Falling into the Abyss

Ethan recalled what Tanisiel said, didn’t look Theonile in the eye. The priest made him feel unimaginably intense fear and uneasiness. He looked young, but if he was Tanisiel’s mentor, he should be at least 40 years old. It seemed that this man had no shortcomings. He had a handsome appearance and elegant manners, but it was as though his almost too perfect smile was permeated with a trace of dangerous intent.

Ethan feigned composure and sneered, retorting squarely. “It’s very generous of you to teach the Earth Union the method the Eves use to control the God of Order’s eggs.”

Theonile gave him a light smile without paying much attention to him. “You are wrong. Only the Eves can control the God of Order’s eggs to a limited extent in today’s universe because we have the innate mental power to protect ourselves. Even if ordinary Earthlings know how to control the God of Order’s eggs, they will be rapidly ordered because they can’t bear the energy of the God of Order’s eggs.”

“Can mental strength protect your body from being ordered?”

Theonile shook his head at him as though he were looking at a disobedient child. “You Earthlings have too much respect for the so-called dualism of materialism and idealism. In fact, there is no way to separate the body from the soul. A change in one’s body will affect the soul’s perception of the surrounding world, and an influence on one’s soul will similarly cause changes in the body. The Eves’ spiritual strength is several times stronger than that of human beings. As long as they are trained strictly, they can resist the danger of being ordered to a certain extent.”

Changes in the body could affect the soul……

Ethan thought that he had been dreaming of that terrifying city more and more frequently, and his dark thoughts were increasingly abundant. Was it because his body’s mutation led to abnormalities in his soul?

“So……do you think my mental strength is stronger than that of ordinary Earthlings?” Ethan grinned and asked sarcastically, “Come on, haven’t you heard about how I easily leaked state secrets to an Ophiuchus Alliance spy?”

“I don’t care whether you are mentally strong or not, but at present, the mutation in you can largely prevent you from being ordered.” Theonile approached him, opened his hand, and handed over the God of Order’s egg to him. The quietly diffusing blue light gently swam around the egg. Occasionally, he saw a light flow through the fine lines on the eggshell, “This is a very sophisticated machine, and we Eves can only utilize a small part of its energy. As for the deeper energy layers, no one’s soul can withstand the impact of its extreme power. However, you can help us dig deeper into it. You can also help your country produce an inexhaustible supply of antimatter.”

At this time, Bruno, who had been silent the entire time, opened his mouth, and his eyes twinkled with excitement. “As long as you cooperate, I will personally speak with the Forbidden City Council and give you at least 15 moral value points!”

Ethan wanted to say that he stopped caring about how many points he would get a long time ago. Still, he thought that if he had more contact with the God of Order’s eggs, maybe the God of Order’s power could offset the power of Disorder, and perhaps he could return to normal……

Therefore, he said calmly, “I don’t seem to be in any position to refuse.”

Of course, Ethan didn’t have to learn all 130 gestures. Theonile showed him ten gestures, each of which needed to trigger about ten contact points. In Ethan’s eyes, there was no difference between the positive and negative poles of the God of Order’s egg. The Eves could quickly recognize it instinctively, but this instinct can’t be conveyed to people like Ethan through language specifically, so it took him an hour to distinguish between the positive and negative poles. Fortunately, there was a defect on this egg. In fact, Ethan didn’t understand how to confirm the positive and negative poles in the end but deduced the positive and negative poles according to its defects.

Theonile taught him patiently. His hands were as white and slender as Tanisiel’s as his hands danced lightly on the little object. Bruno followed suit as he eagerly learned for a while until a researcher called him away.

Ethan suddenly asked, “Why did you lock Tanisiel up?”

It seemed that Theonile had expected that he would ask this question, and he replied, “He consumed and destroyed the God of Order’s egg without authorization. It happened not once, but twice.” After he spoke in a professional tone, his tone later carried some disappointment as he continued, “It could already be considered lucky that the temple didn’t expel him.”

“I heard what you said to him the last time. What do you mean by him being too adamant?”

Theonile suddenly leaned back, gazing at him with an immeasurable gaze. “I mean, he’s too attached to you.”

“You said you received my blood test results before……” Ethan slowly raised his head, and the eyes behind his glasses lens were piercing. “Tanisiel coming into contact with me, was it your scheme?”

“Hahaha, you seem to still have a brain, but you’re only half right.” He put the egg back into the pocket that hung on the waist of his robe and said, “It was Tanisiel who found you on Red Earth, a rare Heavenbounder descendant.”

“That’s why? What do you want with a Heavenbounder descendant?”

