The Krampus launched himself forward, the Mythological creature attacking with wild abandon as the King of Monsters was briefly driven off his feet. An attack of mythological proportions, yet it was dwarfed by the power of the beast before them, as he was driven under, then out of the waves onto the crumbling islands.
Godzilla advanced on the two, but Victor and his bond were more prepared now, retreating whilst firing off a barrage of coal to annoy and irritate the beast.
As though it was rehearsed, Nico’s bond took the opportunity to strike from behind, as a barrage of ridiculously oversized bullets struck the beast from behind, the black slime it produce burning and steaming against the radioactive beast’s skin as Sam’s fire distracted it.
A roar of pain seemed to punctuate this combined barrage, as Ridley’s next move was to direct Phantoon towards
nothing there, and Lilith, to her credit, seemed to already know she was needed as nothing there bounded towards him in great strides.
“Lilith. We need to close in.”
Nothing there manifested a set of eyeballs on it’s fleshy body to look at Ridley, then another set to observe Godzilla.
“Phantoon can’t really do the swimming thing though, right?” She asked.
“Correct. Nothing there, however…” Ridley would note, trepidation in his voice as Phantoon spoke up,
“
Ridley, what is going on-”
“Drop us on top of the beast.”
PHantoon’s eyes widened as far as they could go as Nothing there responded, entwining Phantoon’s limbs in strings of fleshy material to keep him from slinking away as he bounded into the air, the eldritch monstrosity screaming impotently as Ridley’s control over the bond stopped him from actually freeing himself.
“
Ridley, this is ridiculous-”
“I am sure you can handle it,
General.” the Pirate general replied with a tone of amusement, as The two flew high and above the battlefield, the aerial capacities of nothing there practically unimpeded by the weight they carried, as they were carried in the air.
They had suffered enough humiliation during the mushroom stages. Ridley was fine with just a little more to crush Darkseid’s newest champion.
They reached an apex above the crumbling island, as Nausicaa began it’s return to the sea, and Ridley waited until they were straight above godzilla.
“
Now! Down!” Ridley Cried out with a feral energy that was paralleled by Phantoon’s panicked “
Nooooo!”
“Of course, Master!” Lilith enthusiastically cried, as Nothing there started chanting gibberish about fastball specials and batting averages. The fleshy beast stood straight up, a feat impressive when Nothing there had Nothing There to stand on several hundred meters above sea level, and threw Phantoon by the head, rocketing him down like a meteor with a Full pitch.
Flames billowed across Phantoon’s body as the Violent swing filled the beast with rage, and as the Eldritch beast tumbled towards Godzilla, who had been chasing down the Agile Krampus through the few tumbling buildings left, Phantoon struck with a thrust of Azure flame dancing along vicious claws of energy, and stabbed deeply into the Armored plates on the King of Monster’s back.
Godzilla struck back with a vicious swipe of his tail, and fortune was with phantoon as the blow threw him into the remnants of a Nausicaan hospital rather than straight into the drink, but the great beast’s problems were not over as a flotilla of missiles shot by Sam - with a “Woo!” from Nico that somehow cut above the explosive ordnance Loudly battering the unmade beast - left the creature Pinned, pulling up a reptilian hand to stop the armaments from piercing.
Which left him open as A bundle of birch struck straight into Godzilla’s eye, Krampus and Victor seeing their moment as Naughty slammed Godzilla’s cranium hard enough to shake the island from the impact, leaving Phantoon on unstable ground.
Blood spurted from the impact, and as Phantoon looked, he saw a bleeding hole where one of Godzilla’s eyes used to be.
The foe was powerful, beyond strong. But he was surrounded by three vicious titans. Four, now, as Nothing There descended into the fray with a vicious hammer blow to Godzilla’s forehead that left the beast stumbling backwards. Watching the assault, Ridley wondered if he hadn’t overestimated the foe.
“Finish him off, phantoon!” The tyrant spat, and Phantoon felt no need to argue Ridley’s over-excited lack of manners, as a feast of life energy seemed to be laid out for him on a silver platter. The moment seemed perfect, as Godzilla’s energy was spent.
It was not to be.
