Falling into the Abyss

Ethan did not expect that Tanisiel would actually appear here. It turned out that he had long since discovered Ethan?

Suddenly, Ethan was not sure whether the man in front of him with an indistinguishable expression was the person he knew, so he stepped back nervously until he bumped into the tombstone.

Tanisiel slowly walked forward, and the candle illuminated his expression that was tinged with sadness. He walked around the huge tombstone, his white fingers brushing against the rough surface of the stone carvings.

“He was very scared during his last moments, saying that he didn’t want to be alone in a strange grave, engulfed by maggots. So, I promised him that I would not throw him into the cold royal tomb…….”

It was hard for Ethan to imagine that Tanisiel, who was only 17 years old at that time, had to comfort his dying father in this manner. When Ethan was 17 years old, he was still in high school. He was worried over his mathematics grade. Occasionally, he was sad regarding the secret crush he held for the Alpha school hunk. However, the priest was already facing the life and death of his closest loved ones.

He turned and looked at the priest who was standing opposite the tombstone, and his eyes happened to meet the priest’s eyes.

“My Beta mother passed away after she gave birth to me. I didn’t even meet her once. The royalty are apathetic towards human relations. For me, my father was the only closed one I had. He used to be a very handsome and dignified nobleman. At that time, the people on this planet said that he resembled a king more than the Eve’s king. You should have seen his portrait?”

Ethan nodded.

“However, during his last moments, he was so thin that his body seemed to have gone out of shape, and he seemed humble to the extent that it made others feel terrified. Can you imagine it? The person you love the most staring at you with the most frightened expression before he dies. He grabs onto your hand as if you were his life-saving straw, tells you that he is afraid, and asks his 17-year-old son to save him.” Tanisiel paused and sighed. “I looked on as my father, who resembled an omnipotent God, gradually obtained that frightening appearance. Even the God of Order’s eggs, which contained endless polarizing forces of Order, could not save him. At that time, I knew that the most terrifying power in the world is death.”

Ethan looked at the sadness condensed in Tanisiel’s eyes, and he suddenly understood. “So you gave up your belief in the God of Order and worshipped the God of Disorder instead?”

Ethan grinned bitterly. “So, in your heaven, people will come together and become a monster like Shub-Niggurath? Or will they all become monsters like me?”

“You are not a monster, Ethan. On the contrary, you are just in a transitional form between a Disorder-dominated and Order-dominated organism, and you are in optimal shape. This may be because you have the Heavenbounder lineage, which in itself determines that you have more forces of Disorder than ordinary people. That is because, although the Heavenbounders seem to be descendants of God of Order like the Earthlings or us Eves, they are actually descendants of the God of Disorder that live in this God of Order’s universe, just like the giant worms we saw on Pales.”

“……What? The Heavenbounders and the giant worms…… How is that possible?” Ethan recalled his mother and similarly recalled seeing a picture of the grandmother, a pure Heavenbounder, before. Except for the pair of green irises he inherited, one could hardly see a difference between him and the ordinary people on Earth. How can they be of the same species as the giant worms and those disgusting monsters with long tentacles?

“If you think about it carefully, doesn’t the metamorphosis part of the life cycle brought about by the lineage of Heavenbounder feel so long that it seems to last for half a lifetime during your ‘infancy’ but has a short and terrible ‘adulthood’? And in adulthood, in just three days, your appearance and physical condition will reach its peak, just like you’re breaking out of a cocoon. But after three days, you will rapidly grow old and die. Isn’t it the same as many butterflies and moths?”

“So? Does that mean I’m a bug?” Ethan was about to laugh. Everything Tanisiel said to him sounded ridiculous.

“No, you’re not a bug. You’re just a human with the blood of Disorder. If you want, I can give you all the research reports that my teacher and I have composed in recent years on the descendants of Heavenbounders and descendants of Disorder. But one thing you may be interested in knowing is why Heavenbounders age rapidly once they enter adulthood.” Tanisiel stood in front of him, his eyes burning.

He was right, as it was Ethan’s biggest worry.

He always wanted to know why because he was afraid that one day, he would become like his mother……

Ethan did not speak, but the anxious and uncertain look in his eyes indicated that he was obviously moved by Tanisiel. Tanisiel placed his hand on another huge manuscript on the stone platform, which seemed to be in the long-lost language of Arabic from Earth. Tanisiel carefully flipped the fragile paper until he reached a page containing a drawing.

