Jacob looked out the window as the plane touched down on the runway. It was the middle of the day, but the airport was covered in a dark shadow that made it hard to see. Still, it looked much like any other airport he'd previously been to. Sighing, he settled to wait for the taxiing maneuvers. Inside the airplane, the other few passengers had the same air of bored resignation. A young hostess smiled at him as she walked down the aisle, telling people to straighten their seats and lock their tray tables into position. A few years had passed since he'd gained the ability to shrink people at will. Now making his way through high school, the youth had grown a little taller and more broad-shouldered, but otherwise looked much the same as he'd looked back then, his deep blue eyes still framed by the same light skin and short blond curls.
As the plane started turning, the view from his window changed. Rising beyond the airport, massive, seemingly endless, was a wall. In the dim, it appeared like a rough, steep, brown mountainside. But he knew it was more than that.
It was the giant god.
It had been a couple of years since the giant had appeared, in a city in another continent. Jacob had seen videos recorded back then. The god hadn't been as large back then, but he quickly grew larger and more powerful as he consumed humans. A religion initially formed around him, believing him to be the great equalizer that would end war and poverty. And at first it worked. They took over several countries and kept the god happy and fed. War soon ended, as humanity either worried about the common problem or surrendered to it willingly. Free from having to worry about war and free from budgetary constraints, the world's best minds advanced science and technology by leaps and bounds. A year later, certain countries began sending serious terraforming and colonization missions into space, aimed at Mars and the moons of Jupiter. None had arrived at their destination yet, but several had already gone out, and more were being planned.
But the god's appetite seemed to know no bounds. When he grew larger than mountains, it took the entire population of a small city to feed him for a day. As the continent became increasingly depopulated, civilization broke down. Many people attempted to flee into hiding, with varying degrees of success. Some resigned themselves to their fate, feeding on the god's seed until the day they were eaten. And some attempted to settle the god himself, building towns and villages on his skin, which prospered until they were accidentally dislodged or crushed.
Eventually, two important breakthroughs were reached in the countries that were still operating somewhat normally. Lab-grown meat had become viable months earlier. But a scientist managed to produce meat that mimicked the attributes of human flesh. A diplomatic mission was sent to talk to the god; they flew directly inside his ear and used specialized implanted machinery to transmit the message through his eardrum. In response, the god laid down in the location where he still was, and a large pipeline (to him a thin straw) leading to his mouth was constructed in record time. After a few days, it became clear that the meat was compatible with the god's digestive system, and that his rampage was over.
However, the god was still growing. The communications implant in his eardrum soon stopped working, and many feared that he would grow until he swallowed the entire planet. Scientists tried mixing various poisons and chemicals into his food in an attempt to kill him. They failed, but they did eventually find a mixture that stopped him from growing and made him poop instead, as long as it was fed to him regularly. The god did not seem to care that his growth had stopped, so the medicine was fed continuously to him. At this point, his food requirements became constant – but were still immense. Even using his feces as compost, the world would soon be unable to produce enough food for everyone, and the god would rise again... And he was big enough to crush entire cities in a few seconds simply by stepping on them.
The seat belt light went off. Jacob stood and cracked his joints – it had been a long trip. He picked up his luggage from the overhead compartment and walked briskly into the airport terminal. Immigration was easy – he declared himself a tourist there to see the giant. Most people in this city were either tourists or worked in one of the factories that produced the artificial human flesh. Then he prepared. First, he bought food, water and supplies at a supermarket. Next, he proceeded to a car rental, where he rented a jeep. He'd recently gotten his driver's license, and fortunately it was accepted here. He made sure the battery was full and drove off, following the road signs that led to the factory.
When he reached the gate, he drove the car off the road and in the opposite direction. He wasn't here as a tourist, obviously. To put it simply, he was here to try to save the world. He expected and wanted no recognition – it was in his nature to do what he could to help; as it turned out, he could do more than most. It had taken him a long time to obtain permission at home to come here, and he was determined not to waste his chance.
He had to drive parallel to the giant for more than a hundred kilometres of rough ground. When night fell he slept in the car, shivering with cold. The almost permanent shadow on this side of the giant made the temperature abnormally low. Fortunately, the bareness of the land made his progress easier. Late in the following day, he finally reached the giant's hand. He could only see the first two fingers; the ring finger disappeared into the clouds above, but it was enough for him to be sure that he was about half-way along the giant. He drove in a circle around the hand and towards the massive wall, which took him another couple of hours. He prepared himself for what he was about to do. There were still a few settlements on the god, he was sure of it. Since the giant no longer moved or grew, there was no reason for people not to live normally anymore, but some who already lived in such settlements chose to keep their parasitic lifestyle. Their fate wasn't going to be pretty.
He waited as long as he dared. The jeep was now sliding down an incline underneath the bulk of the giant; the mass of his thigh loomed above him. Bracing himself, he willed the giant to shrink to normal human size.
The results were immediate. The mass above him began receding in the direction he was driving. He could shrink a normal person in a fraction of a second, but this was clearly going to take a little longer. As the mass above him traveled inwards, the sudden vacuum pulled an equal volume of air through his location, buffeting the jeep and almost making him lose control. He slowed down the rate of shrinkage and kept driving towards the giant.