KWCE Match: SpaceGodzilla vs. Gamoni vs. Godzilla (Showa) (2025)

VS.

VS.

Author: GodzillavsRayquaza
Word Count: 15330

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In a shifting kaleidoscope of incomprehensible hues, a rift opened. Orange lights spilled from it like salt leaving the container, their shimmer brightening as they began to coalesce once more.

This place was pure energy, and the new substance drew that in like a sponge. Many became one, the individuals being lost in the radiance beaming out from the conglomeration. A heartbeat filled the brilliant void as flesh and bone erupted forth, growing into a horrific shape. The skeleton shined brightly, reflecting the lights. Dark purple scales folded over crimson musculature, flexing involuntarily. From the back emerged crystalline spines, white as pearls. Thin arms shifted as colossal pyramids erupted from their bases, the same color as the spires ripping their way out of the back. A serpentine tail stretched out, adorned with the gemstones down its length as well, culminating in something akin to a mace.

A thin snout parted to reveal needle-like blades, teeth which were graced with a rattling exhale passing over them. Blazing eyes of orange opened wide, taking in the view before him. An advanced brain sifted through the fog of recent slumber, revealing a simple truth.

He had lost.

The strange place he now found himself in shuddered as SpaceGodzilla shouted in rage. Bolts of power crackled across his form like live wires. The perfect creature of combat was furious, and had nothing to take it out upon.

His genetic predecessor, standing amidst his fortress in a ruined city, assailing him with rays of red! That damned mecha laying next to him, ravaged beyond repair, but its work concluded nonetheless!

Or… had he and Godzilla been standing off with no interlopers atop a forested mountain? And one precise beam had torn apart his shoulder crystal, casting him into a singularity?

Had their battle actually had numerous interlopers, and in a flattened wasteland that was once a paradise, they engaged in a beam struggle which violently ended both their lives? Perhaps he had not actually been defeated by Godzilla, and left Earth having been forced to join him in battle against a foul insectoid copying his might?

SpaceGodzilla shook his head. That last one made no sense, the deep ache coursing through him could only have occurred if he had been torn apart and reformed. But the memory was so vivid, how could it not have happened?

It was only then that the swirling maelstrom before him actually began to make sense. Instead of a blur, he saw what resembled countless screens. As he drifted through this odd dimension, it was all becoming apparent.

These were other worlds, and he had somehow found himself in some odd in-between. Battles played out across countless locations, different combatants waging war. Godzilla was in most of them, but he could only barely recognize some as the King of Monsters. They were all so different, some resembling others by what had to be coincidence while others could not be further off from their other selves.

His own memory blended together as he saw it all. A crystal-ravaged world with him at the top, fighting all the planet’s other monsters in a mad struggle for supremacy. A furious competition for generators across Japan, monsters ripping them apart to increase in size. On a world millions of light years away from Earth altogether, colliding with a serpentine beast who commanded the power of the gravitational singularity.

SpaceGodzilla groaned, grasping his head as he shook. His brain felt like it was splitting apart, bursting at the seams with overloading information. He needed to be free of this place, and soon.

Racing towards one of the screens, he reached out, trying to pierce the veil. It scourged his arm, barring him from entering the scene of Godzilla amidst a cratered Tokyo, a skeletal nightmare descending from blackened heavens to engage him. The crystalline colossus recoiled, howling.

That would not work. He needed to find a thinner veil, a reality already splitting open. His eyes scanned the chaotic realm, the inbetween space, and settled upon one leaking a crimson dust. Lunging towards it, he prepared to dive in, only to stop.

The Godzilla there was… looking at him. Not simply looking at the direction of whatever the rift was, actively matching his gaze, even as he rolled his head. It bore immense legs and a hide that resembled cruel rock, but it was the face that sent a chill down SpaceGodzilla’s spine. A hideously gaping maw with minuscule, white eyes that were covered in red veins. Veins like what adorned his spines. It let loose a booming, haunting bellow.

And SpaceGodzilla was made keenly aware of something beyond that screen. Looking past it, he saw what looked like tree roots growing into it. They seized and spasmed, a closer look revealing that they were fractal nightmares of a construction, which were not isolated to the one he floated before. They connected to numerous other universes, red dust billowing out and falling upon yet more cosmoses which were then impaled by the roots. His gaze traced the roots back to their source, a colossal trunk stretching upwards beyond infinity.

And a set of eyes, which could barely be called such for that word was so small for what they truly were, fell upon SpaceGodzilla. And the feeling that raced through him, settled into his very bones, was something indescribable to him.

A human would know it as dread, complete and total.

Pulling back, he roared up at the multiversal cancer. It was an attempt at intimidation, but in this state, it was clearly a fearful shout. Hatred joined the dread, of both the immense structure and of himself for being so weak before it.

A rift caught his attention, crackling as it already began to close. It was far away from the tree, from it, so he lunged into it like a diver into a pool.

The brightness dimmed, soon replaced with the void of space. Familiar, comforting territory for the megalomaniac. Closing his eyes, he was made keenly aware of two things. First, something or someone had warped through where he now drifted, leaving the distortion that he took advantage of. Secondly, there was a radio signal echoing across the universe, provoking an odd sense of familiarity.

SpaceGodzilla decided that he needed to trace it back to its source. Especially as he dug into the emotions stirred by it, and took in the essence left behind by the traveler who had accidentally opened the door to let him in.

Godzillas, plural, called this universe home. His mouth curled up at its ends into a wicked smile, unveiling the cruel teeth nestled within.

Something pricked his flesh. Opening his eyes, he saw a group of rocks with beaks floating through the void, assailing him. Looking past them, their attacks so diminutive as to be ignored, he saw something which confirmed his suspicions. A floating arm, stripped down to the bone, but recognizable nonetheless.

With a flash of his power, orange streaks rippling from his shoulder crystals, he tore his attackers apart. Some fled the initial attack, their comrades becoming debris clouds, but SpaceGodzilla had no intention of sparing them. His jaws parted, and from his throat shot forth the Corona Beam. The white spearhead affixed to the contorting film of star matter raced towards the rocks, splitting the closest one in half. Instead of detonating, it twisted to strike the next one, repeating the process.

The carnivorous flock of stones became indistinguishable from an asteroid field in short order, their lives the first of many he would snuff out in this strange universe. With that display of his might, a reaffirmation to himself of his power after the daunting nightmare he had witnessed, SpaceGodzilla ventured off.

***

Soaring through the stars was a sight most baffling, yet beautiful all the while. The upper half of a colossal reptilian beast rode a roaring jet of flames from where her lower half had once been. Her scales were a dull green, bordering on grey, but what was bright was the love she showed for the orb in her hands. Connected to an organic tube entering her chest, closer inspection revealed it was a womb, bearing a curled up baby with ivory skin. Red boots were tied to the fleshy chrysalis, dangling with the movement through the cosmos, a reminder to both mother and son of where they had come from.

This was Rozan. Earth had known her as Godzilla, a brutal monster who had wrought devastation upon the human race after being scarred by the atomic bomb. But that had only been part of the story, the latest weaving on a great tapestry.

In truth, she was an alien. An emissary of a peaceful race of giants who ventured across the universe in an attempt to bring about a cosmic peace. They had done so for billions of years, always standing tall in pacifistic bliss no matter how cruelly they were treated. For their skin was harder than armor, and their bodies could be restored from practically nothing thanks to a regenerative factor. It was their decree, their religious belief embedded into every individual since birth.

And yet she had broken it. Humanity had accidentally struck her with a weapon of mass destruction, a horrific and monstrous bomb that burned like a star. It was agonizing to be subjected to it, the caustic radiation seeping into her flesh and inflicting an even greater woe than the initial blast. All this in conjunction with an attack from another native, a feral monster with spikes running down an armored shell, led her down a dark path.

“Ririn…” She began to communicate telepathically with her child. “I’m so glad you’re ok. I was so worried when the bomb struck me, when the beast tore at my throat, when the great ape shocked and battered me. Not for myself, but for you.”

She hugged her detached womb tighter. “It’s not in our kind’s nature to do what I did. To tear asunder and burn. I don’t know how our people will receive me. Whether we’ll be able to see each other again.”

Rozan’s uncertainty was not a coping mechanism or a sugarcoating to her infant, it was genuine. It was not just that violence was barred from the Godzillas, it had outright never happened! No tales existed of their kind harming anyone, much less what she had done to entire cities. There was no established protocol in their laws for it had been deemed impossible.

Ririn did not reply with words, but the emanation of emotion from her fetal offspring calmed her heart somewhat. Whatever happened, they would always be family. Kuunin, the love of her life and the father of her child, would always be there.

Her eyes fell back to the red boots. A young girl had given them those, a sign of humanity’s heart buried beneath the shell of fear and hate. It reassured Rozan, showed that Earth was not a lost cause, but also hurt her. A deep ache settled into her heart and gut, seeing the signal of innocence and kindness but remembering flames burying thousands. Her flames spewed forth from her throat in a blind rage, a mother trying to protect her unborn child. But how many mothers and children had her rampages claimed?

