Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-381

In the Pantheon of the Demon Gods that founded the Thanatos Kingdom, several Demon Gods felt the presence of Megusan dissipating.

The one who they once saw as their companion and ally had always showcased strange conducts that were innate to its nature and divinity. And the moment he betrayed them; the Demon Gods never forgave him again. They knew that due to its nature, he would always try to betray them again if he did so once.

The Demon Gods Pantheon is usually misinterpreted as evil and terrible beings that only enjoy the suffering of others. But several of them do not pertain through such behaviors. And are usually conservative and cold headed creatures that stick together and survive.

Their leader, Thanatos, the Demon God of Everlasting Darkness, was a being that worried about the safety of his Kingdom and that of his children and brothers, the other Demon Gods.

Thanatos already knew that adding Megusan to their group back then would have eventually led to such a situation, but due to the circumstances present in that very moment, he saw Megusan as a valuable warrior.

Thankfully, because Megusan was so set on surviving over anything else, he cooperated with the rest and did not betray them nor tried to kill others to steal their divinities. Megusan was at least intelligent enough to understand the situation in where he was, any such thing would ignite the rage of the Demon Gods, and in the middle of the Ragnarök, it would have only led to his inevitable doom.

However, as the war settled down when the World of Genesis was split into Realms, he slowly released his toxicity, natural and instinctive of his own divinity. One could say that his attitude was a curse, and others that it was the nature of his divinity, but everyone was certain that he was a dangerous individual.

Although several Demon Gods had created 'bonds' with Megusan, and even mated with him to create children that could survive the harsh environment of the Realms, they knew that he would soon release all of the desires he had saved from within his heart.

It was inevitable.

And so, he did. He betrayed his siblings, made its own children sacrifice the tribes of other mortal demons, and enraged his siblings.

Megusan's response was "I just desired power. Don't you all do?".

Thankfully, the Demon Gods had already prepared for such a thing to happen eventually, and quickly disposed of him, exiling him from their Pantheon. He was wounded after being attacked by the rage of whose children were sacrificed, but he survived and escaped.

Only to come back one day, with offerings.

However, although some Demon gods were ready to forgive him, Thanatos was a strict individual. He had said that he would never forgive him neither welcome him back and against the other gods, he took the offerings of Megusan but then damaged him even further, throwing him away to the voracious and angered Beast Gods, whose he had stolen such 'offerings', which were the mortal beastmen tribes.

The Demon Gods were not involved in Megusan's sealing but did not interfere either. They knew that the enraged Beast Gods destroyed what barely remained of its physical body, and then torn apart its soul into pieces, that were then sealed into artifacts.

Unlike Thanatos and other Demon Gods, the Beast Gods were born after Genesis was destroyed into Realms, so they did not possess powerful offensive techniques like they did, which were essential to survive in the Ragnarök. Due to this, they were not capable of killing Megusan, neither eat him, so they had to just seal him.

Thanatos and the rest of the Demon Gods then forgave about this issue and concentrated on the present, they raised dungeons to nourish their children and taught their apostle's different ways of gaining strength and power, evolution, forgotten magic, and special exercises such as nourishing one's body with magic, which they named cultivation.

After such an explosion of power from the mortal demons, and as hundreds of years went by, they began to set their eyes on the nearby Kingdoms, Tribes, and Empires made by other demi-humans. The Children of Tiamat, or the children of the Ova, the Great Goddess of Beasts.

Allying with the Vampires and Agatheina, the Goddess of Blood, they obtained a valuable force that could act at night and dispose of the enemy forces their core. Due to this, they recognized Agatheina as a valuable ally…

"I don't really care about that Megusan dying, he was dead for all of us already… But what I care about is the one who killed him…" Thanatos muttered.

He had the size of a twenty floors building, a Giant being, his entire body was humanoid in resemblance, and it was covered in a powerful dark armor that exuded darkness and shadows. The armor was, in fact, its exoskeleton, and inside of it, there was only red flesh and blood.

He sat down on his Divine Realm… an arid place with an everlasting night, a bright artificial crimson moon shined at the sky, and countless of disgusting beasts and demonic monsters roamed the dry stone and the sky. Below the dry, gray stone, countless black and gray jewels were growing, and there were several giant mushroom forests, exuding toxic mist.

The Divine Realm of Thanatos was vast, he had stolen the Divine Realm of Megusan and merged it with his own, creating a larger landscape and making Poison Attribute beings grow alongside the Dark and Shadow Attribute ones that naturally formed in there.

