“A snake…?”
The citizens of the Holy Kingdom looked up. There, facing the calamity descending from the sky, was a colossal snake with its mouth wide open.
A massive pillar blotting out the sky, and a snake even larger than that — together, they were a chaotic and terrifying sight.
Yet for the citizens who gazed directly at it, it felt endlessly sacred.
The snake’s body shimmered with a bluish light. As the gently glowing divinity wrapped warmly around the sky, the dark curtain shrouding the heavens faded, revealing a bright sun.
The sun. The star symbolizing the Goddess.
At that moment, the faithful realized they were witnessing a scene straight out of a myth.
“Ah…”
They gazed slack-jawed at the sky, where a massive meteor pierced the crimson expanse.
The blazing sun shot forth a brilliant beam toward the colossal pillar. Its momentum was undeniably valiant, robust, and radiant.
The faithful raised their prayers listlessly. Not prayers of despair for the calamity descending upon them, but prayers aimed at the newly rising brilliant hope.
With each prayer, their bodies shone. Countless lights arose gently in the dark Holy Kingdom, illuminating the once-dim sky.
One by one, more and more people began to pray.
An elderly man offered his prayers. Despite nearing the end of his life, he now gazed upon this moment with reverence.
A young man prayed. Faced with the daunting uncertainty of living out his days, crashing dreams, and empty prospects, he now filled his heart with aspiration.
A boy prayed. Once inspired by fairy-tale heroes, he had dreamed of becoming a warrior — now a dream he had strangely locked away because everyone laughed at him. But now, watching the shooting star, that brilliant dream ignited once more, and he yearned to stand upon the battlefield like those heroes.
A father prayed. A mother prayed.
A young man, a boy, a child. One by one, all their prayers transformed into a radiant light, adding brilliance to the shooting star soaring toward the pillar.
No trace of darkness remained. The myriad radiant lights combined, brightening the darkened sky and bringing forth a brilliant sun that illuminated the Holy Kingdom.
With all those hopes becoming one, they forged a chain tightening around the last remnants of the Demon God, forming a radiant bridge stretching toward everyone.
And the snake that harbored all those hopes…
——Crack!
At last, it swallowed the pillar that was dyeing the Holy Kingdom red.
“Waaaah!!”
“It’s the Apostle! The Apostle of the Goddess has protected the Holy Kingdom!!”
The citizens shouted. Their faces beamed with delight.
They felt an overwhelming gratitude towards the colossal snake that had dealt with the disaster falling from the sky, and excitement flowed through them, realizing they were witnessing this mythical scene firsthand.
The Apostle of the Goddess. It was a new title bestowed upon Jörmungandr.
* * *
It felt cramped within this body. I couldn’t tell how long it had been since I felt this sensation.
[Has it been a millennium already?]
When I first came into this world, the first thing I saw as I broke free from my cramped casing was a massive tiger with its mouth gaping wide towards me.
Not just any tiger, but one so enormous it could easily reach dozens of meters in length.
Even I, Jörmungandr, couldn’t handle that size back then. I thought I was surely facing death in that moment.
[If I hadn’t instinctively choked it, I would have been the one to die.]
Every moment was a fight for survival. I opened my eyes amid the horrifying beasts of the forest, facing new and stronger monsters every single day.
It was undoubtedly tough. I was only as big as an anaconda at the time.
Surviving among abominations in a forest where monsters lurked was no small feat. However, even as small as I was, I was still a monster capable of dispatching even gods, making survival less of a challenge.
Many would let their guard down upon seeing my size. Those fools became my prey without exception.
How long had it been?
Suddenly, I felt the sensation of crampedness return.
At that time, I didn’t understand why I felt cramped. I merely thought I had eaten too much abomination yesterday. It was hard to even think of shedding my skin.
After all, I was only two days old at that point.
Though I had consumed some monsters, I never thought I would be shedding this early.
When I finally shed, I had grown at least five times in size.
It was astonishing. The once-unbearably gigantic world suddenly matched my height.
Shedding didn’t mean I would always grow five times larger. Sometimes I would grow dozens of times bigger, while at other times, there would be barely any change at all.
And that’s when a question arose.
‘I thought I’d surely matured into an adult by now.’
Unlike before, when I frequently shed, over a thousand years had passed since my last shedding, making it a natural guess.
‘But apparently not.’
I had surmised one thing about shedding from my past experiences. For my body to shed, I had to consume something of a matching caliber.
When I was newly born, it was fine. There were abominations everywhere, and any they ate possessed a higher caliber than my newborn self.
But as I grew, that changed. The caliber I gained from devouring other monsters increased, and the caliber inherently existing within Jörmungandr began to reveal its potential.
However, that too gradually changed. After becoming an enormous size enough to rival a mountain range, I couldn’t sense any signs of needing to shed.
It was only natural. There was simply no being of the right caliber around.
Evil Dragon? Dragon? Cerberus?
Even if I devoured all of them, they wouldn’t come close to matching my caliber.
That’s probably why I mistook myself for a mature adult. No matter what creature I consumed, I saw no signs of growth.
So I began to feel curious.
[How much larger can I grow?]
I was already of unfathomable size.
I could easily wrap around the planet, larger than Earth itself, and if I wanted, I could cover the sky with my colossal form.
I had always been gigantic, but the size I achieved after abandoning my mortal shell and becoming a god was astounding.
Thus, I felt a limit within myself.
Since I no longer sensed any signs of growth, I tried to be content with my current size.
But.
This wasn’t the end.
I still hadn’t matured into an adult.
That fact sent shivers down my spine. My immense body trembled.
First.
I needed to change my location.
I teleported Elly and Velly into my cave using magic, then soared across the vast sky toward a gigantic plain.
An endless vast plain.
So beastly massive it could accommodate any entity, yet it still couldn’t hold my body.
Naturally.
My size was comparable to that of a planet.
So I curled my body up as tightly as I could.
I enveloped the world with my immense form, curling up as much as possible, and subsequently dug into the ground.
In an instant, my gigantic form vanished beyond the mound of dirt.
Of course, that was merely a thin layering. If I truly intended to conceal my body, I could very well poke my head out from the opposite side of the planet.
I only dug deep enough to partially hide my body.
The infinitely vast earth above felt like a soft blanket covering me.
This should work for shedding.
I wondered how long it would take.
Even during previous shedding, the timeframe had always been erratic, yet I sensed this time it would likely take a day.
‘I’ve already told the others to prepare for it, so it should be fine.’
So.
I closed my eyes.
To grow yet again.
To see just how far the limits of this body would stretch.
* * *
In the sacred forest.
In its center, a colossal tree soared high toward the sky.
A massive tree unlike any other, the mother of all elves.
The World Tree.
Atop the giant World Tree stood a figure calmly looking down at the world.
“Hmn…”
She closed her eyes, intrigued by the new news.
“Jörmungandr…”
How long had it been?
Since she last laid down to sleep, it felt like quite a while since she’d seen him.
Hearing the name of her old friend, she chuckled softly at his new title.
“The Apostle of the Goddess and the Guardian of the Kingdom of Trelinia…”
Raquielia, the High Elf.
As the firstborn of the World Tree and the original hero, she recalled that enormous snake.
“He was indisputably strong, but… not quite at the level of being called a god.”
In her eyes as a hero, that gigantic snake definitely lacked divinity.
That was all the more intriguing.
How could a being untainted by divinity possess such strength?
“I should pay him a visit.”
Curiosity sparked within her.
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