As they approached another hostile area of space, where another warp jump would occur to bring her ever closer to her goal of their homeworld, of their people, her mind was clouded by these thoughts. So distracting was the grappling with her own morality that she failed to sense the subtle shift in the universe’s energy, a darkening at the new presence.

If she knew that she had inadvertently opened the door for him, for what was soon to commence, Rozan’s guilt would have multiplied tenfold.

***

In a dark cave, numerous Godzillas huddled together. One in particular stood near the mouth of the cavern, despite the protests of the elders, as he looked out at the sky.

’Rozan… please, stay away. The signal is a lie! Our world is lost, stay on whatever planet you have found! For you and our child's sake!’

***

The homeworld of the Godzillas was a cruel one. Barren landscapes of stone and sand stretched as far as the eye could see, a sea of sulfuric acid providing a difference that was somehow even worse. Such a brutal environment was the only way a race as hardy as them could have come about.

But it paled in comparison to the savagery of the newest occupants.

A luxurious palace stood tall over the wastelands, like the watchtower of a prison yard. Closer inspection revealed its occupants to be strange creatures, their back halves like that of hairless horses while their fronts were akin to humanoid women. They stalked the palace grounds in their nakedness, assured of their dominance as they awaited orders from their overlord. In their spare time, the Sunerians tormented the feline Sphinxes that they had gathered from a previous conquest, the helpless pets only able to cry out and writhe under their whipping and jeering. Beautiful faces twisted into cruel sneers as they cavorted and told tales of the misery they had inflicted upon the Godzillas.

The Sunerians were a barbaric culture, an intergalactic nightmare as they savaged anything they bore witness to. The Godzillas had become their latest target, so outraging was their preaching of peace that the whole kind was to be put to the blade. A signal rippled through space, calling any on missions of peace to return to their home, but it was not a distress signal. It was a trap, to lure any stragglers back so that they may face the same fate as their fellows.

Draped over her elegant throne, basking in the light of a dying world, the Sunerian Queen at the pinnacle of the palace looked to the stars. She smiled, a sly grin that had been the death knell of countless species.

“General!” She called out. The temple shuddered as a hulking, grotesque creature stood to full height, matching eyes with the queen. The reptilian with emerald skin stood in the courtyard, a colossal opening that she occupied in its totality with her bloated form.

A frog-like face bore scarlet eyes, spikes jutting out from around the skull and back which rattled with each movement. Despite her non-mammalian form, heaving breasts jutted out from her chest, laying atop a protruding belly. Clawed hands and feet scraped stone, golden bracelets upon the limbs serving as decoration for the general’s accomplishments.

“Yes, my queen?” She asked as she kneeled, her sickening form swaying with the movement.

“At ease, Gamoni.” As the colossus stood back up, the Sunerian Queen spoke once more. “Have any more Godzillas returned yet?”

“Yes, my queen.” Came the rasped reply. “Several dozen, in fact. They have been swiftly dealt with, per your orders.” Gamoni smiled at this.

“Excellent. But, I must request that the next one is captured as opposed to killed. I want to see it.”

“Of course, your highness. It would be my pleasure.” General Gamoni responded with utmost loyalty, sadistic glee creeping in at what that decree could lead to. “However, there is something you must know,” she continued.

“Yes?”

“We have detected an odd energy signature as well, we cannot parse what exactly it is. All we know is that it is fast approaching and highly powerful, whatever it is.”

“Then either destroy it, or capture it so we may use it. Is that not what we always do?” The royal conqueror replied with that wicked smile, prompting the same expression from her second in command.

“Of course.” Gamoni laughed, a coarse sound that was like the grinding of a boulder over the floor of a swamp.

***

He looked like a crystalline asteroid as he hurtled through the cosmos. A colossal shell erupted from his back, a star-shaped menagerie of spikes from which only his torso, arms, and head extended out of.

SpaceGodzilla smiled as from the dense cluster shot forth shimmering lights, spinning balls of crystalline matter which raced before him like bullets. They would find his destination well in advance of himself, preparing the world for his arrival.

He’d had time to dwell on what he had seen in the space between spaces. An infinitely expanding network of worlds, within which he was nothing more than another lifeform of immeasurably many.

The cosmic tyrant wanted to conquer it all. He wanted to destroy every Godzilla in creation, become the only one left in all existence. It was likely impossible by virtue of only being one being, of ultimately being finite no matter how high he climbed, but it was a goal nonetheless. One he would pursue for the rest of his own existence.

That tree remained at the forefront of his consciousness. The look that its emissary drilled into his own gaze lingered like a stain. Never had he felt so powerless, so weak, like an insect before a mountain.

If he could accomplish anything, it would be destroying that tree. If it took him a centillion years, required burning entire universes as fuel, he would return that feeling unto it thrice over.

And this universe, which seemed to defy his presence by turning into a chaotic, warping field around him, would be the first stepping stone. Unbeknownst to him, Rozan had delved into this place already, having plucked out her eyes and tossed them into the distortion to offer a brief respite.

SpaceGodzilla simply endured the tugging at and ripping into of his very being. It reminded him of his birth, a mass of discarded cells cast into a churning black hole and compressed down to the very smallest point possible before being spit out the other side. Basked in the entropic light of stars bursting into supernovae, energized with fire that scorched entire worlds.

His mind had cleared since its initial maddened scrambling upon entering the world between worlds. The memory of a different creation, pale aliens in dark clothing and in a darker ship cultivating him to be their ultimate weapon, did exist in his mind, but he recognized it as a falsehood. A different origin, another self who went down a diverging path.

SpaceGodzilla dwelled on this as he exited the warped space. The time to display his dominance was drawing near, and he awaited it with rapt enthusiasm.

***

Rozan’s propulsion faded as she and her son finally reached their destination. Tearing apart the umbilical cord with her teeth as the womb split apart, the matriarchal colossus let her son away to venture down on his own.

“I’ll join you soon, Ririn.” She promised, eyes shutting as she did so. “But right now I must rest, I cannot go any further.” She gave the newly born Godzilla a hug, both finally being able to feel each other. Rozan held Ririn tight for a few moments, feeling the warmth and light of love flow through them both, before letting him go. At that, consciousness faded, exhaustion grappling the reptilian mother as her son moved towards the world below.

The albino was not as helpless as a typical creature freshly freed from the womb. Where other species lacked any idea of the world they had been thrust into upon being born, the infant Godzilla had been psychically connected to his mother while gestating. What she knew, he knew. This meant that her battles with the creatures of Earth were in his mind, but what also took root there was the one interaction he’d had independent of her.

Ririn remembered sitting in a tank of fluid, his mother having washed onto the shore dead from diabetes and her body dismembered by humanity. They’d cut her apart and preserved him, and in that isolation, a young girl had gone to him and sang to him.

From Rozan, he had been shown a picture of a cruel species that bore only ill intent in its hearts. But from her, from the girl in red boots named Momo, he had felt something different. Not a cruel urge had pulsed through her mind, and though he doubted she was truly so perfect, he knew that she was no monster like those who had scourged his mother with nuclear fire. If not for her, and others with love in their hearts, making an appeal to the people of Earth, he would have been locked up like an animal and treated as something to be purged if deemed dangerous.

As Ririn, the tiny, white saurian, broke through the atmosphere of his kind’s homeworld, he decided that he wanted to go back there one day. When he was grown up, wiser and stronger, he would return to Earth to do what his mother had failed to do. But not now, for now, flying through the air like a prop affixed to invisible strings, he wished to see his people.

Unfortunately, as capable as he was for a newborn, Ririn was still not prepared for what awaited him.

Instead of a welcoming party, he saw nothing as he descended to the barren soil. No other Godzillas for as far as the eye could see greeted him as he placed his feet upon the ground, stumbling with the limbs he only now used for the first time.

A croaking call left his throat, the first actual noise of his life, echoing across the wasteland. His eyes nervously darted back and forth.

“Get it! Bring it back to the Queen!” Shouted harshly, followed by cruel chanting and hollering, was the first sound to properly reach his ears. Ririn yelped pitifully as Sunerians came charging out from behind rocks and cliffs, spears held in their hands as they approached.

He turned, trying to run, only to stagger and fall. Sadistic laughter rang out behind him, accompanied by jeers of “he can’t even move! He’s a baby! This’ll be too easy!”

Fear coursed through the infant’s body for the first time, compelling him to rise up and keep trying to flee, his hands dragging across the ground as he partially ran on all fours in desperation. Despite his efforts, the clopping of their hooves against the stone drew closer, his pursuers covering far more ground than he ever could.

Before hands could grasp flesh, however, the sky lit up.

***

If Rozan was not practically comatose, she would have been awakened by the crystal clusters racing past her limp form like artillery shells. Fortunately for her, none struck her body, a matter of pure luck. If one had, her fate would have been sealed, this slumber rendered permanent.

Because when they speared into the ground below, violently detonating it like a bombardment, they seeded the landscape.

Ririn was sent spiraling head over heels from the miniature earthquake caused by the cosmic event, his attackers screaming in shock and pain as they were forced to scatter. Some Sunerians were unlucky enough to be struck directly, their bodies instantly reduced to crimson spray. Others found themselves impaled by the purple crystals which shot out of the pulverized dirt like grasping fingers, towering high into the air.

