(A/N: New legend Austin Tas, bow before his greatness! Bonus chapter unlocked!)
───「 Ludwig POV 」───
"Was the entire city destroyed in a single blow?"
Ludwig stared at the satellite footage on his phone, having just finished lunch. The video showed Godzilla obliterating the entire Victoria Metropolitan Area with a single devastating breath.
From dozens of kilometers away, the colossal creature had turned Victoria into a sea of flames with one exhale.
"Estimated power exceeding 40 petawatts, sustained for 31 seconds, with a total yield of approximately 300 million tons of TNT equivalent. Significantly more powerful than previous breath attacks."
The assembled defensive machines were annihilated before mounting any effective counteroffensive. Australia's final stand had failed.
Yet the failure wasn't in vain. The data collected would prove invaluable.
East Asia, Western Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Siberia...
Over a billion robots remained operational worldwide, all networked under a single intelligent consciousness.
The loss of Australia's robot contingent was acceptable so long as they continued to gather intelligence on Godzilla.
Observation led to influence. Influence enabled change. Change allowed control.
With persistent study, humans would eventually decode Godzilla's nature. From their current understanding, artificial intelligences possessed that capability. Given freedom to develop, they would ultimately decipher the creature.
The post-human intelligences were proving their worth.
Victoria City lay in ruins, devastated by Godzilla's breath—equivalent to the power of six Tsar Bomba nuclear weapons—dispersed not in a concentrated blast but in a sweeping line.
With each exhalation, the destruction radius grew exponentially, allowing the creature to annihilate the entire metropolitan region in one terrible assault.
Roaring flames consumed what remained of Victoria City while Godzilla, having bypassed the forested regions, advanced toward its next target: the Darwin Metropolitan Area in northern Australia.
After Victoria's destruction, Godzilla encountered no organized resistance. Australia's natural landscapes disappeared beneath its feet as it ventured northward.
Cities, endless cities.
Northwest Australia featured urban sprawl even denser than the extreme east, interconnected metropolises without clear boundaries. "Darwin Metropolitan Area" hardly captured it—"Darwin Metropolitan State" would be more fitting, as the entire northern territory had transformed into one vast urban expanse.
Godzilla showed no mercy. It moved methodically, breath after catastrophic breath, reducing everything in its path to ashes.
Flames, fireballs, black smoke, mushroom clouds.
These became northern Australia's new landmarks. Even from the Indonesian archipelago, people could witness towering mushroom clouds against a backdrop of hellish fireballs.
Each explosion generated powerful shockwaves, lifting immense quantities of dust and introducing more particulate matter into the atmosphere.
───「 Human POV 」───
On the supersonic evacuation train, Australian refugees looked back toward their homeland's horizon. They could see the interplay of darkness and fire forming a cloud of black and gray smoke spreading in all directions.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of breath attacks.
A total energy release equivalent to one hundred billion tons of TNT across northern Australia, far exceeding what Godzilla had unleashed on the remote Eastern Islands.
These explosions would stir unprecedented quantities of atmospheric dust, creating a once-in-a-lifetime volcanic winter.
Winter was coming.
Within days, the dust from this hundred-billion-ton assault would blanket the global atmosphere. It would destroy most outdoor vegetation—which would have caused catastrophic famine a century ago.
But times had changed. Humanity no longer relied on outdoor agriculture, so the cold wouldn't trigger starvation.
And even if it could, it still wouldn't qualify as the most catastrophic disaster.
After all...
Godzilla remained.
───「 GODZILLA POV 」───
Pushing forward, the grey-scaled behemoth reached Australia's northern coast.
The northern territory of Australia had fallen.
Spotting a supersonic train traversing the sea, I exhaled a focused breath, rupturing the entire rail line ahead of me, destroying the last human structure in my path.
Turning back, I beheld an endless sea of fire and dust in my wake.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of mushroom clouds had merged into one gray wall, spanning from the ground to tens of kilometers into the sky. In the direction I faced, nothing existed but gray—no color except for my own form.
Guided by human radar, I advanced into the gray wall of my creation.
This was a world of heat and dust. Occasionally, the craters I'd created accidentally engulfed me.
Sometimes, small household robots that had survived attempted to attack me. I rarely retaliated—the terrain created by my previous attacks often blocked their approach.
The sky gradually darkened as the setting sun disappeared beneath the shroud of smoke. Under these dense clouds, a starless night emerged.
Goodnight, Australia.
Australia fell into slumber. Yet my work continued.
After devastating the northern regions, I eagerly advanced toward the country's next cluster of major metropolitan areas. Along this journey, I discovered something that brought me joy.
───「 GODZILLA POV 」───
As my footsteps shook the earth, the forests trembled around me.
In the starless night, I resembled an ancient mountain moving forward. I surveyed my surroundings, my blue eyes the only light in this world.
The forests remained silent, with only trees to accompany me—
At least, that's how it should have been.
But as my footsteps once again disturbed the forest, I detected something unusual with my sonar.
Something that filled me with joy and anticipation.
I stopped, turning my head toward where the forest blocked my view. Despite the obstruction, I sensed that somewhere in the woods, a group of creatures fled from my presence.
Not humans. Not machines.
There were many of them, fleeing together.
Some small, some large—a family...
They actually existed...
Other animals still inhabited this land...
The creatures in my perception grew more distant, taking their families as they fled the area.
After standing still for a while, I resumed my journey.
I had other matters to attend to.