Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 99 Life in the Interlude Void

"..."

In the endless darkness and void, there are occasional faint points of light. In the low murmur of dreams, the great serpent coils its body, sleeping quietly, its belly bulging high, as if something is inside.

Clearly, this was the first time the giant snake had ever been so full. In the fierce battle that almost made it lose consciousness, the snake only vaguely remembered that it seemed to have swallowed something, perhaps the giant that was its enemy, or perhaps... something even larger than that giant.

What is it?
It doesn't remember, and it's too lazy to remember. For this monster, it doesn't care about anything that happened in the past, because it's meaningless to remember what has already happened, and it can't be changed, so there's no point in reminiscing about it.

So, just as it doesn't care about its past as a human, it doesn't care what it has eaten either. As long as it is full now, that is enough for it.

After the entire universe collapsed, it wandered in the endless void for a long time. The faint murmurs never stopped in its ears. In this dark void, occasionally some auras, strong or weak, passed by it.

The giant serpent paid no attention to any of this, simply sleeping quietly as its body continued to grow. Over a long period of time, some inexplicable life forms even formed on its enormous body. These ghostly life forms multiplied on its body, using scales as mountains and crevices as ravines, living on its body, and eventually even building cities and civilizations.

These beings, skilled in spiritual power, divided the body of the giant serpent into multiple different kingdoms? Civilizations?, waging war against each other and vying for territory. Numerous mages created infinitely prosperous civilizations. They regarded the body of the giant serpent as a primordial world and the darkness outside the body as endless darkness. However, some scholars believe that the earth beneath their feet is actually a kind of infinitely powerful life.

Clearly, these scholars are regarded as crazy by the vast majority of people, who ridicule their ignorance, believe that they have lost their rationality, and even coined a term to refer to such remarks as "rationality reduced to zero".

However, some scholars were not willing to accept this. They insisted that their theories were true, but the public did not recognize their theories, so they were forced to form secret cults.

Among these numerous cults, some were obsessed with finding the truth of the world, some tried to awaken the enormous life beneath them, and others intended to communicate with that enormous life. Finally, one exceptionally intelligent person found a way...

Inside the towering palace, strange symbols were carved everywhere, and a transparent being was whispering something to the altar in front of it.

This Dark Lord, hailed as the pinnacle of dark magic and a genius among geniuses, whose armies have long since swept across various kingdoms, with almost all living beings submitting to him, is the only one left to hold onto. In the eyes of most, however, these white mages are nothing more than powerless beings destined to be conquered by the Dark Lord.

However, recently a hero who is regarded as a rebel against the Demon King has emerged. He is calm, rational, handsome, brave, and has unparalleled charm and appeal. Under his leadership, the white mages, who were originally struggling, have been able to defeat several large armies led by demon generals and heavenly kings one after another, and even have the potential to launch a counterattack, recapturing many cities. However, none of this matters to the black demon king. At this moment, he only cares about one thing: the priest in front of him.

Long ago, he understood that he possessed a talent far surpassing that of ordinary people, but it was precisely because of this that he was able to sense a certain will hidden deep within the earth through his immense spiritual power...

Faced with that magnificent and vast will, the power he was so proud of was utterly insignificant, and even filled him with a trembling fear of that power. But after the fear came a deep longing.

He longed to make contact with that power, to obtain that power, no matter the cost.

To this end, he did not hesitate to travel across countries and thousands of miles, just to gather all the magic books and obtain enough wisdom from them.

And now, he has finally found a way...

Those mysterious scripts have appeared in this world since ancient times, carved on mountains or hidden in the sea, in countless ways. The ancient beings believed that these scripts were not man-made, but naturally formed and possessed great power, which led to fierce conflicts and battles. Now, he has finally gained control of all these scripts.

"..."

A transparent being chanted incantations as flames burned before it, and just then...

"boom!"

The door behind him suddenly opened with a bang. Hearing the sound, the Dark Lord frowned and looked back. He wanted to see who dared to disturb his ceremony.

However, what first appeared before him was a small group of several men and women, led by a handsome young man wielding a sword, and next to them lay a tall giant wearing thick armor.

The Dark Lord glanced at the young man, then at the towering giant, and frowned slightly.

"Gemorro, how dare you let outsiders trespass into this place?"

His tone was calm, but upon hearing this, the tall, blood-soaked giant struggled to stand up, but ultimately collapsed to his knees, his voice trembling with fear.

"Your Majesty, I...I..."

"waste!"

However, the Dark Lord paid no attention to his explanation. He simply spoke softly and casually waved his hand, instantly turning the towering giant in front of him into fragments.

Then, the Dark Lord turned to look at the group of young men and women in front of him, and said calmly.

"Now, as a reward for your ability to get this far, I command you to state your names..."

……

Inside the palace, several young men and women had already fallen haphazardly, only the young man holding the sword managed to stay upright by propping himself up with the broken sword in his hand.

"Ho..."

