Golden Dragon: Six Thousand Years of Empire.

Chapter 493: The Old Days Are Dead, the Golden Sun Is Here

"Ah sneeze~"

The biting cold wind blew, and the boy couldn't help but tighten his coarse linen clothes which were stuffed with dry and hard cotton wool, but it was of no use. The biting cold wind penetrated every pore, and the boy shivered with cold, and he couldn't help but sneeze.

"Damn it, the weather is getting colder and colder. What the hell is going on? If I'm not killed by those filthy things, I'll be frozen to death."

A cursing voice came from the side. The boy, whose nose was already running due to the cold, felt the same way and could not help but nodded.

"The clothes I hung out to dry at home haven't dried for three days."

Hearing the reply from his neighbor, the young Dante could not help but look up at the sky. He saw a pale round disk hanging in the sky that seemed to be covered with a layer of dust, and it looked somewhat hazy and beautiful.

But this round disk that makes people feel cold in their hearts is actually the sun. No one can feel the light and heat emitted by the sun.

It is clearly spring, the season when the earth should be warming up, but the sun's brightness is becoming dimmer and dimmer, and the bitter cold wind howling across the earth is becoming more and more violent, not much better than winter.

Under such abnormal climate, many strange things happen frequently.

On the street where he lived, next door to his uncle, he was also related by blood. He should have called his uncle's relative's house because of an accident. His uncle, who was out working, was crushed by a carriage pulled by a runaway mad horse.

The whole family was deeply saddened by such an accident, but after the pain, life still had to go on. After collecting the bodies and hastily holding the funeral, the aunt and children met with misfortune that night before they had time to prepare for the increasingly difficult life in the future.

On the night that the uncle was buried, the neighbors next door heard the sound of sharp claws scratching, and when the next morning came, passers-by discovered that there was no one alive in the family.

The gate and the walls inside the house were covered with bloodstains and claw marks. On the ground, there was a woman's head with a terrified look on her face and distorted features, and three children whose internal organs had been hollowed out, as if they had been eaten by some ferocious beast.

The most horrifying thing is that when the detectives in the city were preparing to investigate the murderer, they discovered that the uncle's grave had also collapsed. Judging from the traces at the scene, it was not dug up by tomb robbers, but something drilled out from the ground, which caused the collapse.

Ghoul

This was the guess that young Dante made when he heard the adults talking. The adults said that the guy who was unfortunately crushed to death by a noble's carriage while trying to make a living had no food in his stomach when he died. Therefore, after his death, due to the resentment of his tragic death, he turned into a legendary monster, that is, a ghoul.

It is said that on the first night of resurrection, the ghouls will direct their claws craving for flesh and blood toward their loved ones in life, and they will tear apart and devour anyone who is related to them by blood.

But the story did not end there. The husband, who was suspected to have been transformed into a zombie, ate and killed the woman and child, and he seemed extremely unwilling to die like this.

This time, there was no need for the neighbors to tell him, because even Dante himself could hear the faint wailing of a woman coming from outside the window at midnight, but sometimes he could hear the sound of children playing.

It was precisely because of this weirdness that after enduring a few days of fear, the neighbors in the nearby towns quickly reached a consensus and set fire to the house that was full of ominousness and weirdness. All the weirdness disappeared, and the fire seemed to be able to clear everything.

"You still want to dry it? What are you dreaming about? You might as well chop more wood and light a fire to dry it."

"Fire? I don't have that luxury. Besides, I haven't even prepared the firewood tax for this month, so where would I get extra firewood?"

"Damn skin-peeling ghost!"

"If there is not enough firewood, it is impossible to survive in this weather and this world."

Hearing what the adults were talking about, Dante felt his limbs sore and his body became even colder. The firewood tax was a new tax issued by the lord since the winter continued, spring had not yet arrived, and the sun was even colder.

It was said that this was an order issued by the capital, but Dante couldn't figure it out. Did the high-ranking people in the capital also need to chop wood and burn firewood to keep warm? Wasn't there a legendary magic crystal? Only a thumb-sized one could keep the entire palace as warm as spring throughout the winter.

However, as the cold winter continued, the price of firewood continued to soar. Not only firewood, but the price of everything that can be burned for heating has soared.

The sun gradually changed from its initial golden color to light red, then to light yellow, and finally to the pale color we see today. This series of changes is obvious to all.

No one knows how long the sun's abnormality will last, and no one has come forward to tell them when the sun will return to normal.

But the only thing that is certain is that in a cold climate, if you cannot keep warm, you will freeze to death. Moreover, at present, if you die unexpectedly, there is a great possibility that you will become a ghost.

Therefore, the new rule now being promoted in the territory is that anyone who dies in an accident must be cremated. However, this is a heavy burden for civilian families, because what is burned is not firewood, but money and food.

Chaos abounds!

This is the current situation of Rock Town, but Dante has heard from some traveling merchants and bards who occasionally come to the town that other places are not much better than their town.

The big cities were no exception, and there were also some terrifying evil spirits appearing. Some nobles also suffered disasters and were not spared.

"The sun!"

Dante looked up at the sky numbly, then braved the fierce cold wind and crawled into the hut, which, like his clothes, looked good but was also leaky.

This was the only property left to him by his mysteriously disappeared parents, allowing him to have a place to live in the small town. But even so, Dante's life became difficult because the lord forcibly levied a firewood tax without caring about their lives.

"If I die of hunger one day and become a ghost, I will definitely kill that damn pig!"

Dante took out a piece of black bread from under the bed that was so cold and hard that it could be used as a brick. He was full of resentment, because black bread without flames would taste like chewing stone. Of course, even with flames, it would still taste like chewing wood.

