Story by  Silverferet711

Battle of the Serpent Queens
Iaret’s Triumph

Iaret, Empress of the Nile, Devourer of Dragons, Bane of the False Queen, and Archfiend Ascendant stood and awaited her challenger. Behind her stood a small vanguard of her finest warriors, though their instructions had been clear. This was to be fight of sorceress versus sorceress, and she would brook no interference. But a woman of Iaret’s stature couldn’t simply appear to a battlefield without a coterie of loyal servants. Such a thing was not done.
And to their credit, they waited patiently as the desert sun slowly set, stretching their shadows long and narrow against the sands. From Iaret’s titanic belly came a feeble movement, and the serpent empress chuckled to herself at the movement, giving her enormous dark blue flanks a gentle caress. “Soon, my sweet. Soon your wife will come, and join you within my belly where you both belong.”
As if on cue, the air opposite Iaret rippled, and from nothing and nowhere stepped her challenger.
Iaret raised a dark golden brow. She had expected…more.
Iaret herself was a grand sight. An enormous serpent, three times the height of any fur, and fattened on a thousand thousand sacrifices, such that she was nearly as wide as she was tall. Her great flowing coils had once been trim and svelte, but now they were resplendently soft and thick, to better show off her successes as conqueror and devourer of her foes. Her golden cybernetics gleamed in the setting sun, and her already-large belly was full of her most recent prey.
But the creature that stood before her? The dragon she had devoured had spoken of her with such confidence, such verve. She had been certain that Iaret would never be able to best her. That she, great serpent of the Nile, would be the one devoured. She’d been polite enough to maintain skepticism. But this? Skepticism was far too generous. Her foe was nothing.
She was a kobold of uncommon stature, that much Iaret allowed. But she stood barely taller than Iaret’s guards. And while she certainly was prodigious in girth, with a great belly barely contained by her robes that would have put lesser furs to shame…she was hardly a match for Iaret. Hardly a morsel, in fact, compared to the dragon that had talked up this little kobold.
“So,” Iaret said, her tone ringing out across the sands. “You are the one called Eliza, of the Clan Redburrow? The one spoken of so highly by the dragon?”
The kobold looked Iaret up and down, and with a jolt of irritation, Iaret noted that the kobold’s expression was…bemused? She held no trace of fear or awe, despite the magnificence of the one who stood before her. “And you’re the big lump Penny’s been gushing on about. You’re not so big as all that.” The kobold clicked her tongue. “Honestly, I’d have thought you’d be taller.”
Iaret lifted herself with some effort on her tail, standing at her full height, her great apron of belly sagging from the weight of the prey within. She glared down at the kobold, and with a whispered hiss of magic, compelled her shadow to fall across this challenger in defiance of the sun. “I am Iaret, morsel. Empress of these lands. I have conquered nations. Dethroned monarchs. Shattered false idols and devoured fiends, dragons, and gods. I am the greatest sorceress to ever walk the sands. A thousand greater beings than you have come before me, and look upon all they have accomplished.” She gently stroked the front of her belly, her voice lowering. “Look upon my body. My testament to all those I have bested and entombed within myself. Look upon me, and cower, for this is to be your fate.”
The kobold looked, tipping her wide-brimmed hat back a touch with a claw, raised a brow…and laughed. “Well, well, someone wants to get that A in drama class. Are we going to just stand there and flirt, or are we going to fight?”
Iaret forced her features into a hard mask, not allowing the simmering anger beneath to show. “So be it.” And she thrust out a hand, uttered a word in the tongue of ancients, and allowed the Power Cosmic to flow through her and out, right towards the kobold.
The kobold raised a hand, and a staff of dark steel appeared in her hands. She twirled it, and there was a sharp and sudden clang. The air shuddered, and grains of sand danced atop one another from the reverberation. The force of Iaret’s spell had rushed out toward the kobold…and met an immovable barrier. To Iaret’s trained eyes, she saw the twin magics collide and disperse into aethereal powder. She smirked. The kobold smirked back.
“Well, if we’re being polite about it,” she said, and thrust out her staff. Fire, brilliant and golden, blossomed in the air between them and shot forward. Iaret dodged, moving far faster than a creature of her immense bulk should have managed. She felt the heat sear against her back, but the enchantments she’d woven into her flesh protected her from the worst of it. She twisted and swiped a claw against the sands. The earth rumbled as a great geyser of sand and stone erupted forward, launching itself toward the kobold.
The kobold twirled, and vanished. Stone crashed into empty air, and Iaret saw the shadow fall across her. She twisted, and barely avoided as some enormous thing fell onto the ground where she’d been a moment prior. Then something pinkish red streaked across her vision, and she felt a great force smash against her belly. She gasped at the sudden pain, and rolled gracelessly away before getting her bearings.
Where the kobold had been stood a dragon, fully of a height to Iaret. And while the bulk on the kobold’s frame had been impressive, the dragon that now stood before her was truly a symbol of unrestrained gluttony. Her belly was so large it nearly dragged across the sands, her legs all as thick as tree trunks and rippling with fat. Her wings, while wide and flaring, seemed almost a joke. They were grossly insufficient to lift a creature of that dragon’s bulk into the air.
