Chapter 95 - The Test Of Metal Part 1 - Start

(A/N. THIS CHAPTER IS COMPLETELY SKIPPABLE BECAUSE IT HAS NEARLY NOTHING TO DO WITH DRAGONBALL AND JUST TELLS A SIDE STORY. IT IS ALSO VERY LENGTHY WITH NEARLY 20K WORDS. FOR ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY READ THIS, SORRY THAT IT IS NO NOTIFICATION ABOUT A NEW CHAPTER.)

Getting his composure back Darc looked straight to this divine beasts eyes.

"Greetings, White Tiger - Emperor of the West.", nodded Darc to also greet him.

It was very subtle, but one could see that the divine beast looked pleased by the words. A soft purr came from the white tiger.

"You are being clever, child. Trying to win my favor by honeying your words already. A truly gifted tongue.", said the white tiger with a soft voice and moved its head slightly to look somewhere behind Darc.

Darc only followed the gaze and turned around. What he saw was images of the earth. But those images were not from this earth but rather the ones from his old life.

"But you are not here for that. I, Byakko, called you to take a test. You may have wished yourself our blessings from one of Seiryū his children and you also may have developed those gifts to a high degree, but I still want to test your worthiness. Depending on the result I may strip you of your blessing. So be warned and do take it seriously.", continued Byakko to explain.

Then the scenery in front of Darc started to change rapidly as if time flew by like a whirlwind and the earth looked like a massive jungle without any life in it. Sometimes Darc saw some weird creatures moving around but their form made his brows frown.

"I will send you to this world. Save it and you pass. Fail, and live with the consequences."

"What do you mean with sending me to this world?", asked Darc and looked back but what he saw was only a smiling expression from Byakko and everything went dark.

-----

It felt like days went by in this darkness and his body felt like it was shredded apart with tiny needles. It has been some time since he really felt pain like this. But he got accustomed to it at some point with meditation.

And just when he thought this would never end, the darkness disappeared and he landed on some very hard ground. When he tried to breathe he felt nauseous so he started to use his breathing technique immediately.

Darc took out his capsules and was happy that they still were with him. He activated one of them and a box appeared. Inside it, he took out his trusty old space suit and equipped it. After he put on the helmet, he activated the filters and oxygen system.

The suit analyzed the atmosphere and gave him all the information needed.

"High radiation mist on the whole planet? It also exudes some electromagnetism?... Weird, good thing this suit has lead insulation. And at least the atmosphere can be filtered out by my suit and I won't die by running out of oxygen.", he said with a muffled voice.

Then he looked around himself. All around him there were exotic plants he didn't see until now.

Walking over to one, he tried to pick it but surprisingly enough it was very hard as if a crystal. So he had to use some more force until he broke it off.

Analyzing it with his tools the result was that this plant was a heavy mutation from a normal birch tree.

"This is earth but what the hell happened here?", asked Darc himself. Sighing he concentrated and tried to sense the whole planet. Something responded while he searched around and that shocked Darc a little.

"What the...Did something notice me using my ki? That's new...It was very large...Also, there are so few human signatures on this planet that it makes me shudder. There are even more in space in a spaceship above but by the looks of it they remain there?", mumbled Darc and looked upwards.

While doing that a beast came charging out from the side and saw Darc as his prey.

Darc saw it and frowned. The lifeform looked hideous and very deformed to no recognition. Not having any more time to think about it, he stretched out his palm and blasted the creature to death.

Seeing that the creature was dead, Darc let out a sigh and looked at his palm. "Collecting energy is also way harder now..."

He concentrated and collected little wisps of energy. Moving them around he got back his control over it. And after getting the hang of it to manipulate the energy in the changed difficulty he started to look inside his body while meditating.

Opening his eyes he smirked a little. he found out the cause why this was so different.

"Alright, now this is very interesting. My body is actually completely reset to the time I was still on Korin's tower. Is that also part of the test? Surviving while being back to my old days and also not having the passive buffs from my constitution? Well, I actually like it. No wonder it is harder to control large quantities of energy if I don't actually have them. But don't think I am helpless like this. With my experience, I probably have a fighting power of 25.000 right now."

Then Darc actually thought a little more about it. "Well, I still should be careful. Whatever noticed me scanning the planet didn't feel very friendly. Just the fact that the number of humans on this earth basically dwindled to a few thousand is proof of it..."

----

Flying around Darc scanned the surroundings but it was way harder than he first thought. More often than not, some flying creatures attacked him. So he had to get rid of them. Then there was also the thick mist that clouded even his good vision to a minimum. You couldn't even see the sun from here.

There were only some rays of light falling through the thick clouds from time to time. It was like as if a dark rainy winter was everpresent on this planet. Just plain depressing.

Still hanging on and preserving as much stamina as possible he reached someplace that looked like ruins. Landing there, Darc looked around and analyzed them.

Moss and the mutated plants grew over the old buildings as if preserving the once glorious city that stood here.

With the help of his omni tool, Darc found out that thousands of years passed by since a building stood here. It also corresponded to the DNA of all the creatures he already encountered.

They were all animals from the earth that were largely mutated to adapt to this environment. And such mutations would only take place after millennia of changing. 10000 years maybe or even more.

Was that what he saw happening while looking at the earth in the dimension where Byakko was at?

If that really is the case then this earth is already a dead planet not worth saving...That was what Darc thought at first and was reminded of his own earth...

There was still one way to find out. Darc concentrated again and stretched his hand out. Slowly little particles collected on his palm and became bigger until they formed a small energy orb. It was the Genkidama. It actually worked. He had his doubts.

"Hmm, looks like the earth still welcomes us...Gaia, mother of earth. Your heart is as gentle and forgiving as a saint...No matter what happens. You welcome your children back...", said Darc and looked at the blue energy orb.

Then he blew at it and the energy scattered back to the planet where it came from.

"Good, then I know why I am here. Just one god asking another for help. Damn, Byakko. You just should have told me in the first place and I would have not denied you that request. Making a test out of it is really bothersome, you know?", said Darc and already guessed that he was being monitored by the white tiger somehow.

___________

Some time has passed and he moved around on land. That was his decision after he got slowly annoyed by those pesky birds r whatever they are now. Their claws were sure sharp enough to cut through stone easily.

Darc actually started to call them drakes at some point after seeing their power and since their darkish charcoal tint was like scales, it suited them well.

Thinking about it, this earth looked a lot more mythological in some sense. There were even sarlacc like creatures that tried to capture Darc, wring him out and eat him slowly like venus traps. So not only had he to be careful of those drakes but also the plants.

Luckily while following the human signatures he found a cave that seemed pretty safe. That is after he checked it thoroughly.

He placed a device at the entrance of the cave and activate it. It erected a barrier and slowly dimmed a little. It was one of the military grade items that build up a shield that would copy the surroundings and camouflage the entrance to the cave. It also would act as a real barrier to some extent.

For example, Darc himself couldn't easily destroy it now without exerting a lot of energy. That being said he was very tired now so he brought out a small capsule house from one of his capsules and placed it in a corner.

Then he entered it and closed the doors. He finally could take off his helmet and wipe away some of his sweat that collected on his face.

"Phew, this really takes me back to my training in the wild. Without being able to use magic nor teleportation. Being worn out by those constant attacks and dangers around me. Hehe", he commented on the events and looked outside the window.

He placed the house so that he could still look outside to the barrier and with that, effectively watch over the cave entrance.

"Let´s hope the barrier holds until I take a nap. I am getting closer to the human settlement and probably will need my full strength. I actually shouldn't be so reminiscent of old days. At first, I didn't really notice the dangers here but in certain numbers, they can become a real problem for me because I exhaust too much of my energy. And I am not regenerating my stamina as I used to as well.", sighed Darc and put his helmet on a table.

He made himself something to eat, ate it and later made himself comfortable on his couch with a bag of potato chips. While snacking them he started the semi meditation that would let him rest but also stay vigilant on his surroundings. Funny enough he actually fell into that state while a potato chip was still in his mouth.

It also didn't take long and some creatures came by but didn't notice anything. So Darc didn't have to react to them. What he did have to somewhat put his awareness to were a few humanoid looking individuals that came close to the barrier and looked at it.

They even tried to stab it sometimes because they seem to know there was a cave entrance here but were surprised to see that it just behaved like the rock everywhere else. Looking confused they left after some time.

"Interesting...", commented Darc and made a loud crunching noise while eating that mentioned potato chip. "Those were not human. Well, at least they were humanoid...And more importantly, they know I am here. They probably heard me fighting around with the local wildlife." A little smile appeared on his face.

Darc stood up and stretched himself. Then he put his helmet back and left the capsule house. Outside, he returned it back into a capsule form and went over to the barrier.

