Chapter Text
Thousands of years ago…
The annual snows had descended, and the forests of northern Europe were now locked in the grip of a bitter Ice Age winter. Most animals had either migrated to the south or gone into hibernation to escape the growing chill, leaving the landscape largely devoid of life. The vast boreal forest had been shrouded beneath layer upon layer of snow and ice, leaving the land silent and still.
In one area, however, the silence was broken by a low, deep rumble, like the sound of distant thunder. As it grew louder, trees began to tremble, snow dislodged from their branches and cascading gently to the ground. Any animals that were still active in the winter forest either fled or sought hiding places beneath the snow, as the source of the disturbance came into view: a chorus of thundering footfalls, produced by a herd of gigantic creatures.
To an observer, even in this age of the Earth's history where many types of giant creatures roamed across the world, this sight was truly extraordinary. From a distance, it looked as if an entire range of small mountains had uprooted themselves and were lumbering across the icy landscape, moving slowly north into the even more frigid, icy regions that lay beyond the northern forests. These were mountain-shells: gigantic, reptilian beasts, related to tortoises but far bigger, so large that entire miniature forests could grow in the thick layers of soil that had built up on their hardened shells over many years.
This was a decent-sized herd: more than a dozen fully-grown adults were present, with half a dozen smaller hatchlings tucked in among them, staying close to their parents. The adults kept their young within the herd's formation, providing a defensive screen in case any predators might be in the area. Most predatory Kaiju weren't foolish enough to try an attack on a healthy adult mountain-shell, never mind a whole herd of them, but an isolated juvenile would certainly be fair game.
Two of the adults in the herd, however, weren't aligned with the rest of the formation. Instead, they had dropped back slightly and were bringing up the rear, trailing slightly behind the others and making sure that no one else fell behind. They were the oldest and most experienced members of the herd: a female, her shell adorned with fruiting trees and flowers that were now wilted and frostbitten thanks to the winter chill, and a male, his shell covered in dense groves of dark green pine trees.
The male, Methuselah, winced and shook his head as a gust of icy wind blew into his face and whistled through the trees on his back. "Ach, I hate winter!" he grumbled under his breath, shivering as he walked a little faster in an effort to keep himself warm.
His mate, Kamoebas, was amused by her mate's grumbling. She was shivering too, but she was usually the type to look for the good side in everything, as he did more than enough complaining for both of them. "I understand, dear," she replied with a soft chuckle. "Don't worry, you can head back south soon." She grinned mischievously over at him, playfully bumping her head against his. "Although, if you would change your mind and come down to the Underworld with the rest of us, you'd probably be much warmer."
"Oh, don't start this again, Kammie." Methuselah snorted and shook his head, although there was a bit of amusement in his voice as he returned her gentle nudge, letting his large, curved horns bump against her smaller ones. He understood, of course, that her teasing was entirely good-natured, but that wasn't going to change his mind. "I've told you before, love: I've no interest in going down to the Underworld right now. It's too damn crowded down there with all the recent migrations, so I'll be much more comfortable hibernating up here. I'll just find someplace far enough south that the ice hasn't reached it."
"Of course." Kamoebas let out another laugh and shook her head, a wry grin spreading across her beaked mouth. "Always have to be stubborn, don't you, Meth?"
A deep, rumbling laugh echoed in Methuselah's chest, and he nodded in agreement. "Oh, yes, I'll freely admit that," he replied, before his smile. "And the fact that you care for me despite that is one of many reasons why I will always be grateful that you chose me as your mate."
"Well, your good looks made up for the grumpiness," Kamoebas teased. Both mountain-shells laughed, enjoying the memories of their youth as a way to take their minds off of the biting cold. They had been together for millions of years, ever since they'd first courted as young adults, and neither of them would have traded one day of all those years for anything.
After a couple more hours of walking, a deep, trumpeting call rang out from the front of the herd, and the convoy of mountain-shells drew to a halt, finding themselves on the icy shore of the great northern ocean. From here, it would be a shorter journey east along the coast, to the point where the herd would find one of the tunnel entrances that led down to the Underworld.
This meant, however, that it was time for Methuselah to part ways with the rest of the herd. Since he had chosen to remain on the surface for his hibernation, he had elected to stay with the others until they reached the northern ocean, at which point he would split off and head back to the south in search of an ice-free area where he could find a safe place to sleep.
As the herd milled about on the shore, the juveniles taking some time to rest after their long journey while the adults were digging through the snow with the longer claws on their front feet in search of edible plants, Methuselah and Kamoebas convened with the two leaders of the herd: Demeter, one of their adult daughters and the herd's current matriarch, and her mate, a male named Geb. Kamoebas had passed her role as leader down to her daughter some time ago, and Demeter had grown into a strong leader in her own right, although the elders were always happy to lend their support and advice whenever it was needed.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us, Father?" Demeter questioned one last time, a concerned frown on her face as she nudged her shoulder against Methuselah's. Her shell was covered with groves of pine trees, like his; they had always been particularly close, and she shared her sire's sense of practicality when it came to her shell adornments. "I know you can take care of yourself, but… I can't help but worry."
