
Karen Summers, Goddess of the ever expanding known universe, was as bored as
she had been for the last 5000 years. Nothing could possibly challenge her.
Her beauty had long since reached perfection, and yet with every soul
she consumed she became more beautiful still. Her mind was so vast and
powerful that it only took a fraction of a fraction of her attention to
run the entirety of the infrastructure of her vast empire. She no longer
used robots to run her empire, for not even her most advanced creation
could keep up with her. Instead, she ran her empire through sheer force
of will. Starships tumbled through hyperspace because she willed it.
Dyson spheres were constructed out of her will made solid. If her
attention were to waver for a second 80% of humanity would die, but
of course that could never happen.

The humanity of Karen's empire was nothing like the humanity into which she
had been born. They existed entirely to be her livestock, and she had bred
them for the traits she most desired, intelligence and beauty chief
among them. Waiting 20 years for a child to mature was far to long, so
modern humans reached sexual maturity in about 6 months. Reducing the turnaround
time of a single generation had always been one of Karen's highest priorities,
and she was always finding ways to improve. It meant that she could harvest 
trillions of trillions of souls from her densely populated empire every month. 
If Karen was not around to keep the population in check, her people would eat 
themselves to death in a decade or two. She regretted that there was not really
enough time to educate her subjects properly before she absorbed them, despite
their extreme intelligence, but it was not as if there was any knowledge they
could comprehend that Karen did not already know. Still, she hated to waste
anything.

The only truly interesting thing to happen since Karen ascended to godhood
was the way reality bent. When Karen drained attributes from someone, it was
as if she had always possessed them. As far as the universe was concerned,
Karen had always been the 6'6" goddess of curves she was today, but Karen
remembered what she had looked like before she had drained her first victim.
What was odd was that she now remembered already being Empress of humanity
when Angela Knight had tried to drain her. When the long dead attribute thief
made her move Karen already possessed a sex appeal so powerful that she could
enslave any who beheld her. Karen suspected that there had been some
secondary reality shift that not even she could see beyond. It was hard to
imagine anyone reaching her level of perfection without the benefit of the
rings. It was a mystery that Karen knew she would solve eventually, but for
now she did not possess enough information. All she could do was wait, and
grow every greater.

The secondary reality shift, which Karen could not prove, but was nevertheless
sure of, meant that the factor by which she multiplied stolen attributes
was astronomically high. It gave her some small pleasure, but at this point
there was no real point to increased power. Karen continued to improve herself
because that was what she did. Life had lost its luster for the Mistress of
Reality.

================================================================================

Bigsby Tanner put his empty bowl by the sink, and, not for the first time,
wished for a decent house brownie. On the Tower of Eyes, where he had been
raised, there had been brownies aplenty, for his people knew the value of
the little folk. Washing and sweeping used to be as easy as leaving a saucer
of milk by the door every night, and bringing gifts of wool and barley wine
to the mound once a year. Wool was hard to come by on the Tower, but all agreed
that the good will of the brownies was well worth the expense.

Here in the middle-of-things the closest to a brownie you could find was a
homunculus, and the thought of doing *that* to his own soft flesh by the
light of a new moon made Bigsby shiver. Besides homunculi were not really
their own beings, and any born of his flesh would be just as inclined towards
clutter as Bigsby himself. He sighed. Lack of brownies had not been on his
mind when he had agreed to come to this place. It was time to check on the
doves.

The doves were really pidgins which had been bred to have feathers white
as snow, but they served just as well. "Now then, have you been eating
your fill? Don't eat to quickly, you might not like what comes of it." 
Most augers did not talk to their birds, but Bigsby felt that it was the
least that he could do. After all, where would he be without his doves?
Halfway down the line of long cages he found a bird which had gorged itself
on the cornmeal he put in its cage. "Come here little one. It's your big day."
he said, pulling the bird from its cage.

Bigsby walked around his small cottage to a small shed. The shed was hidden from
view of the birds. There was no need to worry them after all. He turned on a
gas lamp, which had been a naked florescent bulb last week. Things often changed
without warning here in the middle-of-things. Fortunately, there were still
matches here from when he had done an incense foretelling three months
past. Without any change of his puttering pace, Bigsby moved a silver knife
from the throat of the dove to its belly, and spread the still living creature's
guts on his workbench. The cornmeal gave the guts extra texture. When Bigsby
had explained this to 0xa89ce98f, the mechanical Wytch had called it improving
the resolution. Bigsby liked the metaphor.

Examining the guts, Bigsby made careful notes in a blood spattered folio. There
were a few problems he had been tracking for some time which required updates,
and a few new potential threats. It was not until the end of the reading, when
he looked at the whole picture rather than isolated parts of it, that Bigsby
felt a cold finger of fear slide down his back. How could he have missed this
before? A full blown meltdown should not be coming out of the blue like this.
Bigsby Tannar had been the first Eye of the Tower. He was never wrong, and he
never missed something this big, especially not for this long.

