Krogor dismissed the idea of waiting to finish the planet's destruction with a shrug, shaking himself like a dog. No. He wanted to get back and take a nap with his plushie collection as soon as possible. That was why he'd opted for this strategy in the first place, wasn't it? He'd given the humans enough of a false hope that everything was over by watching the "fireworks" until they stopped.
Half an hour's reprieve was plenty for those pests.
In the span of two seconds, Krogor went from the size of a truck to a third of the size of Earth.
The speed of this action was just as destructive as his earlier reduction in size. The air particles were violently displaced so rapidly that they turned into a burning wall of wind, and his sudden, vast increase in weight struck the ground with an impact equal to that of an asteroid. Immense aftershocks immediately began rocking the planet, which in turn set off tsunamis.
This wasn't all. The air, which had hyper-compressed in a short time due to his size increase, flung everything it touched aside in violent fashion, creating a veritable wall of hot air that destroyed everything in its path. Even after the initial air wave had passed, the thunderclap of breaking the sound barrier many times in an instant deafened everyone within a certain range. Everything that had been pushed aside was flung at ridiculous speeds away from Krogor's gigantic form. Bits of gravel riddled flesh like scattershot, cars became projectiles that tore apart buildings, and uprooted trees tumbled over the ground like giant tumbleweeds. Yet this was the case only at the edges of the windstorm. Deeper in, it was a physical mass of debris, pushed forward inexorably by wind pressure greater than any natural storm could produce.
Volcanoes as far as halfway around the world erupted as the massive pressure exerted on the planet by his growth pushed magma aside and caused it to surge to the surface. Like busted pipes or popped zits, lava escaped through weakened portions of the planet's crust.
All of this occurred in the span of roughly five minutes.
Soon, secondary weather phenomena began to form, such as tornadoes, flash floods, cyclones, and hurricanes, in various parts of the world. Droughts, freak heat waves or even an ice age could eventually occur as well, if things were left alone.
Krogor knew he could simply stand still and let his actions thus far slowly kill the planet's remaining inhabitants. After all, even if the weather of the planet eventually stabilized, that didn't mean humans would survive the interim. Aside from the violent aftereffects of his sudden growth, his gravity (at this size and with this proximity to the planet) would unbalance every ecological system on the planet. Mass extinctions would result as specialized ecological niches disappeared en masse and extreme conditions killed off everything that couldn't adapt. Humans would be no exception. This was especially true since this was a peaceful world, unprepared for such an astronomical disaster.
No society, no matter how advanced, could effectively respond to ecological disaster on a global scale unless it was anticipated. Not when gravitational, volcanic, and meteorological disasters occurred simultaneously and in rapid succession.
Following his sudden size change, Krogor watched the planet's weather conditions with interest for about an hour. He usually didn't take his time with this -- whenever Toltura had him destroy a planet using his size-change ability, it meant She was in a rush. Therefore, he wanted to really savor the destruction this time and observe what was happening to the planet as a whole for a while.
When he felt satisfied, he dug his claws deep into the planet's crust, penetrating the mantle and ripping out giant globs of molten rock. With just a few, swift motions, he tore up entire continents and began to turn the planet inside out.
Since he was only a fourth of the size of this planet (since this planet was larger than old Earth), it took him some effort to tear the planet apart. Still, his sharp claws and strong limbs made quick work of the once-spherical hunk of rock.
By the time he was done, the planet looked like a floating mess of discarded, torn hunks of glowing red clay. Hundreds of pieces spun at varying speeds, traveling away from the planet's original location. Many had already gone quite a distance.
Krogor had thoroughly demolished the world, leaving no part of it untouched. Not even its molten core had been spared.
Still, Krogor wasn't quite satisfied.
Therefore, spinning around, he shot a torrent of rainbow-white flames all around, hitting as many chunks of debris as he could. This caused them to transform erratically. Some pieces turned into crystal, musical instruments, karmic thread, toy stuffing, or plastic. Others became cyanide, nitrogen gas, fine silk, top-secret documents of nonexistent nations, long-forgotten paintings, demonic artifacts, living specimens of extinct species, or coprolites. One of them even turned into a minor deity, which thanked Krogor for birthing it and disappeared to the realm of the gods.
