“Bad for business.” The baker said, handing the roll over to Maia. “People are afraid, miss. Talks of The Sovereign missing, entire villages disappearing, people babbling mad things. It’s a rebellion of those red vermin, for sure. Very bad for business.”

    Maia handed over a coin to the baker. “People don’t seem afraid here.”

    “It’s the spring festival.” He said. “The good people of this city are going to celebrate that no matter what.”

    “Do people really think an army of them has made it this far?” Maia took a bite out of the roll, she had loved this particular bakery when she had lived in the capital.

    The baker sighed, then leaned over the counter, almost whispering, “I’ve spoken to some people who’ve… seen things. They shook and stuttered with every word, talking about… a giant monster.” He shook his head. “One of them though seemed less afraid, but even more insane. He said it’s a goddess, a redheaded goddess. An ancient one called upon to avenge their people. And our beloved city is next.”

    He then leaned back, still shaking his head further. “Can you believe that? Like those dogs even deserve something like a goddess. But they sure do know how to make people mad. A tactic, no doubt. Spreading fear. I knew this war would go bad on us. Nothing good ever comes from dealing with them pests.”

    Maia took another bite out of the roll, then took a step towards the counter. She moved her hand, making sure her hat, within which she had tucked her hair, was still firmly in place. Then she eyed the baker and removed her sunglasses, revealing her green eyes.

    “Maybe it’s true.” She winked at him.

    The baker blinked a few times, then his eyes widened, cheeks flushing in anger. “You filthy...“ But something ticked in his mind, and his skin grew pale instead. “You can’t…” he took a few steps back, remaining silent.

    Maia let out a girlish laugh, then turned and walked out into the sun of the spring’s first day. She put her sunglasses on, preferring to not spoil the fun too early. People filled the streets everywhere. The festival was an old tradition of the city, one that would gather all kinds of traders, artists and artisans from all over the nation to showcase their goods and skills on a single day. It was the perfect opportunity.

    Finishing the roll, she headed towards the center of the city, towards the palace. She remained inconspicuous, clad in a black jacket with any mark of her heritage hidden safely away, and mostly ignored by everyone she passed by.

    The cobbled streets and the classical buildings surfaced all kinds of memories. Despite all the hate, the anger and the frustration she had endured while living here, she still had fond memories of certain people who were good to her. But then again, Syl was one of them, and-

    She stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath before she resumed her walk. She enjoyed the leisurely stroll down the city, the peace. It had been a long time since she had seen so much happiness around her, so much joy, even if all of them were darkhaired. She had and still debated her inner conflict all the way to the city.

    Then she arrived at the former embassy, the place she had called home for years. She stood in front of it for a long time, motionless. It had been converted to some kind of ministry, with guards protecting the entrance. But beyond that, beyond all the changes they had made, it was still the place tied with many memories of her family, of her father… and of her sister.

    A couple of tears rolled down her cheek.

    They all deserve what’s coming.

    She turned and walked down the street, heading for the main plaza. All the happiness and joy she saw around her now enraged her. She had seen so much grief, sorrow and death in the span of almost a year, yet those people dared be cheerful, like their lives mattered more. She had the power to show them the consequences of their war. Why shouldn’t she use it?

    Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She stopped and turned her head towards one of the alleys leading within the guts of the city. There, through the thick stream of people walking by, she saw a hint of golden hair swept by the wind.

    Her heart skipped a beat, then started fluttering. She rushed towards the afterimage, pressing through the crowds. Had she really seen it? Had that woman, Aria, really been there? She arrived at the spot, with no sight of her. She looked around, but already decided that her imagination had played tricks with her. A woman with that kind of hair would have caused a commotion. She then spotted a scarf of the same color flapping in the wind, worn by a woman moving away from her. Maia sighed.

    She continued walking down the street. The little incident reminded her once again of the true purpose of her visit to this city. No more playing games. No more igniting sparks of rumors here and there. Today, the world would get to know her for real. She did not know any other better way for her to try and get the golden-haired woman’s attention. She needed to know what she really was.

    The wind picked up. She struggled to keep her hat on. Then she stopped, thinking what the point was in holding on to it any longer? So she let it be swept by the wind, revealing her shimmering red hair beneath. She brushed her fingers through it, letting them too be blown by the wind as she strolled down in the midst of a sea of darkhairs, and then took her sunglasses off, tucking them into a pocket.

    At first, the people around looked at her with curiosity in their eyes. It seemed funny to them, like a simple joke. A costume. What redhead would dare to walk so freely in the middle of the capital like that anyway? Maia enjoyed the shifting expressions as they gradually realized she was not playing a redhead, she was a real one.