"Do not worry yourself, my child," Methuselah assured her, smiling as he rested his chin on top of his daughter's head for a moment. "With most Kaiju descending to the Underworld, I shouldn't have anything to worry about up here. And once the surface world warms up again, I'll come to find you all, and we will return to our ancestral lands once more." He glanced over to Geb, who was standing a short distance away out of respect for the trio's privacy and keeping an eye on the rest of the herd. "Keep them safe, young one."
Turning to face him, Geb nodded and inclined his head respectfully. Like many male mountain-shells who were in the prime of their lives and frequently found themselves in combat, he didn't have many trees on his shell, as most of the trees that had grown there in his younger years had been stripped away in one fight or another. Instead, his back sported a dense green coat of shorter grass and shrubs, with the dark gray, stone-like material of his shell actually poking through in a few places. He wasn't quite as large as Methuselah, due to the other male's advanced age, but he was undeniably an impressive specimen of their kind. "Of course, Elder," he replied matter-of-factly. "I will protect them with my life."
Methuselah grinned. "Good lad." Clicking his horns once against Geb's in a gesture of respect, he touched noses with Demeter again before turning to face Kamoebas. One last time, they leaned in and pressed their flanks against each other, nestling as close together as their shells would allow.
"I'll be counting the days until I see you again," Kamoebas murmured, her glowing white eyes shining as she rubbed her cheek against his in their species' equivalent of a kiss. "So let's not keep each other waiting too long, all right?"
"Of course," Methuselah replied with a low, rumbling laugh. "I'll see you soon, my love."
With that, the herd parted ways with its oldest member. Led by Demeter, Geb and Kamoebas, the rest of the mountain-shells began moving east along the coast, making their way towards the nearest point where they could find a tunnel into the Underworld. Methuselah, meanwhile, headed back the way they'd come, retracing the herd's migratory path as he made his way south, back into warmer climates.
It took a while, but after a few months of searching, the old mountain-shell found an ideal spot for him to hibernate: a large, expansive forest with small mountains scattered around, exactly the kind of place where he could conceal himself and avoid detection by any predatory Kaiju that might happen to come through the area while he was sleeping and defenseless. Once he'd found a suitable spot, he began digging into the earth, using the elongated claws on his front feet to tear up the ground until he'd created a hole that was large enough for his purposes.
After a few hours of work, once he was satisfied, Methuselah settled down into the pit that he'd created, pushing his head and limbs under the loose soil so they would be fully concealed, until only his tree-covered shell was left protruding above the surface. Once enough time had passed for the ground to settle again and for new plants to grow on the churned-up earth around him, he would be virtually indistinguishable from any of the actual mountains in the surrounding wilderness. This was the ingenious solution that the mountain-shells had developed over the eons to help them avoid enemies during the most vulnerable portions of their lives, both for hibernating and for reproduction. Females would use this same method to conceal their eggs, keeping them safely tucked away in a nest chamber beneath their sleeping forms until the time came for their offspring to be born.
Once he was settled in, Methuselah allowed himself to drift off into a deep, soothing sleep, as the peaceful silence of hibernation beckoned. The Ice Age cold grew deeper in the world above, but he didn't even notice, slipping into a torpid state that would allow him to survive unchanged for thousands of years, completely unaware of whatever might be happening in the world around him.
But then, thousands of years later, the shrieking Alpha call of an invader from another world echoed across the globe… and the ancient mountain-shell was roused from his sleep once more.
Present day
Amazon Rainforest, Brazil
One year after the Battle of Boston
The dawn light broke over the vast green expanse of the rainforest, sparking a chorus of echoing calls from all the tiny animals that inhabited the jungle. The sounds of chirping birds, buzzing insects, and a thousand other creatures echoed over the banks of the world's largest river as it slowly flowed towards the distant sea. Clouds of mist rose from the slowly-flowing brown waters, glowing in the rising sunlight.
Methuselah was partially submerged in the water on one side of the massive river, resting in the shallows near the bank. He'd adopted a sleeping position where his head was resting up on the bank, keeping his nostrils clear of the water so he could breathe comfortably, but he slowly drifted back to consciousness as the warm sunlight washed over him. Lifting his head, he glanced over towards a large, open field a short distance away, where Behemoth was still fast asleep, curled up in a huge mound of light brown fur with the twin curved arcs of his tusks rising up into the air above him. A faint, amused snort escaped from Methuselah's nose, and he shook his head before settling back down.
A full year had passed since the pair had been forcibly roused from hibernation by the Golden One's Alpha call. After the King had put an end to the Usurper's reign of terror, Methuselah and the others had been freed from their enemy's control, but the mental torture that they had sustained had been extremely painful, and he had spent most of the past year recovering from it. He and Behemoth had both suffered from recurring headaches and nightmares of that time over the first few months after the Golden One's defeat, but with time and rest, those side effects had gradually faded away. Now, a year after the incident, he was fully recovered, and he finally felt like his old self again.
It also helped that, despite whatever flaws Behemoth had, the tusk-sloth hadn't been wrong when he'd claimed that he knew of an ideal place for them to get some rest and recover from that ordeal. This vast rainforest was perfect for them: it had plenty of food and water, a warm and pleasant climate, and more than enough space for them to stay away from any human hives that might be in the area. The miniature forest on his back was growing nicely in the tropical warmth, although his decorative pine trees looked somewhat out of place compared to the surrounding jungle.
