Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-714

Within the depths of the jungles, lakes, and swamps of the Dark Steppes, a divine entity overflowed the place with corrosive and mutating miasma, covering everything with darkness and monstrosities.

The ground turned purple and red, the plants became all monstrous creatures, with protruding tentacles, eyes, and large jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth, even the tiny plants around and the fungi became monstrous creatures, and if that ever happened to normal plant life, the monsters that existed before all of this had turned into even more dangerous creatures, roaming in large groups, looking for prey while destroying anything on their way.

Whatever was left of the tribes that once lived in here was now turned all into ruins, the ground covered in their blood and guts, while the survivors gathered inside a large divine barrier created by every God that inhabited the Dark Steppes.

These Gods did not want to give up their home, the one they had been nurturing and protecting for so long. Although they knew that if things became completely irremediable, they would save the people inside of their Divine Realms and escape the Dark Steppes.

Infusing the little power they all held, they began to pour more power to resist Jorgrakog's Aura, which began to pull into their Barrier like a powerful pressure.

The Gods gnashed their teeth or other body parts, resisting as much as they could.

For most people, this act would seem pointless.

Why have they not simply escaped and be done with it?

Even if such a place was so precious to them, why did they had to guard it so much?

Mortals could be easily stored inside Divine Realms… then why? Why were they trying so hard?

Even with all of the emotional attachment, they were Gods at the end, living for thousands of years, they should be expected to be more mature…

And indeed, they were.

They knew that this was insane as well.

But they had a good reason.

Something that they didn't want to reveal even to Kireina… Making them seem only like fools for her who didn't want to simply escape and be finally safe.

There was something, deep within the area where the barrier was, which they were protecting dearly.

Something that they could not touch nor move ever so slightly, something incredibly important, even to the entire Realm…

The Dark Steppes Gods had found it before, and created a dungeon surrounding such thing.

To protect it from the outside world, and to protect it from whatever desired it.

It seems that even after hiding the identity of such a thing, danger still came towards them, even if it was not related to it.

"We should have told Kireina about this!"

"It was a bad idea to keep this a secret from her, if we had told her… she might have perhaps found a way to move it from here…"

"We could tell her whenever she comes…! Ungh, but when is she coming!?"

"Ah! She's coming now! I've sensed her presence approaching…"

"Oh! Finally!"

The Gods of the Dark Steppes Pantheon were shaken as they heard one of their allies said that Kireina and her family were approaching, sensing within the spatial layers surrounding the Dark Steppes that she used to move now.

At the same time, Jorgrakog, the Demon God of Aberrant Mutation felt that his power was overflowing.

Thanks to having accumulated so much power through the mutation of the many monsters and living beings around the area where he was sealed, he gained divine power, as such an ability was part of his Divinity.

Not only now, but he had been stockpiling power ever since The Realm of Vida began to experiment with countless mutations and other strange events regarding evolution within the Realm.

Although this was often not known by most gods or people, within Kireina's Empire, living beings were constantly mutating and evolving into new types of races, which such effect diversified even more when she gained the ability to turn other races into stronger versions of themselves.

All of that combined amounted to Jorgrakog's power coming back. Once more, Kireina had unwillingly caused a Demon God to awaken from his seal.

However, since Hephaestus had recently given him some of his help, breaking down the seal became even easier thanks to the forger god.

And after agreeing to a treaty where he would be freed after helping Hephaestus and his family defeat Kireina, Jorgrakog's future seemed quite promising.

However, his intentions were not as goodhearted as to help that God and then run away.

No, he planned.

He was just as cunning as any Demon God who had lived enough and wanted to get all the benefits if possible.

After defeating Kireina, he will absorb her Chaos-related powers, which Hephaestus had told him that she had, and then he would attack Hephaestus and his allies, using his newly found powers from Kireina's absorbed power, strike back, and then absorb the other Gods that would still be enclosed in the same formation that Hephaestus planned to use to entrap Kireina.

However, such thinking did not simply come right away, nor the plan was as simple.

Jorgrakog was well aware of that…

And as such, he was not alone in this.

Recently, a strange God who had three different personalities and minds contacted him, while Hephaestus and his family were busy inside of their Divine Realms, a powerful being offered Jorgrakog power in exchange for joining their side.

Such power would not only offer him the liberty to do as he pleased, but also to fight against the likes of Kireina and Hephaestus in almost even terms, and to even devour their divinities, and such, the plan he had devised was based in this power.

As Jorgrakog slowly broke through the enormous seal put into his entire being, his consciousness rested inside of his Divine Realm, where he glanced at the black-colored crystal.

The crystal was rather large, being of at least three meters of height, with a hard density, which also exuded a powerful essence.

Jorgrakog recalled the words of the mysterious god with three minds and personalities, who had named itself 'Zubekh', although it had never revealed its appearance nor actual name… or names.

"This is a special crystal that I have created through my own divinity, it is a piece of my power, a materialization of it. Jorgrakog, devour this and acquire the power to break through your fate," it said.

"Why are you giving me this? What's your goal? Do you plan on controlling me with this, to eat me later after I get strong enough?" asked Jorgrakog.

"You're quite the sharp one, but our goal is greater than that… Do whatever you please with it, even if you use it to fight her or not, we don't really care," it said.

Jorgrakog then realized that he was mere experimentation for this being's plans, a pawn that they wanted to use and experiment with what they had created.

Before he could answer this mysterious entity, the god disappeared from within the channel in the Interdimensional Merchant Shop that it used to contact him, leaving Jorgrakog with their 'gift'.

He glanced at the black crystal, as it emanated a power that seemed to be calling him.

