Resonance of the Abyss

Following the direction, I arrived at a spiral staircase extending upward endlessly, it seemed that way if you see it from below.

I moved upward holding the baby in my arms, fortunately the baby didn't cry the entire journey.

Once I reached the top, I was met with a strange pedestal.

There was a cradle placed at the top of the pedestal, basically to put the baby on it.

I did exactly that after which the pedestal moved, going up even more. It finally stopped just a step away from the ceiling from which a strange energy came.

That was when my mind connected all the dots instantly. The whole ritual they were doing, the whole next generation future, the whole hardened warrior for the planet thing, every point connected itself all together.

These guys were trying to mass produce people with cosmic affinity, and the method they chose was nourishing the person since they were born.

Wait a minute, so basically the whole reason why there was a collective influx in energy shown by the portals was because of these guys and their moronic experiment.

Cosmic energy is a miracle but it's a cursed miracle, the reason why most people can't get stronger is because their bodies can't handle the potent energy.

It would break, if more of the energy was put in them. So, their bodies start rejecting the energy altogether.

Basically their immunity system, but children don't have a strong immunity system. They would die because of the excess amount of energy at best or at worst mutate becoming one of those creatures.

This was basically mass murder, a homicide or genocide whatever you call it. But I'm even sure now that the government is turning a blind to these experiments.

They want more people with cosmic affinity, to fight for the planet. They would appreciate them anyway they are coming, until unless they start rebelling.

Larrisa should definitely know about this work, she probably sent us here to check what we will do in such a situation. It's a test at best, whether we would choose humanity as in ethics or morals or as being humane ignoring the impending destruction of our kind.

To be fair, I couldn't even blame them. They are stressed too, there are only 5 people of Planetary Rank, Planetoids are also very less.

In such a position taking drastic measures is given but still I couldn't just ignore this inhumane experiment. To save humanity we don't have to lose the very essence which makes us human.

Maybe this was also the reason why Azrael said if we don't have any worth we would be discarded.

I was forced to think that he probably knew what was happening, but it didn't seem so.

I ignored the distracting thoughts, focused solely on the fact that I had decided what to do.

I will stop this nonsense, and fight with my shortcomings.

Before I could make any move the ground beneath disappeared, dissolved in a second. Not just the floor but the spiral stair too.

I fell straight into some tunnel, because of falling from a great distance the side of the tunnel caved because of colliding with me.

I slid through the tunnel and reached a junkyard, there was just a simple difference: it was a junkyard of people.

I fell from above, through the tunnel I was in. Plummeting straight down into the stash of corpses.

Using my powers, I landed as softly as I could trying not to damage the corpse as much as possible.

After stabilizing myself, I gazed at my surrounding area. This place was a huge cave, I could guess as there were some small crevices around and there was a subtle sound of running water too.

I was in a deep cave, it's a good thing people with cosmic energy feed on it. They can live without food and water but can't because of cosmic energy.

Following the same logic, those children will also not need any extra resources to grow up if they are nourished enough since birth.

The more I thought, the more the situation became friendly for the experimenter.

Seeing this situation from a different perspective you could clearly see that they weren't entirely wrong if you for sometime forget the whole baby stuff.

But you can't forget it, babies are our future. They are to be protected from any kind of danger. Using them as weapons is inherently wrong.

I kept getting distracted, I knew that my mental state was degrading. I was trying to fight with my inner fear and it was taking a massive toll on my body.

Still for the final time, I stopped myself from brooding any longer.

I observed my surroundings again trying to find a way to go back up. I remembered the faint sound of running water, immediately after I followed it.

The place was filled to the brim with corpses, not just humans but some creatures too. Making it extremely annoying to traverse here.

Even so I reached the wall where the sound of running water was more potent.

I looked for a small opening from where I could destroy the walls without destroying the whole cave system.

I found it fairly quickly, immediately after it was struck by my powerful kick, coated to brim with cosmic energy.

There was running water connected with the cave, nothing else though.

For a moment a doubt had occurred in my brain, that maybe those good for nothing humans might have infected the water too.

I changed my clothes to swimming gears, afterward I dived into the running water.

The water pressure was fast, but not enough to cause some discomfort. At least not to the average Astra.

I closed my eyes to rest for sometime as the running water took me wherever it was going.