Chapter One
The television screen showed a Japanese American reporter on the deck of a large navy vessel, her hair buffeted by the winds. Behind her were the sea and the coast. The people watching waited intently for what she had to say. "'We can work together, or we can die.' Those were the words stated by Secretary General Miguel Santos of the UN several months ago
"Hello. I am Connie Matsu of UWTN's Godzilla Watch Network. As you can see, I am here, live, on the ship Freedom, a few miles off the Egyptian coast near the city of Alexandria. Ever since the new and terrible kaiju called King Ghidorah began the Monster Wars, he has wrought havoc and ruin with every footfall.
"It began when he descended on the continent of Africa after he recharged his energies following his battle with Godzilla. After several false starts, King Ghidorah made a beachhead in Zaire and slaughtered his way south across nations of Angola before twisting north to Cameroon, Niger, Mali, and Morocco. In several interviews for United World News, Abdhul-rahman Ahmed, the Egyptian commander of G-Force Africa, has stated that the chaos wrought by King Ghidorah has dwarfed even the worst sufferings wrought by the snake kaiju Apophis. He has also stated that he doesn't know when, if ever, the ravaged African nations will recover from King Ghidorah's savagery due to their economic limitations.
"It should be mentioned, that due to some unknown ability exhibited by King Ghidorah, any area which he has destroyed is somehow unable to support life. It is hoped that this will prove to merely be temporary, but blighted areas in Africa and Europe are still of limits and quarantined evacuees, regardless of whatever treatments administered, are still falling ill and dying in terrible pain. There is also the possibility of brain damage; all those who have remained in the same area as King Ghidorah for any extended period of time have all seemingly gone insane. Radiation poisoning is suspected, but UNGCC scientists have not ruled out the possibility of a virus.
"After Africa, King Ghidorah turned his attentions northwards toward Europe as he crossed the Straits of Gibraltar from Morocco to Spain. He ravaged the capital, Madrid, and made the city of Barcelona so much rubble before blasting France in an assault unseen since the attack of 1889. The French are still recovering, psychologically as well as physically, from seeing their city of lights, along with all its treasures; the Louvre, Eiffel Tower II, the Arc of Triumph; all made dust."
The picture then changed to show London, in flames, under attack at night. King Ghidorah was seen ignoring the combined tank and helicopter assault against him while Matsu was heard in a voice over as the space demon continued his onslaught.
"Not even the worst that the Bronotosaurus wrought at the turn of the century or that Gorgo brought to bear against this mighty city in 1961 could compare. As this stock footage shows, King Ghidorah apparently attacked with great relish and is even seen tearing up the world famous Big Ben Clock Tower from its base and throwing it atop the rest of the buildings of Parliament. Bizarrely enough he took his time to destroy such landmarks as Buckingham Palace and London Bridge as if to humiliate the people of the UK, something that Gorgo did not do. London has survived war, famine, pestilence, but it may be unable to overcome death itself." The picture turned back to the image of Connie Matsu. "As of this report, England's capital has been moved north to Cambridge.
"After that King Ghidorah raced eastwards across Europe past Germany, where Frankenstein made a suicidal last stand defending G-Force Europe's HQ, though the super plane Gryphon did manage to escape. As for Frankenstein, even with his extraordinary healing power, it is doubtful that he will survive. Poland, the Ukraine, Romania, and Turkey soon followed and many of their cities have similarly been made smoldering ruins by King Ghidorah.
"With the neutralization of G-Force Europe and Frankenstein, kaiju attack has skyrocketed, primarily with Jormungand, also called Reptilicus, in various Scandinavian nations such as Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. With the majority of G-Force's might diverted for the struggle against King Ghidorah, those nations have been forced to stand on their own. Russia's own kaiju, Uchihikrah, has been volunteered to help resecure Europe even though his strength is far outmatched by the tasks required him. He is currently in Britain, helping her majesty's armed forces contain an outbreak of Black Dogs and an irate Nessie.
