Dinosaur People and God

Time flowed, and the tectonic plates shifted without cease.

A thousand years passed, or ten thousand, or perhaps a hundred million.

At last, a miraculous species of algae began to bloom explosively in the oceans.

The emergence of these wondrous algae marked a good beginning, but for certain creatures, it was a nightmare.

Vast numbers of native anaerobic marine life began to die off, yet from this death arose a host of oxygen-loving behemoths.

In the seas, countless algae emitted light at night, as if drawing down the moon's glow, turning endless waters into dreamlike realms.

By the light of these algae, all manner of bizarre marine creatures perished, only to birth countless aberrations—or perhaps evolutions.

Some became colossal fish, while others transformed into various sea beasts.

A portion even diverged onto land, slowly evolving into myriad beasts, birds, and aberrant forms.

By now, the world held many continents, as the seas receded toward the poles and gradually froze over.

In this timeless drift of ages, beneath a mountain on one continent, new species were undergoing strange evolutions.

These were a group of dinosaurs.

A tribe of large-toothed dinosaurs that ate both meat and fruit.

The largest among them measured merely four meters—truly a weak and insignificant clan in this terrifying world of giants.

Yet it was precisely this weakness that taught them to hunt large herbivores through coordinated encirclement.

It also taught them to scatter when fleeing from fearsome predators, sacrificing a portion like a school of fish to ensure the rest escaped.

In this cruel world, only thus could they breed successfully, generation after generation.

As time flowed, some among them diverged, slowly adapting various forms suited to different lands.

But ultimately, a portion succeeded in finding their god.

Within a great mountain range lay a terrifyingly massive volcanic crater.

And beneath that crater, a colossal skull jutted half out of the magma.

That single skull was as huge as a small hill.

Though enormous, its shape was strikingly similar to that of these dinosaurs.

Who first found Him remains unknown.

But after the initial terror, these dinosaurs gradually grew reverent, and at last gave rise to the most primitive faith.

In an ordinary world, such faith might have changed nothing.

But this world was clearly not ordinary.

For near the mountain of the god, some dinosaurs discovered that newborn hatchlings had begun to exhibit strange changes.

The once-hunched, potbellied bodies of the young became upright; their formerly sharp foreclaws grew soft and dexterous.

Had these newborn dinosaurs grown weaker?

Yes—at least in the eyes of the original dinosaurs, these aberrant individuals could never hunt with their strong bodies like they could.

Still, fortunately, the first mutants were few.

Guided by scent or the blood ties preserved deep in their genes, the original dinosaur clans did not treat them as alien young.

After all, in this world of countless ages, evolution and mutation were commonplace.

Thus, under the care of the original dinosaurs, the first generation of Dinosaur People grew up successfully.

These Dinosaur People, like the original dinosaurs, ate raw flesh and drank blood.

But unlike them, these Dinosaur People were far more intelligent, and over generations of growth and reproduction, they slowly learned to make tools and use fire.

Gradually, beneath this mountain, the once-small dinosaur clan began to multiply rapidly.

And it was under this expansion that leadership of the dinosaur tribe smoothly passed into the hands of the new Dinosaur People.

All because the Dinosaur People were smarter, better suited for survival on this continent.

Using wisdom and tools, they defeated one enemy after another in the vicinity, and finally established their authority.

This rise seemed swift, yet it consumed nearly ten thousand years.

------.

Dawn. The morning sun slowly rose over the horizon.

On a mountain, countless Dinosaur People gathered in a stone plaza of absurd size.

Their numbers exceeded fifty thousand, each standing nearly four meters tall.

But compared to the 'petite' frames of these Dinosaur People, the most striking sight was at the plaza's outer edge—their blood kin.

These were the dinosaurs that, generation after generation, had hatched from eggs that never became Dinosaur People.

They retained the form of the original dinosaurs but lost the chance for keen intellect, gaining only greatly enhanced size.

These were herds of primal creatures, each ten to fifteen meters in length.

Their existence was also a key guarantee of the Dinosaur People tribe's strength.

"The darkness has passed, and the light has arrived!"

"Great God of Lava and Earth! Please look upon Your subjects. On this very day, Your subjects shall set out to annihilate the evil foreign tribes that have long harmed the people of Lava and Earth!"

"These are the delicacies Your subjects offer to You. Please continue to favor Your subjects as You did in the ancient days of old!"

On the vast stone plaza, an elderly Dinosaur Person, holding an iron-like staff, prayed aloud before signaling a group beside him to push a mountain-like pile of various creature corpses toward the mouth of the great volcano.

Beneath the volcano's mouth, the slumbering, fearsome deity still kept its eyes tightly shut.

But perhaps sensing an object approaching, or catching the scent of food scorched by the high heat, the terrifying deity reflexively opened its massive maw and devoured everything around it.

The giant mouth consumed not only the offerings presented by the Dinosaur People but also countless streams of magma flowing into its gullet.

Watching the deity below continuously devour the sacrificial offerings, the Dinosaur People at the volcano's edge felt not fear, but a mix of awe and excitement.

For it was not every time that the deity would accept the food they offered.

Thus, in the eyes of the Dinosaur People, the deity's acceptance of the food surely signified that it would protect them this time.

Seeing this joyful sight, the elderly Dinosaur Person gripping the staff turned around, excited and fervent, and loudly announced the news of the deity's favor to the countless Dinosaur People and their blood relatives gathered on the square.

Then, amidst earth-shaking cheers, countless Dinosaur People began to move.

They broke into a run, grabbing various weapons and leaping onto the backs of their blood relatives.

And with the ground trembling and dust billowing into the air, the Dinosaur People's great army surged down from the mountaintop of the colossal mountain range, speeding toward the base below.

Under the deity's favor, the Dinosaur People firmly believed this battle would be won, and their morale blazed as fiercely as the scorching sun!