Godzilla God Killer

Amnisos, the bustling port in northern Crete, was enveloped in an air of anticipation. For days, the usual calm of its waters had been interrupted by rumours that passed through the island like the echo of a distant storm. Cretans, accustomed to the arrival of merchant ships and travellers, were intrigued by the recent news of a special vessel bringing an extraordinary cargo from unknown, distant and mysterious lands. Local merchants and fishermen, who knew the face of every sailor and the goods of every nearby port, whispered about the contents of this vessel and its promises of exotic treasures and strange creatures never seen on Hellenic soil. Curiosity mixed with fear as the quayside filled with eager spectators.

The vessel, worn but imposing, lay in the centre of the harbour, its sails furled and its bow turned towards the shore, like a predator at rest. On its decks, men with weathered faces and calloused hands worked quickly, unloading heavy chests and statuettes of bronze and carved wood, but the crowd's interest was not in these material riches. The eyes of all present were drawn to a cage covered and sealed with heavy iron bolts, guarded by the bravest soldiers of the hero who commanded the expedition. Rumours said that within it lay a beast brought from an island so remote and unknown that not even the gods seemed to recognise its name. A creature of colossal size, with dark skin and a gaze capable of terrifying the bravest, awaited the moment to be revealed to the world.

Among the figures wandering the worn stone streets, a woman moved discreetly, wrapped in the simple clothing of a merchant. Her movements were fluid, her steps light as the wind, and her gaze scanned the human landscape with cold observation. No one noticed her, for her appearance was as ordinary as that of any traveler who came and went in the coastal cities of Crete, but beneath that simple facade was hidden the majestic figure of Apate, the goddess of deception, whose power and cunning were known among the immortals. Although the crowd was unaware of her true identity, the air around her seemed to vibrate with a subtle energy, an invisible presence that permeated her surroundings.

Apate walked with a sure step, her eyes observing every detail with calculated attention. Her face, hidden under a hood, was wrapped in an enigmatic expression that combined calm with intrigue. Her true power and divinity were hidden from mortal eyes, for her domain was deception, the art of manipulation and illusion. Only those capable of seeing beyond appearances would have perceived the slight distortion in the air around her, the subtle tremor that indicated that the woman who walked among them was something much more dangerous, a superior being whose influence could change the course of lives and destinies.

Her light brown hair fell in waves over her shoulders, softly covered by the hood, but those strands that escaped the fabric reflected an ethereal shine in the sunlight, almost hypnotizing. And, beneath the hood, rested a stone crown, a simple but unbreakable symbol of her divine lineage, a mark of her immortal nature. That crown was a reminder of her status, of her power, and also of her bitter relationship with Olympus, that place that, for her, was nothing more than a nest of betrayals and broken promises.

Since the day she was released from Pandora's Box, Apate had woven a web of intrigue and conspiracies, a web that extended throughout the known world, with a single purpose: the destruction of Zeus and Olympus. Of all the gods, Zeus was the one she despised the most. He had been responsible for the imprisonment of Nyx, her mother, in the darkest corners of Tartarus, a brutal and incomprehensible punishment that echoed in Apate's soul like an unhealed wound. The hatred she felt for him burned in her chest like a constant fire, and every time she saw an image of his face or heard a story of his victories, she felt her thoughts darken with desires for revenge.

To her, Olympus was a cage of arrogance and arrogance, and every opportunity she got to torment her sons and daughters was another step on her path to retribution. The demigods, those imperfect descendants of Zeus, were easy targets for her hatred. On more than one occasion, Apate had plotted to wipe them out, to show Zeus that his offspring were not exempt from his punishments. However, until then, her attempts had failed for various reasons. These children of Zeus, protected by his divine blessings, always found a way to evade their fate, and Apate was beginning to feel that she needed a much greater force to break down the defenses of her enemies.

Her previous attempts to wipe out the demigods had failed, but the arrival of this strange monster brought from the East seemed to be a sign of destiny. This being called "Godzilla" was a beast larger and more fearsome than any other creature mortals had ever seen.

