Epic of Caterpillar

"What vision?" I wondered.

Luminous quickly fell silent for a bit, but then decided to speak regarding what I asked.

"Well, it was something I saw some days ago. When I saw the tree of Yggdrasil back in Ariant and Eriant\'s town. I had a vision. In such a vision, I saw the world being healed by such enormous trees. However, amongst them all, there was one, the biggest of them all, covering the skies…"

Luminous recalled his vision. It left me thinking for a bit. That was probably some sort of ability he has, or maybe even the manifestation of a Dao\'s power.

"I see, so that\'s what I\'m going to become!" Yggdra said innocently.

"Yeah, most likely." I agreed with her vision. "Anyways, now that you\'re all fresh and ready, let\'s get going. Frank, don\'t slack off now."

"I wasn\'t slacking, I was merely resting." He said while crossing his arms. "Nonetheless, that power you have… despite you saying your abilities are restricted, to reach this much… It is incredible. You can replicate as many Lesser Yggdrasil Seeds as you want?!"

"Not as many as I want, there\'s some sort of limit to it, and if I make too many, they\'re weak and not really that strong. In fact I think little Yggdra here is the first one to have been born with this much power, and that\'s thanks to how I merged the Ego I had with her!" I said with a prideful smile.

"Yeah!" Yggdra nodded.

"You\'re trying to make it as if you have little power but you can\'t really change my mind…" Sighed Frank. "Well, that\'s amazing though. And a nice thing to know. I am glad that one of the beings Ervas and Veronica admire so much is just as incredible as they say she is. Kireina, I apologize for having acted rude in our first meeting. I hope we can keep getting along from now on, I will need your help in the future…"

"I know what you mean, our goals are shared, Frank. I\'ll help you gladly as long as you repay the favor as well. You\'ve helped me plenty now as well." I agreed, shaking his hand.

As I shook Frank\'s hand, the rest of our party looked at us from behind while narrowing their eyes…

"This is no simple meeting. It feels like two powerful gods have suddenly become allies." Sol said.

"I feel like the very laws of this world are resonating…" Luminous agreed.

"It seems Kireina-sama seems to have made an ally that will transcend this world as well…" Ariant said in surprise.

"Indeed! I hope they can help each other in the future… Kireina-sama has helped us so much now…" Eriant sighed.

"Yeah, I wish I could follow them when they finally depart… But for now, I will do my best to help you guys as well and get stronger to eventually go back to my village and protect my family." Brunhild agreed.

"I suppose we\'ve all got our goals set." Fiere smiled. "Kireina, Frank, we should get going now."

"Yeah, let\'s go." I agreed. "Frank, can you sense where it is?"

"Yeah, just like the governor of this place said, the Salt Dunes is filled with Cosmic Power, it is almost overflowing. And there\'s also Miasma lurking beneath the sand… There\'s certainly something hiding there. We should get going immediately. I feel like these slugs, also imbued with miasma, and those monsters there, and then the dungeon\'s monsters… They might all be working together somehow. Or perhaps, being controlled by someone." Said Frank.

We quickly walked towards the Salt Dunes as we continued talking. Darkling accompanied us through the skies while the other guards walked behind us for "protection" although it was just an order of their lord more than anything, they can\'t really protect us to be honest.

"So you\'re saying that they were working to someone?" Asked Fiere.

"Oh let me guess… The Genie?" Asked Brunhild. "I heard from you guys he can manipulate monsters using his Miasma… Maybe this is a whole plot to destroy this big city. After all, I remember you guys said he hated people living in his "domain" or something, right?"

"Yeah, I remember his words…" Luminous sighed. "That monster, if we ever get to fight him, Kireina, let me help you on giving him a good beating."

"Sure thing." I smiled. "Nonetheless, Frank, you\'re right. If we think about this… this entire place has been struggling due to the monsters being controlled by him, most likely. He has become more cunning after his rebirth. Using the piranha slugs to drain away the water from the city, and then the nest of monsters at the Salt Dunes, which used to be the safest trade route for the city, and lastly the dungeon nearby, which has been infested with a powerful monster, and adventurers cannot enter and get resources from it anymore due to the vastly increased difficulty."

"The Blue Genie, that bastard… He\'s probably trying to destroy this city from the roots, and then when everyone was at their worst like now, the Undead Army would had arrived and destroyed everything, leaving only a wasteland behind." Luminous said. "If we didn\'t arrived here in time, the entire city would had been condemned to its demise…"

"Well! It sure is a nice thing we are here, right?" I smiled at everyone. "Oh, I can see the Dunes from here!"

In the desert, they showed up at the distance. Unlike the golden sands everywhere, the Salt Dunes were pure wait like salt, and there were enormous salt crystals growing everywhere, decorating the place beautifully.

"This Salt generates a special aura, as it is imbued with the power of light it absorbs from the sunlight for eons." Darkling explained. "Because of this, monsters are very rare and usually never get closer, so it was always a very safe route to trade between cities in the desert… But that changed some months ago when those things appeared."

As the crow man explained, from within the white sands, red-colored critters suddenly began to emerge…