Falling into the Abyss

As soon as the old woman’s scream sounded, the scavengers around the whole subway station immediately became alert, and their frightened eyes focused on Tanisiel’s trio. The old woman hurriedly took her grandson away as though she had seen a ghost.

Tanisiel hesitantly picked up the skin on the ground, while Samuel looked around at the scavengers who were suddenly hostile to them. “Hey, what’s the matter with you?”

The old woman spoke in a trembling voice, “How can you have something from a crypt ghost!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Samuel was confused. When he looked back, he saw that Tanisiel’s eyebrows were furrowed, staring at the thing in his hand.

“Ethan? Ethan?” Tanisiel gently shook Ethan’s shoulder. Seeing that he barely opened his eyes, he asked, “This, where did you get this?”

“……I found it in the subway.”

The old woman’s grandson yelled at them, “It’s skin that one of the ghosts under the crypt peeled off of a man! They eat people, leave their skins to dry, and draw strange things on them!”

Another scavenger, who was about 50 years old and missing one leg, also said, “The reason why no one dares to go to Line 17 is because there are such skins everywhere. Many of the people who found the skins went missing for no reason, while some went crazy. A person we call Hanako became like this. Hanako didn’t pick up junk all day long and just lay on the ground and stared at things. Hanako always talked nonsense and said that there was a ghost coming to catch them. Guess what? After a while, they really went missing!”

“This thing will bring misfortune!” The old woman shook her head, trying to stay away from them. “You have to leave quickly!”

“We’ll just stay for a while and leave as soon as he’s better.” Tanisiel silently put the skin into the pocket of his coat and took out some gold coins. In modern times, most places in the universe did not use physical currencies. Still, in some slums, gold coins were treasures that will never depreciate. He handed the two gold coins to the old woman. In an instant, her hostile eyes lit up, and her wrinkled and calloused hands took the gold coins hesitantly.

Tanisiel looked around again, gazing at the scavengers who were staring at his gold coins with the same yearning eyes, and asked, “Have you ever seen that kind of ‘crypt ghost’?”

Under the temptation of gold coins, several scavengers scrambled to say which of their friends and relatives had seen them in a certain subway line. However, no one among them had seen them with their own eyes. They believed that the crypt ghosts were slender and walked on two legs like human beings, but their legs were deformed, with their feet pointing in opposite directions. They had four hands and a long head, and the shape of their torso was irregular. They looked like elongated shadows standing silently in the corner, usually hidden in the dark. They came and went without a trace and sometimes appeared suddenly, quietly pulling people into the cracks between the rocks.

“It sounds like……it may be a species that has existed on Earth for a long time. I thought they were extinct.”

“Why didn’t I hear that there was such a thing on Earth?”

“They are the descendants of the God of Distortion, Ngyr-Korath. When human civilization was still in its period of ignorance, there was a period of prosperity on Earth. They have two forms. Usually, if they appear in a solid state, they appear like what you described. But if they exist in a viscous, liquid state, they can penetrate into very narrow spaces, such as rock fractures. Their natural enemy is a creature of higher intelligence in the universe that exists in the super solid state, named Halfidal. This God of Order’s descendants once came to Earth in ancient times, swallowed up these so-called ‘crypt ghosts,’ and left. I didn’t expect that they hadn’t gone extinct. They just went underground.”

Tanisiel finished his explanation, but it was obvious that the people were still confused. Samuel sorted out his thoughts and summed up his main points, “You mean they’re not a ghost, but a descendant of your disgusting and shitty gods, and they’ve always been on Earth?”

“That’s pretty much the explanation.”

“Didn’t you say that the God of Disorder can’t enter the universe of the God of Order? Why were so many of his descendants left behind?”

“Most of the races in the galaxy, including humans, are descendants of the God of Order, but there are naturally many descendants of the God of Disorder in the universe. When the power of Disorder drops, the number of descendants of the God of Order increases, and the number of descendants of the God of Disorder decreases. The giant worms you saw before on Pales believe they are descended from the God of Disorder, Yog-Sothoth.”

After listening to Tanisiel’s words, Samuel’s expression showed a mixture of “really disgusting” and “this doesn’t sound strange at all,” which obviously showed his contempt for the descendants of the God of Disorder. Tanisiel then burst into a smile and continued, “It’s true that the descendants of the God of Disorder disguise themselves as the descendants of the God of Order to survive. According to my mentor’s investigation, the best representative of these people are probably the Heavenbounders, who are almost extinct now.”

With that, he looked at Ethan, who had fallen asleep with a gentle expression.

Samuel was stunned for a long time and didn’t seem to believe his ears. “What did you say?”