But the red-on-tan coloration left no doubt. The dragon and the kobold were one and the same.
“So, that is how your wife believed you would be able to devour me.” Iaret laughed. “I will say, your change of form is impressive. But I have bested dragons before. And while you are certainly larger than her…” she patted her great belly, which twitched ever so slightly in response, “I have room enough for both of you.”
Eliza growled, a flare of rage written plain across her face for the first time. She lunged forward, body jiggling from the sudden move. Iaret, despite her already present fullness, felt hunger bloom in her chest. Such a prize…she’d practiced long and hard to contain a creature of this dragon’s size. She dove to the side, avoiding the dragon’s attack. Without the advantage of surprise, she noted that this creature seemed unused to the rigors of real combat. Though she was quick with fire and spell, her body was clumsy and slow.
Iaret dove forward, and with another hiss, a blade of dark gold appeared in her hand, streaked with the venom of her fangs. A quick flick of her wrist, and a line of scarlet blood appeared on her enemy’s shoulder. Eliza yelped, leaping away, and taking a moment to re-center herself. Iaret didn’t give her a moment. Another whispered word, another flex of the Power Cosmic. Purple flame appeared in a circle around the dragon and rushed inward. Eliza whirled, her own magic gleaming blue and white, countering the fire in a moment. But while she struggled to defend against Iaret’s arcane assault, the cyborg queen was already moving. Another two quick flicks of her blade, and Eliza hissed. Fire erupted from her maw, and Iaret made a sharp gesture. The flames transformed into harmless pale smoke, and with another curl of her fingers, the smoke whirled and warped, becoming crystalline daggers. The flew towards the dragon, who dodged meekly, her legs wobbling with strain. The poison was beginning to do its work.
Iaret continued her assault. Dark magics erupted from the earth, skeletal hands reaching up from the sands to try and hold the dragon still. She flapped her wings. Once. Twice. Wind crackled with power, and lightning flickered out across the skeletal hands, reducing them to ozone-scented ash. Iaret leapt in, laughing, her sword slicing three more times. Eliza stumbled, her entire body shaking with strain. She attempted an incantation…and the magic faltered. And that was when Iaret struck.
Opening her jaws wide, she leapt forward and swallowed Eliza’s head. The blade in her hands flickered and vanished, and both her arms grabbed the dragon and pulled with all of her might. Once, perhaps, a creature of such size and strength would have required time. But long practice had taught her how to proceed. She forced the dragon in deeper into her gullet, swallowing and pulling as quickly as she could. She shuddered as the dragon struggled, but her movements were growing feeble as the poison clouded her thoughts and robbed her of strength. Iaret let out a muffled moan as she felt her throat and then her stomach stretch enormously to contain such a massive feast. She had already been full before she began, her belly stretched to contain a dragon of a size nearly equal to her. But now, she was trying to cram a second such being into the already tight confines of her gut.
But she had been ready for the pain. The discomfort. And she was confident in her own strength. Her majesty. She would win. She would prove both of these dragons wrong, and show the world the sort of power they were dealing with. No mere sorcerer could ever match her might. No dragon, no fiend, no, not even a god. And so Iaret redoubled her efforts, forcing her prey in with reckless abandon, feeling her guts roil and clench as they struggled to let in such a massive meal.
It took moments. Long, agonizing moments. But finally, mercifully, she swallowed the last of the dragon’s tail. She let out a gasp, and immediately followed with a belch as loud as a thunderclap. She couldn’t move. Her stomach was so enormous that it felt like all of her organs were being pushed aside. She felt nauseous. Terribly so. But she had fought so hard to win this prize, she was not about to lose it to the whims of her own rebellious body. She wanted to roll, to reduce the pressure on her aching gut, but moving was out of the question. She was simply too heavy.
Her hide creaked. Her belly was so swollen that the tip of her dragging tail could barely touch the ground behind it. And her prey moved. Feebly, yes, but still, as sensitive as her overstretched hide was, she could feel every minute adjustment. She gasped for air, but with every breath came another belch. Every motion forced more air out of her poor stomach, but no matter how much she burped, it seemed to bring no relief. The pain was terrible.
But so was her pleasure. She had done it. She had won. When she had arrived in this time, she had fretted and worried that her body would be insufficient to devour her rival, as fattened as the android that had named herself Astra had become. But now? There was no doubt in her mind. Once she recovered from this ordeal, she would be vast enough. Vast enough to swallow Astra. No, not just Astra. Thorne, and the rest of the petty godlings that continued to defy her. No, more than them. The world itself. She chuckled, despite how tender the effort made her gut. She had won. She would always win.
She was Iaret. And she would suffer no one to call herself her equal.

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