Epic of Caterpillar Chapter 2938 2939: Together, Forever

-----

"YOU INSECTS! WORMS…!"

Roaring in fury, the Eclipsing woman released a catastrophic shockwave of Chaos of Life, which started dissolving the fighters' very essence—yet two others hammered her down into the shattered spacetime.

In his mightiest Vampire Dragon form, Chaos merged with all his reunited allies—his wife, son, and the others—his ancient relic claws ripping into her flesh while battling her myriad hands, swords, and spears with endless rage, despite new gashes marking his body.

Ervas and Veronica created the toughest barrier, taking the heaviest blows to keep Chaos standing. Veronica's armor, one of the hardest materials known, effectively repelled direct attacks from the merged Happiness and Sadness.

Suddenly, a wolf's howl echoed from beneath. Wagyu sprang up, his triple jaws tearing across her whole figure and scorching gaping wounds into her.

Kireina and Rimuru charged ahead, wielding gleaming swords that captured their inner hearts. They streaked through like vivid blue and red flashes.

"Let's go, Rimuru!"

"Yes, my beloved!"

Grasping hands together, their blades ignited simultaneously, hacking at the hideous fusion repeatedly.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

"GAAAHHHHH! Y-YOUUUUU! YOU DEFECT! YOU DAMN… HEART DEMON!!!"

In unison, Happiness and Sadness howled. Their forms fractured and splintered, twisting into a bigger monstrosity that swallowed adjacent realities and dimensions to recover and expand.

Enormous swords and spears appeared spanning whole realities, devouring the nearby Existence Expanse.

Weaving through the barrage, Frank built up his power and called forth seven massive spears empowered by Archangels throughout Kireina's Reality.

"Seven Archangels Divine Celestial Spears!"

These gigantic spears skewered the monstrous sister sevenfold, stopping her growth for crucial moments.

Noah summoned additional eyes of Azathoth, but they fell short. He switched to enormous tentacles.

"Supreme Authority of Destruction – Azathoth's Tentacles of Abyssal Restraint."

Vast dark tentacles burst out, coiling around the twisted fusion, stabbing through soul and body while dealing profound, burning wounds.

"GYAAAAAHHHH!"

In excruciating pain, the fragments screeched but countered savagely. Colossal swords and spears of Chaos Life formed, obliterating Azathoth's tentacles and smashing Frank's spears, then whipping out to crush both fighters against the reality glass underneath, almost destroying their forms.

"D-Damn it!"

"Ugh, she's too strong!"

Frank and Noah grunted in pain, spewing cosmic blood while tentacles closed in. Yet Ervas-Veronica rushed ahead again, growing to maximum size and encasing the colossus in animated armor and pale void flames, pinning it down.

Chaos bellowed and lunged. A hundred dragon heads amassed energy, firing a hundred rays able to erase whole Dimensional Clusters, scorching and liquefying the monstrous fusion's frame.

"NNGAAAHHHH!"

Wailing, she cracked Veronica-Ervas' armor and healed from Chaos's barrage—until a triple-headed wolf barreled forward carrying Kireina and Rimuru atop him.

"They're keeping her busy—we have to pierce her combined heart!" Kireina yelled.

Rimuru and Wagyu agreed with nods. Their Heart Essence surged out, blending with Kireina as she vaulted higher off Wagyu's back and plunged down with ruinous might.

Kireina's aura embodied Rimuru and Wagyu completely. The One channeled his leftover strength, wrapping around her more.

Hundreds of voices resounded from her Inner Reality. Particles merged into her sword and form as Kireina tapped the power all had given her.

All those she battled to safeguard now stood with her, uniting into her and crafting a fresh existence.

Grinding her teeth, Kireina sensed Rimuru holding her from behind and Wagyu firm at her side, their Heart Essence overwhelming her with might.

Two billion years of wisdom and practice flowed into her possession.

And Kireina…

Delivered her sword's ultimate strike.

"Infinite Blooming Hearts Sword – Pillar of Eternal Defiance!"

All six prior forms combined into her seventh and supreme one, merging every Heart Essence into her weapon.

SLAAAAAAAASH!

"A-Ah… Aah…"

Happiness and Sadness got ripped asunder.

But they failed to return to originals—their merger was broken.

Their hearts, souls, and beings suffered the same fate.

The Scripture of the Heavenly Law they represented ignited.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Wracked by torment and hopelessness, they beheld in dread as their being dissolved and integrated with Kireina.

Gradually, inescapably, they fulfilled her.

FLAAASH!

With Happiness and Sadness dying and fusing into her, Kireina emerged anew.

As the supreme entity she formerly was.

The White Light overhead and the Boundless Cosmos beneath beheld her very essence remade—reunited as the shattered Empyrean Throne from ages long past.

"It's done…" Frank exhaled with deep relief.

