Epic of Caterpillar

It has been a few years since I was crowned as the King of the Thanatos Kingdom, the Kingdom where the Demon Races created by our gods, the Demon Gods that serve our lord Thanatos, coexist in harmony.

Although, harmony is not really a good word to describe this Kingdom.

It may seem as if there is true peace between all of our races, but that's only on a superficial level.

The level of corruption that exists within the underworld of this kingdom is absurd, to the point that the poor are not even capable of enjoying a meal a day.

When I won against the many candidates and was given the crown as the new King of the Demons, I really thought that I could now change how things were.

Although I come from a family of royal aristocrats within this Kingdom, who are the direct descendants of our mother Goddess, Primidone, I have always been aware of the suffering that the population aside from the royal families suffer.

I had many friends within the slums because I never liked the attitude of my siblings, I often ran away from the family.

There, I met many friends.

Although at first, they tried to assault me and steal everything I had.

I beat them up and made them apologize.

Using the gifted powers of my bloodline, I managed to dispose of those that used these young children as their pawns and gave them a new home using the money I had.

There, I got to know more about their lives, the suffering they went through, and the whole perspective of this Kingdom, the real one, not the superficial one, finally revealed itself to me.

It was all baffling, to be honest.

Although I had a different mind than my corrupted siblings due to the different education that my mother gave to me, I was still mildly brainwashed by my family and my father's beliefs.

I really thought that everyone lived equally in the same luxury as me, but everything was terrible and way worse than anything of that.

Slave trafficking, drug dealing, human experiments, hundreds of criminal organizations, and more…

One would think, 'But isn't that something that you Demons are? You're evil after all, so you do evil things!'.

Such a thought process could not be farther from the truth, us being demons and being related to evil and sinful things is simply a misconception.

We are normal living beings, we want to survive and thrive like any other race.

We have our families, and we love them.

We are not feeding into pure hatred and negative emotions, we are people like any other…

However, my ancestor and her siblings, alongside our great benefact, Thanatos-sama, think that we demons must be like this.

Why? You may ask?

I have no idea.

The church of the demon gods is like this.

I have thought of many theories behind why they desire us to be like this.

One of them seems to be the cause of the power within our bloodlines awakening whenever we feel strong emotions, negative ones.

But that does not mean that we must live in this kind of environment…

It does not mean that we must be merciless against one another, to compete against one another, to fight against one another, and to commit terrible acts against one another.

There are ways in the Kingdom to control crimes, but that is only for the aristocrats or those in royal families like me, and we are simply employing soldiers to protect us from the 'lowly demons' that inhabit the other third quarter of our Kingdom.

Just what kind of Kingdom structure is this?

Although I have never seen anything better, I've heard that in other Kingdoms, things were way better, such as the Azuma Empire… or the newly raised Dark Moon Empire, where all demons and demi-humans inhabit in true harmony.

Oh, mother, you taught me well, but due to your teachings, you have opened your son's eyes to a harsh reality…

And your death due to the 'treason' that the other concubines of our father accused you must have been due to this thought process that you had, right?

Sigh…

I miss her every day, I truly do.

She truly felt like the only 'normal' person in my life…

I tried very hard to change this Kingdom, I trained every day for several years, sharpening my Skills, leveling up, changing Classes, learning new techniques, and awakening my Bloodline's abilities.

Until the time to decide the new rulers finally came with the death of the previous two…

I fought against my own siblings and even very close 'friends' of other families.

They always thought that I was a weak and delicate demon due to my bloodline being that of the Succubus and Incubus.

They underestimated me greatly, and I was able to use that to my advantage, surprising them with my sheer strength and the weaponization of the abilities granted by my bloodline that they thought was nothing but weird sex-related stuff.

The power of Dream Magic and Illusion Magic that my bloodline gave me is more than simply entering other people's dreams and sucking off their energy like my ancestors once did.

And I prove this to the entire Kingdom.

After my triumph, my family was raised in the ranks and was recognized by the rest of the houses.

With that, I also got my crown, and as the strongest and most promising youngling within the royal families, I was given the position of Demon King.

And several years had gone by…

Of course, a King needs his Queen as well.

In the Thanatos Kingdom, Kings and Queens are decided in a brutal and savage ritual, something akin to a tournament where the most promising young descendants of each royal bloodline, direct descendants of each god within our Kingdom, fight to the death.

Although you can also forgive the life of your opponent if you leave them almost dead, which I did with all of my siblings and 'friends'.

And just like me, there was a Demon Queen, Elrinneth Xalgrod Tryxrelle, who had recently earned herself the title of 'The Greedy Queen'…

She is a monster.

Although I thought I was the strongest amongst the young children of the families, only when I saw her is where I finally saw what true strength really was.

Elrinneth is the only daughter of the member of the Despair Demon Royal Family, a family of incredibly strong demons capable of channeling the power of their blessings through their eyes.

Indeed, although I had the Blessing of Primidone, giving me a small boost in my growth… Elrinneth had every god blessing.

Every god blessed her… even Primidone.

The entire Pantheon of the Demon Gods, the founders of our Kingdom had blessed her. And because she was from a special race of demons who were very close to the church of the demon gods, she was able to channel the power of each blessing combined together through her Demon Eyes.

