Epic of Caterpillar

Khariklo reached her Divine Realm, a world of crystalline water and beautiful isles filled with cavers, which had underground lakes where many types of lives resided.

Moving towards her palace, she was greeted by many young Nymphs, which were her children, created asexually through her powers as a Demigoddess.

"Ah, mother is back!"

"Mother is back, mother is back!"

"Mother, how have you been?"

"Has grandfather Apollo recovered?"

The Nymphs jumped out of the water as they accompanied the graceful Khariklo, their appearances held some resemblance to her, but their skin was pale blue, and their sizes a bit smaller. All of the Nymphs were females, and they wore conchs and seaweed around their bodies.

Khariklo smiled warmly as she moved towards her palace, settled at the top of the larger isle within her Divine Realm.

"Indeed, it seems that father has recovered a lot, and had gone to reconcile in bed with mother-in-law-sama… It seems that he had recapacitated and had become a better man… I am so happy for him…" said Khariklo, as she munched in a blue-colored apple-like fruit with the size of a melon.

"That is a relief…"

"Has grandfather fully recovered?"

"He has, I think. And he also had brought these fruits in a large abundance, so please, make sure to share them around the tribe, they will make all of you stronger," sad Khariklo, gently giving the nearest Nymph a special and tiny artifact that was filled with the Ambrosia-like fruits of various colors, although there was a greater abundance of blue-colored fruits.

"A plentiful harvest!"

"Let us share it with our siblings!"

"Ah, I was getting quite hungry~"

The Nymphs were usually passionate and playful women, this is why they held childish personalities and were not as respectful with their mother to the point of kneeling to her.

Their society was also rather loose, as they simply lived from what they harvested in their surroundings and what they found underwater.

Their tribe was simply created by Khariklo to handle the Divine Realm and only knew about this world and nothing else. It was a world where they lived in peace and harmony.

Khariklo constructed several buildings for them to live comfortably around her palace, and they often didn't have much to do other than fishing and hunting.

Khariklo's Divine Realm indeed had Divine Beasts, which often roamed the seas, leaving the isles safe for the Nymph.

And because such Divine Beasts obeyed the 'laws' of the Divine Realm, which were rules or orders made by the Gods, they would often not attack the Nymphs unless they were to be provoked repetitively.

Khariklo glanced at her daughters swim through the rivers, reaching the surrounding city and distributing the precious fruits around.

"I wonder how my siblings might be…" thought Khariklo, as she suddenly received a telepathic message from one of her brothers, Aristaios, the Demigod of Bright Winds, son of Apollo and Cyrene.

"Ah, Aristaios-san! How are you? Have you tasted the fruits that father has brought?" asked Khariklo.

"Khariklo-chan… I have tasted them, they are rather good. How has father been doing? Were you on his Divine Realm?" asked Aristaios.

"Ah! Daddy is doing fine! He even said that he had now thought things through and will slowly try to become a better father and husband, he really doesn't want to be like Grandfather Zeus…" said Khariklo.

"Oh?! Is that so? I am so glad… My mother is often quite gloomy nowadays, I am glad that he had realized how he was being with her… By the way, where is she? I tried to contact her recently, but I didn't get any response…" said Aristaios.

"Ah… W-Well, daddy was very energetic after having set his mind. So he carried her towards his bedroom to amend for how he had been recently…" said Khariklo with an embarrassed tone of voice.

"O-Oh, I see! So they are going to reconcile in bed. Well, that is fitting. I hope they can amend things up… And perhaps we'll get a little sibling soon too!" laughed Aristaios.

"E-Eehh?! T-That would be… so good! I want a little sibling~! It would be like a tiny Aristaios! So cute…" said Khariklo, as she imagined a little baby with aquamarine eyes and chestnut hair, similar to Aristaios.

"Eh? Why does it have to have my appearance? It could be a girl for all we know…" said Aristaios.

"Ah! True, true! It would quite nice… Fufu…" said Khariklo.

"Yeah, I guess it would be nice…" said Aristaios.

"Ah, by the way, how is Asclepius-san doing?" asked Khariklo.

"Oh, he's with me, actually…" said Aristaios.

"Good evening, dead sister," said the voice of a mature yet young man, Asclepius, the Demigod of Light Medicine, son of Apollo and his deceased mother, Coronis.

"Asclepius-san! How are you?" asked Khariklo happily.

"I'm doing good. Recently, I had a meeting with my father, where he spoke to me about a few things. He apologized for a lot about things he had believed to not be correct as a parent. But things went fine. I believe that he had always been a good father, but it seems that he worries about these things," said Asclepius, who had a calm and serene nature. He was a Demigod related to Medicine, due to this, his nature was very gentle, he would often never open his shiny golden eyes, inherited from his mother, making it seem as if he were to be always sleeping.

"I also think that he is a good father, he had taken care of us well enough! He spoils us, brings us gifts, and helps us cultivate with ease! What more could we ask from him? But it still nice that he had decided to become even better!" said Khariklo.

"That's right, I am happy for him," said Aristaios.

"By the way, have you heard what had happened with Uncle Hephaestus and his family?" asked Khariklo.

"Hm? No, sorry, we have been quite isolated from the outside world occurrences for a while…" apologized Aristaios while laughing.

"Has something happened?" asked Asclepius.

"Ah, it seems that you two are rather clueless… I guess father and mother-in-law did not want to tell you two, as they believed that we shouldn't get involved in the dispute at the moment… Well, it seems that a mortal… The same mortal that attacked father, Kireina, somehow entered Uncle Hephaestus' Dream World, which he had commissioned from the Great Goddess of Dreams and Nightmares, Freyja!" said Khariklo.

"That's… impossible! Isn't she a mere mortal? Even father had already recovered from her attack, and he himself had said that it was nothing but a scare…" said Aristaios.

