Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-418

In a certain Divine Realm shrouded in endless clouds made out of darkness, a creature that resembled a mass of black gas trembled in rage.

"When is it planning on coming…? It is taking too long! Didn't those beast gods ask for her assistance?! These pathetic Dogs and Kittens will all die if she does not come! Why is she taking so long?! Graah! My plans must succeed! Why is she leisurely spending the weeks in her Empire…?! I can't even go and exterminate her because of all those pesky gods protecting her!" it shouted, the dark clouds surrounding its entire body trembled and generated black lightning everywhere.

This strange and ominous being was Geggoron, the Demon Demigod of Hateful Distrust… he was one of the Demon Gods who had left Thanatos's Pantheon.

Due to his nature and divinity, he could not agree with the most 'peaceful' and 'neutral' attitude of the gods that made the Pantheon, and escaped from them before they were to understand his true motives and stop him.

Geggoron's true motives were simple… he was a god that represented hateful distrust. He could not bring himself to trust anyone but himself, everyone else was not worthy to be trusted neither cared about nor were also not worthy of living…

Although he cooperated with the rest of the Demon Gods in the past, it was for his survival, and when things finally settled down, he saw how all of these 'allies' decided to lay back and nourish mortals slowly…

Geggoron could not even trust mortals, on his eyes, they were nothing more than a pest, things that should be exterminated.

He had slowly moved the strings and used his powers to manipulate two tribes of beastmen, from the Moonfang Kingdom of Cat Beastmen and the Sunclaw Kingdom of Dog Beastmen.

Using these brainwashed priests to move things out, he quickly gained more followers from within the darkness, and slowly increased in strength.

These beasts were nothing but tools, he would exterminate them whenever he found them not worthy anymore.

Geggoron had got to know about Megusan's death not long after. He had felt his dim presence, which had been sealed long ago in a dungeon, completely disappear… only for another being to take on its divinity.

This being was one that he was very aware of, an enemy that had surged from within all of this, Kireina.

He knew that just like what happened with Agatheina leaving the demon pantheon because of this mortal, and Kireina killing Megusan because of the request of Morpheus, she would come for him, by the request of the gods of these two beastmen Kingdoms, Maeralya and Marnet.

He had thought that she would not take much to come for him, so he had prepared leisurely. Using plenty of his energy in blessing some strong mortals so he could make them his vessels.

Alongside this, he was plotting in destroying Kireina's Empire with the two beastmen Kingdom armies, but after he got to know that several gods were suddenly protecting her and had stationed their Divine Realms above the Grand Forest, he quickly forgot about such a plan.

For now, he decided to wait 'patiently', but Geggoron had not much patience.

He was an impatient god, he desired destruction and was hateful. He wanted to quickly get rid of the annoyance that Kireina was for his plans.

"To think that there is a mortal capable of defying gods and even eat their divinities…! If it was not for her… I would have been able to quickly expand through the border continent! I cannot wait any longer! She is no more than a mortal anyways… perhaps I cannot attack her directly but through her dreams…"

Geggoron possessed a rather interesting power, aside from creating powerful dark clouds, he was capable of manipulating nightmares to a certain degree. Without even having to request Freyja for her services, he decided to use a large amount of Divine Energy into diving on Kireina or her family's dreams.

"Perhaps I won't be able to damage her… but what about her children? Or her concubines? If I manage to make them go insane… then I should be able to provoke her and make her come towards my trap!" thought Geggoron, recklessly deciding to invade Kireina's family dreams.

The dark clouds he created traveled through the Realm of Dreams and reached the dreams of the ones he desired to corrupt and make go insane.

He found that Kireina's dream was the strongest, having an incredible protecting on it, her mind-related skills made her mind incredibly strong, not even Geggoron who had a slight specialization in dreams was able to enter them without making a lot of fuss that would end up waking her up.

"If I cannot affect her… then!"

Geggoron moved his nightmares elsewhere, targeting someone who seemed to be rather weak to his eyes… a young fairy with one eye, golden skin, yellow butterfly wings, and a small complexion, Vudia.

"This child seems weak enough! Now let us dive into your deepest nightmares! Insanity shall corrupt your judgment, mortal!"

