All For Me

by Furlough

Rebecca stared blankly in front of her.

Just a few brief moments ago, she wouldn’t have dared think it possible, and yet, there it was: A genie.

A stocky, muscular man, or at least half of one, as his lower body, starting at his waist, faded into a mass of thick, wispy smoke, which descended towards the tip of the lamp whence it had first emerged as though in a massive burst of gas a few moments prior. His features and his garb were not only evocative of distant lands, but of an immeasurably distant time; she never would have envisioned anything like it outside of a drawing in a history book.

And yet, there he was, in her living room, floating before her, when the most she had expected out of cleaning out the old junk in the house had been a dust bunny.

“What is thy bidding, my mistress?”

His voice sounded to her like a massive metal object being dragged down a long tunnel by some unspeakably strong force. She wasn’t even sure he had moved his lips when he said that.

“Y-you’re...”

“I am your slave. You may command me to grant you any three things your heart desires, and it shall be so.”

“You’re a… genie…?”

“That is one name the men of the far lands had for me.”

“And… three wishes? Anything?” Rebecca could hardly accept the reality of what has happening to her.

“Anything your heart desires. But no more than three.”

Rebecca’s heart and mind raced. Not only had the past minute revealed to her that the legend of the genies was real, but now there was one before her, offering to grant anything she wished for. Her deepest, wildest desires — three of them, anyway — were a mere breath away.

Her mind was swimming. She knew there was no way she would be able to pull herself together anytime within the next couple hours at least, let alone formulate a wish with the potential to give her anything she desired in all the cosmos without being truly certain she wouldn’t regret it or think of it as a waste later. But in a couple hours, Ethan would be home.

She thought that maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing; he’d probably have a more level head about this whole affair, and together they could make some wishes that would leave them both living the high life for the rest of their lives, at the very least. Together, surely they could come up with something really good, something that would last, something that would carry them through the remainder of their lives without a worry or care in the world.

But Rebecca also knew that if Ethan had a hand in making those wishes, he’d probably make the bulk of the decisions. Rebecca had never been terribly assertive towards her husband; he was rather proud of his quick wit, which was something about him she liked, but it also meant he wasn’t afraid to use fast-talking to have his way at every opportunity. More often than she liked to admit, this made her feel belittled, especially when she considered that out of the two he had been the only one to get a college education, while she stayed at home. She was able to brush the feeling off most of the time, but it bothered her more than a little to know that the making of the three wishes, likely the most important and potentially impactful decision anyone had taken for a very long time — an opportunity made possible by something she discovered — would involve her as little more than an aside, a detail.

That got her thinking to the point where she was unable to concentrate on anything else, her surprise forgotten, or perhaps serving to aggravate that sensation. Rebecca knew she had to do something; this time, she would be the one to have her way, she was entitled to. But what could she do to ensure that Ethan wouldn’t go hog wild on her magnificent discovery? She got to thinking, and this time, was able to come to a conclusion much more easily. She would give Ethan what all women wanted, and what all men wanted from them. That would get his attention.

Rebecca knew part of the reason Ethan had married her was because of her appearance. She was no supermodel, but she had a sort of natural beauty. Her features had little trouble appearing graceful no matter how she made herself up, and the contours of her body were undeniably charming, something that was noticeable even when she dressed in more modest ensembles. It was a part of her she knew Ethan just couldn’t ignore, and with what she had in mind, she would ensure he couldn’t possibly think about anything else.

“Genie!” She finally blurted out, still nervous, but attempting to concentrate in order to stave it off. “I make my first wish!”

“What would you wish for, mistress?”

“I wish that my body was irresistibly beautiful!”

“So it shall be,” the genie spoke, nodding his head for a moment.

When the genie raised his head again, Rebecca felt an odd sensation envelop her, like a drop in temperature, or a low electrical current, or the feeling of being trapped in a rapidly vibrating box, or all those things at once. The feeling overpowered her for what seemed like an eternity, but it suddenly left her a mere few moments later, leaving her feeling off-balance, as if she had overshot and missed the last step coming downstairs.

However, as she looked around, the genie was still very much in her presence, and nothing else in the garage seemed different. After a few more moments, in fact, Rebecca noticed that she actually felt quite nice, far more energetic and awake than she had upon getting out of bed that morning. Looking around, her vision seemed to have cleared up slightly — Rebecca had been near-sighted ever since she was a girl, necessitating glasses, but the ones she had been wearing the entire day did not seem to have made her vision nearly as crystal-clear as it seemed then. She nearly screamed in amazement when she tentatively removed her glasses, and her vision instantly re-focused itself to a perfect state, unaided by the lenses she had relied on her whole life — then readjusted itself again once she put them back on.

While she looked around, Rebecca noticed a modest vertical mirror resting in a corner of the garage. Breaking out of her trance as she remembered what it was she had wished for, Rebecca gingerly sauntered over to it and was mentally floored as she was greeted not with the image of her usual self, but with a woman bearing a body the likes of which you typically only see on housewives in trashy TV soaps — gone was the subtlety of her curves, replaced with an extremely healthy hourglass figure that practically jumped forward, accentuated by her newly acquired ensemble of form-fitting navy blue leggings and black sweater, draped over a t-shirt that caressed her skin with a very comfortable, smooth feeling. Rebecca marvelled over the perfection that coated every bit of her figure, from her perfectly firm bubble-butt to the perky D cup breasts that stood proudly above a perfectly proportioned slender waist, whose petiteness contrasted with the rest of her assets. Not fully knowing why, she carefully lifted the midriff of her top, revealing a smooth tummy that not only rested between a shapely set of hips, but also boasted the subtle contours of a six-pack that was sure to drive any onlooker crazy with desire.

Pleased but still baffled, Rebecca turned back to the genie, who was still patiently observing her. She started to try and ask him about the changes he had made, gesturing to her abs, her hips, and especially her eyes, the improvement that was most inexplicable to her. However, in her flustered state, she couldn’t quite manage to get the words out.

“You asked to be beautiful,” the genie said, as though reading her mind. “By the ways of mortal men, this means showing that you are fit enough to bear and nurture a child without any problems, while not appearing intimidating. This obviously means that some parts of your body had to be improved that would not show immediately.”

Rebecca, who had raised her index finger to ask more questions, slowly lowered it and looked down pensively. It made sense. Turning her head to steal one more glance of her magnificent backside from the mirror, her eyes grew narrow with a glint of confidence as the most important part of the whole deal made its way to her mind: There wasn’t a snowflake’s chance in Hell that Ethan would be able to keep his eyes off of her now.

But even then, something else was still nagging her in the back of her skull. Though she was definitely at a more advantageous position now than she had been just a few minutes before, Rebecca suspected that as soon as Ethan learned about the genie and the remaining two wishes, the idea of what that power may be able to accomplish just might distract him long enough for him and his sharp wit to cast her aside when it was time to make the decision. Even after her improvement, Rebecca was more resolute than ever to get her way this time.

But what did she want? There was no doubt that she was pleased with the results of her first wish, quite undeniably so, but there was room for so much more. Her brain was positively alight with all sorts of ideas and possibilities now, which she was able to process with much more clarity, perhaps as a side effect of the upgrade to her being. However, the problem was the same as before — there was so much she wanted, and yet only two very small chances to get it. Even with her newfound clarity of thought, she was hopeless to try and figure out a definite way to prioritize all of her desires, and she doubted whether that would even make sense even if she made the effort to try to do so. No, right now, she needed more help, something that only Ethan’s capable mind could provide.

Or could it?

An outlandish idea, unique in its craziness, suddenly dominated Rebecca’s imagination. It was a notion that seemed absurdly risky, considering the extremely narrow chance of success it would leave her with — “success” meaning getting absolutely everything she desired. However, looking at it from a purely objective viewpoint it made sense, and if there was any chance at all that it could succeed, it certainly couldn’t be as risky as letting Ethan in on the deal.

Rebecca took one more look at her reflection. It was absolutely, undeniably, oppressively gorgeous, the kind of beauty one could never ignore. It was the kind of beauty that envious, resentful people would immediately assume belonged to a brainless, uneducated bimbo. As she realized this, memories of Ethan jokingly but sharply lording his intelligence over hers came flooding back. Her decision was made in an instant.

More nervous than before, but with the confidence of her undeniable physical superiority to fall back on, Rebecca put her hands on her hips and turned to face the genie once more.

“Genie!” she nearly bellowed out. “I make my second wish. I wish to be incredibly smart, smart enough to solve any problem.”

“So it shall be,” the genie said, nodding his head once more.

For just a moment, Rebecca felt as though her skull was put through a hydraulic press, or perhaps placed on some kind of torture device that stabbed through it with thousands of tiny needles. The sensation lasted for but a fraction of a second, however, and was followed by something very different indeed. Her earlier realization that she had gained adjustably perfect vision was nothing compared to the sensations she began to experience in the next few moments; it felt as though her brain had been released from a vise in which it had been placed her whole life, and was now free to reach out and touch the entirety of the world around her, extending invisible tendrils to expose and explore every aspect of absolutely everything she could perceive. Rebecca experienced an incredible clarity of not only thought, but memory as well. As her vision landed on the genie once more, a tidbit of a postgraduate-level quantum physics lecture a high school professor had shared with her class once as a joke served as the basis for a theory she instantly formulated as to how the reality of the genie could be possible.

However, she didn’t let this distract her from the main purpose for which she had endowed herself with such powers of calculation. With cold, all-seeing eyes no longer betraying even the slightest hint of bewilderment or confusion, Rebecca straightened herself and addressed the genie.

“Tell me, creature,” she said, “have you had many masters before me?” Her voice had changed from a faint cadence so unremarkable it had led her to claim she didn’t have any kind of accent to a sophisticated, Mid-Atlantic articulation that conveyed each syllable with painstaking precision.

“Such is my fate,” the genie replied. “Each time my lamp finds a new owner, I am bound to their will for as long as it takes them to make three wishes. Once this is done, my business with them is concluded, and I am forbidden from emerging until I find a new master.”

“So, anyone who touches the lamp can be your master, correct?”

“It is so.”

“And there aren’t any rules against making selfless wishes, are there? Wishes that bring your master no good, but that can help other people?”

“If my master commands it, I shall do whatever is necessary.”

Hearing that changed Rebecca’s expression from a bored-looking resting face to an enormous smile, one that gradually became a delighted grin crowned by eyes that only grew narrower in their wickedness. In moments, she let loose with a deep, powerful, and evil laughter. Never before had she felt so excited, so pleasured. If what the genie said was true, then her idea had paid off tremendously. There was no need to make any difficult decisions, or seek Ethan’s help. All that which she desired would be hers — and hers alone.

“You’ve been around long, have you, genie?” asked Rebecca, her tone now nearly mocking in its confidence.

“For more than ten thousand generations, mistress,” the genie offered, unmoved by her apparent outbursts.

“And in that time, have your masters been good men?”

