Colossus By Choice: Book 1 Verse 16

3001 P.G.E. (Post-Godzilla Era)

[Universal Date: Day 118]
[Planet: Pyrestar]
[Capital: Silver Sun City]
[Location: Pyrestar wilds – grasslands region]

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In the now ruined grasslands just outside the southern City Scouts outpost, the immense Fire Demon known as Rodan perches on the ground; he’s resting up from his intense battle with the Iwi-ki turned Oozaru. The Great Ape in question is still lying face down on the ground in front of him, still steaming and burnt up by the sudden release of energy he experienced shortly after attaining his golden powered-up state; curiously, the burns aren’t dying down despite there being plenty of wind to blow them out.

Instead, the burnt-up areas become larger and overtake greater portions of the defeated Kaiju’s body. Soon enough, the entirety of his form is consumed by smouldering hot embers that burn away the surface layers of his body; Rodan looks on with great curiosity and intrigue as the flames completely subsume the body of the Great Ape of the Moon.

While Pyrestar’s resident deity continues to watch the corpse burn up in flames, the Draconi knights from earlier fly by past his notice and land right between him and the Oozaru; they were carrying Taum, Yun-Tao, and Skrill with them. Everyone is quite enthralled by the flames that now eat away at the simian titan’s body, especially Taum. Even now, the Draconi youngling’s mind is analyzing everything he saw in intricate detail to find patterns and links, decipher behaviours and motivations, and try to create explanations.


(Taum): That Oozaru seemed to experience something of a lethal discharge at the end there despite absolutely brimming with power. Too much energy expenditure from the tail loss, maybe?

(Cpt. Gairi): Perhaps. Just like Rajang, its energy control seems to be centralized around its tail. Without it, it couldn’t control its power and thus ended up with a limited window of survivability, like a Furious Rajang.

(Taum): But this lasted barely more than a few minutes while Furious Rajang can survive for at least a few years and may even potentially survive the process of becoming a Variant fully.

(Cpt. Gairi): Either way, this will certainly be a tale to tell the Sapients Council. Though whether or not the other species will do anything about this new threat, I don’t know.


The flames surrounding the Great Ape’s body begin to die down; they eventually flicker out entirely, not even leaving behind glowing embers. The remains aren’t what the group, or even Rodan himself, expected to find; instead of a charred corpse, they’re left with a pure black humanoid-shaped mass. The material makeup and overall appearance of this form is remarkably similar to an uncommon but constant hostile presence throughout the universe, one composed of pure darkness and evil; its appearance understandably shocks Taum and the others.


(Taum): A creature of Grimm? But….. but how?

(Skrill): That shouldn’t be possible! Only the corpses of Old Gods should be capable of creating Grimm, and this planet isn’t anywhere near one!


Just like the beings of darkness that it resembles, the Oozaru’s darkness-imbued body slowly disintegrates into black particulates that themselves fade into nothingness. Once the wicked material dissipates, the mystery deepens once the group heads into the centre of the giant’s body imprint on the ground. Instead of blackened and upturned earth, they find the Iwi-ki warrior’s body; he’s not only intact, but also still alive albeit unconscious.


(Cpt. Gairi): Bind him and take him back to the detention centre. We need to interrogate him as soon as he wakes up.

(Defence Watch Knight): Yessir.


One of the knights under the captain’s command quickly pulls out his wire bindings and ties them around the ape soldier’s wrists and ankles. With the prisoner now tied up, another knight steps up to help out her comrade; she grabs him by the legs while her fellow knight grabs the Iwi-ki around his torso. After a bit of heaving, the 2 of them start ascending into the air and head towards Silver Sun City.

The Fire Demon watches the 2 Draconi leave with the culprit behind the façade of the Great Ape of the Moon. As soon as they’re out of view, he turns his attention down towards Taum and the others; he gets down on all fours and cranes his head to look at Taum specifically. While Skrill and some of the Defence Watch and City Scouts knights are a bit intimidated by the proximity and interest that this absolute giant of a creature is showing towards them, Taum and Yun-Tao take this in stride; the youngling ex-City Scout even seems to be almost ecstatic about this attention.


(Taum): Rodan, right? You’re the god of Pyrestar, its guardian and overseer.


Rodan seems to understand what Taum is saying to some degree, as he tilts his head to the side ever so slightly before then moving his head in close enough that the very tip of his beak almost touches the Draconi youth. This sudden closeness takes Taum by surprise a bit, but he soon relaxes and strokes the tip of the winged giant’s beak; Yun-Tao quickly and eagerly joins in on this, though the others are reluctant to attempt to touch a living god.


(Taum): You fought hard, but even a god like you needs help from us lowly mortals, huh?

(Skrill): Taum, don’t speak such blasphemies! We don’t want to incur His anger!


Contrary to the elderly Radent smuggler’s fears, the bio-volcanic deity seems rather calm and content right now, perhaps even enjoying the youngling’s boldness based on his low growls that echo throughout the air nonetheless. After a little bit more stroking, Taum and Yun-Tao step back; Rodan raises his up a little, though he still focuses his eyes on the Draconi youth.


(Taum): I promise you this, Titan of Winged Fury. We will find who did this, and we’ll stop them.


Upon hearing this declaration, Rodan straightens himself up and stands upright. The guardian of Pyrestar spreads his wings wide and screeches loudly before then flapping his wings downward once, instantly propelling him into the air; he then flies across the sky, back towards his home atop Silver Sun Mountain. In the wake of his winds, hundreds of Monsters follow behind him to return to their roosts and nests within the centrepiece formation of the city, including the Silver Sun himself.