However, the moment Geggoron's nightmares entered Vudia's dreamscape, he felt a slight disturbance…

"Hm? For a moment… No, it must have been my imagination. Perhaps that Kireina would have been able to fight back due to being an exception, but no matter how strong she becomes, her children should still be weak mortals without any hint of Divinity!"

Geggoron began to expand his nightmares, which had the form of the same dark clouds that he was capable of creating, expanding through the vast dreamscape.

He quickly found several bubbles floating around. In them, Vudia was with her family doing several activities such as hunting, dining together, or crafting, she was very happy in all of them. These were her dreams… for some reason, she was dreaming several times at the same time.

Geggoron thought that this child was a strange anomaly capable of dreaming several things at the same time, and expanded his nightmares to corrupt each bubble, where Vudia's consciousness rested.

The bubbles began to grow darker as he inserted his nightmares…

Vudia seemed confused in her dreams, as everything that was happening with her started to become darker, her family became horrible monsters made out of shadows that tried to devour her alive, while the sky became crimson red and the clouds dark…

But Vudia was not scared, just confused.

"Succumb to my nightmares, brat!" shouted Geggoron's voice, trying to intimidate the 'feeble' mind of Vudia.

"Hm? Who are you? What are you doing with my dreams? You are meanie!" shouted Vudia… she had suddenly become aware of Geggoron in every dream bubble.

"Hahaha! Yes! Succumb to my… What? You can see me?"

"Of course, I do! Who are you?! If you want to mess with me, I will call my mom!" shouted Vudia.

"Huh? What? Wait a moment, how is it possible? How can you see me? Your entire dreams are shrouded in my nightmares, part of my divinity! That is impossible! The only way that you could somehow detect my presence is if you were to have a divi… oh"

Geggoron seemed to realize something… that time when he entered Vudia's dreams… that strange presence…

"You let me enter your dreams willingly?! I fell to her trap!" shouted Geggoron.

"What trap? I thought you were a friend… sometimes friends come to visit me in my dreams… they are ghosts or spirits… But you are not a friend! You are ugly and meanie monster!" shouted Vudia, her golden eye suddenly became scarlet red, as her wings acquired a darker color.

"Your presence… You are no normal brat, huh? Well, even if I am trapped in here, I am still stronger! Even if you somehow possess a divinity, it should be weak! Now succumb! Even if I have to do it by force, you shall suffer through my nightmares!" shouted Geggoron, bewildered as he released large quantities of nightmares towards Vudia.

"No! Shut up! Mom!!!" shouted Vudia.

"Hahaha! Your mother will not hear you in your dreams! Unless you were to somehow be connected through your minds, but that is not possible either! You feeble little brat! Succumb to insa- huh?"

Geggoron could not take a break, from within Vudia's dreams, the figure of her mother, Kireina, suddenly appeared.

"What? Hah! That is nothing but a dream, an image! There is no way that is the real Kireina…!"

"Mommy, that's the bully! He is trying to do things to me!" shouted Vudia, as she hugged Kireina's legs and pointed towards the dark cloud who was the avatar of Geggoron in Vudia's' dreams.

"Don't worry my love, everything will be fine now. I will kill the big meanie. Afterward, we can eat him together" said the figure that resembled Kireina… with her same tone of voice and personality.

"Kill?! Eat me?! Hah! You can't intimidate me, little brat, that's a mere... illusion… right?"

Flash!

Kireina's figure suddenly began to mutate and shapeshift her entire body expanded like a mass of flesh, tentacles, armor-like skin, eyes, tongues, claws, fangs, and other disgusting fleshy things.

"What is that?! Y-You can't intimidate me like that! That is just a monster! I am a Demon Demigod! You can't- BUGYAH!"

Without Kireina doing anything at all, Geggoron felt a large piece of his existence sliced off him.

"Shut up. You're dinner now"

Geggoron tried to gasp for air as the excruciating pain filled his mind.

"W-What?! Impossible! I am but an avatar of my real body… you cannot… just eat me… but that pain! You somehow damaged my real body directly?! You are not a mere kid, aren't you?! Change of plans…! I'm going to just kill you, you brat!!!" shouted Geggoron, bracing himself to release more nightmares, immersed in his hate.