Yawning and shaking his head, Methuselah slowly pushed himself up out of the water, rising to his full height and stretching each of his limbs in turn. As he lumbered up onto land and headed over towards an appetizing grove of trees, however, he found his thoughts drifting back to the herd that he had left behind so long ago. Were they still hibernating, down in the Underworld? Had they emerged from their sleep yet? Where were they now?
For the first time since he'd woken up, after a year of rest and relaxation, his priorities had shifted. He was fully recovered from the side effects of the Golden One's control, and he was back to full strength. Now was the perfect time for him to track down his life-mate and the rest of their herd, and to reunite with them once more.
I'll see you soon, Kammie, he thought to himself, the corners of his mouth curving up in a weary smile. I promise.
"So, like…" Behemoth frowned, munching on a large tree that he was grasping with the claws of one front paw. "This lady of yours: d'you know where she is now, man?" The sun was now high in the sky, and the two Kaiju were relaxing on the banks of the vast river, browsing on the abundant rainforest trees. Methuselah had just finished his explanation of the circumstances that had led to him hibernating separately from the rest of his herd, and his decision to try and track them down.
Methuselah shook his head and resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he leaned down and snatched up a sizable tree in his beak, slicing through the trunk with a single bite and crunching on the wooden branches several times before swallowing it whole. Unlike mammalian Kaiju, his kind weren't designed to chew their food due to the beaklike structure of their mouths; instead, mountain-shells would regularly swallow large amounts of smooth, rounded stones, which ground up the food in their stomachs to make their digestion easier. "Not precisely, no," he replied. "I know that our herd went down to the Underworld to hibernate, but I'm not sure where exactly they were heading, and I have no idea where they are now." He sighed. "It will probably take a while to track them down, but fortunately I have plenty of time."
"Yeah, that's tricky." Behemoth nodded, finishing with his current tree and reaching for another one. The long claws on his front paws could be formidable weapons when the situation called for it, but they were also useful for gathering food, which was demonstrated as he hooked them onto another large tree and pulled it straight out of the ground with casual ease. Popping it into his mouth and chewing on it thoughtfully, he ran his claws down the length of his tusks, scraping away any dirt or leaves that might have gotten stuck on them.
The pair ate in silence for a couple of minutes, before Behemoth's eyes suddenly lit up and he grinned as he sat up straighter. "Y'know… I could go with you and help you find 'em, if you'd like," he offered, sitting back on his haunches and stretching his front legs out in front of him.
Methuselah blinked, caught totally off-guard by that. Wait… what? He stared at the tusk-sloth for a moment, unsure of how to respond. "…Really?" he finally asked. "But… why would you want to do that?"
"Well… I dunno, why not?" Behemoth shrugged, an easy grin spreading across his face. "It's not like I've got anything else to do, y'know? And you've been nice enough to hang out with me for the past year, so I'd be happy to help you out." He arched his back and reared up on his hind legs, thrusting his tusks high into the air and stretching his front legs out to help loosen them up. "Plus, I used t' live down in the Underworld… so, no offense, but if you haven't been down there for a long time, I might know it better than you do. And findin' your way around down there can be tricky sometimes." Dropping back to all fours with a resounding impact, he straightened up and raised an eyebrow ridge questioningly, his dark forest-green eyes meeting Methuselah's glowing white ones. "So? You okay with that?"
For a long moment, Methuselah was torn between feeling genuinely touched that Behemoth was making an offer like that, and annoyed at the younger Kaiju's assumption that he might not be able to find his way around in the Underworld. After thinking it over, however, he had to admit that Behemoth had a point. It had been a very long time since he had ventured down to the Underworld, even as part of a group. On his own, he might wander around the caverns of the Underworld for decades or even longer without finding his herd's resting place, but having a guide would speed things up considerably.
"Very well," he finally agreed. "If you wish to accompany me, that is acceptable."
"All right!" Behemoth grinned, playfully nudging one shoulder against the older Kaiju's armored flank. "This'll be fun, man!" He considered for a moment. "Actually, thinkin' about it… I might know a way for us to find the right tunnel entrance to use, too."
Methuselah frowned, puzzled by that. "What do you mean?" he questioned. Obviously there were many access points to the Underworld, scattered across the planet: most were underwater, but there were quite a few on land, mostly concealed in deep caves or beneath thick ice sheets. He knew where some had been located back before the Cold Times, although some of those might not be accessible anymore, so his plan had been to check all the entrance locations that he remembered until he found an open one.
"Well, see…" Behemoth scratched at an itch on the back of his neck, running his claws through his fur. "I know somebody who's really good at findin' Underworld entrances. She's an old pal of mine, and she can sense the energy that runs through those tunnels, which makes finding 'em a lot easier." He nodded in a northerly direction. "She went into hibernation around the same time that I did, but right after we all got freed from the Golden One's spell, I heard her voice echoing from someplace up north, so they must've woken her up too. She likes the cold, so it makes sense that she'd be up there." He shrugged. "Anyway, since she can find Underworld tunnels by sensing 'em, I figure if we go track her down, she can help us find one that we can reach easily."
