Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-340

[Day 203]

Today in the morning a new group of Resistance members joined in, now the centaurs that made this army were over two thousand, quite incredible for normal folk gathered from the surrounding villages.

Sofelaia and Sofarpia possessed an innate ability to lead centaurs, as they obeyed their words and became inspired by them very easily, it seems that these powers originate from their Royal Bloodline and were amplified after receiving Morpheus's blessing.

Aegina seemed to have gained the blessing of Morpheus overnight, and so did her mother as well, even when she wasn't a Royal Family member. Agamocles and his little brother obtained one as well and even the old goat centaur man Medastus.

They felt like the Twin Princesses were something like the Saints or Popes representing their God and were held in an even higher position, praised and worshiped.

And because I saved their lives and taught them how to become stronger, the centaurs held me even higher, even when I didn't possess Centaur Bloodline either the Blessing of Morpheus.

After seeing how easy I could create meat and vegetables by summoning Familiars and Monster Plants, they began to see as more than just a Witch, but something else, as if I were the herald of a greater God, some speculated that I was the Apostle of the Great Goddess of Beasts Ova, who represents the Life Attribute and is seen as the mother of all animals.

Some ignorant folk said that Fairies may be descendants of Ova, due to them having animal traits in the butterfly wings… They are very wrong; I don't even know who created caterpillars in this world but I'm sure that Ova isn't my mother.

Incidentally, Lamias are not descendants of Ova, but it is said that there are Snake Beastfolk, but their appearance is more like Yiksukesh in her humanoid form than how Lamias are. Lamias seem to be descendants of other gods, related to demons.

Harpies seem to be beast folk as well and are descendants of one of Ova's daughters, that's quite interesting… But I wonder if the Gale Birds that evolved into Valkyries count? The System Existence Evolution seems to have messed a lot with this and made it possible for monsters to become other races originated from gods.

Before monsters were able to evolve, but wouldn't become humanoid, they would grow and perhaps gain new Attributes and slightly stronger appearances. There are indeed tales about monsters becoming gods and remaining with their monster appearances even as Demi-Gods and Gods. In fact, some of them are the ancestors of demon races.

All of this info was told to me by Medastus, the Goat Centaur old man, Centaurs can live quite long, up to three hundred years, and this old man has lived for two hundred years, so he has read several books and knows tales about the origins of races and species.

Although I would like to know more from the old man, I must prioritize things, afterwards, I can invite him to my Kingdom. He was rather surprised that I didn't know such things, but didn't try to ask why, he just said "everyone has different lives, Lady Kireina dedicated herself to magic, so I did to History and Myths, even if we have lived for very long, it doesn't mean that we should possess the same knowledge".

We decided on our next course of action for the last invasion in City 3, where we would finally put an end to the Vampires. Their hideout this time was underground, in a large dungeon made by a sadistic Noble Family that liked to collect slaves to torture every day, the chambers were extended several times through the years, and it was as big as three manors down below, a true labyrinth.

There have been monsters spawning there so the Family had to abandon their home, and it slowly became a low-level dungeon. Perhaps the anger and suffering became impregnated as paranormal forces in the underground, generating high quantities of Mana that slowly changed the place.

The last Vampires had run towards that place, refuging themselves while being protected by a Noble Vampire with the name of Xanthus. He is a powerful Vampire, probably the strongest of all I've fought, he had managed to escape from my grasp until now.

He is a Blood Demon that converted into a Vampire later and evolved into a Noble Vampire through his training. He is stronger than most because of the compatibility between Blood Demons and Vampires, instead of his power being sealed, they were amplified, which rarely happens.

He raised through the ranks and became a powerful leader; his story and origins are unclear… he only appeared one day as a Vampire out of nowhere. He was probably someone exiled from a different nation and was taken by the Vampires and easily converted into one through their rituals.

I obtained most of this information thanks to the Vampires that I captured, brainwashed, and then converted into Dhampir, they spit all of the information without hesitating at all, even going a step above with small details and tidbits that I don't really care.

