Falling into the Abyss

Chapter 9: Atonement: Red Earth (VII)

Tanisiels words sent chills down Ethans spine. He suddenly thought of something and rushed to the medical room next door, turning on the computer and pulling up all the previous staffs medical records. He randomly selected a few people to browse their records quickly. Unsurprisingly, in the week before they disappeared, many people complained to the psychiatrists about insomnia, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and hearing nonexistent sounds. Even those who did not report psychological problems had some physical issues, such as fatigue, headaches, dizziness and nausea, and the number of injuries during work had increased significantly. He opened a dozen or so documents randomly, and found that everyone had encountered different problems that week.

Ethan! What are you doing there by yourself! Lets go! Samuel called out from outside the room, Theres not even a trace of a ghosts shadow here.

Hearing those two words, ghosts shadow, Ethan felt the hairs on his body stand up.

Back in the hall, the rest of the people did not find anyone. It had become dusk, and the three moons, both big and small, had revealed their faint, curvy outlines in the indigo night sky. Beyond the horizon, those strangely shaped mountains shadows were blurred with a gorgeous violet color, while the distorted light shone on those cone-shaped plants, causing their shadows to lengthen. From this angle, people who saw the sight felt it looked inexplicably bizarre.

The mothership ordered them to rest at the base for the night. Many suggested they should separate and sleep in different bedrooms, but Ethan didnt think it was a good idea. He said to Samuel in a low, eager voice, Now that the men on the mothership are resting, we should go to find the plant that Tanisiel mentioned as soon as possible.

Hush. Were still waiting to show everyone that video tonight and explain what happened. Then, everyone will understand whats going on.

Ethan said hurriedly, No! Most of us were forced to come here, and many of them are mentally unstable. If you show them that video now, you will only cause a ruckus!

Samuel frowned and turned to look at Ethan. He asked, You mean, we shouldnt tell them and just let them fend for themselves?

Hearing the obvious displeasure in Samuels voice, Ethan was speechless. Inwardly, he wondered how a nonhuman like him in the Forbidden City Could still have such compassion. He toned down his tone and advised, Theres no need to say everything explicitly, right? You and the other nine people are the leaders for this operation, and they will listen to whatever you ask them to do. However, we must act as soon as possible. I read the medical reports of the people who went missing. Before that thing appeared, people were very emotionally unstable. If we drag this on for too long, Im afraid our people will have the same problems too.

Just then, they heard a commotion not too far away. The female Beta who had been crying all this time suddenly covered her ears with her hands and shrunk back, rocking her body back and forth in her chair while shouting, Stop! Stop it! Shut up!!! A male Beta about her age tried to placate her, but her eyes remained wide open as she repeatedly shouted, Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I dont want to die! That was probably what she shouted, as her voice was hoarse and shrill, like a cuckoo crying blood. And under the excessively gorgeous twilight of Red Earth, the situation appeared even more eerie.

Ethan walked over quickly and asked the male Beta about what happened. He said that she had asked them who had just talked to her, but none of them had. Then, she started screaming all of a sudden.

Ethans heart sank. He recalled that in the medical records, certain people having psychological problems claimed to have heard voices that didnt exist. He squatted in front of her, trying to pry open the hands that were covering her ears to communicate with her, but they stayed stubbornly put.

At this time, Tanisiel pushed through the crowd and put his hand on the womans forehead. The third eye on his forehead opened slightly, and Ethan instantly felt a subtle change in his surroundings. It was as if the originally dry air had suddenly become damp. The invisible force absorbed the penetrating scream and suppressed the surrounding peoples inexplicable anxiety. Tanisiel whispered something that sounded like a prayer in the Eve language, and the woman finally calmed down. She stopped screaming, and after a while, she turned to stare at the priest, who was looking at her with an expression full of pity.

Tanisiel slowly closed the eye on his forehead and stroked the womans cheek with his fair palm; his movements were filled with endless pity and tenderness. Ethan began to zone out and suddenly wished that it was he who was being caressed by that hand. He was startled by the idea intruding into his mind and quickly bit his tongue to wake himself up.

Tell me what you heard, Tanisiel commanded in a gentle voice.

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The woman shrank momentarily, as if still in shock. She wiped the tears that had spilled down her cheeks due to fear with her sleeve, and hesitated for a moment, before speaking in a voice as quiet as a mosquitos buzz, Its so bigextremely bigwere all going to dienoIts more terrible than deathwe will be eaten by it and become a part of itIll never see my daughter againI havent seen her for four years! After she was done speaking, she began to sob again.

It? an Alpha nearby asked, What nonsense are you talking about?

Tanisiel glanced sharply at the speaker and the Alpha, who was much taller than him, felt a chill run down their spine. When Tanisiel turned around, he had restored a gentle and compassionate expression on his face. Ethan was rendered speechless by the speed at which his expression changed.

Tanisiel suddenly reached out to touch the womans collar, and the information stored inside flowed from his fingertips to enter his personal database. The ten thousand function sphere flying around him immediately flew in front of him, projecting some materials written in the Eves language. From the fragmented words in the Earthlings language, Ethan recognized that it was a personal medical history.