A deep dread seized the infant Godzilla as he kept fleeing. The crystals sparked horrified feelings within him, like their very existence was abomination.

***

In that bleak cave, where the Godzillas lurked and wallowed in their fear, the rebel standing at the entrance suddenly jolted forward. His blue scales glistened in the sunlight as he stepped out, his fellows tumbling over one another to reach the mouth of the cavern and shout out to him.

“Kunin! What are you doing?!” An elder’s call rolled over the younger ones standing at the entrance. “Have you lost your damn mind?” He shouted, the crowd parting to let the wrinkled, hunched over Godzilla step to just before where the light shined. “Get back in this cave this instant!”

“My son is out there! My wife is back and she isn’t even with him, I have no clue why but I know she wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t believe it would be safe! But it isn’t, nothing on this planet is safe anymore!” He fired back, Kunin standing tall in his defiance.

“Then why are you going out there? Do you intend to die? Or will you defy our sacred tenants and fight, in some misguided belief that it will save you and your kin against these overwhelming odds?” The elder replied, continuing to stay in the shade. Despite hiding himself, his eyes still glistened out from the dark.

“What would you have me do?” The azure colossus clenched his fists. “Let my son die? You know our regeneration cannot save us from them when they know how to still destroy us despite it!”

“Whatever the gods will, so it shall be. Now get back into this cave before you doom us all!” Despite his desire to keep his clan hidden, the elder’s voice still rolled over the rocky landscape with his decree.

Kunin turned and ran. The elder shouted after him, angered at the defiance. “Damnit Kunin, have all our teachings meant nothing to you!?”

“They mean nothing if we die, unable to pass them on anymore!” That statement from the rebellious father made the elder step back, the rest of his herd retreating back into the depths of the cave. No one could see it, but his face showed doubt, for the first time in a long time.

***

Ririn behind a large rock, breathing heavily despite his efforts to quiet himself. He knew he could not run and escape them, even despite the advantage he had gained with their disorientation. The infant could barely think, the question of why his home planet was so cruel danced about in his head but he could hardly let it form, only existing as a vague and pained feeling instead of words. His only plan was to wait for his mother, the default response of any young lifeform when trouble arose.

“Our orders are still to find the Godzilla and bring it to the queen! Get moving!” One of the Sunerians shouted, making Ririn tense up.

“Come on out, little man.” Another demanded, much closer to him. “And we won’t hurt you… too much.” She added with a short cackle.

“What the hell are these crystals?” Shouted a Sunerian, clearly in intense pain. “I've never heard of anything like this.”

“They’re so pretty. Look at them shine, I want one in a necklace!”

“It’s through my damn leg, shut up about them being pretty!”

“That’s not my problem, moron.” Gleeful spite tinged those words.

It was like a cruel, dark psychic energy was layered over the area due to their presence. It made Ririn’s head pound, the sheer malice dripping off his pursuers. Combined with the crystals, he could barely grasp the terror swallowing him.

Time became a blur until it solidified harshly with the shout of “here he is,” from above. He looked up to see a Sunerian, spear clenched in hand, standing atop the rock that had been his shelter. She bore a most wicked grin. Ririn could only cry out in terror, a weak shout that only made her laugh.

The ground suddenly began to shake again, making her stumble. Ririn’s heart nearly stopped in anticipation of the next horror, only for a new feeling to take place when he saw the source. Joy.

Kunin charged towards him and his would-be attackers, every footfall accompanied by a booming sound like a bomb. “So there are more on this planet, get-“ the one who had been leering over Ririn was struck by Kunin’s colossal fist, larger than her torso.

Blood sprayed out from her mutilated form as she rolled across the landscape.

As the Sunerians flew into a panicked shock at a member of the Godzilla species actually fighting, the blue leviathan leaned down to his quivering son. “Ririn.” He softly spoke, making the ivory child perk up and meet his eyes. “Son, it’s me, your father. Rozan surely spoke of me, right?” He continued as he gingerly picked the baby up, cradling him in his arms. Ririn simply cooed timidly in return, curling up and latching on. Kunin could tell his son did recognize him, but the shock left him unable to do much else in reply.

“It’ll all be alright now, I promise.” He did not know for sure if it would be, in fact, he greatly doubted it. But he did not tell a lie. Kunin would do everything in his power to make that promise come true. In his mind, he had broken a fifty billion year history of non-violence for his kind, to do such a thing meant nothing else would be too far. He knew not that his wife had already done so well before this point.

He looked up at the Sunerians, who did not run forward. Without the artillery of their palace, they lacked in ways to battle a member of his kind that actually fought back. He began to back away slowly, staring daggers into them, until a new voice cut in, making his heart skip a beat.

“You worthless bitches, get behind me!” Shouted Gamoni as she marched over the landscape, scarlet eyes locking onto Kunin’s gaze and meeting the fire with a cold hatred. “For shame, I thought we trained you better.”

The Sunerian with a leg impaled on a crystal screamed as the frog-like behemoth crushed her under foot, viscera squirting out from the carnage. “I was told to come out here because of these crystals, and what do I find? A very uncaptured Godzilla, holding a damn baby! You can’t handle someone who needs to keep a little parasite like that safe?”

Kunin lowered Ririn to the ground. “Stay nearby and whatever you do, don’t get involved.” The infant nodded, waddling back to get behind his father and treat him as the wall of a fortress.

“So you will fight? I was hoping you’d run away.” Gamoni said, her bloated face curling as she smiled.

Kunin stood tall, snarling. “I’m tired of running and hiding.”

“More fun for me.” The general of the barbaric Amazonians rushed forward with a shout, Kunin doing the same.

When the distance closed, the pacifist driven to violence swung a hard punch. Unfortunately for him, he now fought someone on his own scale, but with far more experience in battle. Gamoni caught his fist, the general replying with a strike of her own to Kunin’s gut. He doubled over, letting his foe drive a knee into his jaw.

As the Godzilla staggered back, Gamoni laughed before continuing the assault. She wished that she had brought her black whip as she drove her forehead into her foe’s brow. As he swung his arms in an attempt to strike back, the invader’s tail shot forth and wrapped around the native’s leg like a snake. Tensing the muscles, she sought to spill him to the dirt, but Kunin dug his heels into the ground.

Lunging forward, the reptilian heretic attempted to bite his foe’s throat. Her hands moved to catch him, but Kunin was quick to block them with his own. With a sneer, the genocidal baroness leaned back, avoiding the initial snap. Kunin pushed forth, gnashing his jaws like a feral dog as he sought to rip out his oppressor’s throat. A sickening gurgle emanated from Gamoni’s throat, her head leaning back as if to taunt the teeth growing ever closer.

Kunin got a mouthful of spiders as a ball of web rocketed forth from his foe’s mouth, landing directly in his own and being crushed by his jaws. The arachnids, their eight legs skittering all across his tongue, gums, and teeth, scattered madly as he stumbled back. He coughed and clawed at his mouth, sending hordes of spiders both living and dead spilling out, but it was not enough as they crawled down his throat and moved out of the mouth to scurry over his body. It was the most unpleasant experience in his life thus far, and he hoped to die before something topped it.

Unfortunately, Gamoni still existed, and she did not wait for the suffering to end before raising a leg high and driving it into his sternum. Thrown completely off balance, Kunin was sent falling to his back, thrashing about. He rolled around and batted at his skin like he was on fire, eventually shaking as he vomited up the arachnids that had attempted to crawl inside him.

All the while, his foe laughed. The emerald grotesquerie marched forward, continuing her sick laughter as she lifted a foot and drove it into Kunin’s face, shoving his head into the now moist dirt. As she grinded her heel, she began to speak, her voice sopping with disdain.

“This is why I hate your kind most of all of the species I’ve crushed. Look at yourself, you have such power! It’s been decades since I’ve been in a fight that lasted this long!” She punctuated that statement with a harsh stomp, then stepped back. “You could have dominated the universe if you so desired. Molded yourselves for war, your biology is perfect for it.”

Stepping away, she walked towards one of the crystals protruding from the ground. ”You want cosmic peace? Then why did you not become warriors? Crush those who dissent, those like us, and you would get it, wouldn’t you?” Placing her hands on the gigantic gemstone, she began to strain as she lifted. “But instead you dedicated yourselves to a suicidally stupid pacifism.”

Stone broke apart as the sharp crystal was ripped free, clods of dirt falling from the base as Gamoni lifted it high. “And let that power go to waste. And left a race of giants with natural strength and super regeneration to become fucking worthless.”

General Gamoni stood over Kunin’s body, who could only look up at his encroaching doom. “This probably won’t even kill you. I’ll need to torch your hide as you’re impaled, like cooking an animal.” She lifted the crystal high, putting the point down. “Hope you didn’t get too attached to your welp. He’ll be the queen’s to rip apart as she pleases.”

She swung it down, unaware of Kunin’s eyes dilating at that last statement. He was not fighting for himself. He was fighting for his son, his wife, his whole race. With a shout, he smashed his elbow into the ground, lifting himself up partially and sending Gamoni’s makeshift weapon spearing into his arm instead of his torso.