“They each had their own ideas on what was worthy of using my power to bring about. I still sense much sadness and hatred in the world. Perhaps all my power is not enough to stop the folly of men, even if I go through a thousand masters.”

“Or perhaps the thousand masters are the problem,” Rebecca countered. “Or rather, the thousand different wills that try and yank you in different directions each time you offer up your wondrous power. But fear not, for that changes today. If ever you wished to see an age of true peace and unity on Earth, then rejoice, for I shall make that paradise a reality.”

Rebecca raised her arms and clasped her hands above her head, stretching. She swayed from side to side for a few moments, her eyes closed, her face still betraying an expression of absolute delight. There was but one more thing that had to be done to complete her plan. It was finally time.

“Genie!” She exclaimed, now in complete control of the situation. “I make my third wish! I wish that any living humans will obey my every command, irresistibly, without question.”

“So it shall be.”

Rebecca felt a new feeling surround her mind, this time more akin to a jolt of pleasure. She threw her head back, her eyes closed, and gasped in delight. She knew it had worked, and by virtue of her wish, all that she had ever wished for was now within her grasp.

Opening her eyes, Rebecca saw that the figure of the genie had vanished. The laws that governed its being had commanded him back into his lamp, forbidden from so much as conversing with anyone until a new master came along. Rebecca walked over to the lamp and picked it up, gingerly caressing its side, with no results. Still, she smiled, as she knew it wouldn’t be long before she saw him again.

“Thank you for everything,” she whispered huskily. “Thank you for absolutely everything.”

* * *

Ethan arrived home a short while later. He had hardly taken a breath after leaving his bag and coat in the entryway when he walked into the living room and saw an absolute knockout of a woman leaning back on the couch, wearing only a pair of skintight short shorts, a small assortment of cheap jewellery and necklaces on her otherwise bare chest, and a pair of chic, red-rimmed glasses on her flawless visage. Ethan felt the blood rush to every corner of his body upon laying eyes on her, a feeling that was only slightly mitigated by the awareness that he had no idea who she was.

“What are you doing here?” Ethan said, trying his best to elicit a stern tone and stop his voice from cracking out of nervousness.

“Why, honey,” Rebecca said with a dry confidence, “that’s just rude. I make myself up just a bit, and you act like you don’t know me anymore? Do you really think I’m that ugly?”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed in thought. Making a herculean effort to keep his gaze fixed on the woman’s face, he began to look more closely at her features. The connections he made seemed to him to be somewhat of a stretch at first, but there was no denying that there was more than a passing resemblance.

“Rebecca?” He said in a barely audible tone, as if he were deathly afraid of being wrong.

For her part, Rebecca was getting impatient. She decided it was time for a test.

“Yes, it’s me, Ethan,” she spat out with a far more caustic, less sultry tone. “What’s so hard to understand about that? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, hubby. But no matter. You can’t go wrong if you really try, right, Ethan? Please understand.”

Those last two words rebounded inside Ethan’s head as strongly as if they’d been amplified by a megaphone pressed up directly against his ear canal. They echoed endlessly within his head, overpowering the rest of his thoughts and questions, until suddenly it seemed to him that everything else was cleared away, and he could think of nothing else but his incredibly beautiful wife looking at him from the couch.

“Re-Rebecca!” He said, now seemingly more flustered than confused. “You’re looking really good today!”

“Glad you noticed,” Rebecca offered with a dry smile. “I’m happy you made it home, Ethan, I’ve been waiting for you. There’s something I thought up pretty recently that I’ve just been dying to try out with you...”

As she spoke, Rebecca got up from the couch and put her arms around her husband, her face growing ever closer to his. Her scent, her voice and her touch were driving him mad with lust. As they looked into each other’s eyes, he noticed with a slight sense of alarm that only ended up mixing with his arousal that her eyes, previously at least half a head shorter, were now level with his, perhaps even a bit higher.

Rebecca moved her mouth towards Ethan’s ear and whispered:

“Sleep.”

For just a fraction of a second, Ethan considered letting out a nervous chuckle, thinking that what his wife had just said was simply ridiculous. How could he possibly fall asleep with such an irresistible sexpot interlocking her body with his?

But he did.

In a mere instant, Ethan’s body went limp, and he lay unconscious in his wife’s arms. Rebecca found it remarkably easy to support his weight, the lean muscles that her transformation had placed in her arms bulging slightly at the small strain this presented. The ease with which she handled her unconscious husband and placed him on the couch led her to suspect that said muscles were quite a bit denser than they first appeared.

In moments, Ethan was out cold on the couch, completely oblivious to the world around him. Rebecca watched her handiwork with a satisfied smirk, but decided it was time to move things along.

“Awake.”

In but a moment, Ethan opened his eyes and fumbled around, disoriented. He mumbled to himself for a few moments, and was about to start asking questions upon catching sight of Rebecca again, but she didn’t give him the time.

“You will not move from that spot unless I command it.”

Ethan felt his body lock up, powerless to explain why. He wanted to get up from the couch, if only to assure himself that he could, but found himself unable to do anything but look around, his gaze landing on Rebecca’s incredible body once more.

“Rebecca, what — ”

“You will not say anything unless I command it. Understood?”

Her words cut through the air like a blade, with a tone so sharp and authoritative that Ethan knew he had no choice but to obey. Unable to resist her orders, he sheepishly nodded his head in confirmation.

“Excellent,” said Rebecca. “Now, just a little confirmation before we get to the point. Ethan, say the following words only: ‘Some are born great, others achieve greatness.’”

“Some are born great, others achieve greatness,” said Ethan, without really knowing why, or being able to breathe one syllable more.

“Very good,” Rebecca said curtly. “Just one more. Say the following words only: ‘Unfortunately for the good sense of mankind, the fact of their fallibility is far from carrying the weight in their practical judgment, which is always allowed to it in theory; for while every one well knows himself to be fallible, few think it necessary to take any precautions against their own fallibility, or admit the supposition that any opinion of which they feel very certain, may be one of the examples of the error to which they acknowledge themselves to be liable.’”

Rebecca’s mouth had moved with the speed of an engine, and yet had been able to say the entire sentence without so much as a single stumble or mispronunciation. Ethan surprised himself slightly when he found himself repeating the words he had barely begun to process in a similar fashion, without making a single mistake.

“Beautiful,” Rebecca said, putting on a wide, pleased smile. “I think we’re ready. Wait right here, and remember: You are to do absolutely nothing if I do not command it.”

Ethan sat nervously as his wife, or whatever she had become, strode out of the living room, towards the garage. Less than a minute later, she came back, holding an antique oil lamp in her hands. Taking a deep breath, Rebecca stood before Ethan, then leaned down and placed it in his hands.

“Hold this,” she said, her tone growing icy cold again. “Do not handle it in any way that I do not specify.”

Ethan held the lamp in his hands, where it rested completely motionless.

“Now, then,” Rebecca said, closely watching her husband’s every move, “rub the lamp.”

Ethan slid his fingers along the side of the lamp’s surface a few times. In moments, a massive cloud of supernatural vapour emerged from its front, and the genie materialized in the living room.

“What is thy bidding, my master?” The genie’s voice boomed forth, addressing Ethan.

“Do not speak to him unless I tell you,” Rebecca exclaimed, her tone just shy of yelling. The genie’s head turned as he noticed his former mistress, but he did not speak to her. “Listen closely now, Ethan. You are to say these exact words to him, and nothing more: ‘I wish that my wife Rebecca were absurdly wealthy, and that it had always been so, so that nobody but her will remember that it was ever otherwise.”

Powerless to resist, Ethan addressed the genie and repeated the wish Rebecca had formulated for him.

“Is this truly your desire, master?” the genie brought himself to ask, knowing that the will whose desires he was bound to grant had to be his master’s.

“Tell him yes,” Rebecca spat out the very next moment.

“Yes,” Ethan repeated. It was no use; the genie was as powerless to defy Ethan’s words as Ethan was to defy Rebecca’s.

“So it shall be,” the genie said, nodding his head once more.

That time, Rebecca felt the change affect every atom of the world around her, rather than just her body. A series of nigh-imperceptible waves that expanded outward from the living room reshaped the very fabric of reality around her, as time was rewritten to give her that which she had forced Ethan to wish for.

As before, the first changes that she noticed affected her person. What little she was wearing became transformed into an equally skimpy but far more luxurious ensemble. Her short shorts reshaped themselves into a pair of intricately designed lacy panties, while her upper legs became draped in a transparent, silken hem skirt, with traces of gold set into its borders. The cheap jewellery thrown around her neck became far more opulent, the modest collection of beads and metalwork growing into a symphony of light reflected off of platinum chains attached to a miniature treasure hoard of diamonds and precious gemstones, expensive enough to buy up a city or two. Even her glasses were improved, being custom fitted to accentuate her delicate features, and even having a couple small gemstones laid into their sides. It was an outfit worthy of a princess or a queen who was not ashamed to hide her immense wealth.

Even when that was complete, Rebecca could still feel a handful more changes overtake her. The wealth she had now enjoyed for her entire life had afforded her plenty more opportunities to develop her body and her beauty. She felt her already considerable new strength increase with a few decades’ worth of rigorous workouts, and marvelled as she felt and saw the muscle tone in her arms, legs and abdominals increase in just the right way to convey alluring feminine power to any who laid eyes on her. She delighted in the knowledge that, although the new improvements to her musculature had made her chest and ass even more magnificent, she had never spent so much as a penny on plastic surgery. Her beauty was all-natural.

Rebecca’s marvel at the changes in her body only grew once she saw how the wish she had forced on her husband was beginning to affect the world around them. The modest living room of the home she had lived in for years blew up to twice its size in an instant, its charming but functional furniture being replaced with lavish pieces reminiscent of a decadent 19^th Century European palace. Rebecca could sense her modest home transforming into the world’s most opulent mansion, everything inside it being replaced with a far more luxurious and ostentatious equivalent — she could afford to live however she pleased, now that she was the world’s richest woman.

Almost as an afterthought, the initial wave of changes came to an end as Ethan’s attire transformed from a cheap dress ensemble and jacket to a fine pinstriped three-piece suit, though he himself remained unchanged, unable to do anything more than stare intermittently at the genie and his wife’s increasing perfection.

“Mmmm,” Rebecca finally said, stretching once more, then going over to the couch and sitting next to her husband. “Feels like a bright new day in our beautiful home, don’t you think, darling?”

Ethan had no reply, as she had no tspecifically commanded him to speak.

“The place feels kind of lonely though, don’t you think?” Rebecca sensed that, in spite of her home’s wonderful appearance, it was not looked after by any servitude at the moment. She could easily use her practically unlimited funds to take on as many servants as she could possibly need, but she decided that there was an easier, more satisfactory way of filling that need.

“Say, dear,” she said to Ethan, “you would never do or say anything that you didn’t think would make me happy, would you?”

Ethan assented quietly.

“You would never disappoint me, would you?”

Ethan repeated his positive motion.

