Read up to 15 chapters ahead on Patreon - patreon.com/Light_lord
-----
As the atomic reactor in his body quieted, Miraluz's glow dimmed.
His body temperature dropped rapidly, steam hissing off his scales as the Red Lotus state faded.
His breathing steadied, and the molten veins etched across his body slowly cooled until only faint traces of crimson remained.
The battlefield, however, bore scars that would never fade.
Charred earth stretched to the horizon.
The tundra had been reduced to a blackened wasteland, rivers of molten rock glowing through cracks in the crust.
The corpses of the MUTO swarm were nowhere to be seen; they had been reduced to ash and vapor, carried away by the inferno.
Only the smoldering husk of the MUTO Prime remained, barely intact, spared only because Miraluz had ended his breath before it, too, was obliterated.
Miraluz lowered his head slightly, his golden eyes narrowing in thought.
'The Red Lotus… it is devastating, but fleeting. The burden on the body is too much. My software has evolved, but the hardware is not enough. Too much power, not enough strength to sustain it.'
His claws flexed against the cracked ground.
'If I force it too long… I'll burn up.'
Yet the cost had been worth it.
Already, his instincts, his strange system of harvest and growth, thrummed with reward.
[You hunted a MUTO Queen (Titan) and obtained 8,000,000 gene points.]
[You hunted a male MUTO (Al-Titan) and obtained 300,000 gene points.]
[You hunted a female MUTO (Al-Titan) and obtained 700,000 gene points.]
[…]
[You hunted a MUTO Prime (Alpha-Titan) and obtained 50,000,000 gene points.]
"…"
The numbers blazed across his mind's eye.
The haul was huge, over a hundred million gene points gathered from one battlefield.
But the Prime was the crown jewel.
Fifty million from a single Alpha-class Titan. A feast.
Miraluz's jaws curled into something between a growl and a grin.
Truly… a harvest.
Then, another prompt.
[You can extract the dragon beetle gene: "Seismic Control (Lv . 1)." Do you wish to extract?]
Miraluz froze, then let out a low rumble of amusement.
'Seismic waves… the Prime's own signature. The skill that allowed them to challenge Titans far larger than themselves.'
Without hesitation, he answered: Extract.
The air vibrated faintly as the new gene embedded itself into his being.
[Seismic Wave Control Lv 1 (0/100,000)]
Information flooded his mind:
Seismic waves are split into three forms.
P-waves, the propulsive shock traveling through the crust at nearly 7 km/s, hammer the ground up and down.
S-waves, shear waves rippling left and right, breaking stone like glass.
And surface waves, where the two collided, rolling across the land with ruinous force.
Miraluz felt his claws twitch. Beneath him, the earth whispered.
The tremor of tectonic plates, the song of buried stone.
He could almost… touch it.
MUTO Primes had honed this art into catastrophe.
Legends said their kind could trigger quakes above magnitude 10, continent-rending disasters, explosions of force equivalent to fifteen billion tons of TNT.
Enough to erase cities, sink islands.
But legends often lied.
The truth was crueler.
Only the greatest of their lineage had ever neared that level, and the toll on their bodies was unbearable.
Even the Prime he had slain had never reached such heights.
For now, Miraluz could barely rattle the earth with the strength of a magnitude six quake.
Strong enough to devastate cities, but nowhere near his new potential.
His tail lashed slowly behind him.
At level five… perhaps I, too, will shake the world like the Prime once dreamed.
Before he could sink deeper into thought, a roar echoed through the scorched air.
"RRRRRAAAAAHHHHHH!!"
Miraluz's head snapped toward the sound.
Across the wasteland, a familiar silhouette stirred.
Massive, reptilian, jagged spines glowing faintly, a titan who had lain broken during the battle, now rising once again.
Godzilla.
Miraluz's eyes narrowed.
'So, you stll alive.'
The King of Monsters shook himself, ash falling from his battered scales.
His chest rose and fell, ragged.
He had been crushed, beaten, left for dead… and yet he endured.
His glare locked on Miraluz, his nostrils flaring.
'Does he mean to challenge me again?'
The dragon's wings twitched, preparing for battle.
But then,
Godzilla lowered his head.
The hostility in his posture faded.
His dorsal plates dimmed, their faint blue light receding.
He did not charge. He did not roar a challenge.
He… bowed.
Not in submission, but in acknowledgment.
From his perspective, he had watched everything.
He had seen the swarm broken, the Prime crushed, the Queen erased in fire.
