I reincarnated as an Immortal Caterpillar?

A peacefully slumbering creature was shocked awake. For peace was now denied to it.

Its abrupt awakening rendered its shocked mind slow. Thus, its comprehension lagged while it groggily gazed into the deep darkness, not unlike the one that had haunted it in its childhood. The old darkness was cold, cramped, and lifeless. It threatened to swallow the creature whole.

'Where am I?' The creature didn’t know the answer to that. In fact, it didn’t even remember anything. '…just what is happening?’

The creature’s slow mind jolted under the assault of rapidly passing thoughts and suspicion formed within its now awake mind. No sooner had the thought formed than the creature began trembling in disbelief.  ‘Where am I?!'

Its body grew hot while its flesh seemed to become heavy. The endless darkness suffocated it and the lack of space choked it. Its veins puffed while its eyes became bloodshot. 'Who is doing this to me!? WHY?!'

The creature moved its body. However, its body failed to accomplish the task; it merely squirmed. Its botched attempt to move sent its panicked mind racing and the stifled creature drew parallels where there were none. It saw the confining darkness rush in as if it were preparing to crush the rattled creature with but a thought.

The terrified creature pushed back against the deep darkness. However, it found its body rolled in a fleshy meatball. All the while, the suffocating darkness rushed in. The spooked creature tried to resist but it couldn’t move its limbs. It couldn’t stretch its body. All it could do was make its body squirm.

Amid the cocktail of heightened emotions, an unnerving one took root and the creature trembled. Its body quivered like a dead leaf in the rainstorm and its blood pumped faster. If this emotion could be named, it would be the horror that seeped through the eyes, to the flesh and bone. The mere thought of why it chilled the creature’s very flesh. ‘I couldn’t have been buried alive! No!’

The creature tried to push with its body and even tried to shove. It threw its weight against the walls of its bizarre coffin. And the creature felt it move. The restricting darkness moved not unlike the movement of slime. However, its coffin pushed back with equal fervour to retain its shape. The creature’s heart raced but its quivering stopped. Its determination granted its strength to shove even harder.

It tried to punch the walls with its fists. However, its body failed to accomplish the task as instead of 2 limbs, multiple limbs moved. The baffled creature stopped mid-strike as the strange sensation tickled at the edge of its memories. It tried to remember its last memory. It was …it was …hazy. And confusing. Merely trying to think about the past gave the creature a splitting headache.

It was not the headache that the creature focused on though. Rather, it focused on the lack of response from its arms and legs. Its confused eyes narrowed as it processed the conflicting sensations. I felt not its limbs, yet it sensed multiple limbs protruding from its body; limbs that it should not have.

Its racing heart paced even faster while the creature tried hard to remember. However, all its efforts amounted to searing pain and unfathomable agony. The creature shuddered as its body reacted out of its control. 'Has someone tampered with my memory?! Where am I?! What is going on?!'

Through the pain and the agony, its memory finally cleared. 'I died.'

The reason for its demise did not concern it as its mind reeled from the shock. 'I died.'

A hollowness, unlike nothing it had felt before seeped within it-

'I died'

-and gradually it’s pounding heart-

'I died'

-became so incredibly heavy that it seemed to stop beating.

'I died.'

It had lost its family.

'I died.'

Its life.

'I died.'

Its friends.

'I di-'

Screeeeeeeeeeeeech!

0.0

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

The exhausted creature tried repeatedly. And finally, it remembered.

Power. Of the very Laws.

Monstrous existences. Beyond the Gods.

And obliteration.

Nature itself had turned against them, ripping their civilization asunder. Even the Five Great Ghosts had abandoned their race. Punished were the men, the women, the old and the children alike. The fate of one and all had been nothing but one.

Death.

The Gods had let their prayers go unheard. They had refused the summons. The death and the devastation had not moved their undying hearts. The ever-present and all-pervading Divine Grace had abandoned them in their moment of greatest need.

Perhaps, even the Gods had died alongside their worshippers.

Unseen calamities, unheard of catastrophes, and unthinkable cataclysms had descended upon them. Not only had they descended from the heavens, but they had also ascended from deep within the womb of the very earth. They had destroyed everything that had existed. Not a single being had been left alive. Not a single creature had been allowed to exist. It had been a complete and utter annihilation.

It had been… a punishment from the Heavens and the Earth.

‘...but ...why?!’ The creature had no answer.

