Epic of Caterpillar
chapter-719

Hephaestus remembered the time when the Ragnarök unfolded, he and his family destroyed many Gods with the help of their allies, subordinates of other allied Supreme Gods.

Aside from having defeated Gaia, Hephaestus and his family had also defeated the powerful Great Titan God of Fire and the Sun, Helios.

The battle was just as arduous as against Gaia, but in the end, they came on top, and with the help of many other Gods, Helios soul was divided into pieces and distributed evenly amongst all those who helped.

Hephaestus, later on, decided to buy the fragments from his family, who didn't have much use for it as they didn't have a Fire Attribute Affinity, unlike him.

Hephaestus discovered something that not many Gods had achieved before, the ability to use the soul fragments of other gods to strengthen his own soul.

It was not that he devoured them, but he was able to employ them as tools, attaching them to his soul to receive a large boost in power, which was even more effective on his soul, which was covered in Fire Attribute Mana.

However, there was a level of dangerousness into this, as Hephaestus was not able to completely suppress the powerful will of the Titan, that still lived within his fragments.

If he used them for too long, he would slowly be parasitized by the Titan's will, losing his mind.

This is why Hephaestus only saw the use of such fragments as the last resort.

And just after half an hour of fighting against Kireina, he discovered that her strength was not something to take lightly.

Perhaps she did not have Divine Techniques, true Divine Techniques, but her attacks were lethal, nonetheless.

And even if he was able to break down her attacks, she seemed to have an almost endless pool of abilities, skills, and spells of all kinds, not even once were Hephaestus not surprised by Kireina's attacks, it was as if she always had something new to show off.

However, he didn't know that Kireina was having as many difficulties as him, she was employing all of her abilities into this battle, trying out everything she had and seeing what could work or not, something that she usually didn't do in her battles, as she always used her strongest moves.

But now that she was fighting against someone that wouldn't easily be eaten by her, who had a powerful soul, body, techniques, and resourcefulness, unlike the 'trash' Gods she fought before, she was simply using everything, she was literally going all out.

She had quickly discarded what could not work, and was now even designing new ways to fight, by creating a new Domain named Labyrinth Domain where she trapped Hephaestus and then divided her body into multiple clones, using Spatial Magic to conceal each clone in pocket dimensions and the appearing and disappearing from all sides…

But just this already put enormous pressure on God.

And after seeing his beloved mount, the Phoenix he had raised since it was a little chick, he could not help but feel an even larger hatred against Kireina, the one who had brought only suffering and anger to his life.

Kireina might have ignored Hephaestus if he did not want to fight against her so badly, but now that she had him in front of her, she was dead set on eating him, his power was way too vast, she wanted to eat him to strengthen herself.

Hephaestus, seeing the power of Kireina and her viciousness, was also dead set on defeating her, cutting her soul into pieces, and then sealing her for once.

But he needed even more power, although his Divine Techniques were amazingly strong, surprising Kireina, she was still able to break through his defenses with her evolved Megusan's Poison, alongside the various Divinities she had.

Even without actual Divine Energy or Divine Techniques, she was able to fight in equal terms with such a strong God as Hephaestus!

Hephaestus needed to quickly make a difference in the battle and finally decided to use one of his various trump cards, activating the Helios Fragments within his Divine Realm.

Within the volcanic landmass of his Divine Realm, enormous fragments of red, magma-like ethereal divine soul fragments flew around, breaking through their seals and being manipulated by Hephaestus Divine Senses, merging with his Divine Soul against their will.

"Unhand me, Hephaestus!"

"You can't use me as a tool!"

"You damn human!"

"One day I will have my vengeance!"

Helios fragments held his will, even after many years of being sealed and used as a tool, he was still alive in the fragments of his soul, however, he would whine and scream all he wanted, Hephaestus didn't care anymore about what he said or not, he was a mere tool to him now.

"Shut up and obey me, titan," said Hephaestus, infusing the fragments of Helios inside of his Soul while Kireina noticed that something odd was happening.

