Chapter 157 Gatanothor (2)

Vane pulled out his summoner. Bathed in the glow of violent crimson lightning, he transformed into Godzilla Earth.

Towering at 300 meters and weighing over 300,000 tons, Godzilla Earth was physically a whole weight class larger than the Ruler of Darkness.

Gatanothor looked toward the distant sky. The Ultramen were currently brawling with its Zoiger minions.

Ultraman Atum—the Emperor’s Giant form—was literally one-punching the Zoigers into bloody mist. Daigo’s Ultraman Tiga was just as brutal, throwing heavy haymakers that left the monsters howling in pain. The other Giants were putting on a hell of a show too, perfectly coordinating with the Earth Defense Force’s heavy artillery to effortlessly wipe out the monster swarm as fast as they spawned.

Then, Gatanothor looked back at the super-kaiju standing right in front of it—a beast over a hundred meters taller than itself, radiating absolutely suffocating levels of raw energy.

The Ruler of Darkness made a face that practically screamed, I am questioning my entire existence right now.

When I soloed Earth last time, this place was set to Easy Mode! How the hell did I wake up in a Nightmare Difficulty raid?!

It’s bad enough the Giants of Light are this ridiculously buff, but why is there a kaiju this massive on their side?!

Is this even Earth anymore? Did somebody secretly move me to a different planet while I was asleep?!

“Here I come, little conch.”

Godzilla Earth waded through the ocean. Every single step churned the water, sending massive tsunamis rolling out in all directions. The sheer, suffocating aura of dominance radiating from the beast actually made Gatanothor’s non-existent hair stand on end.

We are both monsters. Perhaps we can coexist peacefully and rule this Earth together, Gatanothor’s telepathic voice echoed in Godzilla Earth’s mind.

Sorry to disappoint. I’m human, Vane replied.

Humans! Let us coexist peacefully!

Violence and slaughter are uncivilized! We must advocate for peace! Let us maintain harmony together!

The Ruler of Darkness’s frantic telepathic broadcast echoed into the minds of every single human on the planet—even reaching Nuke, Dina, and the rest of the ancient humans currently cracking rocks in the lunar penal colony.

Wait, what?!

That is definitely NOT what you said when you were annihilating our civilization!

You called us ants! You called us bugs and wiped our cities off the map! And now you’re preaching about how violence is bad?! Even for an apocalyptic monster, the double standards are insane!

“Only monsters willing to coexist with humanity and swear total loyalty to the Earth Federation have the right to even utter the word ‘peace’.”

Vane picked up the pace, riding a massive tidal wave directly toward the Ruler of Darkness. His dorsal plates began to rapidly cycle with blinding light, drawing in catastrophic amounts of energy to prep his ultimate attack, the Red Spiral Atomic Beam.

I can coexist with humanity! I can swear loyalty to the Earth Federation! Everything is negotiable!

If that doesn’t work, I’ll just leave Earth! The planet is yours!

Seeing Godzilla Earth charging like a freight train, Gatanothor’s telepathic voice spiked into a frantic panic.

Don’t talk to it about dignity or backbone. Monsters didn’t play by those rules. Even back when it wiped out the ancient civilization, Gatanothor had specifically used the Gijera flowers to force the Giants of Light off the planet just to avoid fighting a hard battle. Now there was a three-hundred-meter-tall super-beast charging straight at it. Anyone would be losing their absolute mind.

Worst case, I just find a new planet to rule. I’m not going to die over some random piece of real estate!

Godzilla Earth didn’t even tap the brakes. Relying entirely on sheer mass, he slammed straight into Gatanothor, completely bowling the monster over and sending it crashing backward into the ocean.

Gatanothor wildly thrashed its tentacles, whipping them against Godzilla’s armored hide. But it felt like a light scratching; it didn’t even leave a mark. It lunged with its massive pincers, only for Godzilla to casually swat them away with his tail. A blinding arc of superheated plasma followed the swing, cleanly amputating the massive claw. The severed limb crashed into the ocean, kicking up a massive geyser of water.

