Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 278 Heaven and Earth Reversed
People on the ground fell into the sky.

Heaven and earth seemed to be reversed; heaven became earth, and earth became heaven. Under the powerful gravitational pull caused by the enormous mass, everything on earth was falling towards the sky, into that overwhelming darkness.

The autonomous machines, the debris on the streets, and the massive floating cities all began to fall into the sky. Caught off guard, the four also plummeted towards the sky, but Hasegawa and Jerome reacted quickly, managing to maintain their balance, and the engines beneath their feet started up.

"puff!"

A pale blue beam of light instantly surged from beneath her feet, supporting Hasegawa's weight.

Fafachip and her sister were not so lucky; unprepared for this situation, they plummeted straight into the sky.

"what……"

A panicked surge of spiritual energy spread outwards. Hasegawa, who had just regained her balance, hadn't even had time to adjust her posture before she looked at the two people who were rapidly turning into black dots. She had already sensed this surge of spiritual energy and was both shocked and anxious.

"Jerome!!!"

He urged the young man on while heading directly towards the direction where the two had fallen.

The engine beneath their feet emitted a powerful beam of light, and in a moment it approached the two of them. The girl, whose face still showed panic, looked at Hasegawa and then her expression brightened.

But just then...

A huge black shadow came.

Amidst the upheaval, a floating island nearby veered off course and headed straight towards the two of them.

The girl only had time to push her younger sister out of her arms before she was crushed by the floating island.

"Save her..."

With lightning speed, he caught the little girl; the echo of his voice still lingered, but the girl had already plummeted along with the floating island.

"elder sister!"

Amidst her cries of despair, the little girl reached out her hand, but it was all in vain.

As Hasegawa, holding the little girl, started the engine beneath his feet and tried to get closer, a mountain of rocks and islands raining down like a storm blocked his way.

"Please save my sister..."

The little girl screamed desperately, but Hasegawa could only hold her tightly, then looked in the direction the girl had fallen, pursed his lips, and resolutely pulled the girl around and flew away.

Around me, countless things were falling towards the sky.

Those ubiquitous self-regulating machines, those stone mountains standing in the city streets, those rivers flowing through the city, those enormous floating islands and cities, those towering skyscrapers...

The city, the administrative district to which it belongs, and even the vast land inhabited by billions of people—all these enormous things are falling towards the sky under the force of gravity, to be swallowed up by the vast, dark "sky".

Looking into the distance, one can vaguely see a vast blue sea cascading down, the boundless ocean plunging into the sky and being swallowed by it.

On this curved, ring-shaped world, everything in sight is falling toward the overwhelming, dark sky.

"Galo, what do we do now?"

Shouting, the youth flew toward his companion.

Although he tried to appear carefree, the young man was ultimately afraid; he was still afraid of death.

Galo shook his head, gazing intently at the vast darkness in the distant sky.

He couldn't see what it was, only that several huge, scale-like objects covered the entire sky. Some unmanned warships were attacking the huge, dark thing, and the brilliant, enormous light was clearly visible even from millions of miles away.

No one can see its full appearance, but everyone knows what it is, everyone knows.

Throwing a group of people off a cliff is torture.

If the cliffs are high enough that they can keep falling for decades, people might even make friends, get married, fight, and kill each other while falling, forgetting that they are falling.

But one day, with a "thud," the man fell to the ground, his flesh and blood scattered everywhere.

This is death, the slowest form of torture in the world.

This death has been going on for far too long, so long that more than a dozen generations have passed.

They have all known about it since they were born, and so have their fathers, their grandfathers, and all the ancestors of the past two thousand years.

Fear, unease, anger, anxiety, calm, indifference...

A wide variety of emotions are involved, and over the long years, many people have even forgotten its existence, just as they have become accustomed to death.

But death will come, and the end will come.

Now, it has come; it has finally arrived.

At this very moment, human death finally arrives.

"Find a safe place to hide first."

"Where to hide?"

"Anywhere is fine!"

Roaring, with the girl tucked under his arm, the engines beneath their feet blasted powerful beams of light as they dodged falling debris, searching for a possible refuge in this upside-down, collapsing world. ...

