Chapter 6: City

‘Thousands’, Yun thought to herself.

‘That village contained thousands, and already I tower taller than any construct of humankind.’

A bare foot hundreds of meters in length settled onto an expanse of road-side forest. It felt like prickly moss as the sturdy decades-old trees crumbled.

‘I wonder what millions at once will do~’

The step of her left foot came next and continued to destroy the highways it trod on. The country was always busy, its roads always packed meaning there were no shortages of sensations and selves for Yun’s titanic body to absorb.

Once again Yun was back to keeping the minds of her victims trapped and alive while digesting everything else. At such an immense size, her steps were deeper than ever. All underfoot was swallowed by the aura of absorptive power outlining her frame, visible only as a subtle glow. The glow itself was a bit of an illusion: a consequence of the universe’s ‘fabric’ pooling into her at rates too slow and minute for real damage. Now, at her current size, the fainest thin bit of black could be seen at the very start of that aura’s outline. That was where she absorbed light itself.

All were mere trickles compared to the power and wholeness offered by a sapient mind when it dissolved. There was a certain ineffable complexity to those, Yun now knew, which reaped a level of fulfillness unrivaled.

‘Millions’, thought Yun again. ‘Millions just waiting to make me whole~’

The news media and nation’s army were both abuzz with the development. Jets sped by to try and intercept Yun, but even her walking gait was too fast for all but the high-tech experimental crafts to keep up with. She was simply that big and vast.

A few villages found themselves in Yun’s path. Some were smaller than the one at the base of the monastery mountain, others larger. All were woefully unprepared for her foot as it slammed down atop them. There was no military to help them, as the government concentrated all its forces in the far more important capital city.

The only bit of good fortune those little settlements received was that Yun didn’t stop to finish them off. All the destruction she brought them was incidental. They were in her way. That didn't’ mean she didn’t absorb the victims beneath her, but it did mean many villages lucked out with only a single steps worth of destruction in their borders. That was enough to ruin the towns for years to come--assuming they’d even get those years. Still, it did mean a few people survived in her wake. Many gawked in awe at the colossal woman’s passing; others collapsed to the ground in morning for their homes and friends, who they witnessed disappear under step.

It wasn’t long till Yun was upon it. The capital city. Its residents didn’t have long to prepare. They started hearing her steps once she was miles out. Each one was more loud and disruptive than the last. The tremors of the titaness’s footfalls traveled up the soles of their shoes to rock their entire bodies. People stumbled and tripped over one another trying to follow the military’s last minute evacuation orders. Traffic was clogged with people still trying to escape. It was chaos.

The constant mini-quakes finally came to a pause as the gigantic woman stood before the city. Her toes alone towered over the residential complexes on the city’s outskirts. The gigantic hills of flesh rested on the city’s connecting highways alongside the few middling buildings and fuel stations by those roads.

Heads trailed up to take in as much of the being as they could. Her bare feet and ankles were visible, as were much of the lower parts of the “simple” brown-orange robe that grew with her immense form. Depending on distance, most could only see up towards the start of her covered abdomen. Those too close could only see as high as her waist even craning their necks to the max. It was only via surveillance footage from drones, planes, and satellites that her full form could be displayed. Morbid curiosity had many a citizen peeking at the closest screens to take in her form.

In contrast, Yun could see the capital in all its area. The gray and black structures spread for miles and miles. There was so much she recognized. The business woman owned about half of the skyscrapers before her, after all. She saw the towering structure where she and her army of servants had lived. It now hardly crested her knee. Even the tallest building in the city, her old headquarters, only just came up to her waist. The other, lesser, corporate HQs seemed even more pathetic. The entire city did. She had gotten aerial views of the metropolis before but now, simply standing, it all looked so small.

And delicious.

All the scurrying people, all the various military squadrons setup in strategic locations inside and around the city. It all was just there for the taking. The inner-workings of her malleable body shifted in anticipation.

Yun smiled, hands clasped together as she spoke.

“Hello.”, she said. Her voice boomed over the city. It wafted through every street and ally. She was heard and heard well.

“I can see you’re all in a bit of a fuss. It’s to be expected. I can imagine I’m not the most popular person in this city. In my pursuit of money, power, and luxury I’ve certainly stepped on many of you--metaphorically speaking of course.”

