Epic Of Caterpillar

Chapter 2910 - 2911: The Lord Of Death

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[ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!]

[IMMINENT CRASH IN COURSE.]

[PLEASE GET TO THE SAFETY PODS AND EVACUATE BEFORE IMMINENT CRASH.]

"Persephone!"

Hades screamed as he stared at his wife suspended inside a massive tube, her body floating in sickly green liquid. During the years of her abduction, the Humans had subjected her to endless experiments.

Her once-perfect form was grotesquely malformed. Tubes pierced her everywhere. Her legs and right arm were gone, most of her hair shaved away. They had even removed one eye for further study, and many vital organs had been replaced with crude artificial substitutes.

"M-Mom...?!"

Zagreus gasped, horror seizing him as he saw his mother's condition. She was barely there anymore—her remaining eye stared blankly into nothingness while she drifted in the tube.

Persephone had once been celebrated as one of the most beautiful goddesses of Genesis. She had chosen Hades from countless suitors because she loved his calm, composed nature.

Zagreus and his sisters still remembered her as the warmest, most devoted mother. She would take them on picnics and guide them through wondrous realms to sightsee.

Gentle and endlessly loving, she constantly told her children how precious they were, how much they meant to her life.

Hades, despite possessing the potential to claim the title of Supreme God, had never pursued it. He was content—truly content—with the life he had built.

In his Realm of Tartarus, surrounded by his wife, his children, his people, the souls, and the undead, he had everything he could ever desire.

While others chased ultimate power, Hades felt no need. He already had it all.

That was precisely why, when they stole the most precious thing in his existence, he descended into madness, daring to confront invaders so overwhelmingly powerful that the only hope had been to let them destroy one another.

And now, at long last, Hades had found his wife.

But seeing her in such a ruined, broken state ignited a rage so profound it awakened something ancient and terrifying within him.

Erebus.

RUMBLE!

His power erupted violently as the colossal mothership plummeted toward Earth. Hades' fury was finally unleashed.

Humans in mechs rushed to intercept him, deploying anti-divinity machines and devices designed to suppress gods. They had wrung every possible use from his wife's suffering.

And yet...

"DIE."

Before the God of Death, King of Tartarus, bearer of a Fragment of the Primordial Spirit of Death forged by Genesis itself—the literal grandchildren of the Universe's Primordials—

—the absolute authority of Death, of Erebus, the Primordial Spirit of Death, fully manifested.

Hades had trained relentlessly since his first death, constantly pushing his limits.

Now he had reached his breaking point.

No more.

"Kuaaaggh?!"

"H-How is this happening—Uuugghh?!"

"Eeaaaahh!"

"W-Wha—Aaaaaggh!"

The humans who believed themselves invincible inside their mechs screamed in unbearable agony. Dozens perished instantly, souls ripped from their bodies.

Their corpses withered into desiccated mummies, faces frozen in hopeless despair as they failed to comprehend the overwhelming force of Hades.

Hades extended his Consciousness Domain across the ship. Wherever it touched, Death followed.

Every single person who had harmed his wife.

Every scientist who had performed unspeakable experiments on her.

Every monster who had made her suffer.

Every twisted "human" who no longer deserved the name.

They all died the same.

Even the pilots of the towering mechanical titans choked once, then collapsed lifelessly.

A black cloud of death rolled outward relentlessly.

"Dad...!"

Zagreus shielded his sister and friends, Hanshuan and Henshian, the Sun Monkey God siblings, along with Glimmerdust and Sindarin, the Moon Moth Goddess of the Moon's Shadow and the Moon Elf Goddess of the Moonlight Dew.

"Z-Zagreus! Is your father okay?!" Glimmerdust trembled, voice shaking with terror.

"He's clearly not okay—he's having a complete breakdown! He's raging!" Hanshuan shouted.

"W-We have to do something or we'll all die, including us!" Henshian urged.

"Zagreus! You possess great power too—can you stop your father?" Sindarin asked urgently.

"Big bro?"

"We'll help!"

Zagreus saw his sisters cheering him on, but he shook his head firmly.

"I'll take care of this...!"

He sprinted toward his father, desperate to reach him.

"Father, calm down! Mother might die if you keep going! We have to find a safe way to extract her and heal her quickly before she perishes!" Zagreus pleaded. "I'm not good with this technology, but I know there must be something we can do!"

"S-Son..." Hades groaned, clutching his head in torment. "Aaaarrgh! N-No...! T-They're here...!"

"What?" Zagreus' eyes widened in alarm.

"T-Take her...! Take your mother before—Kuuaaaggh!" Hades screamed as his body twisted horrifically, countless corpses screaming from within him while something monstrous roared to break free. "R-Run! Take your mother and run!"

"What?! Dad?! Dad, what's wrong?!" Zagreus cried.

"JUST DO IT!" Hades roared, his voice now distorted and aberrant—something from another Plane attempting to seize him as a vessel. "HURRY...! I CANNOT HOLD MUCH LONGER...! I...!"

"Father...!"

Zagreus nodded grimly. He quickly commanded the souls of the deceased humans he had managed to save. He ordered them to assist.

He transformed them into tangible phantoms. By the dozens, they swiftly detached his mother's tube, along with its independent life-support engine, and carried her into his divine realm.

"Come on, hurry!"

Zagreus fled with his sisters and friends, grabbing his sisters to prevent them from rushing back to their father.

He wasn't foolish. He understood exactly what had happened. When his father tapped into that forbidden power to save them...

...something monstrous had seized the opening and emerged.

