Epic Of Caterpillar

-----

The amalgamation of the Gods Zudig, Begudhur, and Kheseerad managed to escape from Kireina's jaws just barely, only by choosing to sacrifice three quarters of their soul, and more than 99% of their physical body.

Kireina had immediately noticed that they survived when she assimilated the enormous part of their souls that they left for her, but they were long gone from the dungeon, having escaped her Domain, they immediately set off outside of the Dungeon, escaping to the skies above the dungeon through the security of the small pocket space where they were and then escaping hundreds of kilometers, running to the southwest corner of the Border Continent.

They had sacrificed most of their flesh, only leaving a small piece of flesh which harbored their soul, the piece of flesh contained the same quality and powers as the rest of the flesh, and as long as they put time into it, it should be capable of growing again.

The three gods finally settled down after traveling for many hours, resting within their pocket space.

After Zudig ate Begudhur, both of their minds fought and tried to devour each other, chaotically trying to take control over their physical body, however, after accidentally eating the Unnamed God of Lightning released by Kheseerad, their minds suddenly cleared out due to the burst of power, and they learned to cooperate and survive together against the greater threat that Kireina was for their new combined lives.

And after desperately eating half of Kheseerad, the god of foreign trespassing's mind awakened into their merged souls as well, only leaving the unnamed god of thunder not awakening any longer, most likely due to its weakened state compared to the other three.

Working as one to survive, the same goal that the three shared, they utilized Kheseerad's Divinity to escape Kireina, and now, they were beginning to cope with their new reality.

The reality where the three were bound to live as one for the rest of their existence… or until they acquired enough strength, knowledge, and resources to find a way to separate themselves and become once again individual beings.

It was truly a very strange and weird experience for the three, especially because they were all Lone Gods that had never appreciated teamwork nor had made any bonds with anyone before, they were loners that enjoyed being alone and working alone. They seek to become the pinnacle of Genesis, but alone, by themselves.

They simply could not trust anyone, they were born in precarious conditions as monsters of different backgrounds, but similar situations. They were born alone, fought alone, and crawled alone to the top, reaching godhood.

And through their souls being combined, the three could not help but experience all the memories from one another. Learning their backstories, the struggles that they had through their entire and long lives, and finding… sympathy in each one life, as they realized how similar the three were.

"After surviving such an experience, we have been cursed to become one, only for us to survive…" muttered Zudig,

"Have we accomplished anything else than surviving through our entire lives? We always strived to survive above all else… and due to it, we obsessed ourselves with power… And after all, we are still obsessed with it" said Begudhur.

"Power is everything after all. Without it, you will never be free to do whatever you please. You will always be, in some way or form, restrained and chained into the fate of your life, into the fate created by the World's Will, by the world itself… We were always, the three of us, looking for the same thing" said Kheseerad.

"But we couldn't simply trust one another, no, it was too late to find trust in others, perhaps earlier in our lives as mortals… but because we never forged bonds nor relationships, we became crude and cold, is it?" said Zudig.

"We indeed are crude and cold, but this warmness, being with you two brings me something that fills the emptiness that I always felt inside of my heart… Something that I could only fill through parasitizing beings," said Begudhur.

"Is this a fated encounter? Are the three of us destined to be together as one?" wondered Kheseerad.

"Honestly, this sucks, even more, when Begudhur is getting all weird and romantic," said Zudig.

"Shut up you idiot! I was trying to be serious for once! And I am not romantic! I don't believe in pitiful love or whatever!" roared Begudhur.

"Sigh… Do not start a discussion again, please, when you two discuss, my mind feels as if it's going to blow up, and what I feel, you two also feel, right? The three of us should remain calm and cooperate at the very least until we can find a way to separate ourselves" said Kheseerad.

"Should it be possible to separate ourselves by dividing our souls into three pieces and inhabiting them?" asked Begudhur.

"No, it is impossible. Don't you remember when we just did it so Kireina could have a nice feast and let us escape by lowering her guard after thinking that she acquired victory?" asked Zudig.

"Our minds, the three of us were still connected to it… So it was something like a Split Soul, but our minds are still in each split soul? Hm, it is similar to my Split Souls as well, but even stronger it seems… though the pain of having been eaten by Kireina remains within my memories…" muttered Begudhur.

"Don't we all? It was truly horrendous. I cannot believe that I thought I would stand a chance against Kireina… Perhaps her mortal allies were beatable to an extent… but not as I thought, even them were tough to kill" said Zudig.

"We almost suffered the same fate as the foolish Megusan and Geggoron… But we somehow were lucky enough for Kheseerad's mind to awaken inside our souls for some reason…" said Begudhur.

"Thank me more, without me, you would be dead… Well, WE would be dead… After all, you bastards ate me instead of trying to rescue me… But I do understand why you would do that, and I also know that I would have done the same in your place" said Kheseerad.

"Eating you and making you part of our souls might have been better than just rescuing you at the end. Your body was bitten in half by Kireina, and your soul was also bitten in half. If you remained like that you would have immediately fallen into a slumber and you wouldn't have been capable of helping us at all" said Zudig.

"When you became one of us, you received our powers too, and the Divine Energy that we acquired by eating the other half of you, through that, we managed to survive," said Begudhur.