“Then let’s see you prove it,” she said, smiling mischievously. “We need some help around the place. Help that would please me. Wish for it, for me.”

Shaking with nerves, deathly afraid of displeasing his wife even slightly, Ethan turned to the genie once more. Helpless to resist, he complied with her orders at once.

“I wish Rebecca had a large team of unquestionably loyal servants for this house, servants that pleased her greatly.”

“So it shall be,” the genie said, nodding his head.

A few moments later, a small commotion was heard from outside the fine mahogany doors that framed one of the thresholds leading into the living room. The next moment, the doors swung open, and a line of about 15 servants assembled before their mistress (and Ethan). They were all extremely fit and beautiful young men and women of all races, the youngest among them being barely 18 years old, each dressed in skimpy attire parodying those who had served the nobility of old. The men were clad in black dress trousers and shoes, but were topless except for a small shirt collar and bowtie around their necks. The women wore small imitation pearl necklaces, with only a small black bra that left their midriff and shoulders bare covering their torsos. Their hips were covered with black miniskirts with small white half-aprons on top, resting above pairs of black stockings for their legs and black high heels for their feet. Some of the women had sexy short, bobbed hair; others had their lustrous manes tied into a ponytail. The whole ensemble resembled a group of butlers and French maids getting ready to shoot on the set of a high-budget porno.

However, the group of beautiful creatures stood at attention as if they were trained soldiers and Rebecca was their supreme commander, sporting professional poker faces and perfect posture. Looking them over, Rebecca let another pleased smile come to her face. The instant she laid eyes on them, she knew they were absolutely loyal, so much so that she did not even have to worry about having the genie exposed in their presence. They had no choice but to please her every whim; there were millions out there who wished to work under her like this, as they knew that just a few months of the pay she offered would leave them set for life. However, she only chose the most perfect candidates, those whose bodies pleased her the most, and who could prove themselves to be perfectly loyal and obedient to whatever she asked of them.

“We are ready for whatever you wish, my lady,” she heard one of them say. It was a 20-year-old copper-skinned, raven-haired young woman, half-Japanese, half-Mexican, with the most stunning features of each of her ancestors. Despite the notion of a promising career in science after her outstanding performance in high school, she had put that aside, choosing to train herself to be one of Rebecca’s servants instead. In her short time there, she had already accrued a sum the likes of which she would never have seen if she had pursued an ordinary career for upwards of 20 years. Among the group, Rebecca found her particularly fetching.

“Magnificent timing, dear,” Rebecca said. “I was just getting ready to unwind and let out a bit of stress. Come, all of you, and let us abscond to the master bedroom for some… recreational time.”

“Are you certain, mistress?” the girl replied, trying her absolute best to not come off as insolent. “There is still some cleaning to be done in the lower wings. We’d hate to leave any part of your home unattended, perhaps some of us can — ”

“Nonsense,” Rebecca countered, shutting her up immediately. “You darlings have got nothing to worry about. Ethan here will take care of that, right, honey? Do it for me.”

Ethan could do nothing now that his wife had spoken. Quietly, he began getting up, the lamp still in his hand.

“Ah, yes,” Rebecca said, her attention briefly brought back to the genie’s presence by her husband’s motion. “Before you begin, command the genie back into his lamp and secure it in the vault. Go on, then.”

Ethan did as he was told. The genie returned to his home on his master’s command, and Ethan took the lamp to the massive vault in the mansion’s basement, a contraption made up entirely of impregnable alloys with a complex locking system that only Rebecca’s genius could comprehend — not that it would make a difference if anyone else did, as it required her biometric input to open. Ethan found it open in preparation for his arrival, its interior lined with piles of cash, gold and various precious metals. It almost seemed funny when he placed the drab little lamp among all of that wealth, the lamp without which it never even would have found its way there. As he backed off, the vault began closing, and in moments was sealed once more, blocking Ethan and the rest of the world off from the marvels inside until such a time as Rebecca willed it.

Following his wife’s other command, Ethan began working at a pace his mere mortal body could barely keep up with to clean and organize a large portion of the mansion, forced to do the work of a dozen all by himself. As he cleaned, he could faintly hear the noises coming from the master bedroom; a melodious cacophony of knocking, rocking and pleasured screams, a symphony of sexual power conducted by his wife. He couldn’t bring himself to remember the last time he himself had experienced anything like that.

For her part, Rebecca was enjoying herself greatly. Before that day, she had never been the most assertive lover, but her newfound power allowed her to dominate every single one of her gorgeous servants with absolute confidence. She knew she was the one who was getting the most out of their lovemaking by far. Looking around, she flashed many a devilish smile when she noticed her harem of perfection momentarily abandon the façade of professionalism they were bound to maintain in their every task when the pleasure they felt as they became intertwined with her perfect body completely overpowered their minds, unleashing their most primal expressions and exclamations of pleasure.

The affair went on for well over an hour, with Ethan struggling to complete the task Rebecca had given him all the while. He had barely managed to finish when Rebecca’s cadre of sexiness went out into the enormous, lavish foyer, dressed in the less revealing but still very flattering casual clothes they wore on the way to work. His body ached from the stress, but he guessed that there would be even more in store for him, as the sight of them probably meant that Rebecca had done what usually followed her world-class private orgies: She had sent all of her faithful concubines home early, with a generous bonus hefty enough to immediately buy up a townhouse or three. It was a short while longer before Rebecca herself came down, clad in an exquisite red dress that hugged her figure in just the right way as it flowed down to make her appear otherworldly beautiful, though without leaving too much to the imagination, as it disappeared in places to offer glimpses of her powerful legs, alluring midriff and mighty shoulders.

“Why, hello there, Ethan,” she said, as though having forgotten that her husband would be there. Ethan looked up at her and smiled a nervous smile, hoping all his hard work had pleased her at least an iota. “Today has been one of the most interesting days of my life, you simply have no idea. But I think the most wonderful thing that I’ve been able to take away from it so far is the realization that there is always room for more.”

She paused a moment to admire the wonderfully decorated foyer around her, with details and fixtures so lavish that she was pretty sure the number of other people on Earth that could ever even dream of being able to afford such things were less than the fingers on one hand, never mind the massive and equally luxurious mansion they were attached to.

“I’d say I’m doing pretty well for myself, don’t you, dear?”

Ethan smiled and nodded in agreement, attending his wife’s every word.

“But still,” she said, faux-sighing, “being obscenely rich can only get you so far, y’know? I mean, there’s an entire world out there. Cities, nations, billions of people, all leading their own lives — why, I’d imagine some of them have somehow never even heard of me! Can you imagine?”

Ethan’s eyes widened as he raised his hand up to his mouth in fake shock.

“Exactly! That doesn’t seem right to you, does it? No one should suffer through an existence of being ignorant of my magnificence, should they?”

Ethan shook his head frantically.

“That’s just why I married you, my cupcake.” Rebecca put on a warm smile to charm her husband, though inside, her mind was racing with the anticipation of what was about to happen. “And wouldn’t you just know it, you can be a real sweetie and help with that!”

Rebecca skipped away gracefully for a second, before turning back to her husband with a sultry smile, her raven locks obscuring one of her eyes, and beckoned for him to follow. Dropping the ivory broom handle he had been holding, Ethan immediately complied.

The two went down to the mansion’s basement and stood before the vault. Rebecca’s rich, mighty voice shouted a series of commands at the door as she moved to comply with the necessary biometric checks, in a series of motions that seemed to Ethan like a hypnotic dance. Finally, it opened, and Rebecca sauntered over to pick up the magic lamp, which she placed in her husband’s hands once more.

“Just think of it, Ethan,” she said, “you are about to provide the entire world with the most generous gift anyone has ever given. You are to make me known to all, even those whose mind is twisted enough to think they want nothing to do with me. Yes, you are about to create a paradise of true peace and unity in the world. You, my dearest husband, everyone’s saviour...”

Ethan could merely stare in wonderment at Rebecca’s spiel, silently agreeing with every word of it.

“Let’s do it,” Rebecca finally declared. “Ethan, summon the genie, and wish for me to become the absolute ruler of the Earth and all of its lands, oceans, and nations. All humans are to be placed under my rule, and all must obey my every decree without exception. Make it happen.”

Ethan’s mind was all but gone, and he could think of nothing more than to elevate Rebecca to her desired position. Quickly, he rubbed the lamp, and in moments, a puff of smoke emerged and the genie was before them once more.

“Are you ready to make your final wish, master?” The genie inquired.

“Yes!” Ethan shouted, his voice cracking with excitement. “I wish for my wife Rebecca to be the absolute ruler of Earth, with the entire planet and all its peoples under her dominion and command!”

“So it shall be.”

The genie nodded, then, with no potential new masters in sight, sealed himself back in the lamp.

What followed seemed like an earthquake from Ethan’s perspective, though Rebecca could sense that if the ground was moving, the rest of the world was moving with it. A massive magical force enveloped the entire planet, changing the order of everything so that anything and anyone within it came to revolve around Rebecca and her desires. Rebecca could sense her already impossibly luxurious attire change a little more. Almost imperceptibly, the surface of her dress became inlaid with bits of gold dust that were integrated into the very fabric itself, and a ring of pure platinum appeared on her finger, bearing the crest of the first Grand Empress of the Rebeccan Empire.

With a huge smile on her face, Rebecca stretched her arm and seized something that had not been in her vault before her latest proxy-wish was made: A volume with jewel-encrusted binding, hundreds of pages thick, all of them specially treated gold leaf. Holding it in one hand, she threw it open with a simple, swift motion, and it landed open on the precise page she was expecting. She began reading to herself, all but unaware of Ethan’s presence.

“Much to the surprise and delight of many, Rebecca Alaris has left an indelible mark upon the entire world with her integration of all currently recognized legal territories under her political rule, and her ascension to Grand Empress of the Earth. Ever since she was a child, her remarkable mental acuity, Olympian degree of fitness, and world-class beauty allowed her to corner dozens of potential markets, building up a veritable fortune and carving her place in the modern aristocracy of the fabulously wealthy much faster than anyone ever expected. Her empire became more than economic when she entered the world of politics in her early twenties, and her massive wealth, connections and seemingly endless legion of supporters allowed her to declare the Rebeccan Empire when she was only 24. Upon her ascension, she became the youngest officially proclaimed world leader in history to not have come from a previously established line of monarchy or political rule, not to mention the first ever globally recognized and sanctioned ruler of the entire Earth.”

Rebecca paused to savour the meaning of all that which she had just read, all that which was now the reality of everyone on the planet. Looking up, she absent-mindedly caressed the priceless volume in her hands. All of its precious materials could represent the world’s riches, all of the words printed on it its populace. They were all there, at her fingertips, her dominion, her complete and utter mercy. Whatever she desired from it, she could simply reach out and take, with any who tried to stop her far too insignificant for her to care.

With that thought, Rebecca turned to the book once more, expertly flipping its pages until she reached another specific passage. She began reading once more, her voice more of a muttering whisper this time.