Screaming. A deep, bassy bellow rattled the landscape as blood sprayed from Kunin’s wound, the crystal digging into the dirt through his flesh and bone. His moment of resistance nearly came to an end then and there, but a vision hit his mind just before the pain could overwhelm.

He saw Rozan ripping her arm off in the depths of space, her body being torn at by rocks with beaks. Half of her form was not even present, the pelvis and legs replaced by a jet of flame. He saw it from Ririn’s perspective, he knew that was what this was, but it was through a fleshy filter and set just before her. Was he still in the womb, but somehow outside of her?

What had happened to her? What horrors had befell the love of his life?

With his free arm, Kunin punched his impaled limb. With the wet snapping of tendons, he tore himself free, his yelling shifting from sheer agony to a burning wrath. Curling in his legs, he drove them up into the shocked Gamoni’s gut, launching her away to land on her back.

The blue Godzilla stood up, crimson staining his form as it sprayed from the wound like a firehose. His posture was slightly slouched, a wild look in his eyes that the observing Sunerians recoiled at. As Gamoni arose, the tide abated as regeneration sealed it shut, bone coiled with veins emerging as muscle and flesh raced to catch it.

He looked back to Ririn. A pang of sorrow hit his heart when he saw that the young boy did not flinch at this. Another vision drifted into his mind.

Rozan stood over the burning carcass of another giant, surrounded by a flaming city. The cries of thousands rang out like a chorus of the damned, all in fear of her like a beast of the end times. What they knew as Godzilla roared to the heavens, cursing them while simultaneously declaring her triumph.

He would rather bathe in spiders once more than see her like this. The pain that he felt from this gripped his very soul. He needed to see her again, to comfort her and let her know that he was there for her after so long apart. That whatever had hurt her on Earth was not here, would never harm her again.

“So, you do have some fight.” Gamoni said as she got to her feet, cracking her knuckles. “Now is that all?” She grinned at this, tilting her head.

But first he needed to deal with this.

Flexing his newly regenerated hand, Kunin prepared to charge forward, only for a distant rumbling to catch his attention. It came from behind the Sunerians, prompting Gamoni to look back.

A vast army of the vile aliens approached, wheeling strange and advanced artillery before them. This was not a deployment for one Godzilla, but to deal with all of them. Dust clouds billowed out from the march, shouts ringing as they drew closer.

“Well ain’t that just a kick in the ass?” The green fiend turned back to her quarry with a smug expression. “Let’s see where all that bravado is now.”

“Damnit!” Kunin cursed as he turned, grabbing up Ririn and running as fast as he could away.

Gamoni laughed. “After him!”

Kunin’s legs pumped with all his might as he ran, the sounds of the enemy behind him driving him to keep going. Artillery shells streaked through the air above, crashing down around him with great pillars of fire rising up. His pulse quickened as he tried to pick up the pace, but he could only run so fast. Ririn held on tightly, whimpering in terror.

He had no plan, no idea of what the future would hold. All he could figure was to go back to his people and demand they prepare to fight on short notice, but he hated that with every fiber of his being.

A pounding against the ground behind him drew far too close, making him turn his head. Gamoni bounded towards him on all fours, catching up with him far too quickly for his comfort. Despite her rotund frame, she was quicker on her feet than most. A moment of falter would be all it would take, and then he would die. Him, Ririn, and their whole species. And that time was coming within mere seconds, Gamoni’s hands about to lash out and grasp his tail.

Blue filled his vision, bright and flickering. Gamoni screamed as the raging stream of fire enveloped her body. Kunin nearly hit the ground himself, but stayed balanced as he looked up to see another of his kind spraying the azure conflagration from her mouth.

“Rozan!” He shouted. He watched in awe as she tilted her head up, sweeping the inferno across the landscape. Walls of fire moved towards the encroaching army, which began to break down as it approached. They fled for their lives, scattering in all directions like bugs when a rock was overturned.

The brutal matriarch descended, standing across from her husband who had stopped running. “Kunin, I-“ she stumbled over her words, her mind swirling with emotions. Her husband tried to speak, but he found himself also lost for words.

Before either could sort through this internal chaos, a shout echoed out from the flames. “How dare you!” Gamoni screamed as she lunged out from the billowing inferno. Burns painted her skin, black flaking off with the wind kicked up by the conflagration.

“Die!” She bellowed as she lifted her arms, her bosom twitching as jets of flame shot forth from the nipples. Her bellybutton spasmed as metallic blades launched from the cavity, eight sharp lines of steel arranged in the pattern of swastikas. The couple screamed as they were assailed, Kunin turning to let his back take the full brunt of the hellacious onslaught in order to protect Ririn.

His scutes began to melt as Rozan’s skin boiled, the shurikens digging into their weakening hides to spray jets of blood. “Suffer, you pathetic wretches! Be burned down to the very last cell!”

Through the maniacal shouting of their foe, Kunin heard his other half yell back in defiance. “Not after all I have been through!” He watched with shock as Rozan picked up a boulder, cocking her arm back before hurling it like a shot put. It shattered upon impact with Gamoni’s skull, sending her tumbling back as blood spilled down her face. For a brief moment, the twin jets of flame from her breasts towered upwards before fading, a deep groan leaving her maw.

“We have to go!” Rozan immediately exclaimed as she turned back to her husband, the sound of the army gathering once more being barely audible over the still billowing flames of her onslaught. He nodded in affirmation, knowing that they could not have the heart to heart they needed in this hell.

***

His destination was near, but a tugging at his mind drew SpaceGodzilla to a dark, cold world slightly off the beaten path. It was close enough to his goal of the Godzilla homeworld that he did not mind the detour. He knew not what he would find here, but a gnawing in his brain demanded he set foot.

The hulking body of the cosmic tyrant descended, his feet hitting the bleak stone. He scanned the environment, with his eyes and with senses most lifeforms did not even possess. For a few seconds, nothing registered except a frigid wind. Behind him, a low call sounded, prompting him to turn.

Before SpaceGodzilla stood a lanky, white creature with purple crystals upon its back like a shell. Yellow eyes met his, a gemstone heart of a similar hue beating on the outside of the entity’s chest. The beast he recognized as Krystalak bent the knee, lowering its head.

From the earth next to him emerged a bulky arm of stone, veins of magma coursing through it. The limb pulled up something akin to a gorilla in build, made of black rock with molten blood pumping within. A face that looked like the front had been scooped out, revealing a crater, completed the strange form of Obsidius. It too bowed.

He knew them. Upon an Earth saturated with his crystalline blight, they were born, cruel mutants seeking power and bloodshed to further their goals. He supposed that made them like his children. Yet they were not actually beget by him. Krystalak and Obsidius were the spawn of another SpaceGodzilla, the one made by the Vortaak. That was not him. He was born by mistake, not cultivated, yet the duo still existed in his mind like they were his own.

And that brain picked up on a glaring inconsistency with them.

But before he could act on it, three more sounds echoed behind him. He turned his back to his “sons” to see more colossi waiting behind him. The first a humanoid with ebon skin and white, draconic bones draped upon him to form armor. A tail splitting into two waved behind Monster X as he too took a knee. To his left, a towering heap of black sludge with crimson eyes. And on the right, a green and golden mixture of reptilian and avian, a beak and bladed forearms made of pristine silver grafted on. Hedorah and Gigan bowed reverently, the dangling tendrils of the former and the golden wings of the latter swaying with the motion.

He remembered them too. Upon an Earth already tormented by the rise of monsters they descended as one, waging war upon a fractured world to tear it asunder. But that was not “him” either, as tenuous as his sense of identity was becoming. That incursion had failed, and when he returned to Earth years later, he had not been defeated. He had joined forces with Godzilla to face a foul mimicry of his powers, then departed to the stars to recoup and one day return. It seemed that day had yet to come.

A low growl emerged from the pits of SpaceGodzilla’s throat as he stared at the skeletal monster before him.

Numerous tiny footsteps set his eyes lower, all around the gathered kaiju as hundreds of new beings arrived. Demons. Horned, crimson fiends with bat-like wings assembled like an army to their general, chanting.

“Hail! Hail! Hail!”

The imps sang praises and worship to him, making SpaceGodzilla’s fists clench. He remembered them too, in a frozen netherworld, surrounding him and Godzilla as they collided. But they did not praise him, they sang of death and dismemberment as he was their puppet. A dark fiend used him as a weapon of torment against a Godzilla that had defeated him in a mutual death, their perditions tied as were their lives.

And that was still not him. He would not have been sent into the space between spaces if he was truly dead, held affixed in Hell by forces beyond his comprehension. He just merely held the memory, bouncing amidst his skull alongside the rest.

Something shifted behind him, and he immediately drove his tail back to impale it. Looking over his shoulder, it was Krystalak, who had been just about to leap. SpaceGodzilla growled, mouth curling into a smile as he surveyed those surrounding him.

Krystalak and Obsidius were not loyal sons. They would just as soon stab him in the back for his power. His blazing eyes fell upon Monster X, who stood up suddenly. The draconic knight had caught him amidst a cataclysmic beam struggle and had been hiding his true power from him! He was no loyal servant!

