Chapter 18: Square-Cube Law

“Nooo!!!”, shouted Kyo. “It hurts!”, she said, fidgeting in the threads that bound her.

“What exactly is it?”, she asked.

“One moment just let me finish here.”, said P’lot.

P’lot weaved a bit more, and the universe stopped shaking. Agony wracked Kyo, but she grit her teeth.

P’lot began to explain.

“The Square-Cube Law I just weaved into reality dictates a relationship between surface-area and volume as an object expends. Now that it is in effect, your body will begin to crush itself, as your physical form lacks the strength to withstand its own gargantuan weight more or less. I know you seek to transform into an energy state, but even if that would be stable, my threads bind you in the physical form you are. It is over Kyo, this universe shall be subject to the inscrutable nature of the Inexorable P’lot. Only beings with eldritch powers, like me, can hope to resist laws like these.”

“Nooooo!”, shouted Kyo again.

Kyo had never felt pain like this the entire day. Her body felt so heavy that she could barely squirm against the threads. It was as though she was being stepped on from all sides at once. Grunting, it took all her strength to resist.

But she resisted.

Kyo focused, she opened her mind to the universe and all the beings in there. She was searching for an answer.

Billions of voices reached her mind from all across the cosmos, with messages that included, but weren’t limited to:

‘Don’t give up!’

‘You can’t let anything like P’lot mess up our universe.’

‘You can do it Kyo!’

‘I believe in you space lady!’

Kyo mentally broadcasted to them back.

‘What? How do you know what’s going on?’, she thought very mentally-loud.

Some more messages came into her awareness, among them:

‘Some galactic-constructs were sending telepathic messages of what was going on, before they stopped.’

‘Well these fancy galactic-thingies, that’s what they said they were, told as about how some chaos was threatening the universe, and you were the only hope.’

‘Some other big thingies, not as big or powerful as you I bet, gave us some info across all the civilizations they said and-’

‘Ok!’, thought Kyo. ‘I get it, that explains that, but I need your help. Help me defeat this evil P’lot’.

More messages came in, including:

‘We believe in you!’

‘You can do it!’

‘Go get ‘em giant lady!’

Kyo smiled at the quintillions of supportive messages coming her way. They warmed her heart.

Sadly, she was still being crushed. The messages of support had no practical use for her.

“Dammit!”, she shouted. “That didn’t do anything!!! Worthless puny people. I’m gonna die and the universe will be really weird and gross. No!”

Shortly after, as Kyo felt the pressure reach near unbearable levels, she heard trillions and trillions of more messages.

This time, they came from within, and included messages such as:

‘Kyo, can you hear us.’

‘Kyo, you have untapped power, waiting within.’

‘Kyo!’

“What, who said that?”, said Kyo.

“Who are you talking to?”, said P’lot.

The messages continued, including:

‘We are sapient souls.’

‘There are quadrillions of us. Perhaps even quintillions.’

‘You had a hidden power you didn’t know about. Ever since that meteor fell, your body has been absorbing souls around it, presumably for safe keeping.’

‘Yeah I was one of the first people you stepped on and I’m here, so that must’ve been when you started sucking our souls up.’

‘We can all talk to each other in here, if we’re loud enough.’

‘Normally souls are supposed to just kind of fly around, but you were sucking us up if close enough, even if you didn’t kill us yourself!’

‘You just didn’t notice it, since your powers weren’t developed enough yet.’

‘We can offer you more power. Tap into us.’

“Power?” Kyo said. “Oh, like the life energy Yuri was talking about?”

Messages came in from the souls, including:

‘Uh maybe.’

‘Whose Yuri?’

‘I am Yuri! And yeah, kind of but not exact. This is better.’, conveyed Yuri’s soul.

‘And I believe in you Kyo. Tap into us.’, conveyed Yuri.

‘Yeah babe, no hard feelings. Take my energy.”, conveyed Ken’s soul.

