Chapter 10: The Queen

“Well well, what have we here~”

The words bounced around the cave. Even Veezla seemed shaken by them. They were magically altered words. It would have been hard for Laddleplug or Thistle to make them out elsewise. The feminine-sounding source wanted to be heard.

It was the voice of Mary Sueddon. The self-proclaimed queen of all. It was her eye that eclipsed the sky, which meant she had to stand at least 20 miles tall, which was a good 10-times Veezla’s total length.

The sorceress queen was wearing a royal two-piece swimsuit she conjured herself. It was black and purple, with hints of pink like her shoulder-length pink her, and cyan like her sky-blue eyes. It was dry, thanks to a bit of drying prestidigitation on Mary’s end.

Otherwise, the petite fair-skinned queen had on nothing at all save one gigantic gold and gemmed ring on her right hand. She was as beautiful as could be, by luck not magic, though her body and clothes were kept clean by a powerful enchantment. She was in her early 20s, and looked the part with her youthful and pretty countenance.

The path to the mountain was littered with footprints near 3 miles in length. Though no settlement crushed beneath the steps, much forest land did.

“What a large little monster you are.”, came the voice again. There was a saccharine sweetness to the timbre, even as it echoed through the very beings of the three at her mercy.

Veezla was shocked. No one had seen Mary Sueddon in person before. Even she had heard the rumors of the sorceress who could grow to obscene heights. But, something this big, it rivaled the gods.

In the titaness’s shock, her hand loosened. Thistle used the opportunity to crawl past the titaness’s purple fingers. Her legs were lame from having her knee caps crushed, but with her wings she could still fly, and fly she did.

Thistle took to the air and soared up and up. Veezla and Laddleplug were too distracted to even notice her till she spoke.

“Yes!”, shouted Thistle. “I’ll get free and heal, then I’ll hide, and return once this continent is wiped of people by Mary. Then, I’ll still rule. Mwahahaha!”

Thistle flew past the mountain top. Mary Sueddon didn’t even deign to look at the draconic-druidess. Those dragon wings took Thistle out of the mountain and into the open air. There, she saw Mary Sueddon was wearing some kind of bikini? There was no water on her form, which made it all the more curious a choice of outfit.

The draconic-druidess paid it little more mind as she soared forward. She aimed to pass through the gap between Mary’s arm and her side as the gigantic queen was distracted by the snake-tailed titaness.

Thistle got within a few thousand feet of Mary’s side when she was zapped. A flood of magic cracked towards the dragon-woman and fried her like a bug. Thistle felt her body disintegrate, but she wasn’t dead. Instead, she floated in the air as a blue ethereal version of herself.

An immensely powerful tug sucked her right towards that fair skin of Mary Sueddon’s midriff. Thistle’s very soul was pulled deep into Mary’s body, into a churning, swirling whirlwind of other wailing spirits. She felt her soul shrinking down to match the others as her power was stolen from her. Not just the essence of dragons she had taken, but her entire druid abilities were something she felt slip away.

“No, no that was mine that was-ack!” She screamed in a chorus with the other souls, deep within the throng Mary Sueddon possessed. She felt her energies being drained. It was painful, like a powerful electrical shock.

Back on the outside, Mary Sueddon cast a small spell to wipe a bit of rubble from the mountain top. She just wanted it to look smoother, but like every spell she cast, she called upon the regenerative energies of the countless souls languishing in her being. They were magical batteries for her, more or less. That was their sordid fate.

“Oh.”, she said, nose scrunched for a moment. “It seems my anti-pest magic field zapped something. You really should clean your lair better, Veezla, isn’t it? Seems that pest had some powerful essence in them. That of dragons? Hardly worth my time, but I’ll take that power anyways, and you too my dear titaness.”

Veezla’s eyes were wide. She spoke.

“She invaded now of all the times. Laddleplug, tell the others of the land.”

The titaness titled her hand down, figuring that Laddleplug could cast a slow-fall spell to try and escape Mary’s cruelty. He did so, just as Veezla was pinched up by the absolutely mountainous fingers of Mary Sueddon. The Queen of All talked once the titaness dangled in front of her face.