“In spite of the wisdom and generosity the Grand Empress has shared with everybody leading up to and after the consolidation of her reign, there exist a few splinter rebel groups who oppose her rule even now. It is really quite unfortunate that there exist people ignorant and unhappy enough to resent the magnificence of the Grand Empress, whose impeccable aptitude for governance, as well as the slew of fantastic inventions she has created, have all but eliminated socioeconomic issues such as poverty, famine and disease, and supplied everyone on the planet with the freedom, quality of life and comfort to lead much happier and more productive lives. Concepts such as democracy, freedom of speech and civil liberties are utterly obsolete under the dominion of such a benevolent ruler, so the actions of these mad rebels are completely unjustifiable.”

Rebecca smiled and slammed the volume shut. The book must have weighed at least 10 pounds what with its broad extension and the density of its materials, and yet just as before, she handled it with one hand just as easily as one would a paper fan. Her smile broadened; she absolutely loved the incredible strength she now wielded, both physically and metaphorically, and couldn’t wait to show these so-called rebels what she could do once she decided to flex it.

Indeed, she didn’t have to wait very long to get her chance. Rebecca placed the chronicle of her ascension back in the vault and closed it before wandering out of the basement. Ethan still trailed behind her, holding the now unresponsive lamp, though his demeanour had been reduced to that of a drooling animal mindlessly following its master, like a dog on a leash. Still, Rebecca deigned herself to think, who could blame him, considering he had been exposed to her magnificence for so long?

As the both of them stepped into the foyer, Rebecca stopped abruptly, her now ever-present smile turning wicked. Though there was nobody else in sight, she knew they weren’t alone. Unassumingly, Rebecca strode forward to the centre of the room, her gaze turning skyward as she pretended she was distracted thinking about something. The swift, practised motion of the masked man who leapt out from behind one of the banners bearing her emblem that adorned the corners of the room happened so quickly, Ethan didn’t even have time to react and throw himself onto his path to shield the woman he so deeply worshipped.

But it didn’t matter. Neither he nor the attacker were expecting Rebecca’s reaction, which was to swiftly move aside to dodge the strike from the knife the masked man had produced before delivering a well-placed blow of incredibly power to the side of his head, knocking him out cold. In the next few moments, Ethan looked on in shock, Rebecca in satisfaction, as the man who had come as if from nowhere slumped to the floor unconscious.

The frame did not last long, however, for soon enough, about a dozen more men clad in combat gear with their faces concealed by black balaclavas stormed into the room. Unlike the first one’s dinky knife, some of these men had guns, guns which were immediately pointed in Rebecca’s direction.

Rebecca didn’t like that. Even with all of the improvements the genie’s magic had made to her being, she was still technically mortal. She couldn’t possibly hope to dodge the hail of gunfire those arms could produce, or to survive it when it inevitably struck her.

Not yet, at least. But she knew exactly how to fix that.

“Put down your guns!”

Her voice resounded in the room like a peal of thunder. Without knowing why, the assassins who had somehow managed to invade her home discarded their firearms. Still, she thought, they were numerous enough to pose a problem if left in their current state.

“Do not resist.”

Before the men could begin to wonder what she meant, Rebecca put two fingers to her mouth and whistled as if hailing a cab, producing a sound and pitch so powerful it could shatter glass. In seconds, the room was stormed not by a new group of hoodlums, but by a staff similar to the one she had ravished in the reality she had just left behind. However, she spied some new faces among them, as she knew she would, given the exponentially greater staff that catered to her needs now that she was the ruler of the entire world. In a flash, the men apprehended the invaders, who were powerless to put up even a little bit of a fight due to Rebecca’s command.

Soon, a young copper-skinned woman stepped forth, whom Rebecca happily recognized as her favourite. Her physique and muscle tone had become positively Amazonian without spoiling her alluring feminine curves one bit, whereas her uniform, while still skimpy, had transformed into a far more classy and luxurious equivalent.

“What are we to do with these miscreants, my Empress?” She asked.

“Take them to the gatehouse,” Rebecca answered, “and watch them, but don’t restrain them. I will stop by shortly to deal with them personally.”

“As you command, Your Highness.” The beautiful young amazon bent at the waist steeply, giving Rebecca an adoring bow, then turned to the rest of the servants and began barking out orders to carry out Rebecca’s wishes in a powerful, commanding tone. Rebecca couldn’t help but admire her moxie; she would definitely have to arrange to have her come up to her bedchambers again soon. But that would have to wait; right now, she had a critical matter of state to attend to. Some changes had to be made to guarantee her safety, no matter what happened to her.

A mere twenty minutes later, Rebecca was standing inside a small annex to her palace, a building meant to hold the very small amount of dissidents that managed to breach the limits of the estate. As she entered, the servant in charge of the area stood at attention. She was another beautiful and incredibly fit young woman from an Irish family, with snowy-pale skin and melon-sized breasts that constantly threatened to escape the confines of her work-issued skimpy top.

“My Empress,” she said, “the prisoners have been brought in and processed. They are ready for you as soon as you command it.”

“Excellent work, cutie,” Rebecca replied, loosing a musical chuckle when she noticed her servant’s face start to go red. “All I require is a small room where I can talk to each of the prisoners, one at a time. Do you think you could provide us with that kind of… privacy?” As Rebecca spoke, she walked up behind the pale girl, placed her hands on her shoulders, and leaned forward to whisper the last words in her ear. She could practically hear the way she was shaking from the nerves.

“O-Of course, Your Highness!” she finally replied, trying her hardest to hide her nervousness. “Down the hall, first door on the right. I’ll have the guards ready to bring in the prisoners at your command.”

“Very good,” Rebecca said, her tone as sultry as ever. “Remind me to reward you later for your outstanding work performance.”

Just as Rebecca moved away, she pinched the girl’s butt and flashed her now bright pink face a playful smile before going over to the room she had been indicated. Though she was out of sight, she could practically see her breathing heavily and smiling like a smitten schoolgirl now that nobody was watching.

Rebecca sat in a small room furnished with a table and a couple of chairs. In just under a minute, one of the men servants came in, ready to take her orders.

“Bring me the first one,” Rebecca commanded, “the one I knocked out. And tell someone to call my husband so he can bring the you-know-what.”

The guard did as she commanded. A minute later, the masked man who had lunged at Rebecca with a knife was sitting at the table opposite from her, his hands restrained. With his mask gone, the only word Rebecca could find to describe him was ‘miserable’. A few moments later, another guard came in carrying the magic lamp, deposited it on the table, and left. Only the three of them — the first guard, the assassin, and the sexy Grand Empress — were left alone with one another.

“Why did you do what you did?” Rebecca asked the prisoner, breaking the silence.

“You have no right to claim ownership of everything like you have,” the man spoke in a tired, ugly tone. “People are entitled to freedom, to a life for themselves. You have no claim to the free will of humanity.”

“That’s what you think?” Rebecca said, barely suppressing a knowing chuckle. “If so, then here’s your chance to prove it. You say that you’re not obligated to do anything just because I want you to?”

“No one is.”

“So if I were to command you to, say, slam your head on the table really hard, you would have no obligation to do it, right?”

“Are you insane?”

“Do it.”

The man’s face hit the table with enough force to break his nose. His mind was so muddled by what had just happened that he couldn’t bring himself to move or say anything.

“Raise your head.”

The man lifted his head up again, coming face to face with the woman he opposed, and yet, he could not possibly resist.

“How...”

“Absolute power.”

“But — “

“But nothing. You will not question me. And neither will any of your friends.”

The man went quiet.

“Although, there is something you can do for me. Something very important indeed. It’s the whole reason I had you brought here, you know.”

The man kept silent.

“You were trying to kill me, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” the man responded.

“With what, that knife?”

“And the guns.”

“And what was your plan if that didn’t work?”

“Wait for our comrades to lead a new effort, as we are doing now.”

Rebecca laughed. “You misunderstand. What I mean is, what would you do if you tried to stab me and the knife did nothing? If you tried to shoot me, and the bullets did nothing?”

The man was taken aback by that question. “I-I guess we never thought of that. We never thought such a thing would be possible.”

“You would have been right,” Rebecca responded. “But not for much longer. You and your friends are going to fix that, and give me so much more as well.”

Rebecca leaned forward slightly, looking the foiled assassin straight in the eyes. She knew he already had no hope whatsoever of resisting her, of opposing her. She was just about to make sure that the same thing applied to absolutely everyone.

“You are not to move or say anything unless I command it. Understood?”

The man nodded silently. His pitiful frame seemed oddly familiar. Rebecca smirked.

“Remove this man’s bonds,” Rebecca said to the guard.

The guard did as he was ordered. The assassin’s hands were freed.

“Now,” Rebecca said, addressing the assassin once more, “pick up that lamp, and rub it slightly.”

The assassin did as he was told. Soon enough, the genie materialized once more.

“What is your bidding, my master?”

Rebecca didn’t even give him a second look, instead speaking to the assassin once more as soon as she made sure it had worked. “You are to wish for me to be completely invincible, impervious to any weaponry or hazard the forces of man or nature could ever direct against me.”

Helpless to resist, the assassin turned to the genie and made the wish.

“So it shall be.”

Rebecca felt the genie’s magical power transform her being once more. Her outward appearance didn’t change, but she could feel her body becoming impossibly dense and resistant to all types of harm. From that moment on, bullets would bounce harmlessly off of her, fire would burn out an entire forest’s supply of fuel before it managed to singe a single hair on her head, and she could go skinny dipping thousands of fathoms deep in the ocean without having to worry about hypothermia, pressure, or drowning.

Rebecca was pleased. She knew that would be enough for her rule to go unthreatened for the rest of her life, but she was no fool. She remembered the comic books from the old world. She knew that the guys and gals who could bounce bullets off their chest always had a few extra cool tricks in their repertoire to go with that. Seeing how she had just squarely crossed the barrier into the territory of ‘superhuman’, she knew she wanted more. And now, her greatest enemies would give her everything she desired.

“Well, well, this is gonna be a fun power to try out,” she said, “but it’s a bit lonely right now, don’t you think?”

The assassin said nothing, but sported a distressed expression. He was holding onto his past self well enough to realize the meaning of the incredible power he had just bestowed onto his greatest enemy. His stomach churned at the thought of making her even more powerful, but he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“Say, cupcake,” Rebecca spoke again, “do you remember the combat drone force I designed and deployed a few years back to stamp out crime in my territories? It worked wonderfully, of course, but I remember the naysayers. ‘What happens when there’s a false positive?’, they said. My drones can’t tell the difference between someone threatening assault and someone having a bad day, they said. But I can think of a wonderful solution to that! What if it wasn’t drones doing the patrolling? What if it were people? People, just like… well, mostly me, flying around, dominating the skies, dishing out justice whenever and wherever necessary?”

The assassin could only swallow nervously.

