Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-716

Kireina glanced as her surroundings changed, becoming that of land covered in fire, volcanic earth, and lava… There was even a large volcano firing enormous quantities of lava everywhere.

For some reason, such a technique reminded her of the Fire Salamander Empress' Fire Zone Skill, which she had used against Kireina when she was still a Butterfly to put her at a complete disadvantage.

Thinking about such an old fight, Kireina had grown incredibly strong since then, and such restrictions that the Fire Zone Skill would have caused over her should not work anymore over her body.

However, this was not a Fire Zone Skill, Hephaestus had carefully created a Divine Formation by employing several resources, skills, spells, and divine techniques together, carefully setting them around the area, all to activate a special space that resembled his Divine Realm.

"This place… a domain? No, from Apollo's memories, I can recall that Gods are capable of constructing 'formation's which can be used for a variety and wide array of uses, such as creating special spaces to entrap other beings, create special places where only they can enter, to seal things in certain areas, to hide things from others, and so on… This Divine Formation seems to… imitate Hephaestus Divine Realm. But even then, it should not be able to affect me, as I have immunity to fire and lava- Eh?"

Kireina then realized that she was passively taking fire and lava damage, right into her physical body and soul!

This was because this was not a simple Skill, it was a powerful formation made with several divine techniques, charged with the Divinity of a God, completely different than a measly mortal skill that 'restricted' her!

Alongside the passive damage effect, she felt as if her Skills were weakened… except those that were related to Fire.

"What a sense of Deja-Vu… This really does reminds me of the Fire Salamander incident now…" said Kireina as she sighed, just after provoking Hephaestus and moving a bit away from his group.

Rimuru immediately realized what Kireina meant, as she was with her in such a fight.

"Ah! True! This is like the Fire Salamander Empress Fire Zone Skill, guu! This is quite troublesome…" said Rimuru.

"I even feel a bit weakened…" said Zehe.

"My power is also lowered, and I am taking constant damage…" said Brontes.

"So this is the true power of a well-prepared and resourceful god, isn't it?" asked Nesiphae.

Hephaestus was able to clearly hear Kireina and her wife's complaints, as it laughed.

"Do you like it? Welcome to my world! This is how gods fight, Kireina. This technique is called a Divine Formation, and it doesn't even compare to the stupid Domains that you can create with your Divine Aura… Now, met your end!" roared Hephaestus, charging with his two wives at his side, although both of them didn't seem to be part of his attribute of fire, they were being unaffected by the Divine Formation's effect, seemingly due to a certain accessory that Hephaestus has given to them and also to Apollo and Cyrene, which is where Kireina got this info from.

Apollo and Cyrene glanced at Kireina, winking at her.

Kireina smiled as she knew that she had two allies within the enemy's group, bearing her powers and skills for the battle to come.

Jorgrakog who had been entrapped inside of this place roared, however, interrupting the scene.

"Is this the famous Kireina you talk so much about, Hephaestus? Her power is indeed admirable! Let me fight her!" roared Jorgrakog, leaping towards Kireina.

However, a barrier of flames stopped him.

"No, she's mine! Fight her lackeys!" said Hephaestus in anger.

"Tch!" said Jorgrakog, directing its glare towards Kireina's wives.

"How do we do this, masta?" asked Rimuru through telepathy.

"Separating will be a terrible idea, stick to me! Let's transform!" said Kireina, as she glanced at Hephaestus and his wives flying towards her while charging Divine Techniques.

"You won't get anywhere in here, Kireina! This is your end! Blazing Divine Hammer Barrage!" roared Hephaestus, as he wielded his legendary hammer, increasing its size and covering it in flames.

"For my family, you must perish, fiend! Heavenly Graceful Spears!" said a beautiful woman with long and blonde hair and shining aquamarine eyes, wearing the armor of golden luster, and wielding two javelins of majestic designs, Aglaia, the Goddess of Grace and Beauty. Aglaia manipulated her spears around her through her powers, charging them with an enormous amount of Divine Energy and firing them as deadly, shining projectiles towards Kireina.

