~ Every 100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter! Your votes keep this climbing. Thanks!
"Godzilla."
"The MUTO's appearance drew it out after all."
Jared stood in the ruins, surrounded by a sea of fire, a scavenged rifle in his hands. He stared at the massive silhouette in the bay, brow furrowed.
"Is there going to be another fight?"
Before he'd left Monarch, he'd heard Dr. Serizawa argue that Godzilla was a guardian of nature. That Titan was different — it hadn't come ashore to destroy. Now, watching this giant from outer space, he genuinely didn't know if they were about to tear each other apart.
Inland, the giant held its cross-armed stance without moving. The crystal on its chest pulsed. Its bright eyes tracked the dinosaur-like beast with calm, deliberate attention.
One hundred and twenty meters tall. Close to a hundred thousand tons. The black scales covering its body looked like they could stop anything, and every inch of that massive frame was packed with muscle. From appearance alone, this was not something you put down easily.
Godzilla studied the glowing giant in return.
It couldn't sense any trace of an Earth creature from this being. And yet the giant had put down the MUTO without breaking a sweat. Whatever this thing was, it was powerful , and it was a mystery.
Its body held pure, concentrated energy. The kind of energy that any Earth Titan would find deeply appealing. There was no question about it: as long as this thing operated on Earth, it would keep running into Titans.
That energy signature, so clearly not of this world, stirred something old in Godzilla's memory. A war from the ancient past. An enemy that had also come from the stars, larger than this one, with three heads.
"HISSS-ROARR!!"
Under the night sky, Godzilla moved toward land. Each step sent tremors rolling through the earth. It fixed its gaze on the giant standing in the burning ruins and let out a roar. Whatever this thing was, it intended to test it first.
"HUM. HUM. HUM—"
Deep inside its body, something like an atomic reactor surged to life. Energy flooded outward to the surface. The dorsal fins running from its back down to its tail began to pulse with blue light, one after another. The sound of that energy churning rolled across the battlefield. The air around it warped.
This giant could fire beams of light.
So could it.
The dorsal fins blazed. Through the skin, you could see it , a vast tide of blue energy rising from its chest, pushing toward its throat.
"Good lord. We're done."
Jared watched Godzilla wind up its Atomic Breath and his eyes went wide. If the giant fired back and the two beams collided , San Francisco was finished. These two made the MUTO look like a minor inconvenience.
Everyone held their breath.
Then the giant slowly lowered its arms.
The cross-armed stance released. The crystal on its chest kept pulsing. Its bright eyes held Godzilla's gaze for a moment, and it gave a slight nod.
Then its entire massive body dissolved into motes of light and drifted apart.
Like a quiet wind moving through the burning city. Wherever those motes passed, the flames went out. The ruins settled back into silence.
"HISSS-ROARR!!"
Godzilla stared at the empty space where the giant had been. Confusion flickered in its eyes. The Atomic Breath building in its throat slowly faded. Its target was gone.
The hundred-meter Titan swept its gaze across the ruined battlefield. It was the only one standing. Under the night sky, the faint blue glow still clinging to its body made it look like something that owned this place entirely.
SPLASH!
"GROARR!!"
The MUTO hauled itself out of the water. It had recovered enough to move, but the Specium Ray had left its mark , wide patches of burned, ravaged flesh across its body. Its presence, its sheer imposing weight, had dropped by more than a notch.
It surfaced. It saw Godzilla on the shore, larger, more powerful, radiating an endless current of atomic energy. Instinct kicked in. Hunger.
In the dark bay, two colossal creatures locked eyes.
"HISSS-ROARR!!"
Godzilla's eyes blazed with the energy still churning through it. It looked down at the MUTO and let out a roar that hit like a physical thing.
The dorsal fins hadn't fully dimmed. If the MUTO came at it now, it would be walking straight into the Atomic Breath.
Among every Titan on Earth, Godzilla sat at the top. The number of creatures that could actually match it could be counted on one hand.
"GROARR—"
"Groarr..."
The MUTO had just been beaten half-senseless by the Specium Ray. Now it felt the Atomic Breath coiling in Godzilla's throat, and its head snapped clear. It limped backward, step by step, whimpering twice. The hunting instinct shut off.
Another round with this thing and it would be in pieces.
Godzilla watched the MUTO lower its head. It let the Atomic Breath go.
"HISSS-ROARR!!"
One final roar. The warning in it needed no translation. Titans had enough intelligence to understand each other, at least that much.
The MUTO lowered its head further. It backed away steadily, slipped beneath the surface, and swam , away from the shore, away from land, out toward open ocean.
Godzilla watched it go.
When the MUTO was gone, the dorsal fins went dark completely. It swept the battlefield one last time, confirming the giant had also truly vanished.
"THUD... THUD..."
It turned. Slow, heavy steps. The ground shook with each one as it walked back into the dark water.
From a distance, you could still see the jagged line of its dorsal fins cutting the surface. The thick tail swinging high before it disappeared.
SPLASH!
Waves rolled toward the ruined San Francisco shoreline. Godzilla was gone.
"God, that was terrifying..."
Jared looked at the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, still broken, still unrepaired, a scar from the last time Godzilla had come through this city. He let out a long breath. Thank god it hadn't fought the giant. If those two had actually gone at each other, San Francisco would be a crater.
That would have been the end of everything.
In the ruins, the man in the floral shirt was also watching the direction Godzilla had gone.
Hands in the pockets of his baggy shorts. Eyes thoughtful.
"A special one, all right."
"Reminds me of the guardian beasts on certain planets." Natsuki muttered to himself. He'd seen enough of the universe to recognize the type quickly , Godzilla's role on this world was genuinely close to a natural guardian. Not a metaphor. An actual function.
Creatures like that weren't rare across the cosmos. He'd personally encountered more than he could count on both hands.
They tended to be powerful. And they tended to be smart.
"So what's with the silent treatment?"
"Playing it cool with me?"
Natsuki scratched the back of his head, replaying the moment he'd reached out through telepathy and gotten nothing back. Flat-out ignored. This thing clearly had the intelligence to understand , and still hadn't given him a single word.
Fine. Have it your way.
➤ Next: Want to Catch Me?
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
Read up to (50+ ) advanced chapters on Patre\on
Visit us here: patreon.com/DarkGolds
Happy reading, everyone!