The Beast rampaged uncontrollably across the surface of the island, her blades carving a blazing swathe of death and destruction as she flew from target to target. Emulating a mixture of the sheer hatred, rage and brutality that were hallmarks of both a certain God of War and a certain Slayer of Demons, The Beast spread gore and suffering from one end of the isle to the other. No lifeform was spared from the psychopathic insanity that she leveled against the world and no structure, either ruined or otherwise, was spared from her frenzied wrath.

The Beast still felt the presence of a few beings, but they were deep underground and it was on the surface. With each frenzied ‘breath’ the amount fog that constantly flowed from her mask briefly increased in volume, and The Monster wracked its twisted and broken mind to come up with a solution to its problem. It then realized that there was indeed a path available to her targets.

If it did not have a route to her prey, it would make one.

Stabbing its blades back into her gut in order to store them away, The Beast began to rush the ground with a flurry of punches. With each blow that impacted the surface of the island, the earth quaked, and debris was sent flying. Every time her fists struck home, the crater that she was creating grew wider and deeper.

Her assault continued unabated for what must have seemed like an ungodly amount of time as she smashed hard stone to dust and sent both sand and dust flying. It was a good thing that she had been too focused on assaulting the Royal family and the other exiles, as she, in her blind fury, failed to notice the oncoming storm. Several miles out to sea, a tidal wave was forming as Zalga herself rushed to meet the one who had defeated her invasion force.

The Deep Empress was rushing forward through the water, and the wake of her presence caused a massive ripple that surged through the water around her. For one being to cause this much damage was both an insult and a challenge not only to her authority but also to that of her kin. The ‘Goddess’ of the world beneath the waves increased her speed and she rocketed to meet her opponent.

The Beast, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to the oncoming threat. Although, even if she was made aware of the potential danger, she still would not have stopped pummeling her way through the earth. To her, all that mattered was reaching the closest trace of civilization and destroying it, nothing else was worth any semblance of notice. As Zalga was still farther away from her than the Anglish exiles were, The Beast had ‘more pressing concerns’ than the onrushing Necro Naga Empress.

The Beast continued to lay into the ground below its feet, gradually carving a tunnel through the rock and into the portal room. Having reached the room, The Monster sprinted down the hallways, smashing through doors and walls with such ease you could almost confuse her for a anthropomorphic giant red pitcher of flavored sugar water. It was only after reaching the place where the exiles huddled in fear that she stopped.

Just inches from reaching out and ripping her first human victim in ages to shreds, she turned around and ran back the way she came. Alarm bells were blaring inside her fractured mind, for while the exiled citizens of Anglond were closer, there was a massive target approaching that demanded her attention far more than these weak little bipedal meat sacks. Zalga had entered the detection range of The Beast, and now a battle was coming that would inspire bards for decades, if not centuries to come.

…

The Beast stood on the shoreline, ripping its blades out from inside itself. The metal plates and black body glove returned to their positions now that her blades were in her hands, and The Beast began to hyperventilate and thus pour a heavy fog over her surroundings. The water began to recede as Zalga neared the shore, all of the liquid that had been breaking against the gravel beach being pulled into a massive 140-meter-tall tsunami. The Beast didn’t realize this, and had advanced farther as the waterline fell backwards, but soon realized that the waves would indeed come back. However, the realization came too late. Lost in her own madness and rage, The Beast failed to notice the surge that was rushing back and was hit with the full force of the tidal wave.

Sent flying by the force of the oncoming waters, The Beast tumbled along as the surge dashed her against the rocks and the ruins that dotted the shore. Unable to fight to her fullest when submerged, she would have been easy prey for Zalga if the Deem Empress had wanted to fight her now. Zalga, unlike some other beings, would not exploit her opponent in such a disadvantageous position. If her opponent could not fight to their fullest, what was the point of fighting them in the first place?

Zalga wanted a real battle that pitted her full power against that of her foe, and thus she began to use her immense power to her own benefit. Flexing her ‘divine’ might, she used her ‘godly power’ to cause the island to fracture and break apart. A bit of entropy and atomic decay in just the right places created a situation where the isle began to shatter into a miniature archipelago in mere moments. A bit more flexing of ‘godly’ muscle and the earth that remained formed large platforms for which her foe might stand above the surface and do battle upon.

The funny and also tragic consequence of Zalga’s efforts to create an ideal battleground for her to face off against The Beast was that the exiles, along with the entire Black Site and all of the information that could be gleaned from them, were submerged deep under the waves. The Mages did their best to hold back the falling rubble and water pressure, but they could only hold back their imminent demise for a few scant hours. The truly ironic thing was that they had intended to use The Beast as a last desperate attempt to secure a chance to escape, but now that their mages were preoccupied with holding back everything going on around them, they no longer had an opportunity to even try to open a portal.

…

The Beast swirled around in the twisting waters for a time as the earth cracked and reformed. After being thrown about like a rag doll for what felt like several minutes, she was thrown from under the water and up onto the rocky platforms that made a circle. The differently-sized rocky protrusions were interspaced by channels and were not linked together. In the center was a massive whirlpool in the center of which rose a colossal waterspout. The water-infused twister undulated and then exploded as the ten tentacles of Zalga twisted their way up the raised platforms. Zalga then rose up from within the twisting maw of water and came face to face with her foe. The Beast was absolutely tiny in comparison to her, so much so that it was like comparing a tadpole to a Blue Whale.

The Beast and Zalga stared each other down and as a smile flashed across their faces. The sea raged like a rabid animal, with icy waves crashing with intense fury against both the rocky platforms and Zalga herself. Zalga summoned her two massive blades into two of her four hands and her four cephalopod eyes studied her foe with sinister intent. The Beast ripped its blades out from its flesh and let out a shrill screech while fog erupted from the vents in her mask. The two forces of nature took their individual battle stances, and with that, the battle between a God and a Monster began. As rain and lighting poured down from the sky in seemingly equal measure, the sounds of combat echoed through the storm like thunder.