[Caterpillar] Chapter 41 - Tartarus (IV) (Patreon)

AN: I was happy to see fellow men of culture in the review section lol. Naruto is a prankster by nature, of course that he would take a liking to memes. Remember in the previous chapters he even introduced Wonder Woman to the wonders (pun intended) of rule34 hentai lol. He claimed that the internet was Earth's best invention. After being cooped up on Earth for nearly a month, with nothing else to do except waste his time on the internet, he picked up a thing or two haha.

Here is the new chapter, enjoy!

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Chapter 41 - Tartarus (IV)

Over one thousand feet tall and wide, and with nine equally large tails Kyuubi lived up to his moniker as a destructive force of nature. Hydras, Chimaeras, dragons and other monstrosities that had instilled terror into regular people and heroes of ancient times alike were being slaughtered like helpless chickens by the demonic fox.

The God of Monsters, Typhon, was growing desperate. Never in his existence had he fought against such a terrible creature. He had even battled against Zeus, on his own, two times in the past and he had more than put up a fight against the King of the Olympian Gods. But now, it was like he was a child trying to fight against an adult.

"Why won't you just die?! Die!" Kyuubi screamed thoroughly enraged and smashed Typhon's body again into a gory mess. He had killed him several times already but the god seemed capable of regenerating himself from the tiniest scraps of skin.

Five massive claws stabbed through the god's still regenerating body, making him let out shrieks of agony. Typhon's 18 eyes all revealed fear and urgency when he realized Kyuubi's intention: the claws were lifting his body towards a gaping maw filled with 2 rows of razor-sharp fangs. The beast wanted to eat him! The titanic fox was so huge that it would finish eating the god's hundreds of feet tall body in no more than 3-4 bites.

Gritting his teeth, one of Typhon's 24 arms suddenly morphed into a blade and then he hacked at his own neck! One of his 9 draconic heads was severed, he had cut his head by himself.

'What the hell?!'

Momentarily, Kyuubi stopped and stared in confusion at the God of Monsters' actions. Typhon did not wait for him to catch on to what he was doing. Before the fox could react, while still being stabbed through by the 5 claws, the god grabbed his severed head and used 8 of his numerous hands to throw it away! The severed draconic head flew like it was shot out of a canon. In the next moment, the God of Monsters' body shrivelled and turned into black sand.

A roar of anger came from Kyuubi. He realized that he had been tricked! The god had abandoned 95% of his body and escaped through his severed head. Typhon was running for his life.

"You think I'll let you get away?" Kyuubi bellowed and the land quaked as he broke into a mad dash towards the flying severed head in the distance.

It had to be said that at over one thousand feet tall and nearly three thousand feet long, Kyuubi was so enormous that just taking a few steps was enough to cover several miles. After a few seconds, the spot where Naruto was battling Hades was already far behind him. It was impossible for Typhon to escape.

But when Kyuubi's large hand was about to grasp the draconic head, he suddenly stumbled and lost his balance, almost falling to the ground. His blood-red fur started to lose its brightness, becoming a pale red, and a wave of dizziness attacked his mind. The "black sand" that Typhon's body had dissolved into after cutting his own neck was not mere sand. If Kyuubi had been capable of observing microscopic lifeforms he would have seen that countless tiny leeches had buried into his skin and started sucking out his vital energy. From over a thousand feet tall, Kyuubi's size started to decrease at a speed visible to the naked eye. Meanwhile, Typhon's severed dragon head quickly grew a torso and limbs, fully regenerating itself.

While Kyuubi could not see the countless tiny parasites leeching his chakra, he noticed their effect straight away. A vast amount of chakra was abruptly expelled from his body and the dense swarm of black insects was blown away like a cloud. Then, the expelled chakra ignited. In the distance, the God of Monsters vomited blood as all the leeches - which were living parts of his body - were incinerated.

'So this is a god.' the bijuu said to himself gravely after getting rid of Typhon's leeches.

While he was still large (not any smaller than Typhon), Kyuubi's size had decreased drastically; he was almost two times smaller than before, standing at only 600 feet in height. Typhon had siphoned away a third of his chakra in a matter of seconds. The fox understood then that he had underestimated the God of Monsters.

