Volume Dragon: Start by obtaining the Infinity Gems

Chapter 313: The First Contact Between Humans and Dragons

As Dan Rather's leather heels dug into cracked asphalt, he smelled the distinctive metallic odor of ozone.

The CBS spotlight cast a pale circle of light on the United Nations Plaza, but the camera could never steadily capture the huge shadow on the top of the building - every time the focus was on the lingering shadow, the monitor would show snow noise.

"This is CBS News, we are live at the United Nations headquarters in New York." He loosened his tie, his Adam's apple rolling up and down, "As you can see, this creature that looks like a legendary dragon is..."

The dragon's tail suddenly swept across the north wing of the building, and the air current it created lifted Dan's script into the air. The paper hovered strangely in the strong wind, forming a pattern similar to the Fibonacci spiral, and was immediately struck by a lightning bolt and turned into ashes.

"Oh my God." Cameraman Brian moaned from behind the viewfinder. The creature in the camera slowly spread its wings, and the blue arcs flowing between its scales made all the electronic devices whine. Three street phone booths suddenly dialed automatically, and a mixture of Latin and Morse code came out of the receiver.

"The origin of this creature cannot be confirmed at this time." Dan raised his voice over the howling wind. "The Pentagon declined to comment on whether it was a new Soviet weapon, but the White House has initiated..."

The homeless man in the military coat enters the frame at this moment. Jonas Wilson's beard is covered with ice, and strange bubbles appear in the Corona bottle he is waving. "Open your eyes and look!" He spits at the gun barrel of the armored vehicle. "The red dragon of Revelation 12 has arrived! Although the color is fucking silver!"

The National Guard's Humvee suddenly braked, and the car radio burst into a harsh Dragon language broadcast. Dan noticed that the sergeant's pupils glowed dimly yellow for a moment, but returned to normal the next second.

"Back off! This is a military restricted area!" The soldier's roar was swallowed by the low hum of the scroll dragon. The sound was like a church organ mixed with the hum of a particle collider. The water droplets in the square fountain were suspended, reflecting countless miniature star maps.

Brian suddenly grabbed Dan's arm and said, "Look at the glass!"

All the walls were showing glowing patterns - not destruction, but some kind of information coding beyond human understanding. Dan's temples were throbbing, and he was sure he had caught a glimpse of the "blue marble" photo of the earth taken by Apollo 1972 in 17.

"This is the New York Police Department! All civilians evacuate immediately!" As the helicopter searchlight passed by, Dan caught a glimpse of something unusual with his peripheral vision: the light spot moved across the surface of the dragon wing 0.3 seconds slower than the laws of physics allowed.

As the Volume Dragon raised its head and spit out thunderclouds, car alarms in a five-block radius rang out at the same time, making a cacophony of noises.

“I’m Dan Rather reporting live from the United Nations,” he finally said to the camera, his voice drowned out by the sudden buzz of static.

“The only thing we know for sure is that the old rules are not working anymore.”

After turning off the camera, Dan began to sort out the microphone wire that was blown onto the telephone pole by the strong wind. It was at this moment that he saw the woman with dark brown ponytail - Dr. Irene Watson.

His ex-girlfriend was being held between two Army Intelligence officers, and in her arms was not her usual coffee cup, but a green recording device from the Taiwanese Army with a Cyrillic label wrapped around the antenna pole.

“Erin!” He pushed through the wall of National Guardsmen, nearly tripping over his tripod. “Why did they bring you here? It’s not safe here!”

When his ex-girlfriend turned around, Dan noticed the Pentagon badge pinned to the collar of her white coat.

“Because your TV station’s modern English vocabulary,” Irene pushed her glasses up with her thumb, “is not as useful as a Hittite spell from 1400 B.C.”

The Army colonel stepped forward to block the camera: "This is a classified operation, Mr. Reporter."

"Is it so confidential that we need to find an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University?" Dan's pen tip poked at the parchment copy in Irene's hand - it was the Akkadian fragment of "The Epic of Gilgamesh" urgently transferred from the British Museum.

He suddenly thought of something, and his eyes lit up: "You want to talk to it."

Irene suddenly grabbed Dan's wrist, and this action reminded them of the scene when they broke up three years ago. The coldness of her fingertips came through her shirt: "Twenty minutes ago, the NSA intercepted the sound waves of 23 ancient languages, ranging from Sumerian to Proto-Germanic."

She held up the recording device, and the voiceprint image on the LCD screen was forming dragon scale patterns.

"Take me in." Dan looked at his ex-girlfriend firmly. He couldn't let her go into danger alone, even though they were no longer in a relationship.

"Or I'll broadcast live right now that the Pentagon has hired a folklore professor as a weapons consultant."
-
Dan's rogue finally let him in.

They stood in the quarantine area seventy yards from the main entrance of the United Nations building, and Erin's military boots stepped on the melting and solidifying asphalt pits. When Dan counted to the third armored vehicle, he found that all the vehicle radar screens were showing the monster data of "Dungeons and Dragons" - a detail he didn't mention in front of the camera.

"Turn channel three to Hittite pitch-shifting mode." Irene said into the radio, her fingers sliding quickly across the military tablet.

When the Pentagon's sonic transmitter was activated, Dan heard a familiar prayer in Old Persian - the background sound when they were recording at the Iranian border during their passionate love period.

As if it understood the ancient Persian words, the magic lines on the dragon's back suddenly resonated, and the dust between the scales formed a cuneiform projection under the searchlight. Irene's recorder automatically rewound and played the dragon language that sounded like smoke.

“It’s encrypted in Linear B,” Erin’s voice trembled. It was the first time Dan could remember her being unsure in an academic context. “But the grammatical structure is closer.”

The glass curtain wall of the building suddenly reflected a string of Mayan numbers, and Irene grabbed the Sanskrit scripture tape she had prepared. Dan noticed that her neck was sweating, just like when she stayed up all night in the Cambridge library to prepare for her doctoral defense.

“Switch channel 4 to Old Church Slavonic!” she called into the radio. “Simulate the frequency of Orthodox chant!”

This time the response was even more violent. The tome dragon's tail fin swept across the night sky, and all the street lamps within a 300-meter radius exploded at the same time.

The top military officials were encouraged when they saw this scene. It seemed that the other party understood and was communicating something with them.

In the sudden darkness, Dan's pen floated up, fluorescent green ink seeped out from the tip of the pen, and it wrote automatically on Irene's notebook.

That was English spelled out in Phoenician letters: "Stop the noise."

Nemesis swung his tail impatiently. These earthlings were really crazy. They kept telling him about the deeds of God over and over again in various languages?

He is Oghma's favorite, and even if he believes in it, he would not believe in such an illusory thing.

Irene was stunned when she saw this, and asked in surprise: "You know English?"

The dragon sneered, "English?"

The roaring sound seemed to be speaking the most mysterious language, but the difference was that this time Irene and Dan understood it.

"The languages ​​of all races make no difference to me. I do not need to understand them. Knowing the languages ​​is enough for me to understand everything you say."

"Including those ridiculous charlatan works just now."

(End of this chapter)