Epic of Caterpillar

524 Side Chapter: The Dark Steppes Gods

In a Divine Realm surrounded by poisonous gases and strange, tentacled trees where odd and alien-like creatures resembling squids of all shapes and sizes inhabited, various demigods and a few gods discussed things.

"So Ghiotl, did you blessed her child?" asked a god resembling a giant alligator with rock-like green scales, a long jaw filled with sharp teeth and whose legs seemed to have adapted to swim better in water, resembling the fin of fish.

"Yes, Geodredeot… but it cost us more than we imagined… her children are indeed… very strong…" said the voice of a female that came from within a giant purple-colored floating squid which had one single crimson eye and hundreds of tentacles. Each of her tentacles seemed to have an orifice where poisonous gas was exuded each time it exhaled. Due to the nature of its existence, it needed to exhale each time it spoke several words, so it always spoke slow.

Another presence emerged from within the side of Ghiotl, the Demon Demigoddess of Treacherous Venom, it was a dragoness but resembled a wyvern more than a dragon, as her front limbs were made into wings, and she had two heads, each one only had one large pink-colored eye, her scales were purple and she had a venomous needle at the tip of its long tail.

She was the exiled Dragon Goddess from the remaining and last Pantheon of Dragon Gods in the Realm of Vida, who had escaped from her former brothers as they were too insanely obsessed with serving the gods of the central continents those that ordered humans to kill their own children, Othairth, the Dragon Goddess of Poisonous Eyes.

"The child born from Kireina was incredibly strong, her soul seemed to possess a piece of Kireina's, and was also made out of various strong souls merged… I have never seen a newborn like this before… To top it all, it seemed to be capable of producing Divine Energy… It cost more Divine Energy than we imagined, but we managed to bless her nonetheless" said the two heads of Othairth at the same time.

"That's a relief…" muttered the aquatic alligator-like demigod, Geodredeot, the Demon Demigod of Swamps and Scaled Creatures. He was the father of various Reptile-like beastmen subspecies, alongside some more intelligent Lizardmen species he created, which all inhabited the Dark Steppes jungles and swamps. He had a gentle and concerned demeanor, despite being a demon demigod.

Since these gods were allied with Dhyellele, the Beast Demigoddess of Rodents, and Savaphe, the Beast Demigoddess of Land Turtles, they had connections with the Beast Gods, the two demi goddesses siblings, and due to this connection, they hoped to make one with Kireina.

Due to this, they decided to do a more passive approach, showcasing their goodwill by blessing her newborn daughter, Nanshe.

The ones selected for this job were Ghiotl, the Demon Demigoddess of Treacherous Venom, one of the eldest Demon Demi goddesses in this alliance and mother of Poison Elves, and Othairth, the Dragon Goddess of Poisonous Eyes, a new member that had just joined their alliance as her mortal children inhabited the Dark Steppes as well.

Othairth felt welcomed by the nice attitude of the gods of this alliance and did not doubt in extending her hand to help them out. Even more when she also desired to create connections with Kireina, and hopefully bring her children to her Empire, where they could enjoy prosperity without worrying for external threats.

Nanshe was just born, and they had immediately felt her presence, ready to be blessed… but her soul was so strong and thick that it was very hard to leave their 'trail' on it as blessings. Nonetheless, they managed to do so with the assistance of the other gods that gave them Divine Energy Crystals.

The gods present were now waiting for Kireina to notice their blessings and perhaps contact them through the Interdimensional Merchant Shop of her allied gods or perhaps to come in person here. They knew that she was helping the beast gods, and because the tribes of the two beast demigoddess inhabited the Dark Steppes and allied with them, they hoped that she would understand their 'gift' of goodwill and accept them as allies into her Pantheon.

It wasn't that they didn't like the Dark Steppes, but as the Central Continent Kingdoms developed and more heroes raised into gods, the threat of an imminent war between gods of the Central Continents and the Border Continent was possible… especially because many gods in the central continent held hate and disgust over non-humans.

And well, there was also another threat right in their home…

"Has he awoken yet…?" asked Ghiotl while closing her only eye to relax due to the fatigue she felt after blessing Kireina's daughter.

"He…? Not yet… But his aura had become stronger, we are trying our best to maintain the barrier around our tribes, but his seeping divinity keeps infecting the vegetation, the atmosphere and the unique biomes where our children can live comfortably" said a giant Demon Demigod with the appearance of a dark green salamander, with a large and wide jaw, small legs and feet, and thin skin, covered in sticky goo. It resembled not a conventional salamander but a prehistoric relative to it, with various features that seemed ancient, Salalotl, the Demon Demigod of Sticky Skin, and Gooey Creatures.

Salalotl and various other gods were given the task of maintaining a large barrier, similar to the one made by the gods to protect Kireina's Empire. This barrier however protected them not only from outside threats but also from a slumbering and sealed Demon God that was resting below the Dark Steppes, inside underground ruins.

This god had recently begun to awaken from its slumber and seemed to release a strange and mutagenic aura that transformed the vegetation and the living beings into different beings, savage and monstrous, it was lethal for their intelligent children, as it transformed them into feral abominations that preyed on their siblings and children.

