Chapter 11: Practicalities

Belle had proclaimed herself god of an entire nation, and the nation had officially submitted. There was one problem though.

They had submitted only officially.

It wasn’t exactly realistic to expect the entire nation to bow down right then and there. She had learned from General Kadwell that a surrender was approved by her and Ralph as soon as Belle had destroyed the fleet of airships. However, military and government leaders across the nation did not exactly agree with the decision.

For one, states were numerous and prone to squabbling and egotism. A giant brass woman wasn’t rampaging in *their* backyard, so why should *they* have to surrender to her? As another matter, not everyone believed she existed. Although word had spread over the nation about a giant brass woman having attacked the city--and it came via official government stations, no less--ultimately that was a hard pill to swallow. Many thought it a prank, some even thought it a political tactic to sway votes or some other wacky theory.

Ralph Barman had confessed that he surrendered with the knowledge that only the North Eastern area of the country would agree with it, as that was the area Kadwell commanded. Even then, plenty of towns and even a city or two would probably resist.

You just simply couldn’t say “I’m god” and conquer the masses. People were just too stubborn.

Two weeks with by, with only the surrounding towns yielding to Belle’s rule thus far. Kadwell’s forces, even after the hit from Belle, were enough to quell any concerns there.

At the same time, New York City was being repaired by Belle’s orders, as it’s partial destruction had left the North Eastern economy in shambles. The city would be in a riotous chaos if not for the colossal self-proclaimed “god” woman presiding over it all.

Belle didn’t need to sleep, so she quickly stomped out any night-time meetings of rebellion or the like. People got used to seeing her around, stomping through the area near the capital-building. She was kind enough to stay there to avoid crushing the streets and buildings as a few were undergoing repairs.

But, Belle was impatient. Repairing the city would take time, as would a war. The United States was nearly 3000 miles wide and about 1500 miles from north to south at the maximums. Her loyal forces were also recovering from their foolish resistance against her.

Belle had a plan though. She had noticed she had grown from all the tanks and blimps she had consumed. Moreover, though she didn’t need to eat, she forced herself to consume some of the building rubble the reconstruction crews were unable to repurpose: scrap metal and concrete and the like.

This was because Belle had noticed she had grown. From her fight with the city weeks back, it was a couple dozen feet. But, having eaten more building metal and the like, she had increased a couple hundred feet or so.

Eating made her grow, as she had been told and seen in practice now.

One problem was the process was slow, but a boon was that it seemed to be more efficient the more she ate. She didn’t just get bigger with more materials, but she improved overall. She felt more in tune with her body, faster and more flexible.

So, she devised a plan. Get big, better, to the point of unstopability. In the process, she would use her might to help conquer the nation herself. Her goal was to conquer the country before the majority resistance could figure out some way to kill her. That involved striking as fast as possible, improving--and growing--as much as she deemed fit at the least.

And so, a little over two weeks into her rule, Belle gathered some members of her new divine government. They traditionally met before her, where the capital building used to be. They met on sunny days mostly, as she liked to look at them when they gathered at the long and wide table laid out by her toes while she sat.

She issued them a harrowing order.

“The prisoners in the city?”, said General Kadwell.

“Yes.”, said Belle.

“All of them? Even those with minor offenses?”, said Ralph.

“Yes, don’t make me say it again. I wanted them delivered to me. Use the spare cargo geartanks to transport them. I’ll do my best not to ruin the vehicles.”

Ralph frowned. Belle had zoomed in to see it. “And you’re really gonna-”

“Eat them, yes. Now don’t make me repeat myself. They’re just prisoners anyways, the old government showed no pretense of treating them like humans, so don’t let my treating them like food rattle you.“

“But-”

“If you want to keep your place in my new world, you’ll stop questioning my orders like this.”

Ralph nodded in solemn understanding.

Within the day, her order was carried out. Dozens of troop-transport and cargo geartanks rolled into the courtyard, each carrying dozens of prisoners in their own right.

Belle didn’t even wait till all the drivers left the transports to dig in. She scooped up a handful of the vehicles at a time, easy when each was scarcely larger than a marble to her in size.

The only thing securing the backdoors to each transport was a metal rod through the hollow door handles. Holding her prizes over her mouth, said rod usually fell free from shaking, though when that failed she simply pinched the very rears of the transports as delicately as possible, and that typically dislodged the backdoors of the vehicles entirely.

Murderers and loiters alike fell screaming into her awaiting maw. Spritzes of ‘saliva’ and steam were waiting for them. Belle was so massive that a single human being was a good deal less than half-an-inch tall in comparison. She scarcely needed to swallow: they simply fell down in mass.

Belle didn’t care for their crimes, to her they were simply food. Once she had drained a transport of its ‘prizes’, she set it down for the usually quite terrified driver to run off and away from. Although it was tempting to feast on the transport trucks, she was careful enough to not damage any of them pass repair. They’d have uses moving her troops later: as well as future prisoners of war. She was thinking ahead.

As this went on, many of those loyal to Belle were watching from the edges of the courtyard. Their faces were often ones of revulsion. Belle noticed, and addressed them as she scooped up another half-dozen transports or so.

“Look at you hypocrites. It wasn’t too long ago that you were gonna cut me up and analyze me like some dissected bug. Now you have the audacity to judge me for putting prisoners to better use than you ever did?”

She finished the latest handful, ignoring the please of the driver who’s door grew loose from her shaking. The poor woman fell in with the convicts into Belle’s merciless mouth. Her lips sealed and she gulped, finishing the last transport of that handful before reaching down for another.