Her power was terrifying, and she won against each one of the participants she fought against without even moving an inch.

She simply vaporized them with the beams from her eyes…

Ridiculous.

I was baffled.

But also thankful that I did not have to fight such a monster.

I think I would have most likely died instantly if I were to fight against her.

The beams that her eyes can shot are charged with the divine power of every god that blessed her… what mortal can even stand a chance against her?

Although I was given the crown as the King, and she became the Queen, it was obvious that in this Kingdom of savages, they would obey the strongest of the two governors.

I really tried to convince her to change how things were in this Kingdom, I really did.

I tried many times to convince her, to tell her to reconsider things, and to help me out in this.

I told her how so many people suffered, and even with all the wealth we had, it was being wasted in us who already had so many luxuries…

I tried my hardest to be gentle with her, to not make her angered…

But the words she said to me… those were not of a person.

"Huh? What are you talking about? Are those vermin of your concern, Eranylan? They are nothing but little bugs that gather around the strong, they are happy as long as you throw some scraps or whatever… Why do you even care about them? Do you keep some as pets?"

Those were the words of a monster.

She didn't even saw these people as people.

She saw them as 'things'.

She saw them as 'insects'.

Bugs.

Vermin.

Insignificant creatures that didn't even deserve her attention.

She thought that I was asking this to her because I had one as a pet.

She couldn't even imagine, not even think through her thought process that I could ever consider these demons as actual people.

Just how brainwashed is she?

Just what did her parents do to her mind?

Or has she always… been like this by herself?

No way, there is no way…

No one is always inherently evil, there are always reasons behind how people think or react.

She was most likely influenced by someone, the gods, even.

Why am I even thinking about a reason for her to be so insane?

Maybe because it simply does not fit within my mind for someone to be like this?

Not even my corrupted siblings went this far…

Because she thought that the insane one was I based on my strange questions and how 'suspicious' I was, Elrinneth decided to keep an eye on me always, using several guards to keep me in check of not doing anything suspicious, I could not even exert any order as the King, she was taking over the entire Kingdom.

Everything I trained for, everything I fought for, and everything I tried to reach were simply useless, against someone as strong and insane as her, I was simply nothing.

And caged in my room, the Incubus King remains in silence, glancing at the Thanatos Kingdom…

However, for some odd reason, today, I was called for a meeting.

Because she has me caged, I don't even know what is happening in the Kingdom anymore.

But it seems that there is a new conquest ahead.

Usually, she would simply do this herself with her pawns, but for some odd reason, she called me as well into this meeting.

And here I am, sitting in silence as Elrinneth and various other figures, members of each of the Kingdom's families speak about their war plans.

The Champions and Heroes of our Kingdom gather in here with us, most of them are already part of one of the houses of royalty who descend directly from the Demon Gods.

Although my Epic hasn't awakened completely, I could also be considered to be something akin to them, a 'Hero'.

Perhaps due to this strength, she wanted me as a disposable pawn?

Most of them look at me with a bit of strangeness, most likely because people could have assumed that I was already dead, based on how my entire presence had disappeared a few years ago…

However, out of nowhere, I appear.

Of course, they feel a bit strange and some even shocked.

But most of the people here have a similar thought process than Elrinneth, and see the people besides their royal houses as disposable pawns, at best.

I am the weird one in here, despite what I believe is correct being seen as insanity by my brethren.

The Greedy Queen smiles at me as she welcomes me as if we were always friends, her mischievous smile keeps being enchanting yet terrifying, my very soul shivers.

"Now that we have everyone in here… Time to plan things out…" she says eerily, with a bloodthirsty smile as she shows us several maps and other things, different areas marked and drawn.

One map shows the entire structure of a large Empire built inside and around the largest forest in this continent, the Grand Forest…

This is the Dark Moon Empire.

So even them will succumb to her…

The people around me smile as they pray to the Demon Gods, who all had blessed them.

Then, the Greedy Queen begins to communicate with the God themselves through the connection she has with them.

They all wish us good luck…

Oh really?

Well, thanks!

I wish I could speak with them and tell them everything that is wrong with their sick ideology and how they had built up the Kingdom made up by their descendants.

But the only one capable of communicating with them directly is Elrinneth.

I sigh, as I begin to prepare for battle.

I had been given a large squadron of over 100.000 soldiers and tamed beasts, I will lead the crusade from the east.

Things seem very simplified, the Demon Gods prepared most things for us beforehand…

We will teleport our entire armies through special artifacts made by them, and then, the entire Empire of Dark Moon will be enclosed in a special Divine Barrier that will weaken the power of all the living beings in there who lack a connection with the Demon Gods… it will also seemingly cancel out their magic to an extent.

I have been forced into this situation, forced to slaughter innocent people until nothing remains but the ruins of this Empire and the countless corpses piled up in endless mountains of death.

Can I change this fate?

I wish… I could do something.

Mother, are you looking at me?

What do you think that I should do?

Can I use what I have to make a difference in this battle?

Can I really make a difference?

Even if I tried, I fear that my own army will simply stop obeying me and even attack me.

Should I simply do as she said?

Or follow my beliefs… until my death?