Epic of Caterpillar

Gravern and Smirkes had finally decided to join Kireina now that she came to the Lower Realm, and instead of becoming her prey, they wanted to immediately become her loyal subordinates before she was to go hunt the Gods around here.

They already knew what they would lose, such as a part of their soul which they preemptively made into an Elixir, alongside their Dungeons, and the mortals they had living inside their Divine Realms.

And if that were not enough, in the case that her ascending to goddess made her want bigger rewards, they were planning in giving her almost every divine material they had inside their Divine Realms, and even their own body parts (which could grow slowly as time went by).

They were ready to sacrifice anything except their lives, the two, as long as they were together as true bros, were always happy.

They had survived their entire lives in the old Genesis, after all, they keep surviving together, being each other rivals, friends, and brothers.

And both of them also had their families they wanted to protect.

Indeed, both had their own wives, which were Living Deities that lived inside their Divine Realms, and had large families with many descendants that lived inside the large volcanic cities inside their divine realms, they were willing to lend them to Kireina because they knew that she would take good care of them, seeing how she always treasured her people above all.

Aside from doing it for themselves, they were doing it for the safety of those they loved.

In this way, they were no different than Kireina… and they hoped that she could have some empathy with their case and let them join her in exchange for their belongings and utmost loyalty.

They flew towards her Divine Realm through their Divine Realms, using them as some sort of mobile space to traverse the Spatial Layers their Divine Realms were located and placed into.

In a few hours, they finally reached the area where they knew she had set her Divine Realm after ascending.

They slowly moved near it… slowly but steadily.

Until Nanako who was multitasking, while having breakfast with Kireina and also using her powerful clairvoyance to see all around this perimeter for several kilometers, she immediately noticed them and told Kireina.

Nanako's vision had improved so much after ascending into godhood that it seemed as if she had omnipotence in all the perimeter of her senses… which were several kilometers.

Due to this, she became the main "camera" of pretty much everything.

And because she also could multitask easily, she did this while also lazing around or cultivating with Kireina and her family, so it was not as if this was taking all of their time away…

However, as she sensed the Gods, she immediately communicated it to Kireina.

Sensing Gravern and Smirkes slowly approaching, Kireina decided to get out of her Divine Realm through a True Body Clone, while being accompanied by Agatheina and some of her wives, such as Nanako, Rimuru, Brontes, Nesiphae, and Zehe.

"Who is there? Reveal yourself, we can already see you. If you have bad intentions, prepare yourself to be devoured. If you do not appear in the next ten seconds, I will go towards you and tear you apart!" said Kireina rather boldly and with a stoic voice, the complete opposite of the cute and carefree woman she shows to her family.

Gravern and Smirkes immediately felt like their lives were in the line, clenching their teeth as they immediately absorbed their Divine Realms back to their Cores and then appeared out of thin air.

"WE SURRENDER!" they cried at the same time, kneeling in the arid ground in front of Kireina.

"…Weren't you a bit too rude there?" asked Nanako.

"…Maybe, but this place is filled with old and crazy Gods, so you never know… You already saw their appearances right? Do they match, Nanako-chan?" asked Kireina.

"Yes, two red-skinned demon guys…" said Nanako.

Smirkes and Gravern felt immense fear as Kireina already even knew how they looked without them even revealing themselves! The power that Nanako possessed was truly out of this world!

"Alright, what's your name? And what do you want with us?" asked Kireina.

"We come to join you, Kireina!" said Gravern.

"W-We are the ones that blessed one of your children, Marduk!" said Smirkes.

Kireina furrowed her eyebrows as she heard the Gods say the name of her son so carefreely… a feeling of concern and fear emerged as she recalled how Vudia was once attacked by Geggoron while dreaming, something that she never wanted to happen again.

If these Gods somehow knew the name of her son, there was a possibility that they were trying to kidnap him or something through some weird means!

"How do you know the name of my son?! You blessed him?!" she asked.

"Yeah! We are Gravern and Smirkes!" they said.

"…Oh," said Kireina.

"If you are truly devoted to Honey, give away your treasures and divinity fragments!" said Zehe.

"Yeah, just like Zehe said and how Agatheina taught us to act! Give away your treasures to our wife, and she might benevolently let you be her slaves," said Nesiphae.

"I can see everything. There isn't a thing that can escape my vision, you have no means of escaping nor pulling off underhanded things, do as they said!" said Nanako.

"Guuuuuu!" said Rimuru… she also tried to be intimidating.

Gravern and Smirkes smiled as they were allowed to prove themselves through the gifts they could give Kireina.

They quickly opened their souls and took away the elixirs they made through the fragments of their divinities, grasping them as they saw the red liquid and dew inside.

"We can also give you the permission to conquer our Dungeons!" said Gravern and Smirkes, offering the elixirs to Kireina.

Rimuru quickly grabbed them with her Slime tentacle and gave them to Kireina.

"Here, Masta," she said.

"Hmm… Only two? You know I am a goddess now, right? This little divinity will not give me a thing! I have eaten a dozen of Gods already, it would be better to just eat you right here and right now… You have to convince me a little bit more," said Kireina rather shamelessly.

She did not care about their stupid emotive stories or whatever, she wanted to get more out of them before they were to join her… or it would be kind of a waste.

