Wisps of white smoke still rose from the scorched earth. The storm clouds torn apart by the pillar of light from End of an Era slowly closed together, and fine raindrops fell on the two colossal beasts, washing ash from their scales and flesh.
Pinned to the ground and repeatedly electrocuted by King Ghidorah, Apekus's enormous cephalopod body still twitched faintly. The distinctive fishy stench of a deep-sea beast mingled with the smell of electrically charred flesh, spreading over the ruined coast.
Webs of cracks covered the ground for hundreds of meters. The enormous craters blasted out by Gravity Beams had filled with seawater seeping in, and the fractured coastline in the distance continued to collapse. Murky waves battered the ruins again and again, telling of the world-shattering clash that had just taken place.
King Ghidorah's three heads hung slightly lowered, their golden slit pupils looking down upon the beast beneath them. The middle head's mouth curled slightly, carrying a trace of mockery and impatience. Its mental transmission barged straight into Apekus's consciousness like cold thunder, concise and domineering, without a hint of unnecessary emotion.
"Finished?"
Apekus slowly raised its sea dragon head, numbed by electricity. The weight of ages and majesty in its scarlet eyes as it recounted the history of the eras had faded, leaving only the exhaustion of a narrow escape from death. Countless tentacles drooped limply on the ground, leaving marks of varying depths as they dragged across the scorched earth.
It felt the golden currents still rampaging through its body, every breath bringing stabbing pain. As the administrator who had ruled Yilisai's oceans for hundreds of thousands of years, it had never been so wretched. Yet before this outsider, who had withstood End of an Era and could casually electrocute it to the brink of death, it dared not show the slightest disrespect. It could only respond with a faint, deferential mental transmission.
"Finished..."
King Ghidorah flapped its fully recovered golden wings, stirring up stones and ash from the ground. Its three heads exchanged glances, and the left head gave a low scoff. Its mental transmission carried a little offhand approval, but even more condescending scrutiny.
"Never would've guessed you were that impressive."
Hearing this, Apekus's enormous body stiffened slightly. The confidence it had felt while immersed in memories of hundreds of thousands of years quietly returned. After all, it was this planet's administrator. It had personally ended sixteen eras and annihilated countless powerful civilizations and races. Even before the gods, it had never backed down.
Pride quietly grew within it, making it instinctively straighten its body. Its tone unconsciously took on a trace of the composure befitting a ruler of the world, and even a faint measure of confidence. It forgot the humiliation of being electrocuted to within an inch of its life.
"No, no, I can't compare to you..."
The moment its words ended, all three of King Ghidorah's heads narrowed their golden eyes. Dazzling electric light instantly flared across its golden scales, and the magic and air currents around it suddenly grew turbulent.
This thing had merely relied on its long life and the authority granted by the planet to clear out a few civilizations that had gone out of control. It had only just finished reminiscing about its so-called glory days, and it already dared put on an administrator's airs in front of me. Even its voice had grown airy, losing its earlier fear and timidity. It really had forgotten the pain as soon as the wound healed.
What King Ghidorah hated most were creatures who put on airs based on seniority. Its strength was clearly far inferior, yet it thought itself extraordinary simply because it controlled a planet. Had King Ghidorah not wanted to hear this planet's history, it would have torn this ocean beast to pieces long ago.
The next second, King Ghidorah acted without the slightest hesitation. Its enormous claws pressed down hard, pinning Apekus's torso. Three Gravity Beams gathered in its throats, but rather than firing, they turned into dense golden currents that surged madly into Apekus's body once more.
Bzzzz-!
Golden lightning connected heaven and earth once again, forming a dense, violent electrical net that completely enveloped Apekus. Black smoke surged skyward even more fiercely, and the sizzling of electricity scorching flesh resounded between heaven and earth, denser and more forceful than before.
Apekus did not even have time to roar in pain before its enormous body began convulsing violently again. The body that had just recovered a little strength instantly went limp. Its slightly straightened torso fell flat against the ground once more, and its countless tentacles curled together like seaweed battered by a downpour, utterly powerless to resist.
This time, King Ghidorah did not hold back, but it did not strike to kill either. This was purely a lesson. The currents pierced its flesh with precision, stimulating its nerves and subjecting it to extreme pain without threatening its life.
"If you're telling a story, just tell it. Why are you talking so big?"
King Ghidorah's mental transmission exploded like thunder within Apekus's consciousness, carrying cold anger. All three heads let out deafening roars at once, their sound waves throwing the surrounding seawater several meters high. The earth shook violently once more.
