Falling into the Abyss

Due to the shortage of dormitories, Ethan and Samuel were arranged in rooms in the area used to help the poor or homeless. The rooms, which could accommodate six people, had simple but complete furnishings. Almost all the furniture, such as the refrigerators, were embedded in the walls. There was even an automatic drink synthesizer. Tanisiel never came to see them, but he sent another apprentice to guide them there.

In the room, four wretched-looking Eve vagrants gathered to talk about the huge requiem ceremony that would be held in the temple in two days. Ethan heard them say that this requiem ceremony was not open to the public. Only the invited priests, royal nobles, or officials could participate in it. It was very mysterious. Ethan seemed to have heard them talking about Tanisiel. It was a pity that he couldn’t see the white priest playing the harp. The vagrants also said that last year’s performance was so wonderful that it felt like they were transported to a fairyland. However, their conversation stopped abruptly when they saw the duo come in. The vagrants scattered and seemed to be afraid of the pair of apprentices.

Ethan said hello to them in a friendly manner, but the others said hello to him in an almost humble manner.

It seemed that on this planet, priesthood was indeed a profession with high status. Even the apprentices benefited from the association.

Ethan grew more curious. He imagined what it would be like to watch Tanisiel play the heavenly harp. Just by imagining it, he felt even more expectant for it.

It was only at dinner that Tanisiel showed up and took them to an octagonal building. It was obviously the dining place for all the priests and apprentices, with long tables arranged in rows. The high-ranking blue and white priests, as well as the only purple priest in the temple, the head priest Theonile, sat on the long tables at the front of the hall. As soon as Ethan entered the door behind Tanisiel, a bunch of curious gazes stared at them. Tanisiel was famous for not accepting apprentices, but he had accepted two apprentices for the first time, making people wonder who the two apprentices are.

Ethan suddenly thought it was a stupid idea to enter with Tanisiel. At the same time, he felt a trace of unhappiness which made him a little uncomfortable……

Tanisiel was still smiling at all the priests and apprentices who passed by him. Was he always so casual?

The impulse to hide him from others hovered in his mind for the third time.

They served themselves dinner. Tanisiel took his two “apprentices” to familiarize themselves with where the meals were served and pointed out where the toilet was located. He considerately put a few more pieces of the Eve’s special animal meat, which looked like a combination of deer and horse, onto Ethan’s plate, and said “you are too thin” in a half-complaining manner. This caused the priests in front of and behind them to cast strange looks……

Then, instead of joining the three white priests of the same rank at the long table in the front, Tanisiel planned to eat with them at the ordinary long table. Now, not only did the apprentices around them begin to stare, but also the high priests. Ethan quickly whispered, “Hello! Hurry up and sit where you belong!”

Samuel put the ball away and nodded at him.

During the evening prayers, almost all the priests and apprentices gathered in the prayer hall. Tanisiel took Ethan through the open and magnificent corridor, followed the spiraling steps all the way to the ground, and took a few turns along the winding corridor. A tall stone gate with cross-crossing lines stood there, in a pattern similar to the lines on the God of Order’s egg. Tanisiel drew several patterns on it, and a light beam spread out and scanned his pupils. Then, the gate slowly opened.

Pure blue light suddenly flowed out, and the dark underground corridor was lit up fully. At the same time, a clean and clear breath of air turned into a breeze, and the sight made people unable to avert their eyes.

Ethan didn’t know why, but although it was a light breath, he felt very uncomfortable, just like the feeling of nausea after eating something disgusting.

Ethan narrowed his eyes as he gradually adapted to the sudden light and saw the palace in front of him.

There was a tall statue of an Eve woman in the open hall. She was dignified, holy, graceful, and breath-taking, holding a plate in her hand.

In that dish, there were three God of Order eggs.

Ethan was surprised. “This is……the place where you collect the God of Order eggs?”

“That’s right.” Tanisiel took a step forward, and the door behind him slammed shut. He approached the statue of the goddess and said, “If you can stay here for an hour every day, maybe you can suppress the development of the mutation in your body. It’s just that this method can only cure the symptoms, not the root cause, to the extent that when the forces of Disorder in your body reach a certain threshold, it may be harmful to you. You should be careful.”

Ethan nodded gratefully before approaching and looking at the blue objects. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t feel very excited after seeing them, and he even felt a little disgusted by the blueness.

