Shrouded Seascape

With palpating anxiety, Charles and Bandages watched Nico, observing his mental state.

One hour, two hours, and three hours... Nico was still normal.

The method was working. The solution to the brainwashing on the crew members was removing the black dots attached to the crew members' bodies!

"Let's go and save our crew!" Charles declared, barely suppressing the excitement in his heart. He was dying to rush back to the Narwhale.

Just then, he felt his wings getting snagged on something—something was pulling on him movement!

The next moment, a rolling cannonball emerged from the darkness and hurtled toward Charles.

The scene mirrored the self-written diary entry. Charles tried to teleport away but his thought came a fraction too late than the explosion. A violent explosion engulfed the three of them.

Despite Charles' formidable defenses, the enhanced cannonball's blast still left him severely wounded. The flames scorched his skin, charring it, while the shrapnel drove deep into his flesh.

Bandages and Nico fared slightly better, as Charles had taken the brunt of the explosion for them using his monstrous figure, but they were still gravely injured.

The crew started drawing the magic array; they worked swiftly as if driven by an insatiable impatience.

One of Charles' eyelids slightly bulged before flattening out. A black and red spider swiftly crawled out and scurried past everyone as it tried to make a dash toward the ship's cabin.

Smack!

A large green hand landed on the spider and instantly crushed it into a smear of blood and flesh. The deformed head of Norton loomed above it. He turned toward Charles, his grotesque mouth stretching to his ears to flash a radiant grin.

They knew Charles all too well to have even anticipated his last desperate move.

Severely injured, Bandages still tried to summon his vines for one last struggle, but his figure abruptly stiffened.

Linda's expressionless face emerged from his chest. She tightened her grip on his heart, and Bandages collapsed, his face wearing a look of agony as his limbs tightened and curled inward.

Bandages gritted down on his teeth, struggling to stand up but caught Charles' gaze from the corner of his eyes. The captain was asking him to stay put. With that, Bandages ceased his struggles and lay still on the deck.

Nico was about to fight back, but he immediately stopped struggling upon seeing Charles' gaze.

"Captain, don't worry. It's fine even if you can't chant the spell. I'll guide you through it," Dipp said with a crazed expression. He then reached out to lift the severely wounded Charles before dragging him into the ritual circle and holding the latter in his arms.

Charles looked up to see Dipp's green, scale-covered chin and spotted the tiny black dots nestled between the scales.

Charles had never really paid attention to them, and they seemed to have some ability to make those under their influence ignore their presence.

"We're so far from 005-3. Are you sure the sacrifice ceremony will reach 005-3?" Charles asked calmly.

"We are indeed quite far. But well, we don't have much choice, Captain. You're too disruptive. Keeping you around will only make it harder for us to peform the next steps," Dipp replied and turned to the surrounding crew members. "Hey, there are only four of us. That's not enough. Who else wants in?"

The other crew members exchanged glances before Norton's green monstrous form silently stepped forward. Following closely behind him was Linda, who was holding Grace's hand.

"Alright, that's enough. We'll start." The group formed a circle and sat down cross-legged in the center of the bizarre magic array before proceeding to chant.

Despite performing the ritual, Dipp still kept the tip of the black spike pressed firmly against Charles' neck to stop the latter from making any reckless move.

The chanting grew louder with each passing minute. The situation appeared hopeless, but Charles had yet to give up on escaping. He was stalling for time—for that one golden opportunity.

Dipp's expression grew increasingly maniac as time ticked by. When the black spike in his hand trembled, Charles spotted his opportunity. He inched his hand toward Dipp's chin, and with a swift moment, he pried away the green scales embedded with black specks and tossed them into the nearby pool of blood.

"Wake up, Dipp! Do you really want to die together!" Charles whispered urgently as he continued to pick off the black specks from Dipp's scales.

Thud, thud, thud.

The sound of boots stepping through the blood echoed in the air. The executioners surrounded the group with weapons in hand and prepared to strike.

Audric was the one tasked with beheading Dipp. Excitement painted his handsome visage, and his hands trembled slightly as he gripped his axe. He looked as though he was about to fulfill what seemed like a solemn duty.

"Hurry, faster!" Charles' hands swiftly moved all over Dipp, trying to remove every black speck he could find on Dipp.

"Captain! We have to move, or it will be too late!" Nico's face was filled with apparent desperation; the heavy footsteps approaching from behind him made his hair stand on end.

Whoosh!

Audric brought his axe down with a powerful swing.

"Wake up!" Charles shouted as he removed the final black speck from Dipp.

The heavy axe was about to sink into Dipp's neck, but Audric felt no feedback at all.

Dipp had transformed into a blue mist and had slipped away from Audric's axe.

"Now! Move!" Charles shouted. In an instant, the bandages wrapped around Nico's form exploded, and a massive tree sprang forth, reaching upward toward the gasbags.

As the large gasbag was pierced in one swift move, the deck of the Narwhale tilted sharply to the right. Everyone on deck, along with the scattered corpses, tumbled toward the bow.

"Dipp! Make all of them stop for now!"

Hearing Charles' command, the swirling blue mist instantly enveloped everyone on the deck. At the same time, branches and roots sprouted from Bandages and reached out toward the crew members

With a thought, two invisible tentacles shot up from the ground and gently coiled around Lily before pulling away the small black specks along with tufts of her fur.

"Remove those black dots from everyone! Hurry up!" Charles commanded.

Charles' words had yet to finish echoing in the air when he saw Norton raising his deadly silver silk, aiming for his neck.

Invisible tentacles burst out of the ground and wrapped around the injured Charles, pulling him to the right, allowing him to evade the attack.

Pandemonium erupted on the deck, and every so often, someone would lose their footing and tumble into the darkness.

However, more and more people broke free from the brainwashing as the pandemonium continued.

Soon enough, the entire Narwhale crew had recovered their sanity. When the situation was finally under control, Charles led the crew into removing the black dots on the survivors.