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Epic of Caterpillarchapter 606: [fated encounters: nyzzet's labyrinth conquest] 68/?: an intense battle!

"Zudig and Begudhur intention is not to fight me though, if I simply lower my guard, they will surely release an attack and then hurriedly escape this Dungeon in some kind of way… I cannot simply let them go… I really want to eat them now…" thought Kireina, as her family and servants gathered inside of her flesh, with the new ally on Hydros.

Hydros seemed to not feel comfortable nor Kireina had any issue getting him inside her flesh, seemingly as if he were not haltered by the limits of a god, such as not being capable of entering Kireina's Inner Realms.

However, Hydros was a god who had gotten his physical body taken away, alongside his Divine Core. His cultivation had become stagnant, and he wasn't capable of producing Divine Energy in great quantities as before… the only thing left on him was his very soul, and although it was strong, it wasn't as strong as his original strength, to the point that he was capable of entering Kireina's Inner Realm without issues.

"This place… could this be Kireina-sama Divine Realm? So strange… a world of blackness… but why there are so many souls floating around… thousands of thousands of souls… and… is that a Dungeon!? Inside a Divine Realm?! How!"

Hydros was being taken aback each time he discovered something new inside of Kireina's Inner Realm: Soul World and Kireina family and servants glanced at him with a bit of curiosity… Was he really a god? To their eyes, he seemed more like a big Water Slime with a floating eye inside its mass of a body.

"Hydros, right?" said Rimuru, glancing at the God.

"Ah! Yes, yes, I am Hydros… Oh? Are you a slime? Your presence is quite outstanding for a mortal… What's your name?" muttered Hydros.

"My name's Rimuru, gu… Hydros-san, are you a Slime God?! And are you a male or a female? I can't tell, gu," asked Rimuru.

"Me? I don't have a gender, as you can see… nor you either, right? Yet you take the form of a female, how curious… Anyways, Rimuru-san, it is nice to meet you. Are you Kireina-sam's family?" asked Hydros.

"Yes! We can do a lot of Slime things together later, Hydros-chan!" said Rimuru.

"Slime… things? You know that I am not a Slime, right?" asked Hydros.

"YOU ARENT, GUU?!"

"N-No, Rimuru-chan… Sorry for disappointing you. I was born before Slimes existed. I am a type of monster that was called… err, what was it? Living Water? Or Water Sprite" said Hydros.

"Perhaps you're the ancestor of the Slimes?!" asked Rimuru.

"Err… Not exactly… I think there is another Goddess that is the ancestor… err, Blooia, was it?" asked Hydros.

"Blooia-sama! She blessed me and many other Slimes in the Empire! So is she like my mommy?" asked Rimuru.

"Well, maybe… I have not spoken with her. I don't even know her" said Hydros.

"What a bummer…" muttered Rimuru.

"A-Ah! Rimuru-chan, please cheer up! I don't want Kireina-sama to get angry at me…" said Hydros.

"Okay, guu!" said Rimuru with a smile again… she was a quite simple girl.

Hydros sighed in relief.

As Hydros and Rimuru chatted around, the fight outside of Kireina's Inner Realm was roaring with thunderous sounds.

Zudig Begudhur was relentlessly devouring Kireina's flesh and Domain layers for a way to escape, while releasing rays of rotting venom, devouring essence, and phantasmal energy towards Kireina, alongside enormous bone and claw projectiles, fired from within their fleshy and enormous body.

Although they thought that using Divinity Devouring against Kireina's flesh would work, it did little damage, showing that Kireina was a mortal. Her flesh, despite being so strong, did not hold Divinity, only her soul held divinity within it… this made the power of Divinity Devouring not as effective against her as the two had believed…

And although they devoured Kireina's flesh, they did not gain any power from it aside from a lot of calories. Unlike them, she kept expanding and expanding relentlessly, shamelessly using her own flesh as a shield, as using Aegis in front of their bites would not be as effective as simply putting enormous walls of flesh against them.

Zudig and Begudhur felt like something was off… Kireina had fallen calm after menacingly shouting at them… she was preparing something.

For now, after the pathetic bluff that both of them threw at her, they began to devour through her flesh and Domain, relentlessly trying with all of their might to escape, but every time they advanced a bit, even more obstacles would resurge in front of their sight.

"Damn it! Divinity Devouring is not as effective against Kireina! Is this because she is a mortal then?! But our physical flesh is affected by it!" said Begudhur's voice.

Zudig immediately recalled the time when he compared himself to Kireina, saying that he was simply a superior version of her because of being a proper God that transcended a Divine Trial unlike her.

However, such statement now came to bite his tail, as Zudig realized that such 'weaknesses were, in fact, a strong advantage… even if Zudig's physical vessel was David, due to being a proper God, it was infected to the point that it had divinity cursing through all of its flesh, making him weak to Divinity Devouring and even more to its superior version, God Devour.

"Don't fuck with me… Are you telling me that Kireina has an advantage because she is a mortal?! Damn it all! Begudhur, let us use all of our power, our divinities and all! We cannot simply let her eat us as she leisurely prepares herself!" said Zudig in anger and frustration, as Begudhur agreed with his thoughts and both merged Gods began to control their body, shaping it as countless tentacles and appendages, imitating Kireina and beginning to attack all of the entire Domain, while firing cannons and other divine techniques.

They were charging their bodies with their newly acquired Thunder Divinity, increasing their speed and strength, although using Divine Techniques of the Thunder Attribute was way too far away from their scope for now.

