Vol 2 Chapter 60: Atonement: Faun (9)

What is the highest level of pain in the world?
Some said it was burned by fire, some said it was childbirth, and some said it was bitten by a beast. But compared to what Ethan felt at the moment, I am afraid it would not be more painful. He felt as if sulfuric acid had been injected into his body, the blood vessels and nerves had been dissolved, and the muscles and bones had been stripped away. The problem is that this is not only pain, but also an unbearable itching sensation. He feels in a trance that he is being dissolved and being split into small pieces. Thousands of knives and a thousand cuts are nothing but so.
However, this was not all the pain, because Tanithel had to help him share it, as always. This was the first time he heard such a harsh scream from a priest. His beautiful face was twisted and convulsed because of the extreme pain, and his body was curled up tightly because of the intense muscle contraction. If you look closely, you will see that some black lines similar to Ethan's body quickly pass over his white skin and quickly disappear.
Ethan felt in a daze that the back of his neck was torn, and something was pushing hard into his wound. The invisible powerful force squeezed him from all directions, crushing his bones, making him unable to breathe. The entangled tentacles behind him were shrinking a little bit, retracting into his body, his voice was hoarse, his breathing was rapid and irregular, and every muscle was tight and almost broken. This intense pain made him feel dizzy and finally lost consciousness completely.
He and the priest almost lost consciousness at the same time.
After about ten minutes, Ethan woke up first. His vision was a little fuzzy, and there was a mixture of black all around, only a small bluish blue ball whirled around a dormant body not far away.
Ethan looked down at his hands. He could no longer see the black lines that had spread on the back of his hands. He was short of breath and quickly reached out to touch the back of his neck.
It felt like an undulating scar, but there were no more nauseating extra limbs.
There was a whimper of ecstasy in his throat, and tears flowed down his dirty cheeks, which no longer had thin black lines. He had never felt so happy before, as if he had regained his life.
Drying the tears that kept flowing with his hands, he crawled towards the human figure not far away with his hands and feet. The priest lay down on the blood-stained ground, and his golden hair was blackened, hiding the graceful profile of his face. Ethan pulled his hair away lightly, his heart full of guilt and touch. Tanithel saved him again and helped him bear such terrible pain. No one in the world treats him like him.
He is his light, the only light in the darkness.
He gently stroked the priest's cheek, then reached out and shook the priest's shoulder, "Tanisel? Tanisel?"
The priest uttered a low murmur, frowning slightly between his eyebrows, as if he was unhappy because of being forced out of the darkness. His long golden eyelashes flicked and opened slowly.
Ethan let out a relaxed breath, "Are you okay?"
Tanisel was sore all over, as if he was assembled after being broken by a car. He rubbed his unharmed neck and sat up, seemingly unable to remember where he was. He looked around, finally falling on Ethan's face.
"Reagent..." He reached out and touched the tightly entangled scar on the back of Ethan's neck. "Success?"
Ethan nodded vigorously, and suddenly hugged Tanithel.
The priest was stunned, and after a while he slowly raised his hand and hugged Ethan's body, which seemed to have lost a lot of weight. It seems that the mutation consumes a lot of his energy. Although he has eaten a lot of horns, the energy supplement is far from enough, especially in the last few days, he consumes even more without eating any fresh life besides eating carrion. The power of Entropy God is really not something that anyone's body can bear.
Ethan greedily breathed the bitter sandalwood scent on Tanisel's body, clutching the clothes on the opponent's back tightly, unwilling to loosen him, fearing that when he let go, he would find that everything was nothing but Nanke's dream.
"How did you find me? Didn't you say that our soul binding can't help you pinpoint?" Ethan closed his eyes and buried his head on the side of the priest's neck.
"I first found Samuel who was rescued after I came to this planet. He told me that you were in this forest. As long as I get here, I can perceive your specific location."
Ethan was silent for a moment, and said in a dull voice, "I'm sorry..."
"I'm sorry?" asked a little confused.
"I messed it up. It hurts you. You came to the Faun secretly, right?" He understood that in the Earth Alliance, all foreigners will only be granted passes for certain areas, but Tanithel is obviously impossible. Possess the pass of Faun.
Tanithel shrugged indifferently, "It's nothing. If you are caught, you will be sent back to Eve at best."
"But then, I will never see you again."
