Falling into the Abyss

The sight of his mother quickly rotting in front of him made Ethan scream, his body seemed to have suddenly lost control and staggered back, but he tripped over Samuel's leg.The people around, including Samuel, seemed unable to see what was happening in front of them, sitting like puppets.Ethan grabbed Samuel's arm and tried to pull him up, but the other's body was as motionless as a rock, his eyes were wide open, and he didn't even blink.But his mother was still crawling towards him, rotting lumps of flesh falling from her face and arms, trailing long trails of foul-smelling mucus behind her.

Ethan didn't care about La Samuel anymore, he hurriedly got up from the ground and rushed towards the gate, no one stopped him.But as soon as his hand touched the doorknob, a burst of burning pain suddenly exploded in his palm.With a cry of pain, he raised his hand and found that the flesh had been scorched.But under the black scorched flesh, some weird tentacles were wriggling, quickly repairing the wounds on his body, and new flesh and blood grew at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He turned around and rushed in the direction of Tanithel. The priest seemed so far away, still dancing tirelessly, and the beautiful sound of the piano came from all directions, making him nowhere to escape.

"Taniser! Taniser!" Ethan called his name loudly, and ran with great strides.But the space in front of him was suddenly distorted and stretched, no matter how he ran, he couldn't shorten the distance between him and the priest, and his shout seemed to be absorbed by the sound of the surrounding piano, and it couldn't be transmitted even one meter away.

It was a nightmare, a living nightmare.Ethan patted his face hard, trying to wake himself up.

But at this moment, a nobleman with a black veil suddenly stood up in the auditorium.

In this seemingly frozen prayer hall, this person is probably the only one who has moved except for Tanisel in the distance and the "mother" who is still perseveringly crawling towards him.

Ethan looked at him, not knowing whether to feel joy or guard.An ominous feeling of impending rain made him freeze in place, staring at that person.

It was a tall man, wearing an exquisite black velvet robe, his steps were unhurried, calm and elegant.There was something frightening and chilling about him, and Ethan couldn't describe that familiar and disgusting feeling.

The man stopped about ten steps in front of him, and slowly lifted the black veil from his face.

Ethan froze.

The person in front of me is about 70 years old. Although he is 70 years old, he is not too old in the average life expectancy of people on earth who often live more than [-] years old.He should have been a very handsome man when he was young, but because of the deep marks between his brows that were always frowning, he looked a bit rigid and serious.But Ethan still likes him very much, thinking that he is an orderly and efficient person who respects his subordinates and is straightforward.

Energy Bureau Director Abel, Ethan's former boss.

"You... how did you..."

Abel smiled lovingly at him, "Long time no see, Ethan."

Ethan took a step back and murmured in a low voice, "It must be a hallucination...it must be a hallucination..."

"Is it a hallucination?" Abel tilted his head slightly, but the smile was a little strange, different from Ethan's memory, it seemed a little more... cunning.He reached out his hand to Ethan, "Do you want to shake it? See if it's a hallucination."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm here to see you." As Abel said, his facial features and face shape suddenly began to undergo subtle but rapid changes.Under Ethan's shocked eyes, that face quickly turned into Tanisel's face, then turned into his father's face, and finally turned into a strange Egyptian man's face, and then blurred into a ball , as if erased by an eraser.

A chill eroded Ethan's body, he stared at the man in black in front of him stiffly, and finally recognized him.

It was the black man who kept haunting his dreams.

Ethan glanced back in a panic, only to see that Tanisel was still dancing in a distant place, playing the mesmerizing piano music.Is this reality or a dream?Why do the things in the nightmare appear one after another?

"Haven't you ever thought about who proposed to research and develop the Second Universe, the Red Earth, or even the Zero Project? Why is every mission you have related to the Energy Bureau, and who chooses you to participate in the mission?" The man said blankly. Gradually, the director's facial features grew on his face, and he looked at him with a serious and solemn expression, just like the director's usual expression every time he talked with him, "Have you ever thought about how Ophiuchus knew about it?" Project Zero, and why did you send Roland who fit your preferences so well to carry out the mission, and why I couldn’t attend on the day when I was receiving foreign guests, and you were the one to receive foreign guests for me?"

Every word of the old man was like a sharp sword, piercing through the obstacles that Ethan couldn't figure out.Those things in his life that he thought were fate and coincidence, in front of this familiar and unfamiliar population, turned into a game of fate that had been carefully arranged.

"It's you..." Ethan's voice was hoarse, and he could hardly make a complete sentence.His mind has become a mess, too many memories flashed quickly, and all of them were covered with a haze of fate, "Why...the director...Why me?"

"Haven't you thought of me? My child?" "The director" approached with firm steps, his eyes full of oppressive pressure, "I said that after all the gods left this universe, I was the only one left The ancient existence here walks in the world with a human attitude. I watched the people on the earth go from a group of cave-dwelling apes to later conquer the entire galaxy, and watched the birth and death of civilizations on different planets. I have been waiting for a moment , waiting for the sequence force to reincarnate into a weak moment, waiting for the opportunity to welcome back the gods to occupy this rich universe. And you, my child, are a key that I personally made to open the universe of the sequence gods. Made bodies contain the blades of entropic souls."

