“This is what’s written in 《The Classic of Mountains and Seas》: The deity of Mount Bell is named Torch Shade. When this deity’s eyes open, day arrives; and when its eyes close, night descends. When he blows it is winter, and when he speaks it is summer. He neither drinks, eats, nor breathes. If this god does breathe, he will summon gales. His body is a thousand leagues long. Torch Shade is east of the country of Nolegcalf. He has a human face and a snake’s body, and he is scarlet in color. The god lives on the lower slopes of Mount Bell.”
When the large dragon-shaped figure gradually became clearer, everyone inside the conference room was surprised. Those who had extensively researched Chinese mythology immediately stood up and propped up their glasses, hoping to be able to see the true appearance of the creature.
“There’s no mistake. That’s a torch dragon! It’s impossible for it to be anything else! Could the torch dragon be real? Could the records be telling the truth? That 《The Classic of Mountains and Seas》 isn’t just an absurd fantasy book? Could it be that every supernatural being recorded inside it existed in the distant past?”
“H-how is this possible! How could a torch dragon be real!” An expert shouted as he could not believe his eyes.
But soon, he scratched his cheeks in embarrassment and only felt that everything he believed in was completely shattered.
For other people on-site, they were already used to these things. It’s just that the expert had researched ancient supernatural beings his entire life, so he felt provoked at how everything he learned was a lie, and how all his hard work was meaningless.
“There is nothing impossible. Even the Cthulhu mythology that has only popped up a few decades years ago appeared in the real world. It’s even more possible that the cultural history of five thousand years ago is real. Has everyone noticed it? This is just an image and might not be even the real torch dragon. It’s just like the image of Cthulhu and perhaps just the will of the torch dragon descending. This was what the old man implied.”
“But still, this is quite unbelievable. It’s a torch dragon!”
Everyone scanned the monstrous human-headed snake-bodied existence with great shock.
In ancient Chinese mythology, the image of dragons was created after the Yellow Emperor defeated the Flame Emperors and Chiyou. It was an image created from the combination of all tribal totems. As a result, when the people were recording mythology, a lot of the Gods were half-human half-snake, like Nuwa or Fuxi. From this, it could be seen that these myths had a common origin.
The torch dragon was considered a dragon, but it was different from the modern image of a dragon. It looked more like a snake, which was the dragon’s earliest image in Asia. As a result, there was a saying that says dragons were developed from snakes!
“Right now, I’m of the opinion that the reason Qin Shi Huang burned books was to hide records of these mystical creatures. 《The Classic of Mountains and Seas》might be one of the few records that had survived the book burning, but because we did not personally witness the supernatural beings in them, we might have been treating them as fakes.”
“There’s a saying that the emperor appoints people to a high positon and asks them about the Gods instead of the citizens. Haiz… I suddenly feel that asking about gods isn’t wrong.”
“We haven’t dug out Qin Shu Huang’s grave yet. Tell me, might we be able to find some ancient records inside it?”
“There might be, but there also might not be.”
“Since alchemy is actually that mystical, the things left behind by our ancestors might not all be trash.”
“But, what powers does the torch dragon possess that could resolve the situation?”
Everyone excitedly discussed.
At this time, the leader thought of something which stopped everyone’s discussion, “I recalled something that our representative in Japan reported. He said that the mysterious old man said that Cthulhu’s ritual borrows powers from the stars. It can only display its full effect at night. If the day arrives, then the ritual would collapse.”
When he finished, everyone shouted at the same time, “When this deity’s eyes open, day arrives!”
That’s right. In the records, the torch dragon opening its eyes could bring forth daylight. With this, they could understand what the mysterious old man was doing. He wanted the torch dragon to open its eyes and bring forth daylight.
Thinking of this, everyone once again became excited with disbelief. If this ritual could truly summon the torch dragon, then the entire Tokyo would turn from night to day. That power could be said to be in the realm of the divine!
“But, how is it planning to change the stars? Daylight means the sun, but the sun is a fixed star. Could it be that the torch dragon could influence the stars? Or could it be influencing the Earth’s rotation?”
“No one knows. The power these superhumans possess is different from science. Let’s continue to watch. If this torch dragon can truly bring forth daylight, then we need to make a long consideration about the powers these superhumans possess.
Everyone curbed their thoughts and continued to watch the situation unfold.
Louie raised his head and seriously looked at the torch dragon that he had ‘summoned’. Its upper half was human while its lower half was a snake. The human half looked illusory, making it hard for people to see through its true appearance. The snake half spiraled in the sky as if it had appeared from the void, making others suspect that it really was a thousand miles long.
Its entire body was scarlet red. The way its tail spiraled made it seem as if it was coiled around a non-existing mountain, and in the legend, it’s said that the torch dragon was a mountain god.
‘Let’s begin. I will let you all witness my performance of moving the stars.’
Louie took a deep breath and respectfully prayed to the ‘torch dragon’.
At the same time, he activated the last legendary spell that he had set up over Tokyo — [Amaunator’s Eternal Sun]
This legendary magic was quite weak. It could create a realistic fake sun. It did not have any destructive power at all. The mage who created this spell must have used this spell to light up a small realm to give it some vitality.
Until this day, this magic was the best thing that could fool the people of Earth.
It had no destructive power, but the magic was quite high leveled. It could create something that could never be explained by science.
‘Activate legendary magic…’
Louie silently muttered and gestured while hiding his hands in his sleeves.
Afterward, under the gaze of millions of people, the torch dragon’s eyes opened.
Just like the legends of the torch dragon, an eternal sun appeared in the skies of Tokyo.
“That’s… the sun!”
“Isn’t it three in the morning! How could the sun appear in that latitude, that longitude, and that time?!”
“It’s daylight! Tokyo is now daytime!”
“The stars and the moon have disappeared.”
“Oh my god, what a mighty force!”
Everyone who was watching had completely gone nuts.