Epic of Caterpillar

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Morpheus, who still held authority over the dungeon that he gifted to me had been inspecting the Mountain Golem that I named as Gaia ever since she was created, and through his observations and the help of Agatheina, both of them had realized that such Gaia was not a simple golem anymore.

According to their words, this Gaia had developed a soul and a physical body that seemed to possess great resemblance with the original Gaia, the soul seemed mystical and akin to divine, although still being mortal, and the physical body that was once enormous mountains had increased in quality to enormous extents, exuding mana and an Aura of earth. Due to such Aura, her interior was also blossoming with enormous quantities of precious materials.

Could I had unknowingly created a perfect vessel, for Geie and Gaia's Shield?

But… wouldn't that mean that I can also create similar beings by naming them after certain entities? What if I name something else as Helios… would it acquire the same abilities or develop similar powers?

"Does that mean that my naming ability… might be even stronger? Does it mean that my children, those named after Earth's Gods such as Nammu, Nanshe, and Marduk… would they develop more abilities related with the gods they're named after?" I wondered.

"There could be a possibility for that to occur, Kireina-sama… Although, I believe that there must be some kind of limit to how much can you influence someone with a specific name" said Morpheus.

"Indeed, I also believe that the occurrence with Gaia must be related with it being an enormous mountain that already held a great amount of Earth Attribute inside of it, the name Gaia was only the catalyst to convert such powers into something similar to Gaia, but I believe that it cannot simply generate power or energy out of nowhere, the named vessels must hold a similar power to the names you're giving them. However, I believe that Kireina-sama's children are outstandingly talented, and might develop capabilities similar to the names you have given to them… or even greater," said Agatheina.

Now that I remember, there is also Hekatoncheires, the Giant Undead I've left roaming and exploring in the Lower Realms, who might have developed similar capabilities… There are also Truhan and Celica's children which I also named after Earth's mythology.

"I see… Well, this is a welcome surprise. The Mountain Golem Gaia is currently controlling the population of monsters inside of Morpheus Dungeon, so she might have leveled up a lot since I created her…" I said.

"The stronger she gets, the better suited it might be for Geie… Although we can only let her try things out whenever she wakes up" said Morpheus.

"Now that we are done with that topic, I wanted to ask how are the eggs of Maahes, Ophois, and Habitis doing? Have they shown any signs of discomfort? I have been rather busy in here with all the things going on in Nyzzet's Dungeon, which was rather unexpected… I hope they have not been born yet" I said.

Maeralya and Marnet were quick to answer, as such eggs were technically their children with me, although they were conceived non-sexually.

"Ah, the three of them are doing good, their auras are becoming stronger as well, and clear divinity is leaking from within the eggs…" said Maeralya.

"They're still sleeping peacefully, though they had been developing a lot inside of the eggs, almost completely filling the space inside, so I believe they might be born very soon," said Marnet.

"It is impressive how you were capable of resurrecting the souls of Moonfang and Sunclaw's families through such a method, Kireina-sama… And even by acquiring the blood of my siblings, you were even capable of making them reborn in rather strong bodies… though I am not sure if they will be born directly as Living Deities… or Divine Species, or simply mortals with Divine qualities…" said Morpheus.

"I wonder if we can do the same with you, Kireina-sama~," said Hodhyl.

"That would be an interesting way of creating offspring… According to what they told me, you only asked for their blood?" asked Merveim.

"Indeed, I was capable of creating them asexually, I only required a large amount of Maeralya, Marnet, and their family's blood, which I used as a catalyst alongside my own blood. I also used several Skills to generate the eggs and then laid them through orifices created in my appendages" I said.

"The more you explain it, the more bizarre it sounds… but that is how it was done…" said Marnet.

"Kireina-sama! Although I believe that such a method is wonderful if you are ever interested in creating offspring with me, feel free to ask me at any time! I will gladly do it! There is no need to do that ritual either!" said Agatheina with a bit of thirst in her words and tone of voice…

"Noted, Agatheina," I said to calm her down.

"Anyways, I believe that they might be born in a few days from now, so we have to prepare and greet them with a large feast… Uwah, I haven't had children for a while…" muttered Maeralya.

"Me too, although it is rather refreshing to take care of a pup once again," said Marnet.

It seemed that Maeralya and Marnet wanted to take care of the three children as well, so I will not be given all the responsibility. Good thing that they are responsible parents… Hm, all of their children could be considered the parents too, so I suppose they might join them.

"It is good to know that you're excited about their upbringing soon. Anyways, after having talked about all of this, I wanted to go into more detail about what happened yesterday with us, everything was rushed and I had not much time to communicate to you what happened in the fight against Zudig, Begudhur, and Kheseerad… Well, you already know that they managed to escape, but not how they did it, right?" I asked.

"Indeed, Kireina-sama… We are just as frustrated as you! Even after giving our all through our descent through your family, even then… the bastards somehow managed to escape! How dare they not give their lives to you?! Do they believe that they can simply escape from your grasp?!" roared Agatheina.

"I suppose even after having prepared so many things, Kheseerad's ability to manipulate Space was still used for them to escape… But Kireina-sama, did Kheseerad cooperated with Begudhur and Zudig at the end?" asked Morpheus.

"We know that he did with Zudig… but weren't they pursuing Begudhur? I think that Zudig intended to devour him" said Merveim.

"Alright, let's me explain in simple terms the chaotic mess of a fight that was yesterday…" I said.

