Falling into the Abyss

The horned person’s scream pierced through the noisy space the banquet was being held in, and the initially cheerful drum music suddenly stopped. Some horned people in the corner were saying something indistinctly, and their knees seemed to be shaking because they couldn’t bear the weight of their bodies. Ethan got goosebumps, and his heart tightly scrunched up. He guessed that the frightened horned man had escaped from the altar and must have seen what he had done when he was unconscious.

The recognition of his fact made his body tense, and he suddenly felt the impulse to flee, causing him to sweat and his chest to tighten. Tanisiel secretly grasped his wrist under the table, and his steady strength seemed to give him psychological support.

“What should we do……” Ethan asked in a low voice.

Tanisiel looked at him and shook his head, assuring him, “Don’t panic.”

The chief impatiently yelled an order, and the horned person finally stopped howling. With a crazed appearance, he looked at the chief and muttered something. Ethan couldn’t understand what he said, but the language translation program in Tanisiel’s scepter could translate those words into the Earthling’s language.

The horned person: “The great sacrifice to the holy key went smoothly until that man was brought to the altar. There were endless evil things behind him, some like the mouth of a giant worm, some like eyes, and some like poisoned spikes. Those things were filled with acid, and anyone who touched their skin would quickly rot. At first, we thought it was the Great Wise Man who showed up, but he killed everyone, no matter whether the person was a believer or not! He was the devil! He was a monster!”

Everyone, including the three humans opposite them who could understand the horned people’s language, were speechless. The chief looked at Ethan with a gaze that had grown increasingly numb over the years and asked in a stern tone, “Do you mean that all the people were killed by that man over there?”

“It’s true! He’s not human! He is not human!” the horned person screamed and leaned in the direction opposite Ethan. If he hadn’t been caught by the other two horned people, he would have escaped. Many tall soldiers stood up one after another on both sides of the banquet, and all kinds of doubting and hostile eyes swept towards Ethan and Tanisiel.

“Are you sure you saw it correctly?” The chief’s eldest son asked viciously. The horned person was so scared that he knelt, swearing at Ethan as he cried, “My wife and brother were killed by him! I watched him tear my big brother in two!”

Ethan’s body shook for a moment, and his mind was a little dazed. It was as if the horned person was talking about someone else’s affairs, and it had nothing to do with him.

He really didn’t recall……there was only emptiness in his mind.

Tanisiel suddenly laughed. At first, he only lowered his head as his shoulders shook. However, his laughter gradually increased in volume, as if he had heard something funny.

“I’ve long since heard that the horned people are very xenophobic. And indeed, your race really deserves your reputation. Do you usually interrogate and convict criminals based on a one-sided testimony?” The priest suddenly stretched out his scepter and pointed to the horned person whose body was full of wounds and was shaking like leaves in the wind. “Can’t you see that this man has been scared silly? If my friend Ethan is the terrifying monster he claims, why would he allow this person to come back alive to tell all of you the truth? Why are you still standing here? What’s more, take a closer look at the human next to me.” He reached out and pulled Ethan up, before shaking his shoulders and saying, “He’s a scholar without even the power to truss a chicken. Could he kill anyone here? How could he kill the nearly 3000 people who participated in the sacrifice?”

The priest’s words grew increasingly sharper at the end, like a polished knife piercing the hostility that surrounded them. The horned people were uncertain regarding this matter. Their eyes wandered between Ethan, the priest, and the horned person shouting at the priest angrily.

At this time, Roland also stood up and asked the chief, “Is there a misunderstanding here?”

“Father, Tami wouldn’t make up such a story out of thin air!” The chief’s eldest son stared at Tanisiel with unfriendly eyes.

Everyone waited for the chief’s decision. The old horned person’s cold but unfathomable gaze wandered between Ethan and the priest for a while, before finally he waved his hand as though he was tired. “Take the man to the terminus cave and watch over him. Let the healer Solo check him to see whether or not he is human.”

As soon as his verdict fell, two large horned people who were a head taller than Ethan stood behind him, facing him with black guns. Ethan glanced at Tanisiel, who placidly grabbed his hand.

“Keep calm,” Tanisiel earnestly instructed.

Ethan understood what he meant. Now that the God of Order’s egg’s fluid had been used up, who knew how long his body would be stable for.

He had to control his emotions, make sure that he isn’t dominated by fear, and remain conscious.