Apekus's consciousness blurred under the electrical torture, and its enormous body trembled uncontrollably. Its scarlet eyes filled with fear and a sense of grievance. It desperately begged for mercy through its mind, wanting to explain that it had not meant to be arrogant and had merely responded instinctively. But the currents paralyzed its mental transmission, leaving it able to send only intermittent, fragmented thoughts.
"I wasn't..."
"What? Louder!"
King Ghidorah pressed harder with its claws, and the current abruptly intensified. The golden lightning took the form of a giant tree, its branches spreading to envelop Apekus's entire body. The charred smell grew ever stronger, as though the ocean beast would be cooked through by electricity in the next second.
"Sorry... there's something wrong with me..."
Under the extreme pain and fear, Apekus finally broke completely. All its pride and majesty vanished, leaving none of the imposing presence it had shown while recounting the eras' history. It became timid and cringing, like a tamed sea beast. Its mental transmission trembled, full of humility and fawning, and it no longer dared show the slightest insolence.
It finally understood that before this outsider named King Ghidorah, its supposed status as the world's administrator and its hundreds of thousands of years of seniority were worth nothing. The absolute gap in strength left it unqualified even to raise its head and meet that gaze as an equal.
Only after sensing the fear and submission in its consciousness did King Ghidorah slowly rein in the currents around its body. Its enormous claws loosened slightly, but remained pressed against Apekus to prevent another escape. Its three heads regained their calm, the anger fading from their golden eyes and giving way to scrutiny once more. It could not be bothered to keep taking issue with this beast that bullied the weak and feared the strong. Their conversation and Apekus's account had left it with quite a few questions. Now that the other party had submitted completely, it was the perfect chance to clarify them one by one.
It flapped its wings and adjusted its posture, looking down at Apekus as it lay limp on the ground, smoke rising all over its body. With thoughtfulness in its mental transmission, it slowly spoke.
"But are you really that strong? Even gods who could shatter continents and destroy the planet's surface couldn't beat you?"
Apekus lay on the ground, gasping for breath. Cold rain fell on its charred body, bringing a little relief. It dared not hide anything, much less put on airs again. It could only answer honestly, even volunteering the details for fear of angering the menace before it once more.
"Well... actually, I was influenced by those humanoid races' way of telling stories. That's how their legends were written. They exaggerated a little... It did actually happen, though. To be precise, several hundred 'gods' fought nonstop for over a thousand years before they shattered that continent..."
As it spoke, it gestured lightly with its remaining tentacles, a trace of helplessness in its mental transmission. It explained that the legends circulating across the lands of Yilisai did not reflect its actual strength. Rather, the intelligent races had deliberately exaggerated the war's destructive power to demonstrate the gods' might, indirectly elevating its fearsome reputation as the cleanser as well.
Not every one of those so-called gods possessed world-destroying power. Most were merely false gods who had mastered a portion of ancient power. Those truly capable of shaking a continent were few and far between.
Hundreds of so-called deities had fought one another, exhausting their strength and spending over a thousand years before finally breaking apart Yilisai's largest ancient continent, creating the present arrangement of interwoven islands and fragmented landmasses. It had not been the power of a single blow, but the accumulated effects of prolonged warfare. The supposed destruction of the planet's surface had also been merely localized destruction, not the annihilation of the entire planet.
"Then I spent several hundred more years tracking them down one by one... and finally finished them off."
Apekus continued, its voice carrying a barely perceptible weariness. Even for it, victory against hundreds of gods scattered throughout the world and skilled at hiding had not come easily. It had needed to cross oceans and continents, search the remnants of every divine realm, and track every deity's aura. Battle after battle, sealing after sealing, it had spent hundreds of years before finally bringing the age of gods to a complete end. This had not been an overwhelming victory, but a long, difficult cleanup, far from the effortless affair depicted in legend.
King Ghidorah listened quietly, its three heads swaying slightly as understanding flashed through its golden eyes.
"I see..."
It had originally thought this ocean beast truly possessed the power to casually annihilate gods and shatter continents. Now it seemed to be nothing more than accumulated time and the support of planetary authority, rather than absolute superiority in combat strength. In its place, King Ghidorah would not have needed hundreds of years to face those so-called gods. A few Gravity Beams would have erased them completely. This Titan named Apekus was indeed far weaker than Earth's Godzilla. Aside from its control over the tides and access to planetary information, its ability in direct combat was not worth mentioning.
