Rebirth As Godzilla

What is despair? Forget the textbook definitions. There's one thing that defines it better than any dictionary ever could, 

It's that soul-crushing moment when, no matter how hard you fight, you know it's pointless.

Like staring at a math problem and realizing, with absolute certainty, you'll never solve it.

You can't even die to get out of it. There's no escape. That… that's despair.

So what was that thing?

A fish? An insect? Maybe even a human?

Whatever it was, it didn't fit into any category.

It dragged itself onto the battlefield with a wet, guttural moan, 

A living nightmare, soaked in death. Its body was massive, easily tens of meters long. Even hunched over, it loomed like a building.

Black smoke and the stink of rotting meat poured off it in waves.

Its head was tangled with thick, matted hair, slick with filth. You couldn't even tell if it had eyes beneath that mess.

Three oversized jaws jutted from its face, misshapen and buried in lumps of diseased flesh like cancerous tumors. The upper half of its body looked vaguely human, but bloated and mutated, the arms covered in scales and warts, spikes jutting out at weird angles.

Its lower body was a horror show, ripped open, intestines spilling out in long, wet strands that dragged behind it like ropes.

A twisted tail scraped the ground, its blood leaving a burning red trail in the dirt. It crawled forward on all fours, dragging its swollen form, scooping up anything in its way, monster or otherwise, and stuffing it into one of its jaws like trash.

Behind it, a few smaller mutants followed, trailing frost and weird, flickering energy. Creepy, yeah, but they were just echoes.

This one was the real threat. The boss.

"Fire! FIRE!!" Panicked shouts rang out from the city wall. Cannons were turned, guns locked on, and spells lit the air.

Tired mages, wounded warriors, they all braced, raising trembling arms and focusing everything they had on the beast.

At first, it didn't even flinch. It just kept moving, still gorging on whatever it could grab.

Only once it got deeper into range did it seem to notice the attack.

A tidal wave of destruction hit it. Fire, lightning, wind, all at once. The ground beneath cracked. Water rushed up and instantly froze, locking the creature in place.

Blades of light, molten stone, and crashing spells followed, all slamming into its body.

It worked. Chunks of flesh were blown away. Blood and bone flew across the field.

The monster let out a horrible screech, its mouth echoing in three different tones.

But it didn't die.

From the shattered rubble, a massive blood-soaked arm reached out, It grabbed a silver-ranked warrior who'd jumped in to land a killing blow. 

Then squeezed. There was a sickening crunch. The scream was short. Then silence.

The hand pulled back under the debris.

Moments later, the monster rose again, Twisted even more than before. Its flesh bubbling like something alive. Healing all the wound.

Then it roared. A bone-rattling sound that shook the air itself. From deep inside its throat, something began to glow, Not fire. Not lightning. Something worse. Dark energy gathered into a pulsating orb.

It fired.

A black beam ripped through the battlefield like a blade from hell. It carved the land open, tearing straight through men, beasts, armor, 

Even magic shields snapped like paper.

The beam struck the city wall. One second, there was an enchanted fortress. 

The next, just dust.

The explosion ripped deep into the city behind it, triggering another blast that lit the sky in a towering mushroom cloud. A crater, dozens of meters wide, swallowed everything in its path.

People. Buildings. Streets. All turned to glittering ash.

"Brace!!" Someone raised a shield. But It didn't matter. They and the shield were both vaporized on the spot.

The once-imposing wall now had a gaping hole.

The ground around it was nothing but scorched, melted stone. Charred bones. Torn limbs.

This wasn't just some monster attack. This was a threat creeping into gold-rank territory. And it had only just begun.

The monster shuddered, smoke curling from its jaws. Blood poured from its torn body, but it didn't stop. It started devouring the dead to heal, corpses, nearby monsters, anything it could reach. 

And the worst part? More were closing in, dragging berserk beasts along with them like they were answering a call. The defense line, already strained, began to fall apart.

Now partially healed, the monster crawled toward the breach, a slow-moving avalanche of rot and hunger. Everything in its path, monster or man, got pulled into one of its gaping mouths. It wasn't just a creature anymore. It was despair, made real.

High in the mage tower, Syltra peeked out. Her body trembled. She lost her footing and hit the floor hard, her glasses clattering across the stone. "What… the hell…" she whispered, on the verge of tears.

She had nothing left. All her scrolls were gone. Even the emergency ones. Just a few cheap wind spells and some basic support magic remained.

Her body was drained. Her mind barely holding on. Her legs buckled beneath her.

Then came a blast. The monster's mouths lit up again. Below the tower, other creatures fired their spells, and the structure's base crumbled.

A second black beam ripped through the air. The tower cracked. Syltra hurled a desperate earth spell, forming a soft mound just in time to catch herself as she fell. She rolled hard onto the city wall.

Warm blood dripped from her forehead. Her hand wrapped around cold metal. She looked down. "Blood…" Her own, others', and in her hand, a blood-soaked sword. 

Someone else's weapon. Maybe a soldier's. Maybe an adventurer's. She had no idea.

A scream cut the air. "GRRRAAAHH!!"

She flung an ice spike straight through the skull of a monster crawling up the wall. Her wand flicked up, she raised a stone pillar to deflect a wind blade, then blasted the oncoming horde with a shockwave.

A flying beast dove at her, its claws glowing with eerie cold light.

Slash!

The sword in her hand flashed, and the beast was cut clean in half. She lowered the blade slowly. A mage wasn't just spells. Not today.

"Over there, move! Get out!" A man with a torn-up leg screamed, blood bubbling from his lips. Behind him, a snow-leopard-like monster pounced.

Syltra didn't even think. A stone spike erupted from the ground, skewering it in midair. "You'll live… probably," she muttered. "Your wound's not too bad, let me, " 

She stepped toward him. "No… not me," he gasped. "Behind you… too late."

"Huh?" She turned.

A massive shadow loomed over her. It swallowed the light like a storm cloud. Slime dropped near her boots, sizzling as it melted the stone.

She couldn't breathe. Magic pressure slammed into her like a falling mountain. Her eyes blurred from the force of it.