Save in the Name of True Greed - Chapter 5/Finale

As Earth’s only natural satellite, the Moon was considered by all presently-living humans as the BETA’s secondary command center in the fight for Earth outside of the Kashgar Hive. With the outbreak of the First Lunar War in January 1967, man’s first encounter with the extraterrestrial BETA would herald the beginning of the BETA Wars, a conflict that no one would have ever believed would lead to a decades-long struggle against the alien invasion. Humanity attempted to control the scope of the invasion as best they could, but the BETA were far more resilient to the harsh surface conditions of the Moon, as well as to damage that would kill their human adversaries. Despite humanity's efforts, the BETA continued to spread like wildfire, lunar bases in key strategic positions lost to the BETA on a consistent basis. After years of exhausting their resources in attempting to keep the BETA from invading the Earth, humanity ultimately withdrew from the conflict in April 1973 when a BETA landing unit launched from the Moon and landed on Earth in the Kashgar Autonomous Area in western China, signaling the beginning of the BETA outbreak on Earth with the construction of the Kashgar Hive. Since then, the Moon has become a breeding ground for the BETA, covered in countless Hives that have reached the Phase 5 stage or greater, a natural spawning point for countless reinforcements to push humanity further and further towards the brink of extinction.

Yuuko now hovered in front of the infested satellite, the gray spheroid now smaller than her toes as the goddess’s colossal digits towered over it. Using her powers over physics itself, Yuuko created physical barriers made of the fabric of space near her hands in order to push herself backwards slightly, allowing her to surround the Moon with her pristine soles in relative comfort.

Marimo, it’s almost time… the Goddess signaled to her best friend below on Earth. You may begin on my signal…

Slowly encircling the infested gray orb with her feet, Yuuko's soles gently began to apply an increasing amount of pressure, watching as the satellite slowly began to crack before her very eyes. On the surface below, chaos ensued as magma fissures began to rapidly become more and more visible upon its surface, the tan soles of the Goddess effortlessly continuing in their task of annihilating the doomed celestial body. Various lower-phase Hives were engulfed in flame in an instant - generously helped along by the masterful physicist’s sudden addition of oxygen into the Moon’s atmosphere to literally add more fuel to the fire - the embers brought forth from its non-rigid mantle spreading out in all directions and burning everything in range. Before Yuuko's mere touch, the population of BETA on the Moon numbered at least 100 million, but now, that amount was rapidly dwindling as a sudden apocalypse commenced, already half of their numbers now deceased by either being consumed by magma, dying under a collapsed structure, or falling to their deaths in a fissure leading deep into the Moon’s inner layers - half of the population was annihilated in Yuuko's initial touchdown alone. These 50 million BETA casualties, however, were the lucky ones: their deaths were swift compared to the fate their surviving allies would soon encounter. After what seemed like an eternity to the observers far below on Earth - though in reality, it was but a mere few seconds - Yuuko finally increased the pressure between her feet immensely, slamming them together as the natural satellite was reduced to space debris in a fantastical explosion that did not even leave a single mark on her immaculate soles.

As the Goddess held her feet in position tightly, Yuuko grinned in satisfaction at her work, knowing that absolutely no BETA had survived the intense pressure of her soles colliding, thinning out their total numbers in the Earth BETA Wars by approximately 25%. Slowly, the deity began to relax her feet, gradually rubbing them against one another to cleanse them of any lingering debris from the impact. After a few more seconds, Yuuko separated her feet completely, her soles once again pristine of any rubble as she returned to an upright position, floating before the planet and gazing down at the remnants of the obliterated Moon. Knowing exactly what disastrous effects her destruction of the satellite would have on the planet, the brilliant physicist wasted no time in her next steps: as she willed the various fragments of the former Moon to surround the Earth’s atmosphere, Yuuko brought her right fist in front of her breasts, opening her palm and summoning another Moon identical to the one she had just destroyed with but a single thought. This new iteration of the Moon, however, differed from the original in two respects: first, Yuuko had crafted the Moon’s surface so that it would be inherently toxic to all strains of known BETA, making their deaths relatively swift and further long-term mobilization to Earth an impossibility; and secondly, in case her preemptive measures did not kill the alien creatures within minutes of landing, the goddess also hardened its surface significantly to make it impossible to dig through by conventional means, thus preventing the future creation of any Hives on the new satellite. Proud of the specifics of her latest creation, Yuuko gently curled her fingers over the gray sphere before proceeding to fling her right wrist forward, hurling and willing the new Moon into its natural orbit around the Earth with minimal consequences to the planet from its minor absence.