"And now here we are in the Mediterranean off of Egypt's northern coast where it is suspected that King Ghidorah will strike next. The current Egyptian government, ruled by the ruthless, military dictator, Anwar Mubarak, has refused to allow G-Force troops to be stationed in Egypt in order to defend against King Ghidorah's arrival. He states that 'it is the will of Apophis,' a snake kaiju rumored to be descended from Manda, and Mubarak's main weapon, to refuse admittance to intruders. He also does not acknowledge the evidence for King Ghidorah's coming strike.
"This is not to say, however, that King Ghidorah was, or is, alone. For reasons yet unknown to us, Godzilla has followed him everywhere he has gone. It could perhaps be due to the battle fought between them shortly after King Ghidorah made his presence known to the world. Godzilla feels that King Ghidorah is a threat to himself and thus wishes to destroy him. Some people, like Miki Segeusa of UNGCC fame, have tried to portray Godzilla in a positive light, saying that we share a common enemy. This is not the case."
Matsu paused before continuing. When she did she looked at the camera with a grim expression. "My career as a journalist began when I covered the battle between Kong and Godzilla have, ever since, been assigned almost exclusively to Godzilla Watch Network. I have seen the way he fights and have thus seen the terrible destruction that he is capable of. Little more than four months ago, I reported for GWN the Japan Self Defense Force and UNGCC's valiant struggle to save Tokyo from Godzilla's wrath. If Godzilla fights at all, it's for his own reasons and will destroy absolutely everything that gets in his way to get exactly what he wants.
"In following King Ghidorah through Africa and Europe, Godzilla has caused just as much destruction and havoc. What little that King Ghidorah did not destroy, Godzilla has. It is worried that the combined threat of Godzilla and King Ghidorah will be too much for the Defense Force of Earth to handle, but it is still hoped that those brave men and women will somehow still prevail."
She gave one last look over her shoulder to the Egyptian coast of Alexandria. "We have so far received no more reports of King Ghidorah's whereabouts, so, for now, this is Connie Matsu for United World News. Back to you at the studio."
In his chambers in the main governmental palace of Cairo, Egypt, Anwar Mubarak angrily watched Matsu's broadcast. That western wench made it seem that the glorious nation of Lord Apophis was unable to take care of itself! The petty affairs of other nations didn't concern him. If this "King Ghidorah" did arrive, though Mubarak doubted it, Lord Apophis would grind the fool into the ground. If the master's worthless father could make a stand against Ghidorah, then would not Lord Apophis do that much better?
He turned off the television. Mubarak rested on his overstuffed chair and looked to the alabaster walls of his office where many awards hung. There were pictures, diplomas, and commendations. The dictator smiled and poured himself a glass of wine in a jeweled goblet. A good glass of wine could always make him relax. He got up and walked on the rich rug shot through with silver threads. As he reached the window, he checked his gold watch before looking outside.
Even as a child, Anwar Mubarak had never been popular. Growing up he had said that he admired Hitler and Napoleon for making their countries subordinate to one will. His classmates had shunned him for their families had told them of how the Nazis and the French had invaded Egypt in times past. As an adult, Mubarak with his mania for order, his loathing for even the slightest deviation, and his love for nobody but himself made himself an outcast among the normally outgoing, cheerful Egyptian people. One of the only places that he found purpose had been the army where obedience and subordination were the norm, regardless of his clashes with Abdhul-rahman Ahmed. However, Mubarak lost faith in the Egyptian army when it lost to Israel back in the war. Cast adrift, he just walked into the desert where he might have died if he hadn't found the tomb of Apophis.
Either by fate or by cosmic chance he had found half buried in the sands, an ancient ruin that had been old when the pyramids were young. In it slept a most dreadful beast, but to Mubarak it had been a most glorious sign. By then the Age of Monsters had begun so he had had some preparation. Even so, the story inscribed on the walls was one most difficult to believe. The hieroglyphs stated that a serpent called Manda had ruled the ancient land of Mu. This, Mubarak had already known; Mu had made his attack on the surface world by then. The hieroglyphs also stated that Manda had fathered children, one of them was Apophis but that his slaves had rebelled and had placed him in the tomb to sleep until the last day.