After considering that for a minute, Methuselah nodded. "Fair enough," he rumbled. "All right, then: let us be on our way."
"Sounds good to me, man!" Behemoth grinned. "This is gonna be great."
From their current location, it took several weeks for the pair to complete their journey north. They began by heading northwest, across the vast green expanse of jungles and swampland that covered much of this continent, until they finally reached its northern coast. From there, they moved west, crossing over to the western coast and making their way up along the land bridge that connected this continent to its northern neighbor. Eventually, the landscape changed from tropical rainforest to open desert, as they made their way up into the northern continent and veered away from the ocean, moving further inland and steadily working their way further north.
Despite Behemoth's near-constant chatter, Methuselah did enjoy the scenery as they wandered across the landscape. When they had made a similar journey the year before (albeit in the opposite direction), he had been too distracted by the lingering headaches that had resulted from his time as the Golden One's thrall to enjoy the view, but this time he was able to properly appreciate the sights. Clearly, the world had indeed recovered from the icy grip of the Cold Times, and the planet's surface had grown warm again, fueling plant growth across the continents.
One significant difference between the world before the Cold Times and the world now, however, was the lack of other Kaiju calls echoing across the landscape. They could hear the distant calls of a few others, presumably the other Kaiju who had been forced out of hibernation by the Golden One, but those distant voices were few and far between. During their journey north, they only came close to one of the others: they were walking through a desert, a few hundred miles inland, when they both heard a faint clattering call echoing from someplace to the west of them, closer to the ocean.
Behemoth, who had been in the middle of a story about the last time he'd been down in the Underworld, fell silent as the distant cry rang out, and both Kaiju turned towards the source of the call, instinctively on guard. Methuselah's eyes narrowed as he recognized it, and the longer claws on his front feet dug into the earth.
"Parasite," he growled under his breath, instinctively tensing even though the source of that cry was many miles away.
"Must be the one from back in that ruined city," Behemoth concurred, his voice more serious than usual. They both knew full well how dangerous a Jinshin-Mushi could be, especially a female. "Sounds like she's set up a territory along the coast somewhere over there."
"Probably a good idea to stay away from that area, then," Methuselah decided. While that female parasite hadn't had a mate when they had seen her, and she shouldn't pose a serious threat to the two of them by herself, Jinshin-Mushi were best avoided whenever possible, just to be on the safe side. And based on his encounters with the parasites in the past, intruding on this one's territory would be a good way to get them into trouble.
"Fine with me." Behemoth shook his head and snorted as he turned away from the direction of the parasite's distant call and resumed heading north again. "I'm fine with most types of Kaiju, but those parasites are a serious buzzkill, man."
"For once, we agree on something," Methuselah remarked dryly as he followed after his companion.
After giving the female Jinshin-Mushi's new territory a wide berth, the pair continued wandering further north. They stuck to open wilderness areas, doing their best to avoid any human hives that might be in their path. Luckily, the further north they went, the easier that became, as humans became less and less common. Eventually, they left all traces of human habitation behind, as they reached the vast, barren lands that bordered the cold northern ocean.
By now, Methuselah wasn't entirely convinced that Behemoth was leading him in the right direction, as they hadn't found any trace of the tusk-sloth's mysterious friend yet. Behemoth, however, was insistent that they were going the right way, and cheerfully waved away any concerns that the older Kaiju offered.
Allmother, give me strength, Methuselah repeatedly found himself praying as the younger Kaiju continued to ramble on about various different topics, so that I may refrain from knocking this chattering youngster on his rear.
Finally, however, the pair reached the far northwest corner of the continent, where the land met the icy gray waters of the northern ocean. At this time of year, the sun never set over the northern end of the planet, so the last few days of their journey had been made in near-constant daylight, but now a summer rainstorm was visible on the horizon over the ocean, bringing dense clouds of fog along with it.
Upon reaching the shore, in an area where there weren't any humans around to bother them, Behemoth casually sat back on his haunches, facing the open ocean. "All right," he announced, smiling over at Methuselah as the mountain-shell came to a halt next to him. "This is the area where I heard her last."
"Finally!" Methuselah let out a weary groan as he settled down to the ground, his legs tucked underneath him as he basked in the sunlight. Although the summer weather up here was much warmer than it was in the winter months, he'd gotten used to the tropical heat over the past year, and the cold ocean wind was less than pleasant by comparison. "So where is she, then?"
"Not sure, but she should be someplace near here," Behemoth replied with a shrug. "And luckily, she knows me, so I should be able to call her in." He leaned back, lifting his head high, and let out a deep, sonorous bellow at the top of his lungs. "Yo, Baphomet! Over here!" To a Kaiju's sensitive hearing, his call carried for hundreds of miles in every direction, ringing out over the windswept tundra before slowly fading away. Any Kaiju in the area wouldn't be able to miss it.
Nodding in satisfaction, Behemoth sank to the ground, stretching out and resting his chin on his front paws. "And now we just have to wait," he explained. "She definitely heard that, so she should be here soon."
