Falling into the Abyss

Little Rafael had already drilled countless deep passages underground. If he traveled underground, he could avoid being burned by the hot sun, and he could also pass directly under some large sand dunes, saving a lot of time.

At night, Ethan was lying on little Rafael and looking up at the stars in the midst of the yellow sand. He stretched out his fingers and traced the constellations in the sky, something he used to do when he was a child. His mother once taught him the names and legends of the constellations, and romantic and ancient legends filled his little heart due to his magical imagination. He liked the heroes in ancient Greece. They were not perfect, but when they succeeded in defeating the dragons and the Cyclops, he was happy for them, so much that he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

However, he didn’t think that he would one day lose his home, his parents, his love one day and become a more terrifying and disgusting monster than any mythical monster that existed.

The lonesome shadow of the city in the distance slept in the twilight. Ethan slowly stood up, raised his head, and opened his hands.

Behind him, more than ten of his slender tentacles spread out, just like a gradually blooming black firework that possessed a sort of horrifying and dark beauty. At the end of each tentacle, the ends of the fleshy petals opened like the mouth of an alien monster. Infrasound waves that couldn’t be heard by human ears spread out in all directions. Little Raphael seemed to be able to hear the sound, and he raised his head curiously and made a series of excited grunts.

Ethan’s consciousness had entered another frequency, a frequency that did not belong to the human world. Since he entered adulthood, he was able to do this. He could hear another unknown voice in the universe, ethereal and ancient, full of suppressed anger and danger. However, as he became increasingly familiar with the world composed of this frequency, he found that he did not resent the impetuous evil. On the contrary, he felt that it was a very kind and comfortable feeling.

And sometimes, he would accidentally enter another frequency. This was a very dangerous frequency.

There were countless giant creatures for which he wasn’t able to decipher whether they were gaseous or liquid. They regarded Ethan as unclean and dangerous. Ethan was accidentally discovered by that world on the spaceship from the Ophiuchus Alliance. He still remembered the pain and fear of being watched by thousands of eyes, unable to move as his skin and flesh burned. In the face of that power, he was no match at all.

He knew he wasn’t complete enough. Only when he accepted his own destiny could he compete with the things in that world.

However, didn’t he accept it? Why did Nyarlathotep no longer appear? Why did those strange dreams no longer beckon him? Why didn’t he come to take over his body?

He heard their response.

There were a lot of voices responding to him, like countless intertwined undercurrents in the dark that converged into a vast river and sea, toppling him down. Some of the lonely songs were filled with confusion and loneliness, which could never be heard or understood by human beings. Those unclean and forgotten beautiful voices called out to him, emitted from the subjects of darkness who had been baptized by Ethan. They were cheering, crying, and welcoming their creator.

Ethan raised his hand in the dark, as if he were the conductor of the elegy. The black lines meandered on the sides of his face and arms, and they grew increasingly akin to the black nails of his claws, flashing with a cold light.

“Come on, come to me.” His consciousness rang out in the minds of all the mutated creatures, carrying an irresistible force.

He had been calling for three days in a row, and those responses were getting closer and closer. If there were no accidents, we should be able to see the first creatures arrive tonight.

Sure enough, a black line gradually appeared on the edge of the desert, like the tide slapping forth at the highest sea level. It was thousands of humanoid worms wriggling through the abandoned land with their bulky, wet black bodies. They wriggled across the ground together, making a sound like the roar of a tsunami.

They surged in all directions, crawling slowly around Ethan. They were like a huge black vortex, and Ethan was the center of the black hole.

He sat on the huge body of little Rafael and moved forward slowly. The humanoid worms followed him, like loyal soldiers following their master. Their destination was the abandoned city in the distance, where the nonhumans were waiting for him.

When Ethan’s “hell legion” surrounded the abandoned old city faraway, the nonhumans caused a large commotion. Feelings of panic made many of the thugs lose their sanity, and they accused Ethan and Chen Zeng of deceiving them. For a moment, the group of people and the rest of the nonhumans who still believed in Chen Zeng confronted each other. When Ethan returned, the two sides had already started fighting in a square in the middle of the city. People with guns started shooting at their former companions, while those who didn’t have guns snatched up bricks and smashed them against the heads of their “enemies,” who were accidentally knocked onto the floor. It seemed that they completely forgot that they were teasing each other with dirty jokes not long ago.

Ethan merely leaned against the headless statue next to the square where the incident happened and watched the farce. He didn’t intend to stop it. That was, until Chen Zeng appeared.

The seemingly ordinary man had a strange charisma. As soon as he appeared, he didn’t even need to speak. It was as though the two clashing sides had the pause button pressed on them, and one after another, they stopped attacking and killing each other.

