Epic of Caterpillar

407 A Mysterious Event and Divine Energy?

[LEVEL 073/250] [EXP 267.735.132.757/400.000.000.000]

"Uwah! K-Kireina! Kireina-san! Wake up!"

Huh? Is that Nephiana\'s voice?

"Nephi! What is going on?"

"T-The eggs! THE EGGS!" shouted Nephiana as if our children had suddenly died!

"W-What happened?!" I asked, hurriedly getting up from the bed as I inspected the room.

"They disappeared! There is only one egg now! My children! Where are they?! Uwaaaah!!!"

"What?! Where did they go?! I was sure that… Slime Clones!"

I instantly connected my mind with my Slime Clones, who are constantly watching over everything through the night, memories of what they saw quickly entered my mind.

As Nephiana was peacefully sleeping, the seven eggs began to shine brightly and, in a few seconds, they all moved at the speed of light, merging!

"Calm down, Nephi, they are alive… or it! I saw what my Slime Clones saw, they merged while we were sleeping"

"M-M-Merged?! W-Why would our children merge?! Chuuupiii!!! Chupii!!!"

Nephiana couldn\'t comprehend anything, and to be honest, me neither.

Why would they even merge? To what purpose? How can they even merge?

The seven-colored eggs combined into a slightly larger egg, that had rainbow-colored dots all over it. Inside, there was only one fetus…

They did not even merge their eggs but themselves as well…

I caressed Nephiana as I released a floral scent from my wings, her hysterical behavior dimmed down as she glanced at me as her eyes began to cry.

"Chupiii… My children… why did they fuse? I don\'t understand… I don\'t understand…"

"I don\'t either… But if they fused it does not mean that they died, they have only become one. From what we know, this could only be temporary… or…"

"F-Forever…? Chuupiiii…??

"Well, we\'ll have to adapt to that, Nephiana… I don\'t want to force them to separate, as it may end up damaging them, for now, let\'s wait for it to hatch. I\'ve inspected it a dozen times already, it is perfectly healthy. It\'s exuding incredibly thick mana of ten different attributes… it is rather frightening"

"T-Ten different attributes?! Chuupiii…!!!"

"Y-Yes, I can sense Earth, Gemstone, Wind, Nature, Holy, Ice, Water, Poison, Darkness, and… there are more…"

The children between I and Nephiana seemed to be packed with an incredible talent for several attributes. And unlike Ailine, who was able to replicate attributes not because she had an affinity with them but because she was able to draw their powers through her Color Magic, this chick attributes were authentical affinities.

"Uwah…" said Nephiana, as she fell unconscious.

"Ah, my poor Nephi… Sigh… just what I will do with you all, fusing all together all out of a sudden, you know how frightened you made your mothers?"

Ah, I guess that reprimanding them won\'t work. I doubt they can listen to me.

It seems that even after merging, they were still in development, and there was nothing more than wait.

I decided to spend the rest of the day with Nephiana, as she slept over my lap and at the side of the warm rainbow egg.

"Guu… I can\'t believe they just fused… Will that happen if I have twins in the future?" asked Rimuru.

"I don\'t know… it may be an innate ability that the chicks had, which activated spontaneously," I said, assuming this as my first theory.

"Mommy will my little siblings stay combined?" asked Ailine.

"I don\'t know… I really hope not, though I don\'t know if it\'s even dangerous for them, due to developing such an ability naturally, it seems" I said.

"Hmm… this is really quite troublesome, what if they stay combined forever? Would their personalities and minds merge or will some disappear? It\'s quite frightening to think too deeply" said Zehe.

"Z-Zehe-san don\'t say such things… Guu… poor Nephi-chan" muttered Rimuru.

We were currently having breakfast while discussing what had just happened. Nephiana\'s cries were so loud that she woke up everyone in the castle.

"Ah, sorry… it\'s just that… aside from my concern, my hidden researcher is awakening, and I can\'t stop but inspecting the egg!" said Zehe as she glanced at the large colorful egg.

Not only Zehe was inspecting it, but Charlotte, Izumi, Kusuri, Herbell, and Redgaria as well.

"This… in my hundreds of years of research in monsters and demi-human races, I\'ve never seen such a development… multiple sibling eggs merging? This is unprecedented" said Herbell.

"I haven\'t even lived for more than ten years, so my experience in the subject is even dimmer… yet the amount of magic that this egg exudes is something completely out of this world. I have never seen so many attributes together… this is not even like Spirit Magic which calls upon the attributes of the world, these attributes are completely innate of the individual, all of them are affinities than come from its body!" said Kusuri, while writing down everything he had just said.