Methuselah arched one brow-ridge at that, but he ultimately just let out a sigh and went along with it. We've come this far, after all, he reasoned. Waiting for a little while was fine by him, as long as this friend of Behemoth's could really help him in his search for his herd.
Sure enough, after a couple of hours, as the approaching wall of fog drew close to the shore, they finally got a response: a distant, high-pitched wail that echoed across the water towards them, coming from within the fog. It was almost musical, but something about it sent a chill down Methuselah's spine.
For Behemoth, however, it had the opposite effect, and the younger Kaiju grinned cheerfully as he hauled himself to his feet. "There we go!" he exclaimed, looking out at the ocean expectantly. "That's her."
On cue, the sound of splashing water reached their ears, and a shadow appeared within the fog, wading through the sea and moving slowly towards the shore. A pair of glowing eyes pierced through the veil of gray, shining an eerie shade of pale green. Methuselah instinctively took a step back when he saw them, feeling an even stronger chill running through him as the new arrival emerged from the fog and stepped up onto the shore.
This new Kaiju, like Behemoth, was a mammal. She bore a visible resemblance to a species of large deer, like a moose or an elk, although she was large enough to look Behemoth right in the eye when he was standing on all fours. Soft, coal-black fur covered most of her body, and she stood tall on four long, slender legs that ended in cloven hooves. Curiously, her head was covered in stark-white, bony armor, possibly an extension of the rack of many-pointed antlers that flared out on either side of her head to present a formidable defense against any would-be attacker. Her pale green eyes had rectangular, horizontal pupils, like a goat's, and something about them – although Methuselah couldn't tell whether it was their color, their glow, or something else entirely – made it almost impossible to hold her gaze for more than a couple of seconds without an overwhelming sense of nervous unease coursing through his body. Practically speaking, he was significantly larger than she was, so he should be able to easily defeat her in a fight if that became necessary, but just looking at her made him feel a strong urge to retreat, as if a tangible aura of menace was radiating around her.
The newly-arrived Kaiju – Baphomet, presumably – waded up onto shore and shook herself off, scattering the water from her fur. After regarding Methuselah for a long moment, she turned towards Behemoth, and a small smile appeared on her skeletal face. "Behemoth," she greeted him with a polite nod. Methuselah had to physically restrain himself from flinching when he heard her voice: it was soft and oddly musical, like her call from earlier, but it was also as cold as the wind blowing off a glacier. If a snowstorm could talk, he imagined that this would be what it sounded like.
Behemoth, however, didn't seem to be affected at all. "Baphomet!" he greeted her with a warm smile, walking forward and approaching her with no sign of fear. They both inclined their heads, bumping their foreheads lightly together in a clear gesture of friendship and trust, before Behemoth took a step back and nodded in Methuselah's direction. "This is Methuselah; he's a buddy of mine," he explained. "Don't worry, he's cool."
"I see." Baphomet nodded, looking Methuselah up and down and eliciting another involuntary shiver from him. "In that case, I apologize for the discomfort that you must be feeling." Her eyes flashed, and the chilling sense of dread and unease that Methuselah had been feeling suddenly faded away, warmth surging back into his body. "My species possess psychic and empathic abilities that we often use for self-defense, warding off any creatures who might pose a threat to us. I was not sure whether you might react badly to my presence, as my kind have a rather unsavory reputation among most other Kaiju, so I kept my psychic aura up just to be on the safe side. But if Behemoth vouches for you, that is enough for me."
Methuselah didn't feel the unnatural chill anymore, but a new sense of wariness crept into his mind as he realized what he was really dealing with. She's an ice-deer. Rarely seen by other Kaiju, ice-deer typically inhabited the most remote and inhospitable regions of the world: in particular, they were the only giant creatures who had evolved to thrive in the vast, icy expanse of the northern boreal forest, where sources of radiation were few and far between. They were also infamously some of the only known mammalian Kaiju that had evolved psychic powers, which could make them a deadly enemy to anyone who was unlucky enough to provoke a fight with one of them. Since he'd never actually met an ice-deer before, it had never occurred to him that Behemoth's friend might be one of them.
Still, Baphomet was being cordial enough, and Behemoth clearly trusted her, so there was no reason for Methuselah to view her in a bad light. With that in mind, he inclined his head respectfully to her. "Greetings, my lady," he rumbled. "I am Methuselah, of the mountain-shells. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," Baphomet replied matter-of-factly, returning his greeting nod before turning her attention back to Behemoth. "It's good to see you, Behemoth. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Well, I would've come to say hi at some point anyway, after I sensed that you were awake," Behemoth replied cheerily, "but we actually need your help with somethin'." He nodded to Methuselah. "See, my new pal here wants to go down to the Underworld to find his herd: we know the tunnel that they used to get down there is somewhere in the north, but we're not sure where the nearest accessible entrances are. So I figured that you would probably be able to tell us."