Its disbelieving mind comprehended the revelation and its eyes widened within the dark coffin. Everything that it had known, no longer existed. The people that it had known, the city that it had lived in, the country that it had called its own, the civilization that had been its own... all of it, sundered. Annihilated.

A Heavenly punishment for a crime unknown.

The wrathful creature struggled against its prison. ‘Dead.' It squirmed, thrashed, and struggled with all its might. ‘Everyone is dead!' It channelled its rage into achieving freedom. ‘Nothing remained!!'

It had to. ‘Dead!'

It just had to. ‘DESTROYED!!'

‘ANNIHILATED!’

Its ears popped as the rush of cold air hit its flesh. It shivered.

The sudden temperature change shocked the enraged creature out of its thoughts, and it struggled anew. It thrashed hammered and pushed at the opening.

Finally, it broke through. It was free, finally free. Yet, this freedom did not bring any joy to the lonely pair of hollowed eyes. The creature breathed hard as its desolation and anger simmered within. However, the grotesque sight which greeted it rendered its raging emotions impotent.

In front of the creature lay huge spheres, almost the same size as the creature itself. And out of many of them, things crawled out. Green and black and elongated things.

'Insects…' The dumbfounded creature thought before it corrected its line of thought. ‘Maggots!'

Its eyes widened and heartbeat quickened as it looked around. 'Those spheres are eggs! They aren't coffins! They are eggs!'

Eggs.

Eggs.

And more eggs.

The creature was surrounded by them. Wherever it looked, the sea of eggs stretched. And out of most of them, things crawled out; things that were maggots.

An impossible thought manifested with the creature’s shocked mind. It thought to look down at itself, but its heart resisted. The creature was afraid of what it'd find.

However, before the terrified creature could even do anything, a primal force hit it and consumed its horrified mind. Hunger had arrived to overwhelm its fragile mind. And it forced the creature to eat whatever was beneath its body.

But as the creature lowered its head to eat, it was confronted by its fear. For it saw what it had become. What its body had become. Its flesh was green and black and elongated like all the other things crawling around it.

'Maggot!' The creature’s mind supplied as it began to shut down.

The creature which thought that itself a maggot couldn't think. It couldn't comprehend. It couldn't process what had become of it. ‘Filth! Vermin!’

The rage, the desolation, the shock, the disgust, and the plethora of emotions overwhelmed the poor creature’s taxed mind. It could do nothing as its fragile mind went into shock.

0.0

The stupefied maggot’s fragile mind broke out of the stupor to realise that it had devoured whatever it was that had been beneath its body. While in a daze, the starving creature’s baser instincts had taken over. Thus, it had gorged upon its egg, leaving only a few morsels behind.

However, the base instincts were not done with it yet. Much like a simmering pot, the hunger continued to bubble within the famished creature until it overwhelmed the creature’s inundated mind. The nervous creature didn’t resist the corroding acid within its flesh as it bent down to finish the sparse morsels.

Ting.

Ting.

The stupefied creature paused eating and thinking. ‘What is this?’ Its tender body twitched as its exhausted mind tried to process the illusion before its eyes.

In answer to its unspoken thoughts, another blue screen materialised within its vision.

Ting.

Its confused eyes narrowed as a thought sneaked in its week mind. To test its hypothesis the former mortal moved its head side to the side. However, its hypothesis was proved wrong when the screen moved along its vision. ‘This is no ordinary illusion then. Just…what is this?'

However, its newfound flesh reminded the creature of its new vessel though hunger that ceaselessly corroded its belly. Dutifully, the instinct’s meek little slave complied with the implicit order and devoured the tasteless leaf beneath its tiny body.

Meanwhile, it returned its ditzy attention to the screen to focus on the option that disturbed it the most: the option [Unnamed]. No sooner had it focused on the option than the floating blue list changed.

Ting.

 

Its toothy mouth twisted downwards while its eyes narrowed. The creature paused its eating to consider. 'That makes no sense.' Despite not understanding the significance of information displayed within its vision, one thing caught its eye: the title [Reincarnated]. The creature focused on it and another blue screen popped up.

Ting.

'Is this about me?' The numerous stubs emerging from its body squirmed. ‘Is this about my reincarnation?’

Despite the blatant reminder of its death, neither unending grief not incomprehensible sorrow rose within its fragile mind. Instead, all it felt was an odd resignation. If the creature had been of sound mind, it would have not only found it odd but also unnatural.

Indeed, this bizarre reaction was the outcome of the war going on within the ignorant creature. A war that it would remain unaware of in its life and perhaps even beyond in its death. Ignorance was bliss. But more often, it was death.

