Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain. Unbearable pain. Pain that would make you wish you were dead.
As an ordinary human being, Louie had never experienced this kind of pain in all his life. It was as if his body and soul were being torn apart.
As a protective mechanism, humans would lose consciousness once their pain passed a certain threshold. Perhaps because lizards have no similar mechanism, or perhaps because the pain had blasted straight through any such frameworks, Louie remained conscious The searing pain only heightened his awareness.
Slowly, in this intense pain, Louie noticed that his awareness had sublimated and had begun to leave his body. In this paradoxical state - suffering through insufferable pain while staying awake - Louie felt like he was ascending to heaven, or becoming an immortal as inexplicable changes were happening to his soul.
His consciousness and soul had transcended the limits of living creatures and was watching the world from a 360-degree perspective. Even if he was in a small lizard’s body, he was able to observe everything.
As a soul, even the darkness of this strange crack was unable to block his ‘vision’. And so he was surprised when he saw that the ‘metal’ he had bumped into earlier on was not a metallic mineral at all, but some clearly artificial construct. A spaceship of sorts.
The "spaceship" had a perfectly smooth surface and an indescribable color. Its metal shell harmonized its flawless exterior, leaving not a single gap. Louie knew that this was definitely not a human artifact. According to his understanding of human technology, it was absolutely impossible to make this near-perfect metal shell.
This spaceship-like object was not very big. It was about 6-7 meters in length, but this length was enormous to a small lizard like him.
Suddenly, the strange spaceship’s outer shell flickered with a faint gloss. A crack opened in the center, causing the perfect construct to split in two. From its center, a glowing five-colored crystal slowly flew out.
The moment he saw the crystal, even Louie, now a mere disembodied soul, felt an urge to kneel and submit - as though it was not some suspicious crystal, but the essence of a god. The apotheosis of all living things and an existence that towered over all other life.
Louie could not describe the shape of the brilliant crystal. It flitted, in an indescribable manner, from one shape to another. One time appearing rhomboid, then squarish, then triangular and ovaloid. The mysterious object seemed to straddle the line between existence and non-existence.
And when he saw the crystal, Louie felt the pain alleviate.
Immediately after, Louie saw that the mysterious crystal seemed to be controlled by some kind of energy. It flew close to the void beside his tiny lizard body. As the crystal touched his body, the lizard body that carried Louie’s consciousness seemed to melt into a fleshy ball that covered the crystal.
The fear of death gripped him like a vise. His body was the carrier of his consciousness and soul. Seeing his own flesh perish like this, Louie began to suspect that he was already dead and that only his consciousness and soul had not disappeared.
However, his mind was too clear. It was so clear that he could not believe that he was already dead.
The crystal covered with flesh and blood seemed to have completed its task, and it returned to the middle of the ship. This time the crystal did not descend. Instead, a test-tube-like object rose from the ship's interior. Through the coloring of the crystal, Louie clearly saw bright red blood inside.
As the test tube shattered into small pieces, the blood began to fuse with the lizard flesh and blood that covered the crystal. Soon, it quickly fused into a squirming clump of meat. It appeared like it was expanding and dividing with the crystal at its core.
At this time, the ship once again flashed with bright light. Under Louie’s astonishment, the ship directly changed from solid to liquid, from liquid to gas, and finally transformed into pure energy that was injected into the mass of flesh and blood.
This time, after the injection of energy, the clump of meat began to grow like crazy. The components of any complex organism: nerves, blood vessels, muscles, bones, and even innards began to grow at a speed that the naked eye could observe The grotesque scene seemed to herald the birth of some twisted monster from the movies.
But slowly, as more biological organs were formed, the fleshy ball also changed into a new form.
Its body was that of a mountain lion. On its back were two huge bat-like wings, and the end of each limb was adorned with claws. A rough yet beautiful neck bore the weight of a dignified but terrifying dragon head. A long tail snaked downward with sharp barbs at the top and a sharp end. Scales of brilliant gold grew over the creature’s august yet blood-curdling form.
Although Louie had never seen such a creature before, its appearance alone made him understand that it was not a creature that could exist on Earth, but a creature that appeared in Western mythology and legends…… a dragon!
Only this dragon looked as though it was still in its infancy since it was only about 4 meters long. Nevertheless, it had a smooth and perfect appearance. By the time it grew up, it might reach 40 meters long, or even more than a hundred meters long. How majestic and spectacular would that be?
This newly born dragon was breathing softly, and Louie felt his consciousness being drawn to it. He felt his soul was quickly approaching and merging with the dragon.
At the same time, Louie felt a burst of fatigue and sleepiness. The once maddening pain instantly disappeared. A powerful force began to flood into his sea of consciousness, but the feeling of fatigue was so strong that his willpower could not resist it. He slowly fell into a deep slumber and began to dream.
He dreamt that he had become a divine ancient dragon that straddled the land. Countless creatures that could only be seen in myths were kneeling in front of him. Even the gods in heaven prostrated on the ground. The angels were subservient, and the demons were in deep terror. He wore a crown on his dragon head, enjoying the worship from all the races!
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