Theres no history of schizophrenia, Tanisiel said with a dignified look, putting his ten thousand function sphere away. Generally, human beings would have some kind of premonition before they come into contact with relics related to the God of Disorder, with some people who were naturally sensitive or mentally fragile being more vulnerable.

At this moment, Ethan approached him and asked, What did she say?

Tanisiel muttered, Eatto be born againit cant be her right His eyes twinkled with joy as he continued, Im afraid that we have less time than I had imagined.

When Samuel observed this, he knew that Ethan was right. He immediately summoned the nine other people. They brought about ten people each to search for the blue cone-shaped plants that Tanisiel said were near the base. Ethan and Tanisiel stayed at the base to continue searching through the records in the computer system left by the previous developers. Everyone was confused. They had no idea why Samuel and the others wanted to go out in the middle of the night, but seeing that the nine leaders were all very nervous, they did not dare to ask more questions and just followed them out.

They tasked Ethan with digging out a lot more information from the computer. The more he looked, the paler he turned. He suddenly got up and went over to Tanisiel, who was sitting comfortably on a couch in the middle of the circular hall.

He didnt know where the Eve priest had gotten a bottle of unopened red wine, but he had poured himself a glass and was sipping it gently. He adjusted the settings of the screen on the wall, and projected the view around the base onto the snow-white walls. On the plains, the deep purple twilight had slowly expanded, with the three huge silver moons forming a triangle, and the red grassland was covered with a layer of silver frost and snow.

All the plants on this planet are connected to each other! Ethan ran to Tanisiel and exclaimed, The sap from the plant specimens collected by the previous developers were found to contain a component similar to that in the blood of the animals on this planet! The plants outside are actually animals!

Tanisiel looked at Ethan, whose expression was filled with horror. He chuckled and pointed towards his side and told him, Sit down.

Ethan saw that the priest was so unconcerned, while he felt like he was going crazy. He didnt understand how Samuel and the priest were so calm. Did they understand that they might soon face an unimaginable situation? Ethan didnt want to die so soon. There were so many things that he hadnt tried. He had spent twenty-nine of his first thirty years of his life living in boredom and silence, while the indulgence in his last year had sent him to the Forbidden City.

He couldnt die here so soon.

Why does the God of Disorder you mentioned appear only once every three years? Where does it hide in these three years? This planet is so strange Ethan paced back and forth in front of Tanisiel, unable to calm down. He continued, When I was in the Energy Bureau, I visited many undeveloped primitive planets. Even the most remote and strange planet was not as strange as this placedont you think so? All the plants are connected to each other. Even the animals here grow thin organs to connect themselves to the rhizome undergroundthe planet itself is like a living animal!

Ethan, Tanisiel raised his voice slightly, and there was an unquestionable authority in his voice, Come here and sit down.

Tanisiels voice suddenly hardened, and Ethans feet stopped shuffling, unable to reject his order. He stood stiffly for a moment, before reluctantly walking to the other end of the sofa and sitting down.

Tanisiel handed the wine glass in his hand over to him, It was hidden behind some rotten vegetables, and it doesnt look like its contaminated by the God of Disorder. It will help relieve anxiety.

Ethan hesitated to take the glass. The edge of the glass had imprints of the priests lips, while the liquid inside was like blood, leaving faint red residual marks on the walls of the glass. He frowned and asked, Can you priests drink alcohol?

No more than one glass a day, Tanisiel smoothly replied, We believe that it is best to follow our instincts while having proper restraint, as no extreme action can bring us closer to God.

God? Ethan said with a wry smile, If that thing is really your God of Disorder, then do you want to become that kind of thing after cultivating for so long?

In order to transcend the shackles of time and space, whats wrong with that? Tanisiel uttered as he played with his ten thousand function sphere, sighing, You know, us Eves priests are also divided into two factions. Most of the priests take the orthodox Road, believing in the God of Order, and taking the teachings of the God of Order as the norm. And the other faction, including me, worship the mysterious God of Disorder. Thats why I had to take part in this search and rescue mission and come to the Red Earth with all of you. The temple to which I belong does not agree with my ideas.

Ethan stared in surprise at the man in front of him that appeared as delicate as an antique doll. He did not expect that such a man, whose entire body emanated light, would worship monsters. Isnt that the worship of evil spirits like Satan? Obviously, this belief should be in stark contrast to believing in the God of Order. Why did he say it as if it was just a different branch of a religion?

The Eves view of the world was really special.

Ethan took a deep breath and suddenly lifted his head and gulped the wine down. The strong wines aroma glided down his esophagus, bringing the fishy scent of blood with it. The wine seeped out of the corner of his lips and followed the outline of his jaw, winding down his neck, appearing as bright as blood. Tanisiel gazed at him with an inscrutable expression, his fingers still rubbing on his ten thousand function sphere, information about Ethans personal identity flowing into his mind.

Originally, his attention was mostly on Samuel, but this Betas intuition went beyond his expectation. He had become more interested in Ethan now.