"Perhaps she possesses more capabilities than we had imagined… Well, she did this just after having defeated that Lone God named Geggoron, isn't she?" asked Asclepius.

"Yeah… But just entering was not the issue here… According to Uncle Hephaestus himself, she kidnapped her daughter, named Palikoi, which seemed to like to reside in there,"

"What?! That mortal had gone too far…! How can she dare kidnap Uncle's daughter? I did not really know he had a daughter named Palikoi, to be honest… But if he had her in there, it must have been for some reason, right?" asked Aristaios.

"Indeed, Uncle said that he had Palikoi in that place due to her special existence, which could not be maintained easily in most places, so he needed to commission a Dream World from Freyja so he could save his daughter's life… And now that she has been kidnapped, wouldn't she slowly die down? This is really terrible…" said Khariklo.

"Damn it! Could that damned mortal be trying to taunt our family?!" asked Aristaios, who had a sharp and explosive nature when he grew enraged.

"Most likely. She is probably trying to do something…" said Asclepius.

"Well, she had already done it… Because just a few weeks ago, Uncle Hephaestus separated himself from grandfather's group, and had gone on his own to defeat that mortal!" said Khariklo.

"What? So she was trying to separate us?! Damn it… But well, it is just a mortal at the end, even with all of her strange abilities, against the overwhelming power of a god, especially someone like Hephaestus, she will not stand a chance. If Uncle manages to kill her, it will be for the best, and he will also avenge father," said Aristaios.

"Hm… I am still rather worried… That mortal keeps doing weird things that surprise us. And she even managed to defeat a Demigod! Maybe she could be more dangerous than we believe?" asked Khariklo.

"I agree with Khariklo. That mortal, Kireina, might be more powerful than we believe… Although it is often impossible for mortals this strong to be born. From what I have read, there are cases where mortals had attained the power to defeat or heavily weaken Gods through history. Some of such Mortals were either already blessed by many Gods, or were given special Skills that can let them break through the laws of the world and ignore the power of gods to an extent, such as the Seven Deadly Sins or the Seven Heavenly Commandments… And as we had heard, she possesses the Sin of Lust…" said Asclepius.

"That's… Why do such powers even exist, to begin with? Why would the System make something so unfair?! Tch!" roared Aristaios.

"I have no idea… But maybe there is a greater scheme behind all of this that we can't simply figure out…" said Khariklo.

"A greater scheme? Hm…" murmured Asclepius.

"Is there something on your mind, brother?" asked Khariklo.

"I have also read about this. That the Sins were a tool made by the System and the World's Will to balance the population of mortals… By creating powerful living disasters named Realm Menaces… This is the info I've bought from the Interdimensional Merchant Shop, mostly," said Asclepius.

"What?! And what is wrong with mortals? Can't they let them thrive in peace?" asked Aristaios.

"I wish things were as simple. But it seems that the overpopulation is even affecting the gods in some odd way… So they created this as a 'solution', amongst many others across the Realms… I suppose that they would prefer mortals killing each other than them nasty their hands… And it also seems like Gods enjoy this, as they can support certain factions through the Epic System, and acquire rewards if their factions win or attain victories against others from the opposing faction…" said Asclepius.

"That's awful… So mortals are just entertainment for the Gods? But I don't believe in such a thing!" said Khariklo.

"I don't like that either! Thanks to these wicked Gods thinking process, we had come to the time where the mortals had used these powers designed to kill each other… but they ended up using them to kill our kin instead… Isn't this like the worst-case scenario then?" asked Aristaios.

"That's right. The creator of the System and the World's Will seem to have not been able to foresee this to happen… Sigh. At most, the only thing we can do is support our father and mother-in-law in what we can, and hope for the best… Although we must also quickly grow stronger, so we can reach a level of strength where the other gods will finally hear our words," said Asclepius.

"Hm, you're right, brother," said Aristaios.

"Yeah, I guess we have a long road ahead… Ah, my body feels better than ever though! I am eve receiving many inspirations for some reason… Is this the effect of these miraculous fruits?" asked Khariklo.

"Indeed. I've analyzed them, and they seem to be of incredible quality, matching a Divine Material," said Asclepius.

"Amazing…! I have to keep eating more~!" said Khariklo.

"Thankfully, father had planted many trees of these fruits, and he even sent us some seeds into our Item Boxes," said Asclepius.

"Oh, right, I've planted mine already, they had grown incredibly quickly!" said Aristaios.

"Oh? I did not know about this! I will immediately go to plant some, then~!" said Khariklo, quickly moving through her Divine Realm, as the communication was abruptly closed.

"She is as energetic as ever…" laughed Aristaios.

"Indeed… As energetic as ever… Now, Aristaios, let us continue the refining of our souls and bodies, there is a long path ahead," said Asclepius, as his eyes suddenly glower in a crimson red color for a slight second.

"Huh? What was that?" asked Aristaios, who was not directly looking at Asclepius.

"Hm? Is something bothering you, brother?" asked Asclepius, as his eyes quickly closed, his golden blonde hair waving to the wind of the Divine Realm of Aristaios.

"Oh… Nothing must have been my imagination then. Anyways, let us continue our enclosed cultivation," said Aristaios.

"Very well," said Asclepius, as beneath his gentle nature, a bloodthirsty presence resonated within his soul…

Both siblings sat near the other, as they began to exchange Divine Energy, is a simple technique where two Gods with a similar attribute could cultivate by enhancing their souls and bodies, and by defect, their Divine Realms, by simply exchanging their powers continuously.

Nothing seemed to be wrong…

Or so, everyone thought.

Within the beds of Apollo's bed, the eyes of Cyrene turned from the lifeless emerald color to a fierce crimson red, as something within awakened.