"You've caused too many troubles to my husband… Give us back Palikoi! Divine Sea Dragon Flood!" said another beautiful maiden at Hephaestus's side, with clear blue skin and azure hair that resembled countless sea waves, covered in sea stars and algae over her body, Kabeiro, a Sea Nymph Demigoddess of Floods. She conjured a large magic circle atop her head, where an enormous amount of seawater appeared, shaping as a gigantic sea dragon of over one hundred meters, flying towards Kireina.

Kireina smiled mischievously as various accessories across her body shined brightly! Of course, she was not going to be the only one who wouldn't wear transformation mech equipment!

And by combining it with the transformation skills, such as the Calamity Abyss Demon Body Parts… an explosion of black thunder and venomous smoke happened before the attacks of the Gods were to reach her.

At the same time, the wives at her side had their equipment shine brightly too, expanding into an explosion of magical power, as mechanical behemoths appeared behind the large quantities of magic smoke.

Kireina resembled an enormous demoness covered in mechanical armor of black, purple, and crimson color, with eight arms which possessed gigantic claws, five heads, each one being that of a dragon, a wyvern, a serpent, a demoness, and a wolf, and 16 wings, with dozens of different metallic tails, covering a wide area of the Divine Formation, her size was currently a bit more than one hundred meters, as she had decided to take into a more 'compact' form…

Meanwhile, her wives transformed into mechanical behemoths as well, each one being at least 50 meters, no less.

Rimuru's mech resembled a beautiful azure maiden shining with an armor made of the rainbow, wielding an enormous shining sword that released an aura of majestic power, the mechanical hair flowed like an endless sea of spiritual colors, and the mechanical maiden even had a dress made of thinner metal, waving to the wind.

Zehe's mechanical appearance resembled a fierce maiden of darkness, with large horns protruding from her helmet-like head, sharp, claw-like hands, and thin and refined curves all across, covered in deadly dark spikes, long heels that resembled impaling spears, and a long cape of shadows, wielding a large staff that seemed to emanate pure darkness from within the abyss.

Brontes' mechanical bodysuit resembled an enormous Titaness, covered in gold and copper-like metallic materials, gigantic and powerful arms and legs, and a crown of golden horns on its head while having a gigantic golden-colored club filled with metallic spikes resting on its shoulder.

And Nesiphae's mech resembled an enormous snake lady, with an incredibly long, over one-meter long snake-like tail made completely of this divine metal, and covered in even harder scales of metal that combined both the suit's materials and the ones she could produce through her armor creation skill. The tip of her tail had the vicious head of a voracious snake open wide, while the upper area of her body was that of a beautiful maiden with four slender arms and sharp claws, leaking a deadly poison, she wielded blades in three hands and an axe in another, and the long 'hair' of her head was made of countless metallic serpents.

"Hmph! You know that getting bigger does not necessarily make you stronger, right?! Do you honestly believe that you can fight off a true and strong God such as myself and my wives with some measly tricks that you fabricated with your poor 'science' and 'technology'?! I know very well what you do in your Empire thanks to the insider, but I might have been afraid of nothing!" said Hephaestus, thinking of Kireina's creation as mere inferiorities to his masterful armors and weapons, even spiting on science and technology.

Hephaestus, Aglaia, and Kabeiro's attacks reached Kireina and her wives, as an explosion of power broke through, generating an enormous explosion that violated the laws of the world, as the combination of the divine techniques charged with the divinities of these gods was too strong!

BOOM!

"And do you truly believe that we rely on size?" asked Kireina, breaking through space itself and appearing right in front of Hephaestus through her Divine Warp Skill!

Kireina used her sharp claws at an outstandingly fast speed, unleashing a catastrophic slashing attack that seemed to be made out of thousands of different weapon techniques all merged into an endless wave of attacks!

"What?!"

The combination of all her techniques into one, by using the newly acquired [Transcendental Divine Martial and Weapon Arts: All Weapon and Fist Battle Goddess: Level 1] Skill, that Kireina acquired by endless merging skills and techniques together, she unleashed a power beyond mortals and even to most gods, impacting Hephaestus straight away with the gigantic claws that he thought were hollow, only to discover that each one was immensely heavy, to the point that even his godly strength had issues taking it all.

