Falling into the Abyss

“We want you to take us to a whole new world.”

The voices approached from all directions. Ethan could not distinguish the source, and he couldn’t see a vocal organ on the queen below. Ethan frowned and cleared his throat and asked aloud, “What whole new world? I don’t know what you mean.”

“The whole new world is your world.” As the sound echoed, a huge worm’s tail suddenly sprang up, and the strong waves of wind almost swept Ethan off the cliff. However, the male who was curled up on the stone pillar nearest to Ethan seemed to have no malice. He simply placed his giant tail against the edge of the cliff and seemed to be waiting for Ethan to step on it.

Ethan, of course, didn’t want to come in contact with that disgusting skin that appeared like a blob of fat. When he put out his foot on it tentatively, his shoes soon sunk into the soft meat. The giant tail moved again and descended until they were only ten meters away from the worm queen in the abyss. From his perspective, the queen’s huge and burning body below was like those continuous and circuitous mountains, and the fishy scent became more and more intense as they approached. He quickly covered his nose with the cuff of his sleeve, and his whole face wrinkled.

Suddenly, Ethan saw that the queen worm’s scarlet body began to change. At the thickest part of its body, the thin skin began to stretch towards both sides, as if the mucous membrane gradually tore away from the middle. A mass of steam sprayed out from its body, and the glistening flesh beneath it separated, exposing millions of green, circular objects.

If you looked carefully, you would see that the spheres were about the size of a tennis ball, and they looked like frog eggs. The centers of the green translucent spheres were covered with black dots. They were soaked in blood-red mucus and fat, shaking and flowing with the undulations of the giant worm’s body.

These were their eggs…… No wonder they said that this planet was too crowded. If every egg eventually hatched into a giant worm, it was perfectly normal for the planet to be hollowed out……

Ethan was perplexed as he thought about the declaration they saw at the entrance of the temple: This is the starting point of your nightmare. It really did not exaggerate.

The him of the past would probably faint in front of such a disgusting and terrifying scene.

“Take our descendants to Earth to welcome the coming of God,” the childish voice rang out again. Now, Ethan saw that some organs further down the translucent body would shake when the giant worm queen spoke. He thought that they were probably her vocal organs.

Why didn’t it call out from the mouth at its front end like the other giant male worms and worker worms? Or……maybe it doesn’t have a mouth at all?

Ethan sneered, “Take your eggs to Earth, and empty Earth?”

“Your world is already barren. Your race has destroyed your own world.”

“Since it’s a world that’s about to be destroyed, why do you want to go?”

“We are devout believers of God. Please do not question our faith.”

Ethan raised his eyebrows strangely. When did he question these disgusting worms’ belief in their “God”?

“We are going to prepare. The gate of heaven is about to open……” Strange whispers came from the giant worm’s body as if many people were talking simultaneously. “We will help you to get everything ready. To wait……to wait……”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. But if I refuse to take your eggs back to Earth, will you kill us?” Ethan asked.

The queen worm was silent for a moment as if she didn’t quite understand what he meant. “Why refuse?”

Ethan almost doubted whether these worms were a so-called higher-tiered race…… “Isn’t the reason very simple? Every time you go to a planet, you will empty that planet and accelerate its death. Although there are not many things left on Earth that can be preserved, as an Earthling, I will still have some feelings for the planet I came from.”

The queen worm’s body wriggled for a moment, and the eggs rolled out as her body slightly rippled. “Eternity is coming to an end, and the sleeping king is about to awake…… Everything will return to endless chaos, which is the ultimate home.”

Ethan realized that the other party was trying to reason with him. Was it trying to persuade him to believe in their religion?

Eternity was coming to an end, and the sleeping king was about to awaken. This sentence was like a curse that followed him everywhere.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe in your Great Wise Man. I don’t want to be a sinner to my entire planet.”

“You are already a sinner.”

“……” That unhesitating assertion made Ethan momentarily speechless. Unexpectedly, the other party even knew he was a nonhuman.

There was a faint sigh near his ear, similar to how an elder could only sigh when facing a naughty child, “If you don’t help us expand, the four human beings will become our food.”

At first, Ethan couldn’t quite understand what her words meant, but after thinking about it, he understood.

If he disagreed, the four of them would be eaten by its descendants.

To be honest, he was not surprised at all. What surprised him was that it hadn’t threatened him immediately.

Ethan looked around the huge underground burrow calmly. The males all reached out towards him in a threatening manner.

“Aren’t you afraid that even if you force me to agree, I will destroy your eggs after I leave here?” Ethan asked curiously.

“You will not,” the voice said softly, “because you don’t kill your friends.”

Ethan’s face suddenly changed. “What do you mean?”

.

Samuel knew that he had lost consciousness for a short time. The last thing he remembered was seeing a huge worm open its mouth and approach him and Schneider. However, when he opened his eyes, he found that the worms surrounding them were much further away. They were not closing in on them anymore, and that horrifyingly huge worm was gone.

For a moment, he was not sure whether he was alive or dead.

He looked down and found that his clothes were wet and covered with a thick layer of mucus. He could even pull out strips of silky threads when he lifted his hand, which was very disgusting.

Strangely, the mucus wasn’t laced with acid and didn’t feel uncomfortable. He looked up and found that Schneider, who was next to him, still had his eyes closed, and his whole body was extremely sticky. Stray pieces of hair stuck to his cheek, making him appear a little more fragile than usual. Not far away from them, the sergeant and Stan were staring at them in horror.