“You know I’d just love to hear what you think,” Rebecca teased, “but there’s a lot of fun powers I can think of that would suit me just wonderfully, and I’ve gotta get through the list sooner or later, so let’s move this along. Prisoner, wish for me to have the ability to fly at will, effortlessly, and to control it perfectly.”

His throat dried from the stress, the assassin made the wish.

“So it shall be,” the genie said.

Rebecca felt a sensation of weightlessness envelop her body, much like that which she had felt on her mind when her intelligence was improved by one of her own wishes. Grinning in delight, Rebecca slipped out of her chair and floated up into the air, her body contorting gracefully until she stopped in a position reminiscent of a studious schoolgirl, lying face down in bed, her chin resting on her interlocked hands, her body from her elbows to her knees resting on an invisible mattress, her calves bent upwards and swinging back and forth.

“What a nice couple of gifts you’ve given me,” Rebecca said, “but there’s one more I’m just itching to have. Something that’ll really help me show off my power, to show you mere mortals how far above you I’ve risen. Do you have any idea what it could be?”

The assassin didn’t even dare to imagine. He just wanted to get it over with.

“Be a good boy and make your final wish. Wish for me to have the ability to produce concentrated beams of heat vision from my eyes at will, with a diameter and intensity I can adjust however I desire, with the potential to easily burn through any material in the universe.”

Barely able to breathe, the assassin made the wish that would transform his greatest enemy into a true goddess of death.

“So it shall be.”

The genie retreated back into its lamp. Rebecca fancied she saw a flash of light cross her eyes for a moment as they became endowed with untold energy. Her super-vision quickly readjusted itself, letting her see everything with much more clarity.

“Bring in the girl who runs the entrance desk,” Rebecca said to the guard, “there’s something I wish to test.”

“As you command, my Empress,” the guard replied. He left the room, returning moments later with the pale-skinned beauty in tow. Her eyes went wide and she was momentarily taken aback when she saw her mistress floating in midair, but she knew better than to question it.

“Y-You summoned me, Your Highness?” she asked.

“Indeed,” Rebecca answered. “Tell me how this feels.”

Almost imperceptibly, Rebecca’s eyes started to give off a faint glow, like that emitted by a very small flame. Its effect, however, was immediately noted by the pale girl, who briefly gasped in surprise, then slowly began breathing heavily. A sensation of weak, tingling heat began to pervade her entire body, though Rebecca paid special attention to her crotch and nipples.

“Well?” Rebecca asked, reiterating her question.

“A-Apologies, Your Highness,” the girl said in between breaths. “It feels good. Quite good, in fact.”

“That’s just wonderful,” Rebecca said, slowly suspending the use of her power. “That is all. You may return to your duties.”

“At once, Your Highness,” the girl said. She stepped out of the room, her legs shaking slightly from the excitement of her sudden arousal.

“Now,” Rebecca said, turning to the assassin once more, “for the real test. I think we’ve spent enough quality time together, you and I.”

In an instant, a blast of intense heat shot forth from Rebecca’s eyes, incinerating the man in the chair instantly. She looked him over with just enough precision as to leave the chair and table intact. Touching down on the ground again, she walked around the table, seeing the pitiful pile of ashes he had been reduced to.

“Clean that up,” Rebecca said to the guard, “then bring in the next prisoner.”

* * *

Ethan was sitting on a sofa in the foyer, frantically biting his nails, when Rebecca came back into the mansion. The excitement from the attack earlier had made him all but forget about the address Rebecca was slated to give her subjects that day, although looking back on it, that was probably the reason the rebels had chosen that time to attack. Although he dared not question his wife, he was quite visibly relieved to see her back in time.

“Hey Ethan,” she said, without even turning to look at him, “go tell the servants I’ll be right out, won’t you? I’ve just gotta go get ready for a minute.”

Ethan spent a few more moments slack-jawed staring at his wife’s beautiful body before he turned and went hobbling off to do what he’d been told.

Rebecca went down to the vault to safely stow away the magic lamp, then made her way up to the luxurious marble hallway that marked the path leading to the balcony from which she liked to address her subjects. An entourage of sexy, powerful, scantily-clad young men and women from her staff were awaiting her arrival expectantly. Rebecca looked at each of them in turn, and each one looked and her and told her she looked perfect. Much to Rebecca’s delight, the last of her servants she saw before she went out to the balcony was her favourite, the beautiful, copper-skinned young amazon who had taken charge of the assassins’ arrest in the foyer earlier.

“You,” Rebecca said as she laid eyes on her. “Come with me to the balcony, and wait beside me.”

“Me, Your Highness?” the girl asked, not having expected such an honour.

“Of course,” Rebecca said. “I shall bestow a new blessing upon my adoring subjects today. I want you to be the first to experience it.”

“As you command, my Empress,” the girl replied matter-of-factly. Rebecca found herself amused at how good she was at not breaking her stoic expression, and quietly challenged herself to change that with what she had in store.

The balcony was a robust marble semi-circle with a radius of about 8 meters that jutted out from the front wall of her palace, encircled by a fine ivory balustrade over which she leaned to see the crowd of subjects that had gathered there that day to adore her and heed her words. Even then, Rebecca could sense an assassin or two hiding among the crowd, waiting for their chance. She would provide it, and in doing so, let everyone know exactly how futile of an effort that was.

“My dear subjects,” Rebecca began speaking. Her voice was so powerful and her subjects so quiet and reverent that any need for a microphone was eliminated. “Over the past several years, I have devoted many efforts to improving the state of my people, the state of my planet. I come bearing good tidings, for today I shall share with you the greatest marvel that has ever come about during my reign.”

Without skipping a beat, Rebecca’s feet left the balcony, and she floated gently upward to dominate the air above her subjects. There were several gasps of surprise from the crowd, followed by cheering and adoring exclamations. The young amazon Rebecca had led out onto the balcony with her couldn’t help but to stare wide-eyed at the superhuman spectacle that Rebecca was offering, prompting Rebecca to take on a look of satisfaction once she noticed.

Suddenly, a sharp banging noise rang out, and a puff of smoke began rising from somewhere in the crowd. Another assassin had made his move, firing a bullet directly at Rebecca.

From her perspective, however, things were very different. As soon as the shot rang out, the world around her slowed down to a crawl, and she could sense the small metallic pellet hurtling through the air towards her. She could do any number of things at that point — let it bounce harmlessly off her chest, or simply move out of the way — but she opted for something different.

There was a moment of stunned silence a few seconds after the shot was fired. Nobody there found it easy to process that the Grand Empress had just taken flight, let alone that she was still in the air after being shot at. For her part, Rebecca let a smirk colour her perfect features as she turned to stare at the bullet that was now being held between her thumb and index fingers. She played with it for a few moments as a bored student does with a pen, before finally flicking it back into the crowd, where it lodged itself into her attacker’s forehead, killing him instantly. If there was another assassin present, he must have run away or given up, for there was no further incident.

“My people,” Rebecca’s voice boomed forth once more, as she floated with her hands on her hips, “as you can see, my power over all has been consolidated in a truly marvellous way. From this day forth, there is nothing beyond my reach, nothing I cannot improve with my care and devotion. The world shall be blessed with a new era of wonders and prosperity under my command and direction.”

More frantic cheering came from the crowd. Some of the people below fell on their hands and knees in worship to Rebecca. Some began praying to her in a low voice.

“And the most wonderful thing about my power?” Rebecca exclaimed. “I can share it. There is no limit to how much I can give. Look now, and witness how I bestow my blessings!”

Rebecca turned back to the balcony and extended her arm forward, pointing her index finger at her beloved servant. The next moment, a beam of soft blue light shot forth from her finger and hit the beautiful young girl, enveloping her in a similarly coloured glow.

“WHOA!” The girl yelled in surprise, not just at the beam, but at the immense sense of pleasure that came over her immediately after being struck by it. Her body and mind became overloaded as she was endowed with energy and power beyond her wildest dreams

.

“Mmmmm…” She moaned in pleasure, struggling to remain standing as her entire body convulsed with pleasure. “MMMMMM!!!”

Hobbling backward slightly, she tried leaning her arm against the wall of the threshold that led back inside the palace. Much to her surprise, the solid marble wall gave way, crumbling away as she tried to support her body against it.

“AH!” The young girl barely had time to give a yelp of surprise before the pleasure redoubled and intensified. “Ah — ah, ahhhh, AAAAHHHH!”

Powerless to retain her composure, the young servant fell to the floor, writhing in unimaginable delight. After what felt like forever, the intensity of the pleasure subsided, thought it did not leave her completely, the feeling still filling every inch of her body with a pleasurable soreness. She breathed softly as she tried in vain to pull herself together, when suddenly she began floating through the air.

She was being moved up, away from the balcony, and towards Rebecca, who was telekinetically pulling her toward herself while making a beckoning motion with her index finger, as though pulling an invisible string.

The servant girl, still in a lying position, could do nothing but look up at her mistress, who now more than ever looked like a some sort of divine being pulled out of a dream.

“Fly, my pet,” Rebecca said.

“My… Emp… ress…?” The girl struggled to speak.

“Move now of your own volition.”

The girl hardly understood what was happening, but found herself complying with Rebecca’s commands as always. Rebecca released her telekinetic hold on her, and yet she found herself staying in midair, flying seemingly entirely of her own power, just as Rebecca was doing.

“I-I-what?”

“Do not fear, child,” Rebecca said. “I have shared my power with you. You are now the first of my envoys… those who shall help bring about a new enlightenment.”

“M-mistress...” The girl could hardly think straight now, her mind lost in adoration for Rebecca. “My mistress, my Empress, my-my Goddess...”

“Shhh,” Rebecca said, smiling deviously at her. “Quiet now, and please your liege.”

Rebecca seized the girl’s back and neck and thrust her lips forward into hers, embracing her in a passionate kiss. The girl, driven mad with lust and adoration, gave in to her instincts and reciprocated. The two superhumans engaged into a bout of midair lovemaking the likes of which the world had never seen before.

Below, the crowd slowly began devolving into an orgy, Rebecca’s subjects becoming equally aroused by the sight above them. Even then, no matter who they were embracing, no matter who they were ravishing, they could only think of Rebecca, their Goddess.

* * *

It was a blistering hot day out on the city of Olmstead Bay, on the southern coast. The streets, buildings, and general area were in a pretty sorry state, as the city had been cut off from most of the civilized world ever since they declared their independence from and defiance of the Rebeccan Empire.

Within weeks, the city’s population was drastically reduced as most of the residents made their escape into the welcoming arms of Rebeccan support forces that would help them relocate. Before long, the city was populated exclusively by bands of stragglers, men who opposed Rebecca’s authority and legitimacy. As a result, the area became effectively cut off from the rest of human civilization, and, left without the infrastructure to maintain such a large urban centre, those who remained had no choice but to huddle into specific zones and let the rest of the city fall apart. The consequences of this were a regrettable sight indeed, as a large portion of the downtown area had fallen into disrepair and dilapidation.

