Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-495

Hephaestus, the Blacksmith God of Fire and Forgery, brother of Athena, Apollo and many others, and son of Zeus, the God of Thunder and Hera, the Goddess of Marriage, Women, and Nebulas, who was also the grandson of the Titan God Cronos, who perished by the hand of Zeus and his siblings in the Ragnarök, felt something strange happening within his authority.

He had been given the task of creating artifacts by his father Zeus and his sister Athena and was slowly perfecting an artifact that could drive the power of gods to a greater extent in mortal vessels. However, each time he worked on his smith, he would absorb the power of one of his daughters, who he had sealed long ago, Palikoi.

Palikoi was one of the youngest daughters of Hephaestus that was born from her deceased mother Aetna, a Nymph of Fire (Living Deity Species), who was one of the countless daughters of the Titan Gods Gaia and Uranus.

Born as a Divine Fire Soul Djinn with the Divinity of Passion and Hot springs (Living Deity Species), her power was explosive and dangerous, and due to her passionate personality, she would go in tantrums too often.

Due to Hephaestus being a terrible father, he sealed her inside a dream world that he created with the help of Freyja, which he paid dearly with many Divine Materials and Divine Energy Crystals.

Because in the dream world time goes faster than in reality, she stayed for thousands of years in isolation, only having her powers drawn by her father when it was time to forge weapons and artifacts.

Palikoi was a unique race of Living Deity Species, a Divine Fire Soul Djinn, which did not possess a physical body but was an existence entirely made out of the divine fire. Hephaestus saw her not as a daughter but as a tool. Becoming too annoyed by her, he sealed her and only drawn her powers to use his furnace and craft many artifacts.

Just like another day, he was about to forcefully drawn her powers from within the small Dream World where she was sealed, but out of nowhere, her presence seemed to not be there anymore.

Hephaestus thought that it was her foolish daughter resisting his authority.

"Hm? You foolish girl, do not resist! I am very busy now! Do something to repay your father and give me your fire!"

"…"

However, no response was given.

Sometimes, Palikoi would resist her father's authority, but would give in after Hephaestus yelled at her… but she was now completely ignoring him.

"By Chaos, if you don't cooperate, I shall punish you greatly!" roared Hephaestus, his appearance resembled a Dwarf whose skin was red like an oni, he had a long brown bear and blazing orange eyes, packed with bulging muscles, he resembled a demon.

However, even after a big threat, there was no response whatsoever…

"What the? Very well then, it is time for me to go there and slap you until you understand, foolish girl!" roared Hephaestus, completely enraged.

Inside of his Divine Realm, he willed it as he tried to create a portal to his Dream World created by Freyja where his daughter was sealed.

But every time he tried to do so, the portal would tremble and dissipate.

Even after putting a lot of his energy, the portal would not open.

"What is… going on?!"

Hephaestus then contacted Freyja personally, but she was clueless as well.

"It seems that… the Dream World… is gone? Impossible! Who could have such a high authority over dreams to do such a thing? I also made sure that the Dream World was to be located inside of your Divine Realm! No one can enter it except you or those that you let enter… yet, it is completely gone! Who is even capable of stealing the perfect Dream Worlds that I can create?!" roared Freyja, she wasn't a goddess from the Realm of Vida, but held responsible for the 'services' she sold to others.

"The only Dream Attribute Gods that come to my mind is Geggoron and the young Oneiros… but Oreinos's powers have not developed to such an extent yet, he's a mere child! Then… who could it be…?"

"Well if you are clueless, how could I know? I am not from your Realm, Hephaestus, that is your responsibility. But… I remember that some days ago I tried to control the Dreams of the Realm of Vida, but they did not obey me. There was a strange being that was controlling them masterfully, is Geggoron such a god?" asked Freyja.

"No… Geggoron is only a Demigod, he shouldn't be capable of- But if… that monster ate Geggoron?! So he lost! Has Athena known about this?! But how?! So it was the monster that… stole Palikoi!"

"Monster?"

"Excuse me, Lady Freyja, but I must leave you, for now, there are important things that I must inform my family," said Hephaestus, cutting his communication with Freyja.

Freyja grimaced, glaring in the direction of the Realm of Vida.

"The monster…? Is that 'monster' the one that has such authority over dreams…? Hm… To be capable of stealing my Dream Worlds… What kind of existence it is? To be capable of wielding Dream Attribute just as masterfully as me?! Impossible…"

Hephaestus called upon Athena, Zeus, and Apollo, alongside the other gods that were working with him while plotting against Kireina and her Empire.

Athena glanced at her older brother with a calm expression on her face.

"Athena, the monster defeated Geggoron?!"

"Yes, I know…" she said.

"You know? Why didn't you tell me?!"

"You just woke up, didn't you?" said Apollo.

"A-Ah… well…"

"It was to be expected that Geggoron would die to that monster. It was within my expectations, even… it seems that the artifacts did not work at all, as they were destroyed without it even being used to its full extent… What a disappointment, that Geggoron was really a miserable fool. I am sorry, brother, but we will have to find other subjects to use them on," said Athena, petting the owl in her left shoulder.

"Athena aren't you the Goddess of Wisdom?! How couldn't you guess that Kireina wouldn't grow stronger from the battle?" asked Hephaestus.