‘Protect the universe!’, conveyed Kameko’s soul.

‘Just take it already!’, conveyed Mr. Shigoto’s soul.

‘Show P’lot her appointment with death, Ms. Dai!’, conveyed the soul of Mr. Shigoto’s secretary.

‘You can do it, Big Homo!’, conveyed Klepdarian-378’s soul.

‘The spirits of the Klepdarians are with you!’, conveyed Xarnu’s soul.

‘And the Insectoids!’, conveyed Mantillda’s soul.

‘For justice!’, conveyed Violet’s soul.

‘Our souls are yours, great Demon King!’, said the soul of one large demon, whose name Kyo never cared to ask.

From within her, Kyo heard messages from everyone she had met, among others. The infernal hordes, the aliens she destroyed, the people of Tokyo. People all over, friend and foe, were hoping for her success.

‘We all believe in Kyo.’

“Firsty? Is that you all in there too?”

‘Yes.’

“Cool. Alright, well, I won’t let you down. I won’t be stopped here! Do you hear me P’lot!!!”

“What? What are you on about!”, said P’lot. “Crush already beneath the weight of the weaved-”

“Souls, give me your power!!!”, shouted Kyo!

Kyo focused hard and she could suddenly feel them! She could feel the mass of souls writhing in her body. It was an odd sort of feeling how much they squirmed and writhed, but it was a pleasant one. They were in her body, but also her self: her own super and superior soul that dominated them all.

Kyo focused harder, and she felt their energy flood into her.

“This is amazing, this power!”

The threads around Kyo’s body began to strain. P’lot’s eyes widened as the eldritch being focused on her own powers to keep the threads intact, but barely.

From within Kyo, messages started to come in, including:

‘Ah the pain!’

‘I’m dissolving.’

‘This agony is unbearable!’

‘Babe this really, arghhhh.’

‘Kyo, this is Yuri you weren’t supposed to take everything we have. You’re digesting us argh-’

‘This is an honor, my Demon King’

‘Oh divine Kyo, aaargh-’

Indeed, Kyo’s body wasn’t just tapping into the souls, but digesting them entirely and taking every last bit of energy they could offer in the process.

Her rainbow aura started to flare up. The colors mixed together, and she started shining a bright white. Her black-scleraed eyes were glowing green.

P’lot writhed her tentacles. The sight unnerved her, even with her lack of conventional nerves. She could hear the binding threads strain against Kyo’s glowing, growing body.

“What are you doing! Die at once!”

Kyo spoke and her voice echoed across the universe.

“No!”, she bellowed, and the universe shook.

“I am Kyo, and my story does not end here! I am Kyo, and no P’lot will stop me. I am Kyo, and there’s no wall I can’t smash my head against till it breaks, and what is a law of physics, but a wall!”

“What are you talking about?!?”, shouted P’lot.

Kyo reared back and slammed her horned head forward. Instead of hitting empty space, her head bonk against something in front of her: something that cracked.

“What? No, this is not possible. This is not order or chaos! It is beyond those concepts. It is... stupid!”

Kyo kept banging her head in front of her. The void of space across the cosmos started to crack with fissures forming as it warbled.

“This isn’t your universe.”, she began.

“This.”

*Knock*

“Is.”

*Bang*

“Mine!!!!!”

*Bonk*

With that last headbutt, shards of inscrutable form shattered across the universe. The shards didn’t actually affect anything as they dissolved, and after the universe looked very much the same. However, P’lot and Kyo both knew instantly what happened.

“How?!?”, said P’lot. “You broke the Square-Cube Law! I had weaved it so thoroughly, so perfectly, and you broke it.”

“I’m about to break more than that!”, said Kyo with a toothy grin.

She let out a loud, booming war cry and rocketed up in height. The threads about her body broke, and with it her growth surged even higher.

P’lot looked up at Kyo’s gaze. The woman loomed far above her now. The eldritch entity started to slither away, but Kyo’s foot came down atop her, holding P’lot in place as she writhed against the sole.