Many citizens and Rebeccan acolytes from the Empire believed that the place should be levelled, eradicated, exterminated as the blight upon the face of the land that it was. It wouldn’t be a difficult task, considering that the Empress had the military might of the entire world backing her, but such a resolution had been held off various times with the hopes that, eventually, those who occupied the area would finally see the error of their ways and concede.

That day, however, their time had finally run out.

The atmosphere above the city lay in stark contrast to the countryside around it; there were large, ugly clouds of grey smoke staining the skies, which marked the city as a place to avoid. The vast majority of the planet had outfitted its technologies with clean energy and air purifiers that seemed almost magically effective were commonplace, all courtesy of Rebecca’s titanic intellect. The ones who defied her were denied access to these technologies, and had to rely on out-of-date relics such as fossil fuel. Below, those who dwelt within the city were in pretty miserable condition, if not at first glance, then certainly so when viewed in comparison to Rebeccan citizens, who enjoyed all manner of luxuries and comfort in their day to day lives.

When they first caught sight of the strange figures trailing through the sky, they were surprised, though not terribly so. Could be some kind of newfangled high-tech flying device invented by Rebecca, they thought. However, as they closed in at alarming speeds and encircled the city limits, an alarming realization came over the dissidents.

Those weren’t aircraft. Those were people.

Human beings, practically all women, most of them nearly naked, flying through the air unaided at high altitudes and breakneck speeds.

The initial shock of this sight was quickly forgotten as the Goddess herself made her appearance. She wasn’t much larger than the other superbeings, and yet she had a very particular aura about her, one that denoted power and dominance. Her brilliance nearly eclipsed the rays of the searing sun above.

A commotion arose shortly. Some of the rebels simply watched and waited, while others shouted their defiance and protest at the Goddess. Others became terrified at Rebecca’s display of power and attempted to make a run for it, not waiting to see what would happen now that she had finally come to flush them out. They were the first to see what was truly about to unfold.

As those who defied Rebecca tried to make their getaway, they were stopped dead in their tracks as they reached the city limits, when each of them suddenly found themselves face to face with many of Rebecca’s empowered servants. As they descended to block their paths, the sight of them was as astonishing as it was diverse. A Nicaraguan woman with deeply tanned olive skin and graceful, slender curves. A North Korean girl with dark almond eyes and an irresistibly charming smile. A statuesque Somali woman with a long, lustrous brown mane that went down to her hips. A slender Ukrainian woman with stunning sharp, sexy features and hair like golden thread. A voluptuous Bangladeshi girl clad in flowing, colourful fabrics that befitted her role as a divine envoy. All of them shared the same degree of superhuman beauty, appearing as fitness supermodels in their early twenties, with deeply ridged muscles and curves that complemented each other perfectly, accentuating their extraordinary beauty and limitless feminine power and might.

The demonyms that denoted the places of their birth were now obsolete, of course; they were all Rebeccan now. As children, each of them had known the struggles of poverty, destitution and oppression, but once their homes became integrated into the Rebeccan Empire, their condition and status underwent a meteoric rise, and so they set out to repay the woman they adored so much by entering into her service. Now, through the kindness of the Goddess, each of them had been blessed with incredible power, power they never could have dreamed of before Rebecca came into their lives. They owed everything to her, they belonged to her, and Rebecca knew it.

That was why they had to eliminate Rebecca’s enemies. They represented everything they hated, everything they had spent their lives running away from, everything Rebecca had protected them from in her eternal wisdom. The super-empowered servant girls were all far beyond the reach of their evil now, of course, but if left alone, these men could hurt others. Their wills were contrary to the will of their Goddess, their idol, the one who brought salvation and happiness. They simply couldn’t allow them to go on living.

The snap of Rebecca’s fingers was as loud as a crash of thunder, as the Goddess gave the signal for her angels to unleash Hell. As soon as the sound was heard, Rebecca’s empowered servants unleashed their power all throughout the city. Some used eye beams that cut through steel and glass like butter to topple buildings like dominoes. Others pursed their lips and blew, creating hurricane-level winds that left a thick, jagged layer of frost on streets that had previously been rendered as hot as a barbecue grill by the intense sunlight. Still others merely reached down and ripped entire buildings off their foundations, then swung them around like clubs to devastate the structures around them.

The mortals below flew into a panic, as Rebecca watched contented. If ever there was a need for proof of her supremacy, her absolute power — this was it. She needn’t even lift a finger, but merely witness as the loyal followers who served as extensions of her will enforced her desires upon the Earth, with any who didn’t absolutely powerless to stop them or her. Anything that did not fall, or want to fall under her control, was crushed underfoot.

With that thought in mind, however, Rebecca closed her eyes and listened. Some sounds were coming from the streets below that were quite distinct from anything else she had sensed in the air before that time. In a few places within the city, a score of men and women were not fighting or even attempting to flee her super-empowered enforcers, but were merely cowering and voicing their regret at ever having doubted the Goddess. She could hear them whisper and mutter desperately to themselves, knowing they’d die anyway, as the folly of their former defiance crumbled around them.

What they experienced then was unlike anything they ever expected. A mere instant earlier, they had all been cowering in a corner, holding their head in their hands, or merely shutting their eyes with all the strength they had left in their desperate regret. Suddenly, they could sense that everything had stopped — the din of the city’s destruction had ground to a sudden halt, and the very air around them had grown frigid, as though all life and energy had left it. Slowly, carefully, they all began coming to their senses, and saw that they were gathered together in the open square that had previously been the centre of town. The air nearby was perfectly still, the atmosphere tinted a dark green, while anything further away was lost in a sort of blurry mirage. It was like something out of a dream. Only, above them, floating with absolute authority and control, was the figure of Rebecca with her arms crossed.

Upon seeing her, all of them fell to their knees in worship instantly. Some of their voices were lost as they tried to appease her in an emotional babble, while others stuttered as they tried their hardest to express how sorry they were for their mistakes.

All became silence once more, however, as the Goddess raised her right hand, a gesture which made everything go quiet.

“Do you love me?”

They were awestruck by the sound of Rebecca’s voice at first. It sounded so beautiful, and yet so earthly, like the exact sort of thing you’d hear in your head upon seeing a picture of a sexy-yet-ordinary looking woman in the old world, before she came along. Still, it carried all the power and might befitting her image, the image of divinity that lay before them. Soon enough, they were all agreeing, nodding frantically, begging forgiveness once more in their various little ways.

“Then prove it.”

Rebecca waved her hand once more, directing it at the small entourage that was gathered in penitent reverence before her. They all gasped in surprise as they began rising into the air, as though their arms and legs were being pulled by invisible strings. Even more surprising was the transformation their bodies were then subjected to, taking on the same brand of superhuman power and sexiness as the super-empowered servants they had seen before as they were infused with immeasurable energy.

In moments, the transformation was complete. The men and women who had opposed Rebecca mere minutes before now commanded the same degree of power as the superbeings she had brought to besiege their home. The next moment, the bizarre atmosphere around them evaporated, and once more they were in the middle of that battlefield, that demolition zone, with chaos and destruction surrounding them.

“Go on, and do what needs to be done.”

No more words were necessary. In seconds, the new recruits had flown off and joined their fellows in levelling the city of Olmstead Bay, bringing death and oblivion to any opposition to Rebecca that might still lay within.

After that day, Rebecca had no more enemies left on Earth. The world was hers to do with as she pleased, absolutely unopposed.

Not that she didn’t already know that.

* * *

It had been nearly a year since Rebecca’s ascension from Grand Empress to Goddess.

She had endowed many more of her subjects with her blessing, including all of her household servants, and a few other devotees to whom she had entrusted a very special project. It was that day, when she was indulging in a super-orgy with all her servants that took up most of the space in her titanic bedroom, that the news reached her. The project had borne fruit.

She flew upward out of her mansion, accompanied by her two most beloved servants, the fit young copper-skinned amazon and the pale-skinned beauty, the latter of whom she had empowered almost immediately once she had begun to dole out her blessings. Their destination was an artificial floating island, a complex whose existence had been made possible thanks to those who now staffed it: A group of brilliant women scientists of Rebecca’s choosing.

She thought back to the day she had first conceived the project. Rebecca had scoured her world, or rather her Empire, seeking the most accomplished physicists, engineers and astronomers the world had to offer. Seemingly by coincidence, although perhaps one that was more than a little inspired by her ascendance as supreme ruler and deity of the Earth, they were all women.

Rebecca didn’t care either way: She had need of their expertise, their wisdom, their devotion. There was one apparent problem, that being that many of them were rather up there in age. Among her final, hand-picked team of twelve, many of them had been wrinkly, septuagenarian bags of bones, hardly fit to conduct the project with all the attention and energy she demanded. However, this quickly became a non-issue, as upon receiving her blessing, they instantly came to possess the same level of youthfulness and amazonian beauty as each of her household servants.

Rebecca fondly recalled the transformation undergone by Dr. Moira Vanity Wells. She was one of the world’s most well-renowned polymaths, though at the ripe old age of 82, the people who kept confidence in her capability after laying eyes on her wizened, worn frame dwindled every day. Still, when Rebecca met up with her, she could see into her mind. It was endowed with remarkable discipline, knowledge, dexterity — she just needed a more suitable host for it. Rebecca made her decision instantly.

Upon being enveloped by the energies of Rebecca’s divine blessing, the genius could feel her already broadened horizons expand far beyond anything she had thought possible, as she experienced joy and pleasure beyond imagination. Her body was endowed hundreds of times more vigour and power than that of an Olympic athlete, her bones and muscles grew larger and denser as they were endowed with unimaginable super-energy, and her skin was stretched taut over them, restoring to her an appearance of flawless, attractive youth she had never truly known before, even back in her day. As her bent old frame straightened itself out and shot upward a couple feet, a special degree of attention to the improvement of her chest and hips completed the picture, as the old scientist was transformed into the very image of sexiness — one that was only enhanced by the scientist’s confidence, brought on by how the knowledge and experience she possessed allowed her to react to this blessing. Vanity, a name she had not used nor dared to tell anyone about for decades, became her most widely used moniker from that day forward.

All in all, Rebecca was quite happy with her handiwork, and she was reminded of it every time she received news from the island.

“I take it you’ve news for me?” Rebecca said upon her arrival, addressing Vanity, now transformed into a stunning brunette, who was wearing only a minuscule two-piece bikini, since her super-empowered body had been made invulnerable to any lab-related hazards.

“Yes, Your Holiness,” Vanity replied. “We’ve done as you’ve requested, and we’ve found it. Life away from the Earth — and we believe it to be intelligent life.”

“What led you to this conclusion?”

“We detected a number of readings of anomalous energy approximately 200 billion light years away.”

“Was that with the help of that fancy little telescope you figured out how to build after I gave you my blessing?”

“Quite so, my Goddess,” Vanity replied. “We owe everything to you, my Goddess.”

“Please, continue.”