The great chief’s group of horned people rebels has been hiding in the jungle and mountains stretching for thousands of miles around Anas. The terrain was complex and ever-changing, and there were many caves around the area. The horned people had a special emotional attachment to caves. The caves in the mountains were used to set up areas with more cultural significance. In addition to the holy blood cave, which was specifically used for holding living sacrifices,wasre were caves used for storing materials and grain, for religious ceremonies, and for burying the dead. The so-called terminus cave was a cave used to hold criminals awaiting trial. It was a cave in a vertical crack hidden between two mountains. Inside, the air was moist, and there was the sound of water dripping in the dark. Deeper ahead, one could see rows of stone walls dug into the cave’s walls, surrounded by a solid iron fence. There was simple furniture behind the fence, and one could see numerous silent figures sitting or lying in the dark.

It was forbidden to casually converse here. Violators may be beaten by guards, so the atmosphere was shockingly quiet.

Ethan followed the guard in front of him, whose shoulders were twice as wide as his. The only light source was the round lamp in the horned person’s hand emitting a cold blue light, with a similar lamp placed further away. The light did not dispel the darkness and only served to make the atmosphere more eerie.

The horned people were polite to Ethan but kept a distance from him. He was taken to a very spacious cavern in the deepest area, different from the other cells. It had no furniture, and there were strange circles of runes on the ground and twisted tadpole-like characters on the walls. There was a pair of iron rings attached to a hook in the center of the space, which seemed to be used to imprison someone’s feet. Long chains hung on both sides of the walls, with heavy shackles at the end of the chains.

Ethan looked at the strange prison with the rusty shackles and hesitated to go in, until the horned person behind him placed a gun’s muzzle on his back and pushed him in.

His hands were pried apart, and he couldn’t move his feet. Ethan felt his skin hurt due to the friction. He swallowed uneasily and asked, “How long are you going to lock me up for? What if I want to go to the bathroom?”

These horned people did not seem to understand his words and swept a disgusted expression at him.

Ethan sighed. Why couldn’t he escape from the fate of being locked up? He felt like there was a kind of power in the dark, always trying to confine him.

He didn’t know what the horned people would do, but for now, he had given up on himself.

Gradually, he began to feel tired. After rushing about during the past few days and the many things that had happened recently, his mind was now shrouded with a layer of fog. He was so tired that he wanted to have a rest……

Anyway, it didn’t matter if he died. Just give him a break……breathing……or not breathing……was fine.

Then, the door opened, and a tall, thin Alpha horned person came in. He was wearing a dark red robe, with silver threads wrapping rubies around his horns. His aura was different from that of the previous horned people Ethan saw. His expression was too calm. He lacked the bloodthirst that the horned people always seemed to have, and the look in his eyes was darker and more mysterious. He held a large rectangular box in his hand, and behind him were some young horned people, carrying incense or some boxes.

The lanky man approached Ethan. He did not stand still, but slowly circled Ethan like a wild animal pacing around its prey.

“I’m Solo, the healer of the Anaslanto tribe. I have been ordered to judge whether you are the Great Wise Man’s messenger or the Abyssal’s claws,” the man said in the Earthling’s language.

Ethan looked at him feebly. His legs were sore, and his wrists seemed to be bleeding. The blood was pure black.

Since when had his blood stopped being red?

Ethan was in a trance like he was slightly drunk. He felt many hands tearing off his clothes, and his body was touched by the cold, fluffy palms, just like someone who wanted to buy meat in the market.

“There appear to be no injuries externally, but there are many fresh scars on the back of his neck, and there are some black, blood-like marks on his back,” the person who called himself Solo said, while another short horned person wrote on a transparent tablet.

They measured him everywhere and felt his bones, but there was nothing unusual except the suspicious scars on his back. They even radiographed his whole body, but they couldn’t see anything unusual.

Solo extracted blood from his fingertips and decided to take it for testing. Although Ethan knew that they might see the extra set of chromosomes in his blood, he felt very numb and was just glad that it was finally over.

However, it was evident that the horned people did not intend to leave yet. Solo opened the huge rectangular box he had brought with him, inside was a very old parchment book. There was no title on the cover, but there were some strange and twisted triangular patterns on it.

It was an ancient manuscript with crisp yellowed paper. The thin fibers seemed as though they would turn into ashes and scatter away after just a touch. The manuscript’s age was unknown. Perhaps it was from ancient times, or maybe it was even more ancient than the ancient times.

“If you are really a messenger sent by the Great Wise Man, then you would very much love what is written in this book. If you are an Abyssal, then you will be in extreme pain. However, if you’re just an ordinary person,” Solo said, and his long, thin face contorted into a weird and dangerous smile, “Then you might turn into a madman.”