An ancient adversary—an invader long forgotten after his failed first attempt.

Zagreus dreaded learning who this being truly was, the one who had once manipulated Goddess Hel.

"WRAAAAHHHHH!"

"...?!"

Zagreus and his companions heard Hades' agonized scream, followed by a massive explosion from where he stood. Nether fog billowed outward...

...and enormous tentacles erupted—composed of corpses, bones, souls, and pure nether.

"RUN!"

Zagreus scooped up his friends and flew with all his speed, smashing through the spaceship's walls and bursting into open sky.

"Eh?!"

"W-What is this place?"

"Woah! I've never seen anything like this!"

They stared in stunned awe at the sprawling city of Tokyo below as the giant mothership crashed into a vast open forest area, triggering an enormous explosion.

BOOOMMM!!!

"Fuck..."

Zagreus looked in disbelief at the devastation—and at what crawled from the wreckage of the mothership.

Countless tentacles.

Death.

Pestilence.

Decay.

Nether.

And a swirling portal of nether fog leading straight to the Nether Plane—

—the realm where all Death gathers, curses, and devours.

The domain ruled with an iron fist by its tyrannical master.

The Netherworld Ruler—an Outer God of monstrous power who governed the Concept of Death across all Universes.

Before such an entity, what could this small group of young gods possibly do?

"F-Father..."

"No..."

Zagreus felt his sisters weeping against his shoulders as they sensed Hades trapped inside that abomination.

He was still there, mutated into the perfect vessel for this resentful evil god that had returned solely to torment them again.

"Taking Hel wasn't enough, huh? Now you want everything else..."

As Zagreus whispered in despair, the tentacles surged toward them in pursuit.

"Shit...!"

"Zagreus, we have to get out of here!"

"Run, Zagreus! Run!"

His friends screamed as Zagreus clicked his tongue in frustration.

Always running.

He was always running!

"D-Damn it!"

But he knew he had no choice. Against this being, resistance seemed futile.

...

Or so he believed.

"Necrotic Lord, even now you dare attempt to seize the world I govern?!"

A thunderous, majestic female voice boomed from the heavens.

Everyone looked up.

A colossal titaness formed of living wood and vibrant nature descended, surrounded by thousands of gods.

Their combined aura radiated pure Life and Nature—

—the absolute antithesis of this Ruler.

And his greatest weakness.

"T-The Supreme...! The Supreme Goddess of Life and Nature?!"

Shock rippled through the group. Many had believed her dead, yet here she stood.

"WRETCHED LIFE WEAVING DRUID! I WILL TAKE MY REVENGE ON HER! WHERE IS SHE?! WHERE IS THE CHAOS SPAWN?!"

"Kireina is occupied with far more important matters than a resentful corpse like you! Now begone!"

Flora unleashed boundless Life and Nature. Giant spirit forests erupted across the battlefield. Spirits manifested in swarms, assaulting the monstrous Necrotic Ruler.

Her gods joined the onslaught, casting devastating spells from a safe distance as she had instructed.

She knew even the slightest touch from this abomination could bring instant death.

"GO! KILL HER SUBORDINATES! WEAKEN HER!"

Flora was immensely powerful, but so was the Nether Plane's Ruler. He summoned his legions of the dead, his strongest Knights and Generals, skeletons, zombies, and ghosts rising to clash against Flora's forces and erode her army.

To her growing dismay, her troops were steadily pushed back.

She clicked her tongue and drew deeper into her power.

She also called upon Yggdrantia, with whom she had forged a pact long ago. Cosmic Yggdrasil Branches burst forth around her, rapidly transforming her form and elevating her strength to new heights.

"I will show you the rage of Nature!"

With a furious roar, nature surged once more, swarming the Nether Plane Ruler and inflicting catastrophic damage.

However.

CLAAASH!

"Ngh?!"

In the midst of her assault she was momentarily distracted. The Ruler exploited the opening, sending a hidden tentacle that pierced her left leg.

The limb withered and decayed almost instantly. She severed it before the corruption could spread further.

"Hohoho! What's wrong?! I thought you were strong, life-weaving druid?!"

The monstrous Outer God mocked her mercilessly as he pressed his advantage.

As Flora desperately searched for a new strategy, she spotted dozens of silhouettes descending from the sky like crimson and azure falling stars.

The red meteors tore into the Necrotic Ruler's body, slashing relentlessly.

The azure meteors unleashed apocalyptic destruction, rains of mythical divine weapons hammering down without mercy.

"Kireina...? Frank?!"

Flora stared in astonishment as dozens of Kireina's and Frank's Heart Essence Avatars assaulted the Ruler.

"Yes, it's us," Kireina declared. "We will assist you, Flora!"

"So please, keep fighting and don't give up!" Frank urged.

"Of course I won't!" Flora crossed her arms defiantly. "Hmph!"

As the battle intensified and the Nether Plane Ruler began to falter under the combined assault, Flora heard a faint, desperate voice whispering directly into her mind.

It came from no one nearby.

"Help..."

"Help me..."

"Please..."

"I need someone like... you..."

Flora traced the voice downward, through the earth's crust to a powerful soul calling out to her.

A soul she felt an instinctive, profound connection with from the moment she first sensed it.

"Please become my vessel... please let me... save my world..."

It was the Planet's Will—Earth's Soul itself.

As Flora weighed this monumental decision, the situation grew even more dire.

From the skies, a dozen additional motherships descended. Titan Mechs powered up for combat.

Time to decide was running out.

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