Mubarak saw this and chose to awaken the beast. He was not disappointed. Apophis saw in the human an eager disciple who could tell him of the strange new world that had come to pass while he had slept. Mubarak came to worship Apophis and led an army of "converts" to Cairo where a coup placed him in power and had remained ever since. The previous government was now a government in exile in Saradia.
Egypt's dictator looked out the window to the city below. Cairo sprawled out in all directions and he ruled it all, in name at least. He had told Apophis that no nation in modern times with a kaiju for a ruler would be taken seriously and had thus arranged for a compromise. As far as the rest of the world knew, he was the absolute militaristic dictator of Egypt that madly worshipped the "dumb animal" called Apophis. In truth, Mubarak ruled in nothing but name; Apophis ruled all, Apophis was the beginning, Apophis was the end. Mubarak was merely the serpent lord's voice. But he was not angry; after all, wasn't a lifetime of service to Apophis the greatest happiness anyone could hope to attain? And wasn't the leadership of Lord Apophis' armies a tremendous honor? That it was, thought the dictator with a sip of wine. Praise be to Apophis.
Mubarak looked out the window and saw the glorious order unfold in all its splendor. The buildings were all built according to government regulations. That meant that they were all identical grey boxes. All the people wore their unisex government issued uniforms, all grey, of course. Everyone moved in total voiceless silence and in perfect synchronization. All the merchants in all the stalls all handed their buyers their loaves of bread all at the same time. All the customers handed their money to the vendors all at the same time. All the children playing games would all hop up and down all at the same time. All the girl's jump ropes would all hit the ground at the same time; all the boy's balls would all bounce at the same time.
All of it was in rhythm; all was identical. Mubarak smiled as he saw the people with their blank stares, the slack jaws dribbling, and only regretted that he couldn't make them all blink in unison. Even the mind controlling power of the mighty Lord Apophis had their limits. Even so, the people below were surely the happiest in the world. Not even Joseph Stalin and his Soviet Union had wrought such perfect conformity!
Mubarak's mania for order had made him the perfect disciple for Lord Apophis. He too shared the dream of a world as pure as an ant colony. However there were those who would ignorantly resist. Why, just a month ago a madman dared to squander Apophis' generosity by breaking the law! That man was burned alive along with the filth he had tried to corrupt the people with. The contraband he had smuggled had been books. Apophis forbade his slaves to read. It was for their own good, after all.
Fortunately that was only in the outlying cities that were not blessed by having their minds in beautiful union with Apophis. There the Ministry of Propaganda constantly reminded the people of Apophis' divinity and of all they owed him. But in the capital city of Cairo...! That was far from the case. Mubarak looked up towards the Great Pyramid of Apophis just outside Cairo where the master made his residence.
That was when he heard his cell phone. Mubarak slightly growled; regardless of its uses, technology was still a blight. "This is Mubarak. What is it? …*A monster's attacking the city?"*
In the city of Alexandria, the terrified soldier, covered in grime and sweat and blood, cowered in the rubble as explosions roared around him. He wept in absolute fear as the hideous cries of the misbegotten offal spawn that was the Prince of Skyllans raked his soul. "Sir, yes sir! It's not just any monster! The beast called by outsiders King Ghidorah has come! You must alert the sovereign palace at once and tell our lord and master, great Apophis, that the Armageddon Creature has come to Egypt!"
At that moment near Stuttgart, Germany, another argument was going on. It was the factory floor of a busy aircraft construction plant. It was to this place that the *Gryphon* had been taken after the destruction of G-Force Europe and it was here that tempers were flaring.
"What do you mean that it won't be ready for launching for another month!" yelled Kiriko Tsujimori over the din of construction.
"I am sorry herr pilot," apologized Ludendorf. "But it can't be made sooner. The Gryphon was smuggled out in one piece away from King Ghidorah but it was still damaged. A month will be needed just to get back where we were before, let alone complete it."