“You’re not dead?” Stan asked in shock.

“What happened?” Samuel asked.

The sergeant said weakly, “You were swallowed by that very big worm, and afterward, you were vomited out by it…… We thought you were dead.”

Samuel turned around and shook Schneider. The latter whimpered and gradually woke up. The moment his eyes cleared, he revealed the same confused expression as Samuel.

“We……are not dead?” Schneider asked uncertainly.

“It looks like we aren’t……”

Samuel carefully helped Schneider to stand up. The four of them were still surrounded by countless twisting worms as they stood in the middle of their small, isolated island. However, the worms acted as though they didn’t see them, and instead, they intertwined with each other into a messy ball. However, when Samuel tried to get close to them, their front ends suddenly rose, and they opened their mouths, revealing the spiral rows of fangs that spread deep into their throats as if threatening Samuel.

The light on the laser gun was as weak as a flame that could be put out by the wind at any time, swaying and flickering. Their heartbeats also jumped up and down along with the flickering light.

“Now……what’s going on?” Samuel asked Schneider in a low voice. The latter did not speak, probably because he did not have an answer.

However, at this time, the worms that could cover the heavens and earth suddenly all moved at the same time. Samuel thought they would finally attack, and he didn’t expect that the worms would wriggle away like a tidal wave. They climbed along the stone pillars towards the dome or up the tall wall to drill into the holes and disappeared in a few minutes.

Then, about ten minutes later, just as the four of them were wondering what was going to happen, a cry came from the darkness.

“Samuel!”

Samuel quickly picked up the laser gun and shone it in the direction of the sound. The weak light vaguely reflected a black figure in the huge hole.

He listened to the voice. It was Ethan?

Schneider was also nervous and held a dagger in his hand. “Be careful…… We’re not sure if that’s truly Ethan.”

Samuel nodded and slowly walked towards the figure with his gun. “Ethan? Is that you?”

The figure also climbed down from the hole awkwardly and quickly walked towards them. A pale face gradually entered the beam of light. His glasses reflected the light, so they couldn’t see the look in his eyes clearly.

“Samuel, it’s me.”

Samuel was so relieved he felt he could collapse. He lowered his gun a little and punched Ethan on the shoulder. “Where the hell did you go!!! I thought you had turned into worm shit!”

As he got closer, he could see Ethan’s concerned green eyes looking him up and down and then at Schneider, who was a step behind him. “Are the both of you fine?”

“Except for being swallowed and spat out by a disgusting large worm, and cutting off the arm of the soldier over there after it grew rotten with maggots, everything else was fine,” Samuel said dryly, holding onto Ethan’s shoulder and looking him up and down.

Unexpectedly, Ethan’s condition was the best among them. He didn’t even have a scratch on his body.

Schneider narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

Ethan pursed his lips, and without making unnecessary comments, he just said in a calm voice, “Come on, let’s get out of here first.”

Samuel was stunned. “Leave? Did you find the way out?”

Ethan nodded.

Schneider frowned deeper. “You found your way out through that hole? You didn’t bump into any worms?”

“There was a fork in the tunnel. Maybe I’m just lucky,” Ethan expressionlessly summarized. “Are you coming?”

Schneider carried Stan on his back again. Samuel held the sergeant and followed Ethan into the giant worm-infested cave. The flashlight on the laser gun shot out layers of horizontal light on the ground, walls, and the top of the cave. Occasionally, the smooth reflection on the rocks made the whole cave look evil and abandoned. Ethan led the way in the front. He seldom talked along the way but occasionally turned back to confirm that Samuel was still behind him.

As Samuel looked at the erratic figure in front of him, he felt that Ethan had become a little mysterious.

Where did he go for an entire six hours? Why didn’t he bump into the huge worms? Why did the worms suddenly retreat just before Ethan appeared?

Was this man who looked like Ethan really Ethan?

Could it be that in the darkness, some monster had worn Ethan’s skin to lure them somewhere?

There were many forks in the dark cave. Still, Ethan was highly familiar with the way and seemed to have already walked on the paths previously. They gradually felt that they were climbing up an incline, and their breathing grew heavier. Schneider, who was carrying Stan on his back, had a face pale from lethargy.

Samuel looked at him and suddenly felt a little distressed, so he asked, “Do you want to swap with me?”

“……No need.”

It wasn’t until they saw the light that their doubts about Ethan completely disappeared. Samuel cheered, and he grew more energetic. They emerged from a narrow space hidden under the roots of some trees. Outside, there were a bunch of bushes emitting a dark purple light in the dark. Although the cold air was still very damp, it was relatively open and fresh compared to the lingering stench from underground. They lay on the ground covered with thick moss, paralyzed as they greedily breathed the fresh air.

The communicator, which had no signal previously, suddenly seemed to wake up and resumed working.

The sergeant quickly reported their general location, and soon a rescue plane would come to meet them on the nearby hill. They were about to be saved.

Only Ethan had no smile on his face. His lips were tightly pressed together, and his eyes shifted between Samuel and Schneider.

The words of the queen worm still reverberated in his mind.

“My eggs are parasitized in your friend’s body.”

The author has something to say:

The Pales planet arc is finally completed~ on the days that this novel wasn’t up on the leaderboard, the number of people who saved this novel on their reading list had hardly increased……*feeling awful as I grow mushroom*

Subsequently, I will be very, very busy in the next week (jet lag party and I did not take leave from work), so the update may slow down. I hope everyone understands……