Falling into the Abyss

Adam was approaching him, and many other nonhumans stood behind him silently but were obviously influenced by the Omega’s inexplicable hatred. Ethan knew that things had begun to move in the direction most unfavorable to him. He was aware that no matter how powerful and rational his argument was, these people just needed to find something they could control in their despair or find an outlet for their anger and fear. He was ‘selected’ by this group of people, probably because of his previous status as a government official.

His heart was beating violently in his chest, and the air surrounding him felt cold. He was afraid of those nonhumans’ eyes looking at him, even more than when he rushed at the Goddess of Fertility on Red Earth. He did not know what this group of people would do, but he knew no one in this universe could help him.

However, he did not expect that Cavin, who had always thought he was unpleasant to his eyes, stood up and said, “Knock it off. Look at what predicament we’re in. Is this argument really that important?”

“We should take him hostage!” This time it was a Beta, who had politely smiled at him and asked him if he would like a beer not long ago. Now, he raised his eyebrows, and his face filled with wrath like a cat whose hair was standing up on end.

“Take him as a hostage? We are all nonhumans. If the government wants to mess with us, they can just throw a nuclear bomb to blow up the Forbidden City, and wouldn’t everything be solved? Why would they stoop to sending a secretary that looks like this to work as an undercover?” Cavin waved impatiently. “Don’t make a fuss. Now, it’s better to think about how we can convince them to pull us back.”

Another Alpha kicked down a chair with his foot and exclaimed, “What can we do! They’re not going to pull us back at all!”

Everyone began to quarrel again, and Ethan felt there was a noisy scene of dancing demons playing right in front of him, making him want to flee. However, the ground was currently quaking violently, which was even more severe than the previous times. They could hear the steel used to build the space station bending and the piercing sound of friction from the metal coming from under their feet, from above their heads, from all directions. Ethan looked down the space station’s long and wide central passageway, which was slowly bending upward. At the end of their line of sight, about a few hundred meters away, their eyes captured a strange view. The straight path that should have been smooth and straight was suddenly cut off and staggered several meters to the left, forming a fault. Behind that fault, everything twisted in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. He saw the furniture flying, and the hardened steel that had been impregnable was dancing like noodles. Ethan almost thought there was something wrong with his eyes, but even after rubbing them so much they hurt, the strange and abnormal space in front of him still existed and was even spreading towards them.

The original bright white light was suddenly replaced by a bright blood-red color, which made them feel nervous, and Lehm’s alert sounded, “We have encountered an abnormally strong spatial deformation. Please evacuate to the South wing immediately!”

When the sharp alarm sounded, the nonhumans stared at the rapidly approaching distorted space and let out shrieking screams before hurriedly turning around and running in the opposite direction. Ethan noted that the impending distortion did not propagate at a constant speed but in an unpredictable and jumpy manner. Sometimes it spread very slowly and even remained motionless, but suddenly it would jump forward about ten or twenty meters.

Maybe it will jump forward a few hundred meters in the next moment, devouring all of them.

Ethan drew his gaze back and lowered his head, moving his legs desperately.

The Beta who had just suggested they should tie him up ran slowly because of his bulky body and lack of exercise, and soon he was lagging behind. Ethan heard him groan strangely but didn’t know whether that sound was him breathing or sobbing. Turning back, he saw that the sprawling, twisted space had caught up with him.

At that moment, starting from his right leg that was first caught, his muscles and bones quickly twisted and turned. They bent like rubber bands, and even the sound of his bones breaking and muscles tearing could be heard clearly. His feet, legs, thighs, buttocks, back, shoulders, chest…… His scream was mixed with the sound of ripping flesh and blood, and all of the parts of his body twisted by space were turned into something like mucus. The molecules making up his skin, fat, and bones were scattered in the warped space, leaving only a weak force holding them up. One would not be able to differentiate which part of the body they belonged to at all.

It wasn’t until the radiation spread to his head that he finally stopped screaming. His eyes were forced out of his sockets and burst into the twisted space like a meat grinder. Ethan didn’t know whether it was blood or some other liquid that evaporated into something like a cloud of smoke. His brain turned into a gray Douhua, vibrating along with the other parts of his flesh and blood, as well as the steel and cement.

After witnessing Jeff’s death on Red Earth, Ethan thought he would not see a more terrible way to die. Obviously, he was wrong.

The other nonhumans sped up. They didn’t know when the turbulence would stop. This universe was unsuitable for sustaining life. From the beginning, they should not have come here. No one should have come here.