Because of their hideout being a Dungeon, they must probably think that we cannot attack them from the underground either the front, as the only way to enter is with the dungeon entrance, it is said that dungeon walls are incredibly strong and resilient, while having high regeneration.

Dungeon Walls are weak only when the Dungeons have been abandoned for ages and ages, decreasing in power and Mana, but this rather young dungeon is exuding with Mana and monsters, so its walls are as sturdy as the hardest of metals.

Sadly, for them, they don't know that I possess a Divine Dungeon and I've obtained Skills that can let me manipulate any dungeon I touch, like [Dungeon Area Assimilation], [Dungeon Snatch], [Automatic Dungeon Mapping] or [Dungeon Maintenance].

So, we will invade through the underground, there aren't records of mortals being able to manipulate dungeons, so it's safe to assume that they won't assume that of me…

Though I can't stop being overly cautious that they would somehow think that, so I will go a step above as well, and make golems invade them first, with thousands of monsters added into the mix… that should work… No, I will add traps of all kinds, and my slime clones will carry them, detonating everything, yes.

As I decided to do such things, I began preparations without any waiting, by using the help of my wives MP Pool, we slowly opened a cave through the underground, we had already relocated close to the dungeon where the Vampires resided, it took a few hours even with my Elemental Manipulation while I inserted souls into the walls so they could move out of the way faster… but after very long, we finally found the dark blue walls of the dungeon, a large cave, of over five kilometers was made, something that would never be possible with this world standards.

Then, the monster summoning began, Skeleton, Mounted Undead Knights, Baby Wyverns, Draconic Lions, Yokai, and my Slime Clones equipped with traps that I created, specifically made for detonation and other uses like healing, enhancing, or protecting.

"L-Lady Kireina, are you sure that we would even need to do something ourselves?" Asked Agamocles, overwhelmed by my brilliant plan on leaving my summons to do everything.

"Of course, Agamocles, you guys will be entering through the normal entrance"

"Huh?"

Led by the Twin Centaur Princesses and Jerold taking care of their backs, the centaurs will confront the weakened and desperate Vampires from the front, in a similar fashion than the previous invasion to the Vampire hideout. I'm not being original here because there isn't anything to be original about, I will just do the things that work.

Enhancing them with my enchantments, powerful Armor, and artifacts, they will charge at the front, however I presume that over 50% of the Vampires will be dead by then…

As the army of monsters was behind me, I covered my entire body in Mirage-Attribute Magic, resembling a Skeleton leading the party.

Instead of opening the walls right off the bat, I decided to manipulate the dungeon from the inside, as my [Automatic Dungeon Mapping] skill revealed me all of it.

I first manipulated the dungeon walls and created tentacles made out of the bricks, which attacked nearby Vampires, while more tentacles began to appear everywhere, holes opened with sharp teeth made of the dungeon's own bricks.

"T-The Dungeon?!"

"I-Its alive…! The dungeon's alive?!"

"Gyaaaaaaaaah! Heeeelp!"

The dungeon shapeshifted into largemouths that began to devour the weaker Vampires, while the large tentacles imprisoned others and began to asphyxiate them, a bloody mess had already begun.

And then, I touched the dungeon wall with my hand, and it opened in a quarter of a second, the Vampires, confused about what was going on, didn't put much attention into it until the Undead and Monsters were already slicing them into pieces.

I released a strange fragrance that made the Vampires dizzy and even paralyzed. They couldn't use their abilities and magic to their fullest potential. Losing to a group of low-level Skeleton Knights or Mounted Undead Knights.

"W-What is this mist?!"

"T-That skeleton is releasing it…! UAAAGH!"

"GYAAAH!"

"I-I can't use my magic properly… Uaaghh…"

The Chaos quickly spread to the other chambers and the Vampires, who were around five hundred all put their attention in stopping the mess that was going on, the mist easily expanded itself through the entire dungeon and the walls began to shapeshift as well into tentacles and giant mouths filled with sharp teeth, various Vampires died without even knowing why.

As I stealthily hid with my Skills, I detected the presence of the Noble Vampire leading the group, he suddenly appeared as a mass of jelly-like blood, right in front of me. He was able to see through my Stealth, a Skill that was able to completely erase my presence.

