Falling into the Abyss

The dim candlelight darkened the shadows of everyone standing in front of Ethan. They were all dressed in black cloaks and hoods, holding delicate candlesticks with both of their hands. Black candle wax was melting, emitting a faint smell of myrrh.

Ethan sat up slowly and looked down at himself. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and all of the gun wounds had almost healed, leaving only faint scars. There were still many black lines on the sides of his body and his arms, and there was still some lingering burning pain in his body. However, it was obvious that the influence of the God of Order’s egg on him had been greatly weakened.

The pain in his mind was so intense that he could not tell the difference between dreams and reality.

“You were injured,” Chen Zeng said in a soothing tone, “But now you’re safe.”

“Where is this?” Ethan asked.

“We’re on our way to Earth.” Chen Zeng looked around the surroundings, “This is our spaceship, the Apocalypse.”

“So….why am I on your ship?”

“We saved you. There were members of the Lord Grace’s Association on the Seventh Space Station. They informed me of the situation and of you going to the Fifth Space Station alone, so we snatched you away before the Earth Union blew up the Fifth Space Station.”

Ethan looked around slowly, at each pair of eyes that were drooping downwards and their expressions of reverence. His voice was cold as he said, “Your followers are widely dispersed.”

Suddenly, the circle of people around him headed by Chen Zeng knelt down at the same time, holding the candles high with both hands. Only Chen Zeng sincerely recited, “On behalf of God, the prophet Gad once said to King David of Israel, who disobeyed God, ‘The Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you. Shall you experience three years of famine in your kingdom? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your kingdom? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.’ David said to Gad, ‘I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great, but do not let me fall into human hands.’ Thus, the Lord sent a plague to Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand people from Dan to Beersheba died.”（Note: this passage is quoted from 2 Samuel: 24）

Ethan was unmoved and glanced at the people who worshiped him with indifference. He recognized most of them from the Forbidden City. It seemed that after Earth was occupied by the plague, the Earth Union had given up on the Forbidden City.

Chen Zeng continued to chant, “When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned. I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.’ On that day, Gad went to David and said to him, ‘Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.’ So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad, and David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. David built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt and fellowship offerings. Then, the Lord answered his prayer on behalf of his kingdom, and the plague upon Israel was stopped.” (Note: this passage is quoted from 2 Samuel: 24）

Ethan interrupted, “Could it be that you think that I’m your god?”

“You are the angel of the Lord, the angel of destruction. Just as Jesus Christ brought forgiveness and redemption to mankind, you bring God’s wrath and final judgment.”

Ethan had a splitting headache, and the terrifying memory of his father’s death in his arms was gradually returning to his mind. Looking at the pious and ignorant expressions of the group of people around him, he felt sick.

“We know that human beings have long since deviated from God’s teachings and forgotten to fear and love God. We deserve what’s happening now. We are willing to sacrifice to you and follow your steps. We only ask God to forgive those who still follow him.” Chen Zeng’s gaze held some sort of power, as if it could look into the distant peaceful future, having the depths to soothe people. Ethan was looked at by this gaze, and somehow, he thought of Tanisiel. Did people who were good at bewitching people with faith all possess such peaceful-looking eyes? Were they born with this kind of ability?

However, Chen Zeng still remained at the same spot, looking up at Ethan, who was standing beside the bed made from some sort of metallic iron, with a calm and devout look. Behind Ethan’s body, the black tentacles were fluttering like wings, and there was some contempt and disgust in Ethan’s eyes. Chen Zeng smiled. This was the angel of death he needed. With him, no one would doubt the coming of the end.

“I hate you believers.” Ethan looked down at him and said, “If you want to stop the plague, then you shouldn’t have saved me.”

When he was done speaking, he casually threw the men out. Those men were no longer being strangled, but they were frightened and shivered on the ground. Ethan jumped up from bed, bypassing Chen Zeng and the shivering believers on the ground to walk towards the round-shaped area that resembled a sacrificial altar.

This was definitely a spaceship, and looking at the interior design and decoration, it had the slight feel of the Ophiuchus Alliance’s design style.

Sure enough, Chen Zeng was backed by the Ophiuchus Alliance.

The light in the whole spaceship was dim. It seemed that someone had deliberately obscured the light, which gave the spaceship a mysterious and somber atmosphere. The corridor was also packed with believers, all wearing similar black-hooded robes with the sigil of the Lord Grace’s Association hanging on their chests, and they knelt outside with their eyes lowered. When they saw him coming out, they seemed to be very scared and shrunk backward almost all at the same time.

Ethan hated these people. They killed Schneider.

They were a group of stupid people who had been brainwashed due to their own ignorance and fear.

But they were right. The instinct to blindly obey people who were stronger than themselves, the instinct to be afraid and hateful of everything different from themselves, and the instinct to try to kill heretics who were weaker than them using their power as a group, all of these were engraved in human genes. These genes allowed humans to survive beyond other species, to build spaceships to conquer the universe, to destroy planets with nuclear bombs, and to enable them to make the decision to kill millions of people without question.

Anyone who was placed in their shoes may become similar fools like them and may agree that Schneider and Samuel should be hanged.

But Ethan still hated them, and a destructive impulse was churning in his body.

“The Fifth Space Station has been blown up. The Earth Union probably thinks you died along with it.” Chen Zeng approached him with his head slightly lowered, in a respectful but not humble manner.