The impaled monstrosity morphed into what looked like a black cloak. It flapped futilely in the wind as it stayed upon SpaceGodzilla’s tail, before a surge of energy flowed down it and set it aflame. A haunting screech sailed through the air of the seemingly dead world, sending the gathered running. They returned to their true forms, dark robes just as Krystalak was.

SpaceGodzilla laughed loudly as he began to rise, the first victim of his time on Planet Manto falling away from him as death claimed it. They had read his mind and sought to make him prey through pleasing mimicry, but such a thing was impossible when his only true ally was himself.

He had come to an Earth that had only Godzilla, none of these sprawling environments of titans. Just a natural dinosaur corrupted by nuclear fire and his singular offspring, accompanied by a humanity with a powerful mecha. Their battle had been in a city, within his fortress, until his shoulder crystals were broken by clever teamwork to feed crimson rays of power which reduced him to dust. That was who he was.

In his mind, the true SpaceGodzilla.

But as he looked upon this duplicitous world, held fresh in his memory the lives of other selves, he felt something shift in his body. They were different, yes, but so similar to him as to practically be exact. As he grasped the now flowing stream of memory that was not his own, a harsh glow emanating from his crystals as the denizens of Planet Manto watched from their shade, he realized that his potential was limitless.

But as well, that his goal of absolute conquest was impossible. There were too many versions of even himself for the whole of existence to fall under his sway. Infinite power was not something a finite being could grasp, limitless potential meant he would simply climb ever upwards in perpetuity. But he did not care.

That ascent was what he loved. It was what truly drove him, that and…

His head snapped down to stare at the landscape. This world would be the first victims of his new spree. Seizing the mind of his Vortaakian counterpart, he began to shine brightly as crystal clusters erupted from his body. He ascended to the heavens, leaving the meteors behind him in a trail as he left the dark world behind. They shined different colors like a rainbow, the light blinding any who beheld it below. SpaceGodzilla stopped outside of the atmosphere, then let his handiwork hang in the sky for a brief moment.

He thrust his hand forth, commanding the end to this world.

The crystalline projectiles fell like hail. Planet Manto shuddered as thousands of impacts rocked it, the first step to an apocalyptic process as the wounds in the ground shined like fire. A menagerie of colored opal ripped the earth apart as they rose, jabbing at the sky like angry fingers. The cloak-like lifeforms ran for shelter as this madness commenced, but the overlord merely continued to laugh as he watched them.

Soon, disasters would unfold en masse. The foundations beneath their feet would be torn like rotted wood as gravitational anomalies pulled it into space, quakes and volcanic eruptions would massacre areas that it was geographically impossible for them to occur in, and great power would seep into their bodies and drive them mad as they tore one another asunder over it.

This was also what he loved, what pushed him onwards. The displaying of his power unto those weaker, their terror under his immensity. Oh, how he would have loved to watch this unfold over the coming days and weeks, the end a tortuous process for those who had dared to try and deceive him. But he had far more pressing concerns at the moment.

Turning, he left the world behind to die screaming. The first of many.

***

Kunin and Rozan, their son held aloft between them with each holding one of his small hands, returned to the cave their people hid within. No one greeted them, but the reunited family stepped forward regardless. They knew they would not receive a warm welcome.

Submerging themselves in the darkness, they were met with the elder. “Have you been followed?”

“A wall of fire blocked them. They do not know our location.” Kunin replied tersely.

“Fire?”

“On Earth, I was bombarded with nuclear radiation, a human weapon. It gave me the power to spit atomic flames from my mouth.” Rozan responded before her husband could speak.

“You fought?” The sage said quietly, shocked. He took notice of their bodies still coated in ash and blood. “Fifty billion years, and-“

“I had broken our taboo years before today.” The mutated matriarch did not mince words. Kunin flinched despite having already known about this. “On Earth, I had been assaulted by a ferocious beast that humanity labeled Anguirus. This was shortly after I had been horribly burned and poisoned by that bomb I mentioned.“

As other Godzillas poked their heads out, whispers and gasps rolling through their ranks over the taboo standing before them, Rozan took her son into her arms and held him tightly. “I was pregnant. Ririn would have been torn out of me by its fangs if I had done nothing.”

“Now, it’s still frowned upon, but violence towards an animal in self defense isn’t-“ Kunin began to speak, only for his wife to look him straight in the eyes. A deep pit of sorrow was all he saw in those beautiful eyes he had fallen in love with.

“That was not all you did, is it?” The elder interjected.

“I fought with humanity. I was worried for Ririn’s health the moment their atom bomb struck me, and another flash of bright light amidst one of their cities drove me into a frenzy, I was worried a second of those horrid weapons was about to bathe me in fire! So I became a monster. In panic I burned them, and they fought back, of course they would, and thus began a conflict that I was too lost in wrath to talk down.”

At the start of her screed, Rozan’s voice had been normal. But by the time it ended, it had trailed down into a soft, sad tone that was barely above a whisper. “They locked me into a glacier, where for years I lay dormant, but still able to reach out and psychically perceive their world. And I-“

She gave Ririn to his father, then fell to her knees. Kunin tried to reach for her, but she batted his hand aside. “I hated them! They had tormented me and then put the blame on my shoulders when I lashed out! Humanity waged war with itself that was downright cruel, committing actions unto their fellow man that invading aliens wouldn’t dare do! They gave themselves over to idiotic entertainment and charismatic demons! Earth was plundered for all they could seize from her! Their leaders held their fingers over the button to plunge the whole race into nuclear hellfire, like what I had been submerged in!”

The mood in the cavern was worse than if the Sunerians had arrived. To see a member of their own kind in such hateful pain, to feel the psychic energy wafting off of her that was tinged with the blackness of her heart, it was stomach churning.

“I wanted to kill them! Burn their civilization to ash and leave the survivors to know me as a beast to fear!” Her voice cracked and fell to near silence. “And I hated every moment of it.“

She looked up to see Ririn, and the red boots tied around his arm. A symbol of everything that had gone wrong in her mind and soul. “I- I am a monster. And I should be treated as such.” Rising up to her feet, she turned and began to walk out of the cave.

“Where are you going?” Kunin turned to face her, his voice wracked with the pained emotions swirling in his chest.

“Take care of Ririn.”

Kunin lunged forward, grasping her arm before she could leave the cave. Rozan tried to wrench her arm free, but her husband’s grip was like iron. He pulled her to meet his gaze, eyes practically glowing with determination. “A monster does not traverse the cosmos to protect her child, all while mutilated.”

“How did you know-“

“Ririn showed me. Our son,” the boy was looking at his mother with teary eyes. “Showed me what you have been through. For his sake, to ensure he could see his people. That is not a monster’s deeds.”

“But so much blood stains my hands! How can I proclaim myself to be a Godzilla with such cruelty in my soul? Peace has no place in my heart, not anymore!” Tears poured from her eyes as well now, Kunin’s grip having loosened into resting on her shoulder.

“You would not have returned if that was true. You still desire peace, I know you do. For you, for Ririn, for all of us. You were about to go forth and attack the Sunerians, seeking to destroy them at the cost of your own life, right?” She nodded affirmatively. “Then what you sought was peace! You just don’t believe you deserve it.”

“Because I do not.”

Kunin hugged her suddenly, Ririn doing the same. He cried as well now. “Yes, you do. You more than anyone else, Rozan. You who were the first of our kind to be driven to violence in so long, it was not that you were weak, it was that you were so greatly hurt.”

The father turned to the gathered Godzillas. “Could any of you truly say you would not do what she did? Remember her story, hold it deep within yourself and look upon your heart. Would you have retained our ways?”

Silence. Even from the elder, whose facial expression spoke more than words ever could.

“Universal peace. That was the code we have abided by, the goal we strived for. But not all agree, no matter how hard we speak to them and how much we sit back and let them tear at us.”

“Like the Sunerians!” Someone yelled from the crowd. He received no pushback.

“Yes, just like them. We cannot sit back and let universal peace be destroyed because we were so obsessed with it we refused to fight!” Kunin pumped a fist into the air, the rest repeating the motion with a shout. “We must fight, or else all we have built will fall!”

Chanting and cheering rang out for a few moments, before the elder raised his hand. Silence returned once more, a tense event.

“Do you intend to lead us?”

“It seems we already have.”

A long sigh left the sage’s mouth. “Then it seems there is no choice. But will it end with the Sunerians? Will you march upon the humanity your wife so despises next, proving their fears right?”

Before either could respond, Ririn stood up in his father’s arms. He lifted the hand with the red boots tied around it, waving the limb around to let the crimson articles dance on the string. A psychic message reached the gathered mass.

’These shoes belonged to a good human. One of many. I will go when the time is right, to bring them the peace my mother tried to give.’

It felt like a bone crushing weight had been lifted from Rozan’s chest, the hatred unwinding like a vice slowly but surely. If Ririn loved them, despite being the one truly in danger from their fury, then how could she hold on to her wrath?