“It was a bit of a swim over, and I’ve worked up an appetite. You’ll be the perfect snack to begin my conquest of Igrisos in earnest. You should be honored to be a meal for the Queen of All. All your years of existence lead to this moment. Rejoice~”

Veezla struggled, but there was nothing she could do. Mary’s strength was augmented by her unfathomable magics, and she was simply too big. The sorceress pursed her lips about the tip of the titaness’s snake tail. Veezla was slurped up like a noodle and gulped right down.

A titaness who existed for millennia went down the megalomaniacal queen’s throat with hardly any savoring.

Mary Sueddon’s throat was hardly as neat and cute as the sorceress queen herself. Veezla was squeezed on all angles by slimy flesh. Of course, said flesh was lit up by some magical, colorful lights that illuminated Mary’s insides. She had precast them, clearly expecting to feast on her conquest.

‘After all,’, Mary often thought to herself. ‘A generous ruler would let her subjects see her insides as they digest. That way, they can appreciate her better~’

Veezla fell down into a stomach near empty. Acidic chyme washed against her. The queen’s digestion must have been magically augmented as well, as she felt it burn her skin mere moments after falling in.

The titaness-turned-snack flapped her green wings to try and fly up to where she came in, but she found herself grounded by an oppressive magical aura. All she could do was squirm as the acids worked her, a titaness, down to an easily absorbable meal.

Back on the outside, Mary Sueddon sighed with satisfaction. “Mmm, she went down nicely. A good squirmer.”

Her words boomed around the cave as Laddleplug hurriedly ran back towards the exit.

“Oh, and where do you think you are going? You are a subject of mine as well, little gnome.”

Laddleplug froze out of fear.

“Don’t think I can’t see you there. My senses are magically boosted, this way, I can see my subjects even when I tower above the tallest landmarks of nature.”

“I’m no subject of yours, you witch!” shouted Laddleplug. He waved his arms to cast a teleportation spell. This was a dangerous thing to do without a target circle in mind, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

To his horror, the spell failed. It simply fizzled right out.

Mary’s Sueddon’s curious giggle roared around him.

“Dohohoho. Silly wizard, I’m blocking all teleportation and inter-dimensional magic on the continent. I’ve usurped that pesky barrier itself. It was really easy once I actually got past it. It’s powerful against magic, but by swimming over to the continent myself, I just walked right through it and controlled it from within. Those pesky arch-mages of this land likely figured it out, but I don’t need their help holding it up. It’s just one of the many spells I can concentrate on with no effort at all.”

Laddleplug shivered. He fell over on his butt from the thoom of her voice. Wind roared around him as Mary lifted her leg up.

“Now then, I think you can have the honor of being one of the first people snuffed out beneath your queen’s royal feet. This mountain has no future in *my* vision of Igrisos, so I’m gonna flatten it down, and you with it.”

A perfect sole descended towards the mountain. Laddleplug could make out every single wrinkle and whorl he could see on that miles of foot flesh.

“Don’t worry, I’ll put your soul to good use. All my subjects will live on within their queen~”

Mary settled her foot on the mountain. It covered the hole she had made removing its peak, but that moment of darkness lasted less than a second. The mountain offered hardly any resistance as the sorceress queen simply stepped down and flattened it. That stalwart, enormous mountain flattened to dust and stone beneath her foot. Not a single bit of the debris it became stuck to Mary’s sole thanks to her vanity enchantments. She wiggled her toes to further grind it up, then stepped right past it.

Laddleplug’s body burst to near-naught. His soul joined the others serving Mary Sueddon in death. She didn’t spare much of a thought to him afterwards.

Instead, the sorceress queen moved past the mountain. She set her hands to her hips and stood proud as she observed the settlements in the horizon. At the moment, lesser, though still formidable, quakes shook the land.

Gigantic golden constructs arrived from the shore. Some were miles tall, but others were a mere 50ft, or in the low hundreds of feet. Each one was a perfectly shaped facsimile of Mary in her trademark royal garb: which was a short robe-ensemble that was sparse enough to show off her midriff.

