Epic of Caterpillar

As Gravern and Smirkes were about to explain Kireina and the rest of the Gods present about the Gods of the Lower Realm, Kireina finally remembered something she had on the tip of her tongue this whole time…

"Wait for a second, you two… now I finally remember! You are the Gods that blessed Ymir, right?" asked Kireina.

"S-So she remembered…" said Gravern.

"P-Please spare our lives!" said Smirkes.

The Gods instantly became paralyzed in fear, fearing that Kireina would be enraged at them by being the former benefactors of an enemy of hers, although such enemy was not really a true enemy someone she decided to kill and eat at the moment.

In fact, it would be very hypocritical on her part if she were to be engaged with them, after all, she was the one that ate Ymir and ruined their plans of having a new god at their side. After all, they were nurturing Ymir to become their third bro.

Although Ymir was not dead now, as his soul merged with that of all of his family and then was cut into three pieces which are now Kireina's Chimera Scylla children, it was still something that the two Fire Gods preferred to keep a secret or to simply forget about…

Especially because Kireina then grabbed all the Blazing Ashura and the Fire Oni, and brought them to her Empire shamelessly.

However, the Gods, instead of fighting against her, passively let her do as she pleased, knowing that she was someone that could have come on top even if the two fought against her at that time… Now, they did not particularly regret not having fought her at the time, although there could have been a chance she were to die to them, there could have also been a chance she slowly consumed them, gained their power in the middle of the fight, and overpowered them through her cheat Devour Ability.

Actually, they began to consider that if they fought against her, they could have killed some of her allies, perhaps, which would have made her mad, in fact, even monstrously wrathful, and would have become way more chaotic than how she was right now, causing even more destruction and bringing everything down.

…Indeed, it was good that they decided to not attack her and just stay inside their Divine Realms for the moment.

Well, there was also the thing about her, and her family being blessed by many different Gods, all of them protecting them with such blessings.

They were just two poor Gods, so attacking her might have made these Gods ultimately chase them down and tear their souls into pieces, probably sealing each piece into artifacts and leave them rotting into the depths of a dungeon for eternity.

So yeah, it was better that they did not do anything rash…

However, to their surprise, Kireina did not seem angry.

"It is pretty interesting that you guys were that one rascal's gods. Sorry to eat him but he was a pretty sizable meal I could not miss. At the very least my Marduk can be your new champion, I can allow that," said Kireina.

"E-Eh? Really?" asked Gravern.

"Really, Kireina-sama!?" asked Smirkes.

Both Gods could not believe she was being so carefree over it.

"Yeah he has a strong fighting spirit, and I am sure he is more promising than Ymir could have ever been. Also, I guess I will not ask for your tribes, because I already took the Blazing Ashura Nation and the Fire Oni beforehand, so keep whatever was left for you," said Kireina.

"Ooh! Kireina-sama, you are so considerate!" said Smirkes while crying.

"Yeah! I really thought that she would get mad!" cried Gravern.

"In fact, I bought some of your descendants that serve me now… Here," said Kireina, as she bought Ashura, the Yokai King that once reigned the Forsaken Labyrinth Intelligent Yokai Monsters Tribe, a thin and slender young Ashura with red skin, longhorns, and short silver hair, he had changed a bit as he had evolved a couple of times since he joined Kireina's Empire.

And then there was Oga, Kireina's wife, alongside Ogu, her father, the chief of the Fire Oni, a large, almost four-meter-tall muscular, red-skinned Oni man with a gentle giant personality and a long silver beard.

Oga at his side was just as beautiful as ever, a beautiful red-skinned and muscular woman as tall as her father, with long silvery-white hair, wide hips, hard as chitin muscles, blazing red eyes, giant demonic horns atop her head, and several tattoos covering her glossy red skin, she quickly sat at Kireina's side and kissed her, showing her authority as Kireina's wife to everyone present straight away.

"Y-You called us, Kireina-sama? I-It has been truly a whileeee… Are these… Gods? Nice to meet you all…" said Ashura while trembling, he was still a shy man after Kireina broke his manly and prideful spirit back then… at least when he was in front of figures of authority, although he was still quite prideful and shameless on his own life, which had been rebuilt now that he made of himself a famous dungeon hunter within the city of Dark Moon, and held a harem of five beautiful ladies.

"It is good to meet my descendant!" said Smirkes, giving his strong and muscular hand to the young and smaller Ashura.

"O-Oh, yes, sir… You are… Gravern-sama?! No way…!" said Ashura, realizing the appearance of the demigod based on the statue that was once worshiped in the Blazing Ashura Nation.

"The one and only, your progenitor, boy! I might as well drop you a blessing," said Smirkes casually, as he blessed Ashura!

"Oh?! Thank you very much!" said Ashura, kneeling before the god, he was in front of his very ancestor!

"And those must be Ogu and Oga… The members of the Fire Oni Tribe that lived outside. I am happy to know that one of my descendants has become Kireina-sama's wife. I am eager to know your offspring whenever it is born," said Gravern.

"Hm? Who is this old man?" asked Oga, leaving Kireina in a bit of an embarrassment.

"O-Oga, that's literally your progenitor, Gravern…" said Kireina.

"Hm? OH!" said Oga.