Looking closer he could see some weird substance moving around on the energy shield. It slowly grew bigger. While increased in size the barrier seemed to get thinner and losing its energy.

Frowning a little Darc used his tools to analyze it.

His expression became even darker after the results were shown.

"Nanomachines? No, it's more than that. But one thing is for sure. Its components are very toxic to humans. A lot of quicksilver in it...Oh, perfect timing.", said Darc and saw a mutated creature walking past.

Darc used that timing to collect a little bit of energy in his palm and punched against the barrier. With that, he sends the substance on the barrier charging from it and landing on the creature. It immediately reacted to it and screamed. But not long after and it fell down and stopped moving. its skin also started to change to the same color of the substance - a greyish silver

´It is invading its body and eating it from inside? Nasty. Definitely, something I need to keep my distance from.´, thought Darc and deactivated the barrier and put the device away.

He moved to the carcass and kneeled in front of it. Using something like a stick he picked from the ground he poked the dead carcass to see if there is still some reaction. But nothing happened.

Seeing that he scratched some of its material with a combat knife into a glass tube that was made from crystalized Kachin. He prepared this long ago when he searched for minerals and stuff and needed something to put them in where they would not react with the container.

Kachin was pretty useful in that matter because it didn't even get destroyed with acids or other harmful matter like radiation. And its hard as hell. If he threw one big enough cube of Kachin against a planet with force, it would reach the core and after that hell would unfold on the planet until it explodes. That is just to see how sturdy the world of kai is. And even more painful when thinking about being sent flying against one of these like in the tournament of power.

Some nuclear reactors on earth now even used the produced Kachin as isolation. It keeps the environment healthy. Not that they actually needed nuclear reactors as energy source anymore but to make sure that even after letting them slowly burn out nothing should happen. Oh, and who is the one producing them? Darc actually had to do it all manually. Good thing magic is a very versatile ability.

Being done with collecting the samples he left the proximity of the Cave. He immediately could feel some people follow him. It was probably those tribal hunters.

Feeling their speed while moving Darc was somewhat surprised. They seem to have enhanced physical prowess. At least compared to humans.

A little bit later Darc could even sense the humans descending with transporting vehicles down to earth. That made him curious so he climbed some tall tree and looked up. The tribal hunters also did the same because the seemed curious why this being stopped and looked upwards.

But they got their answer soon enough when spaceships came through the thick clouds and hovered over the forest.

They even bombarded a certain amount of forest to make landing space.

´What idiots. They probably alarmed every predator around them of their existence with that.´, thought Darc and started to move out to the place where they landed. Weirdly enough the tribal hunters did not follow and left.

´Hmm? Did they get scared by that? Well, can't blame them.´, commented Darc in his mind.´

---

Arriving close by to the landing point Darc could see the humans transporting supplies around and building some sort of camp. There were even mechs running around and the spaceships had weaponry equipped.

´A military base? Let's see.´ Darc fiddled around with his omni tool. But even after doing so for a while he only frowned. ´Well, damn. Their technology in decryption is a thing for itself. I probably need to get my hands on some information first to hack myself in their communication channels.

But just at that moment, some mutated creatures attacked the camp. Looking at the chaos of the people he could see them being slaughtered.

Darc didn't hesitate long and just intercepted the creatures.

A drake wanted to bite and swallow a human but Darc flew right in front of it and kicked it upwards. Then he shot its brain with a death beam aka. Frieza style. He didn't wait long and charged to all the other creatures and helped the humans defend.

The camp sustained a lot of damage and some people died but with Darc his help the casualties were minimized and the people now knew to be vigilant at all times.

After helping them Darc was actually not welcomed with open arms but mechs aiming at him. It was somewhat to be expected seeing someone flying around and shooting laser beams. For them, it was technology beyond their current one and they didn't know if he was friend or foe. Of course, most people of the infantry were smiling and are thankful for being saved but better safe than sorry.

_____________

Darc held his arms up to indicate that he will not act aggressively if they also lower their guns. Well, now he can not really say he is harmless anyway.

Seeing that, some people actually did lower their guns, but not all of them. Then someone with what seemed a higher rank came forward to Darc. The person also fiddled around with some kind of holographic interface and started talking.

"jashdbafknw", said the person through speakers that made his voice hearable for Darc.

But it was gibberish that Darc couldn't understand so he shook his head and placed a hand near his side where his ear would be to signalize that he can't understand it.

Noticing that, the person seemed to change something on its interface and tried to talk more. Darc still couldn't understand them and it continued on until the person basically repeated on word over and over in different languages. That is until Darc heard familiar words so he pointed his finger at the person.

The person rolled back until it came back to the language in question. Just as Darc thought, it was English that he heard.

"Do you understand me now?", asked the person again.

Darc only smiled and nodded. It has been some time since he used the old language from earth but he was still very familiar with it. Guess the other words were also languages from earth. Or a worldwide new language? "Yes, I can. What were those other languages? They sounded weird.". asked Darc back.

But the person pretty much ignored his question. "So you really are a human...Unbelievable. But your equipment and technology are...", said the person and came closer to look at him. His gaze became somewhat analyzing.

Now Darc could see that the person had blond hair and green eyes through the helmet they were wearing.

Thinking about it Darc thought about keeping his real identity hidden. At least the part where he came from. "Ehm...arent you humans? What is so surprising about that? Can we introduce ourselves first? And what happened to earth here? I got a lot of questions myself, actually.", answered Darc again and followed the movement of the person with his head.

"Oh, right. My name is Martin Lazzari. I am an Environmental Biologist.", said Martin.

"Italian?", asked Darc back after hearing his name.

"Not really. A half-breed. Italian and American.", smiled Martin after knowing what his question was about.

"I see. Well, I am Darc.", smiled Darc back while introducing himself.

"Just Darc? No family name like the Exif?", said Martin and noted something out.

"Exif, what are Exif? And no, I got one. It's Darc Soya.", asked Darc and answered.

"Soya? Like Soy?", questioned Martin in wonder.

"Urgh, thanks for noting that one out.", grumbled Darc. This has actually been the first time he really got asked about that. In the world of Dragonball, it just goes by unnoticed since all names are kind of puns or have different meanings.

Martin chuckled a little. "Sorry if I hit a sour spot. Getting back to your question. It's best you follow me. We are going to have a meeting ourselves right now. And thank you for helping us."

"No problem.", said Darc back and looked at the people around them. they also heard the conversation after using translators and became much more relaxed. "But you still should keep vigilant. The wildlife sure became nasty on this earth. Plants eating everything that comes into their trap or mutated creatures hunting you. With your bombardment of the forest, you probably got yourself a lot of attention no matter how. And you still looked pretty lax when you got attacked.", noted Darc while walking with Martin.

He frowned a little. "I guess you are right. So from your words, some plants actually are also not only passively dangerous but can trap lifeforms like venus traps?"

Darc nodded. "Yeah, I already encountered some. I call them sarlacc since most of its body is underground and it creates somewhat of a pit that is its trap. Anything getting tangled up in it gets attacked by creatures that seem to be in symbiosis with the sarlacc.", he explained and showed Martin a holographic simulation of the plant with his omni tool.

Martin was very surprised by that since the holographic capacity of this tool was way ahead of their holographic technology. He looked at the data and smiled. "Interesting. We can mention that in the conference so that all people are knowledgable about them." But then his face got a little bit worried. "But I wonder if we can still live here when so much has changed."

"What do you mean?", asked Darc after hearing his worry.

"Before I spoke with you, I also collected some data.", said Martin and showed him a tooth.

"A tooth from the drake? What about it?", asked Darc again.

"Well, here we are. Let's meet the others first.", sighed Martin and opened up a door to a container that was used as a research lab and conference room.

Inside it, there were already some people standing around. Seeing Darc enter with Martin they were all surprised. Especially a man with bluish-black hair seemed to stare at Darc.

"Everyone, this is the person that helped us out. His name is Darc. Darc, these are Eliott Leland, our commanding superior and leader of this exhibition. Then we have Haruo Sakaki and Yuko Tani over there that are also from the human race. And then there is Metphies. One of the Exif I mentioned. The buff guy with the dark skin is Rilu-Elu Belu-be. A Bilusaludo.", said Martin and introduced the group to Darc.

"Hmm, interesting.", commented Darc and walked over to Belu-be and looked him over. He was really bulky and had tanned skin with spiky short hair. Darc also looked at Metphies and saw his long ears. They were not spikey but just long and his build was tall instead of bulky. But they did look very humanoid. "So the variety of humanoids increased, huh?"

"So people survived? How is that possible? It has been 19.000 years since we left...", said the man with bluish-black hair. it was Haruo.

