The world-devouring dragon

In those dim and obscure vertical snake eyes, the colors of the entire universe are reflected.

The dark and dead universe, the gorgeous nebulae, the countless stars... everything is reflected on the smooth surface of the huge pupil, as if the entire universe is in its pupil. In front of that vast and deep ocean, the small spaceship not far from the pupils was not even considered as dust.

"Emergency procedures...escape...passengers please be prepared for emergencies..."

No matter how surprised the middle-aged man is at this moment, the highly intelligent spacecraft AI has already judged the danger, and the sublight engine with a maximum speed of 1/2 the speed of light is starting at the highest speed, trying to stay away from this dangerous space monster. .

In just one breath, the spacecraft has traveled millions of kilometers away, but this distance is not to mention the solar system whose gravitational range exceeds 2 light years. It is like an ant crawling in front of this behemoth that is hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

Although humans have discovered a network of subspace channels that enable disguised super-light navigation, attempts to sail through subspace are limited by many conditions.

The huge gravity caused by the star is like a well in space and time, dragging everything nearby. Near such a huge gravity well, it is impossible for this ornamental spacecraft to break away from the constraints of space and escape through subspace. of.

However, the giant snake seemed not to notice them, but slowly stretched its body in space. The huge and long snake body unfolded, and then its long tail, which was tens of thousands of miles away, swayed gently, as if it was swimming in the vast space, flying towards the sun not far away.

"It... doesn't seem to notice us."

The young man stared closely at the behemoth, and his fear and tension made his mental fluctuations more unstable. This unstable mental fluctuation also appeared in other companions. Almost instantly, the excessive mental tremors among the crowd were detected by the spacecraft AI.

"Psychic protection procedure... release of psychic stabilizing mist..."

Inside the spacecraft, a fragrant mist is released, soothing the psychic instability.

One of the negative aspects of being a psyker is this.

Being too sensitive to the mind makes psykers easily affected by the emotions of others. Therefore, regarding the problem of out-of-control psychic energy, the entire human world has been studying this issue for almost this millennium.

The psychic stabilizing spray that works through skin contact is indeed very effective. The young man who was originally mentally unstable because of staring at the giant snake quickly calmed down, and the fear in his heart faded. At this time, he paid attention to another thing. .

When they saw the giant snake, everyone's emotions were highly unstable, but among them, the most uneasy one was the middle-aged man.

When he saw the giant snake emerging from the planet, his emotions were not only fear, but also some kind of disbelief and surprise, and his reaction was particularly strong. It was as if something he thought was impossible happened.

"Why are you so surprised? Do you know something?"

The young man asked urgently.

With the help of the mist, the middle-aged man's mood calmed down a little, and then his expression became a little complicated.

"I...I am very interested in the history of the pre-galactic era, so I searched a lot of things in this area, including some very obscure ancient relics. On a stone tablet on the Hope Star, a person claimed to be a descendant of an ancient organization. Wrote some pretty weird stories.”

"He said that his ancestors were once members of a mysterious organization that existed from the ancient Earth era. This ancient organization existed in 3,500 years ago in the Galactic Era. At that time, humans were still using iron tools and did not even have thermal weapons. Appeared. This organization has kept a secret for generations, and is called the Hermitage by insiders. The Hermitage was also destroyed in the process, but it was also rebuilt. It was not until entering the interstellar age that this ancient organization gradually died out. His ancestors only Something I know. I pass it on to future generations like a story."

"Many of the things told on the stele are very bizarre, but one thing impressed me deeply. The stele said that the original planet of human origin was actually a coiled snake. When the snake fell asleep, the dust on its body turned into the earth. , the accumulated water became the sea, and the mist formed the sky, and then life multiplied... The people of the monastery firmly believed in this and kept this secret for generations. And the person in charge of the overlord was the monastery. The leader of the association, the reason why he bombed the important territory of his own power was to destroy this big snake..."

The fluctuations in his mind paused for a moment, and the middle-aged man stared at the giant snake swimming in space, with a look of disbelief on his face.

"I have no impression of the other weird and bizarre stories on the stone tablet, but I am deeply impressed by this story, because this story is unexpectedly connected to the mystery of the destruction of the earth that I am interested in."

"And when I saw this big snake, I instantly remembered this story... Could the illusory story also become reality?"

The middle-aged man shook his head, as if he still didn't want to believe what he was seeing.

"Whether it's a fantasy story or not, the giant snake has woken up now, and we should figure out how to escape now."

The young man comforted, and at the same time, he looked at the spacecraft AI.

"How long until we reach the subspace jump boundary?!"

At the bow of the spacecraft, the built-in spacecraft AI flashed brightly. According to the regulations handed down after the war where AI went out of control, the AI ​​must always show its status to prevent logical errors. In front of the young man, the flashing light proved that the spacecraft AI was operating efficiently.

"3672 seconds."

AI replied.

At this moment, the entire spacecraft's AI system has been mobilized to strictly monitor the traces of the space monster. However, the 1/2 light speed engine loaded on the spacecraft was not created for war, but for traveling among the stars. Perhaps some military spacecraft can forcefully jump to escape from subspace even in the gravity well, but this spacecraft cannot, it must be in a Subspace jumps can only be carried out in areas where the influence of gravity is very small and the space-time structure is smooth and stable.

Even if it is moving at the highest speed, it is very difficult for this spacecraft to escape from danger.

"An entire galaxy..."

The young man gritted his teeth.

Right now, it seems that the only thing left to do is whether fate is on their side.