Godzilla’s body began to glow, darkness covering his body - or, blackness. The very features and look of the King of Monsters, from his eyes to his tail, grew indistinct for a moment, as his body was wrapped in a strange blank nothingness.
Worse was the feeling after that, however. A weight that gripped Ridley in his core.
The Dragon’s body was heavy as it had been once before, as his link to Phantoon felt distant.
“
Welcome home.”
The paralysis that gripped the Pirate King’s heart was punctuated by the sheer pain and agony he felt as Godzilla’s eyes flashed, and the four were baked in the power of an unmade Nuclear pulse.
Nothing there was ripped briefly apart, body parts exploding and remaking, but sent skyward, while the other beasts on the rapidly sinking island were left paralyzed - either by their bond’s hesitation, or their own as the Three were grappled, and sight left Ridley.
He understood, dimly, something else itched in his mind, as darkness gripped his sight, but Godzilla’s face was all he could see. Godzilla, and the void, and something behind it.
Rage burned impotently, as he felt the familiar weight against his mind. Darkseid’s call. Memories coming back to the fore as he saw his temptations, not with words, but with images. Reminders of his victories as a general. Of the shedding of blood and breaking of armies. Other memories, memories he had not seen but felt before, images of scratching apart his skin, the pain of ripping himself asunder, the knowledge that he had done it with but an errant whim of Darkseid’s power.
Every bit of Ridley’s pride and anger were prepared, as he snarled and fought against this intrusion. This was not the first time he had fought against this intrusion, and he was far more prepared as he felt the unmaking brush against his mind.
Yet, even with that preparation, it was all he could do to buy himself seconds against the mental potency of Darkseid’s sweet lies. He could feel the roof of his mind cracking, the beams straining against the sheer violence of Darkseid’s tainted power - not an energy, or a power, one could contend with, but a numbness that stole the thought and tainted the will to live.
Ridley was fighting against an ocean, and even as his hatred for that ocean mounted, his frustration and will battering uselessly, he was sinking.
“
Ridley!”
Like a knife, Phantoon’s voice cut through the silence, as another presence touched with his own. The Ocean had not receded, but he felt his head, metaphorically, pulled above water, only barely.
“Phantoon?” The Space dragon spoke, as a dim awareness struck him. He could see the situation they were in, dimly, through Phantoon’s eyes, though it was gray, darkened, as though he was looking through the blinds of a curtain.
Tendrils held himself, Sam, and Krampus in place, darkness that held them above the ground, and Godzilla was busying himself with holding off Nothing There’s furious assault in the meantime, though the details were dim from his vantage point.
“
Hang on! Or you will rejoin him.” Phantoon called, as His mind wrapped into Ridley’s, the two’s minds touching as the Space Dragon grabbed on. And yet…
The bond was frayed, and Ridley could feel the chain links between them weaken. Because of a lack of will? No…
It was a lack of something else. A slack on the chain, as the two pushed against the wall of unmade energy.
“
Ridley!” Phantoon called out again. “
Grab hold!”
RIdley’s response was a violent snap. “
Then tell me! And let your machinations be unfolded!” The Dragon responded, as the bond started to fray. “I am no one’s minion! Not Darkseid’s! Not yours! So why, then, are you here! Why bring me to this contest!”
Phantoon’s voice was silent, for a moment, even as the bond grew perilously thin, at risk of snapping. It didn’t matter. Ridley would have his answer, or he would damn them both. He’d done enough compromising in this miserable tournament.
“
...The medium of this place, that which I inhabit, is vulnerable. Broken. Ripe for the taking. Darkseid’s power permeates even my realms. I am mighty, but I am no leader. I do not organize. I consume. I eat.”
Ridley’s anger spoke silently for me. “So I am your pawn.”
“
I don’t seek the power you do, Ridley. I lack the need, the want. But this world is without a king, and Darkseid has taken the throne. I knew you, Longer than you have. Watched as the timeless watch.
I foresaw what this conflict would make of you. Not a servant. A warrior. An Usurper. One who would take his
throne. And one who would have a place for my indulgence. I brought you here so you could create a universe. One greater than even Mother Brain had promised for me.”
“And why mine?”
“
Because it will have room for me to thrive.”
