Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 245 It Will Come Back

December 7, 2044, a small town in the United States.

In the dead of winter, with unusually heavy snowfall caused by global warming, most vegetation has withered, except for hardy plants such as fir trees that still stand tall amidst the snow.

Amidst the swirling snow, the earth was draped in white, and the unusual weather deterred local residents from venturing out. This made the already sparsely populated, newly developed town appear even more desolate. But amidst this white landscape, two small black dots were moving forward.

"Phew, Mike, do we really have to walk all this way? Can't we just drive a car?"

Louis, his head completely wrapped in a scarf, exhaled white breath through the gaps as he curiously observed the town while grumbling. Beside him, a middle-aged man wearing a hat and a black overcoat stood with his hands in his pockets, his head covered by a scarf, only his eyes visible.

"The target doesn't like to be disturbed. According to regulations, vehicles, flying skateboards, and other noisy vehicles are prohibited. You will gradually take over my missions in the future. This is your first time going to the target's residence, so you need to remember these points."

The man spoke in a commanding tone.

Faced with his superior's words, Louis could only respond with a single sentence. The two walked in silence for a while, and feeling that the silence was too long, Louis tried to speak again.

“Mike, have you ever seen snow this heavy before? I’ve never seen snow since I was born, and I’ve only ever seen it in VR.”

“When I was a child, there were many snowfalls like this.”

the man said.

“I see that scientists are saying that this unexpected heavy snow is related to 124. I feel that scholars are increasingly fond of attributing things to 124. They like to say that all kinds of abnormal weather and trivial matters are caused by 124.”

"Speaking of 124, scientists have always said it's an anomaly inside the sun, but many people insist it's related to us. Do you think it's true?"

Young Louis complained, but couldn't help asking a question at the same time.

124 is the contemporary name for the unusual celestial event that occurred on December 4, 2004.

Forty years ago, the sun underwent an anomaly that also affected the Earth. As a result, the Earth experienced numerous natural disasters at that time and for decades afterward, which have only gradually subsided in recent years.

Although the official explanation claims that the 124 Incident was caused by unusual activity inside the sun, conspiracy theories about it have never ceased. These include theories of supernatural forces, extraterrestrial civilizations, supernovae, and time travelers, with some conspiracy theory groups even insisting that it is related to the Freemasons.

These conspiracy theorists, who believe the Freemasons are involved, argue that the Freemasons triggered the machines of the ancient Atlantis civilization, leading to the subsequent solar anomaly.

"Those are all conspiracy theories."

In response to Louis's curiosity, the man in the overcoat beside him simply walked forward and coldly replied.

"But how do you explain the Atlantic incident that Sailor Charlie mentioned?"

In 2028, according to a former U.S. Navy sailor who served on a warship at the time, he witnessed the ocean being cut apart by a beam of light.

"More dazzling than a thousand suns, it easily cleaved open the entire ocean, just as Moses parted the Red Sea in mythology, revealing the deep seabed..."

According to the veteran sailor, after the incident, the crew was ordered by the military to keep it a secret, and afterwards, the sailors were dispersed and reorganized. Although there is no evidence, he insists that military personnel are still secretly monitoring him, and he only secretly found an opportunity to reveal the secret after keeping it to himself for many years.

However, subsequent medical examinations revealed that the veteran U.S. sailor suffered from Alzheimer's disease and depression, so it's uncertain whether his statements were delusions or a desperate attempt to gain attention through sensationalism due to loneliness. Nevertheless, the sailor's pronouncements have become extremely popular among conspiracy theorists.

Many people therefore claim that this event is related to the legendary Atlantis civilization.

"Just the ramblings of an old soldier."

The man in the overcoat continued walking forward without looking back.

"What about the strange phenomena in Manhattan? This is officially acknowledged, and many people can testify to it."

Louis asked again.

Another piece of evidence is the strange events that occurred in Manhattan, New York, during the 124 incident.

At the same time as the 124 incident, a strange phenomenon occurred in Manhattan, New York: a bizarre explosion destroyed the entire Manhattan area, causing widespread casualties.

Furthermore, some residents reported that a large number of soldiers and even fighter jets were deployed to block access before the bizarre explosion. One police officer, who declined to be identified, insisted that "everyone had turned to salt long before the explosion occurred."

“That afternoon, the police department received a last-minute assignment to send elite officers to Manhattan, and I was one of them… When I got there, I found soldiers pouring in, ordering us to set up barricades and disperse the crowds. Although I still don’t understand what happened there, one thing I’m sure of is that those who disappeared turned into salt, because I saw white substances on some streets and in car seats—that was salt… I was then ordered to return, but not long after, the explosion happened, and the entire Manhattan area was glassed up. Almost none of the soldiers survived, and I was one of the few survivors of the incident.”