"Look! What is that big snake doing?"

Suddenly, the spiritual fluctuations of a companion came. The young man looked up and saw a scene that shocked everyone...

On that huge star with a diameter of 1.4 million kilometers, numerous prominences hundreds of thousands of miles away are erupting abnormally, and the solar material carrying huge heat is being formed violently. But a huge monster hundreds of thousands of miles long is crawling on the surface of the star, opening its mouth wide and swallowing the energy from the star.

That huge size can still be clearly seen on the star even if it is hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

The huge monster swims around the star, as if swimming on the star. From time to time, it opened its mouth, greedily devouring those prominences that were in the process of violent eruption and were almost comparable in size to the planet, and gnawed away the material on the star.

"Incredible... can biological structures resist the heat of stars?"

Some of the companions were shaking their heads unconsciously, clearly feeling the huge impact.

In the interstellar age, humankind's understanding of the physical world has already been extremely profound. At the temperature of the sun, no known matter can avoid being melted, not even the stars themselves.

A star is a nuclear fusion furnace that is undergoing thermonuclear reactions all the time. There is no entity inside at all, but countless highly dense atoms, too dense and thick heat, force, and particles. This density makes it difficult for even photons to travel through it. If a photon were to break through millions of kilometers of dense particles from the center of the nuclear fusion furnace to reach the outside of the sun, it would take a hundred thousand years.

No matter can be sustained on a star.

Even if interstellar humans can enter the interior of stars, they will not rely on pure matter as a shield, but on force fields, relying on invisible and qualityless "forces" to resist the internal pressure and temperature of stars.

It is simply impossible to rely on tangible and qualitative substances to withstand this kind of temperature, let alone biological structures.

However, the scene in front of them broke the cognition of interstellar humans. Relying on those seemingly primitive scales, the huge giant snake was actually swimming above the stars?

"No, it doesn't withstand the temperature of the star. Look carefully."

The young man decisively denied this, but reminded his companions.

In the young man's sight, he could clearly see that the giant snake's scales were rapidly melting under the high temperature of the star. But the problem was that the giant snake's scales were regenerating rapidly, so it seemed to have no effect... No, it’s not just the scales that are regenerating! Its body is also being reshaped!

Among the information fed back by the prosthetic eyes, the size of the giant snake, which was already so huge that it was unbelievable, was still expanding rapidly!

800,000 kilometers…

900,000 kilometers…

1 million kilometers…

2 million kilometers…

3 million kilometers…

…

Those old scales melt under the temperature of the star, but the new scales are larger and denser, and their ability to withstand the temperature of the star is also increasing. In the end, when the giant snake's body was able to coil around the entire star, its scales were completely undamaged in the hot plasma. No matter how the star burned and impacted, it could only make the pitch-black scales shine brighter.

"No! This star is going to explode!"

Suddenly, someone was shocked.

In everyone's prosthetic eye data, they can clearly see the fluctuations in heat. Just now, the star's intensity and heat changes were rising sharply, and it was obviously highly unstable.

A large amount of material has been plundered, making it impossible to maintain the surface of the star. The external pressure weakens, and the huge internal pressure will be released.

It is foreseeable that soon, this star with a high degree of thermonuclear reaction going on inside will be unable to maintain, and then all the matter will completely explode, just like a dying red giant, no, even more dangerous than that red giant.

In a red giant, the internal pressure decreases, and then the outside expands outward. This expansion can last for tens of thousands of years; but now, the star is detonating outward from the inside.

It can be said that the sun at this moment has completely turned into a bomb and is about to explode.

How powerful will this explosion be? No one wants to calculate anymore. Anyway, it is impossible to escape from this spaceship.

"Ruined……"

Desperate spiritual fluctuations spread.

However, the giant snake wrapped around the star started to move.

The huge body that had grown to millions of miles was hovering on the surface of the star, wandering around, entwining in circles. The tight body forcibly hugged the star, and even dimmed the brightness of the entire galaxy, because that The snake's body was entangled so tightly that there was no light to break free from it.

Since the external pressure has been reduced, then it only needs to be forcibly restrained.

"What is it doing?"

The young man was at a loss.

He didn't understand what the huge monster in front of him was doing. As long as it let go a little bit, the entire star would explode instantly, leaving no other possibility. Does it intend to haunt the star forever?

"It...it's eating."

This time, the middle-aged man spoke.

His excessive surprise even caused him to speak instead of transmitting information with mental fluctuations.

His pupils were full of shock.

Middle-aged people are very curious about the history of the pre-galactic era and know many creatures from the pre-galactic era. In the ancient Earth era, snakes liked to restrain their prey by strangulation, and then swallowed the prey into their bellies.

But right now, what is bound by this giant snake is a huge star with a diameter of 1.4 million kilometers!

Above the scorching star, the huge snake's body was wrapped around the huge celestial body, as if it was restraining its prey and preventing it from breaking free. Its head was raised, and its erect pupils looked down at the star beneath it.

The huge mouth of the abyss opened wide, and the star that shone with billions of brilliance and illuminated everything within these light-years was suddenly bitten. The brilliance of the star before it died even exceeded what everyone could see, as if it was facing a neutron star. The ray burst is general.

Under the gaze of all the interstellar humans in the spacecraft, in the vast universe, the giant snake that was countless miles long raised its head, and in its mouth was the sun.

The star bloomed with its last violent brilliance in the mouth of the huge giant snake, and was about to explode, but the brilliance gradually moved downwards, then disappeared, and there was no sound. As a result, the star was completely swallowed into its belly.