Tanithel gently separated the two bodies, lowered his head and looked at Ethan with a smile, "I have chosen you, and I will definitely find a way to come to you, no matter where you are. You escape. Don't drive me."
Ethan looked at Tanisel's enchanting ethereal eyes, all kinds of emotions were surging, and he was almost about to say the words that opened and lost.
But he finally controlled himself.
He slowly let go of the hand holding Tanithel's waist, and suddenly realized how dirty he was. He wrapped his hands around his chilly upper body and asked, "What should I do next?"
"elopement."
"what?"
"Samuel reported to the above that you died with other people and were eaten by worms that came out of the ground. I think your collar is gone, so you can run away with me now," Tanither Er dropped a bombshell to Ethan in a relaxed tone, and lightly kissed his forehead, "As long as you leave the Earth Alliance, you will no longer be inhuman."
No longer inhuman.
Ethan knew he should be happy, but what he had in his mind was just blank.
Why is there no sense of reality?
"My spacecraft is parked on the edge of the woods, and there is still some way to go. We must be careful not to let people from the Earth Alliance find you." Tanithel stood up and pulled Ethan up easily, "Come on. , There is still a lot to do."
The two people hurriedly left the stinking cave, but the choking odor outside the cave was even worse than in the cave, and it could almost turn into a tangible smoke to smother people. The corpses all over had rotted and shattered, and the maggots writhed between their black muscles.
Ethan looked at this scene, which was more disgusting and cruel than any horror movie, and threw his head down.
Such a scene turned out to be caused by him alone.
Is it better to die for such a terrible self?
Tanithel stroked his back, suddenly tore a piece of fabric from the hem of his clothes, and tied it to Ethan's eyes to block his vision.
"Don't think about anything, try to hold your breath and just follow me."
He took Ethan's hand, half-opened the eyes on his forehead, and guided Ethan to temporarily block his sense of smell with mental power. Ethan was pulled by the priest and stumbled away. Occasionally he would guess something very soft and sticky, and he did not dare to imagine what it was. In his consciousness, the blue lake and huge red ancient wood appeared again, and the warm wind carried a reassuring scent of sandalwood. He began to understand that this illusion was built for him by Tanithel, and he could hide there whenever he had pain that he could not bear, so that he could avoid utter madness.
Tanithel unwrapped the cloth on his head, and a shallow stream appeared before his eyes. The melted snow from the mountains wandered down and quickly flowed across the riverbed paved with five-colored pebbles with a bit of blue. Some fungus with luminous spots protruded from the two sides to the middle, as quiet and gentle as night lights. Here, Ethan took off his dirty trousers, soaked his whole body in the cold water, and scrubbed the dirt and blood that had solidified for many days. He tried his best not to think about what was washed away by the stream. He just wanted to wash himself clean, and wash everything he had done. It seemed that as long as he was washed, he could start over.
Since there was no change of clothes, but Ethan really didn’t want to wear that dirty army pants, so he put on Tanisir's robe, wrapped his naked body tightly, and Tanisir took Yi A kind of powder produced by Fu was sprinkled on the wood, and a fire was set up, making him dry the trousers that had just been washed with stream water. Tanithel gave Ethan some of the compressed beef jerky he had with him, and the two ate them quietly in the flames.
"When I was a child, I went out camping with my classmates. I tried putting marshmallows on wooden sticks and roasting them over the fire. The outer layer of the marshmallows was roasted so that they were charred and crispy, and the melted sugar hearts permeated as soon as I bite them down. In the mouth, it is really nostalgic." The fireworks jumped in Ethan's green eyes, which seemed a little fascinating.
"Marshmallow?" Tanithel looked blank, obviously not knowing what it was.
Ethan saw his rare dazed expression and laughed softly, "It is a traditional dessert on the earth, usually in the shape of a white cylinder, which is very soft and elastic when pinched. You have been here for so long and have not eaten it. ?"
Tanisel shook his head, "There are only those kinds of desserts at the Mars base. I have eaten them all, and I have never eaten the cotton you mentioned."
"It's marshmallows." Ethan corrected his pronunciation seriously, and then laughed, "When I get the chance, I will bake it for you."
"Okay, I'll eat you if it doesn't taste good. I suspect you are better, especially when tied up."
"...Don't always say such things that are not offline!" Ethan stretched out his leg and kicked Tanithel on the knee.