At this time, Tanisiel suddenly asked, “Ethan, do you really want to be cured?”

Ethan took a look at him, and a lot of memories flashed through his mind.

He remembered Roland’s cold eyes, the pairs of blame-filled eyes staring at him at the Court of Ethics, the verbal abuse other people directed at him, his father’s estrangement, the ignorance and betrayal he saw in the Forbidden City, and the cruelty of people in the face of life and death crises. He also remembered the joy of killing and swallowing, the feeling of being liberated from his body to his heart, and what the black man said to him.

As long as you accept it, you can have everything. You can have Tanisiel.

Ethan hesitated. He whispered, “I don’t know……I just……want to live……”

“But this so-called ‘living’ is just an illusion. A group of DNA temporarily combined to produce embryos and cells and form a fragile organism, just to continue reproducing their own DNA. It’s all temporary. Only death is eternal.” Tanisiel reached out and took the flawed egg from the tray. “You know, this was why I became a priest. I thought that as long as I got this, I could save my father because at that time, I believed in the power of Order so much that I thought it was as kind as what they said in the scriptures. But in the end, it couldn’t change anything. No matter how much energy from the God of Order my father’s body absorbed, it still withered day by day. I could almost see how the forces of Disorder devoured his body. At that time, I knew that life and order were just an illusion.”

Tanisiel’s voice was very calm, but Ethan could see a trace of endless grief in his drooping eyes. His heart ached, and he thought of his mother’s haggard face.

The once beautiful face of his mother had become his deepest nightmare.

“But when you die, won’t there be nothing left?” Ethan asked sadly, “No matter how much you worship the God of Disorder, it won’t be kind to you? Wouldn’t you die more rapidly?”

“The God of Disorder and the God of Order are two sides of the same body, and they can’t be separated. If there are no forces of Order in the body of the God of Disorder, it cannot exist. If there are no forces of Disorder in the body of the God of Order, it will be extremely ordered. They are just creatures who are more advanced than us, who know the rules of the universe better than us. As long as they have a purpose, and as long as I am useful to them, I have a chance to profit from their confrontation and even ultimately achieve my own purpose. This is the essence of our faith.”

“So……” Ethan looked at the priest seriously. “What’s your ultimate goal?”

Tanisiel was silent for a moment and then said in a voice, as if his soul was lost, “I hope that all order and rules will be broken, that the boundary between life and death will be blurred, that all people, alive or dead, can be integrated into one, that they will not be separated from each other, that there will be no hatred or estrangement, that there will be no past or future, and that they will always be together. That’s real immortality.”

Ethan stared at the priest as if he were too surprised and did not know what to say.

However, the priest suddenly laughed and said, “I’m joking. Did I scare you?”

Ethan was relieved and patted him on the arm. “Don’t make such a joke!”

.

On the day of the Holy Spirit Festival, the gate to the Red Moon Temple was closed. The royal guards surrounded the temple in layers, and the streets within a mile were all under martial law.

The ceremony began at 25 p.m. (The Eve Planet has 28 hours a day). Ethan and Samuel were selected to wait in the prayer hall with a dozen other apprentices. Today, about 100 priests were invited to attend. Except for the head priest who had not yet appeared, all the white and blue priests were here. Tanisiel was wearing the same formal robe as the other white priests, but he was still the most dazzling one in the crowd. In addition to the high priests, there were more than 50 priests in green. Haldir, who they had met before, was also among them. Ethan said hello to him, but the other party pretended not to see him and did not return his greeting.

Samuel said with a smile that with a look, he could tell that that person had been secretly in love with Tanisiel for many years and regarded Ethan, an “apprentice” that suddenly appeared, as a thorn in his eye.

There was not a single lamp in the hall. All the illumination came from the thousands of candles on the walls, revealing the entire magnificent hall. Starting at twenty-four o’clock, some elegantly dressed Eves entered the hall one after another. Haldir humbly led them to the rows of seats behind the priests. Ethan noticed that all of them, male and female, ABO, were covered with black gauze and made little conversation. There was a strange silence in the hall.

About half an hour until twenty-five o’clock, someone suddenly called out, “The king of the Eves’ allied nation, His Majesty——Cronay, arrives——”

T/N: This chapter will be split into two parts and posted because the chapter length is as long as twice the regular chapter.