"I know, I know, we share the same memories. I am still a bit angry though" said Kheseerad.

"I am also quite furious over Zudig, but there is nothing we can do now. He had received his fair share of suffering as well through Kireina, so we are all quite even now" said Begudhur.

"Hey, you're kidding me. If I did not eat you, you would be dead!" said Zudig.

"Yeah, but it's not like by eating me, you weren't' trying to kill me, right?" asked Begudhur.

"I was, but you should still be grateful," said Zudig without bending the knee to any type of fault, he was prideful and cold-hearted after all.

"We won't, it was a mere occurrence amongst occurrences that we all somehow survived your digestion," said Kheseerad.

"Perhaps due to his powers not being completely like Kireina, he isn't capable of digesting us properly, and we end up becoming part of him instead of becoming his power, unlike Kireina, who eats gods and converts them entirely into her power," said Begudhur, recalling the information gathered by Zudig, as he was capable of browsing through the other two gods' memories.

"It's… most likely because I don't possess the Blessing of the System Master, which gives Kireina what many Gods speculate is the Sin of Gluttony or something like its positive effect without the negative effect," said Zudig.

"I see… because you were flawed and couldn't imitate Kireina's greatness, we ended up surviving and becoming one with you," said Begudhur.

"Are we lucky or unlucky? I can't really tell…" muttered Kheseerad.

"We survived, so we are lucky in my opinion," said Zudig.

"There is always misfortune with fortune… they go hand by hand. Surviving is a good thing for us, but being stuck like this is terrible… Yet, we have to get used to this as soon as possible if we genuinely want to attain strength and achieve our goals" said Begudhur.

"Although we are quite different, our minds are very alike, and because we are forced to cooperate anyway, it would be better for us to do so. It is the most logical thing to do in this situation" said Kheseerad.

"Cooperation? Well, we have already done it stupendously, so we survived, somehow…" muttered Zudig.

"To think that Kireina was this strong, the strength that was shared on her information didn't specify it all… Now that I have experienced a real fight against her and her mortal allies, it is truly a terrifying being… She has a few weaknesses due to possessing a mortal body, but which mortal body would have so many incredible qualities anyways? And her soul is… with a strength comparable to a being at God Rank" said Begudhur.

"However, judging Kireina through pure strength alone is a terrible movie. Her versatility and variety of attacks, powers, transformations, magic, spells, curses, moves, and more are what makes her truly terrifying, you simply never know what she will pull out next based on the enormous amount of Skills she has… This is the power of the Blessing of the System Master…" muttered Zudig.

"Although you tried to be like her by acquiring David's soul, it is impossible to even when you got Divinity Devouring, isn't it? She has many skills aside from that one, she is not simply using as her only method to do absolutely everything, she possesses an enormous array of abilities, alongside a mind that thinks incredibly fast and always takes almost the most ideal of decisions in an instant… Is she really a being comparable to us? She is clearly above all of us, fighting against her felt as if we were constantly being toyed with…" said Kheseerad.

"And not let me start with her mortal allies… Although not as overwhelming nor terrifying as her, they had incredible teamwork. In my long life, even after fighting against the group of Heroes that sealed me, have I ever seen people working so perfectly together, not even the Heroes blessed by dozens of Gods were this good at it, it felt as if each party member became a single entity, their movements were precise, and their minds were always together as one… Is this the effect of Kireina's powers as well? She not only is terrifying by herself, but her Skills are so many and so varied that she is capable of increasing the power of her mortal allies to extents never seen before…" said Begudhur.

"Indeed, each one converged with the other's powers quite perfectly, each one knew what to do and each one was capable of not simply fusing their techniques or strategies, but also even their magic spells…" muttered Kheseerad.

"And the equipment they had… That wasn't even in the information either" said Zudig.

"That equipment was simply of another world. It was comparable in endurance to Divine Artifacts, but not in versatility, power, and more… Were that equipment even equipment? They felt like artificial living beings similar to golems than equipment, yet they were able to amplify their wielders powers to even greater extents, and even were capable of letting them… combine and become enormous and powerful, matching our physical strength on many occasions" said Begudhur.

"And that's not even the most terrible thing! She is even capable of sharing her Divinity Devouring with her mortal allies! How is it even possible?! They were not eating themselves, yet somehow their attacks were always coated on is power!" said Kheseerad.

"That's another mystery we need to unfold… How can she do that? And can we do that as well?" asked Zudig.

"I wonder… but why would we even do that? We don't trust anyone else than ourselves, she can abuse her powers because she had gathered trustworthy allies which she can rely on…" said Begudhur.

"Can we even… achieve such a thing?" wondered Kheseerad.

"It is never late to consider new strategies… For now, we must recover our power and lay low, we must seek opportunities and gods to devour… However, we should keep an eye on Kireina's whereabouts and her doings, so we can keep track of her strength and possibly find new weaknesses or things that we can steal from her beforehand…" said Zudig.

"Hmph, not like it worked for you, right? You lost more than what you won" said Kheseerad.

"Oh? You think so? With you two fused with my soul, I feel like it still a win on my end… Now let us go to my Dungeon, it is more secure than lying in the sky inside the pocket space…" said Zudig, as he flew through space with the space pocket towards his dungeon, the one he stole from a Dragon God a few months ago.

-----