Vol 2 Chapter 71: Atonement: Faun (20)

The two soldiers tried to call the headquarters, but found that they could not receive any response. The nightmare that happened before happened again. The chief of guard silently held down the soldier who was restarting the communicator in a panic, and whispered, "Let’s get out of here first, and be careful."
"Head?"
"Those bugs came down from the tree. We put the backpack on our head and left here quickly!" Schneider had already taken over the position of leader from the Alpha sergeant, and the other party did not propose it at this time. Any objections.
But at this moment Ethan felt that they couldn't leave.
Everyone Yiyan put their backpacks on their heads, lowered their bodies and quickly walked through the vegetation. But not far, everyone stopped abruptly.
About twenty steps away in front of them, the bushes on the ground are densely packed with fleshy insects that are as long as snakes, white flowers and flowers in the moonlight, rubbing their soft and greasy bodies, dripping from their bodies. The translucent mucus covered the grass blades and pulled out thin silk threads. From time to time, they lifted the front end with the small mouth, swayed twice in the air as if aimlessly, and occasionally groaned like aimless pain or two. They didn't seem to notice the arrival of the seven of them, but the dripping red blood in their mouths had a clear warning sign.
The seven looked at each other, and the sergeant said, "Try another direction!"
However, when they changed the route panting, they still stopped in front of a sea of ​​fleshy bugs. No one knows when this sea of ​​worms appeared, and why there was no sign when it came?
Are these disgusting creatures crowded under this woodland?
The tinnitus caused by the infrasound disturbance has been lingering in Ethan's ears, and suddenly he seemed to feel someone calling his name. The call came from the depths of the forest, from the depths of the earth under their feet, trembling in every molecule of the air. While he was attracted somewhat inexplicably, he felt a heavy depressive atmosphere tumbling from the center of the woodland.
There is the dark center of this planet...
I don’t know if it’s an illusion. The fluorescent copper plums on the tree seemed to be suddenly dimmed. Except for the weird calls of fleshy insects, no other creatures could be heard.
Suddenly, the bugs began to move. They were wriggling their twisted flesh a little bit, and the front end of their mouth without facial features was dangling, aiming at where they were. Then, the folds of the flesh began to ripple in waves, and as the ripples spread back, the fleshy bugs began to surround them.
When they squirmed, their bodies rubbed against the vegetation on the ground to make a sticky sound, and their mouths opened wide, screaming at them. The seven people hurriedly backed up, and an inhuman was tripped by the root of a tree. Suddenly from nowhere, the front end of a worm was stretched out. The small mouth expanded several times the original size, and the inhuman head was swallowed immediately like a pocket. The thin skin of the mouth squirmed and sucked, and the screams of inhumans who didn't know whether it was horror or pain came to an abrupt end. Only the sound of the flesh being sucked and grated, the gray brain and blood dripping from the gap in the front end .
"Run!" Samuel roared, grabbed Ethan, turned and ran. Schneider, the sergeant, and the remaining inhuman named Stan followed close behind. They couldn't choose their way, they could see the tangled worms everywhere, and heard their screams that pierced the heavenly spirits. They shot, but the bullet hit the worm's body, like it had hit a layer of soft pudding, which was quickly wrapped in flesh and blood. And those weird worms would spit out hot yellow acid at them, and a few drops were splashed on the sergeant's arm, which immediately corroded his military uniform and weapons, and directly burned the flesh on his hand. He cried out in pain, but didn't dare to stop, and continued to rush forward.
Ethan stumbled after Samuel and looked back. The front ends of the worms swayed slowly in the dark. He always felt that these bugs didn't really want to eat them. If only to fill their stomachs, they would have been swallowed by countless worms.
Those worms are making them run in a certain direction.
...The direction they just came from.
Could it be that... these seemingly primitive things that look like prehistoric creatures actually have a certain amount of intelligence?
Not long after, they stood in front of the stairs that seemed to have been sealed in dust for many centuries. It was an entrance concealed between the roots of the tree, and the stairs went all the way into the ground, and the inside was dark and it was not clear. Schneider turned on the light on the laser gun, and the straight beam ended on two rocks that seemed to be doors.