“I...I can’t believe it…” a stunned Marimo looked upwards in bewilderment from her present position at Yokohama Base as her closest friend single-handedly wiped out the entirety of the BETA forces on the Moon before recreating it less than a minute later. “Yuuko just...she just stopped the BETA’s main line of reinforcements like it was nothing!”

As the citizens of Earth rejoiced at Yuuko’s grand spectacle, the goddess began to will the fragmented pieces of the former Moon to simultaneously fall into Earth’s atmosphere from all across the globe, burning up upon reentry. However, just as the remnants exploded a mile below the Kármán Line, a truly magnificent display appeared in the thermosphere: each of the fragments erupted into countless ethereal sakura blossoms in the atmosphere, immune to all physical forces as they showered the Earth in a majestic pink radiance, a symbol from the Goddess herself of a renewed era of hope for humanity in the conflict against the BETA.

“UOOOOO-WOOOOAAAAHHHH!” the two-mile Tama pointed upwards in excitement, her glittering emerald eyes enraptured at the sight of the cherry blossoms falling from the heavens. “This is so beautiful! It reminds me of those old picture books I used to read of the times in Japan before the BETA arrived.”

“I can’t believe Commander Kouzuki is capable of such amazing feats!” Mikoto concurred, taking in the sight along with the rest of her comrades. “She’s so cool!”

“Pretty…” Ayamine nodded in agreement.

“With the Vice-Commander on our side, we really do stand a fighting chance against the BETA now,” Chizuru smiled, adjusting her oversized glasses with her right index finger.

Cherry blossoms… Marimo thought, attempting to derive meaning from her best friend’s activities as she, too, stared at the glorious spectacle in the atmosphere. From their many years spent together, the sergeant knew that Yuuko would not perform any action superfluously without having any reason for performing it, so all she needed to do was figure out why sakura petals now rained down upon the Earth from the heavens. Could it be that...Yes, it has to be! This isn’t a spectacle for all of humanity, it’s…

“Attention all units!” Marimo’s authoritative tone commanded all the soldiers at Yokohoma base, along with the nearby members of her 207th Training Unit, to stand ready as she shouted as loud as she could, her booming voice carrying for miles to make sure it would be heard by other Yokohama brigades in the distance who were presently away from the base performing training exercises. “As of this moment, we will be commencing Operation Ouka! All ground forces mobilizations will be under the command of General Radhabinod, while my unit and I shall lead the charge to reclaim the mainland from the BETA. All support teams are to prioritize getting in contact with the other UN bases across Europe and Asia as soon as possible to let them know that the operation is being carried out immediately. This is humanity’s most opportune time to strike at our adversaries, so let us bring this war to an end once and for all through the successful completion of this operation!”

A roar of enthusiasm emanated from the base far below the swimsuit-clad drill sergeant as tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers rallied in support of the implementation of the grand operation, quickly making their way to their assigned posts to either await further instructions or to begin carrying out Marimo’s orders. As she watched the base forces scramble to commence the operation, Marimo turned around to face her trainees, the four towering cadets still standing at attention.

“Alright girls, listen up,” she began. “Our orders are to act as the vanguard of this operation to thin out the number of BETA for the ground troops. With our distinct size advantage and power, this should pose no problem to us at all. However, we must make sure to act with the utmost caution so as to not cause any more friendly casualties than necessary - at our height, it’s only natural that some will occur regardless of our precautions, so we can’t worry ourselves too much over this. Once we’ve made a large enough path of destruction for the ground forces to march through and clean up any BETA we’ve missed, we will attempt to rendezvous with Mitsurugi and continue the operation with her in tow. Are you all clear on what our part in this operation will be?”

“Yes ma’am!” the titanic cadets replied in unison as they saluted their instructor.

“Excellent. Prepare to move out in two minutes!”

“Roger!” the collective girls nodded.