Baphomet considered that for a moment, regarding Methuselah with a thoughtful expression, before she nodded. "Fair enough. Very well, then: I'll see if there are any entrances near here." Her eyes glowed a brighter green as she looked down at the ground, and a soft humming noise began to resonate in the air around her as she slowly turned back and forth, intently studying the earth beneath her and occasionally looking off towards the horizon in various different directions. Methuselah was tempted to ask what she was doing, but he didn't want to interrupt her, and he wasn't in the mood to listen to a long, rambling explanation from Behemoth either.
Finally, after several minutes of intense concentration, Baphomet nodded decisively and her eyes faded back to normal. Closing her eyes and rubbing them with one foreleg, she took a few deep breaths and visibly relaxed before she looked back up at them. "Most of the closest Underworld entrances are on the sea floor, which I imagine are unsuitable for you," she explained with a nod towards the ocean, before she lifted one front leg and pointed to the southeast with her hoof. "The closest land entrance is about two days' travel that way, in a cavern beneath a large glacier. As far as I can tell, you'll still have to go underwater to reach it, but only for a few minutes."
Methuselah grimaced when he heard that. His kind typically disliked going into salt water, for two reasons: first, because the dense, armored bodies of mountain-shells made it hard for them to swim, which mostly restricted them to shallower waters where they could walk along the bottom and still surface to breathe; and second, because immersing themselves in salt water for too long would kill most of the plants that grew in the soil deposits on their shells. But if this was the best way for him to get down to the Underworld and find Kamoebas, then that was what he would do.
For the next two days, the trio headed back the way that Methuselah and Behemoth had come, making their way southeast along the rugged coastline and skirting around any human populations in their path. Along the way, Behemoth and Baphomet spent some time catching up on what they had each been up to since they had both gone into hibernation. Baphomet had apparently been sleeping in a cave in the far north of the great eastern continent, where the humans had built one of their strange artificial hives around her slumbering form, until the Golden One's Alpha cry had wrenched her out of hibernation. If she had been conscious when they had called out, she might have been able to ward off their mental attack using her own psychic abilities, but she had been caught off-guard and had fallen under their control, unable to free herself until the three-headed Usurper had been slain by the King. Since then, she had been wandering around the northern lands, observing the ways in which the world had changed over the last few thousand years.
Finally, they reached the destination that Baphomet had identified: the end of a massive glacier that fed slowly into the ocean, stretching across a large valley that sloped upwards into a snow-capped mountain range. A large, open bay lay at the mouth of the valley, its surface covered with drifting icebergs in a variety of different sizes.
"This is it," Baphomet confirmed, nodding with a faint smile on her face as she looked towards the glacier, her eyes glowing brighter for a heartbeat as she used her enhanced senses to ensure that they were in the right place. "There is an underwater tunnel that leads up beneath the glacier, which will ultimately lead you to the Underworld entrance." Tilting her head so that one of her antlers pointed the way, she indicated a spot roughly in the middle of the glacier. "Dive down there, and you will find it."
Behemoth frowned, looking a little disappointed. "Awww, man… you're not gonna come with us?"
Baphomet chuckled softly, a sound like two icebergs scraping against each other. "I have never enjoyed the Underworld," she admitted. "It is beautiful in its own way, but it is too dark, too crowded, and far too warm for my tastes. My home is here, on the surface, with the snow beneath my feet and the endless sky above me."
"I can understand that," Methuselah remarked with a faint, amused smile. "I thank you for your assistance, my lady. And I'm sure that my dear Kamoebas will be grateful to you as well, once I find her again." He bowed his head again, lightly clicking one of his horns against one of Baphomet's antlers in his kind's traditional gesture of respect.
Baphomet regarded him for a moment, before a small smile appeared on her bone-armored face and she returned his bow. "I wish you good luck in your quest, mountain elder," she replied, before her smile faded as she regarded each of them in turn. "But I will say this: be careful when you descend into the depths. There are many dangers in the Underworld, and you may have to face some of them before your journey is complete."
Methuselah nodded soberly, knowing that she probably wasn't wrong about that. The Underworld was home to a plethora of dangerous creatures, some of which could pose a serious threat even to a Kaiju as strong as him.
"Well, it was good to see you, Baphy," Behemoth spoke up, grinning as he bumped his shoulder lightly against Baphomet's. "Don't worry, I'll come back another time and we can catch up properly."
"I'm glad to hear it." Amusement flickered in Baphomet's eyes as she nodded to the pair of them. "For now, I intend to continue my explorations to see how the world has changed, but I have a feeling that our paths will cross again… perhaps sooner than you think." With that, she turned and waded off along the shoreline, heading out of the bay to resume her lone wanderings.
"She's an interesting one," Methuselah observed, finally able to relax fully for the first time in several days as the last lingering effects of Baphomet's psychic aura faded away.
Behemoth laughed and nodded in agreement. "Oh, you have no idea, man."
"Now, then." Shaking his head, Methuselah focused his mind on the task ahead of them as he gazed out towards the distant glacier. "Let's get moving."
With Baphomet's departure, Methuselah and Behemoth quickly set to work, wading in through the bay towards the face of the glacier. Pushing icebergs aside as they went, they quickly reached the base of the immense structure. As big as the two Kaiju were, Methuselah was still impressed by the sheer scale of the wall of ice that rose high above their heads, stretching off across the valley.