The gods couldn't do anything to this god yet, as they lacked the means to strengthen the seal put into it by a central continent god in the past… and they didn't really want to ask for help from the central continent gods either.

For now, they moved all of their children to a large area where they could inhabit for the moment while they thought about a way to stop this mutagenic divine aura from spreading further… but most of these gods lacked any means of offensiveness, as they used to be passive lone gods who only wanted to live peacefully and in isolation.

As of now, the only battle capable were the new member, Othairth and Geodredeot, with the rest being only mediocre at fighting… yes, they were demigods, but they did not develop offensive Divine Techniques. Perhaps they could overpower mortal threats with their natural powers, but to fight against other gods, the gods need Divine Techniques to inflict proper damage to each other.

By themselves, they were weaker than Megusan and Geggoron, and together, they might be able to put a fight against the sealed god but many of them would weaken so much that they would fall into coma-like slumbers for thousands of years, and they wouldn't be able to take care of their mortal children like this.

Being a god was more complex than mortals believed, it was filled with hardships and issues.

"Damn it… just how long can we take until that fiend awakens? Shouldn't we go and throw him all our powers, so he falls into slumber again?" asked Geodredeot.

"Impossible, we are too weak, and the seal itself is also protecting him… It was a seal made by a Rank 5 God at the very least, we cannot easily destroy it… and if we end up destroying it, wouldn't we be just speeding up his awakening? To get through him, we need to destroy the seal first… which would be suicide by itself" said Demon Demigod resembling a giant snake, a reptile that lives in swamps and lack venom on their fangs, a boa constrictor. It was covered in thin scales and had giant jaws that could easily gulp whole blue whales with it.

Although it seemed strong and intimidating, it was a very peaceful demigod that did not like conflict and lacked Divine Techniques for offense, Saphentine, the Demon Demigod of Long and Binding Creatures… his title was often confused with Megusan, but Saphentine did not possess any power related to Poison Attribute, as his divinity was related with Water and Earth Attribute.

He was the father of the first Lamia and their descendants which diversified when they mated and had children with other gods. He protected a large tribe of Giant Swamp Lamia and other smaller species.

A thing to note is that Lamia was originally a female-only race, because the first one, the progenitor of all Lamia was born from the womb of a Nymph that could only give birth to females, and this trait was given to her daughter with Saphentine.

Lamia became capable of giving birth to males due to Saphentine's blessings, however, only those that lived below his protection can give birth to male Lamia, the ones that diversified in the rest of the world were female only, and needed the seed of other species compatible with them.

(Nesiphae and Amiphossia could be said to be descendants of him)

Geodredeot and the rest of the gods fell into silence after Saphentine explained why it was a terrible idea to try and defeat the sealed god.

"Then… what can we even do? Should we run away? We can't… possibly do such a thing yet… id we run away, the other gods, those allied with the central continent pantheons will notice us and probably attack us," said Salalotl.

"Those bastards… so we are cornered… how shameful of us, to fall this low due to our bad luck… We were aware that Jorgrakog, the sealed god was slumbering below us… but it seems that the seal of these central continent gods was way too weak, it didn't even resist much!" said a Demon Demigod with the appearance of a giant catfish, a fat and giant fish with a wide-body and long whiskers. He was not all that demonic aside from his crimson eyes and his jaw filled with sharp teeth resembling razors, Garathun, the Demon Demigod of Gills and Swamp Fishes.

Garathun was not the father of any intelligent demi-human race but took care of many Gillman and Swamp Fishmen, humanoid fish-like monsters that after being nurtured by him, developed intelligence. They were just as intelligent, friendly, and cooperative as the other tribes of the Dark Steppes, and served him greatly by worshiping him and nourishing him with energy.

"There is no point in blaming those bastards, brother… Jorgrakog seems like a powerful Demon God, he seemed to have accumulated a great amount of power somehow and it slowly raising his own army of creatures… he might be aiming at our children… we will end up being pressured, save our children inside our Divine Realms and then escape while hoping for other gods to not detect us… this is our fate…" said Saphentine, patting Gorathun's head with the tip of his tail.

"Don't lose hope, Saphentine… we still have Kireina…" said Ghiotl.

"You put way too much faith into that mortal, sister… who knows if she will ever help us? It is too much of a variable at this point…" said Saphentine.

"Although the two little demigoddesses are not present, I am sure that they will try to convince their siblings to make Kireina act on their and our behalf… we need to trust the two," said Othairth.

The other gods groaned… but they did not seem to have any other hope than Kireina. Unlike gods in pantheons, they did not have a Great or Supreme God backing them, they were on their own, so they were always indecisive about their future and what could happen to them…

Becoming one of Kireina's allies and joining her pantheon of gods was like a dream for them… but just like a dream, it seemed too good to be true or possible.

As the Dark Steppes alliance gods chatted more, the two Beast Demi goddesses, Dhyellele, the Beast Demigoddess of Rodents, and Savaphe, the Beast Demigoddess of Land Turtles were chatting with Morpheus, trying to convince the Centaur Demigod to do something.

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