Operation Ouka, also known as Operation Cherry Blossom, was the Goddess’s grand plan for the removal of the remaining BETA on Earth. Contemplated in great detail during her apotheosis where she had stopped time itself to master her abilities, Yuuko had devised a grand stratagem that consisted of using her newly acquired “weapons” along with United Nations forces to conduct a planetary-wide military operation on all known Hives around the world. In essence, the Vice-Commander’s plan was threefold: First, Meiya, following Yuuko’s direct orders, would strike the BETA Hives themselves, reducing them to ruins and destroying their reactors with her sheer size and power to significantly reduce the number of active BETA functioning on the planet. In the second step of her scheme, Marimo and her smaller cadets would lead the charge to wipe out large swathes of BETA hordes that still continued to show signs of life as they cleared a path of safety for the Japanese forces to approach the mainland. Once the 207th Training Unit had accomplished this task, they were to meet up with Meiya and garner her assistance in killing any active remaining BETA Corps once the larger swordswoman had finished annihilating the last Hives off the face of the Earth. Finally, in the third phase of the operation, humanity’s ground and air forces - now that the number of Laser-class BETA would be heavily reduced - would act as the clean-up battalions, combing the Eurasian and African landscapes for any straggling BETA units somehow still alive and eliminating them on contact. Through the successful annihilation of the BETA’s Hives on Earth, along with the genocide of the vast majority of their ranks, Yuuko had ensured that if the operation were to be carried out successfully - which she knew it would be given her steps leading up to its implementation - all traces of BETA resistance on Earth would fade within thirty-six hours at the most, with all BETA ceasing to function entirely within the week. With her masterful strategy in place and humanity itself acting as her pawns, the Goddess guaranteed an end to the BETA Wars without ever launching a direct attack herself.

Marimo… Yuuko’s voice called out in the enormous sergeant’s mind, prompting her to turn her attention skywards towards the deity that encompassed the heavens above the planet. Everything is in place. I leave the rest up to you…

“Don’t worry, Yuuko, humanity won’t let you down! I’ll personally make sure this plan is carried out to the letter!” the swimsuit-clad teacher nodded, a burning passion of determination evident in her amber eyes as she saluted her commanding officer.

Excellent. I know that you of all people would never let me down, the Goddess smiled down slightly at the tiny sphere of life before her, the faint grin focused upon her only friend. As much as I’d love to stay and watch my plans come to fruition, I have greater things to attend to, things that only I as the Goddess of all can accomplish. How you proceed after the operation is complete is entirely up to you and the General. This is farewell for now, Marimo. Good luck, and give my best to Mitsurugi and the others.

“You too, Yuuko. If there’s anyone that can get rid of the BETA all across the universe, I know you can do it. We’ll do our part, so go do yours,” Marimo smiled. “Cadets, a final farewell to Vice-Commander Kouzuki!” she commanded, her unit immediately standing at attention and saluting the violet-haired deity in perfect synchronization.

With her plans set into motion, Yuuko’s grand form disappeared immediately in a godly flash of light, a sight that mystified and awed billions of souls across the planet. In reality, Yuuko had merely teleported herself to Earth’s neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, completing the 2.5 million light year jump with the utmost ease and once again blatantly violating the laws of physics she thought she had mastered in her mortal days.

“This should be a safe enough distance away,” the violet-haired Goddess estimated aloud. “Now then, it’s time to see just how vast the cosmos truly is…”

As a sinister chuckle escaped her lips, the omnipotent scientist suddenly exploded outwards in height, enlarging herself by millions of miles a second as several nearby planets quickly met a swift end against the smooth skin of her toned thighs. Yuuko pushed her body to enlarge exponentially faster, accelerating her growth every other second by a factor of ten, observing the ever-shrinking existence of the cosmos as her divine form consumed more and more of its space by the instant.

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Time passed as Yuuko’s relentless growth persisted indefinitely. Entire solar systems, galaxies, clusters, universes, and even multiverses met their fate against myriad portions of the Goddess’s perfect body, both intentionally and merely as a consequence of her ascension. After all, Yuuko rationalized as she halted her growth momentarily, trapping her latest test subjects - several multiverses - in the golden chain between her breasts, I might have become the Goddess of all, but what sort of scientist would I be if I didn’t attempt to tinker with the heavens for a bit to better understand the things that exist outside our universe? A slight chuckle escaped her lips as Yuuko placed her hands atop her massive orbs, slowly squeezing them together until her mountainous spheres made contact with one another, obliterating her subjects instantaneously and leaving not even a single iota of their existence in the wake of her experiment. It seems that everything, even entities with undefined natural boundaries, are subject to destruction with enough force applied to them. Well, everything except myself, of course… With an amused smile, the Goddess exploded outwards once again, expanding her divine form larger by countless light years per second before putting that rate to shame another moment later through the unparalleled acceleration of her enlargement.

