A giant monster was rising from the depths. It had an impossibly elongated body supported by legs that seemed far too thin to hold its massive weight. Its face was insectoid, with compound eyes that reflected light in disturbing patterns and mandibles that clicked with a sound like grinding metal.
The creature was more than a kilometer long from head to tail. Its stomach was covered with countless large tentacles that writhed independently, creating a horrifying spectacle of alien biology.
Every person on the beach stared in despair at the monstrosity. The sheer size of it was overwhelming. It would only need to roll over Gateway City, and everything would be crushed beneath its bulk or dragged into the ocean.
Diana's face had gone pale, her eyes wide with recognition and fear. "By Hecate!," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "It's death personified."
Natasha, who had pulled herself together faster than the other SHIELD agents, turned to Diana. "What do you mean by that?"
Diana's voice was grim. "I meant exactly what I said. That is Tetracide, and it leaves nothing behind."
She looked at Coulson, her expression more serious than he had ever seen. "Son of Coul, I need you to evacuate this city immediately. I will buy you whatever time I can."
Coulson started to protest, but Diana held up her hand.
"Before you leave, I shall tell you how the Tetracide kills, so you may have some hope of fighting it after it has killed me."
"What?" Coulson was shocked. He knew how strong Diana was. She was among the top three in SHIELD's list of heavy hitters, individuals capable of threatening entire cities before SHIELD could mobilize enough force to stop them. If Diana thought she would die fighting this thing...
Diana continued, her voice taking on the cadence of someone reciting ancient knowledge. "The Tetracide's name translates to 'the four-killer,' which is an allusion to its four methods of killing."
She pointed at the creature, which was still emerging fully from the water. "The first is the death of fear. It seems unassuming, does it not? But the creature erases people's fear of it by emitting a sound that draws them in."
"Like a siren?" Natasha asked.
"Exactly like a siren. The Tetracide attracts victims through this emanation. But when they touch him, it also strips away their ability to fight back, to resist, to even understand what is happening to them. This is the second death - the death of the mind. They feel the pain, but they cannot process it, cannot struggle against it."
Diana's expression grew darker. "They rush toward its mouth willingly, compelled by the sound and the death of the mind. Then it crushes them in its jaws to carry out the third death - the death of the body."
The SHIELD agents were listening intently now, horror growing on their faces as they understood the implications.
"And the fourth death?" Coulson asked quietly.
Diana met his eyes. "Death of soul. That explains itself, does it not?"
The beach was silent for a moment.
"You mean..." Natasha began.
"Yes," Diana confirmed. "The Tetracide destroys its victims' souls so that they are unable to progress to any sort of afterlife. When it kills you, you are truly gone. No heaven, no hell, no reincarnation. Just... nothing."
She gestured toward the creature. "The lucky ones will be those who get crushed in the mob when people are running toward it. At least they will have their souls intact. At least they will find peace in whatever comes after."
Diana's voice rose. "So for the love of Hera, leave this place! Run if you can! Evacuate every person you can reach before that thing starts singing!"
Everyone was shocked at this revelation. Even Kon-Rao, though not shocked or in despair, was deeply engaged in Diana's explanation. He was confident he could deal with the creature, but he was intrigued by its mechanics.
He wanted to know how it worked. Whether its powers operated through biological means or through some form of magic. The ability to destroy souls was not something that could be explained by conventional biology, which meant there was something else at play here.
Diana continued, "The creature is also extremely resistant to magic. My mother Circe would have been far more effective against it with her mastery of the dark arts, but alas, we only have me and my limited magical abilities."
She turned to Kon-Rao, and their eyes met. "Kon-Rao, you aided me in my time of need without even knowing me. I do not know your reasons, whether it was kindness or something else, but I beg of you now - aid me in fighting this monster, so these people may have a chance of seeing tomorrow's sun."
They stood there, looking into each other's eyes. Diana, Princess of Hell, last of the Amazons, is preparing to sacrifice herself to buy time for humans to escape. And Kon-Rao, Emperor of Kryptonians, was thinking of something.