At this time, he had already walked in front of Ethan, and a skinny hand like an eagle's claw was gently stroking Ethan's cheek.It was cold and sticky to the touch, as if a poisonous snake had crawled across his skin, and it made Ethan tremble behind him.Those evil blue eyes stared at Ethan, and for a moment Ethan seemed to see a blood-red tentacle growing from his face, wrapping around his neck like a tongue...

"My dear Ethan." The voice of "Director" rang through his mind, "I am your father."

Ethan felt that his neck was tightly strangled by invisible red tentacles. He had difficulty breathing, and his hands covering his throat could not relieve the feeling of suffocation.

"No, you're not." Ethan said struggling, "My father is Adrian Eldridge!"

"Stop lying to yourself. You know in your heart that Adrian Eldridge was never your father, he was just a pawn who helped me raise you." Kind of arrogant.

"Ethan" mother also appeared behind him, with a hand that was so rotten that only bones remained on his shoulders, and the ear clips on his ears were removed, and the corpse fluid soaked his clothes and corroded his skin , which made him feel more itchy on the back of his neck and back, and even bursts of cracking pain began to appear.

"Baby, your time is up, hurry up and kneel down to accept his blessing!" A distorted voice came out of the broken throat, and the gentleness before could no longer be heard.

All the words buzzed in Ethan's ears, impacting all his past memories.His father was hot and cold to him, took care of his life but hardly smiled at him, and his mother found various reasons to leave the house and him.Ethan never had a birthday party, and only his parents didn't have time to be there when the school staged a play.When he was young, he didn't complain much, but when he watched other people's parents kiss their children and wiped off the oil paint painted on their faces during the performance, he felt a little pain in his heart.

When the classmates complained that their parents were too strict to let them play too late at their classmates' house, Ethan, who was parked beside him, looked envious.Father never worried about whether he played outside for too long, but Ethan would still come home on time every night and have dinner with his father.

He has always believed that his parents love him, they are just too busy.Especially my father, although he seldom talks to him when he is at home, but as long as he is a good boy, he will still smile at him.

So Dad must love him, as long as he is a good boy, Dad will love him.

But if you love him, why didn't you even attend his graduation ceremony, why didn't you ask him what he wants to do in the future, why didn't you ask him if he was in love like other parents did, why did you ask him when he left? After returning home, they are all in the same city, but they have never visited his apartment.

But now, hearing this, it seemed that everything suddenly made sense.

Love, probably still exists.But hate, I am afraid there is a lot...

The fiancée was pregnant with a child of unknown origin before the intercourse. If the proud father didn't love his mother so deeply, wouldn't he be able to bear this shame and humiliation?

Ethan's heart felt as if someone had squeezed it hard, the pain was so painful that he couldn't speak or scream.He was a monster, a monster from the very beginning, from the moment he was born.

From the very beginning, he was not worthy of being loved.

He felt so heavy on his body that he couldn't bear it.Something in his body was about to explode, and he knelt down on the ground, with a tearing pain in his back.He tried not to cry out, but saw that his nails quickly turned black and long, and the black lines spread from his arms to his palms.

At the same time, a sense of extreme fear was occupying his consciousness.He suddenly felt very tired, so tired that he couldn't move a finger, and wanted to find a place where there was no one, a dark, closed corner, to hide himself.

This world is so chaotic and dangerous, he needs to weave a cocoon to wrap himself layer by layer.

The impulse was so strong that he didn't notice that the tentacles behind him spewed out unconsciously, entwining himself layer by layer, gradually leaving only a pale face outside.

He saw that the body of the "chief" in front of him was deforming and expanding.The facial features on his face melted together, and a blood-red tentacle soared into the sky, roaring in the tall and wide hall.The big hands dripping with mucus gently held up his face, forcing his green eyes to meet the "face" without facial features.

"Ethan, it's time for transformation. Whether to live according to my will as my son, or to die of rapid aging like your mother after a brief beauty, you have to think carefully."

After he finished speaking, he slightly turned Ethan's head so that he could look at his mother who was so rotten that one eyeball was hanging out of the eye socket, and countless maggots were wriggling on her body.

The green eyes suddenly widened, which was the deepest fear in his heart.

Ethan suddenly realized that he was now entering his deepest nightmare-the "chrysalis" period before adulthood, which lasted about two weeks, as his mother said.

He let out a beast-like wail, and more black tentacles spewed out, shooting towards the Crouching Chaos in front of him like sharp blades.However, what his tentacles passed through seemed to be a mass of mucus, but the tall monster didn't seem to respond at all. The red tentacles rolled up and even tore off the tentacles.

The severe pain made Ethan roar in pain. He saw the red tentacles stretched out in front of him, and heard the voice of Nyarlathotep from the crouching chaos resounding in his mind, full of the purest evil, "That dancing Yi Madam, this is also the meeting gift I chose for you. Do you like it?"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Facing the overwhelming threat and the fear hormones uncontrollably secreted by his body, Ethan had only one thought in his mind - to escape.He wrapped himself up layer by layer with tentacles, as if he could isolate the chaotic world outside.It is an irresistible urge, an animal instinct that dominates everything.

He needs to hide, hide deeply.