Desperate, Gatanothor spewed a thick cloud of its specialized ionized black fog from its maw.

In response, Godzilla Earth casually fired off a charged atomic beam, completely scattering the fog and blowing an obscenely large crater straight through Gatanothor’s armored shell.

Howling in agony, Gatanothor flailed its remaining tentacles wildly, churning the surrounding ocean into chaotic, rolling tsunamis.

“Is that seriously all you’ve got?” Vane sighed in genuine disappointment. “You need to apologize to me right now. Your pathetic weakness completely ruined my fun.”

That insult practically made Gatanothor levitate out of pure rage.

What do you mean I’m ‘too weak’?! I ruined your fun?! Who the hell bullies a monster like this?!

As Godzilla Earth closed the distance, the terrified and enraged Gatanothor channeled every last drop of its energy into a concentrated, dark purple beam, trying to petrify the super-beast.

[Bullet Time]

Vane activated the skill he’d looted from a previous quest. The flow of time in the surrounding area instantly ground to a crawl.

From Gatanothor’s perspective, the ridiculously massive Godzilla Earth suddenly blurred with ghost-like speed, effortlessly sidestepping the petrification beam.

Gatanothor’s tiny brain was completely flooded with question marks.

Are you kidding me?! Is anyone moderating this server?! He’s hacking! He’s literally using aimbot and speed hacks!

“Alright. My turn.”

Godzilla Earth’s dorsal plates erupted in a blinding, bloody light. Apocalyptic levels of energy surged through his massive frame. The sheer ambient heat caused the surrounding ocean to violently boil, sending massive columns of steam into the sky.

“Red Spiral Atomic Beam.”

A beam of absolute, blood-red destruction—packed with temperatures that mocked the surface of the sun—cascaded down onto the Ruler of Darkness.

Gatanothor desperately retracted entirely into its spiraled shell, praying its natural armor could tank Godzilla’s ultimate move.

It couldn’t.

The sheer thermal kinetic output of the Red Spiral Atomic Beam was beyond comprehension. The shell—which could casually shrug off an Ultraman’s finishing beam—melted like warm butter. The beam punched clean through, leaving a horrific, cauterized hole completely through Gatanothor’s center mass.

Letting out one final, agonizing wail, the Ruler of Darkness collapsed back into the boiling sea, its massive corpse kicking up one last tsunami.

Just to be absolutely sure, Godzilla Earth marched over, pried Gatanothor’s jaws open, and fired a point-blank charged atomic beam straight into its skull. The head completely detonated, definitively ending the Ruler of Darkness’s life.

With their master dead, the biological weapon Zoigers immediately broke rank in absolute terror. Trying to flee, they were mercilessly hunted down and completely wiped out by the Earth Defense Force and the Giants.

The suffocating black fog blanketing the globe rapidly dissipated, allowing golden sunlight to bathe the Earth once again.

Gatanothor was dead. The ultimate threat to Dimension B-17’s Earth had been neutralized.

Of course, it wasn’t a total happily-ever-after. There were still terrifying entities lurking in the void, like the Dark Planet Gransphere. But for now, they were too far away to matter.

—

After wrapping up the post-battle cleanup and bureaucracy, Vane rallied the Emperor, Daigo, Keigo Masaki, and the rest of the strike team, opening the portal to Dimension C-10.

The second they stepped out of the dimensional tunnel and onto C-10’s Earth, they walked right into a massive kaiju tearing through a city center.

Ultraman Teo was currently fighting it, and his performance was an absolute trainwreck. He was fumbling his skills, his hand-to-hand combat was getting completely outclassed by the monster, and he was only surviving by face-tanking hits with raw base stats.

But what really caught Vane off guard was that there wasn’t just one Ultraman in this timeline. There were two.

“What the hell is Zero doing here?”

—

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