Ethan lost his direction in the darkness. He didn't know where he was going. The rugged ground beneath his feet seemed to be slightly inclined, and the invisible gravity was pulling him to the unknown place little by little.
The garrulous babble still haunts his every breath, and he's not even sure if the sounds are coming from the outside world or his own mind.
"Where is this?" he murmured.
The voices paused for a while, then said again in chaotic, childish voices:
"At home, at home."
"On the planet."
"It's been emptied by us."
"It's almost full."
Ethan swallowed his saliva in his dry and sore throat, "What are you trying to do to us?"
The silence this time was longer than before. Ethan wondered if the voices in the dark were negotiating 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 called to him from a distance like a siren song, and a pulse like a beating heart. He turned his head hesitantly, and there was still darkness behind him.
Has lost his way, where to stay.
He had no choice but to stride in the direction of that beam of light.
*********
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Samuel looked uncertainly at the laser gun that had just been adjusted in Schneider's hand. "I've never heard that a laser gun can be used as a knife."
Schneider whispered, "I've only seen someone do this once, but it should be fine. It's less of a crime than a dagger." He looked at the sergeant. "Have you made up your mind?"
"How can you think about it." The sergeant smiled bitterly, "If I had known, I would have made more flights 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, they were limp and dragged on the ground as if they had no bones. He hadn't lifted the gauze and looked at it, so he didn't know what it was like now. He didn't want to know either.
The sight of Stan's festering wound covered with white granulation buds still makes me nauseous when I think about it.
Samuel supported the sergeant on the ground, straightened his right arm across the ground, and then pressed his entire body against the sergeant's body, holding his shoulders to keep him from moving. 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 turned his heart and slashed the laser beam downward. In an instant, the sergeant's scream resounded throughout the empty temple, echoing between the columns with strangely sharp corners.
Samuel kicked the entire, blackened, pitted arm away, deftly sprayed the antiseptic hemostatic agent onto the neat cross-section of the wound, and wrapped the last bit of bandage around his shoulder. The sergeant's body was soaked in cold sweat, and the whole person passed out.
Samuel wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a long breath. Schneider also sat down against the nearest post and tossed the gun aside. He asked Samuel, "How long has Eldridge been gone?"
Samuel estimated slightly, "At least four or five hours."
"After so long, will something happen?" Schneider turned his head to look at the holes in the high wall that would make people with intensive phobia go crazy. "If he doesn't come back in another hour, we'll go in and find him."
"Would you like me to go find him while you wait here?" Samuel asked.
"No." Schneider said decisively, "From now on, all actions must be together and cannot be scattered anymore."
*********
The red spot of light was getting closer. Ethan finally saw clearly that it was a hole.
Disturbing red light casts deep and shallow shadows. The corridor he was in was very wide, almost circular. From the floor to the ceiling, all are ring-shaped folds, reflecting the red light smoothly. This regular texture, like a grain, moves forward layer by layer, forming an uncomfortable vortex. And at the end of that vortex, the space suddenly opened up. Ethan stopped at the steep cliff at the entrance of the cave, his green eyes widened with shock.
It was a huge space, almost like an underground city. The cliffs are scattered like islands, and in the mist-filled abyss, many giant pillars with thick and thin ends at both ends rise into the sky, supporting the distant dome overhead. of worms. Despite the distance, they still seemed so thick and so long, their tops fluttering in the red mist, and uttering a childish, meaningless murmur. Ethan is almost certain those worms are the horrific worms that burst out of the underground caverns in the Horned Man sacrifice.
However, if you look more closely, you will see that the tail of the worms is connected with a thin purple-red strip, which has been hanging down. Ethan followed those things, and his eyes finally fell into the abyss. Then, he held his breath.
The red fog gradually dissipated in front of his eyes, and he saw something that covered the ground vertically and horizontally and almost filled his entire field of vision.
If the giant worms seen before were as huge as a subway or even an underground train, then the gigantic chunks of meat that twisted and twisted on the ground were almost like a city.
Ethan couldn't see its head and tail, but could only vaguely tell that it was extremely softly bent, twisted and twisted, and he couldn't even be sure whether it was one or several entangled. Its skin appears extremely soft from a distance, almost just a thin film. Beneath that gray-white membrane, countless bloodshots were densely spreading, emitting a scorching red light. When you look closely, you will find that its body is wriggling slowly and rhythmically, like a beating heart.
