The world-devouring dragon

In the ancient undersea temple, a dark thing with an unclear appearance sat high on the throne. Even just sitting there, it exuded a dark and profound aura, and that darkness made people feel... I felt scared and trembling, my heart seemed to be clenched tightly, I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't help but want to kneel on the ground and worship it.

It was as if there was an invisible black hole, causing all the light next to the throne to distort.

At this moment, the erect snake eyes crossed the barrier of billions of tons of sea water, observing every move of the mortal named Noah on the earth without any hindrance.

The mortals who listened to the apocalypse learned that the world was about to be destroyed. The panicked men tried to seek help from others, but who would believe the "world-destroying flood"?

The scornful and sneering villagers refused to believe the pleading man's words. The man finally had no choice but to take his only wife who believed in him and his three children, away from the crowd, and began to build the unprecedentedly large ship on the seashore. …

"Father, what are we not going to do?"

Next to the throne, the snake girl who was serving the dark thing asked softly.

The dark thing whose face could not be seen clearly did not answer. Instead, it raised its hand and looked at the white chess piece in its hand, which was a chess piece made up of a family.

The strong middle-aged man hugged his wife and children, surrounded by two children, one older and one younger, while his wife held another infant son in her arms. The perseverance on the husband's face, the ignorance of the child holding his parents, the young son who is crying loudly, and the wife who is nestling in her husband's arms, looking down at her young son lovingly... There are brothers and sisters between parents and children. The love of parents, the love of husband and wife, and all family parent-child relationships are vividly reflected.

The cold, vertical snake eyes stared at the white chess piece that was not under his control. The white chess piece instantly shattered into pieces.

"no need."

Said a calm, low voice.

The snake girl standing beside him didn't ask any more questions, she just bowed quietly and then turned into a point of light and dissipated.

In the empty temple, only the one sitting on the throne was alone.

"..."

At this time, some kind of low and loud sound, deep and melodious, gradually came from the depths of the earth under the temple.

That is the dream whisper of an ancient thing that has been sleeping under the sea since the beginning of the world. The monster that feeds on the world is still sleeping. When it occasionally moves its body while sleeping, it will appear on the seabed and on the earth. The above causes huge changes that can split the continent; the murmurs that are occasionally heard by the creatures on the ground will cause them to mutate into monsters. The oldest vampires, werewolves, centaurs, etc. are all caused by this. was born.

This monster is still sleeping because it is not hungry, but the dark thing knows that this huge and ancient monster will one day wake up because of hunger. At that time, all reason and wisdom will be in that never-ending battle. Torn to pieces by hunger.

By then, greedy and violent monsters will devour everything in the world.

"It's not time to wake up yet."

Listening to the murmurs in sleep, the dark thing whose face could not be seen clearly on the throne whispered something, and then silently felt the brief commotion deep in the ground gradually calm down. He put his hand on his forehead and the upright There is only endless darkness in the depths of the snake's eyes, making it impossible to guess its thoughts.

…

There are several wooden houses standing among the lush forests on the endless seaside.

"Japheth."

Looking at the upright young son in front of him and the young girl he was holding, Noah, whose face showed signs of vicissitudes of life, showed a rare smile of relief.

Raising his hand, he patted his younger son on the shoulder. Feeling his strong arms, Noah didn't know what to say, so he couldn't help but murmured and repeated.

"good very good."

The somewhat shy Japheth looked at his father in front of him, and then said.

"That……"

"The wedding, I know, is next month."

But Noah seemed to see what his son was thinking, and smiled and nodded.

Immediately, in front of Noah, the two young men couldn't help but hugged each other excitedly, cheering and celebrating.

And somewhere they didn't notice, the smile on Noah's face gradually faded, and then he murmured.

"Next month...yeah, next month."

As he spoke, his eyes were full of complexity, and he turned to look in the direction of the sea...

There, lying quietly, was a huge ship, a huge ship about several hundred meters long. It was a large ship that took Noah and his family one hundred and twenty years to build... The ship that God wanted to build... The big ship that showed.

Just next month, when his youngest son gets married, the boat will be completed, but this also means...

Accompanying the cheers of young men and women was the silent sadness.

…

One month later.

"Crash..."

In the wooden house, the sound of the tide lapping at the beach at night could be heard from time to time. Noah, who had long been accustomed to all this, didn't think it was noisy.

The wedding during the day was very lively. Although far away from the crowd, only Noah and his family lived quietly and built ships here. However, the eldest son and the second son were already married, not to mention several newly born children, a family of more than a dozen people. The wedding still made the atmosphere quite warm and cozy.

However, after the wedding, Noah only felt sad.

Tomorrow, the big ship will be repaired, and many animals and plants have gathered completely, even... In fact, the animals gathered here on their own initiative, as if there was some kind of force driving them to do so.

Unlike his sons and daughters-in-law, who were at a loss, Noah knew in his heart that the great flood that God had revealed to him was about to come.

Noah lay on the bed with his eyes open, unable to fall asleep. Finally, he reached out and took out the golden scroll from his side again...

That scroll gives off a faint golden light even at night.

Looking at the scroll in his hand, which was still as clean as new even after one hundred and twenty years, Noah was silent.

One hundred and twenty years ago, he couldn't remember exactly what he felt when he first saw that golden scroll. Was he shocked? Flustered? Can't believe it? deny? hesitate?

Maybe they all have these feelings, but the only one that Noah can't forget...

It's that deep fear.

"God, why do you want to destroy this world..."

Noah murmured.

He doesn't want this world to be destroyed. His family, his memory, his hometown, and everything else are too precious and he doesn't want them to disappear.

He didn't know how many times he hoped that this was all just a dream, but every time he opened his eyes, he could see this silent golden scroll.

One hundred and twenty years. I don’t know why, but the time of the great flood recorded in the golden scroll is no more than one hundred and twenty years. It was in this 120th year that he just finished building this big ship, as if there was a force in the dark that had foreseen all this.

"..."

At this time, a cold hand gently held his hand.

It is not as smooth and supple as it was more than a hundred years ago. The scars left by the sewing work are uneven to the touch, witnessing the vicissitudes of the owner's hands.

During these more than a hundred years, the owner of these hands had endured too much hardship, but Noah had never heard the owner of his hands complain to him, not even once. Even now, the owner of the hand is still comforting him silently.

There was some complexity in Noah's eyes.

"We are a family and everything is going to be okay."

The woman gently stroked Noah's cheek with one hand, looked at her husband, then gently buried her head in Noah's arms, feeling her husband's heartbeat, and whispered softly.

"everything will get better……"

The man next to her hugged her silently.

In my ears, only the sound of the tide remains the same, never changing.