Once they reached the base of the glacier's front wall, the two Kaiju headed out into the middle of the bay, into steadily deeper water. Behemoth waded out without much trouble, insulated by his thick fur and secure in his surprisingly-adept swimming abilities, but Methuselah was much more hesitant. He could walk along the bottom without much trouble, but he eventually reached the point where he would have to completely submerge to go any further. Shivering in the cold water, he sucked in a deep breath and plunged beneath the surface, digging the claws on his front feet into the seabed and propelling himself out into deeper water. He would just have to hope that he wouldn't be underwater long enough for the salt water to significantly affect the plants on his back.
Fortunately, it didn't take too long for them to reach the spot that Baphomet had indicated: a large, rounded hole at the very bottom of the glacier, several hundred feet across, which led into a tunnel that extended up underneath the mass of ice. Behemoth glanced back over his shoulder to Methuselah and nodded towards the dark opening of the passage, before swimming headfirst into the tunnel and vanishing into the darkness beneath the glacier. Methuselah steeled himself and followed suit, plunging into the shadow and pushing off the bottom to move as fast as possible.
Fortunately, a mountain-shell could hold its breath for several hours if need be, so Methuselah was able to keep moving despite the lack of air, scrambling further and further inland while trying not to think about the crushing weight of all that ice above him, enough to crush even a Kaiju to death if the tunnel were to collapse. The sunlight from the surface had faded away completely by now, leaving him in darkness, but he kept pushing, refusing to let himself stop. Finally, after a seemingly-endless moment of scrambling through the void, he saw a soft glow of light up ahead of him, and broke the surface into a sizable air pocket that was located deep beneath the glacial ice.
The cave was dark, but a faint, multicolored light was washing over the walls, and Methuselah could see Behemoth a short distance ahead of him. The tusk-sloth had just pulled himself out onto a large, icy "beach" that occupied about half of the cave, and was currently shaking the water out of his fur. Methuselah scrambled up alongside him, coughing and panting as he caught his breath. He shook himself as well, shedding some pine needles from the trees on his back as icy water cascaded down his flanks.
"Hey, what did I tell you?" Behemoth spoke up, sounding much less winded than Methuselah felt. "She was right, man! See?" He extended a front paw and pointed one of his long claws towards the back of the cave, where the source of that shimmering, multicolored light was now visible.
When Methuselah saw what his younger companion was indicating, his beaked mouth twitched in a wry grin, and he felt a warmth within him that briefly pushed back the shivering caused by the cold water. Well, I'll be damned. He was right: she did find it.
Sure enough, after the cave where they found themselves led up and away from the water for a short distance, it suddenly sloped down again into a deep, circular depression, almost like a well. And at the bottom of that well, pulsing and crackling with the exotic energy that Baphomet's enhanced senses had detected, was the unmistakable opening of an Underworld tunnel.
"Sweet!" Behemoth grinned as he ambled over to the edge of the drop-off, resting his weight on his front paws as he leaned over the edge and gazed down into the swirling vortex of multicolored light. As Methuselah joined him, he looked back at the older Kaiju, a look of mild concern appearing on his face. "Okay, so I know you didn't wanna hibernate down there during the Cold Times, but you said you have been down to the Underworld before. So you remember how this is gonna work, right?"
"Obviously." Methuselah snorted and rolled his eyes. "It's been a while, but I certainly remember how this process works." His eyes narrowed and he shot an irritable glance at Behemoth. "I may be older than you, lad, but that doesn't mean I'm so old that I've lost my memories."
"Whoa, easy, man!" Behemoth shook his head earnestly and took a step back, raising one paw in a placating gesture. "No offense intended or anythin'. I just wanted to make sure, that's all." He leaned over and glanced back down the hole again, nodding as he gauged how far down they would fall before they entered the vortex. "All right, you ready? I'll go first, if you don't mind."
Methuselah sighed, shaking his head. "It really doesn't matter to me either way." He grimaced as another shiver ran through his body, rattling the trees on his back. "Let's just get this over with before I turn into an iceberg, shall we?"
"Sure thing, man." Behemoth's elongated, trunklike nose twitched in amusement, and he took a couple of steps away from the hole as he tensed his muscles. "See you on the other side, then!" With an exuberant, booming whoop, he bounded forward, leapt over the edge of the drop-off, and dove headlong into the shimmering vortex of energy. The "membrane" of light that filled the opening of the tunnel warped around his body as he hit it, almost sticking to him for a moment, but then a brilliant pulse of energy rippled up and out, washing over the rock and ice around Methuselah, and Behemoth was gone, vanishing into the depths as the membrane reformed behind him.
Methuselah winced as he saw that, remembering the previous times that he'd descended into the Underworld. It wasn't what he would consider a "fun" process, and he definitely hadn't been looking forward to this part. But he had no choice: if he wanted to see Kamoebas and the rest of their herd again, he had to take this leap.
