Shrouded Seascape

Charles flapped his wings hard as he soared through the dark sky with his crew members in tow. The crew became more and more wary as they flew higher and higher, their grips tightening on their weapons.

Charles' night vision allowed him to see the floating island first before anyone else. The bizarre island seemed to emit an oppressive air, and everyone held their breath unconsciously as they looked up at it.

The sky was eerily quiet, and no noises could be heard aside from Charles and the two vampires flapping their wings. The silence was a stark contrast to the cacophony of explosions earlier when the Foundation's aircraft were plummeting to the earth down below.

They soon arrived above the island. They circled it once, and Charles estimated the floating island to be about the same size as Hope Island. The bright lights in the photos couldn't be seen anywhere. They had been extinguished.

Audric was the first to rush down, securing a safe spot for everyone before Charles and Sniffler brought the others down.

The terrain on the floating island was rough, and there were towering rocks in a variety of sizes, which made the landscape resemble a stone forest.

Charles examined the topography and deduced that the floating island hadn't come from the subterranean world. However, Charles couldn't deduce whether that was bad news or not.

Lily squeaked, and the mice scattered in all directions to gather information.

Meanwhile, everyone hid behind a rock the size of a car, waiting for the mice to return. Charles dared not turn on their flashlights, afraid that the light might attract unwanted visitors.

Dipp lay low on the ground to look for any clues. His previous career had transformed him into an extremely effective detective.

"Captain, there aren't any traces of any living beings moving around here. The Foundation you've mentioned surely hasn't been around this area. I also can't say for sure whether there are even any living beings up here or not."

Charles looked up at the pitch-black sky. "Let's hope that there are living beings here. At the very least, beings that we can touch and feel them."

To be honest, Charles wouldn't be nervous against a living being with flesh and blood. After all, such beings could still be understood and weren't beyond human knowledge. If the owner of that massive, cylindrical root was on this island, then they'd have a fun time ahead of them.

When Dipp was finally done surveying their vicinity, that was when rustling noises echoed nearby.

The mice were back with news.

Lily wasted no time and looked up at Charles to translate the mice's messages. "Mr. Charles, four went missing, and they found a smoking ship."

"A smoking big ship? Besides that, did they find anything else?"

Lily squeaked at the mice before tilting her head, seemingly in contemplation.

"Hmm... they said that they didn't go to other places and decided to come back here after seeing the big ship. This island is big—very big. Apparently, it'd take them a long, long time to run around the island."

"Lead the way. Take us to that smoking ship," Charles said. He grabbed Lily and allowed the mischief of mice to lead them forward. The terrain was so rugged that everyone found it difficult to walk. Fortunately, their destination wasn't too far.

Charles soon smelled a pungent smell, which was reminiscent of burning rubber.

Upon walking past yet another boulder, Charles finally saw the source of the pungent smell.

The smell was coming from a warship with a melting stern. The warship was a few hundred meters long, and it was sinking into the earth as if the floating island was gnawing away at it.

Staring at the advanced and modern-looking warship before him, Charles suddenly recalled the word "mothership," which one of the Feuerbachs had mentioned not too long ago.

Barring any curveballs, this melting warship had to be a so-called "mothership."

Buzz!

Charles' prosthetic limb revealed a chainsaw that immediately started spinning. He pressed the chainsaw against the ship's hull and began cutting a hole in the hull. However, no sparks flew out. Instead, a foul-smelling white smoke emerged from the warship's damaged part.

It seemed that the warship wasn't made out of steel but was made out of a material harder than steel. Charles was using a chainsaw, but he still found it extremely challenging to cut open a hole in the hull.

"Be on the lookout for ambushes!" Charles instructed the crew.

The crew members nodded and gripped their weapons tightly while looking around. Their nerves were stretched taut as they had no idea what was to come.

Five minutes later, Charles finally managed to carve open a narrow crack in the warship. He gouged his eyeball with his right hand and hurled it inside.

The black spider with red patterns extended its limbs and crawled along the smooth walls. The interior looked neat; there weren't any signs of damage nor did it seem like there had been an explosion inside. It seemed that this massive aircraft hadn't been attacked.

There was a massive space inside the aircraft, and the recurring motif was blue and white. And like ordinary aircrafts, it had many interconnected cabin doors.

Something's wrong here; where are the Foundation members? Charles thought while looking around the vessel. He had already searched several cabins but had yet to find any Foundation members. He hadn't found even corpses.

Charles urgently needed the knowledge of a Foundation member. He had to find any of them, and it didn't matter whether he could build a rapport with them or not.

Swoosh!

A door opened, and Charles made the spider enter the room. Based on the decorations and the interior design, it seemed that Charles had found himself inside a girl's bedroom. There were even a few stuffed animals next to the pillows.

I still haven't found anyone. Everything is here except for the people who are supposed to be here. This shouldn't be the case. So many planes have crashed not too long ago; they must've been attacked by something. Charles pondered.

He inspected the bedroom quickly and found nothing unusual. Charles then decided to leave for another cabin. He made the spider approach the door, but he suddenly felt like there were gazes staring at him from behind.

The spider whipped around, but it found nothing.

However, Charles' instincts were screaming at him that something was amiss. His myriad close shaves with death had made him extremely sensitive to gazes. He was convinced that he wasn't hallucinating here.

Someone was staring at him.

The spider arched its back slightly, and the eyeball on its back popped out, giving Charles a wider field of view. His gaze swept across the room, and then he was stupefied to discover that the stuffed animals that were supposed to be next to the pillows had moved.

The plastic eyes of the stuffed animals were staring straight at him.

The gazes were coming from these stuffed animals!

Before Charles could react, the stuffed animals floated. Then, a jelly-like translucent creature phased through the walls. The translucent creature's wriggling head connected itself to the stuffed animals, and the five or so stuffed animals swayed in mid-air as if they were the creature's heads.

The creature was translucent, and it had a mangled mess of flesh that resembled intertwined plants as its lower half. Two dense clusters of tentacles were protruding from its lower half to act as its legs.

Charles was staring at a special creature—no, Charles wasn't even sure whether it was indeed a creature or not. However, one thing was for sure: it had noticed both the spider and him—the spider's controller.