In the deep, dark expanse of space, an unimaginably gigantic serpent raised its head, its long and magnificent body encircling the blue giant star Sommer.

Compared to this magnificent body that has devoured hundreds of stars, even the enormous Sumor, among stars, appears tiny, like a child beside a monster, small and helpless.

Around that enormous serpentine body, tiny specks of light flickered faintly; these were the various weapons fired by the unmanned warships to stop the monster.

However, the monster completely ignored the attacks, simply swaying around, its long body hovering beside the giant blue star.

Opening its eyes, the vertical pupils looked down at the blue star beside it, and the mouth of the abyss opened, emitting a melodious roar.

"Roar!"

The deep roar wasn't loud, but it had an unimaginable penetrating power.

Beside the giant serpent, the sturdy unmanned warships, amidst this invisible roar that did not rely on air, had their hulls constructed of topological materials instantly vibrated and shattered in a lower dimension.

On the massive Sommer, violent nuclear explosions constantly erupt from the star, ejecting intense amounts of stellar material.

But at this moment, these stellar materials, numbering in the trillions and comparable in size to planets, were also shattered and annihilated by this invisible roar, and the brightness of the entire star suddenly dimmed.

……

And above the ring world.

"uh-huh……"

While flying in the air, Hasegawa suddenly groaned. An invisible impact, along with a strange surge of spiritual energy, struck him as if he had been hit by a ton-sized hammer, causing his blood and qi to churn.

This jolt caused a mishap in the movement.

Suddenly, a huge rock slammed into him. He only had time to protect the little girl beside him before he was knocked dizzy and his vision blurred.

"Garro!"

Suddenly, an urgent voice rang out, and a hand gripped Gara's falling body tightly.

Jerome, dragging the two people, one big and one small, dodged possible flying objects in the air before heading straight for the ground and grabbing a railing deeply embedded in the earth.

He now understood that everything that was easily loosened was falling into the sky, only this solid ground would not collapse anytime soon.

In any case, his ancestors had been building this ring world for two thousand generations, and he knew its sturdiness better than anyone. Such an impact could cause skyscrapers, cities, and even mountains and rivers on the ring world to fall, but it could not affect the ring world itself.

"Galo, damn it, wake up, you fucking idiot..."

With a friend's warm greeting, Hasegawa reluctantly opened her eyes.

"Is she alright?"

Although it wasn't clearly stated who it was, the young man immediately realized who it was.

"It's nothing, the impact was just too great and I was knocked unconscious. I woke up about 13 minutes later."

After looking at the unconscious girl, the prosthetic eye quickly estimated the duration of her unconsciousness.

but……

Is there only 13 minutes left in this world?
Taking a deep breath, Hasegawa was unusually silent for a moment before speaking.

“Jerome, what were you trying to say earlier?”

Just before the upheaval, Jerome tried to say something, but was unexpectedly interrupted.

The two of them hung upside down on the ground, with the sky right beneath their feet. The world had been overturned, but they were still trying to find a way to survive.

"Actually, I might know a way to escape from RimWorld."

Under Hasegawa's gaze, Jerome hesitated for a moment before speaking.

Hasegawa realized that this matter might be important to Jerome, but Jerome seemed reluctant to talk about it.

“I have a private spaceship at home. It’s not very big, and it would be impossible for it to fly out under normal circumstances, but it might be possible in this situation. As long as this monster doesn’t eat too much, even if we are only temporarily frozen in space for a few years, we might be rescued by a search and rescue team from another planet if we are lucky.”

"But if we add these two tickets... although they've expired, the corresponding resources and living space should still be there, enough to get to the designated planet."

The young man spoke hesitantly.

But Hasegawa stared at him, realizing that the young man seemed to be worried about something, but he didn't say anything.

"Let's go then."

But just then, the sky above suddenly darkened again.

If there was some light before, like a gloomy sky, now only blurry images remain. Apart from the artificial lights in the city, the sky is completely shrouded in darkness.

Overhead, several scale-like patches of darkness gradually receded, then the distant landscape began to vaguely appear:
In the hazy light and shadow, a giant serpent, dragging its body, coiled around the enormous star in the sky, its mouth wide open.

(End of this chapter)