Eater of Worlds – 1

As soon as I saw the enormous eye emitting a red glow, my entire body felt stiff. The size of that single eyeball seemed to be comparable to my height.

However, even that eyeball, which was comparable to my height, was insignificant when considering its entire body. All I could think was that it was obnoxiously huge.

It was truly a colossal figure. It was so unbelievably massive that I wondered how the protagonist of Brdak 4 ever managed to defeat it. Forget patterns or anything else, it felt like I’d die instantly if it just breathed on me.

Its ominous vertical pupil turned towards me. The moment that thing showed any sign of trying to read my memories, I was fully prepared to draw my blood-stained sword and charge, consequences be damned.

After all, if my memories were read, that would be the end of it.

From its perspective, it would undoubtedly have to kill me, who knew its secret, right here. And with that gigantic body, it wouldn’t just pick me out to kill, so this entire area would likely evaporate.

If I’m going to die whether I fight or not, shouldn’t I at least make a final struggle?

‘At least it doesn’t seem to intend to fight right now, which is a relief.’

Regardless of the situation, it merely stared intently at me and showed no intention of attacking. A hopeful thought briefly crossed my mind: perhaps it would just leave like this.

-!!!!!!

As if to mock my hopeful thoughts, its maw split wide open, and a fierce roar erupted. I reflexively covered my ears. It was truly obnoxiously loud.

To simply dismiss a dragon’s roar as merely “loud” was already a feat far beyond human capabilities. In fact, everyone else besides me had fainted.

Even the Emperor couldn’t endure it, so I was truly a special case.

‘Just now… that was Dragon Tongue, wasn’t it?’

According to the lore, that roar was a concept called Dragon Tongue, the language of dragons.

It wasn’t like the words carried power, as is common with Dragon Tongue in fantasy; they just conversed normally. Of course, “normally” was by dragon standards.

So, both the roar I heard in the palace corridor and the one it let out after landing here could be said to be signs of the Eater of Worlds attempting to communicate.

Dragons could imbue concepts or power into Dragon Tongue if they put their mind to it, but at least the Dragon Tongue used just now contained nothing. Otherwise, this place would have been destroyed long ago.

The irony was that the humans hearing it couldn’t endure it and kept falling over, and even the protagonist, who could withstand the roar without issue, couldn’t understand what it was saying.

To understand Dragon Tongue, one had to kill a dragon and absorb its power. That was why dragon subjugation was a mandatory quest around the middle part of the main story.

However, being able to understand Dragon Tongue didn’t mean one could use it. That was natural, as the protagonist was human, not a dragon.

‘So, it was trying to communicate with me just now….’

It seemed it hadn’t come here intending to fight someone. That fact alone allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, regardless of my relief, there was nothing I could do here. For the conversation to continue, it would have to change its method of communication first.

I waited silently. It roared several times, then, as if it realized the human before it couldn’t understand, it stopped its actions.

Then, pure mana floated before me and began to coalesce. The mana itself writhed and gathered, taking on a human form.

First, two legs stepped onto the ground, and a torso formed. Arms sprouted from its shoulders, and then a round head was created above them. Finally, ears and a mouth appeared.

Overall, it was a blue, shadow-like human figure. Seeing that it had even created such a form, it must have really wanted to talk to me.

“Truly…… peculiar…….”

The shadow-like mana figure opened its mouth. It sounded like human speech, but it was a voice that made me tilt my head in confusion, making it hard to call it truly human.

“It hears our language…… yet does not collapse…… but it does not…… understand our language…….”

It seemed quite difficult for it to communicate through a form smaller than a single finger by dragon standards, and its speech was halting. Still, it wasn’t completely unintelligible.

“Whether I’m peculiar or not is none of your concern. So, what brings you here?”

For a moment, I wondered whether I should use formal language or informal language with it, but since it would probably be all the same to it anyway, I decided to just use informal speech.

It was doubtful if dragons even had a concept of etiquette like humans did.

“I came…… to meet a human…….”

“You came to meet a human? Who?”

“A creature…… created by a god…… yet abandoned by a god…… the human…… who defeated it…….”

‘Not me again?’

I felt dizzy for a moment. It came to meet me? The main story was truly messed up. I hadn’t defeated the creature abandoned by a god for this.

I never dreamed that my action of dealing with the lord, just as I had done in the game, would escalate this much. In essence, the root cause of all these distortions began then.

Kaikilia’s interest in me, Stella’s search for me, my journey to the Holy Nation, and even my defeat of the creature abandoned by a god-all of it stemmed from my act of bringing the book possessed by a demon.

