For an instant, silence descended upon the earth.
At least, that was how it felt within the fragment of time I perceived. The noise and screams gradually receded, my field of vision narrowed, and everything converged upon a single point.
As though nothing but that sight held any meaning.
A reptilian eye was visible between the split halves of the crimson placenta. It alone possessed a distinct form in a world where everything else had grown hazy. How could its slow breathing and heartbeat feel so close?
Haaah, haaah.
Its utterly languid breath dampened my face. The phantom sensation lasted no more than an instant, and it did not take long for the memories of a certain man to surface within my mind.
The monster once called the mountain range of the western front.
I did not know the details. I had not glimpsed every memory belonging to the ‘me’ from the future. Merely fragments of the emotions the man had felt whenever he looked up at that impossibly vast body rose within me.
Oppression and unease.
He had been a man who harbored a dreadful grudge. His hatred had been unconditional,…