All those purplish red threads at the ends of the giant worms were attached to this ancient, primitive, super worm beyond human imagination. Those purple-red silk 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 by now, he no longer felt sick.
Ethan stared at the terrifying and magnificent scene in front of him, vaguely aware that these worms have a hierarchy similar to bee colonies and ant colonies. The "little" worms that dangle from the trees to attack people are equivalent to worker bees, those coiled around the pillars are likely male worms, transporting their own sperm through those purplish siphon-like organs, and the city-like giant in the abyss Red worms are their queen.
It turns out that this is the meaning of the existence of this temple, which is why the horned people say that this is the "mouth of the earth". Ethan suddenly seemed to have been tapped through the seven orifices, and he understood everything.
These giant worms are the "sacred race" worshipped by the horned people. They parasitize the interior of a planet, devour the core of the planet, wait until a planet is about to be hollowed out, and then spread the eggs into the universe to find the next one 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 fashionable and ignorant Horned Man. They are evil and chaotic people.
*********
Schneider first heard a sticky sound like a snail might make as it crawls across the ground. He hurriedly sat up straight and swept the surroundings with a light that was no longer as bright as before.
I didn't see anything suspicious, just inexplicably felt that the surroundings were much darker than before. Darkness loomed over the surroundings, filled with an ominous smell.
He turned around to see Samuel sitting up alert, as if he was listening.
"You heard that too?" Schneider asked.
Samuel frowned and nodded.
The tear-pull-tear-pull-sticky sound continued and became clearer. Even Stan suddenly opened his eyes now. He was 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 pointed the spotlight overhead.
I saw that the distant dome seemed to have many ups and downs, and the dome that originally exuded faint fluorescence was now all covered by the gray-white worms. Like the maggots that were crawling on the sergeant's arm just now, they were crowded on top of each other, and they slowly climbed down the pillars, the front ends were wide open, exposing circles of blood-red fangs.
Samuel picked up Stan on the ground, and Schneider also pulled the sergeant up. Several people wanted to run towards the way they came, but found that many worms had already touched the ground on the pillars in the distance, moving towards their direction spread.
They turned around again, only to find that the dense holes in the high wall were no longer empty. Strips of worms were squeezing out of the hole like strips of toothpaste, wriggling down the stone wall, leaving a translucent trail. The stench took over all the sense of smell with their appearance, making it nauseating. The most terrifying thing for Samuel was that he saw a worm as large as the one he had seen at the altar before, opening and closing a huge mouth like a black hole, and burrowing out of the hole that Ethan had entered before. The flesh and blood stuck to the teeth made his chest tighten.
That is to say... Ethan... may have become a puddle of flesh in his belly...
Strangely, he didn't have too much heartache. Probably because he knew that he would soon become the excrement in the stomachs of these disgusting creatures.
The four of them stood back to back, surrounded by insects that suddenly came from all directions. Schneider fired the gun in vain, and the brilliant flames of the laser lighted up the suddenly crowded temple again and again. But it didn't work. Those bugs didn't seem to have dead spots, and the places burned by the laser healed quickly, just like clouds, and it was impossible for them to suffer real damage.
The encirclement was getting smaller and smaller, and so many disgusting front ends waved in the air with a sharp hissing sound. It is a song of death from hell, and a song of fear that is deeper and darker than despair.
The heavy breathing of the four was clearly audible, and Samuel felt his heart beating wildly in his chest, making it hard to even breathe. I have faced death many times, but I can never get used to the fear of facing the end. He turned to look at Schneider, but he happened to meet the same desperate and frightening gaze.
Has his luck finally run out
When the laser gun's power finally ran out, when the worm closest to them raised its tip towards them, Schneider suddenly turned his head and stared deeply at Samuel, then moved forward and kissed his lips desperately.
*********
All the understanding is like the lost memory that was originally engraved in his mind, but it was just remembered again. Ethan hated the feeling, like being forced into a lot of memories that didn't belong to him.
He was sure that the voices in the darkness just now were these "sacred races" communicating with him.
Apparently, the bugs understood his language. So he asked aloud into the abyss, "Why are you trapping us here? Answer me!"
After a long time, a young voice similar to just now echoed in the abyss, booming like thunder, "We want you to take us to a new world."