It was a pure white field, and the boy trudged through it, without a starting point or an end, with no change in sight and nothing worth stopping at. He was like a donkey attracted by the radish hanging in front of him, stepping forward endlessly, the brilliance gradually passing from his eyes, and the cold spreading on his body.

"It's so cold......"

He groaned so much. groaned, but still did not stop, grinding his feet on the cold and solid rocks and frozen soil, and finally stumbled and fell.

"Who's going to save me...... Father...... Mom...... Fold...... Help me ......."

The boy who fell to the ground curled up, folded his hands over his chest, and prayed that he would be helped and saved.

However, even after praying for a long time, no one answered him.

At the moment when he felt that his body was getting heavier and numb, and he was about to fall into eternal sleep, the sky filled with boundless wind and snow was suddenly torn apart by a beam of light, and an ice city far away in the sky, as if it was close in front of him, appeared in his eyes; It is suspended in the air out of thin air, and the clean and thorough ice blocks constitute the outer wall of dozens of meters, through the almost transparent outer wall, you can see the magnificent palaces and pavilions inside, and whether it is the city wall or the surface of the building, there is no slightest gap, as if a whole block of ice has been carved into this integrated ice city.

Looking at the ice city, which was as magnificent as a palace like a god, the boy stood up again and walked forward with all his might. In a few moments, straight ice and snow steps appeared at his feet, and he slowly climbed the wide, solid steps until his feet were numb, and then he stopped.

When the boy stopped and looked up, trying to confirm how far he was from the ice city, he was surprised to find that he was already standing at the top of the ice and snow steps, in front of him was a towering strange building, which looked like a budding bud on the outside, and the layers of "petals" were the periphery of the building, stacked up like a labyrinth, until he tried his best to look up and could faintly see the outline of an ice tower like a stamen.

The ice tower bloomed with a cold glow in the sky at an unknown height, and the wind and snow could not hide its dazzling colors, and the whole world was dyed with its luster.

The boy looked at the ice tower for a long time, and then turned to look behind him, only to find that the ice and snow steps had disappeared at some point, and all that was left in front of him was the earth covered with the pale of madness, and everything on the ground shrunk so small that the undulations of the snow were as small as the lines in the palm of his hand.

"It's so cold......"

The boy stood still, bewildered. The path was gone, and all that was left was a strange building almost parallel to the sky, a height that would tell you that you couldn't climb it or reach the end.

He didn't know how to choose, he didn't know how to escape from the monotonous pale snow, and his body had lost the strength to continue moving, and the cold was breaking his will.

The boy lay down on the steps of the ice city, no longer moving, and just stared blankly at the distant ice tower, imagining what a great person he could inhabit it, maybe even greater than Mr. Kamiki, who claimed to be able to split the earth. After all, he just lived in a house made of wood like everyone else.

"Maybe...... He is an all-powerful God......"

The boy muttered, although he didn't really understand the concept of "omnipotent", but if "God" was willing to help him, it should be a simple thing, right?

Thinking like this, the boy silently prayed in his heart, but this time not to his parents, nor to fold, but to the ice tower towering in the sky, to the "god" that may or may not be in it.

I don't know how long it took, but perhaps the boy's prayer was really heard by the "gods", and the sky that had been originally only white gradually became black, and the endless darkness eroded the light of the sky, and spread over the snowy fields, swallowing up all colors except the ice castle and the ice tower.

The darkness was supposed to be a place where there was no light, but now the darkness seemed to have gained life, and the shadowy tentacles stretched out in the lightless darkness, and once any light entered the dark canopy, it would immediately become dim, not absorbed, nor refracted by, but completely disappeared without a trace.

When everything except the ice city turned into dark darkness, the darkness began to spread towards the ice city again, and it was like a cunning beast reaching out its claws to test its prey, stretching out fine black "silk threads" from the "body" scattered in all directions, and poking towards the area shrouded in the white light emitted by the ice tower.

It's like painting a pure white dress with black silk threads or pen and ink, and the otherwise bright space is blackened and covered little by little. The boy who was prostrate on the ground opened his eyes wide, looked at the sky and the earth around him as if they were wrapped in a black cloth bag, and moved his body towards the strange budding building in a daze—it did not appear dark in his eyes, but his vision became inexplicably narrow, acting like a sudden loss of vision, but in fact the darkness without the reflection of light could not be detected by his eyes.