"Indeed, Kusuri-senpai! T-This is too much! This egg could be even used as an incredibly high-quality material, even a phantasmal weapon could be crafted… Not as we would ever do that; it is master\'s precious children! But still… it\'s as if there was something else aside from all these attributes of mana" analyzed Izumi, as her scorpion tail wrote what she said.

"You three have good eyes. Indeed, this is not just ordinary mana attributes, but something else is awakening within them… Could it be? Divine Energy!" shouted Redgaria.

Wait, Divine Energy?!

But they are just mortals! From where they got that Divine Energy…?!

Wait… my bloodline…

"I remember that my bloodline Skill was upgraded some days ago, and when it did, it upgraded that of all my children, although the already grown-up ones haven\'t changed much… perhaps its effects are greater when the child is still in development…" I muttered.

"Ailine-chan, are you capable of controlling Divine Energy?" asked Rimuru to our daughter.

"Huh? Divine Energy? What\'s that? This?" said Ailine, as she released a spark of condensed mana, which shined bright in different colors.

For a small split second, space itself seemed to have dilated.

"WHAT?! That\'s Divine Energy!" shouted Redgaria.

"Uwah! A-Ailine-chan, since when did you learn how to create it?" asked Rimuru.

"T-That\'s right… Not even I can produce Divine Energy like that, I can only use the one that my Soul had accumulated by eating Divinities…" I muttered.

"Huh? A few days ago, … Is it really that special? I thought it was just more magic" she said.

"Well… It could be said that Divine Energy is just magic… but very, very, very condensed, and on its purer form possible… that a child can just generate it without even being a God… Ailine, are you really a mortal?!" asked Redgaria.

"Um, Uncle Redgaria is acting scary…" muttered Ailine, running behind me.

"Redgaria, calm down your nerves!" shouted Zehe.

"Ugh… Okay, okay. I am calm, I am calm! Do you see it?! I am calm. I am the calmest man on the Realm of Vida," muttered Redgaria, sighing.

"It\'s okay Ailine, your uncle sometimes gets one of its screws loose, but he\'s my slave, so he can\'t do anything to you anyways… Still, Redgaria, don\'t act strange on my child, you heard me?"

"Eeep…! Yes, ma\'am" said Redgaria.

"Sigh, leaving my hysterical Master aside… Ailine-chan, what do you feel when you generate that spark?" asked Herbell, with a way nicer and gentler tone.

Ailine seemed to have calmed down as she thought for a moment.

"Mmh… I don\'t know like I just will create stronger magic, and that comes out!" she said.

"That simple…?" said Redgaria, sighing again.

Charlotte then moved towards Vudia who was sitting on my shoulder.

"Vudia-chan, can you do something similar?"

"Ah? Me? I can!" shouted Vudia as she raised her small yellowish hands and generated a strange golden substance that sparkled brightly.

"This?" she asked.

"T-That! Look at the dilation of space itself…! It is Divine Energy as well…!!! For real, what kind of family is this?" shouted Redgaria.

"The best family!" said Ailine.

"Guu, Ailine-chan, you make your mommy proud, so strong. I can\'t even generate Divine Energy!"

Zehe then came back with Ryo, who was outside training.

Nesiphae also brought Amiphossia who was currently with Kaguya and her party training in her dungeon.

And Gaby brought the Shark twins, who were shopping around the city for new clothes.

"Um, what\'s going on here? Ah! Where are the other eggs?!" shouted Ryo, he wasn\'t in the castle when the whole thing happened.

"Our siblings!" said Amiphossia.

"Did they… no way" muttered Aarae.

"Such a big egg!" said Valentia, admiring the egg.

"Well… you see…"

After explaining the whole thing to everyone again, and that the strange event may be attributed to the Divine Energy of the chicks, all of my children also showed their own Divine Energies.

All of them had different forms and features.

"I discovered it a few days, I thought that it was somehow related to my Soul or my Magic… but to think that it is a power that gods wield…" muttered Amiphossia as she released a bright semi-transparent watery substance that contained properties of a ghost, and also had healing and corrosive effects all at the same time. It seemed to have a will of its own as it moved around her, the space dilated itself as it moved, creating small cracks that regenerated almost immediately, only being capable of being seen by my Mystic Eyes.

"I thought that it was just my Aura, every time I put it inside of my body, it would make me crazy strong, but I would tire down a lot afterward. I was saving it as my trump card!" said Ryo, showing his Divine Energy, which flowed like a blaze of energy around his body. He was able to mold it like the others into a sphere of reddish and dark colors, it held \'strength\' over everything else, and cracked space the most of all the Divine Energies.