"Well, looks like now I should mention why I am here. I will be pretty straightforward. While cruising through space with my spaceship I got caught by a black hole. At first, I thought it would be my death but I ended up landing here. With some analyzes, I could find out that I am on earth but you can guess how surprised I was to see the earth being so different. Looks like black holes are gates to other worlds? Well, it is still somewhat the same. Just different outcomes?", said Darc in English.

Belu-be put his arm in front of his chin. "Hmm, it sounds plausible. After all, we still don't know anything about black holes."

"Wait, before we continue. Why does it look like you guys are as clueless as me?", asked Darc now.

"Colonel, would you like to explain.", asked Martin.

Eliott sighed. "Fine, this is the story..."

Darc heard how the earth was attacked by mythological creatures like dragons and the likes in the past. The one that came out victorious out of that battle royal was Godzilla. And after it won it started to decimate everything that came in its way.

So to survive, the earth collected the last humanity into space and started a search for a new planet.

Not finding any useful planets in 20 years and Haruo publishing a method to destroy Godzilla, the council was actually convinced and now they stood here. They warped back to earth and effectively wasted nearly 20000 years while for it has only been 20 years.

Not knowing anything about the current status of the planet they send out drones but because of the thick mist that emitted electromagnetism, it was hard to get any data. The only thing they found out was that Godzilla was still alive.

And the more they find out while being on the earth's surface, the more it seems to be impossible to live here again.

Darc just stood in thought after hearing all that. ´Mythological creatures...Godzilla, huh? God of Destruction, is it?´, he thought and walked over to Haruo.

"Can I scan your memories?", asked Darc him. He was after all the one that came up with the attack plan against Godzilla.

Haruo was surprised. "What do you mean?", he asked back not knowing what he wanted to do.

"Just relax...", said Darc and put his hand on his head and scanned everything relevant. He also saw Godzilla in his memories. It manifested itself in his head like a disease corrupting his thinking.

Letting go and walking over to the computer Darc started to talk again. "Well, the idea is not bad and it will very likely succeed but are you guys certain enough that Godzilla didn't increase in size or had offspring? You are placing everything you have on this one attack. You know there are also other humanoids running around in the forest, right?", said Darc now after sorting all the information he got from Haruo.

Martin narrowed his eyes. "What, there are other humanoids? And why do you say that? Godzilla should be an anomaly that should not be able to reproduce. Being immortal may be plausible but offspring. I don't think so.", he rebuked.

"Because I can feel Godzilla his presence. From what I can already say, it feels like he is at least 300 meters tall now. And with your information about the spotted Godzilla..." Darc operated the computer and showed the recorded data from the drone. "This one still is pretty much the same since 19000 years. That just doesn't make sense. From the components that Godzilla is made of. A stagnation in growth is impossible. It would still grow until it could swallow the planet. The energy it is producing needs to go somewhere after all. Besides, a few years like that are not enough for a kaiju to grow up to adulthood."

"You can't be serious. Then this is just a suicide mission?", asked Eliott him in panic.

"I am just saying you need to prepare yourself for a very hard fight. Also, wasn't this practically a suicide mission from the start?", asked Darc back at Leland. "Don't worry. I will help you.", smiled Darc now with confidence.

Belu-be frowned "How are you able to help us? You don't seem to have any weapons."

Martin intercepted that. "The soldiers say his suit is very powerful."

"That can't be it. I still don't see any weapons or the likes on it.", rebuked Belu-be while still thinking scientifically.

"He is right, Martin", approved Darc of Belu-be´s concern. "What I am using is ki. Aint it fun to see something supernatural being used against a mythological being? I am actually excited to meet that thing you are so scared of."

Everyone looked at each other and wondered if this guy fried his brain while being told the story. Did he think this is a vacation or something?

Metphies, on the other hand, looked somewhat suspicious at Darc. And Darc, after noticing his gaze, made a devilish smile.

_________

"Before we continue, I still have something to show you.", interrupted Martin and showed the group the findings he has uncovered while analyzing the plant DNA and the DNA from the fang of the mutated creature.

"Both plant and creature have very similar traits in their DNA. The beast has a lot of metal components and emits electromagnetic radiation...", said Martin.

"Just like Godzilla.", interrupted Haruo.

"Exactly. It may be small but it is probably from the same species as Godzilla.", approved Martin.

"Well, if you can call animals that are mutated through radiation the same species. Then that would be correct.", corrected Darc. "My data indicates that these creatures were once normal animals. Are you implying that this is your worry about living on earth?"

Martin nodded to his question.

"Wait, is the electromagnetic mist produced by the plants?", asked Eliott at this moment.

Darc looked at his Omni tool and compared air samples with the plant DNA.

"Yes, seems like it is their way to reproduce.", nodded Darc.

"So the only way to clear the mist is to burn the forest?", asked Eliott again.

"That is not the only option. You could just as well filter it out or build an isolated dome. But yes. The fastest way would be burning it to the ground. With that, you could also minimize the living space of mutated creatures and give yourself some space as buffer zones to your settlements. You also would not get another accident like the last one with that precaution. But do remember what I told you about the other humanoids. You also could get into conflict with them if you destroy too much of the forest. Remember, now you are the intruders and they are the ones calling this planet home.", reminded Darc them.

"That still invalids our plan to wait for the mist to clear. Luring out Godzilla will be pretty much impossible now.", commented Metphies and changed the topic.

"Not only that. Just like Darc already mentioned. We need to reorganize our defense.", added Eliott.

"We could just switch around our organization and give the task to the special units.", said Haruo after thinking that Eliott would now back down from the previous plan.

"Are you out of your mind? Do you want our soldiers running around in this jungle of a forest where those mutated beasts could kill them?", rebuked Eliott.

"What other options do we even have!?", shouted Haruo back.

"Well, for starters. How about a plan? From my point of view. You are already running around like a headless chicken. You came down here without even thinking about dangerous wildlife. Do any of your soldiers even have proper experience in combat?", interrupted Darc both of them.

"Damn it! Are you now against this as well!?", asked Haruo.

Darc frowned and narrowed his eyes. "Stop shouting. It won't help you. I know how you feel since I read your mind. But I tell you right now. Desperation is not a solution. Think this through. Beating Godzilla is not everything. If you win the battle but lose the war. It won't be a happy ending.", said Darc with a firm voice.

"Anyway. First things first. My military rank was a general. I should be somewhere equivalent to a major general here. If it is alright, I suggest that we gather up all units. Bombard a terrain and build up an outpost that will be used as a connection point to the Aratrum. We should prioritize letting it land comfortably. A few experienced men should join me to scout out Godzilla and note his behavior. Any objections to that?", explained Darc.

Haruo frowned. "We already have a plan. And why should listen to you?", he asked in denial.

"That was a suggestion. Go ahead, if you really want to do that kamikaze tactic. You are not trusting me and that is alright. But what I worry about now is that you will make stupid decisions based on your personal emotions...", said Darc and sighed somewhat. Then he thought a little before continuing. "Just give me someone that can vow for me after I get rid of that little Godzilla. With that, you can see my worth..."

"Little Godzilla?", asked Martin "So you already think there are more than one?"

"I told you. I can sense it. There are also some signals that are weaker but still enormous in size. Probably the Godzilla you found when scanning with your drones."

Eliott sighed. "What amount of people do you need for your scouting mission?"

"Just 5 men and someone of higher rank to vow for me is enough.", answered Darc.

"Alright, I will give you those men. Do you know how to stay in communication with us?", he asked back.

"Already encrypted your programming. And I already have hacked myself into your communications. So no problem there.", smiled Darc.

"Fine, give the orders for all units to gather up. Martin, search for a suitable settlement point.", ordered Eliott.

"What!? Eliott, you are really trusting him?", asked Haruo.

"Haruo, you better be thankful that I don't just give the order for retreat...", warned Eliott and started to walk away. Haruo followed him and tried to discuss certain actions to be reconsidered. Metphies followed them out of the room as well.

"So is the plan about going to poke Godzilla and find out how to disable his shield not going to be executed?", asked Yuko while looking at the others in the room.

Darc sighed. "I didn't say we are going to drop the plan of killing Godzilla. We are just going to make the best out of things we have. You know, you guys lost more in those attacks than you think."

"Huh? What do you mean?", she asked again.

"He is right. The attack from the beasts damaged some of our transporters. Our human casualties were minimal but our equipment suffered a lot. We probably can't even return to the Aratrum with our current state. Regrouping is very logical at this moment. The bigger problem will be Godzilla.", answered Belu-be

"That is correct. At some point, we will very likely meet him. Say, I have been wondering for a while now. What did you really mean with what you said? How can you feel Godzilla?", added Martin now after telling his curiosity. Darc also thought that this question was way due.