"Dieee! Succumb to despair!"

Geggoron had thought of Kireina as a mere dream illusion made by Vudia to intimidate him… so he just tried to get past her with its powers, without even considering Kireina being capable of retaliating back.

"What are you? Stupid? You just saw how I ate a piece of your body and yet you try to kill my daughter, I will make sure to savor you slowly" said Kireina's gigantic and grotesque body, as she extended her armored tentacles filled with sharp spikes and fangs, entangling Geggoron's black clouds.

"Huh? What?! T-This is solid?! That can't be… only those with dream divinity can become solid in dreams…!"

"All your knowledge is outdated then," said Kireina, expanding her tentacles around the Demon Demigod's dream avatar and devouring its entire body slowly through the jaws on her tentacles and other fleshy organs.

Geggoron was once again engulfed in excruciating pain, he felt his entire existence being slowly chopped like candy.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crunch!

"Gyyaaaaaah…! T-This is real?! No, I cannot let myself succumb to a mere mortal! I must escape! I must escape!!!" shouted Geggoron, immediately trying to escape from Vudia's dreamscape. He hadn't used his physical body either his soul to enter here, but just part of his conscience, he just needed to cut the connection and he would be free from the strange pain that Kireina was capable of inducing him into.

"Mommy, let me help you!" said the enraged Vudia, her only eye gleaming in a scarlet light as her dark butterfly wings began to manipulate her dreams to create large claws made out of darkness and blood.

Mother and daughter then began to grab on Geggoron's avatar, crushing and biting it. The old Demon Demigod could only cry in pain as he infused more and more Divine Energy into his futile attacks while trying to close the connection with Vudia's dreamscape.

"Gyaaah! Stop! Stooop! You bastards! You pesky mortals! You hateful rats! How dare you touch me?! A God! I will make sure to crush you all! Do not forget my words…! Gyaaaaa…!"

Geggoron's voice became dimmer as his consciousness was finally retrieved… Kireina and Vudia then glanced at the 'corpse' of Geggoron's dream avatar.

"He escaped! I can't believe this mommy, he started this!" shouted Vudia, bewildered.

"Hmph, don't worry my love. I will make sure to punish him for daring to touch you, for now, let's devour what I managed to cut off his divinity… Here, try it out" said Kireina, still in her grotesque form, feeding dark chunks of divinity to Vudia.

"Hmm… it tastes like… a very sour cotton candy!" said Vudia.

"It seems that you have great compatibility with it though… and our appearance, have you finally awakened it?" asked Kireina.

"Hm? My appearance? Uwah! M-My wings… are dark?"

"Yeah, and your golden eye became crimson-colored! You must have finally awakened your vampire side… or something else even stronger! That is my girl!" shouted Kireina, praising her beloved daughter.

"I'm not sure if I really like this… I like bright looks" muttered Vudia.

"Vudia, your beautiful no matter how you look, you heard me? Now let's eat this up before it gets cold"

"Thanks, mommy…! Alright… Nom, nom"

As mother and daughter began to feast on Geggoron's cut off divinity, the Demon Demigod shrieked in pain within his Divine Realm, shrouded in darkness.

"Ugh… Aaagh… My… divinity… how is possible…?! How could she just bite it off?! And she somehow entered her daughter's dreams just by being called into it…?! T-This is ridiculous… I cannot do this alone anymore… Should I retreat?"

Geggoron wondered his next course of action… what he had just experienced was deeply engraved on his heart… the fear and despair he felt were incommensurable. All of this being the will of a mortal made things seem even more terrible.

"No… I cannot escape… I promised that I would kill her and make her suffer! Perhaps I could not do much because it was just my dream avatar… but if I use my real power and take into a strong mortal vessel, she will meet her end!"

Geggoron's divinity was that of Hateful Distrust, with a few Nightmares… Although he could just forget Kireina or at least wait a few centuries to recover, his hate clouded his right judgment.

However, as he was about to plan what to do now… a strange presence called upon him through a Divine Message.

"Hm…? Who are these…? Huh?! The Goddess of Wisdom?!"