Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-1039

A Young man with a pale appearance and long black hair that covered his eyes, wearing a purple tunic and hoodie and wearing a large black staff, Sate, one of Isaac's powerful mages and curse casters, found himself within a strange space.

"What the heck happened? Ah… I see. Space Manipulation, quite good too… This formation seems to be made of… many formations?! What kind of monster can make this- Ah, Kireina, of course…" he sighed.

Sate as a cunning and villainous young man couldn't fight his enemies without investigating as much as he could about them. He had learned anything there could be within the realm about Kireina. From the interdimensional shop to any other god that there was in the central continent.

Due to that, he learned a lot about her, her amazing acts, the insane growth speed she had, and more…

He learned how she was a villainous woman just like him, and how she was so monstrously strong and insanely cunning that one could expect all sorts of crazy gimmicky fights from her.

It was said that her fight against Hephaestus was incredibly chaotic, the number of powers that she and her wives had made up for all of it quite crazily…

Not only she had an amazing affinity with all elements, but her power over the Chaos Attribute, the rarest attribute of the entire world was incredible, and she was shaping herself to become a Supreme Goddess of Chaos! The first one there could ever be…

Wasn't she insane enough? No, she was never insane enough.

Through all the things he learned about her, one of the things he found very particular was that, despite how monstrously evil she was, despite how abominable she was, and despite how strong and powerful she was… She still was a mother, a mother of a family, and her wives and children, even her friends and allies… She was very overprotective of them and had trained them to levels of strength that shocked the world.

In the end, many Gods that knew info about her had always ended in a conclusion… Despite what the righteous Pantheons said about her, and despite what the world's will said about her, Kireina was only fighting to protect those she loved.

She fought to grow stronger and be more suited to protect those she loved.

She fought so problems wouldn't easily befall them, so tragedies, in a world that discriminated monsters such as her, wouldn't come knocking to her door…

If this was the case… Why was she even deemed as evil? She hasn't committed mass genocide, nor she had declared war on the entire world, nor she had gone killing innocents, she usually killed those that provoked her first or were planning to kill her already…

So why? What was wrong with this woman who was trying to survive and protect herself?

She was clearly not doing these things out of pleasure, it was to survive!

Sate was perhaps the only member of Isaac's party that had actually comprehended her.

But he was on the wrong side now, and he, sadly, was also fighting to protect those he cared for.

Isaac, despite being a stupid kid with a hero complex, was still Sate's dear friend.

And Sate has not trained all this time to just die now and not even help his friend!

"Isaac, wait for me…" he said, as he smiled maliciously and pridefully, glaring at the woman in front of him.

A beautiful woman with six arms, pale-blue skin, sharp crimson-red eyes, long goat-like horns of black color, a third vertical eye in the middle of her forehead, and silvery-white hair growing from her head, alongside pointy ears, and fur growing in her legs and arms, she was a beast-kin race, based in her fur, claws, and even the goat-like ears she had.

But she had six arms! Well, she was a combination of a multi-armed race of Oni and also of a beast-kin race named Baphomet. But now that she had become a Great Goddess at the peak of her strength, and while receiving the boost of the totems merged into her body like tattoos, similarly to Nesiphae, she was overflowing with a tremendous aura of shadows and darkness. Her eyes glowing eerily with sharp crimson-red light.

But Sate knew it, eh detected it from the get-go, she wasn't a simple great goddess of darkness or something, she was a witch!

He could easily see as she was not using her energy away into a pointless aura, the presence she emanated was actually just the reflection of the terrifying power within her…

She was containing her divine energy masterfully within her soul, like all good mages that have learned to not waste energy could do.

Additionally, she kept a calm and composed pose, her staff was ready to move and release an incantation at any time too.

Her eyes were sharp, and her breath was calm like the breeze. Her heart released beats that emanated strong quantities of Mana from within. Sate noticed that she was forming an incantation mentally without even saying a word, and hundreds of magic circles were beginning to be made, but because they were invisible through her ability of magic circle-lessness, normal people couldn't see them. But Sate was able to.

The wondrous constructs of mana all around her were very incredibly precise, it was as if her mind was like a supercomputer! Her incantations continued to emerge around her, creating an aura of endless shadows and darkness, and even void and space attributes, which emerged as a mere derivation of her incredible mastery over her main attribute, without even possessing an affinity for these two.

It was said that those that were incredible mages had the power of bringing the grace of other elements through the amazing mastery of the single element they were born with.

Those were named… Sages.