"I am also interested in that.", added Belu-be.

"That is easy to explain. I can feel the life force that Godzilla is emitting. Just the same way I found you guys. To describe it a little bit more understandable, I am using electromagnetic impulses to echolocate lifeforms. Somewhat like a radar.", explained Darc after thinking a little bit how to describe his ki sense.

Then he looked at them and saw their skeptical faces. Smiling wryly he started to collect some energy over his palm and created a floating ki ball in front of himself.

Martin and Belu-be made big eyes and their mouths opened slightly after seeing him create a ki ball. They did hear about the laser-like shots being fired by him and that he was flying around.

But most of those abilities could be done with his spacesuit that looked like to have some sort of engine on its back to produce said energy. Even if it meant to admit that he had more advanced technology. At least it was somewhat plausible.

"That is?", asked Martin and scanned the energy "Wait, this is emitting slight electromagnetic signals."

"That is because electromagnetism is used to heat up the energy to transform it into the plasmatic state.", answered Darc. "It's a little bit too complex to really explain. You could say I created a little star in my hands..."

"But that is just like Godzilla...", frowned Belu-be and connected some similarities from this ki ball to Godzilla.

"Oh, right. Talking about Godzilla. He does have an atomic breath, right? Does he by chance collect electricity in some form before he shoots it?", asked Darc.

"He does...Wait, can you also created a shield around your body?", asked Martin.

"Yeah, I can do that.", smiled Darc and demonstrated his ki barrier.

"Amazing. The more I see this. The more I think this plan from Haruo makes sense.", mentioned Martin. "If the energy really is heated up before it can be shot, then that would explain a lot. The organ that creates the shield surrounding Godzilla also would generate that heat. If it malfunctions, Godzilla would explode."

"If you can create such energy. Can you not just blast Godzilla with it?", asked Yuko and stated the obvious with her question. She also seemed to be the only one not so amazed about him using ki.

Darc smiled and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I could, but if Godzilla manages to counter my attack with one of his own beams. That would have catastrophic outcomes. Do you know what happens when two stars crash into each other?", he asked.

Belu-be grumbled after hearing his question. "A black hole...."

"Correct. If by chance Godzilla hits my beam with his own, we could say goodbye to our lives, this planet and pretty much everything else in the solar system.", said Darc. This was something that didn't happen in the world of Dragonball but here the laws were like the ones from his old life.

And that means he can not just engage into a beam struggle with Godzilla. "Bombarding it with smaller ones still works though. Well, let's talk about that later. Yuko, you are with me. We will scout around.", he added and started to leave the room to inform Leland.

Yuko was surprised and looked at Martin and Belu-be. They both nodded and she followed Darc. Even if it was kind of reluctant. She volunteered to be here because of Haruo.

____________

Darc started the hoverbike that he got lend and looked back at the 6 people with him. "Listen carefully. Stay grouped as much as possible while flying around. I will not take any responsibility if any of you separates from the group and dies because of that. Do you understand?", said Darc to them.

"Yes, sir!", they replied to him.

"Alright, move out.", remarked Darc and started to fly in front of them. Their destination is the old Tanzawa Pass where the territory of Godzilla is. At least his activity is very high in that region and the likelihood to meet him there is the also the highest.

While flying, Yuko called him in on a direct communication channel so that the others wouldn't hear their conversation. Darc accepted the call. "What is it, Yuko?", he asked her.

"Major General, what will be doing exactly?", she asked now.

"Just call me Darc. You don't need to be so formal around me. And back to your question. We are going to observe Godzilla. Isn't that simple? If he reacts aggressively against us we will act accordingly. Right now we need to know how much of a threat Godzilla really is. And we need the data for that plan of yours, no?", answered Darc.

"From what I heard. Godzilla will attack us as soon as he sees us. The only thing that awaits us is death.", said Yuko.

"So because of just that, you would give up? Why? Are you that afraid? If I am correct, you were born on the Aratrum. You should have never met Godzilla.", he said and looked to her.

She fell into silence and her gaze was a little downcast. "I may not know what happened firsthand. But its just that all the people of the older generation still know about Godzilla and always seem to describe him as a devil...I wonder if it's really true. Is it really worth it fighting for a planet that looks so much different than it was before? And who guarantees us that our work won't result in another failure where we will stand in ruins again...So even if we win. What happens afterward?", she answered back.

Darc smiled somewhat and looked back to the front. "Hmm, that may be true. For you, this may be hard to believe that this was once a beautiful planet. Its variety of lifeforms was fascinating. Your doubts are rightfully there. But just think of this as a goal to reach. And when you are old, you will have your answer..." He stopped for a moment and noticed something from his senses "And concerning Godzilla. Well, as long as we keep our distance, Godzilla won't be able to achieve much." Then he pointed forward with his finger. "Look, we are already here. This is where I sense him." , said Darc and slowly stopped advancing. He looked over an expanse of mountains clustered together with forest.

He changed to the open channel. "Everybody keep your eyes open. Our friend is somewhere around here.", instructed Darc.

„With this amount of mist it's pretty hard to determine anything around us", mentioned a soldier.

„No, look. We are already getting company." , said another soldier and pointed at a swarm of drakes approaching them.

„Get together. Form a circle formation around me with your backs also to me. No one moves.", ordered Darc.

„But sir...", hesitated a soldier.

„That is an order.", said Darc coldly.

The soldier gulped his saliva in fear and executed together with the others and Yuko the order. They gathered in said formation and waited. Looking at their incoming demise some of them got very nervous. No wonder, who wouldn't.

When the drakes finally reached they started to try chomping the soldiers immediately but Darc blasted them dead every time one got close enough.

The soldiers shrieked in the face of death but after seeing how their commander easily killed those beasts. Only then did they actually get some sort of courage and composure back.

The drakes noticed their predicament and circled around them. They still tried to snack someone and had little success with Darc around. And at some point, they finally gave up after losing 7 brethren.

„Annoying pests.", commented Darc and looked around.

"Major General, look at this!", exclaimed Yuko and pointed at some readings indicating high radioactive emission.

And look and behold. In the direction from the reading, a 50-meter tall giant lizard with a charcoal colored skin and blue eyes stomped around the forest.

It had a very striking resemblance to a stegosaurus and t-rex. But unlike those dinos, this one had most of its mass on its lower body with its tail balancing out his upper body and the head portion. Like that he was also able to be sturdy and walk on two legs for quicker mobility at the same time.

"Hoooo, so that is Godzilla. That thing is actually huge. And considering by the looks of it. It isn't the one I actually feel concerned about...", said Darc and narrowed his eyes. "I am pretty sure if we attack that child over there we will get a mad visit by its parent. Well, let's see what he does and do our attack research later on it after we decide to leave."

Yuko nodded to his order and they approached Godzilla Filius slowly. All the while they tried to get the range in on what this fella is acting aggressively.

After trying it out more than once where he would start looking in their direction they could say he is approachable to so extent. If you are alone you can approach to about 200 meters until Godzilla Filius reacts to you. In a group, he won't even tolerate 300 meters.

So Darc and the group stayed around 320 meters around him and studied his behavior.

----

They actually managed to do this for quite some time.

"I wonder what he is doing?", asked Yuko.

"Hmm, by the looks of it I would say he seems to be searching something.", answered Darc and leaned forward over his steering stem with crossed arms to relax a little more.

"...How can you be so relaxed...Anyway, we are running low on fuel. We should head back. Is the data collected?", she said to Darc and sighed. Then she looked to a soldier and asked him for the data.

"We still need to collect some data with him reacting to attacks and forming his atomic breath.", answered the soldier back.

Darc looked at him and sighed. Seems his lazying about is over. "I will do that. You only need to collect a few minutes worth of material, right? Yuko, take care of this hoverbike for me.", said Darc and floated upward with his own strength.

When Darc did that Godzilla Filius immediately reacted differently and looked at him. That said, they were about 500 meters away from him at this moment.

"Oh, he actually doesn't like me flying? He seems to be able to sense me when I use ki. Well, I planned to engage you anyway. So it doesn't matter if you are angry, buddy.", chuckle Darc lightly. "You guys keep track."

Pumping out some more of his energy until a white aura pulsed around him, he charged straight at Godzilla Filius.

Darc also made sure to fly to the right side for a hefty amount of distance until he went flying for Filius himself.

All that was done to make sure that guy didn't fire a beam and hit his comrades behind him.

And just like he thought. Filius charged up electricity on his back fins and shot an atomic breath in his direction.

´That was fast!´, thought Darc and reacted quickly to dodge the beam. But while he dodged Filius followed his movements like a guided missile. Because of that Darc had to do a longer evading movement until the beam stopped.