"Then how did you learn exactly how all these things happened? Did you go ask them?"
King Ghidorah spoke again, voicing its question. It was curious why Apekus, an ocean Titan, knew the detailed history of every era, even the development of the intelligent races' sorcery and the conflicts between their peoples. Did it actively communicate with those intelligent beings and ask about their history?
Apekus hurriedly shook its head, scattering countless droplets and flecks of ash as its enormous head moved. Its mental transmission carried a trace of the special pride belonging to the world's administrator. This was the only asset it could show before King Ghidorah.
"No... because I'm this world's administrator, whenever a turning point capable of changing the world appears, the world notifies me... And some of it was because I made a few avatars to go take a look myself..."
It explained that as the planet Yilisai's core administrator, its consciousness was connected to the planet's source. Every major change in the world, every turning point capable of affecting the course of civilization, became clear information transmitted directly into its consciousness. It could know everything without deliberately investigating. From the birth of the Chromis Sorcery System to Aniemos's improvements to magic, from the war between dragons and giant beasts to the outbreak of the war of the gods, the world immediately warned it of every major event and informed it of the causes and consequences.
For certain details, it condensed small avatars that took the form of ordinary marine creatures, slipped onto land, observed the lives of intelligent races, recorded the development of civilizations, and personally witnessed those historical events. This was why it could recount hundreds of thousands of years of history in detail. It relied not on legends, but on the world's gifts and its own firsthand observations.
Hearing this, King Ghidorah's golden pupils contracted slightly, and it fell into thought.
So this guy is something like Godzilla, a "spokesman for the planet"...
It instantly understood Apekus's role. Earth's Godzilla was the guardian of nature's balance, the embodiment of the planet's will, appearing when the ecosystem fell out of balance to eliminate beings that damaged the world. Apekus was the planet Yilisai's Godzilla, responsible for protecting the planet and purging civilizations that went out of control.
But way weaker than Godzilla.
King Ghidorah silently added this to itself. Earth's Godzilla possessed unparalleled destructive power and defense, its Atomic Breath capable of destroying everything. Even against numerous Titans, it could remain undefeated. Apekus, on the other hand, had pitiful direct combat strength beyond its reliance on the ocean's power and planetary authority. King Ghidorah had just carelessly taken a hit from End of an Era without suffering so much as a scratch, while Apekus had been electrocuted to the brink of death by a few of its currents. The difference between them was like that between heaven and earth.
Just as King Ghidorah was immersed in thought, comparing the gap between Earth's Titans and Yilisai's administrator, Apekus's exhausted body suddenly stiffened on the ground. Countless tentacles instantly tensed, and its dim scarlet eyes abruptly lit up. It sharply raised its upper body and turned toward the distant east, where Yilisai's largest continent lay, its eyes filled with shock and gravity.
This sudden movement immediately caught King Ghidorah's attention.
All three of King Ghidorah's heads turned east at once. Its golden eyes narrowed, its sharp gaze piercing clouds and storms as it looked toward that distant continent. Yet it sensed no powerful presence, only rolling mountains, prosperous city-states, and the auras of the seventeenth era's intelligent races, plain and ordinary, without the slightest threat.
"What is it?"
King Ghidorah's mental transmission carried wariness and confusion. Its golden scales began glowing faintly once more, ready to deal with any sudden development. For this world administrator, which had experienced sixteen era purges and never panicked even before the gods, to be so shocked, something capable of shaking all of Yilisai must have happened.
Apekus did not answer immediately. Its enormous body maintained its posture, head raised as it gazed into the distance, its consciousness closely linked to the planet's source as it received warnings from the world. Countless fragments of information flashed rapidly through its mind. It took several seconds to fully digest this sudden development before turning to King Ghidorah. Its scarlet eyes were full of hesitation and unease as it slowly spoke.
"Just now, the world told me another being capable of affecting the world had appeared..."
King Ghidorah felt a jolt at these words. Aside from the seventeenth era's intelligent races, there was actually another new variable on the continent? A being capable of affecting the entire planet-could it be an outsider Titan like itself, or an ancient beast slumbering in Yilisai's depths?
"What is it?"
King Ghidorah's mental transmission grew urgent. Its three heads leaned forward slightly, and the air pressure around it abruptly dropped. Storms gathered overhead once more, golden lightning weaving through the clouds as it waited for Apekus's answer.
Apekus took a deep breath, the ocean's aura surging around it. Finally, in an immensely grave tone, it spoke the name that overturned everything.
"A... human named Nuoyaji..."