I'm coming, Kammie, he vowed. Steeling himself and scoring his front claws into the ancient ice, he strode forward and plunged headfirst over the edge, diving into the vortex. He hit the membrane, passing straight through it into the glowing tunnel beyond, and then –
– and then –
Light, sound, color… everything warped around him, and he had the distinct sensation that he was moving at an impossible speed, faster than he could ever possibly move under normal circumstances. In the brief snatches of clear vision that he was able to make out, he caught glimpses of the tunnel walls flashing past him on all sides, glowing veins of rock that shimmered with every color of the spectrum. Far ahead of him, he saw another brilliant point of light, rapidly approaching, swelling to fill his vision completely…
And then, with another explosion of light, his vision cleared, and he was suddenly weightless, tumbling through the open air as he was expelled from the tunnel.
Methuselah had a few seconds to take stock of his new surroundings. He was in another cavern, but this one was far larger than the ice cave beneath the glacier: this cave could swallow entire human cities with plenty of room to spare, and it stretched off into the distance in all directions, so far that he could only see the vague impression of its far walls. Both the floor and ceiling of the cave were carpeted with life: dense forests of glowing, bioluminescent plants stretched out in all directions, broken up by the dark outlines of mountains and rivers, and in some places by the glowing reddish-orange lines of lava flows. Behemoth, who had emerged from the cave a few seconds before him, was spinning through the air above him, arms and legs flailing in a vain attempt to gain some kind of purchase in the empty air.
And then gravity finally reasserted itself, and Methuselah's eyes widened as Behemoth was suddenly yanked back towards him, almost crashing into him as they came within reach of each other for a moment. An instant later, the same thing happened to Methuselah: he felt weightless for a moment before gravity pulled on him again, and then both Kaiju plummeted back in the direction that they'd initially come from, falling towards one of the glowing forests.
Behemoth actually sounded like he was laughing, but Methuselah was much less enthusiastic about the situation. His stomach heaved, and he had just enough time to bellow out a curse before they both slammed into the ground with a colossal joint impact, smashing a pair of craters into the glowing forest beneath them.
For the first time in thousands of years, two new surface Kaiju had come to the Underworld.
The force of such a massive impact, and the shockwave of energy bursting forth from the entry tunnel – an event which had been common in the old days, but had become much more rare over the last few millennia since the Great Migration – reverberated out for miles through the immense caverns of the Underworld. Many creatures ignored the energy surge, as it meant nothing to them, while others reacted with caution or with curiosity.
But in one such cavern, a few miles away from the place where Methuselah and Behemoth had entered but close enough that the energy surge could still be detected, it provoked a very different response.
This cavern was not like the others that were connected to it. Like most of the caves in the Underworld, it had originally been lined with forests of bioluminescent plants, glowing softly in a wide variety of different colors, which provided most of the light in this hidden inner world. Here, however, it would have been obvious to any observer that something was very wrong. In stark contrast to the multicolored glow of the nearby caverns, this one had grown almost entirely dark over the last few centuries. The cause was easy to see: this area of the Underworld's glowing forest was dying and rotting, as most of the normal plants had been strangled, crushed, and overgrown by a thick carpet of leathery, blue-black vines. The vines were glowing as well, but in a shade of blue so dark that it was almost black, which only added to the omnipresent gloom.
There was some brighter light here as well, however: pulses of sickly yellow-orange light rippled through the matrix of vines every few seconds in a regular, rhythmic pattern, almost like a heartbeat. As each pulse flowed across the cave floor, several large forms were revealed, coiled up among the vines. Strangely, the vines' yellow pulses seemed to flow through their bodies as well, briefly illuminating the outline of each creature: two muscular legs, a long tail, and a reptilian head and neck with an armored, bony skull.
At the center of the group, a much larger shape had also been curled up in slumber, silent and still. As the distant thunderclap echoed through the semidarkened cave, however, it slowly flexed its limbs and rose to its full height. Ten glowing eyes flickered open, the same color as the rippling light-pulses which flowed back and forth through the network of vines that had infested the rest of the cave. Its jaws parted, revealing row upon row of dagger-like fangs, and a low, venomous hiss echoed through the cavern, accompanied by a telepathic signal that rippled through the vines with another pulse of yellow light.
Rise. It is time to hunt again.
The command was mental, not physical, but it had an immediate effect. On cue, the other slumbering creatures immediately snapped into wakefulness, shaking themselves as they also scrambled to their feet, some more easily than others. All of their eyes glowed with the same sickly yellow-orange light as the leader's eyes and the vines, and they moved in a stiff, awkward fashion, quite unlike the normal members of their species, as if they were being tugged here and there by the strings of an invisible puppeteer.
The smaller creatures gathered around the leader, a chorus of gurgling hisses and growls echoing through the rank, humid air of the cave. Despite their calm outward appearances, each member of the pack would have been shrieking in agony and horror if they were still in control of their own bodies… but, given the advanced stage of their infection, they were far beyond that point now.
Come, the leader commanded as it began to move, striding in the direction of the distant energy pulse. The rest of the pack fell in behind it, not jostling for position or squabbling among themselves as was typical of their kind, but moving in an eerie harmony. They had been hibernating for some time, building up energy again after their most recent expansion, but the energy surge from the surface had brought them back to consciousness, and now it was time for them to feed and spread once more.
Letting out a chorus of bloodthirsty snarls that rang out through the depths of the Underworld, the Amhuluk began to hunt.