Chapter 23: Internal Apocalypses

Life inside Belle had grown very complicated ever since she started eating planets.

Her planetary meals were suspended in strange machinery all throughout her body while she slowly and efficiently sucked their energy dry. Indeed, the vast majority of planets she ate were still intact, and never went to her stomach at all. She did make a point of digesting at least one planet every time a star system refused her rule, which was the fate of that first Zleetdek world she gulped down.

Indeed, entire planets were had been cooked alive in her stomach steam. Such was Belle’s will.

For the most part though, the planets were steadily drained. In many cases, people were still living on them! They were the ones Belle saw fit not to sort for other purposes. By the time the planet was sucked dry of its energy, they would be digested as well. Until then, the planets were contained via gravity manipulating cogwork to be as safe and stable as possible.

Belle had become more conscientious of her digestive processes. She wanted to be as efficient as possible, as she had big plans. The entire universe was to be hers. To that end, the stars she devoured weren’t even touched yet, other than the Sun, which she had digested best she could at the time.

Instead, Belle handled stars by reducing them to black holes and containing them within special steamtech devices in her body. She was optimizing her storage of stars, waiting for the day with her massive intellect finally finished calculating how best to harvest all that energy and mass. When that fateful day came, she planned to harvest the stars all at once.

Belle had hundreds of them.

Needless to say, Belle’s mind had advanced far past the point that she needed scientists and engineers. The were all since liquidated and repurposed. She showed no special preference to the human ones from her past ruling Earth, and had indeed digested them without guilt. She didn't even need the beings within her to help fix issues as much, as she had since optimized her body to the point where it didn’t ever need manual maintenance. Even if something could wound her, her minibots were capable of fixing it without much risk at her current, hyper-complex design.

All the new incoming alien scientists and thinkers were steamed and processed by her mechanical stomach similarly. Despite how smart they thought they were--and many were indeed several times smarter than the smartest normal human--they were still, ultimately, but an insect of intellect when compared to Belle’s expansive, hyper-intelligent mind.

On top of that, she was at the point where she assimilated the knowledge of all she consumed: memories too. Simply put, she lost nothing they had to offer, however meager it was, by simply digesting them outright.

She still had some uses for all the billions of incoming sapient species though. Particularly strong and skilled warriors were enlisted into her military forces. They were trained in the operation of her spaceships, which assisted in her various conflicts across the stars. Even then, they served more as distractions than something needed. Belle was honest with herself, too, and if not for the nostalgic thrill of her Earthly battles she would have liquidated the military classes of her subjects as well.

One class that never went away though was the ‘aesthetic’, as Belle often called them. Despite the fancy title they were essentially glorified sex salves, force to labor in Belle’s crotch, stimulating her in long shifts. As she started devouring entire alien species, she found herself admiring some of the humanoid ones. A lot of aliens looked just like humans, only with pointer ears, more colorful shades of skin, or some other fanciful and often alluring trait. So, many of the most beautiful aliens had a place and task waiting for them once ingested by their new god.

Her cities had expanded, spanning planets in area for those she did choose to keep. She experimented with architecture, making spires as tall as small countries just for her own artistic amusement.

One day, the time had come. Belle had cracked that code she sought so long to crack. Her voice echoed in the minds of all those within her. She had since surpassed radio communication to develop telepathy, and found herself able to force her words into the mind of any lesser being—namely, anyone--with extreme ease.

“Rejoice, subjects of me, the divine Belle. I have finally deduced the optimal means of digesting stars. The time has come, my universal conquest nears its end. The power I’ll wield will near the level of omnipotence at last. Your god is going to take the cosmos, as she rightfully should.”

All across her body, the stars started to glow bright as the complex digestion processes commenced.

“Get ready, your going to have to get used to a much bigger god to live in.”

She laughed as she absorbed the stars all at once. Blinding light filled her body, along with a deafening moan.