After what seemed like an eternity of ever-hastening growth, Yuuko finally noticed an endless void of nothingness surrounding the vast majority of space that she currently occupied, pure darkness visible for countless gigaparsecs as her godly vision would affirm. Perhaps I’ve finally done it… For the first time since her apotheosis, the deity tapped into a fraction of her omniscience to confirm her own observations, unlocking the infinite well of knowledge in her mind and pinpointing that sole point of information. As I suspected, this really is everything, the Goddess mused, a confident grin on her face quickly turning to disappointment. And here I thought there would be more to it all. Oh well, I suppose I’ll just have to fix that later…

Slowing her expansion to a relative crawl, the violet-haired deity proceeded to grow and float out of the existence she had just conquered, finding the shape of it all to be an amorphous hazy white blob of reality, continuously expanding outwards along with the deity, though at a significantly more gradual rate. Now free of its confines, Yuuko proceeded to enlarge herself further, eventually stabilizing her rate of growth in perfect synchronization with all of existence once she had made sure it would never dare attempt to become a fraction of the size of her smallest toe. The Goddess now floated above the omniverse itself, the combined ball of all that was – countless multiverses, incalculable universes, an indeterminable number of galaxies, an endless amount of planets, and an infinite amount of humans, BETA, and other creatures – hovering before her big and index toes upon her right foot.

“So, this is truly everything?” Yuuko asked herself aloud, taking on her inquisitive posture as she brought her right hand to her chin in boredom. “Not very impressive to say the least, but at least it’ll make what I have in mind that much easier to accomplish.” Before she proceeded with her godly plans at her current ever-growing height above all else, an idea popped into Yuuko’s mind, one that caused a truly wicked grin to form on her divine visage. “Now that I’m truly alone out here, I no longer need to hide my true goals - it’s not as if anyone else can hear me anyways unless I wanted them to. With my supreme might, there is nothing stopping me from my ambitions. I thought I could never be the Holy Mother...but with my divine power and present size, I think it’s time for me to finally take the title that I have longed for years to attain for myself..."

A powerful wave of darkness began to surround Yuuko as she began to undergo a divine transformation, her unlimited and eternally-increasing power taking physical form as it coated her in a deep purple aura fitting of a goddess of her supreme status. A grand, ethereal golden throne began to manifest itself behind the bikini-clad deity, its exquisite aureate material borne from Yuuko's inherent wickedness and unparalleled avarice, beyond space, time, and reality, a testament to the Goddess’s superiority beyond all things both tangible and not. As the throne fully materialized, Yuuko found herself floating onto her seat of ultimate power automatically, her divine rear resting in perfect comfort on her perch high over all else. The Goddess crossed her luscious, toned thighs arrogantly, resting her left leg atop her right as she basked in her growth, her ethereal seat growing along with her to forever support the almighty deity. Finally, Yuuko’s eyes now began to glow brightly, her once dull crimson irises now giving off a true effulgence of her divine position as her transformation came to a close. In her newly upgraded form, Yuuko now had truly become her ideal of the Holy Mother, the supreme creatrix and destuctrix of all, now and forever.

“Ah, now this is much better…” the Goddess chuckled slightly to herself, approving the new changes of her external appearance as she wiggled her rump slightly in her throne. “Far more fitting of the Holy Mother. Now then…” Yuuko’s bright crimson eyes gazed down at the omniverse below her, still hovering before her incalculable digits, her soft, plump toes wiggling in anticipation to play with the ultimate toy. “There are so many ways to officially commence my reign...I honestly can’t decide on only one…” the Goddess mused, setting her right elbow upon the arm of her throne as she rested her right cheek against her fist in intrigue. “Hmmm...I suppose a little bit of experimentation is in order on the grandest of scales before I make my rule official. After all, I have the feeling I’ll be playing with my domain rather often, so it’s good to learn how to repair it once it’s become broken…”

Uncrossing her legs to obtain a better view of the show that was about to take place, the physicist-turned-Goddess teasingly circled the entirety of existence with her big toe; although the entirety of its masses were unaware of their possible doom, Yuuko relished in the thought that people across all multiverses were subject to her absolute control, able to be manipulated or even killed at a moment’s notice should she will it, or simply out of boredom. After several rotations of taunting, Yuuko was ready for the main event. Positioning her largest digit towards the very edge of her domain, the Goddess aimed to annihilate only half of all that was, a substantial portion to destroy in which to test out her restorative capabilities. If she so wished, the full might of her big toe would crush the omniverse with plenty of room to spare. But I suppose I’ll have to save that for later…

“There’s only one way any part of existence deserves to go: beneath the single lowest part of its Goddess...” Yuuko addressed her test subject, flashing a sinister grin at the doomed omniverse as she suddenly and viciously scrunched all her toes simultaneously as hard as she possibly could, chuckling wickedly in triumph as she did so. The omniverse never stood a chance: in an instant, roughly 57% of its contents collapsed under the insurmountable pressure placed upon it by the infinite wall of soft tan flesh that was Yuuko’s toe, exploding in a surge of cosmic essence; whatever force it was attempting to unleash was immediately silenced as it was halted against the bottom of Yuuko’s foot, the suffering lasting for as long as she held her toes in place. Countless multiverses perished instantaneously, and with them, untold amounts of BETA, along with the myriad counterparts of all who Yuuko once knew in her mortal life - Tama, Mikoto, Chizuru, Ayamine, Meiya, Takeru, and Marimo - and even the iterations of her lesser selves who would never acquire the godly presence she alone had achieved. After holding her foot in place for a solid minute, the violet-haired deity gently relaxed her foot back to its normal prone state, revelling in her absolute supremacy and dominance as she observed the omniverse at less than half its former glory.