She laughed.

“Yes, there wasn’t a single policy that went through this city or the country as a whole without my say-so and meddling. Even now, much of those building you are hiding behind are owned by yours truly.”

Her foot shifted ever so slightly, and a mini-tremor reverberated the roads and streets.

“I can understand why you all might dislike me. Well, I’m happy to announce I’m a changed woman. No longer am I attached to these transient, material things like money, buildings, servants. No, I’ve good news to share. You see, I’m happy to announce I’ve found religion.”

Yun slowly raised her right foot into the sky. A pale canopy of feminine flesh shadowed a few blocks.

“And, as it turns out, I’m god~”

She stomped. The greatest quake yet ravaged the city. A shockwave of air billowed out from the impact. The force was enough to knock all nearby over, and that roaring disruption of air carried with it concrete dust. Dust, was all that could escape from the smattering of buildings Yun had flattened underfoot. Entire high-rises. Hundreds of people. Gone, just like that.

The dust blinded many till it settled. All the while, Yun laughed above them. When the cloud of destruction cleared, those alive could take in the sight proper. A great fair-skinned foot rested where millions of dollars of buildings once did. It set itself into the ground with a raised bit of debris marking the outline of the print.

That foot lifted up into the sky. Oddly enough, no rubble rained from above as the appendage moved to shadow the nearest gawkers. The inside of the deep print left behind, from what they could see, was perfectly smooth. More smooth than any surface the people ever saw. They wouldn’t last to learn any explanation as to how; Yun stepped down again.

Another stomp. Another cluster of humanity extinguished. Fresh crumbling sensations for the cruel mistress looming over the cityscape. She wiggled her toes in the latest bit of of debris, and the rubble disappeared into her skin with each shift of those towering digits.

“Lovely. You see, despite my wealth I was so unfulfilled. Life just seemed to be a game; going through the motions. Nothing seemed to have real value to me. I was disinterested. I realize in hindsight that my luxurious pleasures served to quell a growing existential unease rather than bring any lasting peace.”

Yun lifted her foot again and stomped a new section of the city. Like everywhere else, it was packed with people and even a few squads of the military. They were sucked into her body as the foot fell and the buildings burst. Eye-lids fluttering in delight, Yun paused just a moment before speaking again.

“Well, thanks to some introspection and meditation, I realized why I felt so empty. I am the universe experiencing itself, but all my pieces are separated across, well, the universe. From blades of grass to buildings, from atoms to to stars: it’s all me. In fact, even all of you are me. Your own egos, your senses of self, are merely illusory. Fun things to toy with, but part of me nonetheless. I’m going to take it back. Everything will be back where it belongs: within me.”

Yun lifted her foot for another stomp. She smiled mischievously as, at the last moment before her foot impacted, she shifted it to the side and caught a screaming swarm of humanity off guard. Immediately after she lifted and stomped again, then again, fast as though quickly trodding out a hill of ants. Yun thought the term ‘ants’ was a bit generous.

“To me”, she continued, moving into the city now. “You look like specks. Mites. Perhaps, if I’m being generous, you seem like those little black-dot-like bugs one could see in the rural areas. The kind of things you’d step on without even noticing.”

Yun moved towards the tallest building the city. Her company’s own HQ. Along the way, the massive robe she wore billowed with her strides. The fabric, slightly loose from her perspective, brushed against whatever buildings her feet didn’t flatten. Even grazing those countless tons of fabric meant doom for any structure in her path.

The military did a quick fly by with some jets. They got a few shots off from mounted high-tech machine guns that one of Yun’s subsidiary companies probably produced. It went unacknowledged by her mile-plus form. Still, the shifting of her robes from one of her grand steps folded the fabric of the garbs in such a way as to clip a few jets. They crushed into wrinkles and folds of the fabric as if they were small hills. Yun’s next step shifted the fabric again so as to smush out what was left of the crafts. The remaining bits of jets and their pilots were absorbed through Yun’s aura into her being.

Glass panes trembled and cracked from the echoes of the titaness’s footfalls. The headquarters for Yun’s main company was still packed with the business woman’s employees. Back when the city’s evacuation protocol was updated a year back, Yun insisted her own employees exemptions from any such orders: whether they wanted to be or not. She didn't’ want to lose productivity cause of a city-fire or anticipated war or the like.

