Epic of Caterpillar

Goghesdum, the Elder Thunder Dragon Great Sage Overlord, and the first Elder Dragon to have been born in Nyzzet's Dungeon glanced as a group of demi-humans commanded by a fairy annihilated the menacing group of monsters that he thought would mean the end of his city and the tribe of High Lizardmen that he had nurtured for so long.

His body was almost one hundred meters tall, a giant amongst giants that created a large shadow below his body, covering most of the city with it.

His head was large and intimidating… but right now, he was doing an expression that could not be said to be intimidating but a bit ridiculous and out of character.

His eyes were wide open alongside his mouth, his eyes were almost exploding out of their sockets due to his baffled expression of disbelief.

"What the… what is happening right now?!" he wondered.

He was being able to easily see through the fight even when Kireina enclosed the monsters possessed by Begudhur's Parasite Soul Clones inside the domain created by her Divine Aura.

This was because Kireina had put a large lump of floating brains with eyes, one of her flesh clones connected with the domain, which used its large eyes to show the fight from the inside in a projection made through Mirage Attribute Magic.

Goghesdum had never seen such a type of magic exist, but he was not surprised just by that but by the fight itself… but why was Kireina letting them see everything?

Not only Goghesdum was seeing this, as the large lump of brains and eyes separated itself and floated atop the city, revealing the same images through projections to all the people of the city.

Everyone had already figured that the monsters had come to kill them for some reason, but they had thought that their greatest benefactor, the Elder Dragon Goghesdum would have saved them like in many occasions…

But instead of him being the one beating the threats that had tried to approach their beloved city, this group of strangers was doing the work, and quite efficiently.

Many warriors and mages noticed that these monsters were strangely intelligent and powerful compared to the ones that would usually try to attack them in the past… even if the people were not familiar with Divine Energy, they knew that there was something strange and overwhelming about the presences and powers they exuded through their bodies.

"Those monsters…"

"They're strange!"

"Did those Wyverns spoke?"

"And they can even use advanced magic spells that we thought only Goghesdum could do!"

"Are these people from the outside world?"

"But Goghesdum-sama said that mortals couldn't get down here!"

"But don't you remember that small party of wolves and demi-human from before?"

"Yeah, but those were like an exception!"

Some of the citizens were referring to Wagyu's party, who had only passed through this city for a few days without revealing much information about themselves, in that time Goghesdum was taking a nap and never felt any threat from them so he didn't mind.

But just a few days later another party of 'outsiders' appeared, saving him and his city from imminent destruction by the hands of Begudhur.

Goghesdum was quite frightened by the implications that these outsides could mean…

"If they can easily destroy these powerful monsters that had somehow attained divinity… Then, are not these people… gods themselves? If they ever willed it, we would be annihilated! Although they took care of these that tried to actively attack us… the possibility of being destroyed still remains unless I quickly befriend them! But what could I offer to them that could be enticing for such a thing…? I remember hearing the fairy voice… she said that I should not worry? Perhaps she meant it in goodwill? Maybe there is a possibility…" thought Goghesdum, worried about the future.

Goghesdum gulped his own saliva as he glanced at the scenes unfold, little girls that should not even be capable of fighting giant behemoths such as these monsters were easily bullying them with their powers.

Some women increased in size by tenfold, almost reaching his own size and unleashing catastrophic attacks that could split mountains apart, powerful magic caster that created such complicated spells that made even an Elder Dragon Sage such as Goghesdum see himself as a little apprentice, and there were also incomprehensible monsters such as the fairy itself, who was able to shapeshift her body into a monstrosity capable of punching to death a two hundred meters tall Thunder Dragon… with a single punch.

As the battle unfolded, the monsters fell one after another, and as Goghesdum glanced in detail, he realized how each monster had their souls detached from their bodies and then either eaten by the younglings or shattered into glass-like materials.

"These souls… they're the souls of a god, isn't it? They're eating a god!?" said Goghesdum in disbelief, without realizing that what he said out loud was heard by his people.

"Eating… gods?!"

"Those monsters are gods, Goghesdum-sama?"

"So these saviors of us are gods themselves as well?"

"How miraculous!"

"We must… we must thank them! …Right?"

"It is more complicated than that, you idiots! What if they end up wrecking us after that? We need to be serviceable and humble!"

"Gods eating another god…? Just what event is unfolding outside of the city?!"

Meanwhile, the High Thunder Lizardmen Priest of the church of Goghesdum, Yerze Hazass was also glancing at this spectacle through a projection created by a mass of brains and eyes floating atop the sky… the moment she heard what Goghesdum said, a chill ran through her spine and tail.

"These people are gods? Have they descended from the 'outside world' to fight? Have they come to protect us or to… oppress us?" she wondered, as the little Lizardmen kids were glancing at the spectacle not with fear but with surprise and astonishment.

"So cool!"

"Did you see it?! Those seven birds fused together and began to fire rainbow colors all over the place!"

"And those giantesses are so beautiful and strong!"

"Who is that woman with butterfly wings? Did you see how she just punched a dragon to death? The whole torso went flying!"

"This is way too awesome!"

"Wow look at that squirrel woman, she's just unleashing giant spheres of fire!"

"That guy with four arms is so mighty! He's defeating the dragons with his bare fists?!"

Yerze tried to calm down the younglings but they could not calm themselves from the excitement of watching Kireina and her family fighting.

"Children… please… Sigh… Just what future does await us from now on…?" wondered Yerze.