Now that he had some time and Filius was likely recharging, he sent out about 3 blasts against him in retaliation.

Because of the massive size of Filius, he was very slow. And there was no way he could dodge those attacks. So they unsurprisingly hit the target.

Filius cried out with its iconic scream and now it was probably really mad. One could see electric sparks collecting and defusing into the air on Godzilla's skin around the impact zones of his blasts.

´Looks like the shield from Godzilla really helps him fend off even ki blasts. But that looked like it still hurt a lot.´ Then Darc flew closer and reached Filius to a distance of 3 meters. He could now see just how huge this guy was.

Flying past the points where his blasts hit and also avoiding the claw attacks from Filius let him judge the beast a little bit better. ´Hmm, I can see him recovering. That speed is akin to instantaneous regeneration once it started its process. Also, this guys agility is way higher than I first thought. That he actually can pinpoint my location around his body and precisely swing his arms at me is really good. But for him I should be like some annoying mosquito, huh?´, continued Darc to think about.

´Now, for the close quarters.´ Darc stopped and pulled out a barrage of small ki blasts against the abdomen part of Filius.

Godzilla Filius didn't like it one bit and cried out furiously. Then something happened what Darc didn't think would happen.

Out of frustration Filius charged up an immense amount of electricity on its fins in an instant and discharged it into its surroundings.

That let Darc furrow his brows and he initiated a movement technique to gain a few hundred meters of distance from him and that attack.

So after he vanished and reappeared some distance away, Darc could see the impact zone being about a 100 meters in diameter from Filius his location. The trees and ground burned to smithereens and only black coal-like substance remained.

´Well, ain't you a clever one...´, smirked Darc while thinking. ´I should wrap this up. I can feel someone else moving in on us. Probably big daddy or mommy or whatever it is.´

________

There was a wooden cottage surrounded by forest and the white snow hugged it dearly. It had warm glimmering light inside that illuminated some of its surrounding through the windows.

There could be laughter heard from inside when coming closer.

"Hahaha, take it easy, guys. Bullying poor Lite like that will only result in him enjoying it someday.", said Darc after laughing heartily and smiling to them.

"This idiot won't learn otherwise.", smirked Glew lovingly at Lite and commented on her husband being picked on like this.

"Hey, that's enough. already.", sighed Lite in defeat but still smiled.

"He didn't really change, did he?", said Luffa from the side.

"I wonder how that will affect the child later on, haha", commented Otamo and looked at Glew.

"I am going to be a great father, okay!? Stop teasing me like that just because I have my moments sometimes...", refuted Lite.

"Sometimes, he says.", grinned Arkis. "I still remember you have those moments more often than not while at work."

Lite just blushed because he felt embarrassed.

"You will make a great father, don't let the others tell you otherwise.", encouraged Darc him now.

"Oh, and you are one that can judge it?", asked Bulma beside him with Trunks in her lap.

"Well, am I that bad of a father?", he smiled back at her and asked.

"Yes...", was her answer.

"Huh?", exclaimed Darc in surprise and his smile vanished.

"You left us all. You left me, Arkis and even your son Trunks.", she continued on.

"What are you talking about now?", frowned Darc now since the atmosphere became strange. The others also stopped to smile.

"You abandoned us!!", she shouted now.

Darc clutched his head "Urgh, what is going on? I...." he started to remember something "I never abandoned you..."

"Yes you did, you died and left us all.", started the group to say in unison.

"You will never see my child. Do you even care about us?", said Glew.

"That is more than he ever cared for my feelings.", added Luffa.

"And I am now responsible for all the crap he started.", said Lite with a creepy smile.

"Where am I now? We haven't seen each other for so long. Do you even know what I am doing right now? Maybe I am already hanging beneath a rope.", asked Otamo.

Darc held his head even more because he felt a ringing inside his head that hurt like hell and all those words from his friends. what is going on?

"You didn't keep your promise. Maybe I should just abandon all your teachings and go that path you didn't want me to?", said Arkis now.

"You left me all alone with your son. Well, I guess it is time to get another father. Isn't that right, Trunks?", she asked trunks and Trunks pointed to Darc and exclaimed. "Not daddy!"

Darc started to get pissed off and the headache made it worse. "Damn it, what are you all talking about!" When he looked back up to them after his headache subsided somewhat, he saw something he would have never liked to have seen. The faces of his friends were distorted. Their eyes became black and blood ran down their eyes.

Darc flinched somewhat and tried to distance himself.

"See, he is running away! Again!", they all said in unison and started to try grabbing him and pulling at him. The whole room became distorted until nothing made any sense.

"No, I...NOOOOO!!", he screamed. Darkness overcame him.

----

And with that one last scream, he finally woke up with a jolt upwards. He breathed heavily and was drenched in sweat.

It took a while because of his adrenalin flowing through his body but the sensation of pain returned and hit him hard that he had to ay back down.

"Ugh...ha...ha...That dream...", he commented and now looked around himself. He was inside some small building with a few jars.

He remained silent for a moment and closed his eyes to get a little bit rest from his mental state. After that, he slowly leaned forward again even if it still hurt and looked down at himself.

´What the?´ He was naked at this moment and all over his body, there was some golden glittering substance. he let his finger run over it and picked it up. Then he rubbed it between his finger and thumb. It felt like silk.

Then he put it to his nose and smelled it. ´Hmm? Flower scent? Right! The poison!´, he thought and started to meditate. But he didn't see anything inside his body that was acting up. ´Wait, now that I think about it. How am I able to breathe right now? Is it maybe because of this stuff?´, he asked himself in his mind.

Darc sighed and looked around himself again to find his remains of his suit lying around near him. He picked them up and searched for the Kachin container.

He was happy to see it was still intact after all that. But it had some small damages at the edges.

Darc used the mechanism and opened the container. Inside it, there was pretty much everything he needed. He took out a senzu bean and at it. But the effect seemed to be somewhat milder because he still felt the ache in his body. ´Looks like even the senzu are affected by this world in some way. Making them less effective.´, he thought and took two more until it finally healed him back up to his full power.

Then he also took another spare of clothes and a new suit out of and stored the old one. For now, he also will not put the helmet on because he is curious how he is able to breathe.

Finished up, he went to what looked like a door. When he tried to push it open it was already being opened by someone else. It was a woman with a tanned complexion and white tattoo-like drawings on her body. She also had whitish-green hair with lavender colored ends. Her green eyes showed surprise after seeing Darc and she immediately dropped what she was carrying and ran off.

´Well, looks like the tribal people helped me out. But why did she ran away?´, he thought and followed her outside. What he saw then was a little bit of a shocker. The hut he was inside just now was just some wood clustered together along a cliff wall. And a ladder went up to the upper edge of the said cliff.

Looking up Darc could also see the mist again. He sighed and put his helmet back on. ´So much for breathing because of the powder. Looks like it is just healing powder that has some detoxification effect. But how is she herself able to breathe that...´, he thought and looked up to the woman that was climbing up the ladder and already inside the mist.

´Also, climbing? Hmm...I better do that to not get Godzilla´s attention again. For now, that is. I hope the others are alright and nothing happened while I was out cold.´ After thinking that through he started climbing upwards.

On the top of the cliff, he looked around and saw the woman was gone. He scratched his head.

´Now what?´, he wondered and opened up his omni tool. He fiddled around with it to configure it again for communication with the other and started scanning.

And surprisingly there was a signal not far from here. He wanted to move there but noticed a movement in front of him in the forest. It was the woman again. She also noticed his gaze and jumped away.

´So you want to play tag? Alright then.´, he remarked in his mind and used a movement technique to catch her.

He was jumping around like a monkey around the trees and his speed was astonishing. It didn't take long and he was catching up to her. The woman had a surprised look on her face and tried to give her all to escape.

But Darc caught her and held her against a tree. Then he looked at her with a smile. "Caught you.", he said.

*Let me go, please*, she transmitted to him via telepathy.

"Huh?", exclaimed Darc in surprise. *You can use telepathy?*, added Darc as a question.

The woman also was surprised at that moment. *You have the voice of the heart.*

*Well, I guess. If that's what you call it. Say, what's your name?*, he said again to her. It looked very weird right now how he held her and no one really talked but stayed as silent.

*...Miana*, she answered hesitantly.

*Nice to meet you, Miana. My name is Darc.*, he smiled and let her go. *Say, why did you try to run away?*

*You are traveling crow. Not one of Houtua. Danger. Destroys forest with a rain of fire.*, she explained to him.

*Crow? Rain of Fire? Oh, you mean the spaceships and the fire bombardment...Well, the first is something with what we move around and the second is to make room for us to land. Well, I already thought about this making you guys angry...*, he said and at that moment he heard gunshots.