If not for the last shred of survival instincts that kept them alive, a considerable number of nonhumans would have already lost their minds due to fear.

Ethan did not know how far he had run with the others before the roar of metal twisting stopped, and everything descended into silence. He sat down on the ground and breathed in some air, and his heart beat so fast that it seemed like it was going to explode. Patches of black snuck into his vision, and his throat was full of a sweet, fishy taste. When he turned his head, he found that a heavy mechanical door had closed heavily, blocking the road behind them.…… Maybe Lehm had done that. Ethan could not expend his brain too much now. The death of the Beta was still vividly imprinted in his mind, and he knew that from today on, that terrifying scene would accompany him in his nightmares for the rest of his life.

This place was dimly lit, and its walls were bare steel. There was no bright white wall that could be used as a screen, and it seemed to be a place to store supplies. Most nonhumans were either sitting or lying down, rooted paralyzed to the ground as they gasped for air in shock. After a while, Ethan heard Adam crying in a low voice.

“It’s over. We’re all finished! There’s no way to communicate with them. We can only wait for our deaths!”

However, in the end, the Alpha hugging Adam looked up, his eyes full of hatred and the burning intent to kill Ethan.

Ethan muttered, “Shit!”

Sure enough, he heard, “Why is this man still here! He caused all this! Throw him out!”

His roar won the approval of several people.

“Yes! The Energy Bureau is responsible for pushing us into this damned universe!”

“He’s their lackey! Throw him out!”

“If we sacrifice him to the Great Evil God, our lives might be spared! He shouldn’t have returned from Red Earth!”

Under the cacophonies of cursing, Ethan held onto his last straw of hope as he looked at Cavin. However, the latter seemed uncertain about his position after the intense visual impact moments ago and looked at him with a gaze filled with complexity.

Ethan did not know his lips were trembling. He just kept shaking his head. “No……it’s not me……”

Soon the threat was more than just verbal. The first person who grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him out of the corner was a black-haired Alpha, who threw him on the ground and kneed him in the stomach. Ethan screamed and curled up like a shrimp.

“Tell your master to pull us back! Or I’ll beat you to death!”

“Yes! Can’t you talk to that Doctor! Go and talk to him!” another Beta yelled. More Alphas and Betas came forward to kick Ethan. He hugged his head tightly with his arms, but even he could not tell which part of his body was being attacked. He felt that the air in his lungs was all beaten out until he couldn’t breathe. His mouth was full of the taste of blood. He felt his hair being pulled, his face being slapped hard, and his glasses flew out.

His face was covered with blood, and he was lying on the ground in confusion, pleading in a low voice, “Stop……stop……sorry……”

He didn’t know what he was sorry for, but at the center of the whirlpool of hatred, he couldn’t think rationally.

“Look! He apologized! That means he admits he is a spy!”

“It’s no use apologizing! We are all going to die!”

“Throw him out and let him die first!”

“Let me have a good time before he dies! They say that Samuel likes him very much. I’d like to see what capabilities he has!”

“Enough!” Cavin burst out loudly.

All the noise died down within moments, and all the attention focused on Ethan was temporarily shifted to Cavin. Ethan was shivering on the ground, thinking that perhaps he was going to be saved?

Cavin looked around and saw the twisted faces. The former trust in their eyes had depleted, instead replaced with provocation and dissatisfaction. There was even an Alpha staring at him, asking, “You won’t support him, right?! Can’t you see such an obvious fact! Well, if I have known earlier on that you had this kind of compassion, I should have blessed your Omega and his lover!”

In such a time when everyone hated on one person, no one was allowed to have different opinions, not even leaders. They wanted him dead, they wanted to hear him scream, and they wanted to see him scared to death because he deserved it. Everyone they hate should die, and those who hindered them from achieving their goals were enemies.

Cavin moved forward and knocked the Alpha down with a punch before he yelled angrily and scratched his hair into a mess. He lost the cool in his eyes and punched a metal bin, causing a depression to form on it.

“If you want to throw him out, then do it quickly and don’t beat him,” he said in the end.

All hope was dashed in front of him. Ethan’s swollen eyes could not shed tears, and he just felt a little confused and was somewhat unable to understand his present predicament. He felt his body was forced to stand up as someone pressed the button to open the door. The mechanical door slowly rose in front of his eyes, and he saw the messy corridor outside. Although there was no twisted space spreading, the dark red warning light made him think of blood.

He shook his head hard. “No……no……I’m not going out!”