There was no enjoyment at all. It was like Dante who had gone through a torture and, after suppressing the protest from his stomach with black bread, he lay down on the bed and thought about his future.

Originally, he would never have been so miserable. He was the only child of his parents. The assets left behind after their disappearance should have been enough for him to live to adulthood. But the world changed and the sun was getting colder.

The lord's tax collector did not show any mercy to him just because he was a child, and did not reduce the taxes he levied on him. If he dared not to pay the taxes, his house would be forcibly taken away and his clothes would be stripped off.

In his pessimism and despair about the future, Dante fell asleep in a daze, but when Dante woke up from his dream again, he held his breath in an instant and his body became stiff.

"It's so hot, I'm so thirsty." "Mom, I'm thirsty too!"

"There is water here, come and drink!"

"I'll drink first!"

The sounds of rummaging through boxes, quarreling, and gulping water, these noises that shouldn't have existed, made Dante feel like he was falling into an icy cave.

He was not unfamiliar with these voices. When the people were still alive, they would occasionally greet him when he passed by their doors.

But these people had long lost their lives and turned into unspeakable evil spirits, and hadn't the flames driven them away? Why were they still here, and had they come to his house? There were so many people, why did they choose him?
"I'm so thirsty and hungry. I want to drink more!"

"But the water is all gone!"

"Mom, I want to eat meat!"

"Let's eat meat!"

"Okay, kids, don't be impatient. Take your time. This is one of the few foods left in town. Mom has been waiting for this long."

An icy and chilly breath surrounded Dante from all directions. Dante, who could not help but curl up his body, could not help but shiver as pairs of cold hands touched his body. His body, which had warmed up a little after falling asleep, was instantly chilled to the bone.

But Dante was horrified to find that he was unable to resist at all. His body was unable to move and he couldn't even open his eyes. There was an invisible force holding his body down. The only thing he could move was his mind.

"So tender, I want to eat it!"

"Let me take a bite first!"

The next moment, Dante felt the pain from his flesh being torn, but even so, the boy could hardly move his body. The original fear turned into another emotion because of the physical pain.

anger!
Did I provoke you or offend you? Why do you treat me as food?
"Kid, you should thank us. Without us, you wouldn't be alive today."

A pair of rough but large hands touched the boy's forehead, as if knowing that Dante was awake.
"But there is no other way. We can no longer protect you. If we don't eat you now, you will be eaten by others. Instead of that, it is better for us to eat you. It is better than others. I have watched you grow up."

The nagging voice also sounded, just like the simple woman with a kind expression in his memory, but the content of the voice was chilling and made the boy furious.

"Don't worry, we will be very gentle and won't let you suffer. It will be over soon."

The moment the words fell, the boy felt a tearing pain in his chest, and the palm fell on his chest.

It was at this time that the boy's raging anger reached a critical point. It was not a useless fire. It ignited something that had long existed in the boy's body but had never manifested.

The flames of extreme anger surged in the boy's chest and actually turned into flames, burning, and flowing through his limbs and bones to his entire body.

"what--"

There were some shrill, as well as some surprised and frightened sounds, followed by a few screams one after another. Those little evil spirits that were gnawing on his calves and torso were not having a good time either.

At this moment, Dante found that his body was no longer stiff, no longer cold, and he could not feel any pain. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the flame burning and leaping on his body. It was a blood-red flame, carrying a sense of weirdness and foreboding.

However, the boy no longer cared, because when he looked down, he saw his torn chest and the beating and burning heart inside.

He seemed to have turned into some kind of inhuman monster, but it didn't matter anymore. The boy sat up from the bed and looked at the inhuman and strange monster that appeared in his house.

"Dante, kid, you are also..."

The woman, whose face was as plain as in her memory, looked at the young man whose whole body was burning with a simple smile as usual, but under her neck, there was not much flesh and blood, but a skeleton covered with bite marks.

Such a smile did not bring back memories of the boy's past, but made him even angrier. Especially beside her, the little ghosts with hollowed-out chests and abdomens made the boy's emotions out of control, because the corners of their mouths were bright red, that was his flesh and blood.

"die!"

Dante, who felt no pain, leaped into the air and kicked the monster that was showing a friendly smile and seemed to want to please him.

"what--"

With just one kick, the skeleton was shattered, and the only intact head was thrown away, but it was also burning in the air. The little devil next to him wanted to escape when he saw this, but Dante did not let him go. He chased him and kicked him one by one.

When he turned into an inhuman monster, these strange creatures that could disturb the peace of the entire street became weaker than imaginable, as if they were pieces of paper.

In just a short moment, everything returned to silence again, with only the sound of burning flames. However, Dante, who had solved everything with ease, fell into confusion. He didn't know what was wrong with the world, and he didn't know where to go in the future.

Until dawn, the golden sunlight tore through the darkness like a sharp sword, descended with unparalleled majesty, shone into the house from the window, and fell on the young man, making him feel a long-lost warmth.

"?!"

Dante, who was at a loss, seemed to have found the direction the moment he saw the light. He immediately rushed out and looked at the sky. Then, a scene that shocked him and made him feel unbelievable suddenly appeared in his eyes.

The pale sun hanging high in the sky, making the earth even colder, is now being eroded by another sun, a blazing and brilliant golden sun.

That sun was very small, less than one-tenth or one-twelfth the size of the pale sun, but the light it emitted was so bright and blazing that it made Dante's eyes burn with pain.

But the young man refused to close his eyes. He stared with wide eyes at the golden sun which for some reason gave him a sense of familiarity, swallowing the blue sky.

(End of this chapter)