“Enough, what are you doing!” There was anger on Chen Zeng’s face.

He tilted his head slightly and took a few steps in that direction.

“Is this the earnestness and sincerity that all of you emphasize that you possess? When a little unexpected situation occurred, everyone was eager to blame the others for lying to themselves, and even began to cruelly kill their brothers?!”

Chen Zeng’s voice faded into background noise in Ethan’s ear. He walked to the two dark hospital buildings, took a deep breath, and suddenly said, “Come out, I can smell you guys.”

His movements were being tightly monitored by the nonhumans. After all, the monsters outside the city seemed to have been summoned by this man. And although his voice wasn’t loud, he was heard by everyone present. Chen Zeng also stopped reprimanding them, and everyone nervously glanced at the two abandoned hospitals.

After a long time, there was still no movement. Ethan sighed and said, “If you don’t come out, do you want me to invite you out?”

About ten minutes later, several figures finally emerged from a dark hole in the wall next to the locked door of the hospital building.

Among these people, Ethan recognized a few of them. For example, the first one was Cavin, Samuel’s former enemy in the Forbidden City. The next few people were Cavin’s familiar confidants that stood around him before. They were all ragged, with dust on their faces and their figures yellow and skinny. They seemed to have gone through hardships in the wilderness for a long time. However, Ethan didn’t expect that it would be Samuel who appeared at the rear.

When he smelled Samuel just now, he thought he must have smelled it wrong. After all, Samuel and his father had long since escaped from the Seventh Space Station, hadn’t they?

He watched the group walk out. Samuel walked at the end of the line, and when Samuel faced him, his gaze was indifferent.

Cavin pointed the gun in his hand at Ethan, cautiously staying more than ten steps away from him. The tall Alpha asked in a threatening tone, “What do you want?”

Ethan blinked slowly. Behind him, many nonhumans carrying weapons in their hands had aimed their weapons at Cavin and the others. However, Ethan raised his hand and motioned for them to lay down their weapons.

“Why are the group of you here?” Ethan asked.

“Of course we were forced here by the infected people!” Cavin said in a sarcastic tone that implied, “If you know, then don’t ask.”

Ethan understood. When he beckoned his own kind, Cavin and his party were probably nearby, so they were surrounded by the infected people. Because everyone surrounding them was infected, only this city was safe, naturally becoming their refuge.

It was just, why were they right by the Forbidden City? Was this a coincidence?

“What do you want?” Cavin cried out, but there was a trace of fear in the depths of his fierce voice.

“They probably saw him summoning and commanding those infected people who had completely become worms, right?” Ethan thought sadly.

At this time, Chen Zeng had approached Ethan and saw Cavin and others. “Ah! It’s an old friend!”

“Who the hell is your friend?” Cavin suddenly turned his gun on Chen Zeng. “You despicable cult leader, you are associated with this kind of monster. Do you want to destroy the whole Earth Union?”

Before Chen Zeng could open his mouth to talk about how they were all going to be placed on trial during the descent of doomsday, Ethan raised his hand and interrupted him. He looked at Samuel and asked, “Samuel, where’s your father?”

Samuel looked at him but did not speak.

“Don’t be hypocritical!” Cavin stood in front of Samuel and looked at everyone who was all on guard.

“Don’t be so nervous. We are all brothers. Why are we so tense when we meet?” Chen Zeng said in a gentle voice, “I see that everyone is exhausted. Why don’t you have a rest and a full meal first?”

Seeing that Cavin and his companions didn’t move, Chen Zeng turned to his followers and ordered them, “And you guys, disperse. If anyone makes trouble again, I won’t forgive them!”

The believers hesitated as if they were unsure whether they should really leave. However, after looking at Cavin and Chen Zeng’s firm and dignified gazes, they finally decided to obey.

Cavin relaxed for a moment when he saw that those people were really dispersing. However, his gaze was still fixed on Ethan, as if afraid that he would suddenly do something terrifying.

Ethan finally stepped back and turned away.

He was still slightly upset in his heart.

Forget Cavin, why did Samuel also look at him with the same gaze?

When did Cavin and Samuel become companions, while he was no longer his companion?

They couldn’t stay in the same city for too long, as it would be too easy for the Earth Union’s army to lock down on them and clean them up in one fell swoop.

The nonhumans were still moving through the caves drilled by little Rafael underground, while Ethan was moving aboveground with the infected. He saw that the cities and towns that were initially inhabited were now deserted. Words choking with despair such as “doomsday,” “we will all die,” and “help” were painted on the walls of the abandoned buildings. The streets were in disarray, full of the wreckage of aircraft that crashed.