He looked in that direction and started moving there since he knew it was probably Leland his group.

Miana looked after him and also followed suit.

___________

Rushing over to the place where the gunfight was at he saw some people near a wrack crouching down and shooting at what seemed to be the tribal race.

The people engaged in combat right now were Leland, Haruo, Yuko, Belu-be, Adam and a few other soldiers.

"Whoa, stop shooting!", shouted Darc and jumped over to them. "What? But we are under attack by them.", responded Belu-Be to his words.

And seeing how Miana appeared near Darc he shot at her because she looked identical to the one that was here a moment ago and attacked them. He thought she would sneak attack Darc.

Noticing that, Darc frowned and reacted quickly and caught the bullets with his hand. The others were surprised.

"ENOUGH!", he shouted and used is own telekinesis to grab all their weapons and threw them far away from them so they couldn't reach them. Miana got frightened and hid behind Darc.

"Did anyone of you even get hurt?", he asked after that.

They only looked at each other and shook their heads. At that moment a lot of tribal people surrounded them and pointed their weapons against them.

"Now we don't even have weapons. I hope you know what you are doing.", said Leland and raised his arms.

"So many people survived?", asked Haruo while looking at them in awe. He was practically the only one that did not shoot.

Then another Miana appeared behind the trees and joined them.

"Huh?", exclaimed Darc. Miana on the other hand smiled and moved with a happy expression to her identical copy.

"That is the one that attacked us...", said Belu-Be.

"So they are twins.", remarked Darc after looking at these two. They looked very identical. The only real difference is their facial expression being different. Well, that and Darc could differentiate them through their auras as well.

*You are?*, asked Darc now while using telepathy again.

The other woman was surprised and looked at him skeptically.

*It's alright, sister. He is good.*, said Miana.

Her sister still looked distrustful and stared at Darc for a while. *Maina. That is my name. Tell your people to follow us.*

Darc nodded and looked back at his group. "Looks like they want us to follow them. So let's just do that for now, alright?"

"What do you mean? They didn't even say a word just now.", said Leland.

"That is because they use telepathy, instead of vocal cords. But I think they can also speak. Given the time.", answered Darc and looked back to the twins. "Isn't that right?"

"Yes...", answered Miana with broken English. Now the others also heard the words and started to believe him. And with that, they had no other choice but to follow after her.

---

They were brought to the side of the cliff again and were lead down the ladders to a cave system.

While walking the others were amazed and compared the lifestyle of the Houtua to that of ants.

Darc used that moment to get some pieces of information. "Now that we are here. We can take off our helmets.", said Darc and took his helmet off. One of the Houtua became wary but Darc only smiled at the person and looked back to the others. They were hesitant but also opened their own helmets.

"Air feels nice.", said Adam after breathing in deeply. He was someone that was not with the previous group when Darc first met them. At that time he was together with another Bilusaludo of higher rank and commanded another unit. Seems like since Darc left they succeeded in gathering up.

"You are right about that. What happened to you guys by the way? How come you were just scattered around like this?", asked Darc now.

Lelan sighed. "Luck was not on our side. When you left, we tried to reorganize. At first, it all went smoothly and we all got together. Even Yuko returning and telling us that Godzilla was sighted around the Tanzawa pass let us calm down somewhat. It was after all somewhat of a distance away from us.", he answered and cast his gaze to the ground in depression.

"But the big fella found you later, huh?", grimaced Darc a little in worry.

"Exactly. That thing was on another whole scale. We lost basically everything equipment wise. And we would have lost a lot more people if not for Yuko telling us to abandon all vehicle and moving on foot in retreat.", he said and looked at Yuko Tani.

Darc smiled somewhat after hearing that. He did mention that to her while they were observing Godzilla. "Clever move. So you used the gathered intel about him and used the knowledge that Godzilla likes to find you by the energy from your ships to your advantage. It was good to minimize human casualties. Humans are the most precious resource at these times.", he commented and nodded. Then he looked at Yuko with a smile. "Well done, girl."

Yuko saw that and smiled back. "Thanks.", she replied. Then she frowned a little. "What actually happened after we left?"

Darc chuckled a little in embarrassment after hearing her question. "Hehe, I actually got owned by big mommy Godzilla. I had to recover and that's where they come into play." he pointed at the twins and meant the Houtua in general. "But I at least got the smaller Godzilla. So only one left to go.", he added.

Everyone made a shocked face after hearing he already killed one of the two. Most of them thought the Godzilla they saw was still the same that Yuko told them about.

"See, I told you this one was way too big to be the same...", remarked Yuko after being wronged prior."

Leland sighed after hearing that. He was happy but at the same time not so much after the bigger Godzilla attacked. "The thing is that most of us are now scattered on this planet with beasts surrounding them", he said.

"Is that so? Let me ask Miana and Maina about that.", Darc said back and looked to the twins in his front.

Both girls looked back after hearing their names as if knowing that he was about to ask something.

*Did you guys pick up any more of my people?*, he stated his question via telepathy.

The one that answered was Maina *We already took in about a few hundred of you. Somewhat about 500 people or so. You are the only one that uses the voice of the heart and did not show your fangs at us immediately. Why is that?*, she answered and asked back.

*So many! That is about nearly everyone we had left. Well done. Thank you for that. And why I can use telepathy? Well, I am actually not from this world. But even then not everyone can use this method of communication. It is, after all, a spiritual way to talk. Humans tend to express themselves with words or body language. For example, having your brows constantly in a frown as you do indicates wariness or anger*, he answered her with a big smile after getting the info. He also ignored the question about the guns at first. *And just as wary as you are against them. They are also wary against you. So they showed their fangs out of fear.*

Maina put a finger on one of her brows and seemed to understand what he meant. Her people were very spiritual and only using the voice of the heart.

*You said you are not from here. But aren't you all not from here?*, she asked again.

*Not in that way. These people all are humans from this planet. Because of Godzilla...That is the name that they gave that giant walking lizard above us...Because of him, they had to leave the earth and search for another star in the sky to live on. They weren't so lucky in their search and now returned. For them, it was only 20 winter but for your people, it was probably many...many more.*, explained Darc and tried to use words that she could understand easily. *But they once live here and are the ones that build those big ruins that stretch over some places in the forest.*, he added.

Maina heard his words and nodded. She changed her gaze back to her front while thinking. *I will tell the elders. You want to fight destruction. The enemy of our god...*

Darc noticed her description of what seemed to be Godzilla in their eyes. Destruction, huh?

Miana looked very curious after her sister stopped. *Do you also have a god?*, she asked while she had the chance.

Darc looked from one sister to the other. *God? Who is your god? Well, humans once had many religions. Many gods they believed in.*

*Our god is Mothra, mother of the egg. We Houtua are protectors of the egg.*, she answered.

*Miana, don't tell strangers!*, interrupted Maina now.

Darc sighed after being somewhat surprised what he got as an answer. He knew who Mothra was. And that these people worshipped her was surprising. *Don't worry, I won't tell them that you are believing in a kaiju. It would only bring chaos right now.* Then he looked back to his group. "They found pretty much everyone.", he gave them as info.

The others were surprised by that. "Really!?", asked Leland. "That is very good news.", he sighed in relieve now and a bright smile appeared on his face. "Sadly we can't really celebrate right now, I guess."

Haruo was also mostly smiling at this moment. "We still made progress. If one is down, we only need to convince Aratrum to send reinforcement. Also if we just collect our gear with the help of these people, we can start a real attack."

Leland frowned. "You actually want to keep fighting that thing after hearing that Darc nearly died?",he asked in a somewhat angry voice.

Darc wanted to intervene in this conversation but they didn't get to speak longer because they reached their destination. It was a room where they were led into and behind them, the door was closed. Looks like a prison.

"What! Hey! Let us out!", shouted Belu-be after seeing themselves being imprisoned.

"Don't make such a ruckus. They probably just put us here for safety´s sake", said Darc and walked further into the room. "Look, the others are also all here.", he added to that and looked at Martin who also came over.

"Haha, so it really is you guys. It is good to see you made it as well. And it looks like you already know that the air is good enough to breathe.", said Martin.

"Professor, it is good to see you as well.", smiled Haruo back and looked at all the others that are also here.

Another Bilusaludo approached Belu-be. "Belu-be, are you alright?", he asked.

Belu-be just saluted with his fist hitting his left shoulder. "Lieutenant Colonel, Galu-Gu. Thank you for your concern. I am fine.", answered Belu-Be.

Walking further in and sitting down they all started a conversation. "Is Metphies not here as well?", asked Haruo now after noticing that he was missing.