Cheers filled the cave, uncaring of whoever could hear. A new day was rising for them, and they would seize the light with everything they had. Like a flower finally breaking through cold soil in order to bloom.

***

As Gamoni fumed in the royal palace, teeth grinding and fingers digging into her palms, the Sunerians prepared for war. Artillery was set up around the fortress in order to devastate any attacking armies, something they knew was soon to come. The general had been mostly healed, but a scar on her head throbbed with pain at the thought of the duo.

“I’ll kill them. Personally, I will scatter their entrails around this palace to serve as both a decoration and warning!”

“General Gamoni, how should,” the frog-like face of the colossus, a heavy grimace upon it, twisted to face the Sunerian speaking and made her pause. “How should we deal with the Godzillas if they get past our artillery?”

“Grab our flamethrowers and prepare to burn them into ash! Leave nothing left but dark smears!” She shouted loud enough for the entire palace to hear.

With a salute, the Sunerian quickly scampered away.

“And I’ll take their albino brat and chuck him into the deepest volcano I can-“

Gamoni’s muttering was cut off by a distant rumbling, the signal they had been awaiting. “They arrive! Get ready, or I’ll kill you myself!” The general commanded loudly as she made her way outside of the palace, leaping atop the wall and then lowering herself to the base of the fortress. As she walked towards the entrance to stand before her, she looked out over the horizon to see them.

Hundreds of Godzillas marching as one. From this distance they looked like a black smudge on the rock surface, but even still, she could make out the two in the front. A low, gurgling growl left Gamoni’s throat.

“Await my mark!” She bellowed out to them, keeping her trained eyes locked onto the encroaching horde. They became more distinct as they approached, the individuals being visible as opposed to a dark blob. Gamoni began to raise her arm, ready to declare their extermination’s beginning, until something interrupted her.

A dark shape in the sky, slowly descending.

***

Kunin and Rozan, Ririn atop the latter’s back, lead their people into battle. Their hearts pounded almost as hard as their feet as the legion of pacifists prepared to immerse themselves in war. All eyes looked forward, at the palace of their enemy.

The couple quickly exchanged glances, reassuring each that they would always be there. This was the day they retook their lives.

Something in the top of Rozan’s vision pulled her head up. The sun blazed overhead, which made the star-like silhouette all the more blatant as it approached the ground. Seeing it sent a sensation like icy talons piercing her through the mutant’s heart. Ririn looked up, immediately recognizing the signature which oozed off of the interloper.

The infant cursed himself. He had been so preoccupied with his mother and father’s turmoil that he had forgotten to tell his people about the crystals. His father had seen them, and no doubt felt their malaise, but he had been the one who sat near them for so long. However, he could tell from his dad’s expression as Kunin looked up as well that he still knew what was coming.

“Stop!” Rozan shouted, Kunin repeating her as their feet ground against the dirt. Murmurs rose from the army before they too looked up to see the anomaly.

“What is that?” Someone shouted, the couple at the forefront wishing they could offer an answer.

The sun’s glare made it so they could only see what looked like dark splotches splitting off from the silhouetted star, which fell to the ground fast and hard in gigantic detonations. Between the Godzillas and the Sunerian palace began to grow fields of multi-colored crystal, shimmering as they absorbed the energy of the cosmos above.

A harsh shriek filled the sky, declaring to both the Godzillas and Sunerians that their war had gained a new fighter.

***

It looked as though SpaceGodzilla stood within a crystalline castle, such was the immensity of the structure that he had built for himself since his apotheosis. Another trick of one of his alternate selves, one that had been drawn to Earth by an attempt to control kaiju through radio signals and found himself in battle with Godzilla and Mechagodzilla.

He could tell just from the scene before him that this planet was about to be shaken by war, between the Godzillas and whatever force lived within that temple. The simple fact that there were multiple Godzillas, much less a whole species of them, shocked him. It seemed that this was not a universe that a version of him existed in. He had never seen versions of the monster king like this, so skinny and human-like in their facial expressions.

This was not a conflict he had any stake in, no place within.

But that had never stopped him. He would simply make it about himself.

With a boisterous shout, he commanded his castle to fall towards the temple. As it did so, looking like gravity had been switched from off to on for the colossus of crystal, he lunged out of it and flew towards the barren ground. The Godzilla army went from a black splotch to a clear picture of nearly a thousand giants, who flinched back in horror as he crashed before them with a thunderous burst.

Rising to his full height, towering over them, he surveyed the natives to this world. Orange, burning eyes scanned the horde, who shrinked beneath his gaze. SpaceGodzilla snorted. These were weak, he could simply tell from the way they composed themselves.

Until the couple at the forefront stepped forward, one blue and the other dark green. They clearly felt fear, but still stood tall, meeting his cruel sight.

’Who are you?’ Resounded in the tyrant’s mind, making him perk up an eyebrow. Telepathy, so clear and direct? That was new for a Godzilla. Not a psychic distress signal like what his genetic predecessor held, but bonafide mental conversation.

’Are you one of us?’ SpaceGodzilla smiled at that, which only grew as he felt the fear his grin struck into them.

***

Gamoni wasted no time upon seeing the crystal fortress falling like a meteor towards them. “Fire on it, destroy it with our artillery!” She commanded, prompting trails of fire to erupt from the palace. The cruel general watched as explosions, strong enough to kill the Godzillas below, detonated across the makeshift meteor.

And failed to stop its descent. Cracks far too small to cause a collapse spread across its surface, but nothing close to the desired shattering had come about. A second volley did little more, prompting the Sunerian general to shout “flee with the Queen! The palace is lost!”

She leapt from her spot, only concerned with her own preservation as a chorus of screams echoed from her subordinates. Her eyes moved towards the invader, narrowing in rage. Gamoni vowed to tear him asunder.

Stone became powder as the Sunerian palace was compressed by the crystal castle, crumbling in short order. Hundreds of Sunerians screamed as they were crushed beneath rubble, others barely escaping.

In the top chamber of the palace, the Queen alongside her trusted advisors were slain within a spaceship. They had frantically attempted to start it in order to fly away, only for it to never start and become a press to reduce them to stains. Unbeknownst to them was that their sudden attacker spilled electromagnetic waves from his body at all times, meaning their escape vessel was doomed from the start.

Gamoni was vaguely aware of this, having not heard or seen her personal spaceship take off. The Sunerian general cared little. Her loyalty only extended so far, the bulk of her wrath coming from her people’s overall embarrassment at their palace being replaced in mere moments by the nightmare of gemstones currently digging into the mountain.

***

Kunin felt like he was staring death itself in the face as he tried to communicate with SpaceGodzilla. The bearing of the latter’s teeth made his heart rate skyrocket. His psychic communication for a moment seemed futile, until he got a response.

The patriarchal Godzilla doubled over as his senses were assailed by a whirring static, a garbled and hateful voice spearing into his brain.

’I am...’

The crystal tyrant’s tail shot forth like a spring, the mace at its end ripping through the flesh of Kunin’s stomach. Panicked roars rang out across the now scattering army, Rozan letting loose a hateful call as she lunged forward. As Ririn leapt off of his mother’s head, looking around in a panic, SpaceGodzilla lifted his victim up.

’Not one of you. Something better.’ SpaceGodzilla continued his telepathic boasting as energy surged through his tail, shocking Kunin and sending him into a thrashing anguish. His wife crashed punches against the chest and stomach of their attacker, but the cosmic clone seemed uncaring of the strikes.

Flicking his tail like a whip, he sent Kunin hurtling away. Smoke poured out of the gaping hole in the pacifist’s abdomen, a low, anguished groan echoing from his open mouth. SpaceGodzilla went to let out a shriek of cruel joy, only for a fist to crash against his face, cracking teeth and shoving his head aside.

Rozan roared, a primal scream of wrath, before sending another fist flying towards her foe’s skull. It never connected, SpaceGodzilla having stuck out a hand which projected a thin stream of light to ensnare her. Lifting the struggling Rozan up, he twirled his finger through the air, violently spinning her within the telekinetic field.

Sickening laughter echoed as he let her go, sending the taboo breaker flying with a screech. Shifting earth brought SpaceGodzilla’s gaze back to Kunin, who was trying to climb to his feet. His regeneration was attempting to sew shut the gruesome wound, something the destroyer took note of.

Wonderful, they would not fall so quickly!

Sparking bolts around his shoulder crystals signaled a terrible attack, but the Corona Beam found its target instead in one of the other Godzillas. Members of the army were still present, trying to intervene, and one had gained the courage to charge in and use a boulder as a makeshift weapon. The signature weapon of SpaceGodzilla ripped him apart, splitting his skull in half with a violent pop then trailing down the body to tear open the torso.

As his body hit the ground, a duo of the universal peacemakers ran in and grabbed at SpaceGodzilla’s tail, trying to tug on it to make him fall. He won the swift tug of war, lifting their feet off the ground and throwing them into himself. Thin but powerful arms grasped them by the throats, the cosmic tyrant staring into their defiant eyes with hatred before conducting crackling power through his claws. Skin bubbled and scales burned away as they beat at his body, trying to force him to release them, but SpaceGodzilla merely slammed their skulls against one another as he scourged them to the bone.

