Chapter 126: A Fairy Tale

This is a Monster’s Fairy Tale, a story told since a time long before the present, from a place further than the sea.

Once, in a certain place, there lived a Serpent hailed as the Strongest Beast.

Her physical form was beautiful, powerful, and impeccably built. Her heart was as hard as stone, her underbelly like a mosaic of jagged pottery, and her back was densely armored with rows of shield-scales. Her jaws were lined with terrifying teeth.

A single sneeze would emit flashes of light, and her eyes shone like the Asahi. Flames erupted from her maw, smoke billowed from her nostrils, and her very breath could ignite coal.

She made the sea boil like a pot, swimming through the deep abyss while leaving behind streaks of light like strands of white hair.

No weapon could pierce her skin; none could even leave a scratch. Nothing else on this earth could stand equal to her. She was a creature that knew no fear.

To fight her and hope for submission was an exercise in futility. Just a glimpse of her was enough to make most men lose their will to fight...

Eventually, the Monster grew bored.

"I shall grant the wish of whoever manages to slay me," she declared.

Triggered by those words, the masses rose to challenge her.

Months, years, and eons passed. Even as she performed her duty of managing The End—a task entrusted to her by her parent—she spent her days crushing those who challenged her, all in a vain attempt to kill her boredom.

Their wishes were varied. Wealth, fame, love, family, self-preservation, curing a disease—the list went on.

But there was no one capable of killing the Serpent known as the Strongest Beast. Her boredom remained unquenched. If anything, the treasures left behind by those who died at her feet simply continued to pile up, drawing even more challengers to her side.

Slaying such a colossal serpent was a literal impossibility.

Yet, the living are creatures who cannot stop themselves when a wish is dangled before them... and so the corpses continued to stack up.

At some point, the Monster realized the truth.

There was no one in this world capable of defeating her.

—So, the Serpent changed her tune.

"I will grant every wish to the party who gives me something I do not know."

It was a strange trial, but the logic was simple: "If that's all it takes..." and even more people flocked to her than before.

Gold, silver, jewels—a mountain of treasure so vast the word "wealth" lost its meaning. They offered her a territory large enough to roam, a massive castle to serve as a home, and enough servants to wait on her every whim.

But she had no interest in any of it. Her days continued to pass in hollow idleness.

Bored beyond belief, weary of the monotony, and having found nothing to satisfy her, she eventually vanished.

That was one act in the life of a certain Serpent.

It was meant to be a story about a lonely soul, nothing more than a fairy tale.

It is a Monster's Fragment of a pathetic monster who was never saved by anyone.