So it was actually treason. I really wouldnt have guessed

Ethan was caught unprepared. He choked on the wine messily and covered his mouth with his sleeve as he coughed. He stammered, Youwhat did you just say?

Tanisiel slightly tilted his head and said innocently, Nothing. I was just curious.

The atmosphere between the two became a little awkward. To be exact, Ethan felt one-sidedly embarrassed, with anger and impatience smoldering in the depths of his heart. However, he was used to it, and it was currently inconvenient to vent his anger. Tanisiel saw him avoid his gaze, and the knuckles on the hand holding the wine glass turned white. He replied with an apologetic and sincere smile, Sorry, I read your personal information without your permission.

In fact, Ethan knew inwardly that nonhumans did not have privacy, so he had no grounds to blame the other party for checking his information. He had just entered the Forbidden City and was not used to the feeling of being seen through. Now, facing the other partys solemn apology, he knew that he had no right to be angry, so he slowly breathed out and adjusted his mood. He wanted to reply, It doesnt matter. However, before the words could be squeezed from his mouth, he noticed a thin and short creature circling around the white ground and was coming closer to them. It appeared to be an insect.

But wasnt this base completely sealed? How were there insects?

Ethan narrowed his eyes and looked carefully at the creature that was inching forward waveringly, growing larger in his line of sight. However, when he saw the bug clearly, his instinctive sense of fear made the ends of his hair stand.

It was a worm about twenty centimeters long with a cylindrical body. It was slightly thicker than a centipede, but Ethan could not see any legs. There was no shell on the grayish-black body, and the skin was similar to a snail without its shell. Ethan could see some black blood vessels inside its body winding and pulsing as it twisted its body flexibly. However, what was really frightening was the lumpy and faint face growing on its front end.

It was a human face.

Ethan suddenly stood up and tried to take a step back, but he forgot that there was a sofa behind him, and he fell down on the cushion. He turned his head in horror to look at Tanisiel and saw that the other party was slightly surprised, but not afraid, and even felt that it was somewhat novel. The priest stood up and crouched down a couple steps away from the bug.

The insect seemed to perceive his gaze had stopped wriggling. It suddenly curled up, forming a spiral before remaining motionless. At their current distance, Ethan could not see the expression on the bugs human face, or whether it was conscious or not. He sat on the sofa rigidly. Half of the liquor in his glass had already been spilled, and the white leather sofa had been stained.

Tanisiel stood still silently opposite the monster. The front end of the monster was undulating strangely. Faintly, one could see the shape of stacked human facial features, but there were also some subtle distortions and deformations, causing the face to appear swollen and ugly. It was probably because the place where its eyes should be contained two slits of different lengths, while the place where the mouth should be was a round hole, and a strange black fluff appeared inside, vaguely wriggling. And in its soft, jelly-like body, something was also moving and flowing inside.

What a disgusting thing.

Tanisiel turned around and took the glass from Ethans hand, dumping the liquid inside all over the ground before turning the glass upside down to trap the bug. The bug was suddenly shut into a transparent cell and stopped moving. It was as if it had died.

Ethan mustered up his courage and inched forward a few steps, his face wrinkled with disgust as he asked, What the hell is this? How did it get in here? Shouldnt this place have been sealed by Gina?

Tanisiel, however, was still engrossed in staring at the bug, and the slit on his forehead opened slightly.

This time, his third eye opened wider than before, and Ethan could see that it had no pupil. There was only blank silver. Tanisiels expression suddenly changed, and he opened his eyes extremely wide. His original gray irises turned a blank white, and the expression on his delicate face suddenly became strange and solemn.

Ethan could not help but take a step back, and, for a moment, he didnt know what he should do. He had heard that the Eves could see the truth of the world with their three eyes open, but no one could tell what exactly the truth was. However, he never knew that the Eves, with three eyes open, appeared so spiritual.

Tanisiel was only in this state for a moment before he closed all three eyes, and when he opened his eyes again, he had recovered his gray irises. He heaved a long sigh, and stood up.

Ethan immediately asked, What did you see? What is it? Are they indigenous here? How did it get in?

Tanisiel looked at him and shook his head, replying, You wouldnt want to know.

Ethan almost entered a state of panic when he heard such an answer. He hated it when someone only said a part of something and refused to continue speaking about it. However, the people around him especially liked to pretend that they were mysterious, especially this abnormal priest.

This kind of communication method that requires guessing is not efficient at all. Why did plenty of Alphas and Omegas just not understand?

So it has something to do with your God of Disorder? Should we step on it? Ethan wanted to do it but was stopped by Tanisiel, who said, No. Ill keep him for a while. When the others come back, dont let them touch him.

Ethan felt a little frustrated, but when he saw Tanisiels expression allowed no room for question, he could not say anything else and could only agree.

However, just now, did Tanisiel use the word him instead of it?

Did he misspeak?

The author has something to say:

The expressions of he/his/him, she/her, and it/its in the Earthlings language differs. (Some context: In Mandarin, he/she/it is pronounced the same way, but in written form, it is different characters.)

T/N: When Tanisiel was holding his ten thousand function sphere, what was he thinking??? Hmmmm.