The screams of the strange insects are still approaching from all directions, like a song that urges life. Samuel looked at Schneider, "What to do?"
"...Go in!" Schneider gritted his teeth.
A group of people quickly stepped on the slippery moss and rotting leaves towards the faintly visible stone gate underground. Ethan walked at the end, and the sour and rotten smell in his nose became stronger. He covered his nose with his hands, while walking, looking at the artificially repaired stone walls on both sides of the stairs, it was vaguely visible that many distorted mural-like things were buried under moss marks and vines.
He reached out to poke away the vines, and he really saw the murals that had been worn out by the wind and frost. It seemed to be a picture of bowing, with many long-horned human figures lined up in a row, bowing to several huge strips. But those strips all bowed to a large group of stacked spheres.
"Ethan! What are you doing! Come here!" Samuel urged him from below.
Sure enough, there are two stone gates at the bottom of the stairs, which look extraordinarily heavy. Each of the two gates is carved with the appearance of a male and female horn man with a painful expression. They folded their hands on their chests, but their eyes were wide open in a strange way, and their mouths were wide open, as if they were howling in extreme horror.
Those are really two very uncomfortable reliefs.
What is even more uncomfortable is that the stone gate, which seems difficult to be pushed by manpower, has a gap that is large enough to accommodate one person passing sideways. The thick darkness behind the gap, with an evil alluring smile, quietly looked back at them.
"What if this is the nest of those bugs?" the sergeant asked in surprise, pressing his injured right arm.
"Do we have any other choices?" Ethan said suddenly, "Listen, they keep letting us in. If we don't, we will become like everyone else."
Schneider's sharp gaze shot at him, "What? Can you still understand those things?"
Schneider's words made Samuel glance at Ethan nervously. The latter knew what Ethan had become, and he was probably wondering whether Ethan would really understand the language of those bugs.
After all... If he remembers correctly, when Ethan was no longer Ethan, he once drove two huge worms to wilfully devour the horned man under the altar...
Ethan suddenly curled his mouth and smiled a little coldly, "Maybe I really understand..." After he finished speaking, he took the lead in stepping sideways into the darkness.
Samuel couldn't help but snorted, and looked back at Schneider, "Damn it, it's a death!" He also slammed his heart into it.
In the darkness, the smell seemed to solidify into some kind of entity, and Ethan stooped and coughed. However, Samuel didn't smell such a choking odor. He just felt that the air here seemed to have been isolated from the world for a long time. It was very humid and might be full of various molds. Omega turned on the spotlight on the laser gun in his hand and swept around.
After a section of flat ground, there are steps again. Steps spreading downward. On the stone walls on both sides, there are carved characters with crooked horns.
Schneider and two other people also got in. The first thing they did was to try to push up the half-open stone gate. But that Shimen was stubborn, and still stubborn in front of the four people.
Ethan suddenly hissed at this moment and said, "Listen."
The other four moved for a while, listened carefully for a while, but heard nothing. Schneider asked impatiently, "What do you hear? Can't hear anything?"
"Yeah, I just can't hear anything," Ethan said. "Those bugs don't bark anymore."
When he said this, the other four people reacted. It was quiet all around, and even the rustle of leaves blowing in the wind could be heard.
"In that case, then we..." Samuel heard a bang before he finished speaking.
The Shimen, which was still unmovable by four people just now, suddenly closed.
No one pushed, no external force, it just closed.
It is as if it is conscious of itself.
None of the six people could speak for a while, only the light in Samus's hand opened up a golden bubble in the darkness.
"This is a trap!" The sergeant seemed to slid down the stone gate and sat on the ground, his burned right hand was bleeding continuously.
The less talkative inhuman named Stan pointed to the writing on the wall and asked, "What did it say?"
Schneider turned on the translation function of the portable capsule he hung around his neck, and a beam of light shot out from the small mini smart computer, scanning the text on the wall and quickly analyzing it. After a short while, those words were transformed into terrestrial language and re-projected.
Those words are actually just repeating the same sentence overwhelmingly.
"This is the resting place of the sacred race and the starting point of your nightmare."