This turned out to be a bit of serendipity for the gigantic enlightened woman. Many buildings were designated as emergency evacuation centers during this ‘crisis’ she wrought, but because of her metaphorical stone-squeezing efforts she knew all her employees were inside the towering skyscraper before her.

She crouched down to get her eye level with one of the upper floors.

“Yes.”, she said. “It’d be so easy to see you as mere pests. I’ve called you as much back before my awakening. I mean, just look at you, scurrying through my floors like minute little pets in clear cages: only treated far worse.”

She grinned, her smile filling the view for a few consecutive floors.
“But don’t worry, I now know your worth.”

Yun leaned back up to near her full height. The tower she had poured over a billion dollars into making hovered at her crotch in height. She placed her right hand upon its semi-pointed top. Her fingers rubbed at it. The people within trembled as the structure shock.

“You’re part of me. Even now you are, but I’ll bring you as close as can be and make you mine fully.”

Yun’s hand melted down atop the tower in a flood of flesh. The falling tide covered the structure as fast as a waterfall. The view outside went dark as people saw the undulating innards of her horrific body. They saw it only for a brief moment till the sun was snuffed by the fleshy horror pooling down the windows.

Her melted-like flesh reached the bottom of the structure before flowing all the way back up like a waterfall in reverse. With a great and ghastly swishing noise Yun’s hand reformed. The building was digested instantly, but all the people were pumped deeper to her center. They fell in her stomach were the ground was as shaky as the sounds were horrifying.

Yun’s former employees only had their smartphones to light up the place. Anyone who did soon regretted it. Coatings of acid upon the shifting ground pooled at their shoes. Horrid fleshy constructs dotted the grotesque landscape. Protrusions of fangs and tentacles lashed out to stuff many victims into Yun’s inner maws. As tranquil as she could seem on the outside, her insides were anything but.

No one’s body lasted long in her. Yun’s digestive system quite literally worked her former employees to the bone and beyond.

Yun stood straight up and sighed. By now over a hundred thousand selves shouted within her. Their voices heard only by each other and her encompassing superior self. She laughed cheerily into their minds.

A loud noise disturbed her equanimity, alongside a bit of force on her back and a growing sense of warmth.

Yun turned around and noticed the country’s army had prepared themselves a bit better while she was distracted. The street was clear and some clever looking tanks had fired at her. She noticed a fiery emblem upon their titanium chassis. Grabbing a bit of her simple robe, she noticed it was on fire. Another volley rang out while her head was turned, and the front of the garb caught aflame as well.

“Ah.”, said Yun. A corner of her lips rose in a wry smirk.

“You want to see your goddess in her naked glory. How naughty, but then again there’s no shame here for me. Nor is there harm.”

The fire extinguished as Yun’s robe seemed to move on its own. It quickly folded over the infernos licking at its surface. When the robe ceased putting the flames out, the charred fabric healed before the military’s eyes. Black and burnt became that simple shade of brown once more. She smiled.

“These robes are a part of me in a sense. I made them after absorbing them ever so subtly. I know and control every detail of their make. It’s an extension of my self. Perhaps, in time and with enough focus, I can do similar with all the people I’ve dissolved--if the mood suits me of course.”

The titaness chuckled.

“Anyways, behold the scandal of the century. Yun, world's richest woman, entirely naked.”

With just a slight amount of focus, Yun’s robe dissolved in a flash. It was as though it had never been there at all: not a single bit of fabric or lint or anything rested on her skin.

The black-haired behemoth was stark naked. Her pink and perfect nipples bared to all alongside a hairless crotch. Her skin was porcelain pale and perfectly free of blemishes or the like. She stretched her arms out to her side, palms up.

“Impressed? My meditation allows me to modify my body as I see fit, but I promise I didn’t change much about my form. Just minor smoothing out, nothing a human eye could see even before my awakening. Don’t worry though, I’ll show you much more of what my body’s capable of.”

Yun pointed her right hand at the array of tanks. She wiggled her fingers as whip-like strands grew out their tips. Bending and flicking her fingers, she worked the appendages like a natural to lash and destroy the assaulting vehicles. Even as the tanks exploded and the humans within immolated, their selves still flew into her.

