Falling into the Abyss

The test tube fell to the ground with a clash. Fortunately, the material the tube was created from merely looked like glass. Contrary to its appearance, it was actually a very tough material that would not break easily.

However, Ethan was not worried about whether the God of Disorder’s bodily fluid in the test tube would leak out. He took a few steps back and shrunk into a small ball in the corner, scratching his hair with his hands as he nervously mumbled in fear.

He was seen, he was seen, he was seen…… He didn’t know what just happened, but he knew that he had been seen by the huge green eye and could never escape it.

He didn’t know what he saw or who the black man was, but he knew that the city was from the ancient past. It was so ancient that even the universe might not have been born then. Those weird buildings couldn’t be built on any planetary states in the existing universe. They were all shaped unreasonably, and the sight of them would cause people to feel dizzy. The huge emerald sun in the sky was akin to the viridian eyes. It emitted a hazy light, overlooking everything in the world.

It was a universe that had long since fallen apart and was beyond human understanding.

The thing in the cone-shaped tower—emptiness and chaos—was formed from the purest form of madness. Ethan would be swallowed and wholly absorbed and would no longer exist in the time period spanning endlessly into the future. It would be as though he had never existed.

He didn’t want to turn out like that……that was too terrifying. To not exist any longer, and never have existed, leaving behind just a hollow shell……

Suddenly, his body was surrounded by familiar, gentle strength, and the light scent of sandalwood wrapped him like a delicate cloud. The power of tranquillity, accompanied by the light color of the God of Order’s egg, penetrated through his boundless fear.

Tanisiel was embracing him. Ethan had wrapped his hands around his head, so the injury on the back of his neck was exposed. It was covered with black blood vessels that had spread to his shoulders and neck, appearing like fine lines branching out. These lines on his skin were drying and cracking, and some of them even bled. When Ethan’s fear reached its peak, he even felt that he saw something move under his skin, popping out from under his skin slightly.

Fear……fear is the catalyst of variation, said a voice in Tanisiel’s head.

He raised his mental strength to the highest he could emit, and the glow from his forehead and silver eyes became increasingly brighter. He tried to drag Ethan’s mind back to reality, but the dark power in the other person’s mind was also constantly attempting to drag his mind back, and scattered images were invading his mind. The viridian eyes and dark human figure flashed through his mind and caused Tanisiel’s hair to stand on end. He did not expect to see a vision of the God of Imbecility that he had always believed in and its messenger——a vision of The Black Pharaoh, The Crawling Chaos. Things had evolved to this point without his interference…… He couldn’t tell whether he should feel joy or fear.

Tanisiel tried to keep his violently changing emotions steady. He whispered in Ethan’s ear, and his voice traveled through the other’s ear canal like a magic spell.

“Ethan, come back, come back to me.”

Tanisiel’s voice was the last straw that Ethan’s nearly frantic consciousness could grasp onto. He desperately grabbed onto the sentence and finally pulled himself out from the chaotic images. When he awoke, he found that Tanisiel was holding him from behind, and his hand was clinging to Tanisiel’s wrist. Because he had used too much strength, he even managed to cause a trace of blood to appear on his white wrist. The Eve’s blood was slightly different from Earthlings. The purple liquid staining his fingertips seemed like a rose’s juice had accidentally stained him.

Ethan relaxed his grip on Tanisiel but still refused to let go of his hand completely. He kept blinking as though trying to make sure that he had indeed made it back to reality.

Ethan asked in an unsteady voice, “What was that place? I saw……a green sun, a big city, and lots of insects……I don’t want to go there!”

“Shh……” Tanisiel reassured him, “It was just the genetic memories from the God of Disorder’s body resonating with you. You’re safe now.”

“Genetic memories?”

“It’s a kind of memory recorded in a race’s genetic information. Usually, one won’t feel them, but they will still be affected by them. Generally speaking, humans should not have such a big reaction when they are indirectly exposed to a body sample from the God of Disorder because human evolution is mainly guided by the power of the God of Order, so there should be no genetic memories from the God of Disorder,” Tanisiel spoke slowly, as if worried that Ethan wouldn’t understand due to being bewildered. He turned Ethan’s body around and looked directly at him, before saying, “The reason why you had such a big reaction is that it’s likely that you were infected by the God of Disorder on Red Earth, but this infection was suppressed by the radiation from the God of Order in the early stages. It wasn’t until you entered the second universe dominated by the power of the God of Disorder that the power of the God of Order’s egg greatly weakened, so the mutation began to occur.”

Hearing the six words ‘infected by the God of Disorder’, Ethan’s first thought was of Jeff’s body that had been covered with the moving lumps, and goosebumps immediately rose. He asked despairingly, “Will I become a kind of insect, like the one on Red Earth?”