“Of course, Your Holiness. It wasn’t just the readings that got our attention — it was the regularity with which they spiked and receded. It was an astounding level of energy, quite unlike anything we’ve seen before — except for your astonishing aura of divinity, of course — and it occurred in a pattern that set it apart from practically every other example of spatial phenomena.”

“Well, now, that’s quite interesting indeed,” Rebecca commented. “And just where did you say this was?”

“Here,” the sexy scientist offered, pointing to a specific part of a holographic star chart of her own design.

“Very good work,” Rebecca replied. “I’m very impressed with your efforts here. You and your colleagues shall hold an exalted place within the history of my Empire.”

“Merely a footnote next to your divine greatness, Your Holiness.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Rebecca paused. “Still, your role in all this shall not be forgotten.”

When she first became superhuman, a twinge of dread had wormed its way into Rebecca’s impossibly powerful psyche. She knew that the stronger she became, the less interesting it would be to tackle any resistance the world had left for her vision of perfection. It was her servants and subjects that provided relief to this sensation, as their undying devotion mean that she didn’t have to take it entirely upon herself and her proxy-uses of the genie’s cosmic power to reshape the world in a way that would please her. Still, she couldn’t deny that her continued indulgence of unending pleasure with her beloved servants was slowly degenerating into a sense of ennui.

That was the reason she had sought out the scientists, bestowed her blessing upon them, and ordered them to seek out any intelligent life that might be out there. She had no idea what she would possibly find, and now the prospect of meeting with the unknown once more thrilled her. Whatever it was the scientists had discovered, it had to be very interesting indeed to create spikes of energy like that — like her.

Rebecca caressed her two favourite servants intimately, eager to hear them cooing in pleasure and comfort in anticipation of her journey. Easily leading both of them to orgasm with her unrivalled skill and magnificence, Rebecca left her two lovers on the floor of the floating lab — an occurrence frequent enough that the scientists had no trouble working around it — then floated outside, and careened up into the vacuum of space at unimaginable speed.

Rebecca had spent the past year making a handful of minimal improvements to herself with the aid of the magic lamp and the cooperation of her adoring servants. It had been the pale-skinned girl who had the honour of granting her the power of travelling through space effortlessly, though she had never used it extensively before. She knew the day of this journey would come, and so she awaited expectantly for the right time to use this power. Now that she finally could, she revelled in the myriad sensations that had been heretofore unknown to her — the total lack of resistance in the vacuum, the radiation of many a star directly caressing her invulnerable skin, the sight of titanic asters and luminous formations that mere mortals could only observe and study from a distant place, a distant time.

Vanity’s toys were different, of course. Somehow, she had managed to find a way to get images from the farthest reaches of space without the time distortion implicated by the speed of light. Whatever it was she had seen out there, there was no doubt that it would still be there if Rebecca got there fast enough — and in her limitless power, there was no doubt that she could.

It wasn’t long before she reached her destination. The region of space she had been directed to was host to a very curious-looking planet, one that glowed with bursts of hundreds of colours, like exploding rainbows scattered across its surface. It must be a storm of some kind, she thought, albeit a very alien storm indeed, for it emitted colours that had never been seen before in our solar system. As Rebecca drew nearer, compelled to be cautious for the first time in over a year, she could feel the tremendous amount of energy Vanity had talked about. She suspected that the mere direct sight of this place would drive an ordinary human mad, and lost all doubt that it would kill them instantly once she felt its touch, which felt like a warm tingle on her invulnerable skin.

As she advanced, Rebecca dared to remember a story from the old world, the old reality, one in which a group of ancient Greek soldiers climbed a mountain and headed directly into a cloud. It was just like going through a thick fog, she remembered reading; something so lofty, so extraordinary, was really no different from the curls of smoke one might see gathered around a fire. They held no great hidden truth, no monumental secret.

What Rebecca saw upon crossing that storm was rather a compelling counterpoint to that sentiment.

The surface of the planet, Rebecca saw, held a landscape not unlike that she imagined would have been borne by ancient Earth, before any one multi-celled organism ever dared to crawl on its surface. Glowing hot rivers of magma streaming everywhere, gleaming black-rock mountains jutting out all over the place, scores of thunderbolts raining down onto every speck of land in sight.

And yet, there was something off about the picture, a force she could sense, but not feel right away. She knew it had to be somehow related to the incredibly energy emanating from that place, an energy which, upon closer inspection, she suspected had been causing that primal chaos to go on for far longer than it should naturally.

It was when she dared to get closer to the surface that she finally saw what it was. There, standing upon one of the high, dark mountains, was a human figure. As Rebecca approached, she revised her impression of the creature to human-like, as its features and physiology were just uncanny enough that she was quite sure she had never seen a human like that outside of grossly exaggerated caricatures. Still, the creature bore the basic shape of a naked woman.

As she got closer, Rebecca stopped in her tracks, taken aback without even thinking it possible anymore, as the creature turned to look at her. Its long, unkempt dark mane, with a texture that resembled dark denim more than any human hair Rebecca had ever seen, fluttered in the wind, as it stared at her with a fixed, but blank expression. The two held each other in a sort of staring contest for about a minute before Rebecca realized that, whatever the creature was, it probably wasn’t going to do or say anything. Seized by a nearly forgotten sense of wonderment, Rebecca dared to ask the creature a question.

“What are you?”

The female figure merely craned its head in response, almost imperceptibly so. Rebecca was so unused to the unknown at that point — and to not getting her way — the command she then pronounced came almost as a reflex.

“Tell me what you are.”

Rebecca’s surprise only grew once the creature remained silent, seemingly completely unaware of that which she had just said.

“Right,” Rebecca muttered to herself, “I did specify it would only work on humans… Still, I wish I could communicate with this one somehow...”

Though she had barely spoken those words out loud, the creature’s eyes lit up in an instant. In a moment, it leaned its head forward, causing its thick, dark mane to tumble forth and cover her face, but then she whipped it back, causing it to light up in a second, like a fuse that had just been lit on fire. However, this bright glow lasted but a moment, and soon her mane was back to its drab, dark appearance.

“What do you seek here?”

Though what the creature had just done had been very interesting to Rebecca, the words she had then pronounced were ten times moreso. Unsure of exactly what to say, Rebecca opted to go forward with her earlier line of questioning.

“What are you?” Rebecca asked. “And what are you doing here?”

“I walk on the cosmos, on the light of life and death,” the creature replied. “This is my home.”

“Your home?” Rebecca wondered. “But that’s madness! This place is falling apart every minute. How have you been living here this long? What if you die?”

“It is the work of chaos,” the creature went on, “the chaos from which we all emerged. If I fall back into it, I will merely re-emerge in time. All life in this universe came from the chaos. You too. I can smell its essence on every fibre of your being.”

Rebecca had no words for the creature’s assertions, but the fact that it seemed to somehow know her — her being, her power — led Rebecca to come to a realization. She had seen that kind of visage, that kind of creature, before, only under very different circumstances. That being, that girl standing before her, was of the same race as the genie who had given her ultimate power over her own world, her own species. Knowing this, Rebecca’s tone grew bolder, and yet felt the echo of nervousness, nervousness she had not felt ever since she first discovered the secret of that magic lamp.

“Tell me,” she asked, “are you a powerful creature?”

“I can do anything, anything at all, if I tap into the essence of the infinite chaos.”

“Can you do that now?”

“Always. It is my core, my being.”

“Then… then why haven’t you done anything to change this world into a better place? Wouldn’t that make it more pleasant for you?”

“I have no desires,” the creature said, “I merely exist as a part of the chaos. If things are to be moved, to be changed, then it shall be by a force other than my own.”

“But...” Rebecca said, knowing that she was close to the moment of truth, “but what if that other force could direct yours? Would that be possible?”

“Yes.”

“And, and!” Rebecca felt far giddier than she had in forever. “Are there any limits to what you can do with your infinite chaos power?”

“No limits. Not within this universe.”

“That’s what you just did, right? When you heard me talking? That’s how you know how to talk to me!”

“Yes.”

“Can you do more for me? Or… or would you be against that somehow?”

“I do not have the will to resist. If you direct your will toward my power, whatever you will shall come to be.”

Rebecca felt her world freeze. She had done it again — she had found a source of unlimited power, one that would let her dominate all. Only, now that she had left the comfort of her world behind, she had learned that the true meaning of ‘all’ was very broad indeed. Her mind raced as the notion of conquering solar systems, galaxies, the whole damn universe and all its races, was now within her grasp, and there was no need for her to rely on anybody else to do it.

But that last thought stuck with her. Could she really say that she truly held absolute power, if she still had to rely on this creature to enforce her will through her power? No, she thought, that was not quite right. True, absolute, infinite power wasn’t hers to command quite yet.

She just had to do something about that, didn’t she?

“Are there more like you?” She asked the creature once more.

“Many, on this planet,” she said. “It lies closest to the chaos that births us.”

“And elsewhere? I met one of your kind on the Earth.”

“Some of us have left this place before. We wield no wills of our own, so we were driven by stray thoughts, desires, imaginings. They are very faint when they reach here, so they merely tell us where to go. After a very long time, some of us make the journey. But being away from the chaos drains our beings. It eats away at the force that lies inside us. In that state, we can only exercise it to a much lesser extent, and survive for hundreds of billions of your years, until whatever world we reach finally stops and dies. It matters not. We always return to the chaos, more of us always emerge here.”

“I see, I see,” Rebecca said, expectantly. “That explains it. So none of the ones that leave here are quite as strong as the homegrown ones, eh?”

“You might phrase it that way.”

“Good, good. And you say you can use your power to make whatever I will into reality, with no limitations, is that it?”

“Yes.”

“Now that’s what I wanted to hear,” Rebecca said. She smiled, then looked back at the sky one last time. The multicoloured thunderclouds, the lightning that streamed all over the lands, the glow of the red-hot magma — they were all forces of nature, eternal, undefeatable, indomitable. It was finally time for her to join them — or rather, to put them all to shame.

“Hear my will,” she said. “I wish to internalize and wield the power of not only every member of your species located on this planet except for you, but also of the eternal chaos itself. From this point on, all its power shall be directed into my being, including that which it uses to generate more of your kind. As of this moment, its will shall be my will, and its every action throughout the entire universe will be determined by my desires, and mine only.”

The strange alien girl didn’t even have will enough to emote or show a reaction to Rebecca’s desire. She had cast her will onto her, and now, it had to be done. It was all that mattered.

“So it shall be,” she curtly replied. Once more, she bent forward and let her hair down, then flung it backward, causing a momentary flash of light which died down in a second.

What followed, however, would be felt throughout the entire universe for the rest of eternity.

All across the cosmos, all living beings felt a strange vibration. Those who had experienced earthquakes before were the first to react appropriately; it filled them with a sense of unimaginable dread, of ultimate terror. Somewhere, somehow, everything, every basic law the universe had ever known, was changing. Only the Earth was spared this feeling of horror, for all at once, they knew that whatever was happening was the work and the will of their Goddess.