Unaware of the danger looming over its renewed life, the creature wished to return to the previous screen. The blue screen responded to its thought and dematerialised to reveal its Status. Within the mass of blue glow, the creature focused next on its [Race], [Immortal].

Ting.

The bewildered creature stared at the screen with confused eyes. ‘I am now… an immortal?’ It tried to comprehend the meaning of the words but there was just too much for its overworked mind to understand at once.

The green creature tried to recall if immortals existed in its last life. However, a ringing headache was its only reward. It winced and shivered in pain before it decided to abandon the line of thought to read the description once again.

Its dark eyes paused on the capitalised letters and its stubs squirmed in curiosity. The moment the creature focused on the word, the creature became familiar with the concept of instant regret as a red screen screamed into existence.

TRAAAAAAANG!

‘Heavens above!!' The shocked creature cursed as it closed its eyes. Its body, meanwhile, followed the set instincts and tucked its head beneath the rest of its flesh.

It took the creature a few moments to recover while its body shivered in fright. It gradually dared to poke its insectoid head out before the reincarnated creature shook its head and straightened itself. ‘I do not want to experience something like that again!’ It had been an experience most unpleasant.

The creature called upon the previous screen and eyed the capital ‘S’ of Spells warily and moved on. It was not going through something like that again willingly. Though now wary, it cautiously decided to explore the rest of the Status and noticed its [Lifespan: 90 days].

Its dark eyes widened. Its blood rushed to its face while its calmness shattered like glass. ‘What the fuck!’ It would have shrieked in anger if it had been able to. ‘What the actual fuck! What fresh shit is this!? Wasn’t I an Immortal?! Didn’t I have a lengthy lifespan?! What the fuck is this! Is 90 days a lengthy lifespan!?’

With its body burning with fury, the tiny creature read the description of the Race [Immortal] once again. Its body trembled with impotent rage yet, it had nowhere to unleash it.

Meanwhile, the irony of the situation was lost on the creature. It would have tickled its dark humour in its past life. However, now that it was the one experiencing it, the creature saw not any humour in the situation. Most realized this not but the tragedy of one was the comedy of the other.

The creature deeply breath. 'Focus. Focus. Focus.' It reminded itself before squinting on [Name: Unnamed] and just like before, another box popped up.

Ting.

Its face twisted. 'How can I not even name myself? What sort of absurd rule is that? Why can't I name myself?' It made no sense to the little being. But after the irony of being an immortal caterpillar with a lifespan of 90 days, this ridiculous rule did not surprise it.

Thus, with its overwhelming emotions suffocating it, the caterpillar began going through the rest of the words, one after another. However, its simmering emotions erupted when it focused on [MP: -].

Ting.

‘BULL. SHIT! I call bullshit!' It screamed within its mind as its breathing escalated in frustration. 'I was a sorceress in my previous life! How can I not have magic?! Magic has nothing to do with anybody's body! It has everything to do with one's soul! I was reincarnated, wasn’t I?! It means I have my soul! Give me my magic, you little shit!'

It frantically ranted. It hysterically raved. It desperately raged within the confines of its delicate mind while its body continued to eat. The dissonance of the inside from the outside was lost on the creature as it continued to go through its Status.

Ting.

‘That explained the [Reincarnated] Title. Though, what is this Will of the World?’

Ting.

‘Laws of the Creation?’

‘…Heavens above!!’ The astonishment creature’s breathing hitched. ‘To think that the laws of the Creation could be uncovered in such a simple way! Simply magnificent!’

It was a testament to the creature’s unstable mind that it went through overwhelming emotion, one after another, yet seemed to forget the previous ones when the next one assaulted it.

In the short while since is birth it had experienced grief, panic, joy and now giddiness. Yet, it did not find it strange while its frail mind unravelled. Instead, it remained ignorant and explored its Status to arrive at the most ominous option, [Dharma].

A golden screen materialised in response to its thoughts.

Ting.

Its mouth fell open while its eyes widened to gawk. It understood not a thing. ‘What…utter nonsense is this?’ It tried to grasp the meaning that seemed to be hidden within the golden manifestation. Yet, all it saw was a bunch of spiritual nonsense that was worth less than the time spent on reading it.

The creature ground its teeth as its body trembled.

It was all too much.

The roller coaster of emotions left its fragile mind exhausted. All it wanted to do was stop thinking. It wanted to sleep. It wanted peace.

However, peace was now denied to it.

※