Chapter Seven: The Herald Appears

Africa.

In the darkest heart of the wild continent, a new nation had been formed. Swarms of Meganura and Kamacuras protected it viciously from any intrusion. Assembled Human soldiers and military vehicles were placed at nearly all points of their border. However, they were of no concern to the giant insects, they would continue to guard the borders they had forged until told otherwise.

Their queen, Megaguirus, and her 'general,' Kumonga, had given the order to stay put for the moment. It would only be a matter of time before they were told to renew the attack. The Humans dared not attack them now, not anymore, for fear of riling up the swarm, so it was a stand-off of sorts.

Within the boundaries of this new insect African nation, deep within the very center of the swarm, rested the black egg that Megalon had recovered from Skull Island. The beetle-like kaiju stood guard over it, protected tenfold by Meganura and Kamacuras, as all waited for the time that it would finally hatch.

A burst of flame announced the unexpected arrival of the Demion, Sirius. He was one of many who was known to be a messenger to Centaurus. Although the malevolent being was dwarfed by the kaiju that surrounded him, there was no question that he was the one in charge.

The arrival of Sirius caused a commotion of screeches and cackles from the assembled insect guard. However, a single melodic screech from Megaguirus was all that was needed to quiet them.

Sirius paid no attention to any of it as he made his way to the black egg. Closing his eyes, he rested a single clawed hand on the surface. The egg began to glow a golden hue before sending a spark of energy lancing into Sirius. The Demion drew back with a snarl and rubbed his hand, now numbed from the shot.

He turned to address Megaguirus. "The seal of Mothra is still on the egg. Now that it is freed from its prison on Skull Island, all it should take to release your future king will be the death and rebirth of Mothra. That dynamic switching of energies should weaken the seal enough for him to escape. Events are already occurring that should accomplish this."

Sirius then turned to Megalon, who was watching everything patiently, if inquisitively. "You have done well so far, Megalon," he growled. "Centaurus is pleased. Your duty from now on will be to guard your new king, with your life if need be. He will be instrumental in the destruction of Earth. Then, once all on this planet are dead, we will give you the ability to travel through space."

Megalon clapped his metal hands together happily, eager to please his new masters in return for the gift they promised.

Sirius then looked back to Megaguirus. "Once the egg hatches, have Kumonga resume the offensive. We will make sure that any kaiju resistance you meet will be light to none."

Megaguirus shrieked an affirmative, allowing a sinister toothy grin to light her face. Waiting nearly a month until Centaurus gave the okay to resume the offensive had been trying her patience, she was eager to engage in battle once more.

With a nod, Sirius disappeared in another burst of flame, leaving the insect brood to ready for the arrival of their king...

A loud trill from above drew the attention of both Arashi and Godzilla. Each monster recognized the giant moth that circled above them as Mothra and neither one of them were too pleased to have their battle interrupted. With a furious flapping of wings, Mothra quickly zipped about in the air to avoid their energy blasts.

Talking was obviously out of the question.

Mothra chirped as she started shedding her scales, raining the reflective material down upon the two combatants. It was a new technique she had devised and the results were more than adequate. As the two saurians attempted to blast her out of the sky again, their own energy was refracted and sent back to them. Orange lightning arced down from Mothra's wings and continuously struck the two on the ground.

Mixed in with the scales was her poison powder. As their attempted strikes were refracted and sent back to them, Mothra's powder did its work. First Arashi, and then Godzilla, crashed to the ground in spasms as the powder affected their nervous systems.

Seizing her chance, because she knew it wouldn't last long, Mothra swooped down and landed next to Arashi. Her antennae became awash in a golden glow as she searched for the spark of good that she knew was within Hikaru Chen's creation. The wall of pure malice that greeted her was near identical to Ghidorah, except less focused. Ghidorah delighted in causing pain in death, but his carnage was always conscious and deliberate. With Arashi it was just a strong surge of unrestrained emotion without any kind of real guiding wickedness.

It took some digging, but Mothra finally spied Arashi's true mind, the mind that Chen had tried to create before the demon Gabara had interrupted everything. The glow around her antennae grew brighter and lines of energy could be seen moving along her wings as Mothra struggled to pull out the good and sweep away the bad.

She was making progress before she heard an infuriated bellow behind her. A moment later Mothra shrieked in pain as she was hit full on by a gout of Godzilla's fire. The charcoal behemoth had recovered and wanted to repay Mothra's meddling in full. He stepped forward menacingly and unleashed another blast at her, roaring his fury.

Mothra's shrill cry of pain could be heard echoing across Osaka as she lifted into the air again, her body smoldering from Godzilla's blasts. The prudent course would have been to retreat and recover, but she couldn't leave, not until she knew that she had gotten through to one of them.

Crimson beams of energy lanced out from her antennae at Godzilla, striking him, but doing no real damage. There was a chance she had reached Arashi, but she needed to lead Godzilla away from him to give Arashi time to get in the right frame of mind.

Godzilla wasn't about to make it easy for her, as he unleashed blast after blast of azure atomic fire at her. It was all Mothra could do to dodge the attacks, but at least she had his attention.

Mothra circled around Godzilla and started shedding a mix of scales and pollen to try and subdue Godzilla once more. After Godzilla's first failed attempt to fire his atomic ray, the King of Monsters did something she didn't expect. With a roar, a shockwave spread out from his body and knocked Mothra from the air.

She screeched as she landed on her back and wriggled around desperately to try and right herself. Godzilla bellowed as he pounded towards her before finally stepping on her wing to pin her down. At point blank range, he fired at her again, igniting Mothra's fur and burning her fragile body with a fire born from an atomic explosion.

Godzilla continued to advance upon her, shredding her wing as he moved closer to her body. Just as he was about slam his foot down and end her life, he was struck from behind and flew over her before crashing into a grouping of buildings with a howl, setting off another chain of explosions.

Mothra's blue eyes looked up to see Arashi hovering above her, flapping his great wings as he unleashed several shots of his energy bolt into the explosions, adding to the hellstorm and sending flaming debris in all directions. With a grunt he landed next to Mothra's head and looked down at her. Much to the giant insect's relief, the red fire in his eyes seemed to have dimmed and he looked more aware of his surroundings.

The pile of rubble that Godzilla had been buried in, exploded outward as the King of Monsters got back on his feet. Seeing Godzilla's spines start to glow blue, Arashi spread one of his wings over Mothra protectively and sent snaking lines of energy to follow the bones that gave the wing its shape.

A second later Godzilla fired his atomic ray once again, but instead of striking the flesh of the wing, the ray was stopped by a shield made of Arashi's own energy. Godzilla reared back in surprise before he was hit by several more energy bolts from Arashi and knocked back down to the ground with a thunderous crash.

Arashi took the opportunity to right Mothra back on her feet, before she twittered a plan of action to him. Godzilla was much more powerful now than he had been in the past, downing him would require extreme measures. Arashi glared at her, his red irises flashing at the thought of using help to defeat Godzilla, and for a moment Mothra was afraid that the blood of Ghidorah was reasserting itself, but after a slight delay he picked her up by the thorax and took off into the air with a rumble.

With her left wing shredded by Godzilla, she was unable to fly, so Arashi was carrying her underneath him so she could unleash one last attack. Mothra was suffering from burns all over her body and she knew it wouldn't be long before she was reborn. She would have to use the last of her lifeforce to attempt one of her most devastating attacks.

Her new ally flew in a circle above Godzilla as Mothra's body began to glow golden. A gold light drifted down and formed a wall, creating a hollow cylinder that touched the ground, enclosing Godzilla inside. The great spined saurian was back on his feet now and watching the new ability that Mothra was displaying with a tilt of his head.

As Mothra, with Arashi's help, repeated two more turns of the circle, a symbol appeared in the sky; the seal of Mothra. With a screech, a wall of light descended with lightning speed from the symbol in the sky and impacted the ground with devastating force, expelling all of its energy on anything unlucky enough to be within the cylinder.

Godzilla squealed as he was knocked to the ground. Everything was flattened around him and created an enormous cloud of dust that obscured the area. Undaunted by the ominous cloud of dust and debris, Arashi dove to the ground as he carefully set Mothra down before landing next to her. Then he used his great wings to clear the air by sending the dust away with the force of hurricane winds.

Godzilla was laying prone on the ground, unmoving aside from the telltale heaving of his lungs taking in air. Mothra chirped in relief, happy the seal had worked even though she had been unable to draw upon all the power she wanted with only one wing. The seal was much more than a purely physical attack, it was also spiritual in nature. While the energy damaged the body, the spiritual power sealed the soul. Godzilla would be out, not for long; a few hours to a day at best, but it had worked and that was what mattered most right now.

Mothra's moment of adulation was short-lived when she saw Arashi snarl and move towards the prone form of Godzilla. The spines along his back glowed white as he summoned more energy to his hand and superheated his claws. Arashi intended on finishing Godzilla when he was down. It appeared that even though she had gotten through to him, the blood of Ghidorah still ran hot within him. With a cry of alarm she pleaded with him to stop.

The blue dragon craned his neck and looked back at her in annoyance. Why shouldn't he finish off his enemy now that he had a chance?

And Mothra gave him the only answer she could… Dark times were in store for the Earth and it would need every kaiju that it could get on its side to pull through, especially Godzilla. Surely Arashi could feel his father, King Ghidorah, laying in wait not too far away, getting ready to attack? Once this battle was concluded, a war would take its place and it would encompass the entire globe.

Arashi growled, looking for all the world like he was going to carry through with his plan to kill Godzilla, but instead the electric energy drained out of his talons and gathered in his palm. With the electricity crackling in his hand, Arashi placed it on his side and let the energy feed into the most grievous wound that Godzilla had given him, mending his shattered scales.

He then lifted into the air again and grabbed Godzilla, carrying the unconscious combatant out to sea where he could recover in peace.

If Mothra had been capable of it, she would have smiled. Perhaps Hikaru Chen's creation really could be a benefit to the world instead of another destroyer. That was her last thought as the life faded from her ravaged body and the light disappeared from her blue multifaceted eyes.

Back on Infant Island, the green and yellow striped egg of Mothra cracked open to release the ugly brown caterpillar of her larval form. She chirped comfort to her loyal followers who bowed down in reverence as she extracted herself from the egg. It was a comfort she didn't entirely feel because she knew that this time her death would free the evil kaiju she had hoped to keep sealed forever.

She looked at the Shobijin regretfully who shared her worry. There was simply too much evil in the Earth's future for her to deal with it all. She had been forced to pick which battle she was going to fight and it had been decided that stopping Arashi and Godzilla from ripping each other apart would give the Earth the greatest chance to make it through the dark times ahead.

Mothra sincerely hoped she had made the right choice.

It was night in Africa, and the jungle was in the thrall of a terrible monsoon. The wind howled and the rain soaked everything it touched. Intermittent flashes of lightning lit the sky and loud claps of thunder seemed to tear the world in two. Undisturbed by the terrible weather, Megaguirus, along with her entourage, Kumonga and Megalon, kept a close eye on the egg before them. They had felt Mothra's power shift, it wouldn't be long before the king was free.

As if on cue, the black egg glowed gold for a moment, before the soft light shattered and evaporated into billions of particles. Mothra's seal was no more. Megaguirus cackled as she watched the egg begin to crack and shatter. An evil crimson light seeped out from the crevasses before the egg fell away completely to reveal a fearsome armored caterpillar.

The caterpillar was black from head to tail, with bright yellow markings to display in a language clear enough to all that he was not to be messed with. The spiky black armor culminated in a fearsome tusked head that resembled a samurai's helmet. A great yellow horn jutted from his head and two glowing red eyes pierced the darkness.

Battra gave an unearthly holler in triumph. At last his prison had been shattered! He could sow chaos and death once more!

Megaguirus screeched a greeting to her new king. She was not the type to bow to anyone, but she could feel the awesome power of Battra. He was everything the Demions had promised.

Battra took in the assembled forces before him with approval. Even though he had been unable to do anything while trapped in the egg, he had been aware of the happenings in the world around him. He commanded Megaguirus to resume the offensive against the humans immediately. He would join her soon, but first he had some unfinished business to take care of with his sister, Mothra.

Megaguirus screeched a command to the horde and took off, followed shortly after by Megalon and Kumonga as Battra crashed through the jungle towards Infant Island…

Centaurus laughed as he saw Battra emerge from the egg. The herald of the Demions had arrived at last. With Battra free the Earth was as good as dead. He clenched a clawed fist victoriously.

The time for the main invasion had arrived!

General Sogowa had no idea what the proper course of action was anymore. The Shobijin had disappeared soon after giving their warning about Arashi. He and his staff had witnessed Arashi attack Mothra before helping her to defeat Godzilla; the very same Godzilla who had become Japan's hero after numerous battles with evil kaiju. According to the word of the Shobijin, Ghidorah's son was the good guy and Godzilla was a menace again. His entire world had flipped around upon itself.

The satellite images had confirmed that Arashi had dropped Godzilla off into the ocean, but instead of disappearing to Monster Island or wherever kaiju went to rest, the dragon was heading back to Osaka. Now that Godzilla had been stopped, what reason could Arashi have for coming back?

Even with the considerable weight that the Shobijin carried, Sogowa didn't feel particularly inclined to trust this Arashi. After all, he was related to King Ghidorah was he not? Like father, like son, as the saying went.