    That’s when the masses of people started to part, gasps and murmurs filling the air around her. Nobody knew what to do or how to act. A redhead strolling bluntly in their midst like that was too unexpected, like a naked person running around. Nobody wanted to be the one to deal with that.

    But Maia understood group mentality. It wouldn’t be too long before someone broke the ice. And it started to become apparent when she entered the main plaza, and the crowds resisted parting, instead forming a circle around her. She became surrounded by people looking at her with curiosity, disgust or downright hatred.

    She stopped too, standing still in their midst. A few young men walked closer, started circling around her, inspecting her from top to bottom, the hunger in their eyes very much apparent. Maia remained calm, without a hint of any kind of emotion in her.

    “Watcha doin’ here, all lone, ya filthy rat?” One of them said, rolling a small twig on his mouth as he regarded her.

    “Yeah!” One of the others said. “Ya have a death wish?”

    Maia paid them no heed. A few shouts were heard from behind, and moments later two guardsmen broke out from the crowd and approached her, along with an officer behind them. A small flutter of fury flickered inside Maia at the sight of the uniforms, bringing back unpleasant memories yet again.

    “Cuff her.” The officer ordered.

    “Public execution!” Someone from the crowd screamed, drawing in a wave of approving sounds.

    The guards surrounded Maia, grabbing her by both arms. Maia let them. They were about to put the metal braces when someone from the crowd broke out.

    “Wait!” It was an old lady, one Maia did not recognize. But she clearly recognized Maia. Maia frowned at first, then understood when she saw the old lady’s face. A face filled with shock and disbelief. She neared closer and closer, then held up a shaking index finger at Maia. “It- it’s her! Tha- That’s her! She’s the monster! She- she’s the one that wiped out my village! Kill her! Kill her now! Kill her before she kills us all”

    Perfect. Maia thought as a sinister smile formed on her lips. The lady’s words emanated through the crowd like an electric fire. In a sudden, rumours became reality, words you paid no heed to struck at the core of your heart, an otherworldly danger was suddenly right in front you. The crowd grew restless in a single heartbeat, then panic spread.

    They screamed at the guards to kill her then and there, to take no chances. They pushed forward, forcing the guards to leave Maia and pick up their rifles, firing a few warning shots in the air. Maia used the opportunity to take a few steps towards the old lady, standing right in front of her for a few moments and regarding the frightened woman, before she leaned forward and whispered something in her ear.

    When she stood back again, Maia’s mouth grew into a broad smile, and she unsheathed her power. The shouts and struggles around her subdued immediately, and the wind in her vicinity picked up, circling around, pushing outwardly. The old lady stood motionless for a little moment, gasping in shock, then she screamed in terror, running away from Maia.

    It was all the crowd needed, and they too began to back away. She felt two pairs of hands grab her arms once again, but did not care anymore. I suppose it’s time.

    As always, the time between her unleashing her power and the moment she stopped growing was a jumbled mess of confusing sensations and feelings, especially pain. She lost all senses of the outside world in those moments, for when she regained them, she found herself in an entirely different body. The body of a goddess.

    The city spread like a carpet of small, toy-buildings all around her. Unlike the first time, when she destroyed her own home town, here it was broad daylight, and the sight was magnificent. But the most distinctive feature of all were the people, the darkhairs. They were everywhere.

    She looked down, noting the bloodstained ground beneath her feet. Right around them, people were fleeing for their lives in every direction. Further outward, the pace of fleeing masses dissipated until - as she looked far away enough - it ground to a standstill. She could see their faces directed at her, could feel her eyes fixed on her naked body. Hundreds of thousands of them. And she held their utter and complete attention.

    She had never craved for attention in her past, at least never for the reasons girls her age did. She had often daydreamed about changing the world in more than superficial ways, about becoming important through acts of greatness, and kindness.Such naivety, she thought as her eyes wandered back to her immediate vicinity. Her months spent watching downright genocide as she was used as a sex slave taught her the true way the word changes. And now she possessed the most potent world-shaping tool there seemed to be.

    “Let me introduce myself.” She said as she raised a foot and held it up above a random group of horrified fleeing people. “I am your new god now.”

    She let it descent without a shred of mercy in her eyes. Blood splattered all around her foot and into the surrounding survivors as they were blown away by the thunderous impact. The ground tremorred and cobblestones exploded from the ground like projectiles, shooting right through people and flying through the air before they killed or knocked out others hundreds of yards away.

    As simply as that, she had erased dozens out of existence. No guns or explosives needed. No tools with which she carried out her sentence. No artificial means of separation between her and her victims. She did not command, like The Sovereign did, for them to die by the hands of soldiers and armies, to be read as mere numbers on a report. They hadn’t been a statistic.