Krogor examined his work with a self-satisfied expression. There. Now his work was complete, and he could take a nap with his 500+ plushies in peace.
----
"So let me get this straight," Cecilia said, looking at herself in the mirror. She had a severe bedhead, which she was combing out, but her attention was turned inwards -- towards the two bickering voices in her head. "You're one parasite, but with a split personality? You didn't spontaneously reproduce overnight or something?"
[That's correct,] the one that called itself the funky name said.
[Yes,] the new voice, which called itself Alesha, agreed. This one was clearly female. Cecilia still couldn't decide which gender the other one was.
[That's because I don't have a gender,] it answered.
"Do ya always gotta do that?" Cecilia complained. She really wasn't a fan of having a tag-along in her mind. One was too much already, but two?? This was getting ridiculous.
[Isn't it annoying? Finally, someone who gets me!] Alesha said.
"What do you mean by that?" Cecilia asked.
[Oh just that I lived most of my life without this stupid thing, then it suddenly appeared and I've hated it ever since.]
[Shut up, Alesha. You know you like me.]
[Ew, no! What has gotten into you?!]
Cecilia chuckled despite herself. Surprisingly, it seemed these two actually got along pretty well. Maybe this way, at least class wouldn't be so boring?
[HEY!] Alesha protested, [You've got it all wrong! We don't get along in the slightest!!]
"I think you do," Cecilia said. "You're just like siblings. Always fighting, but still got each others' backs, ya know?"
Neither voice responded. Cecilia chuckled.
She braided her hair, then applied eyeliner. Normal. Nothing had changed, she was just normal. Or at least, she hoped everyone besides Guinevere would think so.
The rest of the day went by without incident. Like the day before, Cecilia had a larger appetite than usual, but since she prepared for it, that wasn't an issue. Guinevere was very concerned by the appearance of a second parasitic consciousness, though. She interrogated them for the entire duration of the lunch period. Unfortunately, this made it impossible for Cecilia to finish her lunch, so she was forced to do so during 6th period. The teacher wasn't happy about it but since Cecilia was infamous for being bullheaded, he didn't rebuke her. He had decided to just be happy that she wasn't picking fights today.
Cross Country that day was a hard day -- they were going out to the mountains to do repeats of hill runs. By the end, Cecilia's legs burned from overworked muscles.
Tanner, the hot guy she'd been admiring the day before, unexpectedly approached her and struck up a conversation. "Hey, your name's Cecilia, right? How was your workout today?"
Surprised and delighted, heart racing, Cecilia replied, "Yeah, that's me! It was good, really pushed myself. What about you?"
He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. As he did so, Cecilia gulped. Wow, what a man! Seriously, why was such a buff guy in Cross Country?
Forcibly wrenching her attention from his well-toned body, she refocused on his words.
"... a hard time with that, haha. I thought I was being careful, but shin splints are no joke. Anyway, I was wondering, would you like to go out for ice cream later, maybe over the weekend? If you're not too busy, that is."
His invitation came as such a surprise that she froze. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure! Maybe, Frozen Stone? Or do you like Grandfell's better?"
"Frozen Stone is good, when works for you?"
After working out the details and putting the event into her calendar, they said their farewells and Cecilia stood there in a daze.
[Hello? Elantris to Cecilia, you there?] Alesha's voice asked in her head.
[You doofus,] Rogork replied, [It's Earth to Cecilia, not Elantris. She's not from there. This is the planet the saying originated from anyway, so- ow ow ow ow what's that for?!?]
[The Penalty,] Alesha answered, voice strained. [That's what happens when we talk about forbidden subjects during the Games, ow ow! Shit, can't even think about them now since Cecilia's listening in. It's lighter than usual, but why?]
Cecilia was still too distracted by the fact that Tanner had been the one to ask her on a date, so she hadn't consciously processed the parasite's conversation with itself. She felt on top of the world. Such a perfect man had asked her first? What kind of fantasy world was this?