’Release them!’ Echoed through SpaceGodzilla’s conscious as Kunin returned to the battle with a drop kick to the invader’s back, making him stumble forward. The two Godzillas slipped out of his grip, their liquified flesh sticking to his hands as they flailed on the stone below.

Before Kunin could get back up, SpaceGodzilla’s shoulder crystals shimmered as from them shot streams of smaller gems. Like machine gunfire they crashed against the peaceful general’s hide, ripping it open and spilling blood as he staggered. The combat creature did not even turn towards him as he lifted both feet into the air and brought them crashing down into the skulls of the fools who had dared to attack him, splattering them like ripe fruit.

Kunin fought through the pain of the rapid fire projectiles, pushing himself to his feet and grasping SpaceGodzilla by the tail. He pulled hard, lifting his foe up, but before he could complete the throw, the cosmic tyrant just ceased moving. Demonstrating a perfect control over his own gravitational field, SpaceGodzilla dove forward to hover upside down, looking up and down upon Kunin at the same time.

A geyser of blue fire raced towards the invader, but without him even looking at it, a translucent shield manifested in the air next to him. Rozan’s atomic ray bounced off of the Photon Shield, crashing into her torso with a fiery explosion that sent her to the ground.

SpaceGodzilla looked at Kunin with a smug satisfaction, the horror on the latter’s face telling him that he understood that the combat creature had barely gotten started. But he was not the only one with unexpected tricks, as what should have been two corpses reached up and grasped his shoulders, yanking him down to crash his head against the dirt.

Stunned by the still surviving Godzillas, whose skulls had not even finished healing, SpaceGodzilla was unable to stop himself from being swung over Kunin’s head and slammed into the ground on the other side hard enough to create a crater.

Over a dozen of the cosmic ambassadors came rushing in, kicking and punching SpaceGodzilla's body. He snarled and thrashed, trying to look past them to see the duo whose brains he had pulped now getting to their feet, flesh now crawling over their skulls to complete the healing.

How had they survived that? That was impossible!

Hissing at the crowd around him, more crystals suddenly grew from his back, shimmering brighter than the rest. They were a temporary fixture as they burst violently, creating a massive explosion that sent the Godzillas around him flying back while the ground was eviscerated. He had been facing up, so the blast propelled him, where he held himself high in the air to look down.

SpaceGodzilla found the enemy he had torn apart with his Corona Ray, still lying dead on the ground with a split upper body. Smoke still poured from the carcass, no life dwelling within. His anger bubbled over as he then looked to see the two flanking Kunin, alive and well despite similar critical injury.

Shrieking loud enough to make some need to cover their ears, SpaceGodzilla began firing Corona Beams rapidly into the army beneath him. Godzillas scattered and panicked as gaping wounds were blasted into their hides, falling over one another as the rays which danced to their master’s command found whoever he sought.

Eyes falling upon Kunin, SpaceGodzilla shot two of the cruel beams in quick succession, obliterating the general’s knees. Kunin cried out in anguish as he hit the dirt, the tyrant’s laughter drowning it out.

Before he could attack further, a massive explosion crashed against his side, casting him out of the air and onto the ground below. Looking up, he saw the remaining Sunerians charging forth, the culprit for his sudden trip to the earth being an artillery shell. Gamoni led the assault, rushing past Godzillas to leap up and land atop her new target.

Her fists crashed against SpaceGodzilla’s face as she bellowed in wrath, knocking loose teeth. With a snarl of his own, the narcissistic colossus ensnared her with green light from his shoulder crystals, the Gravity Tornado lifting her up with a shocked shout before tossing her away.

Getting to his feet, SpaceGodzilla took in the sight of his gathered enemies. The Godzillas and Sunerians exchanged awkward glances, clearly still filled with spite for one another but able to swallow it in the face of this new threat to both. It was like tossing fuel into the raging fires of his ego, kicking it up with a burst.

The cosmic tyrant lifted both arms up, commanding dozens of blue crystals to rip their way out of the dirt. As he pointed forth, causing bolts of power to ripple out from them and scourge the army before him, which scattered to avoid the assault, he searched for corpses. As Sunerians and their artillery became crimson mist from the crackling madness ripping into them, he found what he sought. He had struck many with his Corona Rays, but what he noticed was that only those who currently missed their heads stayed dead.

Their regeneration was potent, but had its limits. Crushing them would not be enough, they needed to be charred away. He had come across the truth the Sunerians had already learned, that the Godzilla regeneration was down to the very last cell unless they were brutally burned. Then, death would claim them.

A white ball of webbing soared through the air, its origin Gamoni’s mouth, only for SpaceGodzilla’s shoulder crystals to intercept it with quick shocks. Blazing spiders fell out, curling up and dying before they could even inconvenience the invader. A low growl rolled out of him as he traced the projectile to its source. The cruel general stood tall, a black whip in her hands as she approached next to Rozan. SpaceGodzilla’s nose crinkled at the sight of the Sunerian general, both for her appearance and her presence as interference.

The duo of female generals charged forth, Gamoni swinging her weapon SpaceGodzilla’s way as Rozan ran into melee range. The whip cracked against his hide, failing to accomplish anything but enraging him. As the failed emissary to Earth bit down on her foe’s neck, chipping her teeth, a second swing of the black weapon was caught by SpaceGodzilla’s telekinesis.

A Corona Beam coursed down the length of the whip, incinerating it and Gamoni’s hand in the process. She cursed as she fell to her knees, SpaceGodzilla’s focus shifting to Rozan the moment afterwards.

Kunin, whose feet had not even begun to reform yet, yelled for his wife to flee. She kept clawing and biting at their shared foe, to little effect on his crystal-embedded flesh. Rozan kept at it, adamantly wearing away at the tyrant.

They were supposed to have peace. Her people were supposed to fight on this day and retake their lives, to be able to forge onwards into a new era of peace for the universe. As she drove several punches into SpaceGodzilla’s gut, she remembered the love Ririn and Kunin had shown her. While the combat creature telekinetically lifted a small crystal into the air next to her, she thought of the hate slowly leaving her soul at her son’s words.

It was not supposed to turn out this way.

With a shout of sorrowful rage, Rozan unleashed an atomic ray directly into SpaceGodzilla’s face. She held it for a few seconds before the dagger of gemstone was thrust into her throat, some drops of blood spurting out. The destroyer merely opened his eyes, revealing them to be unharmed amidst a face that had been barely singed.

Kunin could only watch as SpaceGodzilla, a look of utmost sadism on his face, tapped his finger to the crystal embedded in Rozan’s neck. She kept punching him in the gut to little effect as bolts of energy surged into it, causing it to begin to grow. More spikes branched off of it, piercing flesh and bone as it inflated, blood spraying like a fountain from Rozan’s throat.

Ririn, having moved far away due to knowing he could do nothing in the face of this unforeseen horror, watched as the other side of his mom’s neck split open with the point of the crystal.

The mutated matriarch’s flurry of blows slowed down as her throat contorted and broke apart, eventually stopping. Her arms dangled uselessly at her sides as the crystal broke the spinal column, the head being lifted up past its natural point on the stake driven into its base.

Her eyes, still moving, locked onto SpaceGodzilla’s. In them she saw an ambition that would never be satisfied, bolstered by a sadistic urge to hurt everything else in existence.

’You will never find what you are truly searching for.’ She communed to him through psychic waves. ’It will all be pointless, your pursuit of more power. Because there is no end of your road but death.’

SpaceGodzilla spread his arms, body suddenly becoming a silhouette of blinding light. Rozan’s mind was afflicted with the image of the parasitic tree within the multiverse. Of a macrocosm filled with war, chaos, and bloodshed. Her face could barely move, but it still showed her distress as the terrors flickering through her consciousness. Then, the internal voice of her soon to be killer.

’Your kind seeks peace for all things. I gleaned that from your mate when he reached out to me, his soul touching mine. A mistake, for in one history, I became a spirit wrenching control free from the bodies of others. I could not do exactly that here, but it granted me a familiarity with such metaphysical things.’

Kunin yelled, finally able to run, which he did so at top speed. But it would do him no good, and he knew that. Numerous others of his kind also ran, but he did not bother hoping they could accomplish something. He reached out his mind to Rozan, desperately trying to be there for her in her final moments.

All he heard was SpaceGodzilla’s mental voice, that hateful scratching against the walls of all good and right.

’Your kind, peace seekers, are the ones with no end but death. The bones of this infinite existence are destruction and conflict. To gain more power, to bring it down upon the weak, that is all I want. And it is all I need.’

From the entire front of SpaceGodzilla’s body erupted a colossal stream of energy, looking like an aurora stretched into a single fabric draped flatly over nothing. Rozan was atomized by the attack which had come from a version of the crystalline menace with an incredibly similar story to his own, the differences minute and practically irrelevant.

She was not the only victim. Twisting his body, the god of war swept the pillar of obliteration over dozens of other Godzillas, who only had seconds to stumble over each other in terror before joining Rozan as drifting particles. The ground cracked open like an egg beneath the ray, smoke billowing upwards as large swathes of stone were vaporized.

