Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-1981

By manipulating the Spiritual Energy he had acquired through the birth of his [Spirit Heart], Truhan encompassed his entire body with Divine and Spiritual Flames, propelling off the ground and flying at an incredible speed while carrying his friends with his enormous, titanic hands.

To save energy, Celica was also reduced to her smaller size as her husband carried her on his hand, the Titan of flames resembled a harbinger of death as he landed over smaller floating islands, shaking their small ecosystems and provoking the Spirit Beasts to attack him.

However, every time this happened, his group quickly got into action, leaping out of his hand, and attacking all at once. With their combined strength, most of the Spirit Beasts of this area of the Spiritual Plane were of no problem.

And through harvesting their Spirit Hearts and absorbing them for themselves, their own Spirit Hearts were slowly strengthened, Meiji was rather happy, as he noticed that his Spirits slowly grew stronger, even feeding on the corpses of the Spirit Beasts, which were not really tasty for anybody else.

After a couple of days of traveling in this way, the team was resting on a small, almost inhabited Floating Spirit Island, glancing into the distance, a thick layer of white clouds was now in front of their path. Before crossing the unknown, they prepared, cooking a large meal using ingredients grown and raised inside each one's divine realms.

Growing cattle and cultivating vegetables and fruits with the mortals that inhabited their divine realms was normal, so they could easily get themselves good meat, vegetables, and fruits whenever they wanted.

Of course, for Gods as strong as them, they had to add Divine Ingredients to make things more palatable and capable of refilling their exhausting much faster.

Below a warm atmosphere, Kizuato slowly prepared a large stew with Divine Potatoes, Ruby Tomatoes, and Saintly Chicken meat, alongside some Spiritual River Rice, one of the few herbs that was delicious from this world.

He quickly noticed Meiji playing with his spirits, they had started as very small crystalline entities, but had now grown to a larger size, around twice as large, meaning that as big as two hands.

"How are your spirits? I've noticed they have gotten bigger." Kizuato analyzed.

"Yeah, thanks to what we've hunted, they have feed themselves quite well. Honestly, I'm just relieved they're alive." Meiji sighed. "Though, I wonder how much food they'll ask for before getting larger."

"Those rascals been eating almost all the Spirit Beasts we hunt! How much do they eat with those tiny bodies of them? They remind me of Kireina-sama's kids and their crazy appetite." Laughed Goruden, drinking some hot coffee.

"They do eat a lot…" Jinsoku said, while eating a sandwich. "After the whole incident that turned them into a huge… chimera thing, did they evolve or something?"

"I'm not so sure." Meiji sighed. "I think that, like Amethyst said, they might have gone into some sort of ethereal slumber, sleeping within my own internal energies as mere ethereal essences, it was thanks to the [Spirit Heart] I developed that they were able to materialize once more, through now, they resemble the Spirit entities of this world. Perhaps to survive the Spirit Energy that ended turning them into monsters before."

"I see… You endured well, Meiji." Yukan patted his brother's shoulder. "Are you sure you want to continue this journey? Maybe we could tell Truhan or Celica to let you rest inside their Divine Realm, you don't need to fight if you don't want to, you've gone through a lot already."

"Tch, are you looking down on me because I am not a muscle headed fighter like you guys? I am still trying to get stronger myself! And no, I won't go rest or anything, I need to see this through the end." Meiji sighed. "I feel… a bit guilty too, about what happened to them, and about what happened to you guys. I want to repay your kindness with whatever strength I have left, so please, don't just tell me to go away…"

"Fine, fine! Don't get so angry man." Laughed Yukan. "You've always been the smaller out of all of us, since we were just simple Mountain Monkeys that we watched over you."

"Well, he was always the smarter too, not even our father was able to figure out how to harvest and plant mushrooms in the caves, he also learned to write and speak. He was the first of us to speak with Lady Kireina back then." Said Kizuato, kind of proud of Meiji.

"After you got your Spirits you kind of forgot we existed for a bit…" Jinsoku sighed. "I felt heart broken, you know?"

"W-What are you talking about?!" Meiji sighed, facepalming. "I never forgot about you guys, I was just… a bit busy with them. They felt like my kids. Although Brontes grew the fastest out of them because of her previous life memories and her greater intelligence, the rest stayed pretty much as kids, and I had to slowly raise them, it was a lot of work. Hah, I miss Vudia too, I wonder if she's alright."

"She surely is." Kizuato nodded. "She's like your granddaughter, huh?"

"Something like that, her cute giggles always greeted me almost every day. She loved to barge inside of my Office while I was designing new magical circles or practicing alchemy, and always made a mess…" Meiji sighed with a faint smile.

"Hahaha! Kids are like that!" Laughed Goruden.

"I wonder if they're coming for us…" Meiji wondered, looking into the sea of clouds, as his brother served him a plate of chicken stew.

"I don't know, but I'm sure that Kireina-sama will come back someday, and there's no way she'll abandon us." Truhan commented, walking into the conversation while carrying a few Spirit Beasts he had hunted and taken their Spirit Hearts. "Spirit Kids, here, have some more meat. You gotta grow bigger to get stronger."

"Roar!"

"Kyuuh!"

"Shaah!"

All of Meiji's spirits flew into the Spirit Beasts carcasses and stared to happily dig-in, the rest of the group sat around a large fire as they shared a warm conversation, while eating good food, slowly strengthening their bonds as friends, and family.

"Kireina-sama… I can feel something, our bond with her has become stronger, I do wonder if she has somehow revived." Celica wondered out of nowhere, feeling something.

"I felt it too." Truhan nodded. Everyone else agreed as well.

"Yeah…" Palami sighed. "She's so extraordinary, I doubt she'll ever stay dead forever…"

"Though, it would be damn depressing to face a reality without our leader." Sighed Raito. "She was so sexy too; it would be a crime if she died for real!"

"Oi, are you lusting for lady Kireina now?! You have me!" Palami gave Raito a karate chop in the head.

"Ouch! S-Sorry! You're my everything, Palami!" Raito cried.

"Hahaha! If they learn that we've been thrown here, sooner or later, Kireina and her family will come for us!" Asure said. "Kireina's spirit is very adventurous, there's no way she'll miss exploring this world."

And once they were ready…

"Let's go."

Truhan faced the thick layer of white clouds, fearlessly flying into it!

FLUOOOOSH!

And the first thing that greeted him and his group was a huge blizzard!