For the first time, their battle entered a lull. Typhon and Kyuubi glared at each other vigilantly. The disparity in their sizes was not as large as before anymore but the two titanic beings had gained a healthy dose of wariness towards the powers and the abilities of the other. Their eyes were pinned on each other and their bodies tense but neither of them wanted to break the ice. Both of them were waiting for the other to make the first move and take advantage of it.

'I must've killed him more than 10 times.' Kyuubi thought seriously. 'But he keeps reviving himself every time. He also drained nearly a third of my chakra and Naruto can't supply me with more like in the past. I can't afford a battle of attrition... ...if this drags on, I will lose.'

He growled in annoyance at that thought. As the strongest bijuu out of his fellows and after managing to even destroy a planet, Kyuubi had become very proud and confident of his power. However, he was not stupid, nor was he conceited to the point of ignoring reality. After having a taste of how dangerous and insidious Typhon actually was, he immediately became cautious and put his pride in the backseat.

'If I lose, he'll never let me live it down.'

He could already picture Naruto in his mind, laughing his ass off at him. Becoming the butt's joke for the blond was the last thing he wanted.

While the two giants were having an intense staredown, the dark sky of Tartarus unexpectedly brightened. A blinding white light forced Typhon and Kyuubi to close their eyes. Then, a deafening explosion was heard and an incredibly powerful shockwave followed, carrying a heatwave that set the air on fire.

It was exactly the chance that the fox had been waiting for!

While the sky was still bright white and the tailed beast bomb transformed into a huge mushroom cloud, Kyuubi opened his mouth. Black, purple, and red particles of energy started to gather between his opened jaws in the form of a sphere. His fur started to shrivel up and disappear into thin air, revealing his raw flesh, and his body began shrinking down rapidly. As he was continuing pouring chakra into the tailed beast bomb he became unable to maintain his large size anymore. By the time he stopped powering up his bijuudama, Kyuubi became no bigger than 100 feet tall.

When Typhon finally regained his sight, an enormous black sphere of energy was the only thing he saw. The fox was nowhere to be seen... ...the tailed beast bomb was twice as large as the fox now.

It was too late for Typhon to run and the sphere of magic was way, way too large for him to even think about dodging it. With no other choice left, the God of Monsters shouted in desperation and curled himself on the ground. A chitinous husk quickly grew from his skin and tough scales appeared on top of it too. Right before the huge-tailed beast bomb reached him, Typhon finished transforming himself into a creature resembling a grotesque pangolin. It was his strongest defence.

For the second time that day, Tartarus was illuminated by a blinding light. The entire realm trembled from the absurdly powerful explosion. It was much more powerful than the tailed beast bomb fired by Naruto a few moments before. For more than 10 miles around them, everything was vaporized.

It took a long time for the explosion to die down. In the humongous crater, a tiny pile of flesh was all that remained from the seemingly unkillable God of Monsters. Living up to his name as the ancestor of hydras, the remains of Typhon were still wriggling. He was still alive. If left to his own devices, Kyuubi had no doubts that the god would eventually recover even from such a devastating attack. But he had no intention of giving him any time to regenerate himself.

'I have to eat this?'

The fox made a disgusted face when he grabbed the still alive and wriggling mass of flesh from the ground. He closed his eyes and covered his nose with the other hand; then, he threw the remains of Typhon into his mouth. He gagged and almost threw up. However, as disgusting as it looked, he forced himself to not think about it and swallow it. It was his key to godhood. It was the only way to stop the power of faith from driving him insane.

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The Amazon princess let out a loud battle cry.

Hera had yet to even crash on the ground after being kicked in the face when Diana body-slammed into her with her golden shield. Spittle flew out of her mouth when the wind was knocked out of her and her body left a sonic boom behind from the force of the shield bash.

The goddess crashed into a nearby cliff, breaking it into smithereens. The princess had not held back her strength when she bashed the goddess with her shield. Even after smashing into the cliff, Hear's body continued to roll and tumble onto the ashy ground like a ragdoll. She may have been the Queen of Olympus but that was due to her being Zeus's wife. She was not known as a battle-hardened goddess. In terms of actual strength in battle, she was far below the likes of Hades or Typhon. Nonetheless, she was still a goddess. Her divine power blasted outwards and her body stabilized itself in mid-air.