“Don’t worry”, Yun said. “You’re all still going to join me. That glow around me is just a hint at my aura’s expanse. I’m absorbing every human mind that dies within a several hundred mile radius. Rejoice, for soon all will be back to being a part of me. Back in their rightful place.”

Yun turned her mile-and-a-half form towards some yet undemolished city blocks. She stepped into some of them while lashing her whip-tipped fingers at others. Faster than sound, the deadly appendages tore through skyscraper and people alike. Her flesh-whips cracked almost everywhere she could reach.

All the while, her careless feet flattened everything caught under-tread. Blockades, mobs, buildings: it was all drawn into her being one way or another. Every single movement from her body reaped dozens if not hundreds of ‘selves’ for her to ingest. They were piling up, squirming within her. The sensations were delightfully distracting, but she managed to hold her focus on the destruction at hand.

Shots rang out. It was more tanks, heavier ones with longer and wider barrels. They fired from blocks away. Once Yun’s attention was grabbed again, a squad of planes flew at her sides to pelt her arms and front with explosive armaments. Yun vaguely remembered owning a patent to shells like those that just hit her: intense heat and energy in a small shell. It would have been enough to crack open any bunker, and they were using it on her naked flesh.

The ensuing flames and explosions burst out for fractions of a second before seemingly reversing as they were sucked into Yun with a pleased sigh. Once again, there wasn’t a single scratch on her.

“Ah, I see.”, said Yun.

She withdrew her flesh-whips, hands back to their normal shapes again.

“You’re trying to hurt me, the government’s greatest benefactor. No nukes huh? Probably can’t afford to give up the city. It’s a waste to feed me me energy like this. It’s so much more efficient for me to take in the explosive matter directly, pre-detonation.”

She laughed.

“Well, if you wanted me to bleed, all you had to do was ask.”

Yun stretched her arms out towards the ground. Her fists clenched, and shortly after little red dots appeared over the top of her arms and front of her body. Blood.

The titaness didn’t seem to be in pain from the punctures. Her smile was unphased, even as she took to moving again. She swung her arms in wide strokes with her gait so as to help scatter the droplets around the city. Each actual full drop was over a meter in diameter, though much of the red fluid came down in a scattered rain given all her quick and destructive movements. Entire mobs of people were drenched in it. Buildings were covered with it, shining red under the late-afternoon sun. Yun was also sure to coat those rude tanks which distracted her earlier; a quick flail of her arm sent a spritz of blood to see to that.

At first, the liquid did nothing other than gross people out. It wet hair, stained clothes, but otherwise seemed not out of the ordinary. It’s only after hitting the tanks that the situation changed. The liquid began to grow more viscous. It went from feeling fluid to feeling like jello, and any pedestrian with any sort of biology background quickly realized the blood was clotting. Every building, car, and person with even a bit of the blood found the gooey mass taking hold.

The clots devoured whatever they formed on. Buildings melted as the fluid quickly turned corrosive. The acidity of it ate through titanium tanks, so the poor people drenched didn’t stand a chance. Once the blood consumed whatever it split on, it began to grow skin of its own: flesh.

Yun healed her bleeding, skin perfect again, then smiled. All across the city, wherever her blood had split now grew miniature versions of her self. Their heights varied wildly based on the mass of what they absorbed. Some mini-Yuns were as tall as buildings, while others were only the size of the mobs they nurtured themselves with. A few unlucky bodies were only the size of one or two people, but each one had the form of a perfect nude Yun.

The main, mile-plus Yun lifted a hand to her chin and giggled. Every other body mimicked her, and as she spoke, they did too.

“Ah.”, the bodies said. “An unfortunate limitation. I’ve discovered how to make more bodies, but they all share the same signals from my superior self. I never wanted to split my consciousness or--gracious no--create new ones. But, I had thought I might at least be able to control some disconnected flesh more directly. Oh well, at least I can sense out of them.”

Yun laughed, all the non-main bodies did so too at the same time.

“It’s funny, the old me would have been infuriated at failing something I tried. It just goes to show how much my meditation practice changed me. All you specks should give it a try. You might get some sort of false realization to comfort yourself with as I trample you to naught. In the end, there’s nothing for me to be upset about. Soon all will be mine.”