Clash!

"T-This…! Nnngguooohhh…!"

BOOM!

Hephaestus vomited blood as he fell into the ground, impacting the floor of the Divine Formation and leaving an enormous crater.

"Hephaestus-sama!"

Aglaia and Kabeiro cried as they saw their husband take an enormous attack, hitting the floor like a blazing meteor!

"Where do you think you're going?" asked Zehe, warping space itself and ambushing the two goddesses with a domain of shadows, releasing countless tentacles of abyssal darkness and Black Hole Bullets!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"So fast…! Graceful Heavenly Light Barrier!"

"Ocean's Guardian Divine Barrier!"

Aglaia and Kabeiro defended themselves with large barriers of light and water, as they gnashed their teeth while roaring at Jograkog.

"Attack them you lazy Demon!" said Aglaia as she created countless cannons of light, directing them towards Zehe and breaking down her abyssal shadow with piercing light.

Flash!

"Tch! Now you want my help? These Gods are really arrogant!" laughed Jorgrakog, leaping with his enormous mass of a body, clashing against Zehe's body!

BOOM!

"Gahahaha! Why don't you spend some time with me, cutie?!" he laughed, entangling Zehe's mechanical body.

"Sorry, but she's with me!" said Kireina, breaking down space once more through her Divine Warp Skill, and unleashing a barrage of Light Divinity-charged arrows, which were also charged with hundreds of skills, such as 'Piercing Evil' and 'God Devour'.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Unnghh?! That actually hurt!" roared Jorgrakog, jumping out of Zehe's body as it felt the piercing light that Kireina released consumed his entire being.

"S-Shit! She's more dangerous than I thought!" thought Jorgrakog, using his Uroboros Fragment Skill to devour his own wounds, recovering them slowly!

"Hey, fight you sloth!" said Aglaia, as she kept firing attacks towards Zehe, however, Kireina released a powerful Chaos Cannon towards her, which she could not evade in time!

"Divine Blaze Barrier!"

Hephaestus emerged from within the battlefield, generating a barrier of blazing flames, guarding his wife while taking on the hit!

BOOM!

The Chaos Cannon impacted the powerful barrier, such attack was charged with God Devour, yet the barrier somehow survived it with several cracks!

"Oh? What a nice barrier you got there…" said Kireina, Zehe at her side had already repaired her mechanical armor almost automatically, as Nesiphae, Brontes, and Rimuru were attacking Jorgrakog with everything they had in a barrage of long-ranged attacks.

"Aagghh! Give me a break, will you?!" roared Jorgrakog, releasing a wave of contaminated miasma that consumed it all, which made the three girls retreat near Kireina once more.

They glanced at Jorgrakog who was on the floor, trying to heal the large quantities of mass he had lost after being showered with God Devour-charged attacks.

"You damn Hephaestus, these bitches are way stronger than you said! This is not part of the contract!" said Jorgrakog.

"Bear with it for a bit longer, Jorgrakog, don't you want your freedom? Now fight for it!" said Hephaestus, as Apollo and Cyrene 'fought' against Nesiphae and Zehe, obviously faking their attacks to not be lethal, which was the same for the two wives.

"You're talking way too much for a fight this serious, aren't you?!" asked Kireina, surprising the gods through her Divine Warp once more!

"I will exterminate you all right now!" she said, fury could be seen in all of her heads as she charged an enormous power within the jaw-like structure of her chest, charging with God Devour, her Divine Aura, and most of her Transcendental and Awakened Magic!

"I am not going to let you! Aglaia! Kabeiro!" roared Hephaestus, as his wives flew towards him, suddenly glowing brightly with their powerful divinities, converging them with Hephaestus as his eyes exploded in bright light, his small body grew bigger and bigger…

"Divine Blazing Hammer!" he roared, clashing against Kireina's powerful attack, generating an incredibly loud explosion of clashing divinities, shacking the Divine Formation!

BOOM!