Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-1414

Flora found herself in a desolate death wasteland, wherever she looked into there was a desolate wasteland, rocks, death essence, necrotic energy, undead wandering around and running away in fear the moment they spotted her, and giant birds trying to attack her from above, who were suddenly being exorcised by her very presence. The embodiment of Life had reached the land of Death, and her sole presence turned everything into greenery around her.

Wherever she stepped, the ground would sprout with grass, flowers, and even trees would grow, birds would chirp harmoniously and squirrels would pick up nuts from the trees to eat, but as she walked further from this, the plants dried out and died, the animals died and became undead, running away, and she sighed because of how ridiculous this was.

"How boring." She sighed. "I never expected that the reaction of my existence in this place would be so stupid. Seriously, is this how it feels for a supreme goddess of life to step in the land of death? I guess I am being slowly oppressed by Hel's Divine Aura…" Flora looked at her surroundings in silence and calmness, despite having seen how Kireina died and teleported them away, she knew what to do here.

She was a woman who had lost everything dozens of times over, and she continued moving forward, unyielding. A woman born when the world was in peace, when it was named Earth and not Genesis. In those times she had a family, a father, a mother, a little sister and a big brother. They were all gone long ago. She cried for their lose for many years, she regretted being weak, and moved forward to become strong. Strong enough to protect what was precious to her.

As the eons continued, time and time again she desperately fought to become stronger, she attained longer lifespan, but the world continued to evolve into an apocalyptic world of monsters and magic. She devoured them and absorbed magic, cultivating into higher realms, trying to breakthrough the blockage that was her mortality was incredibly arduous, taking hundreds of years but finally managing to do so, only to be welcomed by the even more dangerous world of Gods… an endless fight with endless suffering, sweat, blood, and tears.

Time and time again she thought she was strong enough to defend what she loved, only to see everything being torn apart and she always managing to barely survive due to the strength she forged… but everyone else always died, they always were destroyed. Over time, instead of growing desensitized with life, she appreciated it even more than anybody, she saw life as precious, she saw people as precious, she wanted to protect them, to make up for all the wrongs she had committed, to make up for it…

But where did that brought her? Here, at the end. With all he power, she wasn't able to save her, Kireina. She looked into her own hands, regretting her decision, but realizing there was no other way in that situation. Her abilities worked like this at the end… But she couldn't help but think she caused her death… The one that was the shining star of their group. She meet her so briefly yet she missed her so much already. Kireina, the one that made her rage and go insane so much was someone she never expected to miss so goddamn much after her death.

And to boot, she even teleported her away in those last moments, as if she couldn't be any better than her. Flora was left completely ridiculed by her; she was nothing to her… Nothing.

"I'm sorry, Kireina…" She sighed, looking into the dark horizon as she continued moving forward. "Hel… I'll defeat you and your interdimensional friends, for her…" Flora looked into the horizon once more, as she began to think that she was alone now, she had felt it, some sort of intervention, a being of great power had moved them all away from their original trajectory where they would be together, this made her think of the only one that could had done it.

"Genesis… She allied with Hel, huh?" She sighed. "I should had guessed she would do something like this, after all she had always been a monster that loves to do such things." Flora scanned her surroundings, quickly finding the presences of the other Supreme Gods. The Closest to her was Rimuru, miraculously she had survived, and she was going to quickly meet with her, as she began to fly towards her direction.

"We must first regroup and quickly think about what we'll do, however, the powerful presences I am feeling here… I don't think I am alone; they're chasing me already." Thought Flora, looking behind her to see an army of Undead Gods and Necrotic Death Lords chasing her from behind.

"It is a pity that your efforts will be fruitless." She sighed, waving her hand as a ray of life came out, this light was life itself, and it reached the enormous flying army in a second.

BOOOOOOMMM!!!

The army used a barrier of death to protect themselves, but Flora infused a bit more energy and the barrier broke in a second.

CRAAASH!

The beam of life continued moving forward, attacking the undead and purifying them, most of them began to fade away into ashes, incapable of being revived, the Necrotic Death Lords from another dimension were the strongest and most durable ones, resisting the agony of life for a bit before Flora reached them as if she teleported towards them, the armor-wearing skeletons grew shocked before their skulls were cracked by her bare hands. She looked delicate, but deep down she was a battle demon. Thousands of years of battling does that to any woman.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

Their skulls began to burst one after the other, as Flora showered into their agony as she looked at her victims with an expressionless face, she moved forward once more, kicking, and punching them. Their accursed dark weapons broke apart with ease, she wasn't a Supreme Goddess for no reason.

"Pathetic. Is this is the best you can offer, Hel?"

Hel looked at Flora massacre her troops with shock. Perhaps she might had miscalculated her total strength…

It all happened in an instant, but without realizing it, Aura woke up in the middle of a deserted land. He quickly found an enormous quantity of death energy trying to attack him, as he quickly unleashed his Supreme Divine Domain to defend himself.

FLUOOOSH!

In an instant, the death energies trying to suppress him stopped attempting to attack him, as the powerful Supreme God sighed in relief, only to be strike by an enormous sense of grief and guilt… He opened his eyes wide, as he realized what had happened some minutes ago…

It was all so quickly.

"Kireina… No… This can't be… Kireina!" Muttered Aura, suddenly falling to his knees. "Damn Flora! Why did you even gave her such a task?! What's wrong with you, you stupid woman?!" Aura groaned to the heavens, hitting the ground with his fists and making half the entire Realm of Helheim tremble before his enormous Supreme might.

TRUUUUUUUMMM!!!

Tears began to flow out of his eyes, as he began to recall slight moments of his past. Those moments… when he wasn't strong. That era when he was weak, and when he wasn't able to protect what was precious to him. When he lost the love of his life due to his lack of strength and his foolishness… The woman he loved the most, the woman that complemented him, the one and only that stood by his side through all of those times, fighting and adventuring at his side.

She laid dying on his arms. He had no way to heal her, his strength and his energies were fading away as well, and he was growing weaker, he was wounded, and about to die himself…

"No… Don't leave me… Marie, please don't leave me!"

Aura in those times was another God in the many there were, he lived a life carefreely, traveling through the world, hunting divine beasts, refining them, and slowly raising his cultivation bit by bit… and through such a journey, he once met a woman, Marie, another Goddess, a lone goddess that once attempted to fight him because he entered her territory.

But eventually, the two fought and then ended in a draw, wounded, the two got to know each other better, and Aura and Marie slowly grew closer together…

However, due to unpredictable events, she was struck to the brink of death.

"How could… I let this happen again…"

.

.

.

An unforgiving darkness engulfed my entire being. I could feel my very existence fragment apart with each small piece disappearing into nothingness. The void was welcoming me yet I wasn't sorrowful nor was I scared, I felt calm. But I also felt confused. What was going to happen to me? Was I going to truly die? Would I finally disappear?

I was… nowhere now. This is it, the void. The endless darkness of death. I felt calm, yet regretful. An attack of agonizing sorrow hit me. I remembered my mother, Chaos, my beloved wives, my children, my friends, everyone… All the things I made… And now, I was dead.

Was I? Why was my consciousness slowly tearing apart instead of just disappearing? Why am I able to think though? What… is happening? Is this truly the end?

"No, it is not."

The voice of someone, or something, spoke to me. Who was this person? I had never heard such a voice before, my mother's voice was soft, so it couldn't be she. Who is this?

"Who are you?"

"I am what they call The Root."

.

.

.