”They don’t necessarily have to be a Heavenbounder descendant, but if they are, it would be better.” Theonile said something Ethan couldn’t understand with a smile. Then, he stood up and said, “You’ve learned enough for today. You just have to memorize these ten gestures.”

Theonile’s words made Ethan’s heartbeat accelerate.

They don’t necessarily have to be a Heavenbounder descendant, but if they are, it would be better.

That was to say, no matter what Tanisiel and Theonile’s plan was, it didn’t necessarily have to be him.

However, Tanisiel was so attached to him that even his mentor was complaining. Somehow, Ethan felt a morbid satisfaction.

In a flash, a week had passed on Mars. Every day, Ethan would learn five to ten gestures from Theonile and review what he had learned previously. Now, he had mastered 65 gestures, halfway to the level of the blue-robed priests who were one level lower than Tanisiel.

Most of the time, there was no apparent change to the egg after gestures. But sometimes, there were unexpected effects. Once, Theonile brought in a dying rose and asked Ethan to activate the God of Order’s egg with the 50th gesture. Then, he put the rose into the flowerpot. In less than a minute, the flower whose stems and leaves had dried up suddenly stood up again magically, and the yellow and withered plant seemed to obtain a new life and turned green again. Another time, Ethan watched as a piece of iron in front of him gradually turned into another extremely smooth, mirror-like metal. After a while, the metal began to soften and liquify. Some kind of smoke-like ionized substance was formed, and then it finally completely vaporized and disappeared.

These were the different stages of ordering, said Theonile. If the pot of rose was in contact with God of Order’s egg for a little longer, it would also start to blacken, smoke would arise from it, and it would finally gasify. And this was when the situation was still under their control. Extreme ordering was capable of changing the state of an object at such an amazing speed. If it was out of control, it would be difficult to imagine what disastrous consequences this would have.

Ethan often woke up from nightmares this week. He had several dreams of the vast ancient sea and the translucent creatures moving in the sea. They seemed to be close to Ethan, and every time he dreamt, they were closer than the last time. He felt a strong sense of disgust and repulsion directed at him from all directions, which made him almost suffocate several times until he stifled himself awake.

He still remembered the monster with hands all over its body. It was always in his dream and drew closer every time. He felt dizzy and nauseous due to the roar of the applause from the thousands of hands. Ethan suspected that when it came to him, it might stretch out a huge hand and crush him to death in his dreamscape.

Finally, under the guidance of Theonile, he tried to create a force field with the God of Order’s egg for the first time. This force field would transform a bunch of hydrogen atoms into anti-hydrogen atoms and preserve them.

Ethan didn’t know how to do it, and none of the gestures he learned involved a similar function. However, the head priest insisted that he knew all the gestures he needed to know, and what he had to do today was to make a change in the last gesture he learned and add a few new contact points.

Ethan found himself and a huge circular metal machine abandoned and enclosed in an isolated laboratory made of special aerospace materials. At the same time, all the other researchers stood outside three layers of radiation-proof and soundproof glass, staring at him like they were watching an animal in the zoo.

Ethan wanted to laugh a little and seriously considered whether to mutate for them to see.

All he could hear was Theonile’s voice coming from the loudspeaker. According to his instructions, Ethan turned on the metal machine that seemed to be specially designed for this experiment and placed the God of Order’s egg on a base in the center of the circular machine. Then, he pressed nearly 20 contact points on the God of Order’s egg.

For a brief moment, he felt as though his hand had been burned or his entire body had been electrified. His body was numb, and he stepped back several times until his body heavily stuck to the wall. He saw that the God of Order’s egg was emitting an unprecedented dazzling blue light, and the blue current flashed and burst in the ring like lightning. The people outside the window whispered solemnly. After a while, the voice of the head priest sounded out again, asking him to activate the 65th gesture again, followed by the 30th gesture.

Ethan frowned. The feeling of getting electrocuted was not good. Did they want him to keep trying until he succeeded?

However, he compiled.

This time, there was no feeling of being electrocuted, and the God of Order’s egg didn’t react at all.

So, the head priest asked him to connect the 3rd gesture with the 50th.

Ethan wanted to curse. He had learned 65 gestures. When was this experiment going to last?

And……he felt the back of his neck itching, no……it was not just itching, it felt slightly painful…… It made him more nervous.

However, at this moment, just as he performed the 15th and 28th gestures, he suddenly felt that the back of his neck was touched by a soft hand.

His body immediately froze, and he turned around, but there was no one behind him.

He reached out and touched the back of his neck and found some transparent mucus.

At this time, the researchers outside the glass all burst into cheers and hugged. Ethan noticed that the God of Order’s egg was emitting a faint red light at this time.

The experiment was successful.

T/N: From this week onwards, ABYSS will be released three times a week-on Tues, Thurs and Sat.