"Sadly, no. We don't know where he is.", answered Martin to him. Haruo looked somewhat downcast. "I see...", replied Haruo.

Darc heard that and frowned. ´What is that guy planning? The more I think about it, the more I dislike him. He seems to know more than he lets on...Why would he miss now while everyone else is here?´, thought Darc.

"Come to think of it. How come Miana and Maina are able to breathe that atmosphere above?", asked Adam now.

"Hmm, who are those people?", asked Martin back.

"Those are the names of the two woman who seems to have a higher social status in the tribe of the Houtua. That is the people we are held by right now.", answered Darc

"Oh, fascinating. How did you find that out? Anyway, it seems their lungs have got accustomed to the atmosphere but they still have lungs pretty similar to ours.", said Martin.

"Darc was the one that could communicate with them. They seem to use telepathy. And with your words. Does that mean they are descendant of us?" , asked Haruo.

"Telepathy?", exclaimed Martin and looked at Darc and then back to Haruo. "Well, it is very likely. But we should not get to wrong conclusions about that."

"With their appearance. Is it not the only possibility?", said Haruo again and vehemently wants them to be humans.

"That is not true. Do you also think about the Bilusaludo as Humans? Or the Exif? Humanoids are called humanoids because they resemble the standards we give other alien races. They pretty much can be evolved from anything. Like insects for example.", interrupted Darc now and thought about Mothra.

"I think so too. I saw that a weird power came out of their skin.", agreed Yuko.

"Hmm, scales? Than insects are not such a high assumption but could be possible. Very interesting. Well, they do seem to be humanoid like Darc said.", thought Martin and told the others.

"For us, they are not humanoids.", interrupted Belu-Be

Darc looked at him. "Let me guess. They don't have the technological standard to be called humanoids in your view."

Galu-Gu nodded and was pleased. "That is correct."

Darc only sighed. "That is a very roundabout way to think about humanoids...Should I be worried?", he asked him.

"Why? Because we consider technological advancement of a species as a standard to deem them humanoids?", asked Galu-Gu back and lost his smile a little.

"Yes, the Houtua may lack technology. But with Godzilla running around its no wonder. Also, they are spiritually far ahead of you guys. In a way, it's just cultural differences.", explained Darc.

"But the Exif are also religious and still have highly advanced technology.", rebuked Belu-Be.

"It's alright, Belu-be. He is somewhat right. They have the constant threat of Godzilla. In other circumstances, they would have become like us. Good, I will see them as humanoids. Is that what you wanted?", said Galu-Gu.

Darc smiled. "Maybe. All I am saying is you are probably only thinking about them as beasts and I do not like that train of thought of yours.", explained Darc.

Belu-Be sighed after hearing his words. He was right. "We will have to get out of here anyway. Even if we must kill them. I just wanted to make it easier for you while not seeing them as humanoids...You, humans, were always an emotional bunch."

Haruo frowned after knowing what they plan "How can you even talk like that.", he asked and gritted his teeth. The atmosphere became dense and awkward again.

´I wonder how the hell these 3 species came together in cooperation...´, wondered Darc now.

"What do you think they will do with us?", asked Adem awkwardly to break the silence. Making it even cooler around them.

"Well, they don't seem to be hostile to us. They even healed up our injured.", answered Martin. "But Darc probably knows most to that."

Everyone looked at Darc at that moment. "He is right. I was also healed after I got badly injured by that giant lizard. Anyway, they will probably bring us in front of a tribunal or something. I heard one of the woman mention elders. After all, we did attack them and burned down the forest. For them, we are intruders. No matter how we claim the earth to be ours...", explained Darc.

"They also could just use us as a sacrifice. Just look around you.", interrupted Belu-Be.

The room was littered with skulls in what seems to be a cemetery for the Houtua.

"Don't be so negative...", rebuked Darc and frowned. "They wouldn't bring us here if they wanted us dead.", he added.

"I hope you are right...", said Yuko now and covered her arms around her knees.

"Yuko...Everything will be fine.", assured Haruo her after noticing her fear.

"About that. Our plan on hitting Godzilla came to a fast end it seems. Everything will be fine? I doubt that. You are even thinking about starting another suicide mission...", interrupted Leland now after being silent most of the time before they entered the room.

Haruo looked at him and somewhat glared at him. Leland only snorted to his gaze.

´These two are friends as I know...But Leland is right. Haruo is way too obsessive with Godzilla. Another reason why I don't like that Metphies. From his memories, I can see he manipulated Haruo a lot...And he didn't notice because he believes in him so much...Blind faith? In what, though?´, thought Darc right now.

And just at that moment, Maina with 4 other warriors entered the room and came over to them.

"It´s you.", remarked Haruo.

"Looks like it is time.", said Darc and stood up. "Everyone of higher rank, follow suit.", he ordered and walked over to Maina.

______________

Darc and the others were once again lead to another location. This time it was a massive room with a large wall that had a lot of writing on it. It was like all the other tunnels and rooms lit with the same pole torches.

The writing on the wall looked like the language of the Houtua and seemed very important to them. It even had a small stairway leading up to it.

Below that stairway 6 figures were sitting cross-legged. 3 on either side of it. Maina and Miana stopped the group some distance away in front of those people and went up the stairways on their own. Then they placed their hands on the wall and it started to emit some light.

´Hmm?´ Darc notices that the others all grabbed their heads in pain and thought what was up with them. But he gets his answer pretty quickly because he heard the voices of the two twins in his head. It was telepathy on a massive scale.

"Praise the egg. The darkness of the land is the peace of the Houtua. The light of dawn shall purge the revenge beyond our reach.", they both said in unison as if talking at the same time.

"Ugh, my head. Is this telepathy?", asked Martin.

"But why do they know our language?", asked Yuko.

"Telepathy has no language, Yuko. Everything you say will automatically be translated into the best possible translation or meaning to the one you talk to. Some of you probably hear the voices in your first ever spoken tongue.", explained Darc to them. "Now you could actually ask them whatever you want, but it looks more like they will be the ones questioning you. Well, some things may become riddles because not everything can match."

"He is right. We hear the language of the Bilusaludo.", agreed Galu-Gu.

Another wave of headaches overcame them. The 6 that were sitting crosslegged started to open their eyes and seemed to be the ones talking.

"With the song of the egg, we ask you traveling crows. Please lend your ears to the baby chicks. That is the question of the egg. That is the song of the Houtua"

"See what I mean? Riddles. But essentially they ask that we listen to the twins and answer their questions.", commented Darc after hearing the words from what seemed to be an elder.

"Hmm, so these two are the ones that make this communication possible?", asked Martin curiously.

"Not entirely. Now, hush...", answered Darc.

What the twins asked after that were the basic things Darc was already asked by them prior. For example why they burned the forest and they the attacked them with guns. The one answering the questions this time around was Leland since he was the one with the highest rank among the current humans here.

Haruo mixed himself into that conversation after hearing the questions the two wins had. "We are sorry for the misunderstanding. We only came here to destroy Godzilla!", he said to them. Leland gritted his teeth and wanted to bark at Haruo for being so damn persistent about this. It was also not his place to talk right now.

But just at that moment, another wave of many voices came over them and they clutched their heads. Only Darc stood normally and listened to all the people in the room talking about Haruo his words. Then it became silent again and the others were back to normal.

"Ugh, this telepathy really is overloading our brains...", mentioned Martin. "So that is what you meant with them being far ahead of us in spirituality.", he added and looked to Darc. He only smiled back at him and continued to look back at the twins.

"Godzilla, Destruction, Fear. Godzilla, an enemy of our god. The traveling crows are against Godzilla and have pecked at the flesh of his servants.", said the two twins.

"Yes, that is right. We came back to conquer earth back from Godzilla", shouted Haruo this time. And now the people started to bombard the group with telepathy voices in storms. But the highest ranked elder calmed them down.

"The traveling crows are not wings of death. You are singing songs of life like the Houtua. But claws of crows will not reach Godzilla.", the twins once again spoke.

"You say we can't win?", asked Galu-Gu for confirmation.

"Even god of Houtua was defeated by Godzilla. Only an egg is left. Whoever fights him only perishes and turns to ashes.", said the twins.

"No! I know we can win! Darc already killed one Godzilla.", rebuked Haruo against them saying that they will not win.

"Whoa there, buddy. Keep it down. Just because I killed Godzillas offspring or whatever that smaller one was, doesn't mean I can handle that big fella. Sadly he is on another whole level. We at least need something that can help us against his atomic breath and shield to get anywhere.", said Darc now after Haruo seemed to mention Darc like some asset in his fight for revenge.

The twins both looked at Darc. "Glowing firefly may help you, but Houtua will go the path of harmony and life."

