The world-devouring dragon

1578, midsummer, Florence.

This was a relatively stable period without much war, but there was an undercurrent. Since Martin Luther's "Religious Reform" 60 years ago, there has been a fierce dispute between Protestants and Catholics. Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany who came to the throne two years ago, is extremely disgusted with Protestantism. , pushing this already incompatible situation to a higher level.

The 26-year-old young emperor from Habsburg stubbornly pursued his own religious policies and vigorously suppressed Protestantism. On the contrary, Britain and France supported Protestantism, and religious differences gradually evolved into political ones. differences. Since then, an irreconcilable dividing line has emerged between the Protestant world and the Catholic world. However, this tit-for-tat contradiction is still brewing. No one can imagine what the final result of this contradiction will be...

However, for young Galileo in Florence, these things were still too far away.

"..."

In the main hall, his father was talking to the guests. The fourteen-year-old Galileo had his head lowered, his face full of boredom and boredom. His father seemed to be arguing loudly with the guests, his face was serious, With a coldness that Galileo had never seen before.

"Copernicus? Humph, that businessman's son, his heliocentric theory is just the ravings of a madman, and it goes against the teachings of the Bible..."

Old-fashioned, stubborn, with some pride and arrogance unique to old-fashioned aristocrats, this is Galileo's entire impression of his father. But at this moment, the somewhat stubborn old-fashioned aristocrat did not hesitate to argue with the guests, which was really unseemly. This made Galileo a little curious about the man named "Copernicus".

"That's not the case. Sir Leonardo da Vinci, who passed away sixty years ago, also made similar arguments. I don't think you would think that Sir Leonardo da Vinci's words were gibberish..."

In front of Galileo's father, the scholar with two beards shook his head and said unhurriedly that when he heard the name of Leonardo da Vinci, even a father as stubborn as Galileo was speechless for a moment.

Leonardo da Vinci's reputation in Italy is far beyond the imagination of people in other regions. Italy is deeply influenced by Greek theory, and the development of printing has led to the emergence of many scholars. Even someone as old-fashioned as him can be considered Half a scholar, Leonardo da Vinci, known as an "all-rounder", has an almost godlike status in the hearts of scholars.

"……snort."

He opened his mouth and tried to refute something, but finally snorted angrily, then dropped the topic and continued to argue about the man named "Copernicus".

On the sidelines, Galileo, who listened carefully to what they said, vaguely heard words such as "heliocentric theory" and "death".

"Heliocentric theory?"

He whispered in a somewhat confused voice. This was a word that Galileo had never heard before, but he had a vague feeling that he was very interested in what this word represented.

…

The night was silent, but Galileo suddenly opened his eyes while lying on the bed.

Lifting the quilt and stepping lightly on the ground, Galileo lowered his body like a civet cat, carefully touched the door, and then opened it gently...

"squeak……"

The extremely thin voice did not attract the attention of the servants, but this was also what little Galileo expected. At this moment, the servants who were tired from the busy day would not have the energy to notice him, so they quietly left the open door and closed the door again. …

Without any hesitation, little Galileo walked on tiptoe. In order not to disturb others, he even walked towards his father's study in the dark.

Just as little Galileo expected, there was no one in his father's study and it was pitch dark. However, relying on his memory, little Galileo still found the candlestick. After lighting it, bright light illuminated the study room, revealing the many books on the bookshelf. Little Galileo searched carefully, and finally found what he wanted to find somewhere in the corner of the bookshelf. s things.

"really."

Looking at the thick "On the Movement of Celestial Bodies", Galileo smiled on his face.

Despite his old-fashioned and aristocratic stubbornness, his father was also a knowledgeable scholar after all. Even if he did not agree with Copernicus' theory, he was still able to leave a place for Copernicus in the study.

Of course, if Galileo goes directly to ask for it from his father, it will only make the stubborn old gentleman furious, and then scold Galileo. This is something Galileo can completely predict, so he can only avoid it by watching quietly. This contradiction.

Opening the title page, the first thing that caught Galileo's eyes was a line like this.

"First of all, we should point out that the universe is spherical. This is either because the sphere is the most perfect of all shapes, it needs no interfaces, and is a total whole that can neither increase nor decrease; or because it is everything The greatest volume of shapes is the most suitable to embrace everything; even because individual parts of the universe (I mean the sun, moon, planets, and stars) look like this shape; even because everything tends to this shape. Surrounded by boundaries, like individual droplets of water and other liquids…”

In the flickering candlelight, Galileo looked at the book, and the lines of text were reflected in his bright pupils. Accompanied by the rustling sound of flipping through the paper from time to time, accompanied by the detailed and powerful inferences, Galileo seemed to have seen it in a trance. A brand new world, a vast world that he had never imagined, a world countless times wider than what was recorded in the Bible...

Unconsciously, the crow of a cock rang in his ears, and Galileo suddenly woke up.

"Oops! We're going to be discovered."

According to custom, the servants should get up and work later, so without much care, Galileo hurriedly tried to put the book back on the shelf, but accidentally kicked something iron-like with his foot, which immediately caused a pain in his foot.

"hiss……"

Holding his foot, Galileo endured the pain, and then glanced at the thing he kicked... It was a heroic female statue placed in a hidden place on the bookshelf. She was wearing military armor and had a firm and fearless gaze.

Galileo had seen this thing before. When they just moved to Florence three years ago, they met a strange man. The dying man entrusted this statue to Galileo's father. After that, Galileo's father never mentioned the matter again, and Galileo never saw this thing again, but he didn't expect it to be hidden in a hidden place between bookshelves.

Looking at those bright eyes, Galileo had an inexplicable illusion, as if the statue was alive, and those eyes were looking at him coldly...

But when I tried to take a closer look, I no longer had this feeling. It was just an extremely exquisite sculpture.

Although he felt a little strange in his heart, Galileo had no time to think about this kind of thing at this moment. He had to put the book back on the shelf, extinguished the candle, opened the study door and closed it quietly, before lying on the bed again before the servant woke up.

"Fortunately, nothing went wrong..."

With this thought in mind, the fatigue of not sleeping all night came over like a tide. The relaxed spirit could no longer support the sleepiness, and he fell into sleep. But in a daze, a pair of cold eyes seemed to appear in front of him. …

In the dream, I seemed to be lying on the earth. The endless land made it difficult to distinguish the direction. I looked at it blankly, only the sun above my head remained the same.

Then the earth suddenly trembled, as if like a living thing. The "earth" carried him across the clouds, across the aurora, across the sky... until he arrived at an infinitely vast dark void...

In that vast dark void, everything was empty, and it was so empty that people felt inexplicably deep fear and despair, because humans had never seen such a vast void, as if they were separated from the entire world.

The moon that seemed to be "not far away", Mars and Venus a little further away, even Mercury, and... the stars that were so huge that they exceeded the limits of imagination, spewing countless blazing flames.

As far as the eye can see, the numerous stars are orbiting around the star, for thousands of years, tens of thousands of years, billions of years, until the end of time, silent and eternal, eternal...