"'Let alone complete it...'" She looked at the man with an angry tone to her voice. "Ludendorf, have you seen the pictures of what that thing has done! My God, I'm not sure if London or Paris will ever be habitable again! Whatever mumbo jumbo King Ghidorah put on them has left those places as living thing friendly as Hiroshima one day later! And you say another month! Dang it... Have you seen how fast they're building MOGUERA back in Japan? They know what's at stake. We need Gryphon more than ever with Super-X III destroyed. If you don't get that plane ready, then my team and I can't pilot it and THAT means that King Ghidorah can do whatever the heck he wants! Don't those lives mean anything to you! Don't you care?"
At that Otto Ludendorf chafed. Holding himself in check as he spoke to the woman, he said "Yes, herr pilot. I do care, and that's why I don't want my construction crews rushed. The Gryphon will be less than useless if it is built improperly and will only be a danger to civilians. The more dire the situation, the less we can afford to act hastily."
With that remark, Tsujimori knew that she had overstepped her bounds. With a regretful tone in her voice she said "... Oh... I didn't know. I apologize Mr. Ludendorf; I should have thought of that before I burst out and yelled like that. I am sorry."
Ludendorf nodded. "It's alright herr pilot. I know you were just worried about those people. Have the Russians finished the development of the Gryphon's primary weapon?"
"Yes, they're just finishing testing."
Ludendorf grinned. "Then we'll have the Gryphon ready for its installation by then."
Tsujimori smiled back. "I suppose we will."
All of a sudden Ludendorf's face grew grim. "And what about Frankenstein? Do you know if Dr. James Bowen has said anything about him?"
"He's still not sure if Frankenstein will survive. Even if he does, one limb and part of another might have to be amputated unless they can find a way to speed up his regeneration."
On hearing of amputation, Otto conjured up the mental picture of a Cyber Frankenstein and of something else. Why was it that Astronaut Glen of the NASA space team looked just like a younger version of Dr Bowen? They must have been related or something.
Things, however, were less flippant on the deck of the Freedom. There, Connie Matsu reported with a sense of urgency. "It looks like a scene from a Denham studios disaster movie, but it's all too real! It's happening people! Alexandria is now under attack by King Ghidorah! If you look—" The cameraman turned the focus to the city on the shore in the background where smoke was rising up and where explosions rocked the ground again and again. "—you can hear the chaos. There is King Ghidorah—" Viewers at home looked at a blurry image of the golden sky dragon as he rained down gravity beams on the city below. "—bringing devastation. The space demon is sweeping back and forth destroying everything within reach of his gravity beams. We are unsure how long it will take for Egyptian armies of the dictator Mubarak to arrive. There is also the fact that G-Force can't intervene."
Turning away from the carnage over the sea, Connie Matsu looked to the man at her side. "Commander Ahmed, earlier you said that the forces that you've stationed just outside Egyptian borders and the Forces that you have assembled against King Ghidorah, part of which includes the very ship we are on, cannot intervene. Can you tell the public why?"
The viewing public saw Commander Abdhul-rhaman Ahmed of G-Force Africa looking towards the shoreline as he watched the butchery, his face as stone. As he looked at the grotesque fireballs blossom he spoke in an unfeeling, emotionless monotone. "The forces stationed outside Egypt are meant only to contain Mubarak's forces; to keep them from invading surrounding countries as they did in times past. There is also the fact that I have direct orders not to attack King Ghidorah while he is in Egyptian borders. If its leaders refuse help, they will not have it."
Taking back the mike, Matsu said, with a raised eyebrow, "There are some who have said that you would want Egypt to be destroyed. Certain opponents have stated that, with your struggle against Mubarak and Apophis, you have no desire to intervene. Commander Ahmed, what is your response to such allegations?"
With a grim and unforgiving look on his face, he turned towards Matsu and spoke, or growled, in a harsh, barely restrained voice for everyone to hear. "Miss Matsu, I would like to remind you, and everyone watching that I am, above, all things, a soldier. And a soldier MUST obey whatever order given him... even if that order is 'enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable.' The emperor of the land of your fathers said that when he was forced to give up. I too was born in Egypt and whatever ill will I might have is for the monsters that have robbed my people of their land... And for willing to let that land be destroyed by their selfish pride. I would gladly go in lay down my life it I were able to."
