Epic Of Caterpillar

Chapter 2892 - 2893: Searching For The Lost Ones

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After watching Noah and his family depart, Kireina turned her attention to the true reason she had come here. She was not searching for Key Fragments; she had come to find her children and the lost members of her family.

Within Mount Takao, she had already sensed three family members. The real challenge, however, was locating them while confined inside the Dream Dungeon.

”We have to find the family members I lost...” Kireina sighed. ”Ah, right... Did they hear?”

”Who?” Agatheina asked, tilting her head. ”Ah, the invisible supervisors? I donʼt care if they heard. Do you?”

”Well, whatever,” Kireina shrugged. She was far too powerful to worry about what others might think or say.

Her two maids, however, had overheard everything and stood there looking utterly bewildered.

”Lady Kireina, what was that all about?”

”Who was that man? Was he the one who attacked you the other day?”

Ismena and Acelina were clearly intrigued, perhaps because they sensed there was something important they were supposed to understand.

Kireina faced them. Though time was short, she decided to spare a few moments to explain.

”It is exactly as you heard. Noah and I have formed an alliance. Frank here is the Key to this World and the Next,” Kireina continued. ”And I, along with several others, carry memories of a previous life outside this World—memories we can access by leaving it. This entire world exists inside a Dungeon. You two were... people very precious to me. When you reincarnated here, the world assimilated you, and you forgot that past life. But I believe thatʼs for the best. Youʼre happier here, after all.”

”...?!”

”W-Wha...?”

Both maids stared in stunned silence. Tears welled in their eyes and spilled down their cheeks as something deep within their hearts stirred powerfully at her words.

”Thereʼs no time to explain further. From now on, Iʼm going to let you go,” Kireina said gently. ”Do as you please. If you donʼt want to follow me, if you donʼt believe me, then go and live your lives. I will not judge you, and I will not hate you for it. I want you two to be happy. Thatʼs all Iʼve ever wanted.”

”...Kireina-sama.”

”A-Ah...”

Acelina and Ismena gazed at her in complete confusion, their minds reeling as Kireina turned and walked away toward a distorted region of the Dream Dungeon.

They couldnʼt bring themselves to follow her after hearing all of that. It sounded like madness, yet somehow it also felt achingly familiar, as though it touched the very core of their souls.

”Young lady...”

.

.

.

Kireina moved through the endless corridors of the Dream Dungeon. Several figures had begun trailing her group, assassins from various organizations who had come here hoping to seize the opportunity to join her family. They followed more persistently than the others.

”Kireina-sama,” Agatheina said quietly.

”I know,” Kireina replied. She closed her eyes and stopped walking. ”Reveal yourselves.”

She pressed her palms together. Her Consciousness expanded outward in an instant, exposing dozens of hidden hitmen and assassins who had concealed themselves with techniques, spells, or artifacts.

They belonged to a single coordinated group, a clan. They had targeted her together after overhearing someone call her by name.

All of them wore white and golden robes adorned with dragon motifs.

”We belong to the Dragon Fist Sect of the Eastern Heavenly Domain,” a tall, slender man among them declared, his aura surging with confidence. ”We couldnʼt help but overhear everyone calling you Kireina. Are you perhaps the young lady of Chaos Gate? Why are you here, if I may ask?”

”Why should I answer you?” Kireina replied coolly. ”Leave. Now. This is your only warning.”

”Hah...”

The man smirked arrogantly while the rest of the martial artists and cultivators around him laughed as though her words were a joke.

”You must be scared. But itʼs fine if you donʼt want to speak. Weʼll simply kidnap you and use you to take everything we want from your father. Come with us quietly if you donʼt want things to get rough.”

His hand reached her.

Then his hand vanished.

”...Huh?”

His eyes widened in shock. The handsome cultivator stared as his severed hand dropped to the ground, sliced clean from his arm, before dissolving into a red mist.

”See? This is what happens when you donʼt know your place. I am giving you a second chance because I am benevolent. Leave. Now. Or you will lose far more than a single hand.”

”Y-Youuuu! Attack!”

The prideful cultivator from China refused to back down. With a furious roar, his entire team charged forward, launching a coordinated assault against Kireina and her companions.

”Frank.”

”Yeah.”

Frank raised his hand. In an instant, hundreds of legendary swords, spears, axes, and hammers materialized around him.

The scene was almost unreal. In the blink of an eye, every attacker was shredded into mist and gore, killed instantly.

”Done. Letʼs move.”

Kireina nodded and continued walking forward.

The gap in power between those who had reached their level and these ordinary assassins was simply insurmountable.

They had never stood a chance.

”That was brutal!” Alucard cheered excitedly.

”Wow!” Jeanne exclaimed. ”Frank, youʼre so strong!”

”H-Hahah, thanks... Um, well, I dislike killing, but they werenʼt good people,” Frank said with a bitter smile, a faint trace of guilt lingering in his expression. ”Anyway, where are we going?”

”Here,” Kireina answered. She knocked on a large black wooden door leading into what appeared to be a mansion.

She knocked three times, paused, then knocked twice more.

It was a code.

The door opened. She stepped inside with her group, entering a surprisingly cozy manor.

”This is a ʼSafe Areaʼ primarily used by the supervisors. It has an exit,” Kireina explained. ”Come on, letʼs go.”

She moved quickly past the kitchen, where Alucard and Jeanne snatched a few snacks from the fridge, then headed straight for the back door.

Kireina opened it using the same code and stepped out into the caves of Mount Takao.

”Weʼre out,” she breathed in relief. ”All right, letʼs see...”

She closed her eyes and extended her Consciousness across the entire mountain.

In seconds, she pinpointed the locations of everyone she was searching for.

The first one wasnʼt far.

But something felt strange. The mountain was unusually crowded.

”Why is this mountain full of people?” she asked.

”Ah, those must be the Demon and Yokai Tribes that live in Mount Takao,” Agatheina explained.

”Demon and Yokai Tribes—Hm?”

Suddenly, Kireina sensed a shift between dimensions. For a fleeting moment, the entire world around her seemed to drift.

RUMBLE!

A tremendous tremor shook the mountain, alerting everyone in her group as the rocky floor began to release massive quantities of...

”Nether?!”

Nether surged upward, ghostly, spectral, cursed energy rising higher and higher, saturating the mountain and spreading outward.

Deeper within the mountain, she felt someone performing a powerful ritual.

”We have to hurry!”

Kireina enveloped her entire group in her Aura. Sensing that something catastrophic was unfolding, she sliced through space like a blade through the air.

This was her Infinite Heavens Sword Traveling Technique.

FLASH!

Like a streak of white and golden thunder, Kireina pierced through the mountainʼs internal layers, cutting past several spatial membranes.

There was an entire hidden Realm inside the mountain, concealed from the outside world.

No, rather, the interior of Mount Takao itself was a secret Corrupted Domain, a hidden Realm where the Yokai and Demons of Japan dwelled.

BOOOM!

She landed with explosive force, smashing straight through a massive, cursed formation composed of countless cursed objects.

Dozens of Demonic Beings and Yokai screamed in unison as their ritual destabilized.

Above her, a colossal black-and-red gate trembled violently, slowly opening...

Endless darkness poured from within, warping reality itself as the Physical Plane and another Realm began to overlap.

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