Chapter 19: Atonement: Red Earth (XVII)
“She saw us!!!” an Eve soldier cried out. Ethan didn’t doubt her words. Within the huge compound eye in the sky, thousands of eyes twisted freely in all directions before turning in their direction and looking at them……
At that moment, Ethan saw a vision of the chaotic, ancient city again. There were strange pointed buildings, humans with skin as green as frogs, and nightmare-like voices singing…… The previously incomprehensible language had become concrete thoughts, drilling into the deepest part of his consciousness.
It was as though he had watched countless splendid civilizations throughout the universe slowly wither away, before finally being swallowed up by the huge black mass of chaos and returning to their ancient state of chaos and nothingness. The remaining civilizations in the galaxy, including human beings, will meet the same end. Only death was eternal.
She wanted to use them to sprinkle her seeds over the entire Milky Way!
Everything felt surreal like he was living in a nightmare. It seemed that after people’s fear reached a critical point, they would begin to feel numb. Being watched by a demon as old as the universe, Ethan felt naked as though he had been stripped of a layer of skin and his soul had been nailed to the spot. Even the most daring villain in the world would go crazy if they were in an inescapable situation.
Ethan looked at the stunned expression on Samuel’s face and knew that he felt the same. At this moment, the smell emanating from the sky and the ground had become stronger. The stench of pools of blood as deep as a sea and a pile of corpses as high as a mountain assaulted Ethan’s nostrils. Compared to this, the scent of the plant sap on them wasn’t even worth mentioning.
“We have to get out of here!” Samuel’s voice trembled as he exclaimed, “She saw us!”
“Wait!” Ethan grabbed his sleeve and pointed to the transmitter on the other side of the base.
At this moment, the huge tentacles surrounding them were waving strangely. Through the gaps in the wriggling tentacles, they could see that a small group of nonhumans had gathered under another transmitter. After they saw the God of Disorder’s huge eye, they became increasingly panic-stricken, and several of them rushed out of the area covered by the blue light. However, as soon as they stepped out of the illuminated area, numerous tentacles swarmed in and engulfed them. Before they could even be pulled into the sky, the greedy tentacles had smashed them to a pulp. Everyone could clearly hear the sound of bones and muscles tearing mixed with their sporadic screams and the gurgling sound of them choking on their own blood. Some of the broken limbs fell to the ground and were quickly rolled up by other tentacles. Their small mouth-like suckers wriggled about, greedily sucking the blood on the ground.
This horrifying scene immediately dispelled Samuel’s thought of leaving their current area. Meanwhile, Ethan wondered if Tanisiel had blocked the door to the central control room before leaving the base. If those strange bugs got in and destroyed the God of Order’s egg that was powering the transmitters, Ethan thought that they might as well commit suicide.
Tanisiel said in a deep voice, “Hold on for five more minutes!”
Just as Ethan had predicted, Tanisiel had used some furniture to block the door before leaving the central control room. He was not worried about any of the bugs entering through the various cracks around the room. Even the goddess of fertility could not go against the power emanating from the God of Order’s egg, let alone the monsters who could only be regarded as Shub-Niggu’s descendants. However, it was obvious that Shub-Niggu had long since been aware of this trump card of his. How would this ancient alien creature, who transcended all civilizations, react?
As long as they could manage to last two more minutes, the God of Order’s power would be released. Although the energy contained by the small sacred object was unfathomable, was it strong enough to face the embodiment of chaos?
The enormous red eye had moved over their heads. It was so large that the human consciousness could not even comprehend its size. The sky was suddenly submerged in a blood-red hue. The cold compound eye was hundreds of feet away from them, but when they looked up, they descended into a daze, feeling as though they were about to be crushed.
Ethan did not know what form the goddess of fertility’s consciousness would take and what she would do when she saw their group trying to deter her. Would she think that they were laughable, just like humans seeing a bunch of ants waving their fists?
Suddenly, the tentacles circling around them all rose into the air and twisted around each other, forming a single giant tentacle with a radius of tens of meters. It suddenly picked up and threw the nearby water tower. The heavy iron tower flew out, knocking one of the transmitters at the other end of the base over.
The blue light suddenly diminished, and the Eves and nonhumans standing near the transmitter screamed out in fear.
However, their misfortunate had not ended, and the giant tentacle next grabbed onto a communication tower. The steel and cement were torn off like soft plaster and flew straight over the base, destroying another nearby transmitter like a fortress falling from the sky. Ethan could see people running around before the tower fell, some caught by tentacles, and others running towards them. Chen Zeng, Derek, and Cavin were all among them. They ran in an S-shaped manner and were luckily able to dodge the few sweeping arms chasing them. However, it would be meaningless even if they managed to make it over. It was obvious that the goddess of fertility’s next target would be Ethan and company.
Two transmitters had been lost, and theirs was the last one. Ethan couldn’t help but lose hope. Ethan saw that Samuel, the guard, and the other two Eves were all pale. Their bodies were frozen in place like statues as though they had lost even the desire to escape. Even after experiencing several difficult tasks, in the face of the hellish power that surpassed absolutely everything, Samuel also fell into despair. However, Tanisiel kept smiling strangely. His eyes shone, and his back was straight as he confronted the goddess of fertility, who had existed through countless spacetimes.