“Shh.” Tanisiel put a finger to his lips. “Keep it down. Ethan is sleeping.”

Of course, Samuel couldn’t give up. He squatted down beside Tanisiel and said in a low voice, “Hey, you better clarify your words!”

“This is just a hypothesis put forward by my mentor after collecting some ancient books and artifacts. Besides, what’s the relationship between the Heavenbounders and the descendants of the God of Disorder? Their civilization has long since been lost.”

“But……but Ethan, he’s a quarter Heavenbounder!” Samuel couldn’t connect Ethan to those disgusting giant worms and the black tentacles that fell from the sky on Red Earth. But on the other hand, when Ethan mutated, his appearance was like a demon from purgatory, making him shudder as he “recognized” the similarities.

“You said it yourself. He’s only a quarter.” Tanisiel shrugged his shoulders and said, “Besides, aren’t you tired of this so-called order-oriented world? Everyone must live according to the same rules. If someone acts slightly differently, they will be regarded as a heretic, as they pursue so-called harmony and stability pointlessly.”

His words seemed to be spoken casually, but Samuel fell into silence of his own will.

The priest’s silver eyes, which contained a trace of maliciousness, looked at him, and a beautiful arc appeared on his ruddy lips. “If you have never seen the beauty of Disorder, then you are just locking yourself in the cage of Order because you are afraid of change. Isn’t that another kind of ignorance? Perhaps, in true Disorder, the boundaries between time and space will blur. At that time, it may be possible to see the dead again and change something we regret.”

Ethan slept deeply, and he didn’t know whether the priest had done something using his mental strength. In other words, he didn’t have any dreams last night. The rare peaceful sleep made him reluctant to leave the comfortable darkness, but the gentle and clear voice of the priest was always calling out in his ear. This gave him no choice but to endure the pain and leave his sleeping place where he didn’t need to think, to return to the cold and humid reality.

“Ethan? Ethan? We have to go. Otherwise, I’m afraid staying here will give rise to other problems.”

His fever seemed to have mostly subsided, but he still had a low fever and was shivering. Tanisiel wrapped his priest robe around him and continued walking, half-hugging and half-supporting him. After about three more stations, they decided that they were far enough from the Forbidden City.

Before leaving the subway station using the abandoned stairway, Ethan focused on Little Rafael, who didn’t know where to drill a hole into. “Play here, don’t eat people outside the Forbidden City, and wait for me to come back.” He didn’t know if the giant worm could hear the guilt in Ethan’s thoughts since he had to abandon it to head to the surface.

However, it was impossible to escape with such a big worm……

It was really strange that he was clearly thinking about whether to kill it a day ago, but now he had begun to feel reluctant to leave it. Was this what it was like to be a mother……

Ethan let out a long breath when he saw the first glimmer of light yellow emerging from somewhere high up on the old and rugged steps. In the end, men were animals that would head towards the light. He had been in the dark for such a long time that he realized how beautiful and valuable the sunshine was.

Ethan turned his head and saw the sunlight bouncing off the priest’s curly blond hair, and his dirty white coat and trousers seemed to be diffused with light.

Samuel also quietly bathed in the light, and his eyes stung slightly. He had finally escaped from the bottomless black hole that was the Forbidden City. He was finally free. This was something many nonhumans dreamed of, marking the second half of their lives. He was supposed to jump up and down like a child, but he couldn’t even smile.

Schneider had been left in the darkness behind him forever. Even if he went all around the universe, he would never again see the black eyes that were sometimes sharp and sometimes gentle.

The Forbidden City took away his everything, including his last chance at happiness. Now, even if they were free, there was only despair and hatred left in his heart.

He hated the Forbidden City, Gray Fur, the guards, the Lord Grace’s Association, the laws that dictated who he could be with, the so-called friends who were hypocritical and could betray him at any time, and the hypocrites outside the city.

He hated himself more. Why didn’t he take the time to tell Schneider that he also loved him. Why did he choose to escape when they could have spent a few more days together after he confessed his feelings.

Although he had gained his freedom, he only wanted to live for one purpose for the rest of his life.

Revenge.

He turned his head and happened to meet the priest’s unfathomable gaze.

Tanisiel nodded at Samuel with a slight smile. Then, he took the lead in running forward a few steps before turning back and reaching out to Ethan, the golden sun shining behind him. The scene appeared sacred, but his smile was filled with tens of thousands words of love.

“Let’s go, I’ll take you home.”

T/N: (If you’re reading this) VBaby, I’ve sent you a message on ko-fi to clarify something. You may reply to me on ko-fi, drop me a dm on discord, or email me. Thank you !