Epic of Caterpillar

522 Marduk, Nammu, and Nanshe

[Kireina] leveled up!]

[LEVEL 097/250] [EXP 1.439.170.787.357/20.230.000.000.000]

Today we woke up early as Mady had brought the announcement that her eggs were about to hatch…

Our children seemed to have finally developed enough and were about to break from the membrane-like shell of the Scylla shells.

Much like many cephalopods, Scylla, who has the lower half of octopus or squids lay eggs when they are pregnant. However, unlike many cephalopods do that let their eggs be fertilized by the male\'s seeds in water, they need to first receive the seed and then they will slowly generate the eggs inside of their wombs, laying them when they are at a decent size, usually on water, where the eggs will not need any help from their parents to develop and hatch.

Of course, Scylla would usually not abandon their eggs, taking care of them, if they lay eggs on a wild river or lake, they would have to protect the eggs from predators and monsters.

However, Mady had it quite easy, to say the least, as the eggs had been peacefully developing inside a pool that I constructed for them, which was filled with many seaweed species and nutrients, the eggs had grown to almost four times their original size, and the baby inside was fully developed.

I created a transparent glass in the form of a pool, which I filled with the same water as the pool previously used by the eggs and then gently placed the eggs in there, so everyone in the family could see them hatch.

Much like with Nephiana\'s eggs and the seven harpy babies, most of my family was present with a few exceptions such as Redgaria and Herbell.

Mady\'s eggs were translucent and soft, unlike harpy eggs, one could see the babies inside beginning to move while trying to break through the elastic shell.

Mady was nervous, her lips were trembling and her face was as red as a tomato… she was quite the master of deception but whenever it was about our children, she would always get overly nervous and lose all her calm and playful demeanor…

"T-They\'re about to hatch… they\'re about to hatch… Oh, gods…"

"Don\'t worry, Mady, they will come fine and healthy, I am sure of it" I said, hugging her as she embraced me with her tentacles, too nervous to think, her tentacles used their immense strength to wrap my body with them, it wasn\'t painful though.

Although she was not giving birth to them, she seemed to have a similar sensation.

"You\'re not alone anymore, you\'re surrounded by a large family that loves you, Mady. We will always be with you and our soon-to-hatch children"

"Yes, I know… but still, I cannot just take this nervousness out of me…" said Mady.

I hugged Mady with my arms as Nirah also hugged her with her snake tail.

"Aunt Mady has to be strong!" she said.

Mady glanced at Nirah\'s adorable and innocent face and could not help but nod.

"You\'re right… if little Nirah is so calm, why wouldn\'t I? Fufu…" she said while patting Nirah\'s silky and long purple hair. It seems that the cuteness of our adoptive daughter calmed her down…

To be honest, although I don\'t look like it, I am rather worried and nervous as well… it\'s just that I transfer these feelings to a split mind so I can remain calm… this is actually how I do it when I fight and all, concentrating emotions in certain split minds and then isolating them from my head, I can become cold headed.

"Ah, they\'re hatching!" said Belle as she flew with her butterfly wings in the air alongside Vudia and Ailine.

"More little siblings… this is a bit quick, but the more the merrier!" said Vudia.

"I wonder if they will have tentacles too?" wondered Ailine.

"Guuu! I can see that they have tentacles…!" said Rimuru.

"But… there are other things in their tentacles…" said Zehe intrigued.

"Hm? Are those snakeheads?" asked Nesiphae.

"And… wolf heads?" said Wagyu\'s three heads at the same time.

"Wait, that\'s a dragon or a wyvern head? …wait, heads!" said Lilith while moving her scaled tail around.

"Dragons like us… But aren\'t they Scylla?" asked Altani.

"They are, they have tentacles," said Charlotte.

"Wait, their skin is also… red? The one with dragon heads is red-colored… that\'s cute!" said Oga.

"Chu… Well, they don\'t have bird heads at the very least" said Nephiana.

"Chupi, chupii!"

"Chirp, chirp!"

I glanced with Mady with our eyes wide open as we glanced the three eggs break down and reveal our babies, they resembled conventional Scylla at first look… but as their tentacles were revealed, each one seemed to have the head of a monster in the tip of each tentacle.

There was one with red skin and demon horns on his forehead, long black hair, and red tentacles, each one had the tip with the head of a red-scaled dragon… he also had red scales on his upper body, covering his shoulders and hands, showcasing long ruby-colored claws. It had blazing red and orange eyes. I immediately noticed that it was a boy, while the other two were girls.

The smallest girl had pale blue skin and the head of purple-colored wolves at the tip of her dark blue tentacles. She also had wolf ears atop her head, and purple fur covering her chest and arms starting from her elbows, with long wolf-like paws as hands. She had aquamarine and purple eyes.

And las but not least, the slim girl had pale-white skin with crimson eyes and long purple hair with red strands. She had purple-colored tentacles with the tip of snakeheads of the same color… She also had purple scales atop her shoulders, chest, and hands, which seemed to have long purple nails that were coated in some kind of paralysis poison.