And Zehe had reached the stage of a Sage even as a mortal, as she had managed to manipulate space through her power overshadows and darkness, which derived the power of black holes, which was part void and space. And through reverse engineering a spell's effect, she tapped into an element she wasn't even able to use originally!

This was what being a mage is all about! It was about interacting with the elements, with mana, with magic! To use one's access to magic… and use everything there could be on their reach!

Zehe smiled back at Sate, the boy couldn't help but smile boldly, cold sweat began to pour from his neck.

"Before her, I am nothing." He thought.

Sate had been training and investigating magic for years since he was raised by a Goblin long ago until he became Isaac's Legendary party member… he had mastered Dark Arts and even his Shadow and Darkness Affinity…

But before Zehe's mastery…

"So weak!" he thought.

"I have been sent here to have some fun with you. You seem like a decent magician… What's your name, boy?" asked Zehe.

"My name's Sate. May I have the honor of hearing yours?" asked Sate.

"Zehe."

"Zehe… So she's the one I must fight… Her power is just as amazing as Kireina herself… Are her wives this strong already? What kind of training do they undergo to reach this level of power?!" thought Sate.

"Alright then, let's see what you have in store… Let's start with something simple. Requiem of Darkness and Shadows." Said Zehe, a second after millions of formulas of magic, which were magic circles without the magic circle into it began to activate all around her, Sate was suddenly bathed by eternal darkness which began to consume space itself!

TRUUUUMMMM!

"S-Shit! Dark Matter Sphere!"

BOOOM!

Sate's power was siphoned by the darkness that Zehe conjured however, he protected himself with Dark Matter Sphere, a Shadow and Darkness Spell that absorbs darkness to grow stronger and more resilient, countering Zehe's spell as it absorbed the darkness and became stronger as a shield!

"Oho? Not bad!"

Zehe looked at Sate's performance fascinated, he was really a talented kid!

"Symphony of Void within the Shadows."

TRUUUUMMM!

Suddenly, a mother million magic formulas activated in quick succession as if they were countless cogs spiraling after one another, creating magic formations in an instant!

Suddenly, the shadow itself covered everything as it began to seep into space, devouring it and forming enormous void-attribute black holes all around Sate, absorbing his magic and suctioning him! If he were to fall in one of these, he would surely die!

His sphere of dark matter began to fade away as it was siphoned by the void, as he quickly smiled wickedly and moved his staff around!

"This woman… She's an incredible genius at magic! I can't believe that I have the honor of fighting someone so talented!" thought Sate, as he began to conjure a dozen of spells in an instant!

Enormous spheres of darkness surged through the void itself, absorbing it all back so they wouldn't damage him, and then the spheres flew towards Zehe, looking to explode before her!

BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM!

The explosions of magic detonated, bathing Zehe in their explosive damage!

However!

"Not bad!"

Zehe emerged alive, she had bathed in this darkness that could easily consume a great god…

One of her arms was missing, but it regrew through shadows that emerged from her cut flesh and materialized into an arm. By seeing this, Sate realized that she had already merged with the elements themselves… She had become a Spirit Sage!

And to boot, that she didn't take enough damage was because she reduced the damage she took through her incredible high Darkness/Shadow Law Comprehension!

"This is… amazing… She had already completed the assimilation process… As she becomes a being of pure magic?! Show me more!"

Sate began to laugh maniacally as a fight of magic started even fierce than before, spells of all types began to clash against one another. Zehe distorted space through her void derived from shadows, surprising Sate with every spell she had.

Meanwhile, Sate unleashed all sorts of combinations of spells, Curses merged with darkness to create enormous pseudo dimensions of soul-consuming vacuums, which Zehe easily survived and destroyed with her mere will…!

BOOOM!

"Ray of Eternal Dark Shadows!"

FLAAAAASH!

An enormous ray of shadows reached Sate as he smiled wickedly, gritting his teeth… he was already in his last moments… However, despite the sure death he was going to experiment, he couldn't help but be happy!

He felt frustrated for not being able to help Isaac, but… he had fulfilled one of his wishes by going completely all out against an amazing expert as magic such as Zehe!

"GRAAA!"

Sate's magic clashed against Zehe's, but her shadows and darkness were greater, emerging as an endless mass of abyssal obscurity…

"So beautiful…"

BOOOOOMMM!!!

Sate was consumed by it and died with a smile.

"What an odd man… Well, I can't deny I had my fun…" thought Zehe, grabbing his shattered soul and his corpse.