Thanatos was not alone, as beside him there were a dozen other figures, some were grotesque in appearance, resembling masses of flesh, hundreds of eyes, a floating brain with tentacles, a hundred-headed bull… while others resembled humanoid-like creatures, but after closer inspection, one would quickly realize that they were disgusting beings, using 'armor' which were in reality exoskeleton, or beautiful maidens which were only wearing masks, and were in fact monsters made out of bones or fangs… The appearance of Demon Gods was very distinctive than conventional Gods, those born as Humans or very human-like demi-humans.

Agatheina would often sit beside these creatures, however, she would usually show herself as the giant bat-like monster that she is capable of transforming, as 'beautiful' appearances such as her humanoid form made the Demon Gods vomit in disgust.

A mass of floating eyes of different colors and shapes spoke, with a child-like voice, though it did not have a mouth, it talked telepathically with its siblings… Oculus, the Demon God of One Hundred Cursed Eyes.

"Thanatos… are you thinking the same thing as us?" it said.

"Indeed… We really did not put into the thought that the mortal named as 'Kireina' had already acquired the ability to eat God's souls… which means that she can also damage them, even without possessing Divine Energy" analyzed a giant, fleshy floating brain with tentacles… Kinesis, the Demon God of Brains and Telepathy.

"This is… Thanatos, Oculus, Kinesis… are you certain of such information? A mortal being capable of eating Gods… this all seems like a tale that an ignorant mortal would come out with… If it was capable of eating gods, wouldn't it be a god already?" said a 'beautiful' and tall woman, with fair purple skin and bat-like wings… but at closer inspection, such beauty was but a façade, it was her exoskeleton, behind her back there were six bug-like legs and large transparent wings, its bat-like wings were also part of its exoskeleton, and besides its pretty face was a grotesque fleshy face… Primidone, the Demon Demigoddess of Deceiving Beauty, mother of all Succubus and Incubus.

"Yeah! I don't understand this either… wouldn't she be a goddess then?! Thanatos, are you certain about your 'itch'… you know that the things you come out with do not happen all the time… aside from Megusan's incident" added a pale, phantasmagoric lady, which was made out of millions of bones… Varilok, the Demon Demigoddess of Phantom Bones.

"My siblings… I do understand your concern, but this isn't an 'itch', it is the factual truth. Trying to find another way out of this incredible situation will lead to nothing… 'Kireina', is a mortal capable of not only damaging Gods, but it is also capable of eating their souls and steal their divinities… the reason why Megusan's presence disappeared, but his divinity was still existing is because she most likely obtained it… while being a mortal…" said Thanatos, with a harsh and metallic voice, each time he spoke, his voice would make the entire Divine Realm tremble.

The god's reactions varied, but their shrieks and grotesque voices resonated as much as Thanatos inside the Divine Realm.

"That's…"

"But it's impossible…!"

"Wouldn't she have died then?"

"Megusan's soul was capable of dissolving even other divinities! How can it be?"

"How can…. How can a mortal have a divinity? Wouldn't her soul die down? What kind of Soul does she possess?" asked Primidone, bewildered.

"I do not know… but I suspect that her Soul had ranked up to at least Rank 7 and that it mutated to somehow gain a similar power to the Devour Skill that she was gifted in the blessing of the System Master… the information about her blessing was leaked by the Fallen Omgramid, so everyone knows about it," said Thanatos, calming down his siblings with his ability to speak coherently and convincingly.

"Thanatos… do you mean that she has a Soul capable of eating other souls and even divinities? Wouldn't she need the Divinity Devouring technique…? Wait… could it be?" said Kinesis.

"Yes, my brother. This fact was unknown to us Gods for thousands of years, but the System had somehow developed a Skill with the same effects as Divinity Devouring… that's what I think" said Thanatos, he seemed to be certain of it… but not entirely, he didn't have any proof outside of Kireina being able to eat divinities.

The various Demon Gods released screams of discomfort and concern.

"Damned System!"

"That World's Will!"

"Always controlling us… after creating that System that mostly favors mortals...!"

"Did it created such a Skill to dispose of us?!"

"We must quickly dispose of Kireina before it's too late!"

"If we all descend together and quickly finish her off, we may be able to not waste as much Divine Energy!"

Thanatos was slightly overwhelmed by his sibling's response to the 'truth', but he quickly used his powers to emanate a pressure, which quickly made them fall in silence.

