Chapter 4: Feast

Realms were the territories we vastly powerful begins claimed. What to call us? Gods and goddesses? Perhaps just gods is better. A gender-neutral implication.

Something about the word ‘goddess’ was tricky.

In certain contexts, typically intimate, I enjoyed being called it. In others, something felt off about it. Moreover, ‘gods’ and ‘goddess’ have such a variable meaning. To many mortals a particularly large inert stone could be seen as a god. A god could mean anything from a cherished tree to beings possessing vast, universe manipulating powers that would fit on a toenail of mine. Was a god a humanoid? Shapeless? I could transform freely, for instance.

Terms like “divine” and “divinity” had the same issue, though were more common. Ultimately, the amount of us which were beyond a teraparsec in height were comparatively fewer than other beings well beyond mortal compare yet beneath ours. I think the term “true-divine” fit well. “True-god” sounded nice too.

Aside from sheer scale, we differed from beings in other ways. Our powers were much vaster of course. Vast enough that we often made expansive ‘realms’. Another word with special meaning to some. A realm was simply an extension of our power. A marked territory. Literally marked, in fact. I demarcated mine with a border of shimmering purple light not too distinct from the amethyst glow of my eyes. It didn’t need to be light. I knew of one marked with fire, for instance.

Control over realms was essentially absolute. Anything that entered, or more accurately was permitted to enter, a realm could often be made subject to the influence of its owner. Often, but not always. Realms could also be customized at thoughts and with ease. One’s own personal realm of creation really. Shaped to their will. The only limit was one’s imagination and want.

Mine, even when its contents were not re-absorbed, was nothing too fancy. More sparse than many others, though not without delights. Purple lights. Curious and amusing shapes. Eldritch servants of curious form hovering between universes. Other, more humanoid servants too. Some tended to universes at my will. Otherwise toyed with said cosmos as rewards for their service.

I often made structures and toys as I needed them, and reabsorbed them when done. I seldom made floors of any sort, though my servants occasionally did for their own purposes. Most everything simply floated, myself included.

As the powers and size of us true-divines grew, so did our realms. Who didn’t want more territory after all? Yet, every realm, every universe, every being be they mortal or true-divine ultimate existed in the same space, in a sense. All was contained in the space where universes blipped into being like bubbles and, if left to their own devices, deflated. Popped. Dispersed into bits once they ran their course.

This space, too, was difficult to name and describe. Many mortals think their universes are infinite, but that is not true. This space, though, is infinite as far as any of us know. It is the aspiration of many, myself included, to one day change that.

The space goes by a few names. The ‘void’ is one, but the concept of a void can exist elsewhere. Sometimes it is called “existence” or “creation” or “reality.” Yet, beings far weaker than myself can warp and create ‘realities’. For mortals who never leave their universe, those minuscule bounds mark their own existence far as they know.

So, “omniverse” is often used. Though clearly not sharing all the properties of a universe, said space contains all universes known. Thus that name fits best I feel.

Past the borders of realms lies the majority of this space. This area outside of any one realm is known by a few names too, naturally. The free-zone. Free-space. Borderless space. Neutral-space. Confusingly to some, the term ‘void’ can be used again too.

Another term, fitting, was the “Hunting Grounds.”

It was in this space that vast swaths of delectable universes floated. It was there that delicious, fresh divines first shed the barriers of their origin cosmos, and tried to survive and thrive. All realms were first established in this free-space. Deals were made, kept, and even often betrayed by those there.

It was there I would feast.

Mouth watering at the mere idea, I floated past the bounds of my realm to the free-zone that awaited me. No later than I did, my stomach let out another gurgling roar across the omniverse.

Spread out before me were hundreds upon hundreds of twinkling lights. Each one a universe proper. Their glow illuminated the dark, not that I needed it to see of course. Even the most meager ‘divines’ could visually see perfectly well to at least some distance in the dark. Still, it was splendid all the same. I fanned out my senses much as I could to better appreciate the banquet before me.

Yet, for as much as the sight delighted me, it egged on my hunger much more. My mouth watered more. My stomach grumbled in impatience, thundering across the omniverse yet again.

Ravenous, I didn’t wait long. I dashed forward, flying through the void before me.

I moved through the vast dark, mouth agape to engulf all in my path. A whale in water. The lights my krill. A comparison a bit far from apt. Aside from a svelter figure, there was no baleen. I did not filter; all that entered my maw was my food.

