Chapter 15: Victories

Belle was on a roll.

Over the next months, her military had victory after victory. Preemptive surrenders had peaked, but that was no issue, since her army was large and skilled enough to handle almost any form of resistance thrown their way.

Of course, Belle could have trivialized the war easily by more actively fighting, but she wanted to encourage a form of self-sufficiently in her forces. They grew with every victory, not just in size of course, but with skill.

Belle needed that, for as powerful as she was, there was only one of her. She wanted to conquer the entire world, after all. The world was still a big place even for a gargantuan titan like her.

The world was also hearing about her, slowly but steadily. Her forces had only recently secured as much of the country as they did, and the North-west was still a hold out. They managed to get closed land borders and a navy blockade going, but before that came up, and even with it up, some resourceful people slipped free of the United States. When they arrived, often in Europe, they told tales of a giant brass woman attacking the country, claiming dominion over it while others resisted.

Naturally, these reports were treated with heavy skepticism. A gigantic brass titan sounded a bit too fantastical to be true. The reports of a civil war were believed at least, but that didn’t mean the other nations of the world would do anything about it.

For one, pretty much every nation was embroiled in its own business of alliances and rivals. Almost every country had its own problems at home. Moreover, as tempting as it was to strike a country during a civil war, it would also be foolish.

Every nation, but especially the USA, was known to put aside internal differences to fight an exterior foe. It was just a part of human nature. No one wanted to risk the ire of such a large nation against themselves, especially when their own enemies would be eager to join in. At the time, the USA was also self-sufficient militarily, finding little need for alliances to secure its interests. That meant invading it wouldn't accomplish anything other than potentially winning their resources which, while tempting, was too risky.

So, there was no intervention to come from Europe, or Canada, or Mexico and certainly not from distant Asia or other regions of the globe. Reports of a giant brass woman were dismissed as the misunderstanding of large steamtech weaponry and vehicles by the confused and stupid peasants who arrived to foreign lands seeking refuge. That was good, as although Belle didn’t fear foreign invasion, one world make things a little more chaotic and complicated.

It also helped that Belle wasn’t participating in the battles too much herself: only when the mood arose of late. She instead spent her time enjoying the spoils, both as food and fun. Her forces were competent enough to take almost the entire country in her name on their own.

Almost.

The very North-West still held strong. The city of Seattle was the final stronghold of the resistance forces. They had numbers and technology on their side, being a city whose advancement was rivaled only by New York City’s before Belle made her claim to the country.

And so, Belle and her army moved onto the state of Washington for a grand assault.

Her airship fleet arrived first for scouting, retreating back when they were able to get a little inventory of the Washington Alliance forces. It was by far the biggest resistance they’d ever face, but when told information on their numbers Belle simply laughed.

She knew twice or thrice the number of tanks, troops, and airships wouldn’t matter. She’d welcome it, even. It'd just be more food and thus advancement for herself.

Belle let her forces move in first. She stayed miles away while the battle started and, when it finally did, she stirred from her camp with a thundering of earth.

Belle had been busy all those months, and when she appeared on the battlefield, it was at a size of over 5 miles tall. Her very feet now were around 4 times her old height when she first broke out of the Voxhaben Complex. It took a lot of sacrifices to make her that big, as the bigger she got, the more matter she required to increase her size further, even if her digestive and evolution mechanisms only grew more efficient.

The battlefield was miles away from her camp, but she was still upon it within minutes. She could walk more than 10,000 miles in a single hour, to reach Seattle was hardly even a stroll.

Her feet slammed down into the fray, flattening almost all of the enemy tanks in one step, and most of the scant ‘rest’ with another. Her own forces fell under her heel, prompting protests over the radio from General Kadwell.

“Divine Belle, you just crushed dozens of our own troops and geartanks.”

“Consider it recompense from my forces for not being able to handle this city on their own. Now clear our airships from my path, I wish to enact my wrath on Seattle’s.”

“A-as you command, divine one.”

A veritable swarm of airships flew towards Belle to try and attack her. It was a foolish mission, but pride was a powerful drug to those death-defying pilots. Their defiance didn’t last, though, as Belle simply walked over to them and slowly brought her hands to either side of their amassed formation, which hovered pathetically by her navel.