Apate, in her discreet stalking, remembered the rumours that had spread rapidly among merchants, sailors and soldiers, the tales of that strange and monstrous "treasure" that a Cretan hero, one of the many bastard sons of Zeus, had brought with him as a sign of his power and prowess. This hero, a young man who aspired to the glories of his ancestors and to be recognised for his divine blood, boasted of his daring feat to anyone who would listen. On his journey through remote islands in the East, he had found this creature on an island lost in the fog and had faced it with his crew, underestimating the ferocity of that beast which, although it initially resisted with uncontrollable rage, ended up being subdued through an exhausting battle.

For their victory, the Cretan sailors and warriors had used all their strength, employing reinforced iron nets and harpoons soaked in incendiary oils, until the beast finally yielded. With thick, heavy chains, they managed to secure it, and when it finally gave in, exhausted and weakened, the hero ordered it to be confined in an iron cage specifically designed to contain the wildest of beings. The creature, now imprisoned, was transported to the ship, where it remained submissive and seemingly defeated, while the hero and his crew returned to Crete, planning to display it in the ports as proof of the greatness of their lineage and their right to glory. At each port they passed, news of the exotic beast grew, and the young demigod's fame, as well as his ego, also increased.

Apate, always alert to the weaknesses and desires of mortals, had been watching from the shadows, invisible to the eyes of those who could not see beyond the earthly plane. Her calculating mind quickly realized that the hero's pride, vanity and ambition were perfect for her to weave a plot of revenge around him, manipulate his actions and, ultimately, unleash chaos upon Olympus. This was a game of cunning and patience, and in this, Apate was an incomparable master. She knew that the hero's ego and his desire for recognition made him especially vulnerable, as he was willing to face any threat to stand out in the eyes of the gods, of his own father Zeus, and of mortals, without yet understanding that what he had brought with him was a force that he did not control.

The expectation that surrounded the port of Amnisos that afternoon was palpable. The news of the arrival of the unknown beast had spread like wildfire throughout the city, and the inhabitants had gathered to see for the first time this strange creature that the Cretan hero had captured. Ever cunning, Apate remained hidden among the crowd, her eyes carefully observing every detail, every reaction of the people and, above all, every movement of the creature. Under the hood of her traveler's cloak, her eyes did not miss a single detail as the men of the crew moved around the cage, pulling at the thick chains that held the beast. The soldiers and sailors watched with barely contained fear the cage where Godzilla still remained motionless, immersed in an eerie stillness that seemed to have momentarily calmed his destructive impetus.

When the chains finally gave way and the shroud covering the cage was removed, the crowd held their breath at the sight of the beast. There stood Godzilla, a colossal being, a monster of such proportions that none of the inhabitants of Amnisos had ever seen. His skin was dark as a moonless night, thick and rough, like that of an ancient dragon, and his size was so immense that he almost completely filled the interior of his iron cage. His eyes, two incandescent spheres, shone with a glow that oscillated between red and yellow, filled with a primitive intelligence that seemed to observe everything around him with a mixture of disdain and suppressed fury.

At first glance, Godzilla seemed exhausted, his body hunched and his eyes narrowed, as if capture and confinement had deprived him of all his strength and vitality. Apate, however, sensed something that the others could not see. Adept at the most subtle tricks and deceptions, she was not fooled by the creature's apparent docility. To her, who mastered the nuances of manipulation and deception, something in Godzilla's movements seemed strange, restrained, as if it were a carefully designed farce to appease his captors. The goddess, for an instant, let a smile appear on her lips. She knew she was faced with a unique opportunity, and, in a moment of clairvoyance, she understood the truth: Godzilla was feigning weakness.

Beneath that appearance of submission and exhaustion, Apate sensed a relentless fury, a spark of indomitable will, ready to be unleashed at any moment. The creature had not been tamed or defeated; it had simply found a way to make its captors believe it was. That dark and imposing being was waiting for the right moment to unleash its power, and Apate, who had always known how to read the depths of other people's motivations, knew that this moment of destruction and chaos was closer than anyone present suspected. The Cretan hero, so proud and confident of his triumph, had no idea that what he had brought with him would, in reality, be his downfall.