"Do you think I will let you do as you please? Divine Bones, Divine Undead Summon!"

Kireina suddenly merged thousands of souls into her body, alongside activating several Skills, one of them being Divine Bones and Bone Fusion, alongside Divine Undead Summon…

Such combination suddenly transformed her 'main body' which inhabited another pocket space separate from the smaller clones she made into a mass of white and black bones, of monstrous and undead nature, roaring like a creature that had surged from deep in the abyss!

Kireina was using unconventional Skills to create new ways of fighting, Hephaestus was pressuring her to such an extent that she was constantly evolving her way of fighting!

"GUOOOOOOON!"

Suddenly, enormous masses of bones emerged from everywhere, pointing their sharp rib-like bones towards Hephaestus!

The bones were not only enhanced with God Devour but were also covered in a semi-transparent ethereal soul permeation, Megusan's special technique which he used to cover himself on his own soul!

The monstrous bones were a new kind of Divine Undead, a type of powerful Undead monster that Kireina was capable of creating now that she had acquired her new Necromancy Magic Skill.

She converted her endless mass of Divine Bones into a Divine Undead and then used her own transformed bone body to attack Hephaestus!

She had discovered that it was very obvious that bones were harder than her own flesh, and so, she employed them to attack.

Even her would seem such a tactic as completely ridiculous, but now that she was being pressured so much against someone that took her strongest attacks like nothing, she had to improve and devise new strategies and abilities.

BOOM!

Hephaestus was suddenly caged in a mass of bones, slicing and piercing his flesh constantly, even his soul began to shiver as blood and primordial essence began to leak out of his body and soul!

However!

FLASH!

An eternal fire, akin to that of the sun itself emerged, turning all the bones into ashes in an instant!

Hephaestus emerged from the bones, his body was completely healed, and his arms began to extend and bulge with muscles, alongside his legs, torso, and head.

His entire body began to grow, several meters, while releasing a fiery atmosphere of eternal flames and even gravity began to change, as if he had become incredibly dense.

"This is the power of the fragments of Helios! Divine Sun Titan Form!"

Hephaestus's new body was enormous, easily crossing more than one hundred meters, leaving Kireina surprised…

"How many trump cards does this old bastard have?!" she thought.

Hephaestus increased the size of his hammer, as his blazing body covered in flames began to exude an enormous pressure that blazed across several meters, instantly breaking down Kireina's Labyrinth Domain!

BOOM!

Kireina's clones quickly escaped from Hephaestus, but several of them were instantly burned into ashes!

Kireina's main body flew away from the flames, they were way too dangerous! Even if she tried to devour them, she would be burned into ashes before she could even eat them!

"Clones come!"

Kireina called upon her clones, as they all appeared around her and fused back with her body, as she regained some of her power back, however, she discovered that the clones that had died only had their souls returned her, and some of her stats were lost permanently…

"No matter, I will get more stats whenever I eat this old bastard…" thought Kireina, as she escaped from Hephaestus flames while the Titanic God followed her like a blazing sun!

"Why are you running away now?! Didn't you wanted to fight against me?! Gahahaha!"

Hephaestus laughed, his sense of self was slowly being consumed by the surging power.

Kireina was now fighting someone wielding the power of a Great God!

She knew that she could not possibly beat it if she approached him, so she instinctively ran away, obviously.

"Even Fire Immunity does not work against the flames of a god, even less now that he can wield the flames of a former Great God! I knew that he had these fragments, but to think he would use them so early… This means that I was actually pressuring him though… Wait, didn't the fragments still had Helios will on them? If he uses them for too long, he will end up being taken over by Helios…"

Then, Kireina came with a genius idea…

"Then I will just run away from you until you exhaust yourself! After all, my speed is higher than yours!" she said, as she flew towards her wives, Hephaestus following her from behind very closely.