“Pitiful gnats.”, she said, and her voice echoed through the city and their ears alike.

An even greater sound rung out as she brought her hands together for a deafening clap. The enemy airship had been smashed like bugs, though Belle brought her palms to her mouth, sucking off the wreckage into her mouth. She didn’t want to waste even a meager meal of such advanced steamtech.

In but a few more steps, her toes towered outside Seattle. The city was abuzz with panic and activity.

“This is it, the last stronghold of the resistance. How do you all feel? Do you feel proud for resisting me this long? Do you still feel courageous, cast in the shadow of a body so big you can’t even see more than my foot at once?”

The city had some forces station inside. Several dozen airships flew up, heading towards Belle. They were equipped with heavy duty explosives, and aimed to simply crash into her as a last bit of heroism.

Belle squatted down. Her face was upon the airships, which she countered by simply opening her mouth a bit and sliding out her tongue. One lick, and that last-ditch assault was thwarted. She overemphasized her noisy, mechanical gulp.

“Was that supposed to intimate me? Hurt me? Pathetic, utterly pathetic. But, this is a time to rejoice. You’re the last stronghold, after all, once I finish dealing with you, the entire country is de-facto under my control, rather than merely de-jure. For that reason, I think I’ll devour half of this city instead of the usual third, as celebration. That’s assuming, of course, you have the good sense to surrender. I can certainly make room in my stomach to steam you all down to your mushy parts.”

Belle laughed as their screams reached her hyper-sensitive ears. She zoomed in on parts of the city with her powerful eyes. As she spoke aloud, her voice of course carried through their radio channels as well.

“As expected, you’re all running like the little cowards you are. Delicious, but you cannot run from this coming storm.”

Belle shifted down to her knees, leaned in, and pursed her lips above a large part of the city.

She then began to inhale.

Belle didn’t need to breath, but she could. Her mechanical lungs were a powerful force, powerful as any storm and more than enough to rip buildings right off their foundations. People, geartanks, and structures all swirled up into her mouth as though carried away by a tornado. With no need for a gag-reflex, she simply sucked them right on down her throat.

As she feasted she encouraged her forces to finish cleaning up whatever resistance still lingered outside the city or in any nearby settlements. General Kadwell had relied they had an official surrender order once about 10% of the city was sucked up but, true to her word, Belle was intent on devouring 50% of it.

From the ground, her open mouth filled much of the afternoon sky. An all consuming mouth from which they were drawn into by irresistible winds. Those who thought to shelter the storm in buildings weren’t even safe, as they bounced around the floors while the structures rocked up in a torrenting motion.

Belle had her fill, as always. Seattle was quickly sucked free of about half of all it had to offer. She swallowed for good measure, then licked her lips.

“And with that, this civil war is over.”

She rose back up to her full 5 mile height, speaking over her radio channel as well as aloud.

“Prepare the remaining population for slavery. Sort them the civilians by skill-sets, intelligence, and appearance like usual.”

“Yes, my divine liege.”, replied General Kadwell.

“I’ll return to the camp later. I think I’ll go for a little walk for now. Prepare some of the beautiful ones for me later this evening, I plan to have a bit of a celebration.”

“O-of course, Divine Belle.”

With a smirk for a moment, Belle marched westwards towards the Pacific ocean.

Her feet slammed into the beach, She stood there, brass feet in the sands, for few seconds before deciding to dip them in the ocean itself. Still standing, she laughed a little as the waves couldn’t reach the tips of her toes.

Looking down at the waters, she saw her reflection. Her face stared back, and she smiled, drawing her hand across her cheek to feel its divine smoothness.

‘To think,”, Belle thought. ‘I wanted to give up this body, *my* body at a point. To give up this power. Ha!’

Now, Belle didn’t even want to morph her giant body to resemble her old one, even at the same massive scale. She preferred this new, more beautiful face and form now.

‘To think I, Belle Braxley, merely wanted to be remembered, rather than eternal.’

‘To think, that I was once content to be human, rather than a god.’