However, that was what the others wanted to hear. They threw him down, and his body fell heavily on the cold floor. Ethan stood up, feeling his body aching all over, only to see that the door was already sinking shut. He stumbled to climb up as he rushed over, but it was too late. He thumped at the heavy door. “Let me in! Let me in!”

In fact, after thinking about it afterward, his despair at that time was unreasonable because that kind of space distortion could not be blocked by a door at all. It was the same on either side of the door. It was only that in the face of death, people always instinctively wanted to stay with more people as if that could make them feel more secure and safe, even if it was just an illusion.

Ethan was so tired that he finally sat down against the heavy steel door. It seemed like there were invisible ghosts passing through the endless red corridor.

When would it come? How painful would it be when his body twists in that way?

Had all the communication devices been damaged?

He got up from the ground in a trance and walked along the long path in the direction he had come from. The wind was blowing chaotically in the corridor. It had been a long time since he heard Lehm’s voice. Has the mainframe been destroyed?

Finally, Ethan found the computer in a room with an unknown use and groped around to start the machine, which seemed old. Holding onto his last shred of hope as he sought to survive, he ran through various programs, trying to find a way to connect with the human universe.

Just when he was at a loss, the projected computer screen suddenly flickered, and then a person’s face appeared.

Eyebrows slanting into his temples, deep and delicate silver-gray eyes, ivory skin, and a brilliant red mark on his forehead.

Ethan didn’t expect to see his face, and the other party was also given a shock as he widened his eyes.

“Tanisiel!”

“Ethan!”

They opened their mouths almost at the same time. Ethan used to think that Tanisiel’s body was wreathed in a holy light, but now he felt like he saw a miracle. He quickly bent his body on the computer desk and cried eagerly, “Help us! This universe has already destroyed the space station! We’re going to die! Let them pull us back!”

“Ethan, I’ve already convinced Dr. Xu. You just have to hold on for another quarter of an hour. It’s going to be alright.” Tanisiel’s voice was relentingly calm, like a deep sea that would never make waves. After speaking, it seemed that he was about to leave, but Ethan forgot that he was only facing a projection and rushed over to reach out his hand as if to grab him, exclaiming, “Don’t go!”

Hearing Ethan’s terrified cry, Tanisiel stopped and looked over with a little surprise.

Ethan tried to squint, but he couldn’t see everything clearly due to his nearsightedness. He faintly felt ashamed, but at this time he couldn’t care less. “Don’t go. I’m the only one here…”

Tanisiel had just noticed Ethan’s black eyes and bloody nose, and his anger was smoldering in his heart. Fortunately, there was no other Alpha’s bite mark on his neck. Otherwise, he might kill Dr. Xu……

“Well, I’m not going.” Tanisiel looked at the green eyes earnestly.

Ethan suddenly felt relieved, as though the ominous red was not so unbearable now. He didn’t know what to say now, so he began to describe the space turbulence chasing them in broken and disordered sentences. When he spoke about how the Beta died, Tanisiel silently raised a finger in front of his lips.

Ethan was silent, before realizing that what he had just said was a little neurotic.

“Don’t be afraid. You are the one who even the God of Disorder has touched. This is just one of the myriad universes affected by them.” Tanisiel’s soft and gentle smile melted under the shine of his golden hair. “And, I’m here.”

Ethan nodded hard and trusted the priest. It was the last thing he could grasp onto, something to keep his consciousness clear.

However, at this time he heard the familiar sound of friction from metal twisting, like rumbling thunder, and Ethan’s face turned pale. He walked to the door of the room with his stiff, limping body and looked north.

It’s coming.

It’s coming.

To eat them up.

Ethan quickly returned to the room, his body slamming on the computer desk as he remained paralyzed on the chair.

“It’s too late……” Ethan murmured and looked up at Tanisiel. “When I’m dead, can you help me pass a message to my father and mother and say……just say……”

He repeated it several times, but he couldn’t say anything in the end. Tanisiel was yelling at people outside the screen, so Ethan didn’t know if he had heard what he said.

“Just say……I love them,” Ethan said it in a voice that only he could hear. He laughed miserably, before closing his eyes and waiting for the expected cruel and painful death.

The author has something to say:

So, I discussed with the lord editor that I would enter V on next Monday. However, since it was the last week of the final term, a large number of final projects had to be submitted and all the saved drafts had been used up, so I would stop posting over the next few days……But there will be three chapters on Monday……Please forgive me……

T/N: I’ll not be translating and posting any irrelevant(to the story) author’s notes from now on. ^^