Epic of Caterpillar

Vretrion began to feel despair! Yes, despair!

The prideful King of the Abyss Cyclops felt despair!

The more he fought against Brontes, the more despair he felt, and how she worded her words, and how her strength was just as she boasted it was!

She wasn't boasting to gain power like him because she didn't have any sin of Pride with her, she was simply… being honest! She was simply and honestly stronger than Vretrion!

Her powerful attacks, her body flowing with overwhelming Divine Thunder, Vretrion's strength only gave him the power to defend, he was barely attacking or being aggressive, her speed and explosive offense were overwhelming in every sense of the word!

Brontes' strength exploded constantly with thunder and sparks of electricity, while Vretrion's Chaos and Pride power were being overwhelmed!

He wasn't able to understand how his Chaos wasn't able to overpower her thunder as it always did with every element… But the reason was simpler than he thought. It was because Brontes had more Thunder Attribute Particles than Vretrion had Chaos Attribute Particles… the more particles one had of an attribute, the stronger would be your attacks.

Brontes specialized in thunder attribute above all else, and she had been forging and sharpening such attribute to the level of immense specialization! Although Vretrion could be said to be specializing in Chaos Attribute, because he never nourished his Divine Realm nor encountered Chaos Attribute Divine Trials and Heavenly Calamities, his Chaos Attribute Particles had barely increased!

Meanwhile, Kireina had helped Brontes modify the elements of her Divine Trials and Heavenly Calamities through special Divine Formations, so they always came with the same attribute she specialized in, thunder!

Every single one of her Divine Trials and Heavenly Calamities was Thunder-related thanks to the Divine Formation named "Thunder's Gate", which Zeus had created to increase his Thunder Attribute Particles and become so strong, by modifying the elements of the divine trial or heavenly calamity, his attribute particles would always keep increasing according to his specialization and now randomly to whatever the World's Will sent to him!

Through such a strong cheat, Brontes beat and assimilated the attribute particles of several thunder attribute divine trials one by one, and even that of heavenly calamities!

Her powerful attacks and explosive thunder were already near the realm of a Great Goddess, and as she neared such realm, the difference in power between her and Vretrion became wider and wider!

No matter how much he boasted or buffed himself, Vretrion was being overwhelmed by the power of Brontes even with the powerful buff of Pride and his Chaos Divine Aura!

Throw into the air through a powerful kick, he was enraged, unleashing all of his power into chaotic slashes against her!

"GRRRRAAAAAAHHHH…!"

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Furiously trying to destroy her, Vretrion unleashed a tornado of slashing attacks from his axe towards Brontes, but Brontes did not falter!

Her blazing golden eye flashed with conviction as she jumped into the air and intercepted Vretrion's slashes with her Divine Thunder, merely overwhelming the chaos with her greater amount of thunder attribute particles, forcefully making the chaos attribute dissipate by her pure thunder!

"What's wrong? Growing desperate already?!" roared Brontes.

Her enormous Divine Thunder Aura expanded widely, as it created gigantic and muscular arms, forming fists, and crushing Vretrion's entire body and face with countless thundering jabs that continued to crush his entire body into loud and sparkling explosions of yellow gold thunder, cracking even the spatial layers by the immense shockwaves they generated!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"T-This… power…! It can't be…! NNNGGAAAGH…!" cried Vretrion, as his body began to bulge by Brontes' enormously powerful thunder fists, while her club began to charge a powerful concentration of divine thunder within, flashing with yellow gold electricity!

Vretrion gritted his teeth desperately, trying to find some pride within his heart, some bravely, something! But against… overwhelming power, he was nothing!

It's as if… he was suffering the same thing that all of his victims did, they faced an overwhelming power they could not fight, and despaired!

Now… Vretrion was put into their positions, thrown into complete despair, there was not even a speck of pride left on him!

He tried to use his Chaos, infusing it into his axe, alongside his natural Divinity, and a blast of darkness emerged from his body, a black flame coated his golden axe, and he intercepted Brontes' explosive club with his axe!

CLAAAAAASH!!!