"Where are you doing?! Fight me, you coward!" roared Hephaestus, firing several enormous fireballs towards Kireina, which she evaded as much as she could, although many of them ended closing into her, so she ended up using large amounts of Divine Bones, Scales, and Flesh as defense, as none of her barriers, even Aegis, was able to withstand the powerful flames of Helios!

Kireina detached her body parts one after another, letting Hephaestus burn through them one by one, gigantic Calamity Abyss Demon Limbs tried to attack him from all sides, but all of them were simply reduced to ashes in an instant!

"Damn it, if Lazuli was with me, perhaps I might have some chance, my Water and Ice Magic is not advanced at all, and even by shooting Chaos Cannons at him, he's still quite fine! Even while trying to use [Distortion Bringer], [Attribute Destruction], [Equilibrium Negation], the effects are minimal, his power is simply overwhelming my own… Ah, I will have to use that one Spell…" said Kireina, smiling as she suddenly stopped her track.

Hephaestus glanced at her enormous metallic body and smiled, rushing towards her.

"You've finally decided to fight me head on?!" asked Hephaestus.

"Don't get me wrong, no, that's not it…" said Kireina, as suddenly, her entire body opened like a jaw, filling all of her Divinities inside alongside her strongest spell available!

"World-Breaking Chaos Cannon!"

BOOM!

"NNGHH?! More of your Chaos Attribute bullshit?!"

The cannon of converging divinities and chaotic mana impacted Hephaestus head-on, breaking through his barriers and throwing him away several meters, although the damage he sustained was not big, he was thrown away quite far, giving Kireina some time to fly away through her short-ranged teleport, Divine Warp.

"Tch! This is not over, come back!" roared Hephaestus.

Kireina smiled as she kept firing World Breaking Chaos Cannons, throwing him away over and over again, although the damage was not much, and he recovered quickly through his Nirvana Fire, Kireina was successfully making some time while she finally reached her wives.

All four of them were fighting against Aglaia, Kabeiro, and Jorgrakog, as long as the four fought together, they seemed to be able to put a dent in the three Gods on their own!

However, it was more like they were all on equal terms.

But Kabeiro seemed particularly weakened, as Brontes had used her Thunder Attribute Attacks to break down her defenses and inflict deep wounds into her soul and flesh with God Devour and her mech.

Kabeiro, the Sea Nymph Demigoddess of Floods stayed on the back, while Apollo, Cyrene, Jorgrakog, and Aglaia remained fighting while protecting her.

After all, Kabeiro was a demigoddess, so her strength could not compare to Aglaia or Jorgrakog.

Meanwhile, Apollo and Cyrene were only pretending to fight, always missing their strongest attacks and firing attacks that would be easily deflected. However, their acting was superb, making the Gods with them not suspect anything, simply thinking that they were weaker than they had expected them to be.

Jorgrakog noticed Kireina flying towards them in her gigantic mechanical form, he felt the instinct to run away from her power, leaping out of the battle before she reached the area alongside Hephaestus tailing her from behind.

As Hephaestus contained more and more the power of Helios, his sanity was slowly breaking down, and he was becoming more and more insane, screaming wildly at Kireina while releasing an inferno of flames that were stronger than the sun itself.

Although Kireina had a divinity of fire from a trash god she ate, the divinity was incredibly weak, and didn't bring her much of anything, not even the ability to resist better the flames of Helios… Meaning that even fire gods would die to the flames of Helios, something that defied a bit of the logic within Kireina's mind.

Arriving near her wives, Kireina grabbed them with an enormous metallic tentacle, while Aglaia, Apollo, and Cyrene were left protecting Kabeiro…

Only for the space to shit right behind Kabeiro.

A monstrous fleshy creature emerged from the broken space, surprising the wounded Demigoddess!

"Your Divinity might be useful…" said the fleshy monster, one of Kireina's clones, as it entangled Kabeiro and grabbed it inside the space pocket, closing immediately after!

"GYAAAAAAA…!"

Aglaia screamed, but she was not able to catch Kabeiro in time!

"KABEIRO!"