´Do they mean me with glowing firefly? Is it because of my aura?´, thought Darc at this moment.

"Harmony, huh", repeated Yuko after feeling that it somehow was the right path.

The conversation was basically over with that and everyone went back to the previous room. that is all but Darc.

*Darc, please stay.* , came as a telepathic message to him. So he stopped and looked back to the twins. They approached him.

*Is what you said true? If you had a method of protecting yourself from the fire breath of Godzilla you could beat him?* It was Maina that was asking the words.

*Hmm, yes I am pretty sure. But for that, I would still need a little bit of help or I would just end up like last time or even worse. Oh, I nearly forgot. Who of you two saved me? I was in your cottage after all and Miana tried to bring me food. Well, whoever it was from you both. Thanks for saving me. I didn't get to thank you yet.*, he said back and reminded himself of actually thanking them.

*You don't need to thank us. It is the way of the Houtua to help and live the life of harmony.*, said Miana *Also, the one that saved you was big sister Maina.*

Darc chuckled a little. *So it was actually you. The one who is so cautious of humans still has a pure heart. Oh, and you are also the older sister, huh? Well, I will still thank you.*

Maina frowned her brows now even more than before. *We can help you. There is powder of our god. It can repel the fire breath of Godzilla. And there is the poison that is also working on the animals in the forest. It could also maybe work on Godzilla as well.*, she said and continued the previous topic. Totally ignoring her sisters and Darc´s words.

Now Darc was a little surprised. *There are actually such useful things? That is very good news. With that, I could very likely get rid of Godzilla and you would not have to live in fear anymore. At least not from Godzilla.*, he told them and looked back at the wall with the writing.

*That would be nice*, said Miana and smiled while thinking about defeating the one that killed their god and is terrorized them. *Darc has a powerful bite. We Houtua saw you defeating offspring of Godzilla. You shined with bright light like Firefly. So Firefly we call you now.*

Darc still talked a little bit with them and later joined the other humans. When he reached his destination he saw that they were all lead outside of the living space of the Houtua.

"What is going?", he asked Martin after joining them.

Martin reacted and looked at Darc. "Looks like since we are no threat they let us go. But I fear that going outside is not going to end well for us right now. Haruo also got into a fight with some other people about his plan to still fight on. Some also want to retreat. Get some equipment and get back to the Aratrum.", answered Martin.

"And what do you think yourself?", asked Darc back instantly after receiving his explanation.

"We lost most of our equipment and now are stranded here. What else is there but to try retreat back. Of course, we could still live together with the Houtua if we abandoned our waring tendencies.", thought Martin and gave as an answer.

"Hmm, well let's see how things go. If people really want to get back it's better to search for communication equipment and contact your mothership to get a pickup.", said Darc to him.

After some time they were already up on the cliff and walking through the forest in search of their equipment. While searching they came into a sarlacc trap and even drakes came landing down and started enjoying their easy prey. Seeing the humans as an extra was a delight for them.

But just when they wanted to charge they were fired at by some mobile spider tanks. Darc also stopped fighting and bashed in a drakes head with his fists. Then he also looked to the reinforcement that was here.

The one commanding that force was the missing Exif, Metphis.

"Metphis, you just came in the right timing.", shouted Haruo and was happy to see his friend.

Darc on the other hand still frowned how this guy had such precise moments to appear and disappear. Nevertheless, the others seemed to be overly happy about having him being back. Looks like he did more manipulative work than Darc first had thought.

Also getting some of their equipment back, the soldiers now could get sooner into contact with the mothership Aratrum.

Darc chose a time when Metphis was not surrounded by anyone and only looking at a stone in his hands that looked like some computer or the likes.

Noticing that he was approached, Metphis put the stone to the side and looked at Darc. He had a friendly smile on his face. But Darc, of course, didn't believe that smile was genuine.

"You had a very good timing there. What did you do until now?", asked Darc him.

"Not much. I gathered up the lost souls and as you can see I brought them here. We were searching for you.", he answered with a very monotone expression on his face. Then looked away to Haruo. "Finding my friends is an important thing for me. Don't you also agree with that?"

*I am not sure. It depends on what you are planning...*, said Darc and smirked.

"What do you mean with....", answered Metphis and wanted to deny his suspicion but what made him stop immediately is that the words Darc said were not spoken. Metphis mad a somewhat shocked expression and turned his gaze back to Darc. *You can use telepathy?*, added Metphis and didn't even try to hide it that he heard Darc.

*Answer me. What is it you are after.*, repeated Darc once again.

*Nothing. That is the same I would have told you with normal words. I do not know what you want to achieve with your accusations.*, told Metphis him and remained calm. Maybe it was just a race trait that they were so emotionless and calm.

So Darc had somewhat of a hard time to guess his thinking process. But at least he sure as hell didn't forget to notice Metphis his little panic shock when he used telepathy. "Fine, let it be a warning. I don't like your way you seem to overstep your boundaries.", said Darc normally now and turned away to also walk away. What he meant with his warning was what he saw in Haruo his memories. The way he behaved was very suspicious and yet everyone thought him normal.

Metphis only looked at Darc his back and then looked back to his stone. *It looks like we will have to accelerate our plan.*, he said telepathically while the stone started to glow greenish. *Understood*, it came back from another voice.

Back at the point where the others were standing around, Darc saw that the communication with the mothership seemed to be a success and that some soldiers entered the shuttle that was here to pick them up. But a lot of people stayed. From the Bilesaludo there was actually no one that wanted to return. they viewed this as their chance for killing Godzilla.

When the shuttle departed Darc sighed. "Alright, I think it is about time I give you some information that may be of good use. Since you are the ones the decided to fight Godzilla." He looked at everyone around him.

"Maina and Miana say they found a poison they use on their arrowheads that is very effective against the drakes and other creatures that have undergone mutations like Godzilla. They also possess a powder that helps deflect his atomic breath and conceal yourself from his senses.", explained Darc to them. "They will bring us to the location where they harness the poison. So bring everything with us and let's move out.", ordered Darc now.

Then he looked to the twins and smiled. *If you would be so kind to lead us where you found the poison?*, asked Darc them. Maina nodded and Miana looked at a mech in curiosity.

----

After a long march, they finally arrived at their destination at a mountain range that looked like a massive crater thousand meters wide and hundreds of meter deep.

The two high ranking Bilusaludo Belu-Be and Galu-Gu both got some signals from the center of the crater.

"That is amazing! It's really it, right?", asked Belu-Be.

"That is the only thing that it can be.", answered Galu-Gu.

"What are you two talking about?" asked Leland and noticed their conversation.

"We got a signal from MechaGodzilla!", answered Galu-Gu. "The weapon created to fight Godzilla is still alive. So the poison the Houtua are using is our nanometal."

Darc also overheard that topic. "Nanometal? So this stuff is your creation?", asked Darc and looked at them. At this moment he had to think about the substance inside his test tube.

"Yes, it is a masterpiece of us Bilusaludo.", said Galu-Gu proudly.

"Hmpf", snorted Darc and saw the twins waving to them. Following them, he finally saw what was inside the crater. "Well, looks like your creation is eating itself through the planet like a disease.", he commented on the picture the massive metallic city below them showed him.

"So MechaGodzilla survived and fought 20.000 years on.", said Belu-Be and put his fist over his left chest again as if paying respect to it. "Its also not a disease. It only follows its program. If we can get in there we could very likely control...MechaGodzillaCity. We could produce infinite amounts of fighting the power and also produce large enough weapons that could be used against that large Godzilla just the same as they would on the smaller one.", the started to talk.

Darc was not interested in this conversation. He was a man of science to some degree but he disliked the use of nanites. One wrong move and it could go a very bad way. Just seeing this city just lets Darc think about where it gets most of its resources to grow.

Those drakes that it seems to sewer from time to time with metal pikes? That is very unlikely. Darc could see very clearly how vain-like branches ate away at the surrounding geographics.

*You two alright?*, asked Darc the twins that looked somewhat nervous around here.

*This place is evil. It consumes and eats everything. That is why we only use it in small quantities as poison.*, answered Maina.

*Baby Chicks!! Return Home!*, came from afar and Darc, as well as the twins, looked in the direction where it came from.

Martin also noticed that. "Looks like the Houtua noticed the missing of these two girls.", he said.

The twins looked at Darc. *Be careful, Firefly*, they both said in unison and Maina gave Darc a bag. Then they ran off to their tribesmen to disappear completely from their view.

Darc looked after them and opened the bag. There was glittering golden powder inside it. ´This is probably the powder they mentioned. So it is the same that was on my skin when they treated me.´, thought Darc and closed it again. He tied it up to his waistbelt so that he could easily access it.

______________