The serpent's vertical pupils blazed crimson, its scales standing on end, every muscle in its body pulled taut, unleashing a level of strength it had never before achieved.
Yet the countless pure gold chains, deeply embedded in its flesh and even locked around its bones, still strove to bind this great serpent. The ends of these pure gold chains were anchored deep into the earth's crust at the bottom of the sea, even directly taking root in the world tree itself.
Thousands upon thousands, even billions of thick chains were pulled taut by the serpent's immense strength, countless runic symbols flashing frantically, emitting groans and creaks of distress.
And in the depths of the sea, pulled by the serpent's titanic might, towering undersea mountains collapsed with a thunderous roar, kicking up plumes of smoke thousands of feet high; the violent steam rising from the mixing of scorching lava from erupting undersea volcanoes with the frigid seawater ascended from the surface of the sea, spreading all the way to the vault of the sky.
The intense pain, transmitted along the chains embedded in its flesh and wedged between its bones, seared into the very marrow of the giant serpent's consciousness. The excruciating agony made it want to roar and howl in fury, but the more intense and vivid the pain, the more it mocked the serpent…
The stark reality of its status as a prisoner.
Just like the countless old wounds on the serpent's body, wounds so deep they exposed stark white bone - these were the marks left behind over the tens of thousands of years when the serpent, tormented to the point of madness and loss of reason by endless hunger, struggled frantically, and the chains would bite deep, all the way to its bones; these were also the scars carved into its flesh by the chains every time the serpent grew larger over these tens of thousands of years…
These myriad old wounds, some long healed, some still fresh, each struggle, each growth spurt, would leave a deep mark on the serpent's body.
The more of these scars there were, the deeper the serpent's hatred and ferocity grew, until even the destruction of the entire universe would not be enough to quench its rage.
And now, these chains still dared to try to restrain it? Still dared to try to keep it locked at the bottom of this sea???
Impossible!
In the serpent's pupils, the light of savagery and madness burned ever hotter, until it was swallowed by darkness…
"Haha… Hahahahaha…"
It laughed maniacally, its laughter stirring up countless stormy waves in the sea. The more intense the agony in its body, the more the light of insanity in its pupils flared.
Without a doubt, this great serpent had nearly reached the precipice of madness. The tens of thousands of years of imprisonment, although making it appear normal on the surface, in truth, over these tens of thousands of years, the countless human sacrifices made to it, accompanied by that flesh, that life force, those desires, those fears…
Had driven this ferocious serpent to greater and greater heights of madness.
Greed, brutality, cruelty, death, jealousy, darkness, evil, fear, anger, gluttony, pride, suspicion, prejudice, deceit, competitiveness, vanity, fame, viciousness…
All the dark emotions of the sacrifices before their deaths infected the serpent's thoughts bit by bit. The serpent watched all this unfold with indifference, never once trying to stop it.
"Although in the end they're nothing but the shallow, trivial desires of a bunch of insects, as lowly and superficial as reptiles, I don't reject them. On the contrary, I quite enjoy them."
The serpent had always been so arrogant and haughty. The myriad desires that could drive ordinary people to madness and depravity were, in its eyes, nothing more than a source of amusement.
And now, these desires all bubbled to the surface, making this serpent devoid of human emotion feel the deep rage of humans.
In its pitch-black, terrifying vertical pupils, an unspeakable ferocity emerged.
"Heh… How entertaining… How very entertaining!!!!"
Feeling the frenzied and twisted human desires flooding its body, the serpent laughed instead of raged. The originally indifferent and frigid monster, its jet-black serpentine eyes now shot through with all sorts of dark human impulses.
It laughed wildly, and as the raging, crazed desires within it continued to surge, the serpent's strength grew again step by step. The pure gold chains, already at their breaking point, shattered in an instant.
"Crack…"
One by one, the pure gold chains could no longer hold and snapped. The runic symbols engraved on the chains exhausted all their power and vanished, the chains falling to the bottom of the sea, reduced to mere scrap metal.
The serpent arched its back, the seabed that had settled on its back for tens of thousands of years pulverized in an instant. The serpent, its ferocity at its peak, stubbornly shouldered the weight of the ocean on its back. Its body, stretching beyond the horizon, carried the entire sea, its crimson pupils filled with savagery.
Then, with a mighty swing of its massive tail, the sea, as if a physical entity, could no longer withstand such overwhelming power and transformed into an unprecedented tidal wave. The towering tsunami, its waters splashing up into the sky tens of thousands of miles above Asgard, directly engulfed the entire human world, turning the whole world into a vast expanse of water.
And beside it, the old sea god, seeing the ocean swallow up the entire continent, felt no joy at the expansion of his domain. Instead, he was plunged into deep dread.
He gazed at the colossal monster, his eyes filled with terror.
He feared the serpent, because in the serpent he sensed a power like that of the giant Ymir…
A raw, undisguised power capable of destroying everything.
This power made him shudder.
And what was even more ominous…
In his sight, the monster that filled him with fear was beginning to turn its head to look at him, its savage and undisguised vertical pupils carrying a deep indifference and chilling coldness.
"No… You can't do this… I've given you the entire Nidhogur Sea…"
The ancient old sea god retreated step by step in fear, trying to make some sort of plea. But before him, the serpent's pupils only grew colder.
A pitch-black abyss slowly opened before the old sea god, an immense sense of dread weighing on the heart of this old sea deity. He instinctively turned to flee, but behind him, a fierce hurricane struck. The old sea god's vision went black…
Swallowing the old sea god who had caused it to be suppressed at the bottom of the sea for tens of thousands of years in one gulp, the great serpent raised its head, gazing at the lofty divine realm above its head - Asgard, the crimson light of savagery and madness in its pupils burning ever brighter.
In the pouring rain, only the mind-bogglingly vast giant serpent spanned the universe. Its massive body, covered from head to toe in wounds deep enough to reveal bone, stretched out of sight, yet this could not conceal the endless ferocity in the serpent's crimson pupils.
"ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Head raised in a roar, even the heavens rumbled. In the flashing of lightning, the entire universe trembled and cowered before the ferocity of this monster.