However, her success was short-lived. The goddess only had enough time to cast a protective spell around her before the warrior princess slammed her round shield into her again. Wonder Woman seemed dead set on not giving the goddess any chance at reuniting with Hades. Encased in her protective bubble of magic, although she had been hurled away through the air like a soccer ball, Hera was largely unhurt. But, by the time she finally stopped her momentum, she realized that she was already 5 miles away from the remains of the collapsed flying island.

Hera was a woman of a rarely seen beauty, one said to be on par even with Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, and Athena, the Virgin Goddess of War and Wisdom. However, at that moment, she looked haggard. Her white regal robe was smeared with ash, she lost her golden crown, and her wavy brown hair was now shaggy and filled with ash and dirt. Her otherwise dignified face was twisted in rage.

"I'll make you regret the day you raised your hand against me! I'll make you suffer for millennia to come! I'll have you watch as I sell the rest of the Amazons into slavery and, in the end, I'll make you beg of me to grant you sweet release of death! That I swear on my own name!" Hera yelled.

It was as if she had lost her mind to her rage. The Olympian Goddess let out a shrill scream and chunks of the ground broke off and started to float around her. With another scream and a wave of her hands, the large boulders were hurled towards the Amazon princess.

It was like a rain of meteorites.

Wonder Woman clenched her hands around the straps of her golden shield and braced herself for the impact. There were too many of them for her to dodge them all. Boulders weighing several tons smashed against her golden shield with reverberating booms. Despite her formidable physical strength as a demigoddess, the several tons-heavy boulders were hurled with such velocity that she was pushed back greatly by every impact.

Eventually, the hail of rocks and boulders ended but Hera used her divine power to rupture the ground again. Wonder Woman launched herself at the goddess but she was met with another barrage of rocks and boulders right away. Helplessly, she could only hold onto her golden shield and tough it out.

Despite her disdain for a 'half-blood' like Diana, Hera understood that she would be in mortal danger if she allowed the princess to get close to her. Hera was not a warrior, she was not adept in direct battles. She was feared by the rest of the gods due to her venomous and vengeful personality. She would lay curses on mortals from the dark and manipulate others into doing her dirty work. But when it came to a frontal battle against a warrior demigoddess, Hera could only resort to using her divine power and telekineses to keep the princess at bay with everything she got. Hera's plan was to hold the status quo and drag the time until Hades or Typhon defeated their opponents and came to her aid.

"Is this all that the mighty Queen of Olympus is capable of? Throwing rocks like a savage barbarian?" Diana said mockingly. She was trying to get a rise out of her.

Hera had already thrown four waves of giant boulders and rocks at her. Despite how violent each hail was, it could not hurt Wonder Woman at all. She would dodge most of the boulders and use her shield to protect herself from the one that she could not dodge. But Hera's purpose was achieved: the princess could not close in the distance between them. Now, it was a stalemate.

The goddess did not fall for her bait. She kept herself surrounded by floating large rocks and watched her every movement like a hawk. When Wonder Woman lunged at her again, she immediately shot a barrage of boulders at her. However, this time around, Diana put her shield on her back and went against her bare-handed. When the boulders were about to smash into her body, she slammed her bracelets against each other.

A deafening sound like that of a gong was heard and the shockwave it generated blasted all the incoming rocks and boulders into bits. Every piece weighed several tons but they were disintegrated like sand. A sonic boom was left in her wake as the Amazon launched herself at the goddess. She twirled her golden lasso above her hand once and threw it at Hera to ensnare her.

However, at the very last moment, Hera cast a short-distance teleportation spell, reappearing 400 feet away from her previous spot. Wonder Woman let out a grunt of annoyance at seeing the goddess slip away at the last moment.

Hera and Diana stood face to face with a distance of several hundred feet between them, glaring daggers at each other.

'I really need to make Naruto keep up his promise and teach me some of his spells and techniques.' the princess muttered to herself.

She was frustrated at how one-dimensional her skillset was. Her physical strength, her toughness, and her fighting abilities were undoubtedly formidable but if she could not get into close-range combat she would be left like a sitting duck, like in the present. While Hera could not harm her in the least, neither could Diana get close to her and kill her.

