Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-1978

Memories flashed through Hel's dreams, memories of her long-forgotten past. When she was merely a young girl, lost in the woods of an Ancient, now destroyed, and reformed world.

She had very little memories of being with her mother, aside from her first two years of life, which she spent with her and her two other siblings. Recalling such ancient times made her feel a strange sort of nostalgia.

Memories of seeing her mother sitting above the grass while smiling back at her, while she caressed her little head, or as she watched over her while she played with the little wolf pup that was Fenrir, or the tiny playful snake that was Jormungandr.

"Graarr!"

Hel often roared like her siblings, trying to imitate their voices, however, she often came out adorable than frightening.

"Woof! Awoo!"

Fenrir, however, liked to play around with his sister, always letting her ride over his back and bringing her around, while wagging his cute tail rapidly.

"Shyyy…"

Jormungandr often times coiled around Hel's neck, licking her face with his snake tongue, sometimes, he would sneak over his mother's head to see the world more clearly.

"Mama! Mama! Fenrir found this flower!"

Hel ran towards her mother, who was sitting above the grass watching over them. However, the closer she got to her, the more distant she felt.

"Mama!"

She kept running and running, trying to find her, trying to give her the flower that she had picked up for her. But her mother's expression changed.

Loki looked sad, sorrowful even, she seemed also… tired, exhausted. As if she had given up on everything.

"M-Mama?"

Her mother slowly stood up from the grass and gave a last glance at Hel and her siblings, with eyes devoid of light.

Slowly, she walked away, getting farther, and farther from them.

"Mamaaaa!"

Hel kept screaming while chasing her mother, her two siblings right besides her, they were crying as well, and she quickly realized that her eyes were also crying.

"M-Mama…"

Without even saying a word, Loki slowly disappeared amidst the forest, leaving her children alone with one another. The day ended quickly, the darkness of the night came, the wind was cold, and the children were freezing below the moonlight, hugging one another while trembling.

Having already cried so much, they could only comfort each other with their company, as they endured the coldness of the night, hoping that their mother could one day come back…

But for many years, hundreds, thousands of years… She never came back. They grew up together, survived together, and moved on.

The world around them changed, wars waged and lives were lost, the world shattered, everything changed… Yet even as gods their hearts felt slightly hollow.

The trauma of being abandoned still creeping over their minds, forever changing who they could had been, if Loki would had stayed alongside them.

Finding comfort in the darkness, Hel embraced the powers she stole from the Ancient God of Death created by Genesis, absorbing most of his divinity and creating her own Realm.

A Realm of eternal stagnation, where Undead wandered aimlessly, eternally alongside her. So she could feel less lonely, with their cold, silent company.

Eventually, her sorrow turned into hatred, and her hatred into madness. Desperate to be loved, desperate to find a figure that would praise her, someone… she ended falling into the clutches of a being from another world, a world similar to the one she built, but much vaster, and unfathomable.

"Fear not, my child. I will protect you…"

The darkness embraced her, she thought it would do her good… But it only twisted her further and further. Hel felt like she was falling from an endless abyss, the darkness of the abyss slowly tearing apart what she was and making her just a husk.

"Hahaha… Foolish mortal! You're nothing but my vessel!"

She was made a husk, so she could become the darkness' vessel. She screamed for help, but no voice came out, she cried, but no tears came from her empty eyes…

It was too late… her madness had taken over.

"Someone… Please…!"

"SOMEONE!"

Hel opened her eyes while screaming and crying, finding herself somewhere else. The nightmares she experienced nothing but her own mind playing tricks with her, perhaps to remind her of the path she had walked through.

"Hahhh… W-Wha… Where am I?"

Hel felt strange, her body no longer harboring the powers of her master, it felt much lighter, but also much weaker as a result. She looked around the room, finding herself inside a huge, tall tower in the middle of a near-endless green forest.

Looking through the window surprised her, as she saw a beautiful blue sky, clouds, and mountains with snow over them in the distance, a visage she had not seen in thousands of years after staying in her own Realm of the Dead for near an eternity.

The colors, the warm wind, the life made her feel strange, she felt… at ease, strangely enough, even without knowing where she was.

"What is this place…" She sighed, yawning. "Just what happened… I…"

She tried to recall what had happened, her mind quickly rushing with the memories of her last battle against Kireina's allies. She wasn't even defeated by her but by her allies!

The worst part was that her Realm was destroyed, or so she recalls before completely falling unconscious after being defeated, she also remembered…

Fenrir, Jormungandr, and her mother Loki, using Illusion and Psychic Magic to free her mind from the darkness that the Ruler of the Necrotic Plane was.

"I lost… everything… I lost everything…" She muttered, feeling exhausted and frustrated. "What do I do now? Am I some sort of prisoner of Kireina? Is this her Divine Realm?"

As she was about to jump off the window and escape, the door to her room opened, as someone with long dark purple hair and sharp golden eyes entered, wearing a long gold and purple dress, carrying with her bottle filled with a phantasmal liquid.

"Hel, how are you? I brought your food for today as well…" Loki sighed, expecting her daughter to be sleeping as always.

However, she quickly looked at her fully awake, standing bare footed in front of the window…

"Eh?"

"Huh?"