The world ended, not with fire or flood, but with silence.
At exactly 9:33 PM Beijing time on March 17, 2025, the noise of Shanghai came to a sudden halt. No engines, no music, no voices—just an eerie stillness that seemed to wrap itself around the city like a cocoon. The wind stopped. Even the air refused to move.
And then the sky changed.
From the bustling streets of the Bund to the crowded cafes of Pudong, people tilted their heads upward in disbelief. The clouds, previously scattered and unremarkable, now churned in impossible spirals. Thunder rumbled, not from the clouds, but from something behind them—something vast and old.
Smartphones rose into the air, capturing every second. Some livestreamed, others recorded, but few understood what they were seeing. The sky didn't just darken; it bent. Colors bled from the edges—deep golds and burning reds, as if the heavens were being painted anew by a blind god with trembling hands.
Then it came.
A serpent, massive and radiant, tore through the clouds with terrifying grace. It glowed like molten metal, scales shimmering with alien symbols that changed every second. Its body coiled across the entire skyline, long enough to encircle the Jin Mao Tower thrice over. Its eyes—twin orbs of white fire—stared down upon humanity with a gaze that felt neither benevolent nor hostile. It was the look of a god that had seen millennia pass—and had not forgotten a single betrayal.
No one moved.
Even the bravest couldn't. Some fell to their knees instinctively, while others stood frozen, hypnotized by the impossible sight. Time seemed to stretch.
Then the serpent opened its mouth.
There was no roar, no hiss, no thunder.
Instead, a voice—not heard, but felt—poured into the hearts of every living creature within five hundred kilometers.
> "The exile ends. The Veil weakens. The myth awakens."
The words struck deeper than any sound should have. Children wept without knowing why. Elders clutched their chests, whispering names long buried. In some places, lights flickered. In others, birds crashed to the ground mid-flight, disoriented by the distortion in reality.
And then, as suddenly as it had come, the serpent vanished.
Not in a streak of lightning or a trail of smoke, but by folding inward—like a page in a book being turned by unseen hands. The clouds swallowed themselves, the sky brightened, and the city's noise returned—first as a trickle, then a flood.
Screams, sirens, shouts.
Thousands rushed the streets. Phones exploded with pings and messages.
> "Was that real?"
"It passed through a building like a ghost!"
"Someone said it was seen over Tokyo too!"
"I saw my grandmother's necklace glow when it spoke!"
But for all the chaos, one truth became undeniable—the world had witnessed something beyond explanation.
---
Ten Minutes Later — UN Satellite Command, Geneva
Alarms blared in the deep underground bunker. Screens displayed live feeds from multiple global locations. Shanghai. Tokyo. Rio de Janeiro. Cairo. The serpent had been seen in all five places—simultaneously.
A white-haired technician named Matteo cursed under his breath. "This isn't some weather anomaly. This is... this is everywhere."
Dr. Eliza Kwon, chief of the UN Anomalous Phenomena Taskforce, pressed her palms into the cold steel table. "Run the footage again."
"Which one?"
"All of them."
One by one, the scenes played.
Shanghai: the serpent curled through clouds.
Tokyo: the same serpent, same motion, mirrored over Mount Fuji.
Rio: above Christ the Redeemer, glowing with the same runes.
Each recording, when time-synced and overlaid, aligned perfectly. One serpent. Five skies. One moment.
> "It's a projection," someone muttered.
"No," Eliza whispered. "It's a manifestation. Something that exists across dimensions. It's not just appearing... it's returning."
---
Meanwhile — Hidden Chamber Beneath the Vatican
A robed figure lit a single candle in a room full of dust-covered tomes. With shaking hands, he opened an ancient codex, written in a language long lost to man. The candlelight flickered—and the pages began to shift on their own.
From a sealed corner, a new sentence appeared, scrawled in fresh ink:
> "The First Herald has spoken. The Age of Veils is ending."
---
Mumbai — A Slum Temple Awakes
In the heart of Dharavi, an ancient shrine lay wedged between metal shacks. It had been forgotten, reduced to nothing but a crumbling altar and a statue missing half its face.
Until tonight.
The stone cracked.
A blinding light surged from within.
And in the reflection of a child's eye, the statue's face moved.
---
London, England — 3:02 PM (GMT)
In the underground archives of the British Museum, Lucian Vale stared at the glowing stone tablet before him. The artifact was supposed to be inert—just another piece of Sumerian junk unearthed in Syria five years ago. No inscription. No energy. Dead.
Now it hummed.
Symbols danced across its surface in gold and crimson. Lucian's reflection shimmered, his sea-green eyes narrowing as a single line formed in flawless English:
> "You bear the mark. You will awaken, as we have."
His right hand burned.
He looked down.
There, forming beneath his skin like ink sinking into paper, was a symbol—a coiled serpent biting its own tail, etched in light and pain.
Lucian didn't panic.
He didn't scream.
He merely exhaled and murmured, "So... it's begun."
---
Global Reactions Within 24 Hours
News Outlets:
CNN, BBC, NHK, and Al Jazeera ran non-stop coverage. The term "Mythquake" was coined to describe the phenomena. Polls showed global fear at its highest since the Cold War.
Religious Orders:
Some claimed it was a divine sign. Others panicked, calling it the return of demons or fallen angels. A few recognized the runes and quietly began preparing old sanctuaries.
Science & Tech:
Quantum physicists at CERN recorded anomalies matching ancient star maps. NASA released blurry footage of what looked like impossible shadows forming at the edge of the atmosphere.
Social Media:
#MythAwakens, #GoldenSerpent, and #VeilFall trended for 48 hours. Influencers posted reaction videos, while skeptics called it an elaborate AI hoax—until several of them disappeared after visiting "haunted" sites.
---
Unknown Location — A Dimly Lit Cave
Deep beneath a mountain range unmarked on any map, a figure kneeled before a massive stone gate. Carvings of beasts and gods surrounded it—griffins, hydras, lions with human eyes.
The air tasted of dust and thunder.
The kneeling figure whispered, "The First Sign has come. The Pillars will follow. And when the Seventh Flame rises... we shall burn the world back into truth."
His eyes flared yellow.
The gate shuddered.
---
Back to Lucian
Lucian left the museum unnoticed.
He walked past the tourists, past the busy street musicians, past the frantic crowd watching news broadcasts in store windows.
The city hadn't realized yet. Not truly.
But he had.
He could feel it in his blood, humming like an ancient engine being restarted.
Something old and buried was waking up.
And he was at the center of it.
Not by choice.
But by fate.