" 'Death, is lighter than a feather; duty, is weightier than a mountain.' " Matsu was about to speak once again when she heard a hideous shriek. The cameraman turned upwards to what it was and all saw a flock of Ookundrus flying from the sea towards the city. One hundred strong, the vile vultures all flew at utmost speed to battle King Ghidorah, beating their fifty-meter wings with the fury of their master, Apophis. They blotted out the sun and the slipstream of their wings caused the humans to fall flat to the deck. More and more, the carrion eaters came shrieking their ugly calls.
Getting up, Matsu looked back into the flock as it flew to the city before looking back into the camera. Speaking over the cries of the vultures and in the darkness of their shadows she said, "Something new has just developed! A flock of Ookondrus has just flown in and are all heading towards the city! As some of you may know, Mubarak has genetically engineered monsters for use as bio-weapons. Some of them are the Ookondru flock, all enhanced clones made from the original created by the Chinese terrorist group Red Bamboo and destroyed by King Kong on their base of Letchi Island in 1966. It seems that Anwar Mubarak has sent them to do battle with King Ghidorah!"
The main sovereign palace was Apophis' domain. Just outside Cairo, it was a single huge pyramid built with the utmost precision and was truly a thing of beauty. It was so beautiful that it was hard to imagine that the serpent lord had built it with the tears of all those who'd perished in its construction. Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure's tombs, the Pyramids had been destroyed, along with the Sphinx and every structure on the plateau, to make the Pyramid of Apophis. Slave labor had been cruelly used to build in a grueling, torturous, killing five years what should have taken forty. Apophis would have no delays and had used the blood of his slaves for mortar.
Covered in limestone, the first Egyptian pyramid to be built in over 3,000 years shone a brilliant white in the sun. The crudely carved colossal Sphinx like Stone Guardians, whose breath was ice, endlessly marched back and forth between obelisks that gave glory to Apophis with every inscription. Sand was crunched beneath their tread and their harshly angular calcified skin scraped with every movement. The Stone Guardians were as unfeeling as the living stone from which they were made and thus paid no care, good or ill, as they saw a human on horseback race pass them.
Clad in the robes he wore whenever meeting his master, Mubarak quickly dismounted from his stallion and ran towards the huge main entrance. He approached the ornately carved towering columns. Spear toting guards clad in the old way saw him coming and raised their spears "Halt! Who goes there?"
"Its me you idiots!" growled Mubarak. "I come with urgent business! I must speak with Lord Apophis! Immediately!"
The guards apologized. "Sorry sir, we didn't recognize you!"
"Just get out of my way," growled the dictator as he ran into the cool cavernous stone darkness of the pyramid's interior.
One guard looked as Mubrak disappeared into the shadows. He looked to his partner. "He is truly a great man. To be chosen as the messenger of Lord Apophis..."
"I know friend," aid the other guard. "Apophis the liberator has made Egypt great again by making the people earn what they have."
"Indeed, free will is a privilege, not a right."
By then Mubarak had entered the inner chambers of the serpent lord. It was a titanic cave like room so enormous that clouds formed were said to form the top of the dome causing rain. The idea of comparing the chamber to a cave was not a wrong one; Apophis' sanctum was an appropriately dark and gloomy place that was chill and wet. It was a place whose dank atmosphere was filled with a sense of corruption. The gloom was only slightly dispelled by the faint flicker of torches set inside the skulls of those who had stood against the serpent lord. Mubarak ran across a stone pathway—huge in its own right but that seemingly stretched to infinity in the vastness of the chamber—which was lit only by the torches at its side. As he did so, he heard the echoes of water dripping into puddles that made the stone slick and called out the name of his master. "Lord Apophis! Lord Apophis! Master, hear my call; the land is in danger!"