While they were glaring at each other, the dark sky of Tartarus was suddenly lighted up by a blinding light. It was as if a sun was born in the realm of the dead.

Hera was momentarily shocked and the extremely bright light blinded her.

However, Diana had expected Naruto to launch an outrageous attack like that sooner or later. She was not overly surprised. Instead, she realized it:

'This is my chance!'

Her hand wrapped around the handle of a weapon strapped on her back. She unsheathed her god-slaying sword. The muscles of her back, shoulders and arms became taut as she raised her sword above her head with both of her hands. Then, she used her entire strength to throw it.

With her eyes momentarily blinded by the nuke-like explosion of the tailed beast bomb in the distance, Hera could only hear, not see, the sharp object piercing through the air. A scream of pain burst from her mouth as a sharp blade lodged itself deep into her stomach and even protruded through her back. The burning pain coming from having her stomach eviscerated overwhelmed her senses. It was the first she had felt such terrible pain. She had never been wounded so grievously in her entire life. She was not accustomed to pain.

But those few moments were more than enough for Wonder Woman to appear by her side like a phantom and capitalize. Her Lasso of Truth wrapped around Hera tightly, preventing her from teleporting away. The goddess was still dizzy from pain and had yet to come back to her senses when Diana grabbed the handle of the sword and stabbed through her stomach.

In the next moment, the Amazon princess's white and golden armour was splattered with a large amount of blood, painting her red from head to toe. Her face cold and her eyes betraying no hesitation, Diana had mercilessly cut the goddess's body in half with her god-slaying sword.

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Both Kyuubi and Wonder Woman had taken advantage perfectly of the unexpected blinding light created by Naruto's tailed beast bomb and ended their battles, killing their respective foes. However, it looked like Naruto himself had not managed to finish the job.

After the blinding light faded away and the devastating ball of chakra exploded and transformed into a giant mushroom, Naruto was left speechless to realize that Hades was still alive. No, even more than that, he was practically unscathed.

"Oi, oi, give me a break." he could not help muttering.

At the bottom of the miles-wide crater left in the wake of the tailed beast's explosion stood two people. Hades was on the ground, unconscious, but otherwise seemingly unharmed if the rising and lowering of his chest was anything to go by.

The other person was standing protectively in front of him. It was an athletic and beautiful woman with long black hair and silvery eyes. An open-faced golden helmet covered her head and a bronze-coloured armour set protected her body. A long spear was stabbed into the ground, next to her, as her two arms were grasping tightly the straps of a wide, circular golden shield. She reminded Naruto of his Diana. They looked eerily similar.

The woman's breathing was laborious and her arms were shaking. She was the one who had taken the full brunt of the devastating tailed beast bomb, using her shield and body to save Hades from certain death.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked vigilantly.

He was not one to underestimate a person who managed to tank a tailed beast head-on and survive. He was sure she had to be a goddess of some sort.

Before the woman could reply, the sky was once again bathed in a blind light and an explosion even more powerful than Naruto's tailed beast bomb rocked the entire realm of the dead. The shockwaves were so powerful that even Naruto dared not take them lightly. The yellow-red chakra cloak surrounding his body flared as he fortified his defences.

'That crazy fox!'

It was Kyuubi's tailed beast bomb. The fox had even sacrificed a large part of his body to power it up before firing it. Though his fight against Typhon took place more than 10 miles away, Naruto could see the land below him melting from the heatwave. He became a little worried.

'Was that monster really that strong? To think Kurama would be forced to fire such a powerful bijuudama... ...he probably doesn't have much chakra left if any at all.' he thought. Making a cross-shaped seal, 4 clones appeared by his side and then disappeared with a body flicker movement. He had sent them to check up on the fox and confirm his safety.

When the blinding light finally died down, he flew down and landed not far from the place where Hades lay unconscious with the armoured woman protecting him.

"Who are you? Why are you getting in my way?" he asked again.

Despite that her body was weary and she looked worse for wear, the woman tried not to show any signs of weakness. With her round golden shield in her left hand and holding her spear in her right hand, the woman kept her guard up.

"I am Pallas Athena. I am the Olympian Goddess of War and Wisdom."