It wasn't long till lesser gods found their way into my mouth. The first batch was a rather large group of naked gods and goddesses of varying shapes: humanoid and not. The surrounding universes dwarfed them, yet to me were delicious pebbles. Despite that I still bared down upon them.

They tried to flee of course. To fly away in the void. However, I was so much more than them. By the time they could think of it had been too late ten times over. My stomach rumbled out as my maw filled their vision. I inhaled them and all around them.

They were working together to drain a universe into themselves. Yet a bubble they could share was but a grain to me. A pebble. Such was our disparity, that which dwarfed them was but a crumb of a meal to me.

Despite that, they still offered more than any universe. Not always, but almost always, to escape a universe into the omniverse meant a ‘god’ had more energy within them than any natural universe. Those treats were no exception.

I felt the energy in them as they squirmed on my tongue. I felt it trickle into my being, absorbed, as they slid down my throat and into my belly, where my ‘digestion’ began to work on them.

They offered more delight to. The flurry of emotions as they realized what was happening. The curious tragedy of to have recently become so much, yet see how little it actually is compared to someone like me. Like any live meal they squirmed against my tongue if they could. Splashed in my spittle and were drenched in the dangling bands thereof. A few pounded against my throat. No avail other than a pleased tickle. All their screaming and pleas was drowned out by the slirtch of my throat and the roar of my stomach as it welcomed them. As I welcomed them into me.

I didn’t care if it seemed cruel to revel in my devourment. With my hunger as it was there was no way I wouldn’t eat them. It was nothing personal, but that was no excuse to not enjoy it. Every squirm, flash of awe or despair. I gleaned it from their lesser minds and savored it much as I did their flavor and the squirming of their souls newly within me.

If I didn’t get to them someone else would, or perhaps not. I knew for a fact some would do the same to me if the roles were reversed, given the thoughts going through their minds as they simmered within the stew of bubbling cosmos in my gut.

I knew that those ‘gods’ in particular ‘ascended’ while I rested. If they were millennia sooner or later perhaps things would have been different for them. Perhaps they could have become close to a being like me. That wasn’t how it was to be for them.

Some things were out of their hands, but I did loudly announce my intent over the omniverse. Yes, they might’ve not known me then, but even with that they should have figured something big was coming. For them it wouldn’t have mattered, they were too close to my realm to have escaped regardless. Till I came upon them, they never knew of me, but now they’d know of my quite intimately.

Yes, the fresher ‘gods’ had a lot to learn. Being eaten and absorbed was a rough way to learn it. However, it is the nature of the big fish to eat the little fish, and grow bigger in the process. That much they had no excuse not to consider.

And grow bigger I did.

Moving through the free-zone, I continued devouring all in my sight. I did more than simply leave my mouth agape. I actively inhaled. I reached out with my mind to tug the universes closer to me and my awaiting, salivating maw.

Universes passed between my lips as a stream of starry lights. The river flowed down my gullet, with many lesser gods caught in the rapids. As it steadily flowed towards my gut, so too did I steadily grow. My body expanding with every meal.

Slightly.

To any of the sextillions and sextillions of mortal souls that my body pried from the cosmological meals, such growth would be vast beyond anything they could compare. Beyond what their unaided minds could process. Yet, I was so vast that even the expansion of my body by tens of millions of light years at a time was hardly worth noticing. I noticed it of course, as I noticed all things about and within my form. Yet, if another my stature was around to take in the sight of me in full, they might hardly notice the change visually.

Each universe was smaller than my pinky toe a few times over, so it was only natural that, yet again like a whale, I needed a lot to feel remotely satisfied.

So I kept eating. Hunting. I am not ashamed to say I deliberately sought out other post-universal, lesser yet still ‘godlike’ beings in the void. They offered me the heartiest meals and the most fun. Any mortal creature that didn’t enjoy eating didn’t usually last too long. Though I was far beyond such beings, I, too, delighted in the indulgence.

Stomach rumbling, groaning, my body growing, I kept moving and eating. I stretched my arms out to ensnare universes and lesser-gods alike in handfuls. Even if they could escape the clench of my fingers, my vastly superior psionic prowess held them in place as I stuffed them inside my mouth.

The ‘free-zone’ was free of any one true-divine’s rule, but it was not free of danger. At least, for them. The other beings that neared my power and stature had left me alone it had seemed. My proclamation was respected. So, in the free-zone, at that time, I was the apex predator. I did more than act the part. I reveled in it.