Although his eyes could not see the solid darkness, the boy sensed danger approaching and told him to retreat to the safety of the rear until he reached the ice wall of the bud building.

The darkness continued to invade, and its movements were accelerating, as if because the ice tower did not react to "it" previous invasion, and was regarded by "it" as a kind of connivance, which made "it" more and more wanton to use its tentacles to touch the ice surface of the ice city that was as warm and shiny as jade.

At that moment, the boy only felt that everything in his eyes had lost its color, and the pure and vast white light seemed to be poured down from the sky, and the blurred surroundings were washed, as if the glass was washed by water, and the clear and clean surface was re-revealed, so clear that one seemed to be able to smell the faint fragrance in the air.

The blazing white light tore through the black curtain that covered the sky and the earth like arrows, illuminating the vast snowfields and the endless sky white, and even the thick clouds could not cover the water-like light.

The darkness was dispelled by the brilliance, but it was not eradicated, and long before the ice tower bloomed, a strangely shaped darkness quietly hid in the boy's body, and when the incomparable light washed away all darkness, "it" also survived and whispered in the boy's ear.

"This is the kingdom of God...... Not where you should stay...... Get out of here...... Go outside......"

The incomprehensible, staccato voice echoed in the boy's mind, and although he could not understand it, he could understand the meaning of the voice. The boy's heart was trembling with fear, but he mustered up the courage to ask, "Who are you?" Where is it? How do I get out of here? ”

"Children of Darkness...... The second behemoth of the primordial...... Devourer...... The Lost Beast...... I have countless titles...... I allow you to ...... Use what my descendants call me...... Serpent of the Abyss...... I'm in your consciousness...... All you have to do is leave this divine city...... I'll be able to help you get back to where you want to go......"

"Is it true?"

The simple-minded boy easily believed it: "Then how do I get out of here?" ”

"As long as you go up...... to the tower above...... You can get out of here...... Don't be afraid you won't be able to do it...... I'll help you climb up to ......."

"But ......"

The boy looked up at the ice tower, and was a little worried, the bud-like building was very high, and the surface was extremely smooth, only the edge of the outermost "petal" was slightly protruding, and it could be settled, forming an arc-shaped and steep course, less than twenty centimeters wide—it was fine when it was not high above the ground, but when it was climbed to a height of tens or hundreds of meters, it was not necessary that a gust of wind would blow him down.

"If you don't go to that tower...... Then you're going to stay here forever......"

The boy was finally persuaded by it, and after resting for a while, he ascended a narrow narrow path, clinging to the smooth ice wall, and cautiously made his way to the pagoda above.

As soon as he ascended the narrow path, the boy felt a slight tingling sensation under his feet, which was so faint that he mistakenly thought that it was just because he had walked too long. But as he walked higher and higher, the tingling sensation was no longer confined to his feet, but gradually spread to his calves, thighs, and abdomen...... Eventually it spreads all over the body and becomes more intense.

"It hurts...... I can't walk anymore. ”

Finally, when the stinging sensation spread all over his body, and reached the point where it was like a steel needle piercing his skin, the boy clung to the smooth ice wall and did not move, and he even wanted to sit down on the ground and fall asleep directly, but because the feet in front of him were already two or three hundred meters in the air, he had to stand with difficulty, and bent his neck in the cold wind that became cold, hoping that the thin clothes could retain some more warmth - if it weren't for the help of the creature in his body who called himself the snake of the abyss, and the world was very strange, Maybe he would have passed out and fell to the bottom and shattered.

"Keep walking, don't stop."

The abyssal snake hidden in the boy's body made a sound again, I don't know if it was an illusion, the boy felt that it had become fluent and natural, no longer intermittent, like a seriously ill person gradually recovering his health.

"But I can't walk, my body hurts, it hurts everywhere."

The boy began to sob, he had never suffered a kind of pain before, and the burning pain in the epidermis of his body, which was exacerbated by the cold wind beating on his body.

"Keep walking."

However, no one took pity on him, and the voice of the Abyssal Serpent was as cold as the wind, which frightened the boy who had believed in "it", and he felt as if he had done something wrong, wondering if he was right in believing "it".

"I don't want to go......"

The boy hesitated, on the one hand, the desire to be able to leave the boundless world of wind and snow, and on the other hand, the fear of the pain and the road with no end in sight: "At least...... At least give me a break, I want to take a break. ”

"Keep walking."

