Falling into the Abyss

Ethan lost his direction in the darkness. He didn't know where he was going. The uneven ground under his feet seemed to be slightly inclined. The invisible gravity was pulling him to an unknown place bit by bit.

Those babbling and strange ravings still haunted his every breath, and he couldn't even be sure whether those voices came from the outside world or from his own mind.

"Where is this?" He murmured.

The voices paused for a moment, then spoke again in chaotic, childish tones:

"At home, at home."

"In the planet."

"It has been hollowed out by us."

"It's almost full."

Ethan swallowed his saliva in his dry and sore throat from running fast, "What do you want to do to us?"

This time the silence was longer than before.Ethan wondered if these voices in the darkness were discussing something in a language he couldn't hear.

Then, in front of him, a beam of light appeared in the distance.An ominous scarlet light, calling to him from a distance like a siren song, and beating like a pulse like a heart.He turned his head hesitantly, but there was still a silent darkness behind him.

I have lost my way, and I have a place to go.

He had no choice but to stride towards the direction of the beam of light.

**********

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Samuel looked uncertainly at the newly adjusted laser gun in Schneider's hand, "I never heard that a laser gun can be used as a knife."

Schneider whispered, "I've only seen someone else do it once, but it should be fine. It's less painful than using a dagger." He looked at the sergeant. "Have you figured it out yet?"

"It's impossible to think about it." The sergeant smiled wryly, "If I knew it, I would have flown a few more times to say goodbye to him."

Although it was a joke, the other three couldn't laugh, especially Stan who was lying on the ground.His legs were not optimistic either, limp as if they were dragging on the ground without bones.He hadn't lifted the gauze to look at it, so he didn't know what it looked like now.He didn't want to know either.

The way Stan's festering wound was covered with white granulation before now still makes me sick when I think about it.

Samuel helped the sergeant lie on the ground, straightened his right arm across the ground, and then pressed his whole body tightly on the sergeant's body, holding his shoulders so that he would not move.And Schneider pressed the trigger on the laser gun, and a hot beam of light shot out like a flame, burning continuously in the air.It worked!He glanced at Samuel, who nodded at him.

The sergeant closed his eyes.

Schneider shook his heart and chopped the laser beam downward.In an instant, the sergeant's screams resounded throughout the empty temple, echoing among the pillars with strange sharp horns.

Samuel kicked away the pitted arm that had already started to turn black, and quickly sprayed the antiseptic hemostatic agent onto the neat cross-section of the wound, and then wrapped his shoulder with the last bit of bandage.The sergeant's body was drenched in cold sweat, and he passed out.

Samuel wiped the sweat from his brow and let out a long breath.Schneider also sat down against the nearest pillar, throwing the gun aside.He asked Samuel, "How long has Eldridge been gone?"

Samuel estimated slightly, "It will take at least four or five hours."

"It's been so long, will something happen?" Schneider turned his head and looked at the holes on the high wall in the distance that would drive trypophobia patients crazy, "If he doesn't come back in another hour, we'll go in and look for him."

"Shall I go and find him, and you wait here?" asked Samuel.

"No." Schneider said categorically, "From now on, all actions must be done together, and they can no longer be scattered."

**********

The red light spot was getting closer.Ethan finally saw clearly that it was an acupuncture point.

Disturbing red light casts deep and shallow shadows.The corridor where he is located is very wide and close to a circle.From the floor to the ceiling, there are all ring-shaped folds, smoothly reflecting red light.This regular texture advances layer by layer like ridges, forming an uncomfortable vortex.And at the end of the vortex, the space suddenly opened up.Ethan stopped on the steep cliff at the entrance of the cave, his green eyes dilated with shock.

It was a huge space, almost like an underground city.The cliffs are scattered like islands. In the misty abyss, many giant pillars with thick ends and thin middle rise up to the sky, supporting the distant dome above the head. When you look carefully, you will find many huge pillars coiled around those pillars of worms.Even though they are far away, they still look thick and long, with their tops fluttering and flaring in the red mist, making childish and meaningless moans.Ethan was almost sure that those worms were the horrible worms that rushed out of the underground cave during the horned man sacrifice.

However, if you look more closely, you will see a thin purple-red strip from the end of the worms, hanging down.Ethan followed those things, and his sight finally fell into the abyss.Then he held his breath.

The red mist gradually dissipated before his eyes, and he saw the things that covered the land vertically and horizontally and almost filled the entire field of vision.

If the giant worms I saw before were as huge as a subway or even an underground train, then the giant lump of meat that twists and turns on the ground and stands still is almost a city.

Ethan couldn't see its head and tail, but he could vaguely tell that it was extremely soft and twisted, and its body was twisted and twisted. It was not even possible to determine whether it was one or several entangled together.Its skin looks extremely soft from a distance, almost just a thin membrane.Under the gray-white film, countless blood threads stretched densely, exuding a hot red light.When you look closely, you will find that its body is wriggling slowly and rhythmically, just like a beating heart.

