Golden Dragon: Six Thousand Years of Empire-Chapter 892 493: The Old Days Are Dead, the Golden Sun Shall Rise

Chaos ensues!
This is the current state of Panshi Town, but Dante had heard from some traveling merchants and the occasional minstrel visiting the town that other places weren't much better off than their small town.
Those big cities are no exception, with equally terrifying evils haunting them, and the nobles have suffered disasters, not escaping unscathed.
"Oh Sun!"
Dante looked up at the sky somewhat numbly, braving the fierce cold wind, and slipped into the small house that seemed decent but was just as drafty as his clothes.
This was the only property left to him by his mysteriously vanished parents, giving him a place to stay in the town. Yet even so, Dante's days had become increasingly difficult all because the Lord ruthlessly enforced a tax on firewood without regard for their lives.
"If I ever starve to death and turn into an evil ghost, I'll surely kill that damned pig!"
Dante took out a piece of black bread, so hard and cold it could be used as a brick, and he was filled with resentment because without roasting by fire, the black bread was like gnawing on a rock; of course, even with fire, it was like chewing wood.
With no enjoyment whatsoever, like enduring a torment, Dante suppressed the protest from his stomach with the black bread, then lay on the bed, pondering his future.
Originally, he wouldn't have been in such a miserable state. He was the only child of his parents, and the assets they left behind after they vanished should have been enough for him until adulthood. But the world changed; the Sun was growing cold.
The Lord's tax officials showed no mercy despite him being a child, nor did they reduce the taxes imposed on him. If he dared not pay, his house would be forcibly taken away, and his clothes stripped off.
In the midst of this pessimism and despair about the future, Dante fell into a drowsy sleep, but when he awoke from his dreams again, he instantly held his breath, his body stiffening.
"So hot, I'm so thirsty."
"Mom, I'm thirsty too!"
"There's water here, come drink!"
"I want to drink first!"
The sound of rummaging, quarreling, and gulping down water, these disturbances that shouldn't have appeared, made Dante feel as though he'd fallen into an icy cave.
These voices were not unfamiliar to him. When the people were alive, they would occasionally greet him when he passed by their doors.
But these people had long since lost their lives, turning into indescribable evils. And wasn't the fire supposed to have driven them away? Why were they still here, invading his home? Among so many people, why did they choose him?
"So thirsty, so hungry, I want more to drink!"
"But the water is all gone!"
"Mom, I want to eat meat!"
"Let's eat some meat!"
"Alright, alright, but children, don't rush, take your time. This is one of the few foods left in the town, and your mother barely watched over it until now."
A cold, dark aura surrounded Dante from all directions, making him involuntarily curl up and shiver, for icy little hands were touching his body. His body, which had warmed slightly after falling asleep, instantly turned bone-chilling cold.
Yet Dante was horrified to find that he couldn't resist. His body was immobile, even his eyes wouldn't open, as an invisible force held him down, leaving only his thoughts still agile.
"So tender, I want to eat it!"
"Let me have a bite first!"
The next moment, Dante felt the pain of his flesh being bitten, yet even so, he couldn't move his body. His initial fear, due to the pain, transformed into another emotion.
Anger!
What did I do to you that makes you think you can eat me like this?
"Child, you should thank us because without us, you wouldn't have survived until now."
A coarse yet broad hand touched the boy's forehead as if knowing Dante was already awake,
"But we can't help it. We can't protect you anymore. If we don't eat you, someone else will. It's better for us to eat you than others, since I've watched you grow up."
The nagging words followed, much like in his memory, from that simple-looking woman who greeted him warmly, but the content made one's blood run cold, also fueling the boy's rage,
"Rest assured, we will be gentle and not let you suffer much; it'll be over soon."
The moment those words were spoken, the boy felt a tearing pain in his chest, that hand pressing onto his chest.
And it was at that moment the rage in the boy reached its peak. It wasn't a useless rage; it ignited something within him that always existed but had never manifested.
The flame, borne from extreme anger, surged in the boy's chest, turning into an actual fire, spreading throughout his body along his limbs.
"Ah—"
There were voices filled with distress, surprise, and panic, followed by a few successive screams; those evil beings gnawing on his calves and torso were no better off.
At this moment, Dante found his body no longer stiff, no longer cold, nor could he feel the pain. The instant he opened his eyes, he saw flames burning and dancing on his body, flames of a blood-red hue, ominous and eerie.
But the boy no longer cared about such things because when he looked down, he saw his open chest and the heart within, beating and burning.
He seemed to have turned into some kind of nonhuman monster, but this no longer mattered. The boy sat up from the bed, looking at the nonhuman strange monsters in his house.
"Dante, child, so you are also..."
The woman, her face exactly like the simple woman in his memory, looked at the boy burning all over with a simple smile like before. However, beneath her neck was scarcely any flesh, only a skeleton covered in bite marks.
This smile didn't stir past memories in the boy; instead, it only fueled his anger, especially seeing the few little ghosts beside her with hollowed chests and abdomens, their mouths stained with the boy's blood, causing him to lose control.
"Die!"
Completely numbed to pain, Dante leaped into the air, kicking at the eerie creature trying to appease him with a smiling face.
"Ah—"
With just one kick, bones shattered, the only intact skull flung into the air, burning midair. The little ghosts tried to escape upon seeing this, but Dante gave them no chance, chasing after and kicking them one by one.
After becoming an inhuman monster, those beings that disturbed the entire street to no end were weaker than imagined, like mere paper.
In mere moments, everything returned to silence, only the sound of flames remaining. However, Dante, having easily vanquished everything, fell into perplexity. He didn't understand what happened to the world nor what he should do next.
Until, at dawn, the golden sunlight tore through the darkness like a sword and entered the room with an overwhelming and unmatched presence, falling on the boy, rekindling a long-lost warmth.
"?!"
At a loss, Dante found a direction the moment he saw the light, rushed outside and looked at the sky, then, to his shock and disbelief, a scene unfolded before his eyes.
That pale Sun hanging high above, making the world ever colder, was now being devoured by another Sun, a blazing, magnificent golden Sun.
That Sun was small, barely a tenth or twelfth the size of the pale Sun, yet its light was so dazzlingly bright that it burned Dante's eyes.
But the boy refused to close his eyes, staring wide-eyed and intently at this golden Sun, for some reason feeling a sense of familiarity as it devoured the pale Sun.