“What?!? But-”

“Telekinetic force-floor. Like it?”, said Kyo.

“It’d be so easy to just squish you like the worm you are, but I got a better idea.”, said Kyo.

Kyo reached down and scooped up P’lot. The eldritch serpentine being was now scarcely as large as the smallest garden snake to her. Her catch wiggled in vain in her grip.

Kyo brought her prey up to her face, and licked her lips.

“No!”, said P’lot. “No no this wasn’t supposed to happen. A universe without P’lot cannot be. I will not be twisted. I will not be ignored and disregarded. I will not be consumed. I will not be defeated!’

“Oh you’ll be twisted alright.”

Kyo moved her other hand to the back part of P’lot. She stretched out the eldritch being horizontally.

“No, wait, I can weave things to your liking. I can make every thread favor you. You never need be challenged again. I can--argh!”

Kyo moved her hands in opposite directions, wringing P’lot like a towel.

“Argh!”, said the heavily wounded P’lot. Her tentacles writhed and wiggled weakly.

“No deal P’lot. There’s nothing you can offer me that I can’t get myself. With your power though, I should be able to defy any laws of order that come up, if they come up. You have no place in this universe, no purpose now. No, the only thing I need from you, is a meal.”

Kyo brought the protesting P’lot to her mouth. She opened wide, and the green-light from Kyo’s throat hit P’lot’s many eyes.

“No!!! This isn’t supposed to-”

*Slurrrrp*

Kyo sucked the serpentine being in like a large noodle. She let her foe stew in saliva for a bit before swallowing.

She smacked her lips.

“Mmm, not bad. Little weird of a flavor but I could see myself liking it.”

Kyo felt P’lot wiggle down her throat, losing the battle against her squeezing esophagus. Her stomach gurgled as it started to digest the being, which flopped futilely against the flesh in there soon after.

“Hehe, you kind of tickle you know?”

The digestive process took about a minute, during which time P’lot writhed and yelled in agony.

When it was finished, P’lot was no longer a factor in the universe, and Kyo felt eldritch powers, powers of pure chaos and weird, suffuse into her. I was Intense energy that existed beyond the universe.

She grew from it, a lot.

Super-clusters dashed against Kyo’s fidgeting feet, wiggling legs, and the rest of her body as she grew so big that even those great super-stellar-structures were but dots to her.

Upon her physical form being digested, P’lot’s soul was freed. Eldritch beings had souls as well of course. Kyo, now fully aware of and able to detect such states, felt herself absorb it. P’lot tried to resist with all her ethereal might against being drawn into those undulating stomach walls, but Kyo’s flesh easily claimed her.

And just as easily, Kyo digested P’lot’s very soul. It was faster than melting down the fleshy form, but no less painful for sure.

Even more growth and power filled Kyo thus. Her head arced back in a delighted grunt. Her body burgeoned through the cosmos, destroying everything and anything in her path. Galaxies were full of people cheering for her victory, which they deduced from her universe-wracking voice earlier.

They were broken against her body without any consideration for their well being, or any mercy. Their souls were immediately slurped up by Kyo’s body as it rent their galaxies to raw energy. Their souls were absorbed, and then digested near instantly just like P’lot was digested and all the souls before too.

Kyo didn’t care, she was lost in the tingling, delightful sensations of growth and warmth. Her power reached new maximums. Her body was aglow with the ecstasy of her latest advancement.

Basically, she felt really, really good.

But, her growth did come to a stop. Kyo eventually refocused herself, her glow settled a bit, and the tingling stopped. She still felt great, but she was quick to notice that her back was against something. Pushing, she felt a bit of give with its elasticity. Looking around, Kyo realized she could see the entirety of the cosmos pretty much.

“I won!”, she said. “But... it seems like there’s basically nothing left of the universe.”

Kyo paused.

“This feels like a doubled-edged sort of...”