He gasped for breath, feeling the excruciating pain of his lungs being pierced. His clear blue eyes gazed at the Dark Lord before him, filled with deep dread.

It's terrifyingly strong...

With a single strike, he knocked away the holy sword Tomibard, forged by the lifeblood of the white mage teachers, from his hand. Had Levia not sacrificed herself to shield him, he would likely be dead. But…

"Levia..."

He was somewhat dazed, and scenes from the past flashed before his eyes, but were immediately interrupted by the intense pain he was experiencing.

"Cough cough..."

Coughing up blood, the young man, knowing this was no time for sentimentality, gritted his teeth and struggled to his feet, leaning on his sword to continue fighting. But he ultimately stumbled and fell to the ground. The Dark Lord, however, merely watched the young hero before him with indifference.

"You are really overestimating yourself. You are indeed very talented. If you had a few more decades of honing your skills, you might actually have a chance to fight me. But right now you are still too immature."

With a sneer, the Dark Lord turned around, preparing to perform the ritual again.

"Dark Lord, I ask you... why did you slaughter the entire city of Gordes?"

But behind him came the weak yet stubborn voice of a young man.

The Demon King stopped, and upon hearing the name, he couldn't help but recall it in his mind. With his extraordinary wisdom, he immediately remembered this inconspicuous little city from his long-forgotten memories.

"You mean that small town in the north? Because I saw a record in a religious text that there is an ancient script hidden beneath that town. What? Do you have relatives in that town?"

The Dark Lord spoke calmly, then he keenly sensed something.

The young man behind him stared blankly at the Dark Lord in front of him, his lips trembling as he spoke in disbelief.

"Just...just because of this?"

"Of course, do we need any other reason?"

"The Dark Lord mocked."

A deep anger gradually surfaced on the young man's bewildered face. He gripped the holy sword tightly in his hand, almost grinding his teeth to powder.

There was no emotion in the Dark Lord's tone; it was as calm as if he had crushed an ant.

"You monster...don't you have any feelings at all?!"

"emotion?"

Unexpectedly, the Dark Lord in front of him sneered upon hearing this, glancing at him with a single glance that sent the young man's body plummeting as if into an ice cave...

What kind of eyes were those?

The vertical snake eyes were cold and indifferent, devoid of humanity, as if... looking down at the reptiles beneath them from some higher dimension.

"Humble mortal, I thought you possessed some talent, perhaps enough to understand my thoughts, but I never imagined you would be so foolish. Emotions? This vast land? Utterly meaningless! What do these things amount to before that great will?"

With a cold laugh, the Dark Lord turned his head and continued walking towards the altar in front of him, where a snake-shaped statue stood.

Gazing at the statue, the arrogant and domineering Dark Lord, who appeared haughty and invincible to outsiders, revealed a deep longing on his face and murmured something to himself.

"Eternal and immortal life, power that transcends all living beings... Soon... once I awaken that will, all of this will be mine."

As he spoke, his body trembled with excessive excitement.

Looking at the Dark Lord in front of him, the young man did not understand what the Dark Lord was doing, but he realized that this seemed to be an extremely important ritual. Ignoring his badly injured body, he tried to step forward to stop him, but several black tentacle-like things immediately grew and bound him tightly, making it impossible for him to break free.

"At the moment when I am about to transcend all life, you mortals, you are honored to be allowed to observe from my side."

The Dark Lord spoke confidently and calmly, then closed his eyes and began to murmur a prayer.

"..."

He wrote down all sorts of mysterious scripts from ancient times, long before life was even born, those runes that were once used by gods to try to escape their fate, in order to call upon that long-dormant, immense will.

"Rumble, rumble..."

The palace beneath him began to shake violently, the tremors growing increasingly intense. The young man, gazing at the Dark Lord before him, realized this was no ordinary magical ritual, but a colossal, unprecedented ceremony capable of upending the world…

Outside the palace, amidst a violent earthquake, the Demon King's army, already under orders, began slaughtering the prisoners to be sacrificed. Dragons soared through the sky, emitting roars, causing numerous mountains to collapse and rivers to dry up, creating a scene resembling the end of the world.

"Stop! Are you crazy?!"

Inside the palace, the young man roared desperately at the Dark Lord before him, his fingers digging deep into the stone slabs, his nails splitting and bleeding without him even noticing, a deep fear clouding his eyes...

All of this resembled the destruction of Gordes.

But in front of the young man, the Dark Lord burst into wild laughter.

"Hehe... Hahahaha... I did it... I did it!!!"

At the same time, amidst the earth-shattering roar, the Dark Lord vaguely felt as if he were being thrown outwards along with numerous fragments of palaces around him, and the entire earth beneath him was constantly shrinking.

"Hmm? Something seems off..."

With his last thought, everything on earth was cast into that endless darkness...

The giant serpent, which had been asleep for an unknown period of time, slowly opened its eyes, stretched its massive body that had not moved for so long, and then flew towards a point of light in the endless darkness.

(End of this chapter)