Divine yellow-gold thunder clashed against abyssal and spiraling chaos, Vretrion desperately tried to fight back, but not even his natural regeneration was helping, the wounds inflicted over his body by Brontes Divine Thunder Aura Jabs were deep into his flesh, each thunder fist burnt his muscles and cracked his old bones, the strength was being drawn away from his body with each of Brontes blows, her God Devour, the Skill she had acquired after fusing with Kireina and then training it diligently by killing Divine Beast was becoming very useful and diminishing Vretrion's divine power!

"Divine Thunder Aura Dragon: Ryujin!"

Brontes Divine Aura once more emerged, now shaping themselves as furious dragons and devouring Vretrion's Divine Chaos Aura, as his crimson-red eye despaired in horror as he saw a technique he had never thought she could create!

"GRROOOOAAARRRR…!"

The enormous and long dragon made of thunder roared, flying towards Vretrion with immense speed, and impacting his entire body with all the might of thunder, frying him alive as Brontes' club crushed his head into the ground again!

BOOOOOMMM!!!

"Nngaaaggghh…!"

Vretrion cried in agony as he fell to the ground with a loud boom! His bones cracking once more as his muscles were torn apart, the thunder fried his charcoal-colored skin, and his entire arms were being covered in blood, the axe he was holding, however, was not going away, he was tightly grasping it and using it to defend against the thunder dragon's furious jaws!

"I am… NOT GOING TO LOSEEEEEEEEE!"

Vretrion roared monstrously as he showed off his sharp fangs, his entire body exuded with all the Chaos he could muster, ultimately devouring the thunder dragon and making it dissipated at long last!

BOOM!!!

Vretrion smiled a bit, he had managed to overpower Brontes' technique!

But… it was just that. A mere technique, he had not defeated the real Brontes yet!

And the real Brontes had just shown above him, raising her club, and charging it with her divine soul like a battery of electricity!

Spark… spark!

Vretrion's crimson-red eye glared with despair as it sank deep into his eye socket, his teeth gritted, and his entire tattered body felt paralyzed!

The enormous fear he felt was so big that his entire heart skipped a beat, a chill ran through his spine, and… more… more despair grew into his heart!

All of these were new experiences for him, a monster that was always unparalleled, someone that never tasted what was defeat, someone that constantly feed himself in victory, to the point of growing bored and sleeping for thousands of years.

He had ignored all those he defeated, never remembering them as much, never seeing them as something else than just another fly they crushed.

Yet, by a twisted fate, one of such flies, one of such ants which he had crushed long, long ago had come back, even stronger than him, and ready to make him experience what was utter and complete despair! Pure defeat by an overwhelming strength that he could not fight against!

Brontes' club raised with thundering speed, moving like a falling meteor towards Vretrion's tired body as he tried to defend himself however he could, raising his axe, unleashing the small amount of power left… anything!

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Vretrion's crimson-red eyes despaired, as Brontes' club fell over him like an endless shower of meteors, each one carrying the weight of a whole mountain with them and at an incredible speed.

His axe was barely resisting as Brontes targeted his wrists, suddenly making him lose his grip at long last, as the axe was sent flying into the air, away from his grasp!

"Nnngh…! W-Wait! Wait!" cried Vretrion, suddenly becoming a coward and asking Brontes to wait, to not kill him!

Brontes, however, didn't wait, and glanced at him with utter scorn, furrowing her eyebrow!

"I WILL NOT WAIT ANY LONGER, VRETRION! FEEL THE PAIN!" she roared, hitting Vretrion's entire body with constant blows of thunder, his entire body cracking and being crushed, his bones shattered, and his flesh flew away, his hands broke apart, as Vretrion screamed like a little and despairing ant!

"GGRRRYYYAAAAAHHH…! AAGGH…! NO… THIS CAN'T BE…! I CANNOT BE DEFEATED…!" he cried, as he was being turned into a pulp!

His Divine Soul emerged from his body, trying to defend it as he tried to fight back, but even his soul began to be crushed by Brontes' blows!

Brontes roared monstrously, like a true barbarian woman, her glowing golden eye flashed with more and more thunder, as she screamed at Vretrion!