If Jorgrakog could swallow his saliva, he would do so, as he was incredibly tempted to devour this crystal before, and now that he had waited a few more days, such craving had increased.

Now, his seal was breaking down, up to the very lasts particles of white light, his monstrous, fleshy body covered in countless carapaces and spines began to leak out like a black and slimy liquid.

"This is… I am… out!" roared Jorgrakog, exerting all of his strength into freeing himself, destroying the very bits of seal left, showing the entire world his body, which had been sealed for so many years.

His entire body seemed like a mass of dark and slimy flesh, covered in carapaces, spikes, and bones… His 'head' was an enormous skull, resembling that of a dinosaur, with two eerie crimson eyes flashing in each eye socket.

Flash!

Alongside his grotesque body, the wave of miasma that descended from his body as if it were disgusting waves of foul-smelling ooze covered the landscape once more, hitting the barrier of the Dark Steppes Gods with enormous force!

Boom!

The Dark Steppes Gods trembled in fear and concern, as their barrier had begun to slowly shatter, and while being surrounded by enormous mutant beasts, the beasts quickly noticed the cracks, aiming at them with their skills and spells.

"S-Shit! It's about to break!"

"Quickly, send the mortals inside the Divine Realms!"

The Gods realized that the barrier could not hold any longer, they opened enormous portals, sending their children inside the Divine Realms, and quickly emptying the last stand that these tribes held.

Jorgrakog raised his skull head, laughing maliciously as he glanced at the crystal inside his Divine Realm, which he had taken outside.

"I am free! Once more… I will fill this world with my essence, with my power! This Realm, no, this world, will become MY world!"

The aberrant god grabbed the crystal with his bone claws, throwing it inside of his endless mass of dark flesh that resembled a slimy and dark ooze.

Crack, crack!

Cracking it into tiny pieces with his enormous force, he consumed and digested the crystal within seconds!

Then, Jorgrakog felt that his entire self began to change…

"W-What…?! T-This… Was this a trap!?" he wondered, only for an enormous pain to take over his soul, as the god roared like a vicious and wild creature for a few seconds, bearing with the agonizing pain until something within his soul awakened.

His dark and grotesque soul started to twist around, as an opening was formed, where something resembling a jaw filled with razor-sharp teeth appeared.

And for once, a few System notifications greeted Jorgrakog's sight.

Ding!

[Jorgrakog] acquired the [Uroboros Fragment: Level 1] Skill!]

[Jorgrakog] acquired the [Divinity Devouring: Level 1] Skill!]

"T-These powers…! So this is… the full extent of the System!" said Jorgrakog, maliciously laughing as his power began to expand wildly, he began to devour all the creatures around him, leaving an empty wasteland of ooze and blackness.

A mysterious god glanced from afar, atop the clouds and within a strange space that it had created to be mostly undetected, creating a small peephole to glance to the outside world.

"It seems that it worked… The stupid Jorgrakog acquired the power of Divinity Devouring… I can feel it within his Divine Aura, it seems as if it has taken life by itself and is quickly seeking something to devour…"

"And he has successfully acquired a false fragment of my Uroboros as well… Everything is going accordingly…"

"Indeed. Since we unified as one, that our minds had changed a lot, and so, our powers and goals…"

"Now that we can do this much, we should be able to change the entire world… What we need to triumph against Kireina is to generate as much chaos as possible, to make everything unpredictable to her, within such chaos, she will be overwhelmed, and so, the entire world. An apocalypse… We have discovered that we can trigger such an event…"

"However, Jorgrakog was a mere experiment of our creation, the power to crystalize divinity is a power that we only acquired when we assimilated the dungeon…"

"We really thought that it would go wrong… But it seems that we actually managed to give him the powers, it seems that our first try was already perfect?"

"Hm, now that we are done with this, should we wait for Kireina, or should we leave those words as lies and escape?"

"Even then, I believe that Kireina might make through all of this…"

"Indeed, and if we try to attack her, she might end up devouring more of our bodies and strengthen herself, it would be a foolish act now that we had awakened our minds,"

"However, this is not the end… There are many targets, and many Gods who wish to have this power… Let us distribute it accordingly, and slowly trigger more chaos…"

"I feel like I was made for this…"

"Perhaps this is our destiny?"

"To bring forth an apocalypse, even amongst the Gods?"

"That's right…"

"Perhaps…"

"And in that apocalypse, the ones who will stay at the top will be us, of course,"

"Indeed… We shall conquer this world by bringing it into complete chaos…"

"It is not like it won't happen anyways, seeing how the Spatial Layers are acting…"

"Before you became one with us, Kheseerad, we never had such a broader sense of the world…"

"A Spatial God's knowledge is very impressive, to think that there are many worlds and planes aside from our world Genesis…"

"And this world by itself is on the verge of a catastrophic event, we might as well hasten that event by a few years,"

"Hmm… The Gods despairing, the Supreme Gods losing their complete control over the Realms… It will be a good show to see, we will surely enjoy it, yes…"

"I can't wait…!"

The God's minds laughed maliciously, as, within a certain area of the world, a mischievous Supreme Goddess smiled.

"Oh, for sure, I cannot wait… I never thought that exerting a large amount of my power to manipulate the fate of those three Gods so they could survive even against Kireina could bring so many new opportunities, so many-branched possibilities!"

"It was truly a good investment… Too bad that Kireina can affect her fate and those of her allies and family, but not that of her own enemies entirely! As long as I put my power, I was able to overpower whatever control she had over them…!"

"She must be still so frustrated… Well, too bad that not everything goes your way! Fufu… And it will soon not go your way even more!"

"I sure hope to see her despairing face… Hmm~ I can't wait… Not everything will go your way anymore!"