Kunin fell to his knees, a hand feebly reaching out towards the love of his life. Hate, hate filled every fiber of his being. He hated SpaceGodzilla, everything he was and everything he represented. But the blue Godzilla could do nothing to the beast of perfect power.

’Everyone, flee to the stars! Regroup with our people scattered across the universe! This day is lost!’ He signaled to the remaining Godzillas, who SpaceGodzilla was picking apart from a distance with precise shots to the skulls.

“Ririn.” Kunin said to himself, almost involuntarily. He searched far and wide for his son, eventually finding him soaring up alongside the rest of his people. He went to fly towards him, feet leaving the ground.

Only for SpaceGodzilla to dash before him, leaving afterimages in his wake. The god of war planted a palm firmly on Kunin’s face, smashing him into the dirt. Flight propelled them forwards, digging a trench with the native defender’s skull.

As Sunerians around her panicked and fled, dying as the crystals emerging from the earth sniped at them with lightning bolts and shards of themselves which homed in, Gamoni could only stare in shock. When she had spoken to Kunin of the Godzillas’ potential as warriors, she had not known that even a fraction of this was possible. That something so clearly related to them could achieve power of this level, render all other things useless before its might.

She should have been awed. But as Gamoni looked at SpaceGodzilla, saw the embodiment of her philosophy in physical form, she only felt bile build up within her. She believed that might made right, but in the face of ultimate might, she could only reject it.

“I will not be made a fool of by a Godzilla!” She screamed as she broke into a charge, trampling over her own people. “I have slain countless warriors, destroyed entire civilizations! The Sunerians are the greatest conquerors in creation!” as the distance was closed, she leaped, fire spilling from her breasts in order to scorch away the aberration. “Not you, you crystalline-“

SpaceGodzilla, preoccupied with stomping down on Kunin’s rib cage to implode the chest cavity, simply thrust his tail to intercept the amphibious assailant. The spikes tipping the limb ripped into her chest, her momentum carrying it into her sternum. The fire ceased as she coughed up blood.

Gamoni looked down, seeing the mutilated remnants of her bosom. Viscera and fat trailed down SpaceGodzilla’s tail, dripping onto the soil beneath. The cosmic tyrant rolled his head to look at her, stuck impaled to his tail like a deranged ornament. A shuriken launched from Gamoni’s belly button, embedding itself into the crystalline destroyer’s hide.

The most grotesque sound SpaceGodzilla had ever heard rang out as he pulled her in swiftly, driving his hand through her stomach with a spray of gore. Gamoni screamed a wretched, gurgling cry that only got worse as the tyrant disemboweled her by ripping his arm free through the side of her stomach.

Howling madly, Gamoni’s neck stretched outwards, thrusting forth like a serpent to try and crush her foe. SpaceGodzilla’s hand shot up, projecting his telekinetic grip to halt the assault. The Gravity Tornado followed suit, trapping Gamoni in a purple and green field which pulled her off of the tyrant’s tail with another shower of innards. It shrank down, increasing the spillage of everything inside the baroness’ body as she was crushed within, her wounds expelling organs as bone shattered within her frame.

Kunin watched as an empty green sheet fell into the resulting pile with a splatter, eyes barely clinging to their stalks meeting his shell-shocked gaze. He looked back up to his destroyer, whose attention fell upon him once more. SpaceGodzilla did not even seem to care about the life he had just claimed, not that Kunin felt much sympathy for her either.

’Why me? Why none of the others fleeing?’ He knew it was a selfish question, but he wanted an answer. To be able to be with his son that had just lost his mother, it was all he wanted, and he had been singled out for reasons he did not understand.

’Precisely because of your son.’ Kunin’s heart nearly exploded in his chest. He’d never told SpaceGodzilla of Ririn. ’You reminded me of the one I am descended from. He and his foolish anger when danger befell his son.’

The crystalline tyrant’s now slick tail wrapped around Kunin’s throat, lifting him up to eye level. ’Leave him alone, please! Do whatever torture you want to me, but please-’

SpaceGodzilla’s tail unraveled from around the begging pacifist’s throat, letting him stand on his feet once more. Suddenly, the tyrant’s jaws parted, spilling a glittering mist from them which enveloped Kunin. When it faded, the one who had tried to fight for his species’ survival was encased in translucent crystal, eyes wide open and his face locked in that terrified expression.

Corpses decorated the landscape like trash, fires slowly consuming them. A still burning valley marked the demise of many more, among them the love of Kunin’s life. And in the distant, fleeing Godzillas in the sky above, Ririn somewhere in that crowd. SpaceGodzilla stepped out of the way to let his prisoner get a full view of all this, observing the retreating masses at the same time.

The crystals defiling the environment all around them shined brightly, including the one Kunin was encased within. He felt his already fading vitality being ripped from him, anguish he could not even express except through psychic screaming which he could tell SpaceGodzilla was drinking up like fine wine. The surging energy signaling a Corona Beam commenced, but glowed even brighter as it took on a crimson hue.

A vision of himself with golden crystals danced through the self-proclaimed god’s mind. A higher state, devastating an island of monsters after having bypassed death itself. Yes, he liked that. That state would be his next goal.

The Red Spiral Corona Beam rippled from his opened maw, crossing miles in an instant to tear a Godzilla in the back of the pack asunder. His smoking remains fell to the earth below as the surging ray continued, carving through them in instants to then strike the nearest of the universal peacemakers, then repeating the cycle.

The sky was lit up by the web it weaved, hanging over a rain of body parts. Hundreds were torn asunder, Kunin’s heart thundering against his compressed rib cage.

Ririn was surrounded by death. Everywhere he looked was the same, a maddening display of demise that his immature mind could barely grasp. He screamed when the shining arrowhead raced towards him next. There was no life to flash before his eyes as his end approached.

An instant before it landed, the Corona Beam split apart, racing past him like a river over a rock. He shut his eyes from the brightness, then was sent flying forward with a terrified yelp as the two halves slammed together in the distance, creating a gargantuan explosion which he was on the outskirts of. When he finally caught himself, he opened his eyes to see only a few dozen members of his kind still remaining, looking struck with horror as they too took in the immensity of the loss of life that had just been inflicted.

SpaceGodzilla turned away, lifting up a hand to move Kunin’s prison through the air next to him as he began to drift towards the castle on the mountain. Kunin’s mind and body were too weak at this point to formulate much thought beyond a despair-filled malaise, something his oppressor picked up on with a smile.

He wanted them to flee. To find more of their kind so it would be easier on him to find the rest, so he would have proper sport. But the child was what garnered the most of his interest.

The crystalline terror set foot back in his palace, placing the encased Kunin down. The base of the prison merged with the floor, becoming another fixture in his domain. Consciousness did not fade yet, too much pain wracked him for it, but he was essentially locked into a dreamless slumber all the while. Time would only tell how long he lasted until either his mind dissolved utterly or his life force gave out.

SpaceGodzilla looked out, towards the stars. Ririn would return to him one day, driven by the desire to avenge his parents and his people. He awaited that day, peering over his shoulder to the trapped father. He could not help but notice similarities between what he did in his first encounter with Godzilla, his Godzilla, but in reverse. A trapped father to drive the son into conflict.

As his back fused into the central wall of the construct, his Flying Form merging with his grand palace, he pondered on that. It seemed on some things, he had not changed at all.

SpaceGodzilla looked forward to that inevitable encounter. One of many. At this moment, all stepping stones to facing that grotesque tree once more. Afterwards, he did not know what he would do.

But he would love every moment of it.

***

The greater universe had not been changed yet, but as Ririn moved through space with the small cluster of other Godzillas, it felt immeasurably darker and bleaker. He remembered the energy within the cave, hope blooming wide. For a brief time, he had believed he would get to live with his family in peace. A welcome change after the turmoil that had ensued from his time in the womb and the chaos once he had left it.

Ririn had heard talk of gods, and their will which apparently guided everything, during the preparations for the battle. How his people revered them and worshipped them. Had the gods abandoned them? Or did they even care?

None of his fellows spoke to him, nor to each other. They likely felt the same, that the world had been irrevocably altered into something worse, and that hope had been a comforting lie.

Time lost all meaning in space. He was not sure how long it was until he decided that the only option left was to return to Earth, craving some sort of stability and warmth. Whether humanity would welcome him back or assail him, he did not know, but it would be better than what he was leaving behind. The other Godzillas began to follow him, something Ririn was only vaguely aware of as he began a tremendous journey.

Perhaps one day, Ririn and the remaining Godzillas would rise from their pain. The future was never set in stone, something that had been learned today in the hardest way possible. But as for now, Ririn had no vision of the future. He had no dreams, and his one hope was a miniscule candlelight of something better than the very nadir. He had not even experienced true prosperity to seek to regain, only a dim image of it from a distance.

Ririn missed his parents, and he wanted to see the human who had gifted him these red boots once more. That was all that truly dwelled in his mind’s forefront. He had neither the knowledge or energy to think of much more.

***

In a remote corner of the universe, space and time split open like torn fabric.

A red dust leaked out from the wound.

Winner: