Fear, terror, a sense of resignation. All those feelings swept through Elsa as Cthulhu glared down at her, his hot breath washing over her as he snarled deeply. She felt a warm liquid run down her broken leg (a cursory glance saw it was ruby red mixed with a warm pale-yellow colour).
This is it.
The Queen of Arendelle, the Snow Queen, the one who could conjure ice and snow with just a flick of her pinkie, who could freeze an entire fjord solid, who could turn herself into a snow dragon almost equal to that of Godzilla himself, one who could control even the very power of lightning and storms, who seemed so untouchable and unequal in power and strength. She was now beaten, broken, and at the mercy of a being, a real living god.
And all for nothing.
Cthulhu raised a clawed hand above her, opening it up, ready to grab her. She tried to see any trace of compassion, any hint of humanity (for lack of a better word) in his eyes. Something! Anything. Even when he had been so threatening and had fought against her earlier, he had been hesitant, regretful, even sorrowful at having to fight her.
But there was none of that. Now, covering her entire peripheral vision, was a beast, a Titan, a god, ready and willing to smite her into oblivion.
A loud growl, ubiquitous, deep and reverberating in the bones of whatever living creature was around them, filled the air. Cthulhu paused; a brief expression of fear evident for a millisecond before looking over his wounded shoulder. Elsa, too, looked past the behemoth, an expression that was startled, aghast, flabbergasted and any other sort of similar adjective showing up at what was happening before them.
Even on Baby Mothra, who was paused in mid-air, hovering somewhat precariously, with the Arendelle and Mu group looking on, they were speechless and wide-eyed, and that was the least way of describing it.
Standing tall over the landscape, trees and foliage turning to fire and dust around his feet, stood Godzilla, or a new form of Godzilla as one might put it now. His body, once craggy and a dark-grey colour, now had traces of a fiery glow akin to that of lava running across his hide. His eyes, a deep-sea blue, were now aflame (quite possibly literally so from the perspective of his onlookers) and his dorsal plates radiated with so bright a glow that seemed like they were determined to rival the sun in their luminosity. Smoke billowed from his body, akin to what one would witness if a huge forest fire in the distance, and the heat from his form even forced Baby Mothra to retreat a few hundred yards. Even Elsa's ice that had formed on the mountain and what was left of the path she had been running on before Cthulhu had knocked her off it melted within seconds. It was as if the sun was on a collision course with the earth and these were to be the final moments before it consumed them all.
Godzilla took a step towards Cthulhu, growling and snarling, the sounds Elsa could feel were making her bones and insides quake as if in fear. If she had not wet herself with Cthulhu a moment earlier, she would have definitely done so now. She glanced back up at the bipedal cephalopod to see him moving as if to suddenly crawl away frantically, his expression like one a sinner or blasphemer would make when faced not only with the presence of their divine deity, but the very true prospect of said god about to exert their wrath upon a mortal.
He knew what it was like now to be faced with god.
Another step towards them, Godzilla seemed to shake the entire island. More remaining jungle and foliage at his feet and across much of the surrounding island melted and/or was set ablaze, yet his gaze did not shift from Cthulhu. A deep powerful feeling coursed through his veins, running the full length of his body, charging him up. He bent his head low, a noise akin to something that combined both electric and metallic, yet had a deep organic undertone filled the air.
Elsa's eyes widened. Whatever it was he was going to do, she knew it was going to be bad.
She conjured up a thick layer of ice, simultaneously trying to claw at the dirt beneath her to try and push herself into the mountain as some kind of panicked act of self-preservation. Cthulhu, though terrified, stared on in a mixture of bewilderment and fear.
On Baby Mothra, Anna exchanged shocked expressions with the others, all of them non-verbally asking the same thing.
What is going on?
Not even a second later, the sky seemed to split open with a blinding light, followed by a powerful gust of wind that made them all fall over despite being a good few miles away. Another heatwave, this time much stronger, rushed towards them, almost burning their skin, and it was only Baby Mothra's sudden burst of movement further away from the island that probably saved them from being literally boiled alive.
A loud roar, pained and anguished, seemed to fill the universe.
Anna picked herself up and gasped, utterly speechless at what she and the others saw before them.
Godzilla stomped over towards the now burning and burned form of Cthulhu, his adversary struggling to push himself up from his position on the ground. He looked over and cried out weakly, holding up what was left of his tattered, burnt arms that looked like they would crumble to dust at any moment in a display of mercy.
"Mercy! Mercy, Godzilla!"
There was none. The gigantic lizard raised a foot and slammed it down on Cthulhu's chest, which was followed by a sickening, ear splitting CRACK and CRUNCH that made Cthulhu cry out as his ribs collapsed under the sudden extreme pressure. He tried to push them off but it was like trying to shift a deep-rooted tree. Godzilla's other foot came down hard on Cthulhu's leg, filling the air with another thunderous crack that made it bend at an unnatural angle and it was only the pain from the suddenness of the move competing with the other injuries across his body that stopped him from screaming in agony.
The bipedal cephalopod looked up at Godzilla, pleading, begging, even praying (ironic for a god) to be spared.
Godzilla looked down at him with contempt, his burning eyes aglow with fire, his judgement set, the punishment decided, and nothing would change it.
With one swift motion, he reached down, drove his clawed hand deep into the flesh of Cthulhu's face, and, turning his hips, tore the head clean from the body, spraying matter and flesh all over the area. Then he tossed it to the ground, raised his foot off Cthulhu's torso, and stomped it into oblivion.
Cthulhu was gone. Godzilla exhaled, his fight done.
This fight, this climactic struggle between two deities, this clash of gods akin to that of the Biblical apocalypse was over. He raised his head and let out his most powerful roar, marking that he had emerged victorious.
SSSSSKKKKKKRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKK-oooooonnnnnggghh!
From the mountain, or what was left of it, a cracked, partly destroyed dome of ice, dissipated. Within it, Elsa's shaking, traumatised form sat up, staring in wide-eyed, silent disbelief at Godzilla, then at the landscape around her.
As far as she could see, everything was charred and burnt to a crisp. The trees or the husks or destroyed remnants of trees were mostly gone for at least a few hundred metres or so from where she was sitting, a few remaining ones still smoking. Beyond that, more fires began to lick at the base of the foliage. Several mountains and hills had completely fallen apart (though Elsa could not see it from her position, the mountain that she was on had mostly collapsed behind and around her, caving into what had been Godzilla's chamber). Even the clouds that had been swirling above had mostly disappeared as if they had fled in fear the sheer display of the power and might of … whatever Godzilla had done.
Elsa looked down, feeling her stomach drop as she saw the remains of Cthulhu on the ground barely a hundred metres away. She gazed back up at Godzilla, shaking, feeling like she was going to wet herself again. No matter how protective or merciful, or even heroic, Godzilla had been before, this time … this was the true display of his power.
Part of her even began to wonder if there was anything really mortal about him now.
The movement of the huge bulk of Godzilla caught her attention as she saw him turn to step away, suddenly breathing heavily, the fiery lines across his hide fading. Several small fragments of his dorsal plates broke off; one piece about the size of Elsa's head landed next to her. He glanced back in Elsa's direction, meeting her terrified, speechless gaze with his own as his eyes slowly began to flicker from fiery gold back to their deep-sea blue.
I'm sorry.
His eyes rolled back and he fell forward, collapsing with a pained and exhausted moan, making the whole island bounce as his roughly 350ft bulky frame collided with the near hell-like landscape.
A sudden jerk made Elsa yelp as she saw huge cracks forming across the surface. Then, large caverns and holes appeared as what was the ground began to cave inward. She looked around frantically, searching the landscape, the sky, anywhere for the others. Nearby, she heard water rushing in, and a quick glance showed her that the ocean was rushing forward as sections of the coast and cliffs began to break away, leaving huge trenches that were quickly submerged by the waves.
Oh god, please! Anna! Help me!
Had they left her? Had they thought she was already gone, taken by Cthulhu? Or maybe burned to a crisp by Godzilla in his terrifying display of power? Part of her thought they might have even abandoned her, thinking it best to save themselves. They wouldn't do that! Surely!
The ground near Godzilla began to fall inwards, and Elsa saw huge pools of lava beginning to seep up from somewhere underground. Her mind went back to the huge chamber Cthulhu had made his lair and where they had met earlier. Though that was some distance away – a mile or two at least – it was clear that the island was atop some gigantic volcano, or maybe even several! She saw the lava pools beginning to rise, greedily absorbing any and all rocks and debris that fell into them.
And Godzilla would soon be next.
No! I-I can't! I can't leave him!
As much as he terrified her, as much as she knew he was, or at least had been dangerous, she couldn't abandon him. To do so would be to spit in the face of everything he had done for them; every time he had saved her home, every instance he had protected Elsa and her family, every single example he had shown to her that he was not just some mindless killing machine of destruction.
Elsa picked herself up, freezing her leg under a layer of permafrost as best she could to try and numb the pain that flared up and down her body. Sweat ran down her as the heat from the lava washed over her. The noise of the ocean consuming all across the island filling her ears, but she ignored it as she conjured up another ice dress to cover her battered and broken form, eyes set on Godzilla's motionless body.
There was only one thing she could do now.
Throwing her hands towards Godzilla, she sent out a wave of ice that immediately covered and began to spread across the creature's huge bulk. She felt her energy drain from her move, but she pushed on, ignoring her body's cry for her to stop and rest, lest she pass out. The ice expanded across Godzilla's body, slowly, but surely consuming it. When it was about half-done, she moved her left hand and fired out at the lava, instantly turning where it landed into solid ice, and it too began to spread from there.
The water rushed into and down the trench she ran through earlier, heading to the lava pool, immediately cooling with the combination of the ocean and Elsa's ice powers.
More of the ground broke away and Godzilla's now frozen form fell into the jagged landscape the lava and water mixture had created. Water rushed in, slowly consuming the Titan that had brought balance to the world, had saved Arendelle and its people, and had come to save Elsa from, undoubtedly, certain death.
Elsa finally relented on her ice and collapsed hard onto her side, the sounds of the island collapsing and the ocean all she could hear as her vision began to fade. She reached out, resting her hand on the piece of dorsal plate that lay beside her, a tear running down her cheek.
Forgive me, Godzilla.
Her eyes closed and she fell into uncertainty.