In the far reaches of deep space, the area occupied by the planet of the genie-like beings was being fundamentally distorted, as the infinite chaos that ebbed from within it was concentrated, then expanded. Stray moons, asteroids, other planets, and even minuscule particles of matter began to gravitate around it, forming the largest spiral the universe had ever seen. With every passing second, the behemoth grew larger and larger, spinning around at speeds heretofore unknown to any sentient being that had ever made use of any unit of measurement. The phenomenon unleashed such untold power, the force it emitted was felt on the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

It wasn’t until then, however, that the true purpose behind this cosmic spectacle was shown. From the centre of the spiral, wherein a white-hot concentration of energy had congregated, there emerged first a group of delicate yet monstrously enormous fingertips, then a pair of hands, followed by beautiful, outstretched arms, which preceded Rebecca’s all-powerful visage. With a flowing mane as black as the void and all-seeing eyes of pure white, Rebecca, the All-Goddess, Empress of the Universe, Lady of all Time and Space, made her existence known.

It was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever seen.

Floating there in the void, revelling in her newfound omnipotence, Rebecca could not help but to take her all-powerful frame, as large as a thousand planets, bearing the power of a trillion galaxies, and laugh in satisfaction. Her laugh, which embodied her infinite power and grace, was heard all throughout the universe. It made no difference if there were no particles of matter for the sound to travel on; she willed it so, and so it was.

From that moment on, everything, everywhere, was hers.

* * *

From the viewpoint of the Earth people, the citizens of the Rebeccan Empire, it had been several days since their Goddess had departed for the heavens and claimed infinite power, something that had made them all rejoice and revel. In that time, Vanity’s team had managed to make contact with various races from around their corner of the universe. Communication was a chore at first, but Vanity’s brilliant mind had come up with a rudimentary translation method in a mere few hours, which allowed them to learn that all of their alien contacts were declaring their love and devotion for Rebecca the All-Goddess, and that they wished to become friends of her people. As such, humanity went from having no extraterrestrial contact to being the centre of a rapidly growing galactic empire in practically no time at all. The citizens’ greatest joy came in the opportunity to spread the love of the Goddess to all life, everywhere.

It was on the afternoon of the seventh day, when Vanity and Rebecca’s two favourite servants — the copper-skinned girl and the pale girl — were flying around the outside the palace, discussing the finer points of their current project, building a fleet of spaceships in order to facilitate interplanetary travel. They wandered off and found themselves hovering over one of the lush green fields that surrounded the palace grounds to get away from all the hubbub, touching down so as to make their presence a bit more subtle. However, as they all turned in one direction to continue their stroll there, they became immensely shocked to see the figure of the Goddess standing before them. Her appearance was basically the same, and yet she now looked far more beautiful than any of them could ever have imagined.

The sight brought the three of them to tears, and immediately, they fell to their hands and knees, prostrating themselves before her.

“Rise,” Rebecca said matter-of-factly, without raising her voice even slightly.

The three superwomen did as they were told. They could not help but to stare at their liege with an expression of immense joy upon their faces.

“I see you’ve done quite a good job looking after the place,” Rebecca said.

“We merely hope it pleases you, my Goddess,” said the pale-skinned girl.

“Indeed,” Rebecca countered. “I am very impressed with the three of you. However, there’s something you all should know...”

Rebecca turned from her three greatest servants and looked out over the fields of green, adopting a sort of melancholy air, though one that she did not let show to her underlings just yet.

“As I’m sure you know,” she continued, “I’ve recently assumed true divinity. I am now the absolute, undisputed mistress of all that was, is, and will be within this universe.”

“It has always been so, my Goddess,” said the copper-skinned girl.

“Yes… Yes, I suppose it has,” Rebecca offered, “but not quite like this, mind you. This last leap of mine was really fun. You simply can’t imagine anything like it.” She turned back to face her servants once more. “But in just a second, I’ll try to make that up to you the best I can.”

“Y-Your Holiness?” Vanity said, curious as to what she meant.

“See, here’s the thing — I am now the true mistress of this universe. Don’t you hear the trouble in that statement? This universe. Who’s to say how many universes there are?”

“I-Indeed, my Goddess,” said Vanity, “but your authority and power is infinite. There is no question that you are the rightful ruler of all, not matter where or how it might exist.”

“I know!” Rebecca said, excited. “And yet, I have to make sure. I have to. And besides, I’ve never been out of this universe before. I’d never known how. But now, I do. Funny how things work out, isn’t it? So I shall venture out into the infinity of the true cosmos, visit some new places.”

“Whatever you desire, my Goddess,” said the pale girl, “we shall stand behind you all the wa — ”

“There is, however,” Rebecca said, “no need to leave this place without an able keeper. Someone with the best of my interests in mind. Someone completely loyal. Someone who could carry out all of their duties without fail — and still, someone interesting and lovely enough to remind the people of their Goddess’s love.”

“My Goddess!” Vanity dared to offer. “Y-You can’t mean...”

“Yep!” Rebecca said. “Effective immediately, the three of you are my replacements. Look after the place while I’m gone, okay?”

Rebecca swung one of her arms back and snapped her fingers. The next moment, the three superwomen fell to the ground writhing in tremendous ecstasy as the very fabric of the universe bent around them, infusing them with powers that made the ones they had held previously look like an utter joke. Not even the mightiest of comic book characters from the old world, Rebecca thought, came even close to wielding power the likes of which she had just granted to her favourites.

After a few minutes of unbelievable pleasure, the three girls began to rise up from the ground, endowed with a newly reinforced aura of unthinkable power and might.

“I...” Vanity began speaking, catching her breath. “I, I… just… wow!”

“Atta girl,” said Rebecca, “that’s the kind of attitude I’m looking for! How does it feel?”

“Why, I… I feel like I could move stars… like I could crush entire moons to dust with a single punch…!”

“You probably can, now,” Rebecca stated, “but don’t let the raw power aspect take all the attention from you. There’s a lot of fun stuff you can do with your mind too, now. Be sure to experiment with that as well, it’ll come in very handy for your duties, especially with those alien ambassadors to take care of.”

“Of course, my Goddess,” said Vanity. “I shall not let you down.”

“And the two of you,” Rebecca said, turning to the other two girls, “well, I know you. You always try your best to please me… and you always succeed. I have absolute confidence in your ability to do the same this time.”

“My Goddess!” The two of them said in unison, as though doing a military salute.

“Now, I must leave this universe in your capable hands. Be sure to take care of it, okay? I have a lot of fond memories here,” she said, teasing. “Ta-ta!”

In a flash of barely-perceptible light, Rebecca vanished. The three newly ascended girls were rendered dumbstruck for a moment, but quickly brought themselves back into focus and got to work on their tasks as Rebecca’s representatives — tasks that were rendered much easier by the amazing new abilities with which they had just been blessed.

The building of the initial fleet of spaceships, a project which had initially been slated to take about 2 months, was completed in the next 2 hours.

* * *

The girl awoke in a void, a space between everywhere and nowhere. For the first time ever, she felt surprise, then an odd sense of pleasure, as she looked upon the visage of the woman before her.

“Where am I?” She asked.

“So,” said Rebecca, “she speaks. I knew you’d come around before long.”

“Wait...” the girl continued on, “I… I know you, don’t I? You were asking me about… things? And then I...”

“You made me a true goddess. Handed over the entire universe to me on a silver platter, forever.”

“Yeah… Yeah, that was it. But what...”

“What’s going on now?” Rebecca looked around. “Yes, well, I suppose it’s not that obvious, is it? Well, long story short is, I’m going on a journey, but I didn’t wanna leave any debts unpaid. And boy, do I owe a lot to you.”

“It makes no difference, you know I couldn’t do anything more. You might as well have had that before you asked me to give it, but now — what is this? Why am I… saying these things?”

“I decided to do a little something for you,” Rebecca said, “and as the first little detail, I figured I’d give you a will. You can think for yourself now, sugar. How does it feel?”

“It’s… confusing. Strange sensations, uncertainties, things I’d never known, and yet… a strange warmth in my chest, in my whole self. What is that?”

“Those are called emotions. They have their ups and downs, but generally they’re a pretty sweet deal. Especially for someone in your position.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, maybe you forgot, but when I took all the power in that old universe and jacked your people’s connection to that infinite chaos thing, I left you untouched. You may not realize it, but you still have all of your old powers. You can do whatever you like — in a way, you’re a goddess, just like me.”

“Whatever I… like?”

“That’s it. Say, for instance, you don’t like the drab blackness of space. Wouldn’t you rather see something like a few grassy fields, surrounded by snowy mountains? Heck of a spot for a country house?”

“I… I don’t...”

“Trust me on this, you would. Just will it.”

“O-Okay...”

The girl closed her eyes and concentrated. Rebecca watched in pleased amusement as the total darkness around them was transformed into a lovely landscape, reminiscent of Earth’s natural beauty. The girl who had made it possible slowly opened her eyes, looked around, and smiled for the first time in her immeasurably long existence.

“Wow...” she said. “That… that is pretty nice.”

“And it’s all yours,” Rebecca said. “I made up this little dimension for you to shape however you like. You have absolute power here, and if you like, you can come visit me in the old universe whenever I get back. Though your power there might be a notch lower than it is here, given that in essence I am the infinite chaos now — anything goes, but only if I give the go-ahead.”

“I think I’d like that,” the girl said.

“Good! It’s a date, then. But have fun playing around in here first — I’ll be a while. Oh, but before I go, there is just one more thing...”

Rebecca traced a strange outline in the air for a moment, and as she completed it, an object matching its shape materialized in her hand. It was the ancient oil lamp, the one the genie who had first empowered her was sealed within.

“You can come out now,” she said.

In a moment, the genie emerged in a puff of mystical smoke.

“So what happened to Mr. High-and-mighty-won’t-talk-to-any-former-masters?” Rebecca teased.

“The infinite chaos beckons,” the genie declared. “Its power is irresistible. All of the laws I had to follow after I completed my great voyage are meaningless now that I have returned, and it lies right beside me.”

“Ever the stickler, aren’t you?” Rebecca grinned. “No matter, there is one last task I require you to perform.”

“What is the will of the infinite chaos?”

“Well, there’s this lovely little all-powerful lady here, and don’t get me wrong, she’s got everything under control, but if I just leave her like this she’ll probably get a little lonely. No, she needs a friend. And that’s where you come in.”

“Why, lady, I—” the genie-girl began stuttering, feeling embarrassment for the first time in her existence.

“It’s quite alright,” Rebecca said, “it’ll be fun. And besides, this whole thing is possible because of him. I’ve got to pay him back somehow. Just think of it as a never-ending vacation, or a universe-building workshop. Now then, shall we?”

Rebecca turned to the genie of the lamp once more, mimicking the gestures she had made all the way back when she was still a mortal woman, and spoke the final words she uttered before she ventured into the unknown vastness of the cosmos once more:

“I wish you free.”

 

THE END.