Naruto stopped in his tracks. He felt the beginning of a headache.

'She's one of the 5 patron goddesses of the Amazons... the hell is she doing here?'

Momentarily, he was at a loss for what to say.

"I mean no harm. I do not wish to battle against you. We are not enemies."

Naruto looked at her silently for a short while.

"That sounds nice and all but I can't just take the words of a stranger as truth now, can I? If you truly mean no harm, wait a few moments. My partners will be here soon."

"Very well." the armoured woman expressed her agreement.

Then, the two of them waited in silence. Meanwhile, Naruto had all sorts of thoughts going through his head. He could only wait for Kyuubi and Diana to return to his side. Kyuubi would be able to tell whether she was speaking the truth or not and Diana would be able to confirm whether the armoured woman was really who she claimed to be or not.

Wonder Woman was the first to arrive. He was taken aback at the sight of her. Her hair and her armour were soaked in Hera's blood and her face was smeared with still wet blood too despite her attempts at wiping it away with her hand.

"Are you ok?" he asked worriedly but he did not continue looking at her, keeping his eye pinned on the armoured woman and the unconscious Hades instead to not give them any chance to pull off some funny move.

"I'm perfectly fine. This is Hera's blood. She got what she deserved." Diana said. But then, her face betrayed her feelings of surprise when she saw the person standing next to Hades who was lying unconscious at the centre of the crater.

"Lady Athena?" she asked in wonder.

The armoured goddess finally lowered her guard and let her shield down.

"Diana," Athena acknowledged her greeting with a smile. "It is good to see you."

Just then, Kyuubi also arrived at the scene, carried on the shoulder of a shadow clone. He had returned to his tiny form as a fox cub.

"Everything good on your side, Kurama?" Naruto asked.

"Bastard wouldn't die. I lost count of how many times I destroyed his body, he kept resurrecting. I had to use nearly all my chakra to kill him. It will take me weeks to accumulate it back." Kyuubi grumbled and jumped from the clone's shoulder onto the original Naruto's shoulder.

Despite the fox's grouchy words, he was not able to fool Naruto. He knew that Kyuubi was actually very excited. However, it looked like the now tiny fox was extremely exhausted. He did not even care to ask about the newly-appeared woman standing by Hades' side.

"I'm so tired. I need to sleep." Kyuubi said.

The fox had unshakable confidence in Naruto's strength. He was not worried that the blond would be unable to handle things on his own if he slept.

"Was that monster a god? Or do you need me to save Hades up for you to eat him?"

The stoic face of the Goddess of War briefly twitched at Naruto's words. He was talking about killing Hades as a matter of fact, as if her presence there was irrelevant.

Kyuubi shook his head slightly and mumbled.

"It was the God of Monsters. I learned of it after I ate him."

"Alright then, you go take a nap. Diana and I will handle things here." Naruto said and patted him gently on the head.

The little fox cub made a soft growl of comfort at having his head caressed. Then, he moved on his shoulder, closer to Naruto's neck. He curled up in a tiny ball of fur and buried his little snout into his fluffy nine tails. Kurama fell into a slumber. His body began to assimilate the God of Monsters' divinity.

"Lady Athena, why are you here?" Wonder Woman asked with a bit of hesitation. "I have come to Tartarus at the orders of Zeus, to kill Hades. Has Zeus changed his mind and sent you to stop us?"

Although she no longer worshipped the gods - proof of that was the still wet blood that splattered all over her armour and face - Diana was still respectful towards the patron goddesses of the Amazons. After all, the Amazons' survival depended on them.

"Zeus has not changed his mind. But I intend on starting a coup d'etat." Athena said. "And I wish for Hades to join forces with me against Zeus. Hades does not deserve to die. He may have his faults but he is 10 times a better man than Zeus ever was."

Naruto and Diana were startled. Athena was Zeus's favourite daughter. They had not expected her to say that.

"You appear to be very surprised," the goddess remarked. "In truth, it is not the first time I tried to take my father's throne. I have also tried it once in my youth. Back then, I joined hands with Hera, Apollo, and Poseidon and we almost succeeded. But I was still too young, too weak, and too inexperienced. We failed." (1)

He looked at her suspiciously. With Kyuubi in deep slumber, he had no way of checking if she was speaking the truth or not.