Now, because of that, the Eater of Worlds had appeared, making it a truly hopeless situation.

“……How did you know that human was here?”

“Its power…… was all absorbed…… by one human…….”

Its power was absorbed, huh.

It was an ambiguous expression, but given the circumstances, it likely referred to experience points. The experience points from defeating the creature abandoned by a god were absorbed by me, raising my level, so in a way, it wasn’t entirely wrong.

The Eater of Worlds’ concern for the creature abandoned by a god wasn’t particularly strange.

As could be seen from the outcome where leaving it unchecked would lead to the destruction of the Holy Nation and then the entire world, the creature abandoned by a god was the only being capable of confronting the Eater of Worlds, besides the protagonist.

Of course, it had no choice but to be concerned.

Then why didn’t it crush such a potentially threatening being early on? That was because, in its home ground, the Abyss, even the Eater of Worlds couldn’t guarantee victory or defeat.

Even if it prevented the Abyss from encroaching with runes, the protagonist, who single-handedly charged in and took its head, was truly absurd.

And that was me.

“And I’m the human who absorbed that power.”

“Accurate…….”

“So, now that you’ve realized, what are you going to do? Are you trying to kill that human?”

“Kill……?”

Its voice seemed to rise slightly, and then the dragon suddenly let out a roar. I had to cover my ears again.

“If you wish…… I will do so…….”

“No, I don’t need that.”

I flatly refused. I didn’t want to give an ambiguous answer and get incinerated by its breath.

“The reason I came here…… is to confirm…… with my own eyes…….”

“You mean, who killed the creature abandoned by a god?”

“That’s right…… If that human…… becomes a threat…… it must be eliminated…….”

With those words, the ominous light radiating from its eyes intensified, but the ominous look soon subsided, and its vertical pupil returned to normal.

“However…… the human before me…… is weak…… much weaker…… than the fallen humans…….”

‘That’s true if you only look at my stats.’

Although I had become overwhelmingly stronger than when I first opened my eyes in prison as the Abandoned One, from the Eater of Worlds’ perspective, it was negligible.

Even Kaikilia and Minerva, who were lying there powerless, would have overwhelmingly superior abilities if their stats were converted to player equivalents.

If human-type NPCs or bosses were like that, then for monster-type bosses like the creature abandoned by a god, it was almost impossible to even convert them to player standards.

The more points you put into stats, the rate of ability increase decreases, so even if one tried, it would be tens of thousands in HP stats, thousands in Strength stats, thousands in Durability stats.

Compared to such monsters, the abilities of a mere level 62 were as good as nothing.

‘Yes, this is better.’

Rather than catching its eye, it was much better to be seen as an insignificant human and be overlooked.

Just as I prayed inwardly for it to misunderstand and let it go.

“There must be…… some other power…… the power…… that defeated that one…….”

‘This is driving me nuts.’

Hearing its words change, I clutched my head. It didn’t seem to have any intention of just letting it go.

‘Can’t anything go smoothly?’

Even if I had to fight other bosses right now, I could grumble and try, but not the Eater of Worlds.

If I can’t even deal physical damage, how could I possibly win?

Moreover, now that its size was much larger than in the game, if it just flew into the sky and shot a single breath attack downwards, death was guaranteed. What was even more grim was that such a pattern actually existed.

“I desire…… the truth…….”

‘Damn it.’

Its glowing eyes turned black. At the same time, an eyeball sprouted on the head of the mana human. It was a vertical pupil imbued with black glowing light, just like the dragon’s.

As soon as I confirmed that vertically slit pupil, I quickly drew my blood-stained sword and swung it. The blade cleanly severed its neck. The severed head rolled across the floor.

The severed head rolled near the wall and stopped, facing it, but soon, from the back of its head, which was now facing me, new eyes and a mouth sprouted.

The newly sprouted mouth on the back of its head gaped open, forming a sentence.

“For what reason…… did you attack this……?”

‘……So, this is how it ends up, after all.’

It was trying to read my memories, just as I’d seen in the game, so my arm moved reflexively. Even though I had prepared myself for this, when it actually happened, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

If this were a conversation between humans, the excuse “I attacked first because you were doing something suspicious” might work, but that thing was a dragon. A dragon with the power to destroy the world.

Without any awareness that it had done something suspicious first, it would clearly think that since its act of reading memories was interrupted, I must be hiding something.

After all, a similar situation had occurred once before in the game.

“Speak……!”

The eyes of the severed human head widened, and the main body of the creature emitted red glowing eyes.