Gone was the Auger's sedate morning pace. He ran back to his birds as fast as
his legs could carry him and grabbed another bird. Then, thinking better of it,
he grabbed two. The guts of the first did nothing to reassure him. If anything,
they told an even worse story. The third bird at least told him how it could
have been that a disaster of this magnitude went unnoticed for so long. Somehow,
it had taken just two worms to create this meltdown. It was no wonder that he
had not flagged the universe in question for adjustment. *Two bloody worms!*
he thought to himself.

================================================================================

Wanda dropped her bag on the floor near the door of her flat and sighed with
contentment. There was nothing like returning from a journey and washing the
road dust off. She would have at least a week before they had something else
for her, and she could already imagine the pleasure of the hot shower washing
over her smooth skin.

She had just shucked off her coat when her cell started to ring. Looking down
she saw that it was Assignments. "Fuck! Already! I just got back!" She said
with annoyance.

The voice on the other end of the phone made noises about a new universe going
critical. Apparently it had been doing so for five thousand years. Apparently
that meant that she had to go deal with it right now.

Wanda muttered darkly in at least six different languages, one of which had
not been spoken in 5000 years, and wheeled out the door. Her briefcase became a
set of saddlebags and the Austin Martin she had driven up in became a Harley.
Her coat obligingly turned from a long tan trench coat to a leather duster.
She wasn't in the mood for a vodka martini, stirred not shaken (she hated how
that particular tag line got butchered in 9 out of 10 universes with a James
Bond), anymore. AC/DC (the one from Earth Wonder-Beta-9, Cycle 3) started
playing from nowhere in particular. Power rivaling some lesser angles and the
ability to effortlessly change her aesthetic to fit her mood were some of the
perks of being a reality Wytch.  Constantly having to clean up universes in
the midst of a meltdown was not nearly as much fun. It had been great for
the first several cycles of the multi-verse, but now it was just kind of 
annoying. When Wanda was in a better mood she would admit that the reality
worm infestations did prevent her from getting too bored. She wasn't feeling
reasonable right now, so she revved her engine and rode away from the
middle-of-things an hour after she had just got back.

As she rode, Wanda projected scenes from her target universe from the headlight
of her bike. It was another girl ascended to godhood becoming the mistress of
all she surveyed. Rather droll. The reality worms kept returning to the same
themes. If only it had been all matter and energy coalescing into a crystalline
super-being. Those were fun meltdowns to deal with. This one had a body so hot
that Wanda felt herself getting wet even protected as she was by her magic. Sex
gods were the worst. They always left Wanda feeling unsatisfied and horny for
weeks after she contained them. This just kept getting worse and worse.

================================================================================

Karen felt something new for the first time in long time, or rather she didn't
feel something. She could no longer feel one of the planets in the outer reaches
of her empire. Her iron will, which moved the machinery of her dominion had been
melted into slag. Although, she realized, this was not strictly accurate. The
disappearance of her will from that place had occurred with no violence, no
struggle at all. It had simply happened, with no reason that Karen could detect.
It would take years for light from the place she had lost to reach her nearest
observers. Instead she willed an observer closer to the edge of the lost region.
Her observer disappeared as completely and quickly as the region of lost space
had.

Without knowing what it was she faced, Karen Summers, Mistress of Reality,
Empress of Time and Space, girded herself for war. She donned no armor,
and lifted no weapon, for though she was peerless in combat, she knew that
her strongest asset was her sex appeal. Even before her transformation
Karen had been so sexy that she made slaves of men and women alike when
she was fully clothed and dressed to downplay her assets. Now she snapped
her fingers and servants rushed to her with perfectly fitted and
designed red lace underwear. If the bra had a size it would be a 48R, but
it had been designed to fit Karen's body perfectly. Karen took them from her
servants and then with a thought she consumed every human still in her domain.
There was no reason to make them available to her adversary.

She had never absorbed so many souls at the same time before, and the act of
doing so seemed to have a compounding effect on the power she claimed. For
the first time in many years Karen visibly grew as she drained. She gained
an inch of height, and her breasts grew, stretching away from her body
slowly.

Wanda arrived before the would be goddess just as she was fastening a massive
red bra which seemed a few cup sizes two small. The huge garment
forced the goddess's massive chest together as she hooked it together behind
her back. Her breasts settled down after she dropped her hands to her sides,
but they still spilled over the edge of the garment. Wanda almost lost her
will right then, but her spells held. This goddess was further along than
any that Wanda had confronted for some time. She noticed that her panties
were soaked through, and that she was panting with desire.

Karen felt the biker woman before her fall under her power, but then for
the first time in Karen's life, someone managed to resist her beauty.
The woman made some arcane gesture at Karen, and she felt her strength
and beauty slip away.