“Did you bring back my father’s body when you saved me?” Ethan asked.

“We only managed to get you out of there in time.”

Ethan leaned over and gazed at him with his green eyes. “I want to speak to you alone. Let your believers scram.”

Chen Zeng gazed all around the place, raising his hand and gesturing for them to go out. The believers turned and retreated in a hurry like a black tide, like the worms who succumbed to Ethan.

You see, between people and insects, there wasn’t much difference.

After the people dispersed, Ethan turned to face the Beta, who always remained calm with slightly raised eyebrows. “So, do you want me to help you spread your Great Evil God preachings?”

Chen Zeng clasped his hands in front of him in a respectful manner. “It’s not spreading, it’s proving. Your existence is proof.”

“Aren’t you afraid you’ll be infected by me?”

“I’m afraid that would be a little difficult given your present physical condition?”

Ethan clenched his fist. That was a fact. Moments ago, he tried to catch those people to test his body’s condition, but it was obvious that it was still tough for him to do so.

“You think you can intimidate me now?” Ethan squinted slightly.

“I know you must hate me because of what happened before you left the Forbidden City.” Chen Zeng’s words suddenly changed. Ethan noticed that Chen Zeng’s term of address towards him had changed, so he knew it was time to get to the point.

“Hate?” Ethan laughed, his tone mocking.

“I just want you to know that was not my personal intent. I wasn’t aware of the incident that happened to your friend.”

“Of course you didn’t know. It was all your believers who misinterpreted what you meant?” Ethan gnashed his teeth in the end. The tentacles behind him unconsciously spread towards Chen Zeng’s body, winding around his legs and climbing up.

Chen Zeng’s body stiffened, but he still kept a sincere expression on his face as he apologized. “I’m not shirking my responsibility. That was definitely my mistake. In fact, I don’t hate Omega-Omega relationships, but I am a preacher of the Lord after all. These are the teachings of the Lord……”

“If you say one more word, I’ll kill you now.” Ethan’s tentacles climbed up to Chen Zeng’s neck and wandered around the corner of the Beta’s mouth. “No, it’s better to infect you and let your followers see what you look like after you become a worm, to see if they will still kneel down and kiss your feet?”

“I can help you,” Chen Zeng said.

“How can you help me?”

“You don’t really want to infect everyone, do you?” Chen Zeng’s rapid heartbeat was conveyed to Ethan through his tentacles. “If you intended to do so, you’d have already done it. Your family members were killed by the Earth Union, and it was them who tossed you in the Forbidden City and made you lose everything. They use moral value points as a weapon to control everyone who dares to question them until no one dares to express their opinions. Anyone who is regarded as a threat by them is simply thrown to the Forbidden City to do some tasks that are not mad for human beings at all! We have been bullied by that tyrannical and cruel government for so long, and you turned into this because you were sent to dangerous places by them again and again. Don’t you want revenge?”

Ethan looked at him and tilted his head, as if he was considering what Chen Zeng said. Then, he said in a fake tone, as if he was enlightened, “Revenge? You mean to overthrow the Earth Union and let you take over?”

Chen Zeng didn’t dare open his mouth now, because the tentacle dripping with some unknown black mucus was rubbing on his mouth. He reluctantly said in a vague voice, “I don’t deny that the country I want to create is really based on faith. Human beings are like a group of blind sheep. They need a strong shepherd who can make decisions for them and a code of conduct that they can follow! Without a supreme faith to give them so-called freedom, they will fall apart, hate each other, and finally choose a few dictators who are more terrible than me. Have you forgotten about the terrifying world war before the establishment of the Earth Union?”

Ethan laughed, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “What do you think is the difference between you and the members of the Earth Union? If you were to replace the current president, you would only be more cruel than her! You will make so-called religious laws, suppress everyone’s desires, regard Omegas as a fertility machine, and kill everyone who doesn’t believe you or merely doubts you under the banner of justice and benevolence, just like the God you believe in!”

“Do you care?” Chen Zeng did not flinch in front of his sharp words. “The person who infected others with the plague this time was not the Lord, but you.”

Ethan stared at him for a long time and finally said, “Yeah, I’m not even human. All of you should be my enemies.”

“We don’t have to be enemies.” Hearing Ethan’s intention to kill, Chen Zeng hurriedly added, “We know where Samuel and his father are, and we know who you are looking for. My believers are all over the Earth Union. I can help you!”

Ethan approached Chen Zeng until they were so close that they were at an almost ambiguous distance. He squeezed Chen Zeng’s face and stared at him with a chilling expression.

“You want to threaten me with Samuel?”

Chen Zeng, who was at a disadvantage, could still keep calm and smile reluctantly. “If I don’t have some bargaining chips, how would I dare to save you?”

Ethan’s slender pupils slightly twitched as if he was considering something. Then, he suddenly released Chen Zeng, brushing his hands as if they were dirty, and said, “Fine. I really want you to help me find someone. If you can’t find this person after we get to Earth, then you can prepare a coffin for yourself.”

“Who are you looking for?”

“The former secretary-general of the Energy Bureau, Abel Roth.”

The author has something to say:

Sorry, I should have edited the chapter yesterday, but I was addicted to an Australian comedy(?) drama yesterday……The name of the drama is Please Like Me.