Epic of Caterpillar

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Ezekiel's blue eyes glanced at the "thing" in front of him, or perhaps, that expanded through thousands of kilometers within the entirety of the cloud. His mind was already beginning to realize that this cloud could possibly not be as huge as it seemed outside.

Indeed, after all, it felt more like the interior of the cloud was a portal towards somewhere else, another plane of existence, another dimension or world! Ezekiel was sweating a lot, his eyes barely keeping his sanity.

This thing that expanded through thousands of kilometers, this monstrous thing, with thousands of tentacles everywhere, millions of small faces and heads, of both humans and beasts across the universe, eyes that gazed across dimensions, and an unending appetite.

With a body that resembled a huge mass of veiny black flesh combined with several other colorful tumors palpitating like hearts, releasing pink gases through its tubes that rapidly began to swirl around its body constantly, expanding this world, this dimension, this plane…

"W-What in the world is that?!" Ezekiel finally spoke, only to receive no answer at all. "Everyone? Are you there?!"

He quickly checked the cameras to the other sectors and yet…

"E-Everyone?!"

He gasped in disbelief, his entire crew was unconscious, blood coming from their eyes, noses, and mouths, he could barely feel the life signals of some, others had none.

They were already dead!

"Half the crew is dead?!"

He gritted his teeth, as he began to feel nauseus as well, and then.

"H-Huh?!"

He noticed he was bleeding from his nose.

He glanced back at that thing, feeling a sharp tinge on his head.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Ezekiel wasn't an idiot; it didn't even take him a second to figure out what happened here.

Something abducted them to a completely alien dimension.

And that "something" was that thing.

It didn't even touch them anymore, the tentacles it used to drag them there were gone.

And above all… by merely gazing at it, by merely being within its presence.

They were dying!

This wasn't a thing that happened with most Outer Gods, unless they were the strongest out there.

Their technology allowed humans to easily protect themselves from such "perception damage".

But inside of this weird dimension, the power of that monster easily ignored all defenses.

Mighty Atlas was unable to protect anybody…

"I-Initiate cryostasis protocol! Star up Artificial Intelligence! Mighty Atlas, you must find a way out!"

Ezekiel quickly ran towards a large capsule, entering it before he was to die from blood loss, as he immediately entered a cryostasis sleep.

At the same time, intelligence sparked within Mighty Atlas, his dormant A.I. awakened.

FLAAASH!

His eyes glowed bright gold, as he glanced around his surroundings, and the thing in front of him.

"…"

Unlike the humans, he was not affected.

Without a soul, without emotions, and without a "mind" like all other living beings had.

Mighty Atlas, as powerful as he was, was a being made entirely out of synthetic materials, and energy from the universe.

If anything, pure, non-piloted robots were the only counter against these aberrations!

Or so Ezekiel hoped.

"GROOOHHHHHH…!"

The thing immediately responded as its millions of heads began to scream together. Mighty Atlas calculated what it should do.

And there were two options, attempt to eliminate this threat or run.

He calculated the percentages.

5% chance of winning based on recent scans.

64% chance of escaping.

FLAAASH!

As its propulsors blazed with flames, the giant of steel immediately flew away from that thing, diving into an endless sea of pink clouds.

And yet…

TRUUUM!

"…?!"

The robot immediately found itself back where it was.

"…"

It calculated again.

Spatial Manipulation.

It rapidly released proton shields around its body, making its molecular density so heavy it was hard to carry it around space.

FLAAASH!

And it ran away again…

And yet.

TRUUUM!

It was suddenly dragged back.

And this time…

"…?!"

Mighty Atlas' entire body was wrapped on hundreds of titanic tentacles, which easily resisted its shields, aura, everything.

"TOOL OF HUMANITY… YOU ARE VERY AMUSING… BUT WHAT MAKES YOU BELIEVE… THAT YOU HAVE A WAY TO ESCAPE FROM ME… WITHIN MY DOMAIN?"

"…!"

Mighty Atlas instantly began an offensive, summoning dozens of swords made out of cosmic light from its core and unleashing a ravaging slicing barrage against the tentacles!

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

The tentacles received large wounds, but were never truly sliced through, the swords were simply…

Too weak!

"…?!"

This entity was something that not even Galactic Humanity could be prepared to face.

"THE SOULS YOU'RE PROTECTING INSIDE… YOU WILL GIVE THEM TO ME… I HUNGER… THIS PLANE, THE DREAMS I HAVE, THEY NEVER END, YOU KNOW? I MUST… CONSUME. ALL LIFE, THE UNIVERSE… EVERYTHING. EVEN YOU, MACHINE!"

The countless heads spoke with the same, aberrant voice, the robot's internal circuits began bursting as the tentacles pierced through its metal after a slight amount of pushing.

Crack, crack…!

CRAAASH!

Mighty Atlas, the pride of Galactic Humanity was being rapidly torn apart! The toughest metal ever conceived by humans after hundreds of thousands of years since they went to space…

It simply didn't matter!

Mighty Atlas summoned a pair of gigantic spears, firing them at the aberration's eyes.

BOOOM! BOOOM!

Two explosions erupted; the eyes remained…

Unscathed!

Crack, crack…!

Mighty Atlas tried to struggle more, but eventually…

CRAAASH!

Its entire body was compressed and torn into countless pieces, beginning to be rapidly burned by pink and black flames, turning into ashes no matter what material it had.

"SO MANY DREAMS…"

The bodies of the humans inside were dead, exploding alongside the machine, consumed by flames and burning into nothing.

Ezekiel didn't even have the chance to escape or survive.

His soul and that of his crew were devoured.

And so his dreams, nightmares, traumas, and memories.

"THIS ISN'T ENOUGH… MORE… MORE… MORE!"

Countless other things flew everywhere, made of dreams and continuously changing images, rushing outside of the Plane into the World of Genesis.

Meanwhile, in the battlefield above the Sea of Clouds, with both Eligos and Ezekiel gone, the war resumed.

Both demons and humans were evenly matched for the most part, but the humans were already beginning to destroy the Demonic Tower.

And then…

RUMBLE!
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Something else approached them as this happened, a huge mass of black mud.

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