"Mine is like a dark blob covered in rocks," said Valentia, showing her Divine Energy, it was exactly as she said, and it sometimes shaped itself like strange coiling snakes or dragons, claws would sometimes resurface. She had by far the strangest Divine Energy, and it held a lot of powers unknown.

"Ah, I suppose this is my Divine Energy…? Compared to everyone\'s mine is quite simple" said Aarae, showing a sphere of what seemed to be dazzling spring water of the purest quality, this was his Divine Energy. Sometimes, sparks of lightning would appear around, and if Aarae put some imagination, the sphere could take into water creatures\' shapes.

All of my children seemed to be able to \'generate\' Divine Energy, while I, the one who created their Bloodline was not!

"All of you make your mothers very proud!" I said, extending my body as giant tentacles and hugging all of my children.

"Indeed, Vudia, you\'re really a very talented little girl, I love you very much," said Brontes, with a bright smile while kissing Vudia in her cheeks.

"That\'s right! My little girl is just the best, guu!" said Rimuru, hugging Ailine, the two slime girls embracing each other with their watery bodies.

"I couldn\'t expect less from my beloved boy," said Zehe, hugging Ryo.

"Yes, big brother, you\'re talented. Not even I who is a descendant of Jormungandr, my grandpa, is capable of doing what you can" said Yiksukesh, sitting over Ryo\'s shoulders.

"Fufufu, my precious little girl, I couldn\'t expect anything less from you!" said Nesiphae, entangling around her tail with Amiphossia\'s tail, while embracing her with her four arms.

"You two have been the most precious gifts that life has given to me," said Gaby, hugging the shark twins, she was obviously smaller than Valentia, so she hugged her mother instead.

"Well, now that we have confirmed that every single one of master\'s children has Divine Energy and are somehow capable of producing it… should we attribute the merge of the eggs by a special ability related to that energy?" asked Kusuri.

"I suppose, I cannot attribute it to anything else, this is far beyond my expectations. Kireina and her family keep destroying anything that I ever knew about this world… but at the same time, it makes me motivated to investigate even more! If it isn\'t much, could each of your children give me a small sample of their Divine Energies for research purposes?" asked Redgaria.

"Research? Isn\'t Megusan\'s Divine Energy not enough for you?" I asked.

"It has been very useful… but not enough, your children are a unique existence as well. And by seeing how each one has a different Divine Energy, it may help me find the truth about this special energy, and how much it is related to other attributes of mana. Megusan\'s Divine Energy is tainted with the Poison Attribute, having several samples of different attributes would greatly help me out" said Redgaria, trying his best to come out as nice and gentle.

"Hm, alright then… are you guys fine with it?" I asked my children.

All of them nodded in agreement, none of them seemed troubled about giving a small sample and were neither weakened by doing so.

And like this, Redgaria got a lot of things to investigate with the rest of the newly \'Research Team\', made by the librarians Zehe and Herbell, the Alchemists Charlotte, Kusuri, and Izumi, and the Necromancer Redgaria.

Redgaria also extracted a sample of the egg\'s divine energy, which it exuded generously outside of its eggshell.

I wonder if we could make equipment with Divine Energy. Perhaps this is the last ingredient needed to craft Legendary and the above items? Though I need recipes, the gods I am allied with may help me out.

Aside from what had happened, the day was relaxed. I used my Slime Clones to pass the day with each of my children while helping them develop their Divinities. A Slime Clone also spent some time with Nanako to practice Telekinesis.

Nephiana woke up when it was time for dinner, she was extremely hungry so she joined us and ate to her heart\'s content, after Redgaria carefully explained everything that he had found out, she seemed to not have any other option to accept the truth and hope for the best.

"Chupi… as long as I am with Kireina-sama and her family, I think I can endure this…"

"I\'m glad you\'re calmer now, Nephi. Let\'s wait for them to hatch, and we\'ll investigate together what they truly are capable of"

"Alright… I can\'t believe that I gave birth to such talented children, chupi. Are they really comparable to Gods?" she asked.

"With enough training, most likely. They could even surpass them because as mortals, we possess the system to boost even more our growth" I said.

"I can\'t wait to finally see them" she muttered, as I hugged her shoulders with my arms.

Aside from today\'s activities, Alice was busy \'educating\' the insolent Aleksandra, who was always asking for a duel… she got beaten badly by Alice. Hopefully, she stops being annoying.

[The Levels of [Sweet Fruit Production; Level 8], [Telekinetic Manipulation; Level 4], and [Extra MP; Level 9] Skills have increased!]

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