    No, she decided to take a simple step, and they died as a result. It was as personal as it could get. She felt their collective bodies put the meagerest amount of resistance before they yielded to her own. Their warm remains spread out uniformly against her sole, their blood flowed and mingle with the dirt of the ground.

    Still, she felt no sense of revenge on her act. Drawing in a deep breath and closing her eyes, she expected a feeling of justice being served as she lingered on the moment. But instead, all she felt was a sense of entitlement. It was her right to do as she did. She answered to no one anymore, and every last one of them was at her complete mercy. Today was the day of her coronation, and she intended to show the world what her rule would look like.

    Exhaling with a broad smile, she opened her eyes and searched for the palace which stood a few steps to her side. It looked like a large, elaborate cardboard model, not unlike the one that resided within its main hall, modeling the very same place. She knew, of course. She knew the building inside out, it’s rows upon rows of corridors and rooms built in the style of the late kingdoms, and it’s extensive gardens that looked like nothing more than grass to her now. Syl had shown it all to her.

    Taking the few steps towards it without a care of where her feet landed, she smashed her foot through the palace’s front entrance. All the pieces of wood, stone and concrete that made up the structure yielded and disintegrated on the spot, blown away by the sheer force of her kick, leaving only a gaping hole and trailing smoke in its wake. She saw the splatters and stains of blood along the broken walls, and the shocked faces of the survivors on both sides of the parts that still stood.

    She laughed. They were the ones that deserved her wrath the most. But she forgot about them for a moment and focused on her next step, aiming for the part of the palace where Syl’s room was. The place where it all began for Maia.

    She outright stomped on it, generating a colossal shockwave that shattered and crumbled half the palace at the same time. She could see it in real-time, shattering every window as it traveled outwardly from the impact area. It felt wonderful to possess such power and to be able to wield it so deliberately, to be able to witness the tremendous consequences of her simple actions with such vivid detail, unlike back in her city.

    She proceeded to stomp the rest of the palace and everyone in it into the ground. It served as the symbol of power for this nation, and she wanted to show just how easily she could eradicate anyone standing her way.

    Afterwards, after she had spent all the anger built inside of her into the palace and particularly its inhabitants, she finally felt free, unshackled from all the infuriating emotions this city triggered on her. Now, playfulness took over.

    She looked around, regarding the masses that fled through the streets and alleys with pathetic pace, struggling and pressing against each other with primal panic. The whole city was her playground now, and she could do with them however she pleased.

    She started walking in a random direction. There was no care in her steps, dozens died with each one, reduced to smears that did not even deserve her attention. Her steps landed unmindfully, sometimes half her foot smashing into a centuries-old building while the other half reduced anyone caught beneath to a bloody pulp. She strolled like that for a while, all around the city, watching how her toys reacted to her steps and her imposing form while the city itself trembled in her wake.

    At a particular street, her foot crashed through a row of buildings and blocked one side with the obliterated remains. The street itself was packed with terrified people and she stopped for a moment, regarding them, before she took another step and destroyed the opposite end of the road, trapping hundreds between her towering legs.

    She stood right above them, dwarfing and dominating them completely. Then she saw drops of some liquid smashing into the crowd, splattering against many and injuring them. She frowned, moving a hand between her thighs and feeling the thoroughly soaked lips of her sex. That’s when she became aware of how incredible sexual charge.

    She pulled her hand and looked at her cum-soaked fingers, felt the warm rush of blood that coursed through her veins, and became conscious of the thoughts that ran through her mind, the things she wanted to do to the people beneath her.

    She dropped to her knees, straddling them her thighs, encompassing their whole world and looked at them. She watched the mesmerizing terror painted in their faces, wondered how she looked from their perspective, what they thought this redheaded goddess was. She ran her sticky fingers through the crowd, scenting them with her secretions.

    Yet again, she wondered what was happening to her. Those people weren’t soldiers. They hadn’t witnessed the horrors of the war. When did she become this thing that would kill them without a second thought? Most of them were innocent, taught into hating her kind out of simple imitation. Why did she feel this crushing need to fuck them?

    She lowered her nether on them, felt their struggling forms beat against her skin and especially the folds of her sex. She arched her head back as her breath got caught like cold, electric shower running up her torso. Her muscles tensed and her hands and toes clenched. She gasped in delight. No moral inhibitions, no sense that killing them was wrong. No guilt, and no regret. Every emotion that would have normally stopped her from committing the gruesome act that she was doing was missing, only a deep, dark void left behind to be filled by her carnal desires.