Instead, they chose to rudimentarily use their Divinities in their souls as weapons, similarly to how Kireina uses them to conjure spells with slightly similar power to Divine Techniques that do not cost Divine Energy.

However, doing so would come with the price of consuming one's Divinity, which might end with damage that would only heal after slumbering for thousands of years… But to Zudig and Begudhur that was not a problem at all, as they had the Uroboros Skill, giving them the ability to devour their own souls and recover the lost fragments of divinity used in such attacks, much like Kireina does.

Although they still needed to use Divine Energy for the Uroboros Skill, they had acquired a large amount after merging, and even more after eating Kheseerad, whose soul was transformed into energy or 'fuel' to them, converting into Divine Energy through the process and digestion created by Divinity Devouring.

Zudig and Begudhur had discovered through their connected minds how little different they were, and how alike they were, making their minds match with each other after a few internal fight. Although they needed to devour the Unnamed Thunder God to finally realize this after they felt the relaxing shock of power that eating a Divinity gave to them.

Every time they ate a god, they would feel even more relaxed and to a certain extent… mentally mature and composed. It was almost alien how fast they had changed their mentalities, but it was most likely related to eating gods.

After having eaten half of Kheseerad, such feeling came once again, clearing Zudig and Begudhur's minds off their foolish anger against each other, and making both cooperate as if they were strong allies that relief in each other… this was most likely accepted in the mind of both of them because they shared the same body, meaning that they still felt as if they were 'alone' into this.

"Let's use Kheseerad Divinity as well! At the very least, if we infuse it into a layer around our flesh, we should be able to slightly alter space and distort it so we can more easily break through Kireina's Domain!" said Begudhur.

"And we'll use the Thunder Attribute Divinity to enhance our speed and thought process even more!" said Zudig.

Both Gods had suddenly become a powerful team against Kireina, and we're using all of their brains for the sole purpose of escaping from her terrifying grasp!

As both gods roared and tried to escape, Kireina's body was throwing cannons of the magic of all attributes against them from all sides, alongside eye lasers, fleshy tentacles covered in spiky horns, enormous bone projectiles packed with explosive fat, and many other attacks.

However, such attacks were being done almost automatically through Lesser Split Minds spread around Kireina's body, as her main mind was focusing on the task given at the moment…

Her entire family and servants walked inside of her flesh after having entered her Inner Realm, except Hydros.

Inside of her enormous flesh body, a chamber of sorts was revealed where many fleshy appendages twisted and pulsated, alongside many eyes and other body parts… her wives were familiar with such place, but her servants were not so much, although they didn't felt disgusted, it was just a rare experience for them, but they got used to it quite quickly after Kireina's soothing voice resonated inside such chamber.

Standing over the chambers, many bone and horn structures surged from within the flesh, possessing bright jewels of several colors in each structure, her family and servants touched them, as they closed their eyes.

Their Auras began to converge together, and flow like a stream of power towards Kireina's entire body. Kireina then decided to divide her body, leaving one covering her Domain while multiplying it, while another took into the skies as an enormous mass of twisting flesh, which suddenly began to transform into a more complex shape.

The enormous mass of flesh carried her family and servants, alongside her main mind.

Suddenly, from within her flesh chamber, all of her family and servants activated the Transformation Rings, as a flash of light covered her entire split and monstrous body.

Zudig and Begudhur lanced at the spectacle with awe, as they launched their strongest attacks towards her in the hope of stopping her transformation.

"Zudig, Begudhur, this is the strength of my family! This is the power that you have underestimated!" roared Kireina, as her fleshy body shaped itself into a giant and humanoid creature, eight arms surged from within its torso, alongside sixteen wings, four legs, and a dozen of tentacles. It had five faces in one single and enormous head, showing the appearance of furious demons and creatures.

Her tail grew into countless shapes, resembling tentacles of their own, as enormous claws began to grow on each of her arms, and a furious jaw opened at her chest. All of that was being constantly covered by thousands of armored plates one after another, shrouded with her family and servants Auras, dancing in unison.

BOOM! BOOM!

However, as her body radiated a majestic, godly, yet devil and bloodthirsty Aura, Kireina was completely bombarded by Zudig and Begudhur's attacks converged into enormous cannons of energy.

"You fool you shouldn't transform in front of us! Don't pretend to be all calm and composed, Kireina!" said Zudig and Begudhur.

However, from within the smoke, the enormous body of Kireina resurged once again, the metallic and grotesque demon knight with dozens of limbs and wings flashed with the countless eyes spread across its body, as they all converged together with many other Skills and spells such as Aegis, Telekinesis, Helios, Nanako's Eye Techniques, and so on, creating a crimson red barrier that protected them from such attacks without problems.

"Fool. To remain calm and collected is the earned right of the powerful," said Kireina with a voice filled with pride and strength, resonating through the entire battlefield, making the hearts of the gods glancing at her skip a beat.

"What?! FOOL?! You pitiful ant! How dare you call me a fool and even lecture me?! Come back to teach us lessons after you've lived a few thousands of years, you're not even a year old, you pest!!!" roared Zudig and Begudhur, as their body shaped into a titanic Draconic Head, the fleshy jaws opening wide revealing razor-sharp teeth and a purple tongue filled with eyes, from within its throat, a powerful blast charged in just a second, combining the power of the Divinities within their Souls!

FLASH!

"You keep calling the lion before you an ant? You're sure the fool in here… Gungnir!" said Kireina.