Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 22. He's gone mad! He's gone mad!
On the pillar, a girl in white was shivering in the cold wind, but more than the cold in her body, the fear in her heart was truly approaching its limit.

"They've gone mad...they've all gone mad."

She bit her lower lip tightly, and the growing fear in her heart made her legs feel weak.

In her line of sight, the elderly female prophet was constantly muttering incantations, while the many Norse warriors following closely behind her were also filled with excitement.

Thorbjorn, the most old-fashioned man in her eyes, the long-bearded old man she remembered as having taken good care of her, one of the clan leaders, was now blind in one eye and missing a leg, forced to stand in the crowd with a cane.

The calmness and composure that once shone in his eyes were now completely gone, replaced by a fanatical gaze fixed on the girl before him, as if he were anticipating the upcoming sacrificial ceremony.

Paul, the young man who had just succeeded the deceased clan chief as the new leader, was covered in scars on his body and face. Just a few months ago, he was a skinny man who was often bullied by his own people.

He stared coldly at the girl, his face devoid of any pity...

Looking from left to right, and from right to left, no one in front of the girl showed her even the slightest bit of sympathy or pity. Instead, they all seemed eagerly waiting for the ritual to begin.

Undoubtedly, the girl, who was disliked by her own kind and ultimately became a sacrifice, had reason to be afraid. However, this was far from the reason why the girl was so terrified.

"Why...why can't you all see!"

The girl's glassy eyes stared at the expressionless crowd before her, her lips trembling with overwhelming fear.

In her line of sight...

Above the heads of those who were watching her indifferently, there was a thin, gray, misty cloud that kept rising and spreading. Finally, hundreds of wisps of mist gathered together, forming a vast, seemingly intangible mist that covered the entire wilderness.

This enormous, unfathomable fog hovered in the sky, seemingly brewing something within it. Just looking at that massive fog sent a deep sense of despair and fear through the girl's very bones, like a toad being watched by a snake. The intense fear of being stared at by the cold gaze of a natural enemy made the girl tremble uncontrollably.

However, unlike the deep fear in her heart, everyone else seemed to see nothing and turned a blind eye to this bizarre scene.

No, I should say...

They simply cannot see it.

Several months ago, not long after the ritual began, the girl noticed something was wrong, and from then on, she realized that the mist was not a good thing.

And all of this... seems to be visible only to her.

She was terrified and wanted to tell her people, but... she was mute.

Her inability to speak made it difficult for her to explain what she saw to her people. Her daily life was fine, but when faced with scenes so complex that even she couldn't explain them, she struggled to describe what they were, no matter how hard she tried to gesture.

As the ritual proceeded, under the fearful gaze of the young girl…

Everyone seems to be changing.

Gentle people become irritable, kind people become evil, tolerant people become rude, and friendly people become belligerent...

In the girl's eyes, the whole world seemed to have gone mad. Everyone was changing imperceptibly, whether in terms of personality or other aspects, but it was as if no one except her was aware of it, taking all these changes for granted.

The only one who knew all this could only watch helplessly as her familiar and warm hometown turned into a strange, hellish place, filled with endless fear.

She dared not tell her fellow tribesmen all this, for she began to fear them as they grew increasingly insane and twisted.

She was so timid that, after realizing she was powerless to change anything, she could only hide trembling in her blankets, too afraid to speak of what she had seen.

Because of her lowly status, she was inconspicuous among her clansmen and no one cared about her. As a result, she saw a great deal of things.

The clan leaders said that people were beginning to die in large numbers because of the heavy snow, diseases, and wild animal invasions brought about by the darkness.

But... as she happened to pass by a room, she peeked through the crack in the door with utter terror and saw the clan leaders gathered around a corpse of their own, which they claimed had been "dragged into darkness by wild beasts." They were tearing open his belly and devouring him like a pack of wolves. The ravenous, greedy way they were eating him, the fighting as they fought over his intestines, the savage look in their eyes as they bit off pieces of the corpse, the blood-soaked pieces of flesh scattered everywhere, the gruesome scene of blood flowing freely...

This made it impossible for the young girl to associate with those once-kind clan leaders.

Beneath the seemingly normal exterior, there are bloodstains that suddenly appear in secluded corners and are quickly wiped away, things that look like human fingernails that occasionally appear in the food, and fellow tribesmen who are becoming increasingly irritable and often fight over trivial matters...

Everything was making the girl feel increasingly unfamiliar with the place where she was born.

The methods of sacrifice became increasingly bloody and cruel, and with each sacrifice, the fog expanded and grew larger.

At first, it was just wisps of smoke, but as the smoke grew larger, it eventually gathered together, forming a huge fog that floated overhead, covering the entire sky as far as the girl could see.

Finally, despite trembling with fear, she was dragged out by her clansmen and used as a living sacrifice.

……

Looking at the female prophet in front of her, who was murmuring prayers, the girl's body would involuntarily tremble.

It wasn't because of the cold night wind, but because of the extreme fear that filled my heart, the fear of falling into an ice cave.

She couldn't understand why this was happening, but she knew it was definitely not normal.

"Who can help me……"

She wanted to call for help, but as a mute girl, she couldn't say anything and could only open her mouth silently.

She tried to struggle, but with her strength, she was powerless to break free of the ropes. She could only wait in fear for the sacrificial ceremony to end.

Even the longest prayers eventually come to an end, and when the prophet finished reciting them, she raised her head and looked up, as if she were expecting something.

In the night sky, a cold wind howled first, then fell silent, as if the sacrifice had failed.

However, looking at the cold wind, the prophet murmured as if in a dream.

"It's coming..."

As the prophet spoke, the cold wind suddenly intensified.

"call!!!"

The howling wind swept across the wilderness, growing stronger with each gust, stirring up countless specks of dust and debris. From the nearby darkness, the terrified howls and whimpers of animals fleeing in panic could be heard.

"It's coming!"

The prophet cried out again, her voice trembling with a strange excitement.

Upon hearing this, the girl instinctively turned her head to look, when suddenly a bolt of lightning ripped through the night sky...

"Boom!!!"

Deafening thunder roared across the sky, like an enraged dragon soaring through the heavens.
In an instant, the world was bathed in daylight, illuminating everything in front of the girl. Looking at the "figure" standing in front of her, the girl suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. Her pupils contracted sharply to a point, and the fear in her heart instantly rose to its peak.

Her body pressed itself tightly against the cold wooden pillar behind her, her teeth clenched, as if that cold wooden pillar offered her a sense of security more than this crazy world.

Before her stood a humanoid monster staring at her with its cold, serpentine eyes.

Her eyes had somehow become like snake pupils, her face was covered with fine snake scales, and even her tongue had become like a long, forked snake tongue. Yet, the prophetic woman, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings, was watching her, her expression one of being trapped in a strange excitement and frenzy.

(End of this chapter)