Yun’s main body got to walking, and so did all her others. She aimed for the most dense bits of city that still managed to be pristine. The capital city was huge, so there was still plenty to flatten. Her feet did a fine job of that. Nothing survived beneath her.

The lesser Yun bodies followed the main body’s movements down to the finest flex of the most minute muscle. From the steps and stomps of her feet to the blinks of her eyes, they copied it. This made for a curious sort of chaos. Only the main body of Yun seemed to have a sense of direction. The other bodies just did what the main did without any regard to what was in front of them nor the rest of their surroundings.

Yun’s blood spurting spread far, and when the bodies formed from the clots they faced directions seemingly randomly. The reconnaissance planes and drones provided the best view of the destruction. Yun bodies walked every which way. Building sized ones walked through city blocks, just bumping their foreheads into any building a bit bigger than they were. Each body seemed stronger than a normal human would be at their respective sizes. The military learned that fast when they tried to shoot some of the smaller Yun forms: they didn’t even slow the bodies, let alone get any reaction. All they did was feed the bodies with more mass and energy from their bullets.

However, depending on size there were limits. It was almost funny how many of the smaller Yun bodies walked into skyscrapers far, far bigger than themselves. She was mostly only absorbing destroyed matter, so those less fortunate and weaker forms just walked into walls, making no progress.

Of course, even the smallest Yun body absorbed everything organic it came across. They would walk through vehicles too, absorbing the car frames on contact to make their own doorways inside with the hopes of walking into a buckled in passenger or the like. Quite a few couples were broken up as a human-sized Yun body walked right into their car, through their loved partners, then out the other end of the vehicle. All the while, the Yun bodies seemed oblivious to what was going on.

Some Yun bodies even walked right out of the city, only to turn back as the main-body made its own turns here and there. Yun laughed at it. Her sense of humor had grown along with her. She, of course, cared little for the extraneous forms. One of the ankle-high Yun bodies wandered beneath one of the main body’s planet-punishing steps. The mile-plus titaness didn’t hesitate to crush it under sole along with the rest of the cityscape directly underneath.

It didn’t matter. All the people and rubble the lesser bodies absorbed was hers in the end: the bodies were hers even more directly. Every time she trod upon one of the other bodies, she claimed it all back.

Yun knew that even her main body was something of an attachment. Something not yet complete and whole. She would abandon it in a heartbeat to reach her goals, but thankfully she didn’t need to.

As the destruction went on, the bodies occasionally said numbers aloud.

“500,000, 600,000.”

Yun lifted the foot of her main body above a densely packed super-stadium.

“800,000”, was all she said after crushing and consuming all those lives.

The chaos continued for a few more minutes. Varying sizes of smooth footprints stained the city of tens of millions with all the bodies walking about.

“900,000, 950,000”

Yun found a small bit of military. Seems they were retreating, but the roads were far, far too packed. She raised her foot above them along with the rest of the block. All the vehicles and people crumbled under heel.

“One million!”, shouted all Yun’s bodies.

“Or, 1,122,354 to be precise. Overshot that last bit of destruction.”

The bodies laughed.

“Are you ready everyone? Despite my rampage there’s still so much city left. I’ll take it all though, and the entire planet. To top it off, I’ll do it without even willfully moving my feet from this spot.”

Yun’s main body emphasized the point by twisting her feet into the city foundation. All the other bodies mirrored it, making their own prints deeper.

“You see, there are now over one million selves within me, squirming, screaming and begging for mercy. It’s time to grant them dissolution. With it, I’ll become more whole than I’ve been yet, and far, far bigger. As I grow, though, I’ll be absorbing everything I can. Everything I touch will be sucked in, living or no. Every single self I absorb will be dissolved right away, and I won’t hold back my growth.”

She smiled.

“That’s right, it’s the end of the world. But, there is no need to be sad. Its sacrifice is not in vain! The planet is essential fodder for something much better: a whole and complete me.”

The Yun bodies took a deep sigh.

“Everyone, if you can hear this, join me in closing your eyes, and breathing in. This is the last chance you’ll have to appreciate the simple joy of your breath.”

All the Yun bodies breathed in. Her superior self silenced the lesser ones stuck within her form.