This is one of the few incidents officially acknowledged, but the official explanation is that it was due to the impact of the 124 incident, which led to the accidental detonation of an underground weapons depot in a military base.

The incident caused a huge public outcry and political upheaval due to the large number of missing persons and the fact that a military base was secretly located in Manhattan, resulting in the resignation of countless public officials.

Time has passed and many events from that year have been settled, but the impact of the 124 Incident is still widely discussed.

The impact of the 124 Incident was so profound that even 40 years later, countless books, films, and games still discuss it.

However, because there are so many rumors about 124, and many of these claims have significant logical flaws, only a very small minority of people support the conspiracy theory, while the vast majority of people believe the official statements.

"What's there to say about an explosion?"

The man replied coldly.

"but……"

Before Louis could finish speaking, the man, who was always sparing with words, stopped and looked at Louis beside him.

His eyes, hidden behind his scarf, were terrifyingly cold. Louis felt a chill run down his spine in front of those eyes and swallowed his words.

"I know you excel in shooting and tracking clues, and the instructors speak highly of you. But in my eyes, you're still just a kid who's just stepped into the Otherworld. If you don't want your memories to be erased by the authorities, shut up and be a good girl."

This is probably the most common thing a man would say to Louis.

Under the intimidation of those cold, terrifying eyes, Louis didn't say anything more along the way.

When they arrived at a small bar, the man pushed open the door and went inside. There was hardly anyone inside, except for the owner sitting at the counter wiping the glasses in his hands.

"Hey Mike, it's been a year, and you're here to visit your uncle again?"

"..."

Faced with the boss's warm greeting, Mike didn't say much, just nodded slightly, took off his hat, and revealed his cold and stern face.

The bar owner, who clearly understood Mike's personality, smiled and didn't say much, then glanced at Louise next to Mike.

"Who is this……"

"my son."

Mike answered indifferently, while Louis scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly and smiled at the bar owner.

“Son…that strange old man is really lucky to have family like yours who care about him and come to see him every year.”

The bar owner seemed to have thought of something and said with some regret.

"A strange old man? Is old Roberts really that weird?"

Louis asked curiously.

The bar owner burst out laughing.

"He's more than just strange; he's eccentric and stubborn. He spends all his time tending to his flower field, living on the edge of town and never interacting with anyone. For decades, most people here have never spoken to this strange old man."

"Speaking of which, in the early years, some tourists wanted to come and enjoy the sea of ​​flowers, which could have earned everyone some extra money from tourism. But that strange old man pointed a gun at those tourists and forced them to leave. If they didn't leave, he would just shoot them. Those tourists were so scared that they never dared to come back again..."

At this point, the bar owner shook his head regretfully.

It seemed that the bar owner harbored a great deal of resentment towards old Roberts, and since no one usually wanted to listen to his ramblings, he became quite engrossed in talking, especially with Louis as a willing listener.

Louis nodded repeatedly, while rapidly constructing a mental image of "Old Roberts".

He's withdrawn, eccentric, seems to have exceptional marksmanship, and particularly values ​​his flower garden...

As they walked out of the bar, Louis asked.

"Why stop at the bar halfway through? The bar owner is probably just an ordinary person." "We're covered in too much snow; the target won't like it. We need to melt it first before we see him."

Mike pressed his hat down and said coldly.

Louis's confusion grew stronger. Judging from Mike's behavior, he seemed to value that strange old man called "Old Roberts" very much. No, or rather, the organization valued this strange old man very much.

Why is this old man, Julia Roberts, so important?

He couldn't help but speak up.

Mike didn't answer him, but just continued walking forward indifferently.

Within minutes, the two saw a lone house standing there, the flower field in the distance already withered. Mike walked to the house and knocked on the door.

"Bang bang bang."

After waiting quietly for a while, there was no response.

"Uncle Roberts, are you there? It's Mike."

There was still no response. Mike frowned, realizing something was wrong. So, the agent decisively took a step back and slammed the door open.

"Oh!"

The door was violently broken open, and what appeared before him stunned Louis behind him...

Strange writings covered the floor, walls, furniture, and even the ceiling. Some were in English, while others had degenerated into completely unrecognizable script. The English writings seemed to have started as rough smears of ink, which then turned into bright red blood. The frantic strokes and marks all reflected the writer's madness.

Of the English text, Louis could barely make out a few...

"Joan," "Betty," and "Wendy"—these three names were repeatedly scribbled over, and occasionally a name called "Uberto" would suddenly appear. But as the writing came to an end, these recurring names were finally replaced by a single sentence...

"It will come back!"

"It will come back!"

"It will come back!"