The echo had not even died down when Mubarak stood still, awaiting a response. He heard one. He heard a hiss that shook the room and looked to the side of the pathway, bridge really because of how it spanned the darkness, to the abyss below. He looked over and saw two glowing specks. He then heard the hiss again and with it a rush of wind as the serpent lord rose up.
Shooting up past the stone span upwards was the wedge shaped head of the dragon king. As dull a tan and yellow as the sands of Egypt, he rose and rose in a never-ending sinuous pythonic column of flesh. The pillar slowed and stopped. A massive clawed hand the size on an elephant crashed upon the stone pathway. Five talons, each as cruel as a lion's and as big as ten lions, scraped the stone and were mere feet from Anwar Mubarak.
Then the mortal looked up and saw the huge face of the titanic dragon king. It was the face of Manda with the whiskers and the branching tree limb like horns to prove it. The long fur fell from the back of his head in a yellow mane, a tan colored waterfall. The serpent looked downwards towards the mortal who had disturbed his slumber and peeled his lips back to reveal the fangs within. With whiskers raised up, he narrowed his glowing eyes and focused his thoughts upon the overseer of his slaves. What was it? For what had he been summoned?
Mubarak fell to his knees and lowered his head. "Lord Apophis, great Egypt is under attack! King Ghidorah has arrived!"
Mubarak felt the whole chamber shake with the fury of Apophis's roar. Of course he already knew that! Did the mortal think him a fool?
"No my king," said Mubarak subserviently. "I merely wished to serve you and to confirm your knowledge. Your wisdom is right, o master. The harbinger of extinction, the Armageddon Creature is raging across the land. Your orders?"
Apophis communicated telepathically his command to send the Ookondrus, have them deal with King Ghidorah.
"Already done master. I have sent them in the defense of the city. However, according to the last report from my fellow servants, they fare poorly against the Star of Doom."
Apophis wondered how much so. Hauling as much of his bulk as he could upwards, he grasped the edge of the stone bridge with his claws and slithered all 125 meters of himself upon it. With the massive bridge easily supporting his weight, Apophis slowly went by his little legs to where the bridge led; Mubarak had to run at all speed just to keep up. Soon enough it was found. Centered in the heart of the chamber was a round stone slab whose bare ledge dropped into the abyss. The cylinder of stone stood with four obelisks evenly spaced from each other. At the edge of the surface were two larger obelisks upon which were all the marks of the word of Mu. It was to this that Apophis went.
This island of stone set high in a sea of darkness was so huge that it easily held the coils of the serpent lord. Lightning began to dance between the two columns; at first just stray sparks but then branching columns. They illuminated the darkness until they made a disc like two-dimensional image between them. Though the occasional spark shot out the lightning was gone and the image was there to show Apophis the battle.
His' python jaw went slack as he beheld the madness unfold in the city of Alexandria. The Ookondrus were meant as his warriors of the sky; they were the sacred vulture emblems of the house of Egypt.
Yet despite that, King Ghidorah was tearing through them as if they were nothing. Vulture after vulture exploded in a mass of bloody feathers when struck by the demon's Gravity Beams. Those that weren't killed as such were dismembered by the Bane of Life in the manner of tooth and claw. Already, bloody, mutilated, corpses were beginning to pile up. The Ookondrus were fighting desperately dodging and slashing; King Ghidorah was merely amused by their frantic tactics and gleefully stood still letting them throw themselves to their deaths.
Apophis had barely been a hatchling when the space demon first came long ago. One of the creatures to have stood against the space demon then was Kong who in modern times had had trouble enough with one ookondru. Yet for King Ghidorah to stand against his one hundred super Ookondrus? Could what Apophis' father had said about the three headed monster's power be true? No. No it couldn't be! No one could defeat the might of Apophis! That was true, wasn't it?