It was a naked human figure, but the person’s body was covered with black threads, his feet looked like goat’s hooves, and behind him, four tentacles lay on the ground like a cape……

“This is……” Ethan reached out and touched the paper with a trembling hand as if he could not believe what he saw.

“It’s very likely that this is the way Heavenbounders originally looked. Later, to survive in the God of Order’s universe, they began to mate and marry Earthlings in a planned manner and gradually became the well-known Heavenbounders……” Tanisiel pointed to the Arabic name on the page of the book. “It’s said that this type of person lives in the Centaurus galactic system. According to this description, they happen to be located on the former Heavenbounder’s planet.”

So……this should be the appearance he should have?

However, if the lineage of Heavenbounder had been impure from the beginning, wasn’t the real Heavenbounder blood in his body less than a quarter now? Could this small amount of genes really cause him to transform into his current ferocious mutation?

“However, intermarriage also has disadvantages, such as the rapid aging and death after entering adulthood, which did not exist in the period of purebred Heavenbounders. After our investigation, we found that this was likely to be the case. After intermarriage, the forces of Order temporarily suppress the forces of Disorder in the bodies of the Heavenbounders, but when their adulthood arrives, there will be an explosion of forces of Disorder. When the forces of Order can no longer suppress it, the body that has been completely transformed by the forces of Order can no longer adapt to the completely contradictory forces of Disorder, so it rapidly ages and collapses. That is why the Heavenbounders had an old custom that other planets were unable to understand. That is, to live on a sacred mountain on the planet for some time within three days after entering adulthood. There is a holy lake on that mountain, and it is said that after taking a bath there, you can avoid aging and continue living for a long time. According to our research, the holy lake is likely to contain the body fluids of some god of Disorder, such as the Goddess of Fertility, because a few transcripts mentioned that they had trekked to a distant planet to get ‘divine blood’ and poured it into the lake. If people of other nationalities accidentally enter the holy lake, they will usually disappear mysteriously. It may be that there are fluids that contain forces of Disorder in the lake, so they may have experienced a strange mutation and been vanquished.”

“So……after the destruction of their planet during the supernova explosion, the Heavenbounders lost their sacred lake, and their life span shortened dramatically to the point of near extinction.”

“That’s correct.”

Ethan lowered his head and looked at his hands. “Now……now that I’m infected……I don’t have to worry about aging and dying as an adult?”

“Yes……” Tanisiel closed the manuscript slowly.

”That is to say…… I can’t be cured?” Ethan suddenly laughed. “I originally should have looked this disgusting? If I don’t, I will have to die?”

No wonder the priest had changed the subject when he asked Tanisiel if he could be cured.

Although Ethan’s voice was calm and he was even smiling, Tanisiel recognized the uneasiness and despair in his voice. Tanisiel thought that Ethan should be very afraid because he would have grown to look unlike his current self. He would grow disgusting organs on his body, and he would have bloodthirsty impulses.

In fact, Tanisiel always wanted to find a time to tell him about the lineage of the Heavenbounders. Today, when he felt that Ethan was stalking him, he suddenly decided that today should be the day.

“I can’t cure you. I can only suppress it in you. And the kind of medicine I gave you was also to slow down your metabolism and delay your adulthood.”

Ethan’s mind was in a mess. He always felt like Tanisiel was withholding some information from him.

He did not have much Heavenbounder blood in his body, so why were there so many tentacles on his back after he mutated? Even a pure-blooded Heavenbounder only had four tentacles. And what about the strong desire for killing and blood after mutating?

Did that mean he couldn’t return to Earth, and he could never see his family again……

Oh right……if his mother had really passed away, it could be regarded as him not having a family already…… And whether or not his father was his real father, even if he was, he had already broken off his relationship with him……

Ethan leaned back against the stone platform without saying a word, his head slightly lowered, loneliness shrouded all over his body as he shrank back. Tanisiel reached out and squeezed Ethan’s shoulder to comfort him. “Don’t give up. I’ll keep trying. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the temple.”

The author has something to say:

It’s near the end of the term now, and all kinds of final projects and exams have to be handed in. I have to stay up late until three o’clock every day. It’s really hard to keep updating recently. I’m sorry for the slow updating speed……