"Did you really think that such tricks would have worked?! Irregular, you will pay for killing my siblings!"

"I can't believe that you found me so fast… Well"

Suddenly, several Slime Clones appeared out of the dungeon bricks, hundreds of tiny blood-like slimes that resembled the mass of blood that he looked like tightly stick to his body.

"W-What?! Slimes…? N-No!"

Xanthus was unaware of this, and became bewildered… He probably found me through the artifact that everyone was carrying around, but the Slime Clones were hiding beneath the dungeon and they didn't seem to be qualified as Irregulars.

Flash!

BOOOM!

He wasn't even able to speak another world as Xanthus' whole body exploded into pieces through all the hundreds of Slimes detonating.

I protected myself with a Magic Barrier as I moved towards a safe distance, Xanthus was torn into pieces, but I was still sensing trails of life.

"Now!"

I called on my wives, who were hiding beneath me through Mirage Magic as the walls themselves, and I created a Domain with my Aura, enclosing the surrounding one hundred meters.

Xanthus pieces of flesh began to crawl and slowly get together, his blood seemed alive. Was he a being like me? To be able to rearrange himself…

Without letting it have any chance, I released ten Chaos Spheres from my fingers, as they flew towards the torn flesh and blood, detonating and making it spin chaotically.

"UGYAAAAAHH!!!"

"I'm not going to let you recover, idiot!"

Brontes, Rimuru, and Zehe rushed towards him as they used their magic to create powerful blasts, grilling alive the regenerating Vampire Noble.

Its flesh was burned and then regenerated as if constantly multiplying through cell division.

Thunderclaps, Multi-Colored Beams, and Shadow Rays rained over the dissipated flesh, as it tried to unite again.

It seems that he couldn't use his Divine Beast Flesh unless he rearranged himself!

So by using this, I covered my body into the Calamity Dragon Armor, which amplified my Chaos Attribute Magic as I released even more Chaos Spheres from my fingers, the rain of spells from all sides became even greater when Nefertiti and Alice joined in, releasing blades of light and scarlet thunder attacks.

The delicious smell of grilled meat was rather pleasing to me, but I kept my composure as I multitasked and used my Soul Energy, solidifying my Soul into giant claws with the help of my Aura and then beginning to rip apart Xanthus's soul before he could even do anything…

"GYAAAAAAAAAHH! W-WAIT! D-DOOON'T!!!"

Crying in agony over the excruciating pain of having its soul slowly torn off into pieces, Xanthus used all of the accumulated Mana he had to release a powerful shockwave, in hopes of this indiscriminate onslaught to stop at once, but the shockwave of a weakened Vampire like him was nothing to fear, and he was burned alive several times until his soul was completely eaten.

However, just now that Xanthus' soul was destroyed, a strange magic presence appeared. Space distorted itself and the figure of a small blonde girl appeared in front of us, in less than a second, she flew towards the closest enemy to her, Rimuru.

Rimuru didn't have such a fast thought process as me and was taken aback.

"H-Huh?! W-What… Guuu…!"

Flash!

In less than a second, she grabbed on Rimuru's with a powerful mental force, like a massive hand that had appeared from her own head, squeezing her like an ant…

"A Slime like you shouldn't have taken this form… Let me help you reunite with your kind, in death"

The moment she had appeared, I tried to move towards Rimuru, but I felt my body incredibly heavy. Another presence that I never felt was here as well as if they had suddenly shown up without any explanation.

"Gravity Domain…" said a manly voice.

The moment I blinked, a beautiful and voluptuous woman with short blue hair was fighting Brontes and Zehe in even terms, and she seemed to be able to manipulate a Poison that could even affect their powerful barriers and bodies, Bronte's skin began to melt and Zehe's magic shields melted as well.

These guys… Did they settled us out…?

Was this why Xanthus was awfully easy to defeat?

Was I being overly cautious but in that cautiousness, there was naivety?

Thankfully, I had saved several trump cards, just in case...

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