One construct, miles tall, walked up to Mary Sueddon’s ankle. It spoke.

“My dearest most gracious and wondrous Queen, it is my honor to inform you that we, your loyal constructs, have arrived to-”

“Ah perfect”, said Mary Sueddon. She had cut off the constructs words by wrapping her fingers about its head. She brought the construct up to her face, then twisted the golden head right off. Shining cyan fluid spurted out of the neck hole the queen made.

Mary chucked the golden head over her shoulders, where it rolled through a forest. Soon after that gesture she tilted the construct’s neck into her mouth. With quick gulps, she chugged it out of the fluid magical essence used in its creation.

“Mmm, wonderful. I was a bit thirsty after such a long journey, and swallowing that monster worked up my thirst too. Now then.”

Mary Sueddon snapped her fingers. Her bikini outfit swapped to her usual regal attire. Rather than gold like it was when adding to the shape of the constructs, it was instead made of real, smooth cloth. The coloring was predominantly purple and black, but carried highlights of pink and cyan which were two more colors she loved dearly.

The pink-haired sorceress then cast one more spell to amplify her voice. Like all her spells, it tortured and drained all the souls wriggling within her soul gut: the “throng” as she called it.

She dropped the golden construct’s body to the landscape below, then spoke. Her words echoed across the rocky, lush continent of Leoria. All heard her words, even on the rare chance that they couldn’t normally understand the widespread language of humans.

“Loyal subjects, rejoice, for your true queen has arrived.”, she began.

“I have finally passed through that Continental Barrier unjustly keeping you from your true Queen of All. I swam all the way from Eldbann to do so; that’s just the kind of devotion I show my subjects. Now, it’s time to give back. Don’t resist now, just wait for me to come and usher you into my queendom. You’ll have a wonderful time as souls. There’s no need to worry about food or water. All you’ll have to do is serve and empower your rightful regent forever.”

She sighed.

“I can tell you’re all *very* excited. I bet all you city-states are wondering what will be my first stop.”

The pink-haired sorceress giggled.

“I guess you’ll just have to wait and find out, but not too long. Rejoice and relax, as not a single one of you can escape the barrier that is now mine. I’ll be getting you all shortly~”

Mary snapped her fingers again and that voice spell ended. She took another good look at the settlements before her. There was a nice walled one, rather small, made mostly of cobblestone. It seemed a nice first stop.

First, she lifted her right hand to her face and eyed that golden ring of hers. Within the inset gem was a glided cage, and within it a man who’d seem utterly minuscule to Mary. Without her magically enhanced senses, he’d seem as but a speck. However, the powerful sorceress could make out every detail of his handsome, un-aging face.

The man was dressed in a festive outfit and held a lute. His eyes were glassed, smile forced. He had taken one too many charm spells.

“My dear Frederick.”, said Mary. “Play a nice, happy tune on that lute of yours.”

Without breaking his smile, or blinking, the imprisoned bard started stroking his lute. Only Mary possessed the senses to hear the tune from all gemstone in the way. She sighed at the pleasant melody.

Then, she stomped over to that city-state she spotted. She recognized it as Bankburrow. The aptly named city-state was one of the better known banking centers in all of Leoria despite its size. Not that it mattered to a post-seismic sorceress of course.

The people of the city-state poked their heads from their windows. Already criers were shouting the news on Mary Sueddon’s arrival. They all looked up to the sky.

Mary Sueddon was 20 miles tall: to them, unfathomable. Her foot alone was hard to comprehend as Mary lifted it above the entire city. Nearly 3 miles of foot stretched over all they were and all their city had accomplished.

From up above, Mary spoke. “Congratulations Bankburrow, on being my first stop--and stomp. Dohohoho.”

She paused and smiled.

“With you, the Queen of All at lasts starts her conquest of Igrisos!”

Mary Sueddon stepped down. The city flattened, and her smile widened as thousands of souls flooded into her. She sighed.

“Ah, yes, I have a feeling this will be a wonderful conquest.”

Fin