Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-1456

The Unfertile Lands where the Demons lived were shrouded in Miasma and Darkness, a world filled with obscurity and toxicity. Life lived in here, but it couldn't be said that it properly flourished. It was mutated, monstrous, and overly powerful. The Miasma rivers flowed across the entirety of these lands, and threatened to reach farther into the Continent, into the Fertile Lands where the weaker Tribes lived, the Humans and Elves.

Unlike the powerful Demons, Humans and Elves wouldn't be able to survive the toxicity of the Miasma as well, they would end up mutating and turning into strange creatures. But Demons thrived, even in the harshest of temperatures. In this dying world… the war of the Gods which ended in their death, and the end of their Era ended making half of the Mainland, the only continent in this world into a wasteland filled with corrupt mana, miasma.

While Demons survived, fought, and thrived in this rotten land, they envied the other tribes for having all the good land for themselves, they didn't shared either, due to greediness and self-preservation, they wanted all their fertile lands for themselves, and due to the war of the gods being partially provoked by the gods protecting the demons, the tribe of Demons was further ostracized by the entire world as the embodiments of all evil.

The Rotten Lands Demons still lived and thrived, unifying as one below the single flag of the Demon King, a single demon that rose from the others, who fought and survived the most, who developed the fastest, and with great talent and ruthlessness, he unified the demons, who fought one another, without being able to see the great picture, and without realizing that the world was their enemy, not one another.

Within the halls of the Demon King's Castle in the middle of the Capital of the Unified Demon Nation, the powerful entity known as the Demon King closed its eyes, spreading its aura of darkness across the land, it merged the darkness into the floor, fusing it with the roots of miasma and all other entities within it. The Demon King spread its presence, senses, and perception through hundreds if not thousands of kilometers, reaching far and wide.

The Demon King quickly had realized that two of its servants had perished in battle, the two given the task of invading one of the Human Kingdoms and the other with the task of invading the Elven Kingdom or at least, weaken their barrier enough for the third group led by a third Demon Lord to invade while the second group, too exhausted to fight anymore, would retreat back to the Rotten Lands. However, the Demon King did not felt much sadness nor sorrow for their deaths, it had chosen such insane criminals with incredible power as its retainers for a reason, they were strong, ruthless, merciless, and had no heart, they were ideal for doing something that no other demons would be able to easily do… invade, conquer, and kill countless innocent lives.

Their deaths were not painful, they were criminals that had caused a lot of suffering to the Rotten Lands, and so were the rest of the malicious and incredibly strong Demon Lords, who thanks to their evil and cold natures had survived the harshness of the Rotten Lands for so long… they were important and strong assets though, and the Demon King felt curious and frustrated over their death at the same time.

Curious about the entity that slain its Demon Lords and frustrated over their prompt deaths. However, the Demon King already had many other plans set in motion with the various other Demon Lords, and one of them was already taking over the Elven King. A smile surged on the Demon King's lips, as its eyes shone bright red… the Demon King's horns spiraled upwards, it was a truest demon in all of its glory, so strong and powerful that the Demon King only needed a glare to make submit even the most stubborn and nasty of brigands.

Surrounding the Demon King's throne there were many Demon Maidens, all of them wearing white robes and holding colorful crystal balls, their eyes shone brightly, as they were all women with Classes and Subclasses related to seeing the future, from afar, to seeing glimpses of prophecies, and more. And a single little child with pale white skin and a third red eye in the middle of her forehead was connecting them all through her own unique powers, forming a network of minds that saw through the past, the present, and the future. The maidens constantly spoke to the Demon King, informing him of anything important they could see.

"The Ancient Gods had fallen…"

"The last god remains within the Elven Forest, weak and young, he is too afraid to fight us completely…"

"He knows our Demon King's strength after all."

"Indeed, he does."

"And the otherworldly visitor…"

"A hero from legends?"

"No, a monster."

The Demon King's eyes squinted silently and sharply, as it spoke.

"I can feel it within my soul, it is one of those…"

The little girl connecting all the maidens spoke back to him.

"Oh? Those?"

The Demon King smiled greedily in response.

"Yes, cannot you tell? It is one of the Primordial Roots that has been annoying me ever since I rose. One like me, a bug, a worm… well, a caterpillar."

A caterpillar. It was a secret that the Demon King was not a true Demon, but it originated from the festering corpse of an ancient God that died in the Rotten Lands, a maggot, a worm that ate rotten garbage… A caterpillar, perhaps. It rose from eating garbage and grew stronger by eating larger prey… the Demon King's strongest power, devouring, was the key to its strength.

"So the prophecies were right, the Hero that was Summoned by the Elf… It is a Mirror of yourself, my King…" Said the little girl.

"A broken and distorted Mirror… I will never see myself within that entity… And I won't stop until I achieve my goals. The Demons shall thrive… and everyone else shall die. That's how things have to be, and that's how I'll make them. Nobody can stand in my path, not even a Parallel. If its necessary… It shall be devoured."