“Your mutation seems to be different from them. To be honest, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Tanisiel looked at Ethan’s expression and knew that if he said yes, the Beta might immediately commit suicide. However, he didn’t lie to him because the lines on the back of Ethan’s neck were obviously not symptoms that the people who had been infected on Red Earth experienced. Seeing that Ethan had not been appeased, he sighed and said, “I can try to suppress the mutation in your body with the help of the radiation from the God of Order’s egg, but I don’t know if I will succeed.”

Ethan grabbed him by the hem of his clothes, his eyes full of the desperation that a beggar pushed to the brink of death would have. He said, in an almost forced tone, “Please save me. I don’t want to become like that!”

Tanisiel turned his head and looked at the God of Order’s egg. He was also in a dilemma. He had taken one of the God of Order’s eggs to Red Earth without permission and had completely consumed the precious object. After returning to the Eve planet, he was almost taken for interrogation by the priests who didn’t like him. If it weren’t for the protection of the Pope and his uncle, he wouldn’t have escaped safely. Part of the reason why they secretly sent him to Earth to help develop antimatter was to allow him to stay out of the limelight.

If he misused the God of Order’s egg again for the sake of this human, it would cause a lot of trouble.

But if he didn’t save him……

Tanisiel gently patted Ethan on the back, making up his mind and saying, “That’s fine, I’ll help you. But you can’t let anyone know about it, even Samuel.”

Ethan nodded quickly. As long as he could stop the mutation, he was afraid that he would agree to anything.

Tanisiel gently grabbed Ethan’s wrist so that he’d release the hem of his clothes before standing up and walking to the altar carrying the God of Order’s eggs. First, he took the little bottle containing Shub-Niggurath’s fluids and carefully placed it back on the altar. The blue light of the God of Order’s egg suddenly dimmed and even completely extinguished.

Ethan saw that Tanisiel had taken a small piece of blue-colored matter from the egg, and gently knocked on the surface of the God of Order’s egg just like he did previously, in a very attentive and careful manner. It gave the impression that he was walking on thin ice.

When the God of Order’s egg rereleased a charming blue halo, Tanisiel was relieved. He held the blue fragment tightly in his hand, before going to the door and pulling Ethan up. “Let’s go.”

Tanisiel moved in a hurry, and Ethan had followed him closely. He noticed that the floor button Tanisiel pressed was not the floor where he had stayed at previously but was about three floors lower than that. Before leaving the elevator, Tanisiel reached out and pulled Ethan’s collar up to cover the nonhuman collar around his neck.

There were very few people in the clear corridor, but occasionally a well-dressed senior researcher would pass by them and either greet the priest or just nod. No one paid too much attention to the mundane Beta behind the priest. Tanisiel brought Ethan into a very luxurious apartment, which was obviously specially arranged for him. The priest motioned for Ethan to sit on the sofa while he himself entered the bedroom.

Ethan sat restlessly on the sofa, taking off his glasses and wiping them with his sleeves and rubbing his feet against the soft carpet on the floor.

About thirty minutes later, Tanisiel finally came out. The blue fragment in his hand was gone, replaced by a transparent tube-like pen. It had brass metal rings at both ends, and was covered with Eve-style patterns. The transparent part of the tube revealed a blue liquid.

“This is a small fragment that I took from the God of Order’s eggs. I crushed it and divided it into five parts to fill this syringe. I’ll inject the first part into the back of your neck later, and I’ll let you feel the effects and decide whether to continue the injections or not.” Tanisiel squatted down in front of Ethan and looked at him seriously. “Excessive exposure to the radiation of the God of Order’s power will also bring problems, so I don’t dare to give you too much at one time.”

Ethan pursed his lips and nodded heavily, saying, “I believe you.”

Tanisiel was slightly surprised. He seemed to want to liven up the atmosphere and smiled at him. “Don’t be in such a hurry to trust me. We are……”

“In a give and take relationship,” Ethan continued his words as though nothing was wrong and gave him a bitter smile. “I know that I’m valuable to you, so you won’t let anything happen to me, will you?”

At that moment, Tanisiel’s heart overturned, and he experienced a feeling of heartache that he hadn’t felt for a very long time. The other party’s pale smile reminded him of the smile his father had given him when he had tried to comfort his father just before he died. He frowned, then stood up and gently held Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan also pulled down his collar and lowered his head to reveal his neck that contained fine black lines.

Tanisiel noticed that some of the lines had begun to spread into his hairline. He activated the syringe and inserted it at the densest part of the thin threads on the back of his neck.

T/N: Thank you VBaby for the Ko-Fi support! A bonus chapter will be published this week.

About the gods: There will be many other names of these so-called ‘Gods’, but they are generally referring to the gods in the faction of Order, the gods in the faction of Disorder. For those who aren’t familiar with Lovecraftian Gods like me, you just have to be aware that they are two major ‘Gods’ (or super-intelligent species) in this universe-Order and Disorder. Both are standing at two opposing ends due to the nature of their bodies.