“That was...as wonderful as I thought it would be,” Yuuko affirmed her inner thoughts, her feet seemingly acting on their own as they began to encircle the remaining remnants of the omniverse, her divine soles encompassing it completely. “As much as I’d love to finish off the rest of you, that’ll have to wait for now…” Moving her legs to rest against the bottom of her throne, the Goddess began to focus on restoring what had just been destroyed, her divine will acting on her thoughts and beginning the restorative process. Though Yuuko cared not for the individual multiverses in her domain - as concerning herself with absolutely anything outside of her interests was a mortal’s flaw, far below someone of her ultimate stature - her supreme powers would restore them to their former state as slowly or as quickly as she desired, along with any modifications she wished to add to them as well. As her passive might reformed the shattered portion of the omniverse, Yuuko decided to add two substantial alterations to their revised counterparts. Yuuko’s first alteration was an obvious one, fulfilling the promise she had made to Takeru just before she had begun her ascension: in the revived cosmic entities, the alien creatures known as the BETA had never existed nor would ever come to be, ensuring that the single known threat to her countless subjects in their revived states would be free from their harm. The Goddess’s second change was a bit more narcissistic, however, acting upon her limitless greed and long-sought desire for ultimate power: each revived lesser iteration of Yuuko in the countless parallel Earths would be a miniature goddess of her own, towering over all humans at a base stature of thirteen feet tall and possessing absolute power and control over their individual world, able to change her size at will and rule over humanity as she saw fit. Despite their power, however, Yuuko had added the condition that her lesser selves would never become any stronger than they already were, forever solidifying her own reign as the ultimate ruler. With these changes applied, the Goddess simply watched as existence was fully restored with her additional modifications, not even needing to lift a finger to accomplish the impossible effort.

“Perfect. I must say even I impress myself at times…” Yuuko chuckled, patting herself on the back as she admired her recreated work. “However, having to recreate it all the time will be rather tedious. Let’s fix that…” Willing her power to comply with her desires, Yuuko’s will would now automatically repair all that she would destroy almost instantly unless she desired to savor the moment of her divine actions. A fresh omniverse would passively appear in the place of the old one, a brand new toy for the Goddess to enjoy until it would become broken as well, repeating the process ad infinitum to ensure the deity would never need to concern herself with such a trivial act on a constant basis.

“It seems that everything is finally in order…” Yuuko mused from her seat above the heavens themselves, a smug expression on her glorious visage, crossing her legs once again as her glowing crimson eyes stared at her territory. “To think that deification was an actuality after all, but I suppose finding out that magic itself existed in the first place shattered all limitations on the realm of the possible. Humanity, the BETA, and whatever other creatures may exist within the cosmos, all are subject to my ultimate power, as it should have been in the first place. Everything is mine to do as I wish - to mold, shape, create, destroy, amplify, reduce, absolutely anything my heart desires. My personal revolution is complete, but to think, had I known I would become the Goddess of all on my day off, I would have done far more on my journey here...though I suppose getting Marimo to try on that embarrassing bunny girl cosplay again that she wore back in college should be a breeze to pull off now. I don’t even have to get her drunk!” An amused chuckle escaped the deity’s lips, imagining the limitless possibilities, both serious and personal, she had in mind for the future of her everlasting reign. “The Holy Mother Yuuko, the Goddess that sits above all worlds… With my rule eternal, my power and stature forever supreme and ever-increasing, and my will permanently unchallenged, I can finally bring about the reality I’ve always wanted now that I’m truly in command of absolutely everything. Now, all that’s left to do...is start from the very beginning…”

The ethereal, sinister laughter of the Goddess could be heard across the omniverse and all through Yuuko’s personal realm beyond it, her voice piercing reality itself to ensure that every living creature experienced the heralding of the ultimate and true age of creation: the Coming of the Holy Mother. Yuuko steadily accelerated her growth rate as she slowly surrounded all of existence with her feet, the beautiful, infinite walls of her perfect, pristine soles eager to indulge in her first formal act of her eternal reign as the Holy Mother.