"My siblings. Do not fall into despair. She may be capable of such things, but don't we all? That she is capable of eating divinities may be shocking for a mortal… but we can all do the same," said Thanatos, "Megusan was weakened, cut into pieces, and then sealed, its powers were far away from what it formerly had. It is ridiculous to think that she would even stand a chance against all of us, but it is also ridiculous to be overly wary of her as if she were to destroy this entire world if we don't put an end to her… wouldn't the Supreme or Great Gods had taken action by then?"

"But…" muttered the other demon gods.

"What if we were to do so as you said, sister? Yes, we would dispose of her, but our Divine Energy would have been greatly used… we would have to fall into a slumber for thousands of years, leaving our children on their own… perhaps they had managed to reach so far and are strong on their own, but if we stop speaking to them, if we stop sending divine messages, their faith would dissipate and we would be greatly weakened after we wake up, perhaps they would have been all vanished by then by the armies of the other Gods" said Thanatos, his words were firm and held wisdom in them, he hasn't lived for hundreds of thousands of years to not gain any knowledge.

As the other Demon gods fell silent, Kinesis decided to speak.

"Thanatos is right… She may be capable of eating divinities, but it does not mean that she is capable of damaging us at our peak… which means that her threat to us isn't as big as we think… At most, it will take our blessed child some time to defeat her, but if we share our powers from within our Divine Realms, she should be more than capable of annihilating 'Kireina'. It is completely illogical for the one who ate Megusan to be able to stand a chance," it said, as its fleshy body in the form of a brain trembled, releasing telepathy waves which he used to speak with its siblings.

"Megusan was nothing more than a husk of its former self, while our blessed child will soon reach her peak and with the Sin of Greed at her side, she will be able to use the powers of 'Kireina' against her…" added Oculus.

"Your analysis is correct… Kinesis, but still… Perhaps I am just being overly paranoiac?" asked Primidone.

"Sister, you should rest for some time," said Oculus.

"I am being overly cautious as well… we may have been living in such peace for too long, we get bewildered for the bare minimum of things…" said a mass of flesh and grease… Milmeloth the Demon God of Rotting Flesh.

"Indeed… such peace was nonexistent back then… it is really relaxing, but at the same time, it may make us grown paranoiac about things that may be off," said a giant mass of floating fangs and claws covered in black flames… Drostranith, the Demon Demigod of Burning Desires.

"Well, it was really shocking when Agatheina suddenly betrayed us and cut any connections with us all out of a sudden… we should have never trusted that ravenous woman," said Oculus.

"Perhaps we mistreated her… if she had built better bonds with us… if we had treated her more like an equal and a sister, she wouldn't have betrayed us so easily… perhaps she was worried about her children…" said a massive bull covered in dark fur, who possessed one hundred heads… the Demon God of Brutish Savagery.

"That will only remain as a big 'maybe'…" analyzed Kinesis.

"Agatheina might be even worse than Megusan, her desire to survive made her immediately betray us… but if we take into consideration that 'Kireina' only retrieved the Vampires and the Bats and then ran away immediately, it probably means that she is not stupid enough to confront our blessed child and her warriors, she was probably given such a task by Agatheina before joining her" said Oculus.

"And what about the other Beast Gods, they are suddenly sucking up to a mortal… How embarrassing… Second Generation Gods are really pathetic" said Primidone.

"Their children have been very nice nourishment for our children, and probably to the other tribes like the Abyss Cyclops or Tiamat's children… they will soon weaken enough, they won't be able to do anything and will remain with their spoiling mother… they are too naïve if they think that a mortal can suddenly accomplish so many things and save all of their children," said Thanatos.

"That is the truth, brother"

"Well, we shouldn't worry so much then?"

"Sigh… I was freaking out a lot"

"Don't relax so much, you often fall asleep when you do. We still need to remain awake to inspect anything"

"Okay…"

The Demon Gods continued their meeting and talked about subjects and problems inside of their children's Kingdom… completely unaware that their paranoiac behavior was completely justified, Kireina was really someone who would change the entire structure of the world.

Some could say that Kireina's Luck Stat came in a lot of use in this situation. Even as strong as she is, she wouldn't have been capable of defeating all of the Demon Gods together, she may have been able to run away, but her Empire would have been most likely destroyed and her family massacred.

But Gods are complex, and they think about each decision they will take multiple times, especially if they are not as instinctual as Megusan, such outcome would have been most likely stopped by the Gods backing Kireina and her family, Thanatos considered this as well and decided to not be rash on his decisions and let things go as planned.