I explained most of what happened to the Gods, from how I used my Transformation Rings to have the upper hand, how I Zudig stole Begudhur from my grasp, how I ate half of Kheseerad while Zudig and Begudhur ate the other half, about the Gods that Kheseerad freed, which included Hydros and Geie, and how at the end, it seemed as if the minds of Begudhur and Kheseerad were awake within Zudig's soul.

"T-This is… What kind of creature have they become?!" asked Hodhyl.

"To begin with… Begudhur somehow managed to not only acquire Divinity Devouring but also awakened into an entity named 'Primordial Beast'?!" asked Merveim.

"That bastard had such a talent from the beginning?! How didn't he developed it earlier?" asked Marnet.

"It must be because of Kireina-sama… We already know that due to her presence, Begudhur's seal weakened, right? We also know that he sent a lot of his split souls parasitizing vessels, and Kireina-sama and her family ate a lot of them… When we gods divide our souls into split souls, we can communicate information through them. It probably means that Begudhur somehow acquired clues about Kireina-sama Divinity Devouring, and somehow acquired it without the need to possess a Legendary Hero's body!" said Agatheina.

"Indeed. I suspect it is due to his Divinity, that of Parasitism. He can make anything he parasitizes into his perfect vessel, and as long as he is extracting energy from it, the vessel will work just as good as if it were his own physical body… It means that he always had the possibility of acquiring Divinity Devouring. He most likely… decided to eat his own Split Souls while possessing a mortal vessel" I said.

"That bastard acquired it way too easily! He's really a cheater!" said Marnet.

"I remember Begudhur cries. He talked about having been 'awakened' from a 'metamorphosis' that he underwent… Probably, the moment he acquired Divinity Devouring, he began to devour himself until he reached a point similar to mine through the Uroboros Skill… After the quantitative change came to be, he evolved into… well, the primordial beast of self-gluttony, Uroboros…" I said.

"But what are Primordial Beasts? Those are new! I had no idea about them! I know about Realm Menaces and some of their counterparts in other Realms… but Primordial Beasts?" asked Maeralya.

"Fate… The Supreme Goddess of Fate and Destiny alongside the Worlds' Will must be behind this! I knew it! Could they perhaps be accelerating the world's events for some reason? Could Kireina-sama's actions had made them do this? I wonder… Perhaps Begudhur was always destined to become Uroboros, but Kireina-sama's intervention made him awaken this facet of himself faster than it was scheduled… To think that something called 'World's Enemy' is the next creatures that these two had planned to appear in the future… Could this be because they want to cut down the number of gods and mortals not only in specific realms but in the entirety of Genesis…? But even then, the clues are too few!" said Agatheina.

"Agatheina's deduction must be right… the Supreme Gods and the World's Will had always found the number of living beings and gods in Genesis to be too much! After the Ragnarök, new gods began to be born one after another, and so did mortals. What used to be an almost dead world is now blossoming with life everywhere, and with gods everywhere as well… I bet that the Supremes and the World's Will might be worried that the new generations of Gods will one day defeat and take their throne at the top…" said Hodhyl.

"So, they came out with Realm Menaces 2.0?" I asked.

"Indeed, it is as simple as that, Kireina-sama. They just decided to create Realm Menaces, those given the task of lowering the enormous population of living beings in Realms, but now at World's Scale, meaning that they should be capable of ending whole Realms if given enough time to grow… With such power, no gods below Great God Rank would ever stand a chance against them! And the thing is, the Great Gods already might be at the side of the Supreme Gods, cooperating with them for these creatures to 'clean' Genesis for them! These bastards!" said Agatheina.

"Then… even our mother?" asked Levana.

"Yes, perhaps even our mother might be trying to cooperate with this 'cleansing' plan… Such wicked plan! How can she desire the end of life so much, even when she is a Great Goddess of the Life Attribute?! …No, there might be hope, we have not received any confirmation from her part of anything like this" said Morpheus.

"But how will we ever get any confirmation? This plan must be something incredibly hidden from anyone except the Supremes and their closest Great Gods!" said Marnet.

"Should we ask our mother herself?" asked Maeralya.

"Don't be a fool, Maeralya. If you ever do that, she might end up doing something against us. It is better to not provoke the Great or Supremes more than we had already done…" said Agatheina.

"After talking about this, the whole fusion that Zudig did with Begudhur and Kheseerad seems little in comparison…" I said.

"Well, that's is another problem completely different, Kireina-sama… And it is just as absurd, or even more. Thankfully, you managed to devour a great part of them, to the point that they will have to lay low for an exceptionally long time until they acquire more strength…" said Agatheina.

"To think that the bastard of Zudig had gotten out of his way! He literally became a Primordial Beast too, didn't he?" asked Merveim.

"This is… troubling," said Hodhyl.

"Well, I have something to confess to you. I might become a Primordial Beast as well. After eating a great part of them, I unlocked a Class named 'Primordial Beast of Self-Gluttony'…" I said.

"Ah! Is that true, Kireina-sama?!" asked Agatheina.

"Indeed, I think that Zudig did not get away with all the power, at least, I stole more than half of it, the same goes for my Spatial Manipulation and the Divinity, they only have halves of what they could have originally… Zudig, Begudhur, and Kheseerad are like small pieces stuck together to become something, but each piece was already damaged and not as strong as they used to be, they'll have to grow for a long time to even become a threat," I said.

"To be expected of Kireina-sama!" said Agatheina.

"Kireina-sama, you need to grow stronger alongside your family, before those three manage to grasp their new powers!" said Merveim.

"We cannot grow as fast as you… but we are training and developing our abilities as we speak," said Hodhyl.

"Even if by a little, we want to be useful as well," said Morpheus.

"Thanks, I am counting on all of you," I said.

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