Shrouded Seascape

"Apart from those birds, what else is up there?" Charles asked the one-armed woman as he stared into the ever-thickening purple mist that was being constantly sliced apart to clear a path for their ascent.

"There are invisible creatures, too. We can't see them at all, and even when we keep our distance from the forest, they still manage to get on the ship and kill my crewmates," the one-armed woman replied, a trace of terror flickering across her eyes as she recalled something horrifying.

She used her remaining hand to touch the stump that was left of her missing arm and continued, "The dead had tear wounds on their bodies. It felt as though someone was meticulously tearing off the flesh from the bone. My arm was torn off by one of them. I could feel numerous small hands pulling at my fingers, breaking them. I have no idea what those things are.

"They don't just attack us. They also go after the birds.

"There's also a type of blue 'fish,' and its body is hollow. It doesn't attack us. Rather, it only opens its huge mouth and continuously swallows the green mist above the forest…"

As the guide continued her explanation, Charles began to gain an understanding of the aerial environment. The floating, tilted forest had its own established ecosystem.

It was hard to say whether this was good or bad news, but at least, it was within Charles' realm of comprehension.

Soon, the first floating island Charles had previously explored appeared on their port side. He could even make out the remnant of his previous battle on its ground.

As the island gradually disappeared into the darkness, an inky black shrouded the surroundings once again.

Standing on the deck, Charles peered into the dark expanse ahead. He felt like he was back in the deep sea once again. The darkness here was similar to that of the ocean depths.

Tension weighed down heavily on the crew. Everyone knew what had happened here before. They clutched their weapons tightly, trying to draw some courage from the cold steel.

The three airships that accompanied Charles turned on their searchlights, the light beams constantly cutting through the darkness in every direction.

After two hours in such an oppressive atmosphere, sweat began to trickle down the faces of the crew. It was partly because of their unease, but the rising temperature, now at near to thirty degrees, contributed to the beaded sweat on their foreheads.

Second Mate Nico pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his damp neck. Just as he was about to ask the guide how much further they had to go, a faint whistle sounded from the side of the ship.

"That's the sound! Captain Charles! The birds are coming!"

Charles' heart tightened at the warning. Pushing his feet off the deck, he sprang over the ship's railing.

"Buddy, send me up!"

Swoosh!

A rope swiftly followed after and coiled around Charles' waist before flinging him upward onto the top of the airbag.

Upon landing on the swaying airbag, Charles' brows knitted together as he looked toward the direction of the noise. A blur was rapidly revolving around the four airships.

Before Charles could even identify the creature, the right airbag of the airship to the left of the Narwhale suddenly collapsed. The creature had pierced the airbag!

The next moment, the blurry form darted toward the Narwhale.

As the distance between the creature and the Narwahle's airbag narrowed, Charles began his counterattack. With a thought, several transparent tentacles extended from the airbag and shot toward the intruder. However, the creature deftly dodged the attack.

The shadow then made a swift turn in the air and its flight path was aimed at Charles. In an instant, several tentacles sprouted out of the creature and enveloped it. With a flash of white light, the creature instantly lost all mobility and emitted white smoke as it plummeted downward.

Charles extended one of his tentacles and caught the falling creature, finally getting a good look at it.

It was a peculiar looking bird. It was completely featherless and even lacked feet. Perhaps, it shouldn't even be classified as a bird.

Its skin was covered in enlarged goosebumps. Its beak was barbed and its head was oddly

Apparently, it hadn't punctured the airbags but sliced them open instead. The creature was small, no larger than two hand spans, making its astonishing speed hard to imagine.

Holding the bird by its neck, Charles looked toward the side. The airship with the deflated airbag was still rising steadily. The large airbag appeared to be a singular unit but it was actually composed of many smaller airbags. Such a design ensured that a few being punctured wouldn't cause a catastrophic failure.

The Narwhale ascended smoothly. The appearance of these birds meant that they were nearing their destination.

Ten minutes later, Charles felt a sudden sense of foreboding. He looked up sharply and saw the enormous, oppressive underside of a floating island looming above him.

The oppressive sensation intensified as the Narwhale continued her ascent. It felt as though a mountain was slowly descending upon him.

The second island was massive, at least twice the size of the first floating island.

Coming from the underside to the side, Charles finally saw the forest the guide had mentioned. He roughly estimated that the forest stretched for at least a hundred miles in length and width.

The airships had found it difficult to nagivate from the bottom of the island to its side.

The forest growing out of the second floating island was indeed horizontal. It was as if a giant had ripped the entire forest off the ground and stuck it upright vertically, before folding it into half.

It wasn't just one forest; there were forests on both sides.

The slightly tilted aerial forest was like an elevator chamber, slanting into the dark skies above.

The trees within the forest were clearly not species from the surface. Their branches, covered in eerie moss, were twisted and intertwined like a dense bramble.

"Where exactly did he find that skull?" Charles asked the guide.

The one-armed woman fished out a map from her inner coat pocket. "It was on this floating island. The fleet captain has prepared the map."

"This island has been fully explored?" Charles remembered Depton mentioning that they were moving onto explore the third island.

"Yes, the exploration is completed. We didn't find the darkness that we're looking for here. There are also no valuable leads aside from the skull."

As Charles gestured with his fingers, the Narwhale slowly approached the island; the closer they got, the more menacing the forest appeared.

However, the scattered clearings within the forest helped ease the fear the crew had toward it. After all, those were signs that their fellow humans had conquered the island.

Following the island map, Charles soon located the human skull in the eastern part of the island. He cautiously picked it up to examine it. He first tapped it with his fingers and noted that it felt and sounded like real bone.

He then carefully pinched a small fragment and tossed it to Linda, who was standing behind him.

"Check what kind of bone this is," Charles instructed.

Linda sniffed the piece lightly before throwing it into her mouth and started chewing.

"It's a human bone. The taste is normal."

Just then, Dipp approached from the side and took the skull from Charles. After meticulously examining the surrounding environment and scraping off some residue from the bone, Dipp said, "Captain, this person died at least ten years ago."