"If Arashi moves beyond the damaged portion of Osaka, open fire," he ordered.

Sogowa had a terrible suspicion that Arashi had come back to finish what Godzilla started and he would not stand for it. It would end at Osaka!

Arashi landed back in the ruined city of Osaka wearily. The fight with Godzilla had drained him, more than he would like to admit. He needed to find somewhere to restore his strength. A power plant of some kind would be adequate.

He bypassed the dead form of Mothra as he looked for a power source. He could feel the telltale signature of a power plant beyond the still fiery ruins of industrial Osaka. Arashi looked to the sky with something akin to apprehension. Ghidorah was coming… he would need to be at full strength when they faced each other.

As soon as he stepped past the last crumbling buildings and into the untouched parts of the city, the masers and ULT tanks that Sogowa had positioned opened fire on him. The maser blasts were little more than pinches to him, but he could definitely feel the ULT tanks as they chilled his flesh to the bone.

Arashi snarled as he reeled back from the unexpected assault, more in outrage than any real pain. The Humans had dared to attack him! Did they not know their place? Even weakened as he was, he wasn't going to allow such a gross disrespect to stand unpunished!

And he wasn't in the mood to play around. The Humans would learn the futility of attacking him: the hard way. Gathering his energy, Arashi allowed it to explode outwards as an electromagnetic pulse. The EMP spread outwards from his body, consuming every military vehicle in the vicinity and shutting it down as it fried their electronic circuits. Nearby buildings suffered blackouts as the power sent to them was forcibly scrambled from Arashi's attack.

His red irises flashed as he looked upon the pathetic and so-called rulers of the planet. Humanity didn't deserve the lofty title they gave themselves. They were pests, no they were worse than pests, they were vermin, with no idea of how inferior they were in the natural order. He bared his teeth in a snarl. He would wipe them out.

Every single one.

The World Space Authority Moon base, the largest structure that humankind had ever managed to build off the planet was the first to witness the terrible image of Demion saucers uncloaking above them.

The alien vessels were thin and dagger shaped, with serrations in the side to add even more to their deadly image. The normal vessels were only a little larger than the other alien saucers that had attacked Earth in the past. However, among them was the mother ship which stretched the entire length and width of the moon base and then some.

The operators at the moon base barely had time to sound an alarm before the Demion saucers opened fire. Their powerful lasers easily cut through the heavily reinforced armor of the base, opening the inside to the vacuum of space and sending men floating out to suffer explosive decompression and suffocation.

It took the fleet of Demion saucers little more than a minute to completely eradicate the moon base and everyone who had been in it.

Meanwhile more Demion saucers uncloaked over the major capitals of the world and unleashed their monster payload. Gigan was sent to Washington D.C., Orga to Moscow, Hedorah showed up in Rome, King Ghidorah started razing London, and of course, Africa was already under siege by the insect horde.

Japan, the nation that had thwarted the majority of kaiju attacks, was the hardest to be hit. Tokyo was bombarded by no less than three attackers; the three special mechanical creations that Centaurus had ordered to be built. A new improved Mechagodzilla, a mechanical construct modeled after King Kong called Mecha-Kong, and Hikaru Chen's Dorat-Ghidorah rebuilt to become Mecha-King Ghidorah.

The apocalypse was at hand!

The K-41 was the absolute pinnacle of Human engineering. It made use of the advances forged from the P-1 and the Moonlight SY-3, not to mention converted technology from the recovered saucers of aliens who had tried to attack Earth in the past. It was without a doubt the fastest, toughest, and most advanced machine in the world. Many principle nations on the UN Security Council had more than a few K-41's stashed in secret hangars in case of another invasion or an equally serious problem.

The K-41 was capable of traveling in the air, under the water, or through space, and all at amazing speeds. The design resembled the Super-X in some ways and it was about the same size. It was a squat, ugly vessel, armored and reinforced in all areas. In addition to the usual compliment of missiles, the K-41 also boasted two upgraded masers and a highly advanced scanner array.

This particular K-41, the K-41-JU, was zipping across the Pacific towards Japan. Glenn Adams was at the controls, with Max taking a gunnery position. Saeko was onboard as a passenger and it was all she could do to sit still as she lived Arashi's battles through the pendant.

After Saeko had talked with her father for the last time, she had immediately told Max that they needed to go to Japan to stop Arashi. For once, he didn't try to persuade her otherwise. The look of determination in her eyes must have been evidence enough that she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Surprisingly, Glenn had been in the hospital as well, talking with some of the survivors to get their story about what had happened with Gabara and Arashi. After Saeko had summed up the events that had happened to her as well as her father's last words, Glenn had agreed to take her to Japan and had commandeered a K-41 with the considerable authority he had in M-Watch.