Many of the lesser gods had the nerve to fight back. Some actually teamed up! Scores of them kicking at my fingers or at my nose as they neared my mouth. Normally I’d toy with such endeavors, but I was much too hungry for that. Though I enjoyed my power over them, I didn’t dally. I quickly put them in their place: my gut.

A dash of my tongue, a tug of telekinesis, or a gentle squeeze of my fist was all it take to bring them into my being, or, in the case of the latter, weaken them to the point of non-resistance as I slurped them up and swallowed them down.

Some gods tried to make their own realms to hide in. An interesting idea, since a realm could offer them protection against others on their level. That was an easy mistake, a result of ignorance. A realm did them no good if the largest they could make it still fit into my mouth like a cheery. All that did was make them stand out more. The smarter ones simply ran rather than fight or hide, though that would not save them if I truly wanted them as meals, and I invariably did.

As I slurped down a multitude of ‘gods’ and many more multitudes of universes, I still felt my hunger. My stomach still grumbled across the omniverse. By the time my mouth was full of meals, my stomach had already digested most of the last one. Though as I grew bigger my mouth grew in proportion, it wasn’t enough to keep up with how fast my body was processing everything.

So went out further from my realm and deeper into the free-zone. Kept feasting. Kept growing. I had gained more than a teraparsec of height this way, then another, and another still.

Universes could be far apart in the free-zone by their own standards. But by mine, the ones that mattered to me, they were quite close. Billions of light years could seem like a lot, but it was often less than the length of my smile and, thus, the width of my open maw.

I reached out both physically and telekinetically to clump my meals together best I could. Lesser gods found themselves tugged against other warm bodies and warm universes before I even reached them. When I did, they were already a bolus of sorts. Unable to move, I wrapped my lips around these pre-clumped boluses and swallowed them, slick with my spit, down my throat.

As I ate, my mind reached into my being to inform all the new occupants what exactly had happened and was happening to them. Many ‘gods’ could figure it out, but the vast multitude of mortal souls in their universes had a much harder time of things without my aid. They could only sense the rattle among their stars and the strange, fleshy noises that rumbled throughout all they knew.

It wasn’t to brag, but to help them ease into things later. If I wanted them in the dark again later, so to speak, I could always just wipe their minds.

I fed, and fed and fed. My stomach growled yet still. My body held host to many, many sextillions new souls. Many thousands of them were divine, or at least once were. They could achieve similar levels of power later, if not those that exceeded it, should they get on my good side.

I didn’t think much on that though. I thought of other things, like how to better satisfy my hunger. How to grow. To become more still. I paused, stretching my legs and arms as my body stretched with me. My stomach mercilessly churned and processed the latest meals.

Growing in either power and size had a certain pleasure to it: both the idea of it and the actual sensations. I let out curt little grunts of delight, though no universe was nearby to hear it. I had picked the free-zone around me clear of them for trillions and trillions of light years, though more would come into being in time.

When I finished my latest satisfying spurt, I loomed over 20 teraparsecs tall.

This was a considerable growth spurt. I had filled my stomach several times over to achieve it. I hunted for a long time in the free-zone. To double in size, at my size before, was unheard of. This was a special hunger, one I shouldn’t, wouldn’t, waste. It was as much an opportunity and joy to be had as it was difficult to attempt to satisfy.

My feasting had taken me quite far past my realm. Still, I went a bit further. A great spherical expanse of opaque green light was before me. It was the borders to a realm that belonged to someone I know. She was a neighboring true divine. We weren’t the best of friends, but we didn’t hate each other other.

Her name was Ylsoi. I effortlessly recalled the sight of her. Her eyes were green, her hair too. Long locks of dark leafy shades. Light green skin. Her body was fuller than mine in figure, but still svelte even with its somewhat greater curves. Her ears were pointed, her nose cute.

As I remembered her form, I remembered how it looked so beautiful.

Scrumptious.

I realized that at my current height, I was likely the biggest true divine. I also realized, this close to the borders of her realm, that it was weaker than I expected. She was weaker than I had expected. She had been slacking. Perhaps she had become too content? I wouldn't know for sure unless, until, I stepped into her realm to see for myself.

The moment I did so, she would know I was there. I thought for a moment.

My stomach grumbled, roaring through the omniverse yet another time. My hunger was still there. An opportunity more than a burden. I wouldn’t let it go to waste.

I floated towards the green light. It resisted my form but, as I had sensed, it was too weak too hold me back. No, I was too strong to be held back.

With that, I intruded into the realm.