"I can sense that you don't trust me." the goddess said and looked at Naruto. Her silvery eyes were clear and pure. "But this is a matter of life and death for us, the Olympian Gods. If Zeus is not eliminated soon, many of us will perish."

"What do you mean by that? Who in the world can do such a thing to you? You are-, you are gods!" Diana said, not quite able to believe it.

"The God of Evil, Darkseid," Athena said seriously.

"But Darkseid is dead! The Justice League killed him a month ago!" Wonder Woman denied it.

Athena shook her head.

"Darkseid is far more powerful than you realize. More powerful than Zeus himself realizes. Nobody understands how dangerous he really is. What the Justice League killed was merely an avatar. It's not the first time Darkseid was 'killed'. How is he resurrecting every time? It's because it was just a vessel that he used to interact with the mortal plane of existence. When one is killed, he can just create another. Darkseid's true form is on a completely different level. He is not just the God of Evil on Apokolips. Is the God of Evil of the entire Universe. It is only the restriction imposed by the Source that is stopping him from leaving the dimension of the gods and conquering the entire Universe." (2)

After making a short pause, the goddess continued:

"Darkseid had set his sights on Earth several thousand years ago when he came to Earth for the first time. I have warned Zeus many times but he does not want to listen. He is too confident in his lightning and thunder. His arrogance has blinded him. He does not realize that he has grown weaker. He does not realize that I, alone, am already just as powerful as he is. Mortals no longer worship him. He has been forgotten. Yet he does not want to accept the idea that someone could be more powerful than himself." (3)

"But sooner or later Darkseid will find a way to squeeze more of his true power through the gap between the dimensions. I do not wish to sit around and wait for our doom. I do not wish to see Zeus drag all of Olympus to death with him."

"If he is so strong, why is he so interested in Earth? Why would someone like him care that much about such a tiny and insignificant planet? I don't understand." said Naruto.

When looking at the scale of the Universe, Earth was indeed just one of the numerous planets inhabited by a sentient species of living beings. In Naruto's eyes, there was nothing special about it. If anything, technology-wise, Earth was rather backwater, decades or centuries behind other civilisations such as Almerac or Thanagar. He could not understand what exactly made the God of Evil so obsessed with Earth.

"He believes that Earth holds the Anti-Life Equation. A magical formula that will give him control of the minds of every intelligent being in the world. Seeing as Darkseid's true body can never leave his dimension, possessing the Anti-Life Equation is the only realistic method through which he could one day achieve complete control over the entire Universe. That's why he will never give up on Earth. His conflict with the Justice League is just secondary. The Anti-Life Equation is the thing he desires the most."

"So what do you plan on doing now?" Naruto said.

"I will lead the Olympian Gods into another dimension. Our departure is long overdue. The people of Earth no longer worship us. There is no need for us to remain here and put ourselves in mortal danger. We have nothing to gain from it."

Diana asked:

"Then what about the Amazons? What will happen to my mother and my sisters after you leave?"

"My intention is to take the Amazons with me," Athena said. "But I will not force anyone to follow me. For those who do not wish to leave the Earth, my blessing will allow them to continue living the natural lifespan of a regular human. That is the most that I can do for them."

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AN: For those wondering where Athena popped up from, remember that when Naruto and Wonder Woman stepped through the gates of Tartarus, a little snake followed them secretly (chapter 37). Also, when Hera met the chimaeras and ordered them to call their master, Typhon, a snake was spying on her (chapter 39). Athena has been watching everything from the very beginning, waiting for the perfect moment to intervene.

(1) it really happened in Greek Mythology. Even in DC comics, Athena attempted to dethrone Zeus (and succeeded eventually). So she is not acting out of character so to speak.

(2) the theory that Darkseid is a multiversal being is disputed among comics fans. Some agree with it while others think that he is just the dude that got beat up by Doomsday. As you can tell from this chapter, I'm siding with the ones who believe that Darkseid is a multiversal being and that it was only his avatars that were defeated.

(3) In comics, Darkseid actually fought against Zeus and killed him.

This marks the end of the Tartarus arc. Until next time!