The enormous, frantically scrawled characters revealed the hysteria of the person who wrote them. And after that, almost every sentence was repeated in the same way, with only a few names occasionally reappearing, followed by those bizarre characters written in blood.

Mike's face darkened, and he began searching rapidly, however...

"No."

Mike spoke calmly, but his hand was unconsciously gripping his hat tightly.

"Wait... take a look at this."

But Louis pointed to a pile of debris, where there appeared to be bloodstains and several strange scales, like snake scales.

"They must have left a few hours ago; perhaps we can still catch up with them."

Louis bit his finger, then made his judgment...

Following the faint trail of blood and scales, the two chased desperately, but the clues began to change strangely. At first, they were just bright red bloodstains, but then they gradually turned into a large amount of scattered snake scales and flesh.

The trail led to a beach...

"Crash..."

The seawater crashes against the land, creating a constant surge of tides.

A long trail of blood, with faint traces of someone struggling to crawl forward, and at the end of the trail, where the sea meets the land, a corpse lay quietly, surrounded by scales.

On that aged face, the frozen pupils had lost their color, showing only deathly stillness.

Its body seemed to be covered in snake scales, which appeared to have grown directly from its own body, and fresh traces of being forcibly peeled off were still visible. The fragmented skin and scales, the bursting wounds, seemed to testify to the immense suffering the deceased had endured before its death.

"He... he seemed to have been running and peeling off the snake scales on his body, and eventually died from blood loss before reaching the sea."

Louis swallowed hard, staring in astonishment at the corpse before him.

Mike stared at the corpse with a complex expression.

"Is he a human or a monster?"

Louis couldn't help but ask.

"It's human."

Mike answered affirmatively, staring at the old man before him who, even in death, still wanted to pluck the snake scales that symbolized the monster from his body, and said something inexplicable.

"A person who once saved the world."

Forty years ago, in that little-known legendary adventure that spanned continents, the moon, and the deep sea, the last survivor, Roberts, died.

……

Half an hour later, inside a building, someone received a message and photos from the agent.

The tall, thin man carefully examined the VR video that had been sent to him, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table. His face was indifferent, but one could vaguely see some unease in it. Then he spoke.

"Send these to Mr. Roman."

Ten minutes later, an angry roar rang out.

"Impossible! It's dead! Dead! It can't possibly come back!"

“But that’s the truth, Mr. Roman.”

Facing the image in front of him, of an elderly man in his eighties who, though long retired, still exuded great authority, the tall, thin man spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly.

“Roberts exhibited a high degree of ‘snakeification,’ far exceeding our understanding. Even among the data on the sea snake people that have been unearthed, such a high degree of ‘snakeification’ is unimaginable, and probably even Uberto could not compare to it.”

“You once told me that ‘serpentification’ is because the more you know, the easier it is to be corrupted and infected. Uberto was the chosen one. That being endowed Uberto with a great deal of knowledge, and finally, it was through Uberto’s hands that the seal was broken. But now it seems that Roberts is the real chosen one. Forty years have passed, and we thought that Roberts did not know much and would not be ‘serpentified,’ but now it seems that we were wrong.”

"If Mr. Roberts had actually gone to sea in the end, we would never know what a completely snake-like man would have done. But fortunately, Mr. Roberts was obviously aware of this, and in the end he forcibly plucked out his own snake scales, causing himself to bleed to death."

After listening to the tall, thin man's words, the elderly man opposite him leaned on his cane and sat down in the chair in vain.

After a long while, he inexplicably recalled what Leonardo da Vinci had said when he first met him.

"The Priory of Sion has many secret branches. I will tell you the secret instructions that control them. Remember them and make good use of them..."

In the end, he still couldn't quite understand why Leonardo da Vinci would hand over the method of controlling those secret branches to the Freemasons. After all, they were a huge underworld organization, an ancient organization comparable to the Freemasons, yet in the end, da Vinci, as the master of the Priory of Sion, would voluntarily give it to the Freemasons.

why?
He simply doesn't understand.

But now, he seemed to vaguely understand something...

"The gods rejoice, the gods rejoice... You are the one who knows the mandate of heaven, you are the one who has glimpsed the secrets, inheriting the ancient bloodline, preserving the eternal loyalty. You must remember, what cannot be spoken, what cannot be heard, what cannot be seen..."

Suddenly, Roman inexplicably began reciting the words that every new member of the Priory of Sion had to recite upon joining.

In a daze, he seemed to see a pair of vertical snake eyes, coldly looking down on this sand dune world shaped by tiny ants.

……

Deep within the earth, a colossal will still slumbers, occasionally uttering its low, dreamlike murmurs; while above the earth, the unsuspecting people continue to enjoy their peaceful lives.

(End of this chapter)