"DO YOU STILL NOT REMEMBER ME, VRETRION?! DON'T YOU REMEMBER THE HEROINE THAT YOU ONCE FOUGHT, THE ONLY ONE OF THE COPPER CYCLOPS?! OR IS YOUR SMALL BRAIN NOT CAPABLE OF SAVING MEMORIES NOW, YOU OLD AND DECREPIT MAN?!"

Brontes hit where it most hurt to Vretrion, his pride!

He despaired, as her furious words suddenly reminded him of the past!

He was actually remembering it!

The glimpses of the past, of the long past, the first heroine he fought, the one that fought alongside a battalion of other copper cyclops, the "last stand" who tried to defend the race that he was trying to slaughter out of existence, the Heroine of Cyclops, Brontes!

Her appearance… was the very same as this gigantic cyclops woman crushing him into a pulp right now!

This… only made him grow even more despaired, he couldn't believe that fate had done such a thing to him! He couldn't believe that his life was about to end so abruptly, so bitterly, so anticlimactically!

He never… attained the glory he was seeking, he never truly found a reason to live other than to fight and win… his entire life always felt empty after fighting for so long! He felt empty inside!

Compared to Brontes who was filled with love and passion, who was filled with such a blazing resolve which drive her to prepare so overly cautiously to fight him one day, he was truly nothing!

"AGGH…! WAIT! NNNGGHOOGGH…! IT CAN'T… BE…! I CAN'T… LOSE! NO…!" Vretrion cried as his entire body was being crushed into pieces of flesh, his face cracked open as Brontes crushed it into little and bloody bits, her entire club was covered on Vretrion's brains as her golden eyes glowed with anger!

"THIS IS FOR MY SONS, FOR MY DAUGHTERS, AND MY HUSBAND, AND MY FATHER, AND MY MOTHER, AND EVERYONE! WE HAVE COME TO KILL YOU AT LONG LAST, VRETRION!" she roared, crushing his Divine Soul, as cracking sounds began to resonate through his soul!

An immense sharp pain crossed through his very existence, Vretrion's despair simply grew even bigger at each passing second, he felt as if his entire existence, the very fabric of what made him Vretrion was being cracked open, shattered!

"NO… I DON'T WANT TO DIEEE…! MOTHER… MOTHER!"

Vretrion's mind suddenly began to fragment as the traumas of his past resurged, the despair he felt when his mother died back then, the furious anger he felt, and how he did everything he did to avenge her… he had long forgotten about his mother, about the figure that had brought him so much happiness, the woman that always made him feel the warmth of love.

Now that he had avenged her, however, he was dying miserably, because he had lost himself on his path, he had lost himself as a man, he was nothing but a husk of his former self!

"No… Where you're going there won't be any mother, you're going to disappear, Vretrion! Your whole existence will be no more! This is the least you could pay for, the least you could do to repay for all the ones you took away from me! NOW, DIE!" roared Brontes, as her club crushed Vretrion's soul, cracking it and shattering!

CRACK… CRACK!

"GGGGGGYYYYAAAAAAHHH! MOOTHEERRRRR…! MOTHEEEEERRRRRRR…!"

CRASH!

Like fine pieces of glass, his soul fell into the ground, one by one, forming a pile.

"…"

Brontes glanced at the pile with eyes of melancholy, remembering her past, and her family…

All those young cyclops, her handsome and cheerful sons, her happy and adorable daughters, her beloved husband… her father… her mother…

The many Cyclops around her, the cheerful smiles, their shiny aquamarine eyes, how they worked all together…

And how everything was shattered into pieces and gone.

It was all gone now…

She gripped her fists, as Brontes contained her tears, but they flowed out of her eye anyways…

She covered her face with her large arm, as she sniffed.

"Hahh… I avenged you at long last… My children… my husband… my father… my mother… Ooh…"

Khustia had already passed out of horror, and Kireina quickly teleported at the side of her wife, shapeshifting to her own size, and hugging her.

She caressed her hair and kissed her cheeks.

"It's fine… It is done now…" she said.

"Will you stay at my side, forever…?" asked Brontes with teary eyes.

Kireina smiled gently at her wife, cleaning her tears, and kissing her.

"Of course… I will always stay at your side, Brontes," she said.