BOOM!

The last monster, a Giant Thunder Tyrannosaur fell into the ground while having its soul shattered into glass-like red-colored pieces.

Kireina smiled as she released a sigh of relief, the last defeated monster was killed by Kaguya, who conjured spheres of blue flames that grilled the monster alive while also destroying its soul through God Devour shared by Kireina.

"It looks like everyone is done, guu!" said Rimuru at Kireina's side.

"It seems so… I am glad that everyone managed to defeat them all, many of our children got their fair share of divinity fragments," said Kireina.

Nesiphae, Nixephine, and Brontes, who had transformed into titans of dozens of meters tall recollected the divinity fragments that they could not consume into a large pile, which they offered to Kireina.

"Here you have, Kireina" said Brontes.

"They look rather appetizing, what a pity that we cannot indulge into their flavors for now…" said Nesiphae.

"But it is good that the rest of the children had their fills," said Nixephine.

"Thanks, girls. I will look for a way for all of you to be able to eat gods as well… but I don't know how long it should take…" muttered Kireina, who desired for her wives to grow stronger at her pace, which meant that they needed to be able to consume gods to a certain extent.

Although Rimuru seemed to be an exception as it is the only wife that can fuse with Kireina currently, due to her status as a pure slime, which Kireina can fuse with through special techniques she acquired luckily by opening random loot boxes from the Water Shrine Dungeon.

Perhaps there could be similar skills for Lamia, Cyclops, Spirits, and other beings… but even if some of her wives were half slime after going through forced evolution and using Kireina's Slime Clones as materials, they couldn't fuse with her the same way.

As long as she could fuse with them, she would be able to share all of her abilities with them and let them finally learn Divinity Devouring by digesting divine energy through their fusion with Kireina… that was one way to do it, which Rimuru used to finally acquire such power, as Kireina didn't have any other clue on any other option.

However, Kireina's wives already possessed something similar to a small pseudo demi divinity after drinking the special elixir given to them through the reward of the Empire System Tasks… perhaps if she were to complete them again, another of such special elixirs could be granted.

But for that, she needed to have 30 wives…

Trying to forget about such a task, for the time being, Kireina glanced at her happy children who celebrated their victory, each one of them had grown a bit through this battle.

"Mama, I ate many! They were all delicious!" said Nirah.

"I also ate a bunch… after eating three, the taste was kind of lost though and the boost in strength became dimmer," said Belle.

"Yeah, after eating three, we couldn't draw much more stats or power from them," said Amiphossia.

"We most probably need to consume a fragment of larger quality?" wondered Ryo.

"Mommy, I can create little parasites made out of gold!" said Vudia.

"It seems that my parasitizing powers became stronger after eating the fragments," said Ailine.

"Parasites? I didn't get anything related to them… but I do feel like my soul became stronger" said Valentia.

Kireina's children flew towards her with happy expressions, none of them missed into eating various fragments. Begudhur had created so many Parasite Soul Clones with his special powers that he supplied the whole family with new strength.

Kireina noticed how each of her younglings' souls had become wider and stronger… however, the effects of these Divinity Fragments were rather unknown.

They knew that the fragments were all about 'Parasites', but their effects should vary greatly in each person that consumed them.

Some of them presented the ability to produce parasite-like techniques or attacks, others had their already existing powers that held similar effects strengthened, and others did not even gain any new power, but had their souls and overall physical strength increased.

Kireina also made sure to check the souls of her children in detail, finding no abnormalities. It seems that Begudhur Parasite Soul Clones were thoroughly digested.

"Well, it seems like all of you have successfully digested the divine fragments! So how did it feel, my loves? Did you like the feast?" asked Kireina with a happy smile.

"Yeah, it was tasty! I remember eating Geggoron's fragments, but he was bitter! This god was tastier," said Vudia… if Begudhur in person could listen to her words, he would be most certainly trembling in fear.

"I want to eat more gods! Different gods, there are too many on the menu!" said Ailine.

"I would like to eat a strong god with a lot of muscles, it might strengthen me," said Ryo.

"Is there any 'ghost' god out there?" wondered Amiphossia.

"Well, we will have to ask the Pantheon of Gods led by Agatheina later on for that, Amiphossia… But I think there was a Demon God related with phantoms in the Pantheon of Thanatos…" said Kireina.

As Kireina stuffed the divinity fragments inside of her Item Box, she made the domain disappear in a split of a second, revealing to the distance a giant Elder Dragon with his eyes and mouth wide open in disbelief.

"Ah! T-They are out! All of you, my citizens! Do not dare to fight back! Kneel and pray to the gods! If you are honest, they might forgive you!" said Goghesdum.

The people of the city quickly obeyed Goghesdum, over a hundred people kneeled and prayed for salvation and not destruction before the 'gods', Kireina, and her family.

"Oh? That is right, we are gods…! Fufufu… So, what is your name, little dragon?" asked Kireina, flying towards Goghesdum with a flash of scarlet light at a speed that the Elder Dragon couldn't even see with his eyes.

"G-Goghesdum… My name is Goghesdum, Goddess-sama… I am… but a humble little dragon…" said Goghesdum while trembling in fear, completely leaving any pride that he had as the 'first' Elder Dragon.

"Goghesdum… I see, very well then, present me and my family of 'gods' your city… Alright, everyone come here" said Kireina, while sitting in Goghesdum snout and patting him with her hands.