"Have more respect, my daughter! Gravern-sama! It fills me with happiness to meet my progenitor!" said Ogu, kneeling before Gravern.

"No need to kneel, my son. Here," said Gravern, blessing Ogu, as he filled the old Fire Oni man with new and blazing energy.

"Uooooh! Gravern-sama blessing! I feel revitalized! Ah! Even my youth is coming back!?" asked Ogu as he feels filled with new power.

"No old man you didn't got younger…" said Oga.

"Hahahaha! Yeah, I know I have always been a young lad!" laughed Ogu.

"Father-in-law-sama, come sit with us, we have to speak a few important things now," said Kireina.

"O-Oh, alright then Kireina-san," said Ogu, as the giant red oni man sat at the side of his daughter's wife.

"O-Oga-san, don't you want my blessing?" asked Gravern.

"Hm? No thanks," said Oga rather cheekily.

"Insolent girl, accept your progenitor's gift!" said Ogu.

"Oga-chan, don't be disrespectful, he's just being kind…" said Kireina.

"But I don't need his strength, I am already strong enough!" said Oga.

"Agh, sorry Gravern, Oga-san is sometimes quite stubborn for the stupidest of things," said Kireina.

"Oho, I see that you already know my daughter well enough, Kireina-san," laughed Ogu.

"Eh?! That's mean!" protested Oga while pouting cutely.

"Haha, don't worry, I have given her the blessing anyways, a gift shall never be rejected," said Gravern while smiling evilly, as Oga was already blessed anyways!

"I mean why do you even ask me if you are going to give it to me anyway? Geez, well, whatever," sighed Oga.

"Do you always have to be like this?" asked Brontes.

"Oh? Wanna fight it off?" asked Oga.

"You always lose when we do," said Brontes with a serious expression as her eye flashed with electricity.

"Hehe, maybe today I can win!" said Oga while smiling boldly against the now-goddess Brontes!

"Okay, okay, we are deviating too much from the original topic! Please, everyone, relax!" said Kireina.

"Sorry…" said Oga, as Kireina petted her head and caressed her silky hair.

"A-Anyways, I am guessing that we can finally… talk what we came here to talk about, right?" asked Smirkes.

"Indeed, please go ahead," said Kireina.

"Finally. Well, we came here to talk about something important… Perhaps you have already noticed it or not but… There is a lot of Gods in the Lower Realm. Well, not as many as the surface, but there is indeed a ton here," said Smirkes.

"I always knew there were a few… but not as many as you're making them be. I always saw this place as somewhat of a desolate area… Was I wrong?" asked Kireina.

"W-Well… It is rather desolate when you compare it to the overcrowded surface. But there is a ton of Gods nonetheless, there are like three major Pantheons in here led by many Gods…" said Smirkes.

"The quantity of Gods in here seems lesser than in the surface because, well, it is. And Alongside that, we are all very spread out within the vast regions, as there is simply just land and no oceans, the land keeps going on and on. So everyone usually always has space for themselves," said Gravern.

"Although we Gods live in peace here… Well, that will change soon enough now that Divinity Devouring became publicly available for everyone to grab," said Smirkes.

"And even more with your presence, Kireina-sama. As the Gods had become weary of your presence and some might consider… attacking you," said Gravern.

"Do these Gods lack a brain? How and why would they attack us? Didn't they saw how Kireina-sama just destroyed an entire Pantheon?" asked Agatheina.

"I would say that, yes, they do lack a brain," said Smirkes.

"Gods appear in all shapes and sizes, they are not often as rational as we are. There is a lot of Demon Gods in here, so it should be already understood that Gods that have strange or special divinities are often driven mad by them to act through such divinity natures," said Smirkes.

"For example, a God of Hate would be hateful, and angered all the time," said Gravern.

"Oh yeah, we have some experience with a few mad Gods in here, right, Geggoron?" asked Kireina, as she pointed at a floating cloud of dark phantom, Geggoron's' residual consciousness that emerged from within her soul when she created the world where she could let Gods consciousness rest.

"I-Indeed. I was driven mad by my own Divinity and nature. Gods like me are many. We are born as monsters and we survive as monsters, morals, common sense, and other things usually are not present within our thought processes…" said Geggoron.

"And there are some large pantheons made up of these mad Gods who distribute each other territories, usually obeying the strongest within the bunch," said Smirkes.

"Which lead us to… Well, Kireina-sama, did you, by chance, conquered a few dungeons?" asked Gravern.

"Why yes, I recently just conquered three… Oh, you mean…?" asked Kireina.

"Yes… The Gods who you stole the Dungeons are part of such Pantheon of Mad Gods, they are plotting to target you," said Smirkes.

"How do you know? Are you their former ally?" asked Agatheina.

"No, but we were invited to join in the raid," said Smirkes.

"The raid?!" asked Morpheus.

"When a group of Gods down here decide to invade another Gods territory, we call such large wars "raids". Because down here Gods are not so controlled by the watchful eyes of Supreme Gods or their subordinate Great Gods, Raids happen very often, every 400-500 years…" said Smirkes.

"And they seem to have decided to raid in here… We received their invitation, but we politely declined. Because we know that Kireina-sama's strength will most likely eradicate them all," sighed Gravern.

"Well, tell me more about these Gods, whose their leader?" asked Kireina.