“When I first escaped the complex, a lot of that ‘monster’ talk was getting to me. Part of me believed it, but now I see. In the wild, animals always ate the inferior ones. You may see this as cannibalism, but it’s not so. I’m a superior being, a god. This government of mine is divine rule. It’s my right to devour you if I see fit. Consider these sacrifices: their bodies will be broken down, the minerals and metals flowing through their bodies reconstituted along with the rest of them. Their pieces will be the bricks to build a better me: to keep your god in advancement and smooth operation.”

Belle loomed her face into the handful. Her sensitive hearing functions picked up the whimpers from those beneath her luminescent gaze.

“When I was told humans were one of the most productive things for me to consume, I didn’t believe it at first. It seemed too outlandish, but after eating a bunch I realized the odd truth of the matter. There’s really no better organic food source for me.”

She pinched up a transport and shook out its contents. Dozens more people, sent to her metal guts to for processing.

“And from cooking alive in my stomach, they’ll give me more power, more scale. In this way, even those who refuse my rule can still aid me.”

Belle scooped up the last handful of transports.

“Shame these people never even got to chance to even try and resist. Ha~”

She opened wide and just swallowed it all down: vehicles included. Even with how she ravaged the North-Eastern Division weeks ago, she figured they could make up for a loss of 6 measly transport geartanks and drivers.

They protested over the radio nonetheless.

“Silence!”, said Belle. She rose to her full height and the ground rumbled.

“My will is law now, and their sacrifice was appreciated. Honor their memories however you see fit, but also hear my next order. I’m no fool, conquering this country properly will require my direct aid, at least at the start. People are nice, but to really grow I will require metals, stone, more dense and heavy mass.”

Belle trailed her fingers over her flat a perfect brass tummy. Screams echoed within while they danced up a fuss.

“It’s just the nature of physics. I need a hearty, inorganic meal to grow more at the speeds we need. But, you can’t exactly spare any more tanks, can you General Kadwell.”

Kadwell spoke on the radio, where Belle had talked simultaneously as she did aloud.

“W-we’d prefer not to.”

“Exactly, which is why you are to inform the two nearest towns that they are to be evacuated.”

“Evacuated? But why, and where?”, said Ralph.

“They can move into the city. We had a lot of causalities of late right? It could use the re-population effort.”

“But we’re already-”

“Oh so now you care about overpopulation in the city? Crowding? Give me a dammed break.”

Belle scoffed, the brass timbre of her voice’s thoom echoing. She continued.

“It’s wasteful to have people living anywhere but cities. All their automobiles for travel, all their homes and shops are better used as fuel for me. I got a hunch those two towns will be thousands of feet of growth for me, each, not to mention other refinements to my body. They’ll adjust to city living fast enough.”

Ralph moved to speak, but General Kadwell spoke first.

“I-I understand. We’ll rely the directive over radio to Coalbarrow and Whealguard. I’ll also send forces there at once to carry out the orders.”

“Perfect.”, said Belle. She walked towards Kadwell and the others, her brass foot casting them in its shadow a moment as she walked safely over them. It settled with a loud thoom.

“I’ll meet you there.”

And so, Belle moved to leave the city. By her orders, a long western swath from the capital area out was not to be repaired. It served as her own personal ‘road’ for movement, though the military could also use it to move through when safe.

The journey to the nearest town of Coalbarrow took Belle mere minutes. At more than 1000ft tall, she could travel over 500mph simply walking. Needless to say, she was faster than the force Kadwell dispatched. So, she stopped by a nearby hill to Coalbarrow and sat on it, watching the town from afar. She tested the capabilities of her zoom functionalities: managing to see the details of buildings from thousands of feet away.

She was sure the villagers saw her on the horizon. They would have heard the radio by now, but probably wondered why she wasn’t already there, upon them, chowing down on their homes.

‘In time’, thought Belle.

The loyalist military came into Belle’s view. She walked with them to the town, reveling as her steps lightly jostled those tanks on the move.

Belle had her legs lightly spread, hands on hips as she looked over the town. People moved with sullen expressions, guided by Belle’s troops to the vehicles waiting to help move them to the city. Everyone was permitted just one bag, as they had to leave any owned automobiles behind as well.

Once the town was clear enough, Belle fell to her knees and started devouring it. Her hands crushed buildings between her fingers, then she let the rubble fall into her maw. Every car and building either fell before her brass form as it crawled over the town in her feast or, of course, fell into it via her throat.

Belle actually had to pause to digest a couple times. Though her stomach was advanced, it still took a bit of time to break things down. Although she didn’t feel hungry, she could tell when she was full after all. Though it was possible to expand her stomach out of proportion by heating the metal ‘walls’ of it and molding them outward, Belle didn’t want to deform her perfect brass body’s appearance, nor make the internal “organ” larger out of its current proportion.

Entire houses could be swallowed whole, albeit with a little bit of effort. Steadily, Belle began to grow, making more room for the town till her breaks in feasting became less frequent and, soon enough, the entire town was devoured.

Belle rose to her new full height, more than a thousand feet taller already. She stretched her arms up not out of any physical urge to, but just to revel in her being.

Whealguard was just a short walk away for her. Her feet trod over plenty of trees and such on the way. She was considerate enough not to step on the roads and make her forces trip to the city or elsewhere any harder.

Her forces were already at the second town when she arrived. The last bits of the evacuation were just finishing up. She zoomed in to see the horrified and awed expressions of her citizens, as they looked up at the gigantic brass woman who was gonna devour the livelihoods they left behind.

“Your god thanks you for sacrifice~”, she thundered from on high.

Her knees slammed into the earth, and once more she indulged in what her people had to offer. As she felt her body steadily grow she knew, too, that her rule would soon grow with it.