Wanda sighed. That had been closer than she liked, but it was over now.
Her reality restoration spell had taken a lot out of her, and she was
glad that it seemed to have worked. She had certainly felt the woman's
godhood flying away. She looked over at the former goddess... and saw
an ordinary human more beautiful than any incarnation of Aphrodite 
that Wanda had every met. Wanda's defenses were depleted from throwing
around so much energy, and she was not expecting to be assaulted just
after defeating the only thing of any note in this universe.

Karen Summers, Empress of humanity, felt the woman in front of her
fall under her spell. For some reason she felt that the strange woman
had taken something from her. "What is your name?" She asked.

"Wanda Dross, Mistress." The woman replied.

"Have you done anything I might not like Wanda?" Demanded the busty red
head.

Wanda started sobbing, "Y-Yes. I'm s-s-sorry." She looked up at Karen's
perfect breasts, "I-I-I can fix it."

"You have my permission to do so." Karen replied in a voice like honey
and sex.

Wanda made a gesture and all of Karen's power returned to her in a great
rush. She wrapped her will completely around her newest slave, and brought
the woman who tried to destroy her towards herself. Wanda blubbered and
begged forgiveness or punishment as her Mistress desired. Karen smiled
a predatory grin, "You know what you must do to repent." She said.

Wanda made a gesture and one of Karen's slave rings flew onto her finger.
The instant where Wanda gave herself to Karen was the greatest in the
reality Wytch's very long life.

After swallowing Wanda's essence, a few things became clear to Karen.
She was not, as she had imagined, the Mistress of Reality. She was
merely a pawn in the long struggle of the reality worms to destroy
the multiverse. There had been uncountable self made gods like her
over the years. She was in no way special. She was not even the
first to defeat a Wytch of the middle, though that was an achievement
that few godlings could credit themselves with.

It was also clear to Karen that she had a chance. The particulars of
her situation allowed for the shadow of a hope, but only if she acted
immediately. All of these thoughts occurred even before she was finished
consuming all of Wanda's attributes. Even before the last shred of Wanda's
magic entered her she placed a reality lock on the two worms mascaraing
as rings on her fingers, and willed a tiny copy of one of her slave rings
into existence around one of the two worms. She use the other worm to
drain it dry, taking the ability to steal attributes into herself. A
moment later the second worm had gone the way of the first.

If Karen Summers was going to conquer all of Creation, she would not
do so as a pawn.

================================================================================

Eleanor Brown knocked on Wanda's door. "Wanda, you home?" she called.

"Yeah, coming..." Called Wanda through the door.

When she opened the door in a towel a moment later Eleanor said, "I'm sorry
is this a bad time?"

"No, no, come in. Let me throw something on." Said Wanda.

"That last meltdown was pretty bad, huh." Asked Eleanor.

Wanda's cheeks colored a bit, "Yeah. It caught me by surprise. I hate sex
gods. Or really just sexy gods I suppose. They are such a pain."

"Well, why don't you take a few weeks, or even a month off. I'm sorry to have
sent you out so quickly, it was just the type of meltdown you are so good with."

Wanda pulled her dark hair back behind her ears. As she did so Eleanor noticed
that the reality Wytch was quite a bit bustier than normal. Wanda did that to
herself without meaning to when something had got her hot and bothered. The sex
goddess had clearly managed to leave a mark. "Honestly, I want to get back
in rotation ASAP. I kind of need something to take my mind off it, if you know
what I mean. This bitch is going to take a while to get out of my head."

Eleanor smiled, "Well, you know yourself dear. I'll see what I can do."

After the Matriarch of the middle-of-things left Wanda's small flat, the flame
hair vixen behind the glamor smiled.

After she freed herself from the reality worms that had been using her,
Karen had quickly made changes to her empire to reflect what she had learned
from the just-consumed reality wytch. Her ability to alter the fabric of
reality directly made it even easier to create a crop of perfect humans
to consume. Each citizen of her empire would have been a god or goddess
on their own, and they populated her ever expanding empire so densely
that there was hardly space for anything else. The biggest change to her
subjects was the capacity for magic. They were each mages of enormous
power. When this power was returned to Karen, she used it to change the
nature of her universe so that she could make use of every cubic meter
of it. There were no stars in the heavens anymore, only oceans of gods
packed liked sardines in the sky (though the concept of sky was a little
outmoded). Each god grew to maturity in an hour, and was drained into
Karen a moment later. After she had created her new power farm she
set a huge magical shroud around her whole universe to keep the prying
eyes of the wytches-of-the-middle away from her prize. After the system
was in place she had gained more power in a day than she had in the whole
of her life till that point. The moment after she left her universe behind
she cranked the flow of time in her universe so fast that a million years
passed in the time it took for her to blink in the time stream in the
middle-of-things. After doing that she had started to gain power so fast
that she almost could not contain it, but her glamor held and her disguise
as Wanda remained in place.