Lying by the fire at night, Ethan was tightly wrapped in Tanisel's robe and locked in a ball. The cold air of Faun made him shiver until another warm embrace hugged him from behind.
The two bodies were close to each other and it was not so cold.
Faun has three moons, one is surprisingly large, one is like the moon on the earth, and the other is too small like a relatively large star. The three satellites face each other in the starry night sky. Ethan looked at them and asked quietly, "How long can I support?"
After a while, Tanithel replied, "I don't know. The mutation has been successful, and even a triple dose of the Order God's Egg Solution may not be stable forever."
"...If one day I can't change back, can you kill me?"
"……Maybe……"
"If I really lose my mind, it's like last time..." Ethan turned over and faced Tanisel, saying as if made up his mind, "Kill me."
Tanithel frowned, did not agree or object, just reached out and hugged him tightly.
They slept for about four hours, and then bury the traces of the campfire while it was still early to continue on their way. However, when they finally came to hit a clearing on the edge of the woodland where the spaceship was moored in Tanisel, they found a few horns standing near the plane, looking around.
Tanithel cursed in a low voice, turned Ethan around and tried to slip away. However, he quickly sensed that there were horns approaching in every direction.
Obviously the horned people are too familiar with this forest, and any slight changes can't escape their slender eyes. They had a safe journey before, but the horned people were waiting for them to enter the trap.
There was no way, Tanithel had to sacrifice the ball of breath, transform it into a scepter, stand up straight, and make a dignified and sacred posture-the standard expression of the priest he is best at.
Ethan was also calm to the point of numbness. Although I didn't want to see the race he had slaughtered.
A tall female horn Alpha was holding a gun and staring at them with a skeptical look, "An Eve, why would he come to Faun?"
"I am Tanisel, the priest in white at the Red Moon Temple of Eve Star. I came here this time because I heard about the'Great Wise Man' believed by the Horned Man, and I really want to learn more about him." Tanisel Answered decently.
"This planet rarely sees Eve people." Female Alpha seemed to be very curious about Tanithel, tilted her head and looked at him carefully, and then turned her gaze to Ethan after a while, "Where is he? Your servant ?"
Without waiting for Tanithel's answer, Ethan nodded on his own initiative and lowered his eyebrows.
"Why do your servants wear your clothes?" The horned lady was still suspicious.
"He fell into the quagmire before, and his clothes were dirty, so I lent him mine. Is there any problem?" Tanithel smiled kindly at her, and the bright eyebrows made the female Alpha person look a little dazzled. "Sorry, this forest has not been peaceful lately. We need to be extra careful not to provoke the great wise men anymore." There was a flash of fear in her eyes, and Ethan wondered if they had ever been to the sacrificial ground that was bloodbathed by him. .
The female horne hesitated, "I have to take you back and let the chieftain decide what to do with you."
So the two accidentally fell into the hands of the corner man again. Fortunately, Tanithel was obviously an Eve, otherwise they might have been arrested again and sent to sacrifice. The horned man seems not to have much hostility towards the priest, but the hostility towards Ethan is obvious. For example, the male horn man behind with a gun occasionally pokes his back waist with a gun and uses unnecessary force to signal him to go quickly.
Then they saw the village of the Horned Man hidden in the mountains.
It is a stronghold for the rebels and a refuge for the fugitives. In the middle of the undulating valleys of the two mountains, hidden by thousands of blue trees, many unique oval houses are either located on the ground or hung between the branches of tall trees. The horned man likes to blend in with his surroundings. It is difficult to distinguish buildings that are shaded by plants of different heights if they are flying over with a flying vehicle.
Perhaps this is why the Earth Army has been unable to find these horned rebel strongholds.
Obviously these horned rebels are indeed funded by the Ophiuchus Alliance. The armors and weapons in their hands are obviously not made in the local style. They are a bit too avant-garde and incompatible with the surrounding environment. They even saw some mountain armored vehicles, the ones with wheels, and of course some transport aircraft.
Ethan followed Tanisel, escorted by these horned rebels through the complete road, and beside him, there were many small horns who were probably underage watching them with big curious eyes. The corner people who are knitting things at the door and the corner people hurried past carrying hunting tools also cast curious or disgusting glances at them from time to time. It seems that despite the continuous war, at least the people here are still performing their duties.
Suddenly, Ethan's footsteps stopped, and his heartbeat missed a beat.
He saw a human being.
A human that he never thought of.