"She pulled it off… Hah…" Noah grinned. "At last…"

"Ugh… nice work, sis…" Chaos grumbled.

"I nearly perished…" Veronica sobbed. "Is it truly finished?"

"Yeah… I believe it is," Ervas whispered.

Kireina remained silent. Rimuru and Wagyu appeared, staring at the ancient form Kireina once held as the Eternal Mother of Flowers.

Smooth pale skin, a gown crafted from myriad vibrant blooms across countless universes, flowing locks in shades of red, purple, black, and gold, triple horns of prismatic crystal wrapped in vines, foliage, and flowers.

Soft eyes shimmering with rainbow brilliance.

And at last, magnificent butterfly wings in rainbow hues, formed from innumerable universes.

She resembled nothing like the Kireina they recognized… but they knew deep down it was her.

"Kireina?" Rimuru inquired gently.

"Master?" Wagyu questioned.

"…"

She drew near them. Every stride spawned a fresh multiverse, blooming splendidly as infinite blossoms.

A soft motion of her arms mended all the ruin in an instant.

Upon arriving before them—looming thrice their height—she gazed down with a blank expression.

Then a warm smile graced her lips.

"Yes, it's me."

FLASH!

Her form transformed. Her hair steadied into deep purple and red, her horns blackened, her butterfly wings shifted to cosmic purple, blue, and blazing red, while her gown turned into thorny vines decorated with crimson, black, and purple roses.

"Kireina-sama!!!"

Rimuru and Wagyu shouted in delight, bounding toward her. Kireina enveloped them in a firm hug, brimming with sheer joy.

Frank, Noah, Chaos, Ervas, and Veronica drew closer cautiously, noticing they now lingered in an immense cosmic woodland.

"It's over!" Frank burst out. "I-It's truly over… Wow, I have no clue what happens next."

"We endured endless training…" Noah breathed. "We stayed sane solely because your Pillar of Celestial Enlightenment soaked up all the insanity and preserved our minds amid that eternal torment."

"It was savage, yet we were never utterly isolated," Chaos agreed.

"What's the plan now?" Veronica wondered. "I mean, congrats and everything, but… what do we even do? Just relax?"

"Aren't there other Empyrean Thrones around? Where might they be?" Ervas pondered.

"They've observed everything from the start," Kireina stated, clapping her hands. "Come on out, everyone."

Dozens of figures materialized from the encircling cosmos—each awe-inspiring, formidable, and resplendent beyond measure.

Every entity possessed immeasurable might as a Great Being.

Among them loomed the three mightiest of the Four Seats.

The Ancient Beast King.

The Emperor of Spacetime.

The Mother of All Spirits.

"Eternal Mother of Flowers," the Ancient Beast King declared. A towering, brawny figure draped in hides of stellar beasts, with bronzed skin, flowing crimson hair, and piercing golden eyes. "With your wholeness restored, you can resume your place among the Great Four Seats of the Empyrean Throne."

"I trust there won't be more interruptions," the Emperor of Spacetime remarked with a sigh—a wizened elder resembling a Chinese patriarch in silvery-gray robes, sporting a flowing white beard and topped by a lunar eclipse crown.

"We won't probe what you've evolved into or your allies," the Mother of All Spirits stated. "Provided you promise no more such turmoil."

For Kireina and her allies, the trial had stretched across billions of years in an epic saga.

For these entities, it amounted to a trivial annoyance they had merely watched from a distance.

"Kireina, will you truly align with them?" Rimuru queried. "W-What if they keep inflicting misery on those beneath?"

"I shall," Kireina replied. "Henceforth, fellow Seats, address me as the Empress of the Eclipsing Garden, Kireina. I claim my throne—yet with a single stipulation."

"...?" The Emperor of Spacetime fondled his beard, sighing while shaking his head. "What now?"

"I shall forge fresh Heavenly Dimensional Domains filled solely with non-intelligent, non-sentient beings for your sustenance. All others may pursue their lives naturally until their natural end," Kireina proclaimed.

"...?"

"!!!"

"...?!"

All Empyrean Thrones—Seats and the rest—flinched at her bold declaration.

Yet Kireina stayed serene and poised, offering a soft smile.

"You doubt my words?" she inquired, summoning Heart Essence to conjure a complete Heavenly Dimensional Domain in mere moments.

It brimmed with myriad universes, thousands of dimensions, and hundreds of multidimensional arrays—all swarming with non-sentient life ready for their feast.

These beings needed living essence, making this the nearest equilibrium she managed—soulless shapes resembling plants and fungi.

"Hah… U-Unbelievable… Not even we can create on such a scale. How did you…?!" muttered the Emperor of Spacetime. "Gah?! T-The Mark of the Root?!"

"The Root?!" exclaimed the Ancient Beast King. "Impossible…! T-That's…!"