It was strange, but Saeko had a feeling that there was another reason why Glenn was going to Japan. She couldn't shake the idea that the former astronaut had been planning on going there even before he spoke with her and Max. The availability of a K-41 nearby when they needed it struck her as more than coincidence.

"How much longer before we get to Osaka?" she asked, feeling her heart sink as Arashi started to slaughter the troops who had attacked him. Mothra may have broken through the haze of Ghidorah's blood, but Arashi was still out of control.

"Ten minutes at the most," Glenn answered back, trying to sound every inch the confident flying ace he had been in his youth, but Saeko could detect a definite note of grimness in his tone.

"The hell?" Max swore as his communications screen broke into static. "We're getting a transmission and it's being forced over the M-Watch channels. There's nothing I can do to break through it."

Glenn's face turned dour as the static resolved into a terrifying face. The thing on the screen seemed to be armored in black bone and had skin as red as blood. Four black horns jutted from his head. Twin eyes of yellow fire glared out from his face. When it spoke, the voice carried a timbre of pure malevolence.

"I am Lord Centaurus of the Demion race," he identified himself. "We have come from across the stars with a simple demand for the people of Earth…"

Centaurus bared his needle-sharp teeth as he spoke one simple and terrifying word. "Die."

"Your moon base has been wiped out by our saucers and your major capitals are even now being ravaged by the most fearsome monsters in existence. Time and again we have given you Earthlings the chance to supplicate and be conquered by the alien races we have sent to this planet, but you have proven incontrovertibly that you will not bow down. Towards that end, you must be eradicated from existence!"

"It will not be a quick death either. We could quite easily level your cities with our saucers, but we wish to see your misery. Our monsters will slowly kill the world for us." The demonic alien grinned. "Be comforted by the fact that your deaths will have some meaning. Your slow and agonized suffering will amuse us to no end."

"Forget trying to reach us for surrender. This will be our only communication. As I sign off, our saucers will begin the process of destroying every satellite you have launched to further cripple what little hope you have. I have only bothered to announce our intentions so you would know who to curse as you take your dying breath."

Centaurus laughed malevolently as the image faded to static once again.

Saeko swallowed the fear she felt well up in her. This was bad, really bad. The Earth had been threatened by invasion before, but it had never reached the scale that the Demions were implying. To make matters worse, it was on the very day that her father had been killed by his own creation, which was at the very moment killing more people, and somehow she had to find a way to stop it.

It made her feel very alone. More so, because she knew it would only be a matter of time before Max went into combat against the aliens. If that happened, she might lose the last person in her life that she felt close to.

However, to her great surprise, Glenn merely laughed.

Both Saeko and Max looked at him curiously.

"Centaurus thinks he has us licked, but he's really underestimating us," he told them. "We've been preparing for this day. M-Watch knew it was only a matter of time before aliens knocked on our door again. Don't worry kids, it's not as bad as it looks."

"Not as bad as it looks!" Max objected. "We've got monsters razing our capitals and hostile alien saucers ready to blow us apart!"

"Okay, it's pretty bad," Glenn relented as he changed the heading of the K-41. "But we've got a secret weapon that I'll bet the Demions don't know about. In fact, I was planning on meeting with my buddy Fuji about it before I ran into you two. He can explain it better than I can."

"What about Arashi?" Saeko spoke up as she noticed they were veering away from Osaka. "I have to stop him!"

"Angel, we've got monsters rampaging all over the globe. One more isn't going to make much of a difference. The Demions are the greater threat right now," Glenn told her. "Arashi will have to wait."

"NO!" she protested, surprised at how vehement it came out. "I have to stop him, I promised my father I would do it!"

Glenn shook his head. "Nothing doing, kid. We've got to meet up with Fuji-"

"Dad," Max interrupted. "We'd better let her try. I've seen her in this kind of mood before." He looked over at Saeko knowingly. "You can't talk her out of it. She's either going to try and commandeer the K-41 or she's going to leave for Arashi as soon as we set down. Either way she's too stubborn to listen to reason."

Saeko didn't know whether to kiss Max or smack him, but she couldn't deny the truth of his words. Deep down she knew she should have been more worried about the Demions, but she couldn't get her mind off of Arashi. She wouldn't be satisfied until she at least tried to bring Arashi under control.

Glenn heaved a heavy sigh as he shook his head in resignation. "Fine, we'll do it your way. Arashi, here we come."