The Abyssal Serpent urged for the third time, his voice short and cold, and he looked a little impatient.

"I want to ......"

The boy was stubborn, he didn't want to be forced, but his words were immediately interrupted - his body was like a doll in the hands of an adult in the town who was good at making and manipulating dolls, with thin threads hanging from his limbs, and he couldn't help but continue to climb.

"Why is this happening...... Stop it! Why can't it stop? You...... What have you done to me? ”

This sudden situation made the boy panic, and he kept asking the Abyssal Serpent, but "it" no longer replied, but only controlled its body to move forward, and the physical pain did not disappear because of the abnormality of the body, but became more and more intense, at first it was only a stinging pain in the skin, but soon after it penetrated into the muscles and internal organs, and turned from a stinging pain to a burning pain like a flame burn.

"Stop...... Please, don't go any further...... I'm so uncomfortable......"

The boy wailed, but his body did not obey, and he moved faster and faster, like a nimble cat, using both hands and feet, and in a moment he exceeded the distance he had taken a long time to walk, and he could see that the ice tower above him became much clearer.

The Abyssal Serpent did not respond to the boy's pleading, even if he finally let out what he thought was the most vicious curse because of the pain, he did not pay any attention to it—the pain rose endlessly as he progressed, and even in his eyes conjured sharp ice edges of ten centimeters, covering the road ahead.

Every step he took stepped on the ice edges that glowed with a faint cold light, as if they were made of metal, and the ice edges as sharp as embroidery needles easily pierced the soles of his feet, and then the soles of his feet really burst out with red blood flowers and blurred wounds of flesh and blood, and the fine flesh buds and miserable white bones bulged out and rolled outward, looking extremely miserable.

"Ahhh......hh

The screams were hoarse, and the boy watched as his body became broken, and the intense pain took it to the next level, and his consciousness was blurred for a moment, but before he could faint, the pain woke him up.

The boy's pain and screams could not affect his body, and his body continued to lift the soles of his feet, breaking the ice edge that pierced the soles of his feet, and then continued on his way. When the raised ball of the foot was still in the air, the wound on it healed rapidly, and it returned to its original state almost in the blink of an eye, but when the foot stepped on it, it was once again pierced into a flesh sieve by the dense ice edges, and the incomparable pain swept through his body again.

In this way, the process of piercing and restoration has been repeated, and the ice edge more than ten centimeters long has become an ice blade more than one meter long, and then the ice blade has become a blazing flame, frozen, burned, slashed, and electrocuted...... Disasters of all kinds are scattered along the way.

The boy was tortured and no longer spoken, his heart was full of hatred, hatred for the cat trick that hurt him, hatred for the man named Kawakami, hatred for his parents, hatred for Fold, hatred for himself, hatred for the monster who called himself the snake of the abyss—why...... Why is it only cat scams that want to hurt themselves? Why was he stopped by the man named Kawakami Hiko on the way home, didn't let himself leave until "Homecoming" fell, and watched from afar when the cat tricked and chased him? Why didn't parents and fold come to save themselves? Why would you believe the words of others to get such a painful result? Why does the monster called the Abyssal Serpent bring such pain to itself?

The incomprehensible questions turned into a flame of hatred in his heart, scorching his immature heart, distorting his thinking, and finally came to a conclusion - if you don't trust anyone, that's fine, and you will never be deceived. If someone hurts themselves, then retaliate harder, kill them all, and make them feel painful too. Why...... Only yourself suffer such torture?

With the twisted conclusion of reflection, the boy endured the pain of endless climbing, until his body reached the top of the bud-shaped building after endless tribulation, and when his feet stepped on the top of the closely overlapping buds, all the pain disappeared in an instant, and at the same time, the warm light above his head expelled the cold, like a warm spring water soaked the whole body, and restored the sensitivity of the originally numb and stiff body.

"Ain ...... I could feel it, it was His breath. After countless hours, it finally ...... Got it. ”

A sigh-like murmur echoed in the boy's ears, but before he could understand, his body began to move on, towards the central ice tower; It is a hollow building with a spiraling staircase inside, and you can see the inside from the outside.

The boy watched as his body walked into the open circular gate at the bottom of the ice tower, and then the outside was cut off, and the road and the doorway disappeared, like the disappearing stairs when he first ascended the ice city, and the people who forged the ice structures did not seem to intend to give a way back.