Walking on the empty streets with pieces of paper flying around, Ethan was filled with sadness. The world, the whole universe, was dying, and the breath of death had penetrated into the air.

He no longer slept around the nonhumans, but he knew that more and more nonhumans were infected. Panic was spreading. Yesterday, a nonhuman who was obviously feverish was reported. Chen Zeng ordered that the man be left outside in the middle of the wasteland and allowed him to stew in his own illness.

He couldn’t imagine how afraid and helpless that person felt. However, it wouldn’t be long before he became one of his kind, and he wouldn’t be afraid or lonely anymore.

There was a spiritual connection between the monsters that allowed them to be more close-knit than human beings. It was almost like the brains of countless individuals were fused together. Everyone shared feelings and emotions with each other, and everyone seemed to be an extension of himself.

It was a feeling of fullness, yet loneliness.

He leaned on little Rafael and slept on the “grassland” of a former central park. But now, there was almost no grass, and there was some sort of black grease everywhere. Even the grass that fortunately survived seemed to be sucked up of all its energy when Ethan approached. Life withered and decayed rapidly, as if he was a black hole, a black hole that would suck up life and bring death.

“Why are you helping Chen Zeng?”

Ethan opened his eyes and sat up straight.

Samuel was just a few steps away from him.

“You’re finally willing to talk to me?” Ethan said half-jokingly.

Samuel was silent. There was something in his hand. He took a few steps forward and looked at the giant worm behind Ethan with some fear.

However, Samuel did not know why but this worm didn’t give him the same goosebump-inducing feeling as those worms on Pales. On the contrary, the worm caused him to feel……strangely familiar with it?

This was simply a hair-raising thought……

He shook his head as if trying to get rid of his confused thoughts. He said, “Ever since Schneider died, I took an oath. I’m going to destroy the Lord Grace’s Association.”

Ethan sighed and stood up. “I didn’t help him. I just need him to help me find someone.”

“Those people should die,” Samuel said in an emotionless, factual tone. His eyes were empty, which made Ethan a little frightened.

“Samuel, what happened? Where’s your father?” Ethan took a step forward.

Samuel suddenly showed a very strange expression. Ethan couldn’t tell whether he was crying or laughing. He said, “Dead.”

“We escaped to the Third Space Station, but it was full of people from the Lord Grace’s Association. Among them were guards from the Forbidden City. They believed that the plague broke out because of Schneider and I, so they wanted to kill us. My father didn’t manage to escape.”

Ethan’s throat was dry, and he knew it was useless to say anything. Chen Zeng had clearly promised him, and he didn’t think that man was stupid enough to lie to him.

What he didn’t know, however, was that Chen Zeng’s order was indeed not to hurt Samuel and his father, but he overestimated his ability to control the religion he created.

Just like how he failed to stop the radicals in the Forbidden City from trying to execute Samuel and Schneider, the believers took their own stand when they thought that this was a test Chen Zeng had given them to see if they could act according to his teachings.

Sometimes, believers were more extreme and terrifying than their leaders.

Ethan stepped forward, trying to reach for Samuel’s shoulder and tell him that he would avenge him. After all, he could understand the pain of losing his father.

However, just as he reached for his hand, Samuel grabbed his wrist.

“I grabbed these from a book in the priest’s basement when I rescued you from the Eves’ planet.” Samuel raised his other hand, and in it were several old and fragile-looking pages. “In my dream, the man in black once told me that these things would make you finally accept your destiny. As long as you accepted them, maybe I would have a chance to see Schneider again. I hesitated and did not know whether to give them to you. But now, I’m too lazy to care.” With that, he shoved the pieces of paper into Ethan’s hand, before releasing his hand, turning, and leaving.

“Samuel!” Ethan yelled behind him, “Where are you going?”

Samuel’s footstep paused, and he turned to look back at him. “If you still treat me as a friend, don’t go back to where the nonhumans are staying.”

Ethan frowned. He lowered his head and slowly unfolded the crumpled paper.

There were many twisted characters written on it, along with some complicated patterns full of sharp corners and uncomfortable arcs. The characters looked very familiar, and some of them looked like the characters he saw on the temple pillars underground in Pales.

The characters held a strange attraction to him. It was as though if he looked at them for too long, these characters would slowly deform.

Then, he suddenly heard a light and gentle breath.

“Ethan.”

He looked up and froze.

Tanisiel stood in front of him, his gray eyes slightly bent, and his beautiful red lips pulled into a gentle arc. He was wearing the white and gold priesthood robe Ethan had seen him the first time they met. It was as though he was covered with a pale, streaming light.

Almost at the same time, the strings of soul bond, which had lay silent for a long time in his body, shook violently.