He had seen Miraluz ascend into Red Lotus, wielding a power beyond comprehension.
His resentment, his pride, his anger… they had melted in that inferno.
There was no shame left, only understanding.
Too strong.
This was not a rival.
Miraluz studied him in silence.
He could feel the sincerity in the gesture, the grudging respect.
Slowly, the dragon's wings folded against his back.
The battlefield fell quiet.
For the first time since the battle began, there was no roar, no scream, no clash of titans.
Only the faint groan of cooling stone and the hiss of molten rivers in the distance.
The age-old King of Monsters and the new Emperor stood facing one another across the scorched earth, neither moving, both recognizing what had been decided.
Not only did this dragon command an army of dinosaurs that could rival the MUTO swarm, but his own strength…
His strength was enough to annihilate an Alpha-class Titan.
Godzilla's eyes narrowed as the memory replayed in his mind.
The burning scarlet line, hotter than magma, brighter than the sun.
If that breath had been aimed at him, even he was unsure he could have survived it.
Perhaps… perhaps Miraluz had shown mercy in their first battle?
The thought stung. But the truth was undeniable.
Godzilla had no choice but to accept it, because he had seen the fate of the MUTO Prime with his own eyes.
And so, standing once more in the presence of the silver dragon soaring above, Godzilla lowered his proud head.
'I can't keep competing.'
Yet doubt lingered in his chest. Where had Miraluz come from?
With such overwhelming might, surely this being was no stranger to the world of Titans.
Yet Godzilla had never once heard whispers of his name among the atomic dinosaurs.
And the army beneath him… strange.
Impossible, even.
Dinosaurs that had gone extinct tens of millions of years ago now walked at his command, not as Titans, but as mutated beasts.
They bore no lineage of the Titan clan.
No Titan's scent. And yet… they fought like them.
A faint nod rippled through his silver mane, acceptance without words.
To conquer Godzilla, an Alpha-class Titan, no less, was a victory that carried weight beyond battle.
For in the Jurassic Alliance, none yet stood at the Titan's life level.
Grey and the Five Dragon Generals were formidable, but still only sub-Titans.
Godzilla, with his colossal frame and limitless potential for growth, would be a pillar in the alliance's foundation.
Soon, the first generation of Jurassic Alliance dinosaurs regrouped.
The battlefield was scarred, but they had triumphed.
The Mosasaur remained behind to guard Isla Sorna, while the others gathered around their leader.
Victory came with blood. Wounded dinosaurs limped beside their kin, while the dead were carried on the backs of survivors.
Each body was destined either for healing on Isla Sorna… or burial.
Casualties were inevitable.
Miraluz's gaze softened as he watched them, but he did not grieve.
'Seeds raised in the greenhouse cannot weather the storm.'
'Strength is not gifted, but forged.'
'Only by walking through death's shadow, by facing wind and fire with their own strength, will they cease to be sheltered children and grow into a civilization.'
"Let's go!"
His deep roar carried through the ash-filled sky.
At his command, Gray hefted the carcass of the MUTO Prime, and the Alliance prepared to withdraw.
But then,
"RRRRAAAHHHHHHHH!!"
Godzilla's roar broke across the field, not one of challenge but of demand.
His gaze locked onto Miraluz.
The dragon tilted his head.
"You would ask me something?"
A guttural growl followed, heavy with suspicion. Godzilla wanted answers.
'Where had this Titan come from?'
'What was the truth behind the impossible legion of resurrected dinosaurs?'
Miraluz's eyes glowed faintly, amused.
"Our origins?"
He did not hide it. After all, it was no secret to humankind.
So he told Godzilla, briefly but plainly, of the events in Jurassic World a year ago, the experiments, the mutations, the battles, the evolution that had carried him from artificial life to Titanhood.
When he finished, silence hung between them.
Godzilla blinked once. Twice.
His massive brow furrowed.
The truth slowly sank into his colossal skull.
He wasn't born as an Titan.
He evolved… step by step. From an artificial dinosaur into this?
The revelation rocked him.
Miraluz's immense presence, his devastating breath, his mastery of power that even ancient Titans feared, all of it had been achieved in mere months?
A year.
Only a single year.
The realization hit like a thunderclap.
Godzilla froze, his eyes widening in disbelief.
'One year old?'
The thought echoed in his mind like a bad joke.
His tail twitched, almost comically.
How the hell is he one year old?!
For the first time in ages, the King of Monsters was utterly, hopelessly confused.