The Silver Rathalos that aided Taum and his allies briefly stops to look down at them and roar loudly before then joining the other Monsters in their return flight back to Silver Sun Mountain; Yun-Tao and Taum wave their goodbyes to the Silver Fire Wyvern.

Once all the Monsters have left the skies above, something miraculous on the ground catches the eye of the group.

All around them, the previously ruined landscape becomes aglow with glowing orange particles that resemble the embers that constantly fly off of the volcanic edges of Rodan’s wings. These destroyed patches that have been touched by these particles start recovering at a rapid rate; their greenery is restored back to pristine condition within seconds. Even past the grasslands and into the forest region, the group can clearly see plant life returning to the areas that were left desolate by the battle between the Fire Demon and the Oozaru.

It’s nothing short of a miracle.


(Yun-Tao): Wow….. life is returning despite the damage that was done.


Taum puts his hand out and catches a few of the particulates floating through the air before they can drop down to the ground; they dissipate into puffs of red light.


(Taum): He truly is the god of Pyrestar. Despite the destruction his battle with the Oozaru ended up incurring, he restored everything back to its natural state.

(Cpt. Gairi): The Bioenergy of a Kaiju is something beyond compare, no doubt. So, Taum, how does it feel to have earned the respect of our planet’s resident deity put in place by the great Godzilla herself?

(Taum): Honestly, I…. I’ve never felt so proud and accomplished in my entire life. All of that, all at once. So much, so fast. It’s…. glorious.

(Cpt. Gairi): Glad to hear it, then. We should head back to Silver Sun City, youngling.

(Taum): Right, yeah.


Captain Gairi gets down on one knee in front of the Draconi youth and waits for him to climb onto his back. While this is going on, Yun-Tao spreads her arms out in preparation for their flight, though the 2 knights assigned as her transportation look to each other nervously due to the prospect of having to carry her immense weight. Behind these 3, Skrill is being as disagreeable as ever by refusing to climb aboard the back of one of the other knights; the Draconi sighs, picks the old man up by his backpack, and stands back up.


(Cpt. Gairi): Ready for liftoff?

(Everyone Else): Ready!

(Skrill): No.

(Cpt. Gairi): Then liftoff!


All of the Draconi knights flap their wings and begin ascending into the air, though the ones carrying the Oxbul forge-widow struggle a bit at first to properly carry her weight without dropping her. Once they all reach optimal altitude, they head back towards Silver Sun City.

After spending so long under the stresses of an increasingly escalating crisis situation, the group can finally start to relax a bit; Taum in particular lets out a great sigh of relief. He peers over the captain’s shoulders to look down at the ground below; his previous expression of relaxation is soon replaced by one of focus and ever-so-slight worry once more. Despite everything that him and the others have accomplished, the toll that this incident has incurred is much greater reaching than anyone could’ve foreseen.

With a large portion of the walls of the southern section perimeter destroyed as a result of the battle between Rodan and the Oozaru, there’s nothing to stop a large tide of Monsters flooding in from the previously separated wild areas. In the past, unexpected openings in the city limit walls didn’t call forth Monsters to enter to any significant degree; however, the battle of gods spooked entire populations of varying types of beasts and forced them towards this direction. Further complicating matters are invasive species such as Deviljho and Bazelgeuse, powerful nomadic beasts that can rival even some Elder Dragons; several such individuals are scaring off local populations and inadvertently driving them through the breach.

Once these Monsters are through, the relative calm of Silver Sun City’s outer limits and abundant resources left behind due to evacuations of the agricultural populace keeps them there.

This invasion doesn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the group; they’re all looking down as the Monsters spread throughout the southern portion of the outer territories.


(Cpt. Gairi): This ain’t good. Monsters are trespassing into the city’s outer limits by the hundreds. And not just grazing Herbivore herds, either. Dangerous predators like Apexes and even some Elder Dragon-level invaders.

(Taum): Despite Rodan fixing the superficial damage to the land, he couldn’t foresee the potential ecological upset his battle would’ve incurred.

(Cpt. Gairi): Looks like we’re gonna be busy for a little while longer. Guess it’s Monster hunting time, then.


Captain Gairi and the others continue flying towards the southern portion of Silver Sun City.

While they pass overhead, there’s some movement down on the ground that they don’t notice. Amid the bushes and tall grasses that the last of the roaming Monsters disturb on their way through the openings in the southern walls, there are figures cloaked in camouflaged cloaks that mask their scent and conceal their outline against the foliage; one of these figures pulls out their binoculars and zooms in on Taum’s group flying away towards the city.

After the flying group moves far enough away that they can’t possibly notice the figures on the ground, said individual with the binoculars puts them away and turns back to their fellow cloaked members.


(Iwi-ki Unblooded): They’re out of range and headed back to Silver Sun City.

(Iwi-ki Blooded): At least this Monster incursion will provide a temporary distraction. But how shall we proceed with the directive now that we know the Oozaru may not be enough?


The other Iwi-ki turn to the largest of their group; said member pulls down his leaf-covered hood, revealing himself to be none other than the Iwi-ki commander known as Primatus Joa.


(Primatus Joa): Simple. We alter the directive. Switch from extermination to mass awakening. Alright, let’s move out to inform the tribe leaders of this shift.

(Iwi-ki Soldiers): Yessir!


The ape warriors head out towards the direction of the openings in the outer limit walls.