Silence followed, through the link, as the dragon considered, and the cord started to fray. Then, Energy surged through the link, as RIdley grabbed on, and the two Once again could see the physical world around them, The tendril that gripped them now strained by their renewed struggling.
Ridley looked around, and to his surprise, both Krampus and Sam were alive and kicking, even as unmade energy surged around them as well. Their bonds had apparently held, and as the Tyrant King surged, he could feel their minds pushing against Darkseid’s power as well, feel them touching against his mind, vaguely.
Ridley looked to them, there was little reason to verbally communicate, as though shallowly, the depths of each mind was plumbed, and in truth, they all differed quite a bit. He could feel from Krampus’s depths that his was a mission of vengeance and redemption. For the Malefactor, it was freedom, and a bond beyond anything the beast had once known. For Ridley, it was payback and rage. Yet, as their minds touched, as the pain of the unmaking was easily felt between the group, there was a collective agreement, one that need not be communicated to them, but to Darkseid.
“
It stops here!”
As Darkseid had linked them together, united them through his own tainted power, that link was used against him as the group pooled their shared mental energy, the beasts pushing back against the unmaking’s mental hold.
Godzilla let out a screech of rage, but it was not his own, merely his masters. The Darkness in thier minds had been pushed back, but the unmaking’s raw force still restrained their bodies, leaving them only in a deadlock until their temporary psychic advantage finally gave way, or Darkseid tired of unmaking them and simply chose to destroy the helpless Kaiju.
Yet Ridley recalled something similar, back on his first excursionto Nausicaa. The very first time he’d interacted with Lilith’s cursed energy.
A wordless smile filled Ridley, resonating through the temporary bond he’d shared with the others.
“Do as I do.” The old dragon growled.
“You have a plan?” Victor’s mind echoed in the link, and Ridley could feel the intellectual emanating from the mind of Krampus’s signatory.
“I have an attack.”
“Then I’m in. Let’s dice this fucker.” Nico’s own mind growled, as Sam added a noise that…
Well, Ridley would just take it as an agreement.
Krampus was the last, and his acknowlegement was a silent “Very well.”. Ridley could feel the strength of his spirit, knew the beast was one opposed to his anarchic presence…
But in this moment, they had a common enemy far worse than either,, and the Dragon was forced to admit that he was glad to have such a grim powerhouse on his side. But there was no more time for delay.
A scream bit from Ridley, as he grabbed the unmaking directly - not denying it, but holding onto it. Darkseid’s power flowed through him, but as he focused his mind like a scalpel, it did not stay there - As the tendril holding him pulsed and collapsed, violently shaking before breaking down.
The trio of Kaiju fell from their bonds with no small amount of determination and rage filling their eyes, as they stood, not in defiance to the Kaiju alone, but everything he represented.
Ridley’s eyes narrowed, as he fed Darkseid’s own strength through Phantoon, and then blasted it out, returning the darkness back to its source in a destructive blast. Krampus held out a hand, firing an identical blast all his own, and as Sam’s jaws stretched forward to reveal a cannon, it was joined by a third attack.
Godzilla’s unmade form, cloaked in Darkseid’s raw essence, did not step out of the way as the blasts struck dead on, Letting out a roar of defiance, and for a split second, he saw something else in the King of Monsters eyes. A flicker of life amidst the previously dead orbs, as it almost seemed to embrace the assault.
The shockwave blew apart numerous islands, and sent Nothing there flying back, as the Blast drilled against Godzilla’s chest, and the Beast was not just sent off his feet, but flying, as the Blast threw Godzilla like a child’s toy, into the waves below.
The Wyvern commander saw no evidence of Godzilla in the waves, and the overwhelming power he had felt from the beast before was gone, at least, but he doubted this was the end of the creature. The Kaiju trio had no time to confirm, either! The ground buckled as the island they were standing on accelerated it’s descent into the waves below, and Phantoon was saved a long, slow descent into the water by nothing there’s timely arrival, as Ridley beheld Lilith with a bestial expression upon her face.
“I got you, boss. This reptilian
fuck is gonna pay!” the woman swore.
Ridley’s response was an affirmative snarl, as they scanned the waves below.
Used 1 focus for cheesy moment of firing unmaking energy back. If I have to use more for this nonsense let me know.
