Godzilla vs. Cthulhu
By C. L. Werner
III
The last of the maser jets plummeted from the heavens. Refusing to bail out, the pilot struggled to steer the plane away from the city below. The jet crashed into a squat tenement building, destroying one corner in a terrific explosion and leaving the rest of the building in flame. The plane's destroyer growled in satisfaction, his remarkable body already repairing the damage inflicted upon it by the weapons of the advanced jet fighters.
Ahead of Godzilla, a company of maser tanks assembled upon the waterfront, the last feeble line of defense to halt the behemoth's advance upon the sprawling metropolis of Hokkaido. For a tense moment, Godzilla stopped; eyeing the formations of armor in silence as the soldiers before him steeled themselves for the coming attack. At once, there was a blinding play of light over the waters of the bay as the maser tanks and Godzilla each responded to the other's challenge. Godzilla's atomic holocaust engulfed the right flank of the tank formation, causing steel to boil and flesh to vaporize. Determined to buy as much time for the fleeing citizens as they could, the tanks held their ground, continuing to fire upon the reptile as Godzilla's ray proceeded down their battle line until the last tank on the left flank had been turned into a lump of molten steel.
Godzilla stepped onto the shore. Hokkaido lay before him and the city trembled.
*****
Akira Natanaka was an old man, over ninety, his face a mass of wrinkles, his skin shriveled and pale, almost leprous where it was not discolored by liver spots. The hair that fell from his scalp in long individual strands was the shade of frost and his eyes were the clouded orbs of an eater of opium… or a rabid dog. He wore a jade robe which seemed to glow with a green light in the gloom of the chamber. Upon his chest was the sigil of a golden octopus with a single, unlidded eye. His withered face split into a smile as he saw me, revealing irregular ranks of rotten and yellow teeth. At his side, standing beside the bamboo throne of Natanaka, the silent Goblin looked on, his saucer eyes piercing me like an arrow.
"You have kept a secret from me," the ancient priest cackled with glee. His filmy eyes met mine and his smile softened. The Goblin took a step closer toward me. I fought down the urge to flee the dark chamber with its somber tapestries and its withered sorcerer. If I was to die let it be like a man. Let it be with honor.
"How long have you been in love with Miss Odaka?" the old priest hissed mirthfully. I stared at him in bewilderment, a new terror filling me.
"Did you think that I did not know? I, the Unclosing Eye?" he was breathing heavily, his smile softening yet more. "I know the hearts of my children. You have no fear which has not made me tremble or passion which has not made me rejoice. As your heart is the domicile of our master, so too is it my domain. In the night we share HIS dreams and make them our own." The sinisterly soothing quality had returned to his voice and as I looked into his lifeless eyes, I thought of a bird standing before a serpent. Desperately I fought down an insane desire to confess to the seated wraith and tore my eyes from his.
"You are not alone. Goro wishes her for himself. He is a wicked man, one of the fallen whose fall is all the worse because he was exalted. The madness of pride races through his blood, for his is a noble people and an ancient heritage. He wishes my power, to become the Unclosing Eye. He cares not what is the will of the Lord of Dreams, only the lusts of Goro concern him. Even as we speak, he steals to the chamber of Miss Odaka. He stood before me where you stand and asked me for her. Knowing of your love, I forbade him. Now he defies me openly." Natanaka rose and I was overwhelmed by his presence, by the grim power which seemed to surge from his wasted bones.
"I am the Unclosing Eye!" he thundered in a voice like the crashing of waves upon the breakers. "I am holy, but I am a man, too! I feel outrage just as you! It is your place to defend her. It is your honor!"
When he had finished, the tremendous will which had kept me silent before him released its hold upon me and I raced from Natanaka's chamber, praying that I would be in time to save Kumi from Goro.
*****
In the dark chamber, the high priest seated himself and laughed with a gurgling sound like a dying man's death rattle. The Goblin looked into its master's face.
"Like starving vermin, my enemies fall upon one another. Ensure the gravity of their wounds."
The Goblin bowed low before its master and, like a giant frog, hopped after the departed Yamamoto, a golden blade in its gloved hand.
IV
Godzilla rose from the burning carcass of the castle, his tail battering the castle gates into rubble as he did so. Worse than the firestorm of Dresden, the heart of Hokkaido was rising into the smoke-filled sky as a single pillar of flame.