King Ghidorah had broken the last Ookondru's wings with the jaws of his two outer heads and could sense the plea for mercy coming from the beaten creature. Mercy? From the King of Terror? Never!, thought the savage as he decapitated the vulture with the bite from his middle head. He cast the twitching, headless, mutilated, corpse upon the heap with the ninety-nine others to rot like so much meat under the burning sun. The heads were strewn about at random. Already swarms and swarms of flies were buzzing around the bloated carrion to feast on the decay. They blotted out the sun like storm clouds and covered the ground like fog making it was the Fourth of the Ten Plagues, the Plague of Flies, upon Egypt all over again.
King Ghidorah cleaned himself of the bloody strips that stained him. He looked over the city, or what was left of it. Looking upon the broken skyline of the shattered Alexandria, he saw that fires burned everywhere and that the ugly smoke hung like a toxic miasma upon the ground. It was over. It was the standard mode of destruction for the Prince of Skyllans. He had blasted the outer rim of the city into a high ring of rubble leaving the innocent unable to escape. Then he had murdered at will. The killing of the Ookondrus had merely added that much more pleasure to the butchery.
However, the carnage was not done, far from it. There was still the matter of those inside the cities. Even though the whole city was made so much smoking rubble, even though King Ghidorah had raped the land more cruelly than an earthquake, there was still the matter of the lives to be taken and the blood to be spilled. Even now he saw them crawling out of the ruined buildings like maggots bursting from flesh.
He would not spare them. He had not let his own makers live; he'd left the wretched world of his birth a lifeless ball of rock with his World Extinction Attack. He had drawn into himself the powers of death and had poisoned the very manna of that planet until every last living thing was rendered a shriveled corpse. Not that the land hadn't suffered before then, his unholy presence alone had been enough to poison the mana of the land and wreak Cataclysms of a Biblical scale upon a world. Earthquakes, floods, droughts, the world itself seemed in the throes of madness and her children were suffering for it. They were suffering, just as before… The first time King Ghidorah came that, more than anything, led to the natural disasters that ruined the lands of the Ancients.
Why did he do all these things? How could he take such pleasure in the suffering of so many others? He'd done it to savor of their torment and revel in their agony. He did these things because there was absolutely no goodness in him; there was nothing but cruelty and hatred and wickedness in the pure evil that was King Ghidorah. You cannot ask Satan the Devil why he is evil; in both he and the three-headed monster sin was just there. It was what made them what they were. Yes, King Ghidorah would make suffer this wretched planet which twice over had thrust ignominious defeat upon him. Yes… he might have his vengeance. Yes he would... but only after he had burned the world to a cinder and made it a living nightmare.
It was then that King Ghidorah thought he felt something. He shrugged it aside as mere imagination until he felt it again. He looked back and forth until he squinted and saw on the ground the human soldiers of Apophis arrayed against him. All with blank stares and empty minds, they marched to their deaths firing shells from rocket launchers and primitive tanks as they did so. Like soulless zombies they swarmed through the streets towards him. What they chanted King Ghidorah, of course, couldn't understand. But he knew what it was. All of them chanted their mission over and over in a moaning voice. "Die for Apophis... Die for Apophis..."
King Ghidorah could sense no intelligence coming from them, he could sense no will or feeling. Intolerable! The Space Demon killed to know the agony of his victims and to bring them torment. If anything, he would blunt his skill on their unfeeling flesh. All three of his heads snarled. He would torture Apophis to no end for robbing him of his glory! And yet... if the serpent coward's puppets were so eager to die for their master, he would make them.
Closing his eyes, King Ghidorah focused his will upon his enemies. He let the control claim their minds. It was not unlike when he had claimed the thoughts of Captain Chavez; it was in some ways easier because, despite the numbers involved, these men had willingly surrendered their minds and thus offered no resistance because there was nothing to resist with. Deep in his pyramid sanctuary, Apophis felt this and exerted his mental powers to the utmost. King Ghidorah barely noticed it. As for Apophis, the mild backlash from the space demon's slight annoyance sent him into a coma.
As for the soldiers, they were now fully in King Ghidorah's thrall. Blankly faced as ever, they turned to each other and began firing on each other with their Soviet made kalashnikov automatic weapons. Tank drivers ran over soldiers that lined themselves up to be made bloody pulp. Officers calmly pulled out their pistols and shot themselves in the head. Yet this was not the end; as always, it was far from it.