They seemed confused and frightened, beginning to swim around the pool.

Mady and I quickly went to pick them up as they saw our faces for the first time.

They seemed to instinctively notice our presence, they used their sticky and slimy tentacles to climb on our bodies and tightly hug us, they were frightened of the large crowd surrounding us, so I had to tell everyone to go outside for a bit.

But at last, my precious children have been born… once again.

Mady grabbed the three with her tentacles as they used their tentacles to show their \'love\' to their mother, covering her in slime and licking her with the heads of their tentacles as well.

"Ah, my children… you three are so… unique! And so beautiful… my beloved babies??? my own descendants, my blood… t-this… oh, am I going to cry now…? Sniff???"

"Ma!"

"Ma!"

"Muh!"

The three children immediately began to talk to comfort their mommy, as I approached them and created my own tentacles to greet them.

It seems that Scylla instinctively communicated through the touch of their tentacles with each other. After all, their tentacles were perhaps hundreds of times more sensitive than their hands, and a way of communication with them naturally blossomed in their instincts.

Their tentacles greeted mine as well as they entangled themselves on mine… it was a very strange way to show love, but it was their species, so I could not really refute it.

The heads of their tentacles were also quite friendly, though I was clueless if they held the same intelligence as their upper body head or just had something similar to an \'Auxiliary Brain\'.

The little dragon, wolf pups, and snakes were simply very cute, and not frightening at all.

I checked the baby\'s stats and saw that their race was \'Ancient Chimera Scylla Prince/Princess\'. They had \'Chimera\' in their race name, most likely explaining the heads in their tentacles and their varied characteristics such as scales or fur.

This does not mean that Mady somehow was with other men… it means that they simply inherited my bloodline, which is chimeric.

My bloodline is unique and possesses the mixed bloodline of many creatures, in them, there are snakes, wyverns/dragons, and wolves, so something like them inheriting a trait from my vast bloodline was something normal.

This has happened before with Valentia showing traits that did not come from her mother (Gaby) such as draconic scales, breath, and so on.

However, it seems that this was the first time that this happened so… well, \'clearly\'?

I detected that their bloodline was indeed mine from the moment I set sight in them. There was already a very strong connection between them and me, and it seems that they also recognize this connection, embracing me with their tentacles.

They are very cute; I couldn\'t help but hug them with my tentacles as well.

"It seems that you\'ve learned how to communicate with them through tentacle language, Kireina~ I never mentioned it because I didn\'t know that they would know it instinctively… And well, when I was born, I was alone, so I never used it in anyone…" said Mady.

For a moment, we all were hugging and entangling each other in our tentacles, but the babies quickly grew hungry.

"Muh…"

"Ma…"

"Ma… ma!"

We moved with Mady to her pool as we submerged in the water and sat down in the chamber she had below, there, we feed them with milk.

It seems that although they are half cephalopod, Scylla does drink milk.

"It is strange… but I remember that I never drank milk and only ate crabs and fish, I suppose that there was that option, but it is not a big necessity… well, milk is more nutritious for them than eating a raw crab," said Mady.

According to Mady, drinking milk for Scylla is \'optional\' but it is possible for them. And according to her childhood, she never drank milk because she never met her mother.

She once told me about her birth, about what she figured out, she was a Scylla egg lost inside a puddle of nasty lake water in the slum streets of Aquaria, she as born in the nasty water and grew inside of it because she had developed a natural resistance to toxicity not shown in her status.

She assumed that she might have many siblings… but they all most likely died due to malnourishment and the toxicity of the water rotting the eggs.

I\'m glad that I\'ve made sure to bring her children way better to their life, they were born in a nice and clean pool, and also are resting in this pool filled with seaweed used for medicine and nutrients I added myself.

"Which names should we give to them now?" I asked.

"I… don\'t really know, do you have some names like the one you gave to Nirah? Maybe we could name them after the gods of another world" said Mady.

"Oh? Let us see…"

After thinking about it for a while, I decided to name them after more Mesopotamian Mythology gods.

Our son, the one with red skin, horns, and dragon heads was named Marduk, a god associated with water, vegetation, judgment, and magic.

Our small daughter, the one with wolf beast-person-like traits and wolf heads on her tentacles, was named Nammu, the goddess of the primeval sea.

And our slim daughter, the one with pale white skin, scarlet eyes, and snake heads was named Nanshe, the goddess of social justice, prophecy, fertility, and fishing.

Well, the divinity of the gods did not match much, but because they were all related to water one way or another, and sounded quite nice, we decided upon them.

"I like these names… they seem mystical, and if those gods were related to water, it does fit a bit… will our child become gods one day? Fufu, I cannot wait~" said Mady.

Mady seemed strangely happy over her children being after god\'s names.

Ding!

Oh… right, the system.

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