"What? Brother, I know that she must have gotten some of Geggoron's powers, but she is a mere mortal, the extent of the powers that she can steal with Devour shouldn't be threatening to us-"

"You fool! It is worst than you think!" roared Hephaestus, almost attacking Athena like a crazed hound, however, he was stopped by his father Zeus and Apollo.

"Calm down my son!" roared Zeus.

"Brother are you alright?" asked Apollo.

"B-Brother? Calm down! What is happening to you? Why are you so upset? We can find someone else to use your artifacts, you don't have to get so enraged!" said Athena, walking away from her older brother.

"It's not that! I do not care about that right now! You idiot, how couldn't you figure out that the power that Kireina could obtain after defeating Geggoron was his divinity itself?! She can control dreams now!"

"I was aware of that! She was already able to use dreams to an extent, which she mostly used to bless her mortal believers… but she shouldn't be capable of doing anything above that, she is a mortal, no matter how many gods she kills… unless… her Devour awakened into something capable of absorbing Divinities? B-But… I never predicted that even with my 'Calculation'… Even when she got some of Megusan's powers, it is not anything extraordinary… but could that be attributed to Megusan being weakened already to such an extent to be comparable to a Living deity instead of a demigod? Then!" said Athena.

"The Goddess of Wisdom finally figured it out, it seems!" said Hephaestus ironically.

"If Kireina acquired Geggoron's dream divinity on its entirely because he was rather healthy… then… it is possible that she might have acquired his full powers as well… But even so, why are you so enraged about that fact? It is not like she has come to attack you or anything, even with dreams, it is impossible to use them to such an extent, not even Freyja is capable of using dreams to just come to a God's Divine Realm and kill it!" said Athena.

"No… she didn't attack me, but took something from me! She stole the Dream World where Palikoi was sealed! Do you know how much of a fortune it cost to commission it to Freyja?! And Palikoi was also an essential tool for the creation of artifacts in a short amount of time! Without her divine fire, it will take years to get them done!" roared Hephaestus.

"She did what?!" shouted Apollo.

"Impossible! That monster had grown too much!" roared Zeus, enraged.

Athena was baffled.

"Impossible… not even my calculations were able to predict this outcome… she is capable of taking over Dream Worlds and even… steal them? And she somehow stole Palikoi…"

"Such power… isn't it comparable to Freyja to an extent?" asked Apollo.

"Indeed… although Freyja can do many other things… However, we cannot ask for her help if she doesn't reign in this Realm, Kireina might have become the strongest entity with a Dream Attribute Divine Authority… b-but how can she get a divine authority if she isn't a god?! If the system is the one allowing mortals to do such outrageous and nonsensical things… then we can't even trust in the System Master neither in the system itself… this wretched magical construction is too biased towards mortals!" shouted Athena, hitting her table.

Kireina suddenly stealing the daughter of Hephaestus, the one capable of producing divine flames almost endlessly to feed his furnace and craft artifacts in just a few days was a deep wound in the plan for these gods.

Without Palikoi, new artifacts might take years to be completed, even if Hephaestus were to accelerate the time of his Divine Realm, at least months.

"And this happened just after she ate Geggoron… this most likely means that… someone might have told her about Palikoi…" muttered Athena.

"A traitor?" asked Apollo.

"It must be! But who?! The only ones who know about Palikoi's existence were us. Her mother is dead, Uranus is sealed in a different realm after he fell mad in the Ragnarök and merged with monsters, and Gaia is sealed as well in yet another Realm, all of the ones that know of her are not even in the Realm of Vida," said Zeus.

Uranus was the Titan Great God of the Sky and Constellations and was said to be related with the Supreme God of the Star's Ocean, being one of his strongest children. In the Ragnarök, he fought against many factions defending his father, who at that time was not a Supreme God yet, but fell due to the onslaught of many gods. His almost-dead body fell to the Abyss of Genesis and was assimilated by aberrations, which made him go mad, being ultimately sealed by his own father.

Gaia was the Titaness Great Goddess of Maternity, Fertility, and Earth, and was said to be related with the Supreme Goddess of Life and Origin, being one of her eldest daughters. She fought against many factions, her soul was split in half in a great battle, one piece was lost, while the other was sealed by Zeus and his family alongside other gods when Genesis was still a planet. When the planet exploded and was divided into Realms, her sealed split soul seemed to be still intact, and it became the sediments for a new Realm.

Both of them gave birth to many children, amongst them was the mother of Palikoi, Aetna, a Nymph of Fire, and a Living Deity. After meeting with Hephaestus and falling in love with him, their passion gave birth to Palikoi. While Aetna died later on in the Ragnarök due to Hephaestus irresponsibility.

After the Ragnarök, the supreme gods mostly forgot their grudges and helped each other… many gods that were formerly enemies in the war reconciled. This is why Zeus and his family, who sealed Gaia were on friendly terms with the Pantheon of the Supreme Goddess of Life and Origin.

Palikoi was too reckless and passionate, annoying Hephaestus and interrupting his work, making him enraged and sealing her in a Dream World made by Freyja.

The ones that knew about her existence could be Uranus and Gaia because they have a bloodline connection with her and the ones that knew of her birth from Hephaestus's mouth.