All those purple-red threads at the end of those giant worms were attached to this ancient, primordial, super-worm beyond human imagination.Those fuchsia threads formed a large net in the air.The whole space was filled with the sour and rancid smell that Ethan was familiar with, but until now, he no longer felt sick.

Ethan stared at the terrifying and magnificent scene in front of him, vaguely aware that these worms had a hierarchy similar to bee colonies and ant colonies.The "little" worms that hang down from trees to attack people are equivalent to worker bees, those coiled on the pillars are probably male worms, and transport their sperm through those purple-red siphon-like organs, and the huge city-like worms in the abyss The red worm is their queen.

It turns out that this is the meaning of the existence of this temple, which is why those horned people said that this place is "the mouth of the earth".Ethan suddenly seemed to have been enlightened, and understood everything.

These giant worms are the "sacred race" worshiped by horned people. They parasitize inside a planet, devour the core of the planet, wait until a planet is about to be hollowed out, and then spread their eggs into the universe, looking for the next one that can Parasitic planet.They worshiped the god of entropy, and it was they who passed on the belief of the so-called "great wise man" to the horned people who were still ignorant at that time.They are the people of evil and chaos.

**********

Schneider first heard a sticky sound like the one a snail might make when it crawls across the ground.He quickly sat up straight, and scanned the surroundings with the lights that were no longer as bright as before.

I didn't see anything suspicious, but somehow felt that the surrounding area was much darker than before.The darkness is about to move and presses around, filled with an ominous smell.

He turned his head and saw Samuel sitting up alertly, as if he was listening to something.

"You heard that too?" Schneider asked.

Samuel frowned and nodded.

Tear-pull-tear-pull-the sticky sound continued, and became more and more clear.Even Stan's eyes snapped open now.He was originally lying on the ground, but when he opened his eyes, his expression suddenly froze on his face.He opened his mouth, but couldn't speak. He just stretched out his hand and pointed to the top of his head.

Schneider then pointed the spotlight to the top of his head.

I saw that there seemed to be many undulations on the distant dome, and the dome that originally exuded faint fluorescence was completely covered at this moment, covered by that gray-white worm.Like the maggots wriggling on the sergeant's arm just now, they crowded one another, and slowly climbed down the pillars one by one, with their front ends wide open, revealing blood-red circles of fangs.

Samuel picked up Stan on the ground, and Schneider also pulled the sergeant up. They wanted to run towards the path they came from, but found that many worms on the pillars in the distance had already touched the ground, heading towards their direction spread.

They turned around again, only to find that the densely packed holes on the high wall were no longer empty.Strips of worms were squeezing their way out of the holes like toothpaste strips, squirming down the stone wall, leaving a translucent trail.With their appearance, the stench occupies all the sense of smell, which is disgusting.What frightened Samuel the most was that he saw a huge worm like the one he had seen at the altar before, opening and closing its huge black hole-like mouth, and coming out of the hole Ethan had entered before.The flesh and blood sticking to his teeth made his chest tighten tightly.

In other words... Ethan... may have become a pool of flesh and blood in his belly...

Strangely, he didn't feel too much heartache.Probably because he knew that he would soon be the excrement in the stomachs of these disgusting creatures.

The four of them stood back to back, surrounded by bugs that suddenly came from all directions.Schneider fired in vain, and the brilliant laser flames lit up the suddenly crowded temple again and again.But it was useless, those bugs seemed to have no dead spots, and the places burned by the laser quickly healed completely, just like clouds, and it was impossible to receive real damage.

The surrounding circle is getting smaller and smaller, so many disgusting front ends are waving in the air, making a sharp hissing sound.It is a song of death from hell, and a song of fear with deeper and darker despair.

The heavy breathing of the four people was clearly audible, and Samuel felt his heart beating wildly in his chest, making it difficult to even breathe.Obviously, he has faced death many times, but he will never be able to get used to the fear of facing the end.He turned his head to look at Schneider, but met the same desperate and frightened gaze.

Has his luck finally run out?

When the energy of the laser gun was finally exhausted, when the worm closest to them raised its front end to them, Schneider suddenly turned his head and stared deeply at Samuel, then moved forward and kissed his lips desperately.

**********

All the clearness is like a lost memory that was originally engraved in his mind, but it was just remembered again.Ethan hated this feeling, as if he had been forced into a lot of memories that didn't belong to him.

He was sure that those voices in the darkness just now were these "sacred races" communicating with him.

Obviously, these bugs understand his language.So he asked loudly into the abyss, "Why are we trapped here? Answer me!"

After a long time, a childish voice similar to just now echoed in the abyss, rumbling like thunder, "We want you to take us to a new world."