"So she has been chosen?" mused the Mother of All Spirits. "How… amusing. Very well. I accept."

"Yes, so do I," agreed the Emperor of Spacetime.

"Mark of the Root?" Kireina asked. "What does that mean?"

The Thrones shared looks with each other before facing her once more.

"It is a rare mark granted to a Chosen Empyrean Throne—one unseen for eons," explained the Emperor of Spacetime. "The last bearer was Azathoth, who voluntarily shattered himself and fell into eternal sleep, viewing all existence as pointless."

"It seems the mark has transferred to you," said the Mother of All Spirits with a gentle smile. She manifested as a massive, curvaceous mother goddess, her flowing hair made of countless shimmering ethereal spirits of elemental energy, her eyes like brilliant golden stars, her see-through skin displaying infinite glowing hues inside. Though nude, she exuded natural majesty.

"And what does it mean?" Kireina insisted.

"It grants you access to The Root," answered the Mother of All Spirits.

"And now only you possess the ability to remake Existence," added the Emperor of Spacetime. "Maybe one of your fragments was selected ages ago on its path."

"Ah!"

Suddenly, Kireina recalled—her death, arrival at The Root, conversation with a enigmatic witch, revival, and summoning by Elfina.

"Right… I see…" Kireina grinned and nodded. "Does that make me your Ruler?"

"Yes," confirmed the Emperor of Spacetime. "We have awaited eons for a chosen one. Perhaps the key lay in shattering oneself to uncover a fresh aspect of existence—something we never imagined."

"You, Kireina, have accomplished it," the Mother of All Spirits declared warmly. "I eagerly await how Existence evolves from here."

"…" Kireina gazed at her hands in wonder. "I guess I'm the Ruler of… all Existence?"

Using her Authority, she brought everyone else to this place, raising them to Empyrean Throne-level existences. Celebrations exploded among them.

"Congrats!"

"You did it, Kireina!"

"Woooohhh!"

"I can't believe this! Oh my god—are we really at the Summit of Existence?!"

"This is insane!"

The happy shouts of her cherished family and companions reached Kireina's ears. With a finger snap, she reformed Reality into her city and castle—now lifted here alongside every citizen and subject.

She reveled with them all.

The Empyrean Thrones participated too, intrigued by mortal delights. They imbibed drinks, swayed in dances, burst into laughter, and attempted jokes—adapting their speech to mimic the "lowly beings" they formerly ignored.

Kireina enjoyed moments with her family, soaking up affection and focus while feasting and quaffing freely.

She encountered her grandchildren, while Hydros' kin met the others—igniting astonishment, disbelief, and teasing envy.

Through her might, she restored the deceased, pulling their essences from The Root. Tsukuyomi and Susanoo shed tears upon reuniting with Amaterasu.

That evening delivered Kireina's most frenzied adventure. Unions among Empyrean Thrones proved overwhelmingly fierce, each cry spawning fresh multiverses.

Armed with boundless power, time, and vigor, she pleasured every wife—and Mammon, who sneaked inside and gained full status among them.

The Mother of All Spirits, fascinated by carnal mortal ways, participated too. Kireina flowed along; the primordial entity swiftly embraced bodily joys and grew utterly enamored of her.

As the endless night concluded at last, Kireina emerged outdoors. In her Reality, the heavens echoed the land beneath, mirroring the beloved starry void.

Upon the castle balcony, she stood beside Rimuru, fingers intertwined. Kireina drew her into a tender hug; Rimuru laid her head against her shoulder.

"I don't think I could have done this without you, Rimuru—without everyone," Kireina whispered gently. "Thank you. Really… thank you so much."

"Kireina…" Rimuru whispered, beaming softly before pressing a delicate kiss to her lips. "I worked hardest for this moment because I knew you would always sacrifice yourself to keep us safe. I did it because I love you—with all your flaws and everything else. I love you so much…"

"Aw…" Kireina beamed, planting repeated kisses on her lips, then her cheeks. "I love you too, more than anything… My cute, adorable Rimu…"

"Heheh…" A soft giggle escaped Rimuru as Kireina planted kisses along her neck and shoulders. "Um, but can I ask for something?"

"Yes?" Kireina replied.

"I want another baby! Ailine needs a little sister slime like her…!" Rimuru proclaimed, her brows creased in adorable resolve.

"E-Eh? Ah…!" Kireina's eyes widened, having already borne so many offspring. However, Rimuru's eager expression softened her heart, bringing a warm smile to her face. "Fine. Let's have another baby."

"Guguuuuu!" Rimuru's gooey tentacles coiled around Kireina, yanking her into a secluded chamber. "Then let's start right away~!"

"W-Wait! Rimuru, I just did it with like forty people—Aaahh~!" Kireina's helpless laughter rang out as Rimuru—now a mighty Empyrean Throne—hauled her off in unrelenting hunger.

-----