As he stepped up the steps, the boy closed his eyes tightly in preparation for more intense pain, but did not feel any change until a long time passed. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to find that everything he saw around him had turned upside down, and he was stepping on the back of the sloping and smooth staircase as if he were doing a handstand, and the top of his head had become the front of the staircase step by step—from climbing the staircase to sitting on the slide, and just sliding down the back of the spiraling down the staircase.

"Arrived?"

As the speed of the descent slowed down, an oval opening appeared in front of the ground, revealing a white glow from the inside, making it difficult to see the inside. The slope of the stairs disappeared, and the boy's sliding body stopped on the platform in front of the gap, and took a few steps forward, but when he came to the gap, he stood still, and the abyssal snake that controlled his body seemed to hesitate for something, and did not move for a long time.

After a while, the boy suddenly unexpectedly found that he was able to control his body, he moved his fingers, and then jumped on tiptoe a few times, and his heart was suddenly filled with the joy of being lost and regained, the beauty of being able to have the ability to act independently, so that he couldn't help crying.

"If you want to get out of here, just walk in on your own."

The Abyssal Serpent returned the mobility of his body to the boy, and when he left such a sentence, he completely lost his reaction.

Hearing this, the boy turned to look at the empty back, the staircase that circled around the ice tower was long gone, and the whole ice tower was like a hollow pipe, and there was nothing but the platform on which he was standing.

After a long hesitation, the boy made up his mind, then closed his eyes and stepped into the oval opening that glowed with white light.

The vast white light rippled like water waves, and the boy seemed to fall into an ocean of light, his body melted and dissipated like mud into a river, and his memory froze at this moment, leaving only a blazing white ocean in his impression.

When the boy opened his eyes again, there was a dim and narrow cavern in his vision, and he looked at everything in front of him in a daze, instinctively reaching forward, only to find his body strangely twisted, floating forward as if it had lost its weight.

He crawled down according to his instincts, and when his hands touched the stiff and cold rock wall, the ground glowed with a colorful sheen, and all kinds of strange plants grew quickly, and soon covered the ground.

"Why is this happening?"

He muttered under his breath, a sound that resounded through the icy rocky cavern, not a familiar sound, but a peculiar humming sound. Unaware of this, he tried to stand on his feet, and if there was light in the cave at this time, he might be able to perceive his completely inhuman form in the shadows.

Unfortunately, there was almost no light in the cave, and his body naturally stretched out his humanoid legs as he tried to stand, and his snake-like body was slowly corrected over time.

He roamed the caverns, and every time he touched the ground, strange things would happen, whether it would be vegetation growing on the ground, or the rocks would burst into flames, or hot flames and ice spikes would erupt - it was as if the spell had been activated.

"Can I already use mana?"

He muttered suspiciously, smacking his lips: "I feel a little thirsty, I really want to drink water." ”

As soon as his voice fell, there was a sound of ticking water overhead, which was just a drop at first, and soon became the sound of gurgling water. He only felt that he really had the power of the spell, so he went to the rock wall where the water flowed with joy, held the water in both hands, and drank it with his head down.

After taking a few sips of water to quench his thirst, he heard the faint sound of conversation outside.

"Brother, use it now...... Isn't it too much of a hurry? We haven't achieved anything yet. ”

"It's okay, we can try to do some simple repairs first, and it won't cause further damage to him. By the way, you can also use rubbing to observe the difference between the body structure of humans and rats, which you are good at, so I will leave it to you. ”

"But...... I was a little scared. Every time I see his ...... Corpses, I feel ...... It's very uncomfortable, the attack inhibition seems to be attacking, and I can't breathe......"

"I was also very sad, but it wasn't us who killed him, he fell into the water and died. When we understand this, we will be able to resurrect him! We're saving people! And not doing something bad! Yes, everything we do is for the town, for all humans, and for helping him! So take it easy, if he knew, he wouldn't blame you. ”

"I ...... Got it. ”

……

"Someone's coming."

Hearing the familiar language, he was finally sure that he had returned to the town, and his heart was filled with joy, but out of vigilance, another thought came to him: "It is better to scare them and subdue them with mana - besides, that fellow is from the Board of Education, and must not let him know where I am." I'm going to find him first, and then I'm going to ...... Kill him. ”

Driven by this thought, he smiled.

……