    She leaned forward, catching her breath and planting her hands on the ground. Every ounce of her being compelled her to just settle her weight down, grind them into oblivion. Only memories of her past self still stood in the way.

    She lowered her head, letting her hair cascade down and focused on the specks of people pouring from between her thighs, desperately trying to flee through the rubble amongst her fingers. Her eyes wandered through them, picking up the details of her devastation and trauma she induced into them through her lewdness. But then she spotted someone in their midst, standing calmly on the spot, looking up and into Maia’s eyes as her golden hair fluttered in the winds of Maia’s ragged breathing.

    Maia’s eyes shot out wide. “You...”

    She blinked a few times, hardly believing she was seeing the one person she sought the most right then and there. The woman smiled at her, appearing like she was waiting for Maia. Maia leaned back up again, looking at her, contemplating for a moment. She needed answers, so she acted on instinct and cupped her hands around the woman like a protective shell. Aria never showed the least bit of fear, which did not surprise Maia.

    Then she spread her hands around her, obliterating and leveling the whole area with a few sweeps. She stood up, releasing the prisoners trapped beneath her and straddled Aria, and then shrank back down.

    “I’m impressed.” Aria said, clapping her leather-clad hands as Maia regained her senses. “Last time we met, you were just this meek, abused little girl. Now you’re a goddess of destruction. You turned faster than I anticipated.”

    Maia started walking through her little artificial wasteland towards Aria, noting the strange style of clothing she wore. Strange pants made out of blue fabric and a weird trench coat on top. And she could still not get used to her natural appearance. Those blue eyes of hers haunted Maia for some reason. “You knew what would happen?”

    “When you think there is no one that can judge you?” Aria smiled.

    “And is there?” Maia stopped right in front of her, clenching her fists.

    Aria then moved, slowly circling around Maia, watching her with intent. “What do you think?”

    “I think I want answers.”

    “To which questions?”

    “You know which!” Maia took a few steps and grabbed Aria on her coat. “You knew what would happen when you threw me through that window. You knew my sister would do as she did. You started this war. Who are you?”

    There was a twitch on the corner of Aria’s mouth, then Maia felt her grip on her throat, tight like a vice. She released Aria’s coat and grabbed her arm, but it was inhumanly powerful.

    “Yes. We will do this.” She said. “But we will do this my way instead.”

    There was no bulging a single inch of her arm. Maia was desperate, she couldn’t say anything, and she wanted answers, but there seemed to be no other way.

    “Yes. That’s right.” Aria said, smiling as always. “Use your power.”

    And she did.

    ---

    Maia remained silent for a few moments, then started laughing. “Oh, I was so naive. So stupid.”

    “Huh?” Matthew frowned. “It seems to me like she gave you no choice.”

    “Oh, indeed. That was the case. But still, in the heat of the moment, even while she held me by my throat, I felt no fear. I was confident, utterly trusting in my abilities. I was so naive. I should have known better.”

    “Why? What happened?”

    She looked at Matthew. “I grew again, of course. But when I looked down, she was missing. I thought I had crushed her while I was in the process. But I could not find any sign of that. That’s when this shadow engulfed me.”

    “Shado-... wait.” Matthew felt genuinely surprised. “Even bigger?”

    Maia laughed again. Then she turned and faced him. “You know, my world never unlocked the secrets of the atom. Only later did I learn about this point in human evolution when they discover nuclear weapons, and the destructive power those things posses.”

    “Nuclear weapons?” Matthew grew confused. “I don’t understand.”

    She let out another small laugh, but with an ironic hint in it. “You see, when I turned around and saw her, she was to me what I was to the humans at my feet. I had to crane my head up to see her face, to see that arrogant smile of superiority. I finally knew how it felt to be one of them when they looked at me.”

    “But… “ Matthew tried to imagine the scene. “That’s miles!”

    Maia nodded. “She basically straddled the whole city. Then she crouched down, causing all sorts of thundering, exploding sounds as she did. She didn’t say anything, she simply spread her arms. Like this.”

    Maia did the same thing. Then she quickly moved them together, clapping once in front of Matthews face. “Right above me. It was devastating. I was blown away, tumbling around like a leaf in the wind. And the whole city was obliterated by this single shock wave into a shower of dust and debris. My body withstood it, somehow, but every single human being in that city was simply ripped to shreds. She unleashed the power of a nuclear explosion with a single clap.”

    She shook her head. “She had been right. I had acted like there was no one to judge me. And she made me understand there was.”

    Matthew watched as Maia leaned back against the base of the bed and stared into the fire again. He tried to grasp the implications of her words, of what it meant for there to be a being as powerful as that. “Just who the hell is she?”

    “That’s the last part of my story, I guess.”