He was a crazy priest who dared to challenge God. A stubborn desperation shone in his eyes.
This is how they would meet their ends. Sure enough, a ten-point mission was not that easy to accomplish.
Ethan suddenly thought of something. He suddenly exclaimed, “Let’s climb up!” Without waiting for the others to understand what he was saying, he grabbed onto the transmitter’s railing and hoisted himself up. Although he cut a sorry figure, he climbed along the crisscrossing metal beams toward the top of the signal transmitter tower. The blue light illuminated his entire body, and a shallow light emanated from his skin.
Tanisiel’s eyes opened in surprise, and he immediately understood what Ethan had meant.
If Shub-Niggu was afraid of the God of Order’s eggs, then so long as they were contaminated by the God of Order’s aura, they may become immune to the God of Disorder to a certain extent as long. However, this idea was very risky, and the side effects of the human body being contaminated by the God of Order’s aura were unknown. He yelled at Ethan, “Come down! The launch is almost complete!”
Ethan replied without looking back, “There’s not enough time.” He continued to immerse himself in the increasingly intense God of Order’s energy field at the top of the signal tower. Ethan didn’t know what he was thinking at the moment. Perhaps it was because he knew he was going to die, so he felt like disregarding everything?
Maybe he was unreconciled? He was unreconciled that he had only lived for thirty years, that his life would end on such a desolate planet, and that he had spent most of his life acting cautiously, never daring to overstep any boundaries. He was also unreconciled that he was never given a chance to properly make peace with his father or see his extremely ill mother. He suddenly hated the invincible alien creature above his head, hated the man with blue eyes, hated himself for making the wrong decision, and he hated the world that had banished him.
He did not want to die and be pulled into nothingness without struggling at all.
At this time, the huge tentacle lifted up and seemed to be looking for a suitable building to use as a weapon to destroy the last signal transmitter tower. However, when the tentacle swung past the last signal transmitter tower, the timid secretary suddenly did a very crazy thing— He grabbed onto the tentacle!
The huge tentacle seemed to be stung by something and violently shook itself in the air instead of heading towards the last signal transmitter tower. It was trying to throw off Ethan, whose body was covered with a faint blue light. Ethan was lacking in strength, and even though he was able to break through his limits due to his unreconciled feelings towards dying, he was unable to hold on for long. His body was soon thrown off and landed on top of the main building. It was unknown whether he was dead or alive.
However, thanks to his momentary delay, the launch was finally completed. The blue light instantly burst out into the air, spreading rapidly like a water ripple. Wherever the blue hue touched, the tentacles withdrew at an incredible speed, and the huge red eyes quickly closed with a deep and dull sound. It reacted similar to how a human would if sand got into their eyes.
Everyone who had survived suddenly heard a terrible scream that seemed to penetrate their heads. They covered their ears in vain, only to find that the angry cry was not from the outside world but from their own consciousnesses.
Then, a miracle happened. The lumps of meat that had blocked out the sun and plunged the world into darkness began to move. It withdrew rapidly from every direction, and a hole gradually expanded in the middle of the sky. The light of the red giant star, Hera, began to pour in like a waterfall composed of red light, gushing over the land filled with corpses and debris and once again illuminating the red grassland. The survivors let out deafening cheers as they celebrated their survival. Samuel blinked in disbelief, almost forgetting how to breathe. He never knew that he would appreciate the orange sky so much. All of the Eves knelt down in prayer to thank their God. Chen Zeng also took several people to gaze at the sky and drew a cross across his chest.
At this moment, the chief security officer, the soldiers, and all of the nonhumans forgot their identities momentarily. They hugged each other and cried, laughed, swore, and celebrated as their fear was washed away. After seeing such a terrifying power, all of their previous conflict had suddenly seemed meaningless. They found that it actually felt so good to live on.
On the other hand, the priest did not feel that the matter was so simple.
He had always felt that something was wrong…… He had underestimated the power of the God of Disorder before meeting Shub-Niggu. He had only brought the God of Order’s egg, and with only one signal transmitter tower left, how could she have been pushed back so quickly?
Could it be…… His expression darkened. “No, she merely temporarily retreated to another area and will come back soon. We have to leave now!” he sternly said to everyone, both nonhumans and the Eve soldiers alike. Both parties were stunned after seeing his expression, and they all restrained their joy. Tanisiel calmly and quickly assigned tasks to different groups. Derek and Chen Zeng took people to check the damage to the two spaceships that were parked not far from the base. Samuel took the rest of the nonhumans to the base to look for survivors, while the Eve soldiers were responsible for making preparations to burn the entire base down.
And he ran straight to the top floor of the main building of the base.
Without the God of Disorder’s interference, Gina had been successfully rebooted, and she identified Tanisiel and guided him to the top platform. He looked around for a moment before spotting the Beta lying on the edge of the platform with his eyes closed. There was a lot of blood on his forehead, the wound likely from when he had fallen to the ground. Other than that, there were many scrapes on his body. His skin was still emitting a faint blue light, which made him look much paler than usual.
Tanisiel approached him silently before crouching down and placing his hand under his nostrils. Although his breath was weak, he was still breathing. Tanisiel sighed, his eyes softening for a moment as he reached out to hug Ethan carefully.