of attack and cast his remaining vision to the other crater. No movement was found. The ocean however was a different story.

The churned surf did not bring forth Obsidius. Instead, far out at sea, three rows of spines started to jut out of the water line amongst crashing wakes, followed closely by the Argo craft and many military vessels inhabited by the pests. King Ghidorah instantly recoiled at the sight of the former, raising up his great wings in a threat display as they had been presented at Antarctica. Standing up straight however, the dragon was quickly privy to his hobbled stance, ruined wings, and missing two thirds of his vision. Whatever effectiveness his intimidation display he had before against his greatest of foes, it certainly wasn’t working now. The usurping Titan didn’t know if this was the same Godzilla that had somehow recovered from his defeat, or another equally powerful challenger to his throne.

What he did know was that he was in no condition to fight after this disastrous fiasco of a side venture. Whatever power this lost continent had within it was not worth all the trouble it had given him striking down its resident. It certainly wouldn’t be fixed dying in a lopsided confrontation now.

Taking to the wing, King Ghidorah flew up into the storm and withdrew from this burdensome land.

As he flew away however, Monster Zero soon noticed movement in the corner of his eye. One that caused him to shout out the thundering of his storm with an enraged roar of flabbergasted frustration. Obsidius sat back up out of the crater the magma golem had crashed into. Missing an arm, with its entire front chest up to the mouth blasted open, and with one of its legs almost completely shattered from the impact; it still nevertheless tried to rise and face him. It even had the gall to begin advancing after him, either seeing the invader as one of the best energy sources the golem had ever partaken in or being bound and determined to finish their fight.

King Ghidorah loosed several chaotic, barely aimed Gravity Beams in its direction before soaring away with haste, striking the volcano slopes several times to carve canyons into the rock and divert the mutation’s advance. Obsidius stopped upon reaching the river of lava it started today on and pivoted its ruined head up in the direction of the retreating dragon. It considered pursuing, but a combination of the winged intruder’s pace and having to go into water finally put a stop to the golem’s decision-making. The idea of attacking the powerful energy source in the water now swimming after the intruder was also put aside by virtue of distance and too much water. Obsidius did not like water. It would fight anyone who intruded on its territory, but it did not like water.

The intruder was gone so there was no need to get in the water.

The battered golem completely ignored the very confused military and MONARCH craft to turn around and walk back to the heart of the lost continent. It paid no attention to the recovered and retreating Camazotz, nor to the remnants of a lost civilization Obsidius absentmindedly walked right through. Nothing got in its way until it was right back to the very spot King Ghidorah had found it in. Turning around to put its back to the radiating power of the Hollow Earth, Obsidius began to resume soaking up the energy and jumpstart its long process of self-repair.

When MONARCH later scouted out the recently emerged landmass after Ghidorah had been dealt with, they had initially been expecting to find a large amount of impressive but otherwise useless lava fields on this newly generated continent. King Ghidorah’s storm had partially lingered nearby, the lightning striking the omnipresent ash clouds billowing from the eruption sites to produce an ominous hellscape.

In time, highly fertile soils might take root across the risen land once the volcanism had died down. There had already been a lot of intrigue when some perimeter scouting detected remnants of some ancient civilization who lived on the landmass that had at once sunk and was now back above ground.

What they didn’t expect to find was an upwell of radiating energy similar to what had been detected within the earth at Skull Island and Antarctica emanating out of the central volcano. Nor the extreme difficulty in trying to survey what was later found to be a power from the Hollow Earth itself.

Rick Stanton deadpanned and threw his hands up into the air as he sat at the drone control desk, “Damn it, lost another one.”

“Did you manage to crash it into the volcano this time?” Illene Chen called out as she stood before the monitor showing what the drone had seen just before it went offline, “That’s the sixteenth.”

“Fifteenth!” Rick griped defensively, “That one with the ash cloud doesn’t count, it was still in one piece when it crashed. Want to see an instant replay on my latest error now?”

“I would, rather than you waste more of our budget,” Illene shrugged as she twirled her finger in a reverse clockwise motion.

Dr. Stanton grumbled and complied, the footage on the monitor going back to before the drone was sent off-line. It had been flying over a ravine leading to the mouth of the volcano. The scanners were detecting the energy flow was intensifying with the decreasing distance. But as soon as the aircraft had cleared the corner to get a closer look at what aerial footage could offer, a large blur came into view. The sheer heat of the volcano and the myriad of gasses vomited up by the earth distorted the viewscreen every other second, but there were several keyframes that offered a clear view.

A large, burning figure standing on the edge of the caldera. It was asymmetrical, with one arm larger than the other. The golem still bore battle scars, but it was slowly healing its wounds and regrowing the lost limb; absorbing the energy from this lost land and the physical mass of the lava it would sometimes leave its post to swim in. In another couple of weeks or months, the molten giant might be fully restored.

The frame ticked ahead, showing the exact moment when Obsidius noticed the drone get just a hair too close and react, vomiting up a mass of lava that had no doubt melted down the parts by now.

Stanton purposefully stopped the frame right as the splatter of slack was about to hit the camera.

“So! Any myths or legends you want to check over to give this big bruiser a name?” His deadpanning was not met with contempt by his company.

Chen instead touched her chin and considered her long knowledge of both mythology and history, especially now in the modern era where those two had blended together in so many ways. There was Surtur, a fiery demonic giant from Nordic tales, who fit based on the obvious fire and magma for a destructive giant. Leigong was a thunder god from central China, who had some resemblance with how the colossus often walked with lightning striking it atop its mountain domain to no effect. But, frankly speaking she could admit there was nothing in the myths about this one in particular. Not that she’d admit it to Stanton.

Between the disaster Ghidorah had unleashed, finding a lost continent the size of Texas in the Pacific was surprising enough.

Thankfully a fellow researcher had come up with a few ideas and, if the shoe fit.

“Titanus Raijin, warden of the Lost Continent,” Chen hummed with crossed arms and a smile, “Dr. Cerasini came up with the name.”

“Has a nice ring to it, been a long time coming I guess,” Stanton nodded with a shrug, “Though G-Team has taken to calling ‘mag-mouth’ there something else, especially after Dr. Lind wanted to see if that volcano they’re parked at has a Hollow Earth entrance. The NSP.”

“Which means?” Illene perked her eyebrow as Staton handed her the budget costs of all the drones they’d gone through so far.

Staton held up an empty soda can to his mouth, giving his voice a metallic muffle, “None Shall Pass.”

Winner: Obsidius

Tamashii Nations/Bandai sent over the Godzilla 2023 SDCC exclusive for early preview/review (review on the way). I did some quick shots to show off the figure (check out those cool blue/white backplates!) which you can if you are going to SDCC and want to pick one up at the Godzilla Booth (#3345) or Tamashii Booth (#3329) .
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