Then Kon-Rao spoke. "Tell me, Diana of Themyscira... does this creature die if it is split in half? Or does it have any regeneration abilities?"
Diana thought for a second, accessing her mother's teachings. "My mother did not mention any regenerative abilities in her warnings about the Tetracide. Splitting it in half could work, but the moment we decide to go close to it, we will slowly get affected by its powers. The death of fear, the death of mind - they begin working the moment you enter its range."
She paused, then asked, "Why are you—"
Her eyes widened as realization struck her. "Are you— Can you!?"
For the first time since arriving on Earth, Kon-Rao smiled. It was not a large smile, just a slight upturn of his lips, but it carried confidence that bordered on arrogance.
"Didn't I tell you, Princess?" he said calmly. "It's all taken care of."
He turned to face the Tetracide fully. The creature had finished emerging from the ocean and was beginning to move toward the shore, its impossibly long legs carrying it through the water with disturbing grace.
Kon-Rao's eyes began to glow red.
Coulson and Natasha watched in amazement as energy built up behind those glowing eyes. They had seen him use this power before against the Harbingers, but this time felt different. More focused. More precise.
The beams erupted from his eyes, but unlike before, they were not wide and expansive. These were incredibly concentrated beams, so focused that they appeared almost like red threads cutting through the air.
The beams struck the creature's head, and Kon-Rao began raising his eyes slowly from bottom to top. The heat vision carved through the Tetracide's flesh like a hot knife through butter, splitting the creature vertically from head to tail.
The monster screeched loudly, a sound that was part pain and part something else - perhaps surprise that something could actually harm it.
Kon-Rao retracted his heat vision, and the glow faded from his eyes.
Natasha, seeing the creature still moving and screaming, said worriedly, "Did it not work?"
But just then, the creature's massive body suddenly began leaking blood from between its two halves. The split that Kon-Rao had created ran perfectly down the center of its body, dividing it into two equal parts.
One side slowly began to fall to the left, while the other fell to the right. The creature's screeching reached a crescendo before being cut off abruptly.
Both halves of the Tetracide smashed into the ocean with tremendous force, sending massive waves rolling toward the shore and creating waterspouts that reached high into the sky.
The impact sent shockwaves through the water. Fish and other marine life were thrown into the air by the force of the collision. The beach trembled beneath everyone's feet as the ocean itself seemed to recoil from the violence.
For a long moment, nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
They stared at the two massive halves of what had been an unkillable monster floating in the ocean, slowly sinking beneath the waves.
Diana was the first to recover.
She looked at Kon-Rao with an expression that mixed awe, respect, and perhaps a hint of fear. She had seen many powerful beings in her long life, but this casual display of overwhelming force was something else entirely.
This Tetracide was something even the Demi-Gods feared.
Coulson's mind was racing.
He was already composing the report he would need to file with Fury.
An unknown individual calling himself an emperor had just killed two existential threats to Earth - the Harbinger invasion and now the Tetracide - with nothing more than eye beams.
Such power... Fury was not going to like this report.
Natasha was studying Kon-Rao intensively.
She was a trained spy, an expert at reading people and assessing threats.
But this individual gave her nothing to work with. His expression remained calm, almost bored, as if killing a legendary monster that could destroy souls was just another Tuesday for him.
The SHIELD soldiers were in various states of shock. Some were still staring at the ocean where the Tetracide's body was sinking. Others were looking at Kon-Rao with expressions that ranged from worship to terror.
One soldier whispered to his companion, "Did you see that? He just... he just looked at it and cut it in half."
"I saw it," the other replied quietly. "I wish I hadn't."
....
Want to read ahead of the public release? Support me on Patreon at "https://www.patreon.com/FreakyHaru" and get access to:
5 and 10 chapters of all my fanfictions.
Ongoing Projects:
DC/MARVEL: The Kryptonian Emperor
Marvel: Shadow Monarch
ATG: Not a Cannon Fodder
Your support helps me keep writing and brings you more content faster!
Thank You