Shrouded Seascape

"Fuck!" Charles cursed.

The crew members turned to their captain at the sudden profanity, and they saw that their captain's face had become extremely ugly.

"Get ready! It's coming out!" Charles exclaimed. His spider eyeball jumped out of the hole first, and the eerie monster followed suit.

The stuffed animals appeared horrifying as they wriggled in mid-air like snakes, and the bloated, translucent "creature" beneath the stuffed animals made the scene even more terrifying.

The moment the monster got out of the ship, it changed directions in mid-air, making a beeline for Charles.

In response, Charles spouted fur all over as he transformed into a bat monster. He wasted no time and spread his fleshy wings, rapidly gaining altitude.

The crew wasn't idle, and they immediately started attacking the monster. A variety of attacks were hurled toward the bloated, translucent monster, but they merely passed through the creature.

Dipp hurled two grenades, and a deafening explosion tore through the air. Despite the explosion, the monster emerged unscathed.

Charles instantly realized that the monster was immune to physical attacks.

"This bastard's tough! Take turns to find out its weakness, and don't get too close to it!" Charles instructed, and he rapidly returned to his human form in mid-air. Then, he raised his prosthetic hand high up in the air and swung it toward the monster.

Lightning crackled as radiant electric arcs streaked across the air through the sharp anchor hook from Charles' prosthetic arm. The anchor hook pierced the monster before it changed into a chainsaw that sliced the monster vertically.

The bright electric arcs filled the translucent monster, but it seemed unhurt as it could still move freely. The translucent monster was about to climb up the anchor hook to reach Charles when Dipp arrived before the monster.

The confident Dipp in his blue mist form swept past the translucent monster, but everyone was shocked by what happened next—the monster's jelly-like figure burst open, revealing a gaping maw that engulfed Dipp.

"Damn it!" Charles roared and was about to charge at the translucent monster to rescue Dipp.

However, Nico beat him to the chase and appeared next to the fishman. His waist twisted coquettishly as he grabbed Dipp and pulled him out of the translucent monster's gaping maw.

A gaping maw resembling a chrysanthemum appeared on the translucent monster's stomach. Its petals spread open, threatening to engulf Nico along with Dipp.

As the former governor of Coral Archipelago, Nico had gone through many life-and-death fights, so he wasn't flustered at all. He raised his high-heeled shark leather shoe and stomped forcefully.

The solid ground abruptly transformed into a springy trampoline. Nico sank into the ground and was sent flying away by the trampoline-like ground.

In mid-air, Nico swept his hand past his waist and produced a silver pistol with flower engravings. He then aimed the silver pistol at the translucent monster and squeezed the trigger.

While the translucent monster was preoccupied with Nico, Charles sneakily made his way above the former. Then, he opened his maw, and a harsh, discordant sound wave burst out of him.

The attack was very effective.

The bloated, translucent monster quivered beneath the sound waves, and it was deflating as if it were a leaking ball. When the translucent monster collapsed to the ground and became a pile of mud, Charles hurriedly closed his maw.

"We've got to leave now! This commotion has definitely attracted something else!" Charles exclaimed, instructing everyone to retreat. Then, he led the crew members toward the nearby stone forest. They ran as fast as they could away from the battlefield.

The next day, a vigilant Charles returned to yesterday's battlefield. The monster's corpse, which had become a pile of mud, had disappeared along with the aircraft.

Charles and his crew couldn't even find any traces that would prove that the monster and the aircraft were even here in the first place.

Charles half-squatted and pressed his hand on the solid ground. Obviously, there was something wrong with this place.

"Let's go. Pay extra attention to the ground. This island might be alive," Charles said.

The crew members' hearts sank at the remark. However, none of them spoke as they quietly followed behind Charles. Their exploration of the massive floating island was finally in full swing, and their goal was to find any of the Foundation members.

Unfortunately, it couldn't be further from a leisurely exploration. Everyone's nerves were stretched taut as they explored the pitch-black environment; they couldn't relax at all, as the enemies could ambush them from any direction.

On their second day, they finally discovered something—a helicopter leaning against a rock and a few charred corpses.

By the fourth day, Charles and his crew had already explored about half of the island, but they had to pay a price in exchange for such a rapid pace of exploration, and the price they had to pay was the crew's health.

The crew members were physically and mentally exhausted.

There was one night when they tried to rest properly only to find that Audric was almost swallowed by the ground overnight. Since then, none of the crew members had been able to have a good night's sleep.

"Let's stop here for today and rest," Charles said.

The exhausted crew members responded by taking out canned goods and eating them with relish. For fear of attracting something, they dared not start a fire and pried open the canned goods to eat outright.

The taste left much to be desired, but they had to make do with it for now. Of course, it was already great that they had something to eat. Moreover, the canned goods had to be brought up by Audric from the ships down below.

Tonight's first night watch was Charles. Considering their ongoing situation, Charles couldn't even fall asleep.

"Are you okay, Mr. Charles? The dark circles under your eyes have become so deep now. I can let my mice friends take over the night watch for you. Go ahead and sleep for a bit."

Charles shook his head slightly at Lily's suggestion. Then, he stroked Lily's back and replied, "It's okay. I'm not really sleepy."

Charles' hand unknowingly made its way to Lily's tail. He pinched the silver ring on Lily's tail and remarked, "Where did you get this? It looks nice on you."

Lily's eyes darted around at Charles' question. She was reluctant to answer, so she decided to change the topic, asking, "Um... Mr. Charles, the Foundation that you spoke of, do they have a way to turn me into a human?"

Charles cast a surprised gaze at Lily, becoming a bit intrigued by how Lily had made that assumption.

"Maybe," Charles replied succinctly.

"Really?!" Lily was thrilled at the possibility of becoming human once again.

"Don't celebrate too early. Even if they can, they may not necessarily help us. I mean, they didn't even help the denizens of the Subterranean Sea."

Lily looked down and pondered briefly before looking up at Charles once again.

"Hmm... they're also looking for the darkness, aren't they? Doesn't that mean that they're our allies?"

"Allies? Hah, not necessarily," Charles said with narrowed eyes. "Everything the Foundation does is apparently for mankind's sake, but a thousand years is a long time—it's long enough for me to think twice whether they're still the same old Foundation or not.

"Perhaps they simply don't consider the people of the Subterranean Sea as fellow human beings. After all, sunlight is fatal to those people there."

Bandages leaning against a rock had opened his eyes at some point and was staring at Charles. His eyes seemed to emit a poignant light as he listened quietly on the sideline.

"Don't be so pessimistic, Mr. Charles. What if they're good people?"

"Good? They might be good, but I believe that one must always be prepared for the worst-case scenario. It'd be great if my assumptions are wrong."

Charles looked up at the pitch-black sky and thought, This kind of exploration is too inefficient. It'd be best for us to bring an airship over here. No, perhaps the Narwhale can be retrofitted into an airship as well. She just needs a few gas bags. Yes, it shouldn't be that heavy of a workload.

Time ticked by as Charles was engrossed in his wild thoughts. Lily had curled up into a ball and had fallen asleep in Charles' palm; her furry figure rose and fell with her breathing.

Charles gently placed Lily into his pocket before taking out his diary to write today's entry. He flipped the pages, and his pupils constricted almost immediately.

There were words written on the supposedly empty page.

Charles examined the words carefully and found that it was indeed his handwriting. Did I write these words myself? No way! I haven't had the time to write any diary entries since we came up here. In that case… who wrote these, then?