King Ghidorah seemingly cackled as they brother killed brother and he would do that much more to the rest. He looked in three directions at the civilians crawling out of the ruins and claimed them as his next victims. The Star of Doom had never attempted to use The Fear on such a magnitude and upon so many as he would now.
Well, first time for everything. The air shimmered around him as he began to glow. His massive frame began to shake as he stretched out his wings to their fullest and let the Crimson Lightning shoot out from each spur. More and more it shot out, tearing apart the ground and infecting the land. What few survivors their were screamed in agony as they felt the torment rise through their very souls. King Ghidorah also screamed as he tortured himself with such actions. Yet more and more Fear did he spread with his wings' Crimson Lightning until he fell with a mighty thud and could do no more.
It took long enough but King Ghidorah wearily arose from the rubble causing dust clouds as he did. Exhausted though he was, he still grinned his demonic grin for he saw the humans in sweet, sweet agony. Well over three-quarters of the survivors had been reduced to gibbering idiots whose minds had rotted away into utter insanity. Driven mad by the Fear, they were killing everyone within reach in a maniacal ferocity and then themselves. They were killing with guns and knives scavenged from the dead soldiers, killing with tooth and nail.
The people were also tormented by their worst nightmares. Screams of agony and torture rang through the streets of Alexandria. Some saw themselves covered in scorpions, some felt themselves burned alive, others saw their flesh melting away, and still others believed themselves to be crumbling to dust. Their brains were all so convinced it was real that their bodies shut down and they indeed died. Some even thought that they were in Hell, that they had died and gone to Hell. Such thoughts were not far off considering the devilry that King Ghidorah wrought next.
With King Ghidorah, there is never an end to the madness, the hatred, the evil, the death. Possessed by the madness, hundreds of men were made monsters. Though the least in number among all those afflicted by King Ghidorah's Fear, they sins they wrought were the greatest. They went beheading their own brothers and eating men alive organ by organ. Sons raped their mothers; fathers, their daughters. Children bashed the skulls of their infant siblings to the ground. People were skinned alive and their corpses were hacked apart into chunks while their skins were left to bleed on poles. They were all made to kill that which they loved the most and do what they most hated.
The cruelest thing, however, was that, although possessed by King Ghidorah's madness, every last person's mind was fully clear. They all knew what was going on. They all fought in vain to stop themselves. Each man screamed in his mind as the insanity claimed his hands to bring forth the most profane of blasphemies. For years afterwards, the people of the city would be found in mental hospital, mad with self-loathing, mad with shame. They'd be found in mental hospitals… or in morgues. Many of them would commit suicide from disgust and remorse.
King Ghidorah saw this and smiled. He knew that there was going to be more so much more because all this was only the beginning…
The serpent lord of Egypt had been knocked unconscious earlier when he had tried to challenge King Ghidorah's will and for over half an hour; Mubarak had tried to wake him. It was only now that the son of Manda had barely begun to recover and get up. Barely able to think, he ignored Mubarak's pleas for requesting help and could only be afraid. Apophis was a terrified shaking wreck that had seen the thoughts of a devil. Then he looked to the images shown by the obelisks and wept.
Yes, Apophis, Apophis, dragon lord of Egypt whose name had been feared through all the land of the pharaohs for five thousand years wept. He wept for his people. In bringing their minds into the collective, he had promised them glorious order and a world free from pain and fear. He had failed them and burning in his mind were the cancerous thoughts left by the diabolic hammer against all righteousness called King Ghidorah.
Regardless of the fact that King Ghidorah was a fully sentient being whose intelligence was on par with that of any human, he of course did not think in words. However, if that fact could be temporarily suspended, and the thoughts that the enemy of all goodness had burned into Apophis' mind could be made words they would be these:
I remember you. I've known your family for some time. I beat your daddy and I killed his mommy. Well now, daddy isn't here to protect baby and I'm going to make baby cry.