Godzilla roared and began to stride toward the unravaged outskirts of Hokkaido. Then, the giant froze. Dazed, Godzilla turned toward the source of his confusion. A single helicopter flew out of the smoke of Hokkaido. Godzilla slowly moved after the hovering aircraft.
"We have him, Commander!" yelled the helicopter pilot into his radio. Triumphant cries filled the command center as the report was broadcast.
"Good, now lead him back out to sea!" ordered Commander Aso.
The helicopter slowly retraced its path over the desiccated ruins of Hokkaido. Behind it followed Godzilla, ahead of it the sea.
*****
I burst into Kumi's room, my eyes clouded by rage. She lay upon the cold stone floor, her face bruised and blackened by the hands of her brutish attacker. Goro stood above her, looming over her like the Oni he so resembled, preparing to strike her yet another savage blow.
I did not wait for Goro to take notice of me, did not announce myself in some appeal for honorable combat. I fell upon the hulking cultist with the fury of a tiger. My fingers locked about his thick throat, his clammy flesh ice cold beneath my hands. Goro's fists pounded against my sides, tremendous blows which should have staggered a less frenzied man. I tightened my grip and fought down a feeling of disgust as the flesh beneath my fingers palpitated with a movement of its own.
Too late did Goro lock his mighty arms about my body in a crushing embrace, for even as he did his lungs were filled with hot, wasted air. His large hideous eyes were rolling into the top of his skull and his purple tongue lolled from his oversized mouth. I felt his bear-hug slacken and then his arms fell lifeless at his sides, but I did not release my grip upon him until I felt the flesh of his neck cease to quiver with life.
I looked at my hands as the hulking body fell to the floor. A yellow film was upon them, grease paint. Only the most liberal use of that cosmetic could have clothed the horror which had been Goro with a human visage, for upon his throat, where my hands had taken off the paint, were patches of pale green flesh. The palpitations I had felt beneath my strangle hold had been the fluttering of Goro's gills! Numb with horror, I lifted the sobbing form of Kumi Odaka from the floor and led her from the room which murder had visited.
Only Providence saved me from the blade that licked out from the darkness. An inch more and it should have struck me in the side of the heart. Yet it missed and I seized the wrist which gripped it and smashed it against the wall until the gloved hand dropped its golden dagger. Writhing in my grasp was the Goblin and as I clutched his arm, he brought up both his legs and delivered a kick which sent me hurtling backwards nearly ten feet down the corridor. At once he caught up the dropped dagger and, like a demonic toad, hopped at me.
I rose and met the dwarf's attack. His blade cut into my arm as I blocked his blow. My fist struck the cultist's face, stunning him. I again tore the knife from his hand and caught him about his mask. The disfigured dwarf struggled and, before I could guard against it, brought his powerful legs against my chest and kicked away from me.
I looked at the diminutive figure which hopped away down the dark corridor. In making its escape, the Goblin's mask had come off in my hand and for an instant I had beheld the features it had concealed, a face even less human than that of the dead Goro, a face akin to that of some horrible icthyoid, the face of a fish-toad!
My eyes found Kumi. She was shaking in terror. She, too, had seen the Goblin unmasked.
"Natanaka knows about me, about you as well, I imagine. Only he could have sent that thing after me! Maybe it was Hidemasa who told him about me, but however he found out; I have to run now before Natanaka's monster sends out the alarm! We have to get out of here!"
I raced down the corridor, pulling the still stunned Kumi behind me like some automaton. Then, I felt her hand leave mine and I stopped.
"I can't leave Kenji. I'm sorry Ryu, but I can't." There were tears in her eyes. Down the corridor I could hear the sounds of the alarm. The cultists would soon be upon us.
"Kumi, we have to go. I'll come back with the police and we'll get Kenji then." I could see the light of the cultists' torches at the far end of the corridor.
"I can't leave Kenji," Kumi repeated softly. Before I could stop her, she turned and ran back down the corridor toward the cultists. I told myself that she would be all right as I ran the other way. I would return, with half the police in Tokyo and that would be the last of Akira Natanaka and the Watchers on the Shore.
I was so very wrong.