She was already beginning to imagine how easily it would be to chomp both of them and be done with it… but she wanted some more allies, so she contained herself.

"M-More? But we already gave you large pieces of our soul! It hurts…" asked Gravern.

"If we do… will you really help us then…?" asked Smirkes.

"Hm? Are you doubting? Yeah, I should just eat you…" said Kireina.

"W-WAIT! WE'LL DO IT!" said Smirkes.

"Yeah! P-Please doesn't eat us!" said Gravern.

Both Gods quickly chopped off another piece of their souls and divinities, feeling weakened and lethargic.

However, Kireina knew that she could easily help them regenerate by eating a piece of her soul and even help them develop chaotic souls like the other Gods that serve her.

Although she can easily regenerate her own soul, the power she could draw from eating divinity fragments was unique and added into it, she could regenerate but not generate new energy, but these fragments were like new energy for her.

Due to that and more, she wanted way more, a lot more!

"Oh? Alright then…" said Kireina, grabbing the two new elixirs, which she found finally as a fitting offering.

The two Gods were weakened and lethargic… but it seemed that she had accepted them within her pantheon.

"This is a safety measure, though," said Kireina, as she unleashed black chains out of her soul, grabbing the two Gods' souls and chaining them to an invisible chain.

"W-What is this?"

"An insurance. If you try to betray me, you will get eaten," said Kireina, as she opened a portal to her Divine Realm and finally let the Gods inside…

"Insurance?!" asked Gravern.

"Yes, got a problem with my wife's decisions?" asked Nesiphae.

"No! S-Sorry, good lady!" said Smirkes.

The twin fire Gods were then greeted by a large Divine Realm, the most enormous they had ever seen before in their entire lives!

It was so enormous it left them speechless!

It was as if they were in the Divine Realm of a Supreme God!

It had the size of an entire Realm, if not bigger!

The two could clearly see two whole continents over a gigantic sea, and they also sensed a large amount of space in the sky and also underground!

The number of Attribute Particles everywhere was tremendously ridiculous!

To the point that the Gods left their mouths wide open.

"If you are going to stand there you will get eaten by a Divine Beast, follow me," said Kireina, she was wearing a long and dignified kimono alongside her wives, giving her the air of a Goddess even more.

The pair of Gods reached the Pantheon of Gods area within the Divine Heavens area of Kireina's Divine Realm, where they finally meet with her other Gods, all of them seemed strong and had chaotic aura within, they already had Chaotic Souls and were not the same that other Gods thought… in fact, they were several times stronger than the popular conception.

"We welcome the newcomers," said Morpheus.

"Gravern and Smirkes, right?" asked Agatheina.

"Y-Yes…" said Gravern.

"That's our name," said Smirkes.

"Welcome to the pantheon then! Come join us! We are having breakfast right now, do you want to eat something?" asked Gaia.

"Yeah, come on, sit at my side," said Merveim.

"Please feel yourselves at home," said Hodhyl.

"If we are getting into the same team we have to get along, ask us anything," said Maeralya.

"Yeah, we are also curious about what is up with you guys, from where do you come from? And your stories?" asked Marnet.

"Eh? W-Well…" muttered Gravern, feeling overwhelmed by the friendliness of everyone.

"Yeah, feel free to chat around, though I would appreciate if you could tell us anything you know about this place and all the Gods in here," said Kireina, sitting in her throne in the Pantheon Hall.

Alongside these other Gods, Gravern and Smirkes noticed several spectral entities in the shapes of Gods they could swear had seen before… until they recognized some, such as Geggoron, Thanatos, and Hephaestus.

"T-Those Gods… Didn't they die?" asked Gravern.

"Well we did, but our consciousness was recycled into these forms by Kireina's abilities," said Geggoron.

"Although we do not have our original powers, we are slowly developing new of our own, while also using our new life to devote to her… A second chance is hard to get, so we are treasuring this moment of peace… We had rather wild lives," sighed Thanatos.

"Indeed. We have become devoted to her, and we are devoid of any feeling to the outside world for the moment, but feel free to ask us anything. We like to chat around. When there is nothing we can do other than gather energy, we grow bored," said Hephaestus.

"I-I see…" said Gravern.

"I guess that's why I couldn't sense their divinities…" said Smirkes.

The two Gods quickly went to sit down at each side of Merveim, who was like their new friend or aniki.

They were served with a variety of expensive-looking plates and food, and even drank a special elixir that revitalized their souls and made the pain they felt fade away… such wondrous items would cost a fortune in the interdimensional merchant shop, yet they were being given for free here…

"Feel better now?" asked Morpheus.

"Yes… Way better, this food… what is it?" asked Gravern.

"What you drank is Kireina-sama's Blood," said Agatheina.

"What?!"

Both Gods were left speechless once more.

"And what you were eating is her flesh too!" said Levana.

"AH…?!"

The Gods were left speechless, once more.

"Okay, calm down, nothing weird is going to happen guys. It's just that Kireina-sama's flesh and blood have strong healing properties, so we served it to you," said Marnet.

"I-Is that so…?"

Gravern and Smirkes simply pretended that it was fine… but this was weird, tremendously weird!