Shrouded Seascape

Charles floated horizontally next to the Narwhale, and his gaze was on the sky full of corpses and mechanical debris. Right now, he felt like he was at the bottom of the sea.

As the airships under Charles' command moved slowly past what looked like a floating tomb, an invisible tentacle wrapped around a deceased Feuerbach.

The tentacle dragged the deceased Feuerbach onto the Narwhale's deck.

"Linda, how long has this guy been dead? When did he die?" Charles asked. He needed to know what exactly had the Foundation encountered up here. Charles reckoned that this corpse would give him some answers.

The ship's doctor, Linda, nodded. She put on a headlamp-like light source on her forehead and buried her head into the chest's corpse to begin the autopsy.

Soon, Linda gave an unexpected reply. "Captain, this guy is still alive. He's not dead."

"Are you sure?" Charles leaned forward and looked down at "Feuerbach," who appeared completely identical to a corpse.

"That's right. His brain is still alive, and his organs are functioning normally," Linda said as she pulled her head out of "Feuerbach's" chest.

If his brain is still alive, maybe Anna can extract valuable information from his memories? Charles thought, immediately coming up with another way to extract information.

Fortunately, Anna immediately responded to Charles' call, unlike last time. She still looked displeased, but she obediently followed Charles' orders.

Anna's tentacles reached out for Feuerbach's head and split the skull. Her tentacles then scooped out "Feuerbach's" brain through the fissure. Anna decisively shoved the jiggling brain into her mouth, and she carefully chewed on it.

"I thought you stopped eating people?"

"I feel like eating people again. What? Don't like it? Then, why did you call me here?" Anna replied, glaring at Charles. Then, she proceeded to ignore Charles and licked the brain fluid that drenched her tentacles.

All of a sudden, her figure became bloated as she revealed her terrifying true form, startling the nearby crew.

"Stop messing around. What exactly did he encounter? What's up there? Answer me. This concerns the fate of the Subterranean Sea, after all," Charles said.

Anna returned to her gorgeous human form. She looked down at her slender waist with a frown before saying, "Sorry, I can't help you. This guy's brain contains nothing but fragmented thoughts. I couldn't find any useful information at all."

It wasn't a great answer; It provided no help for their current situation.

Charles pondered briefly before ordering an exploration vessel to act as a scout, telling them to ascend first. He told them to maintain constant contact with the Narwhale via radio.

Charles had decided to do things this way so that everyone wouldn't fall into danger at the same time if there was truly something up above.

"You can go back now. Before the situation becomes clear, don't tell those below about what's happening here," Charles said to Anna.

Anna sighed helplessly and stroked Charles' fingertips with her right hand. "Forget it; I'll stay here and lend you a hand. From the looks of it, there's probably something incredibly dangerous up there.

"I'm afraid that you'll end up dying in vain at this rate."

"Just go back. The Foundation has already gone up ahead of us. If things had truly gone wrong up above, then your ability to alter memories wouldn't be of much help up there."

Although Anna knew that Charles was just concerned about her, she didn't appreciate his concern at all. "Who do you think you are looking down on? Do you really think that my strength hasn't improved all this while?

"I am drastically stronger than you think I am."

Anna's gorgeous figure split open just then, and dozens of tentacles covered in black scales burst out of her. The tentacles squirmed and enveloped the Narwhale's deck, covering it with their decayed, multicolored hue in an instant.

The Narwhale's ascent slowed down gradually as Anna's tentacles pervaded the deck. The weight of her terrifying figure alone was actually bringing down the Narwhale despite the seemingly low-gravity environment!

The nearby exploration ships noticed the abrupt turn of events, and they frantically rotated their deck cannons to aim at Anna.

Before they could fire their deck cannon at Anna, she shrank back into her gorgeous, petite figure, which was a head shorter than Charles.

Bandages grabbed the microphone and hurriedly explained to the other captains that the scene they had witnessed just now was a mere accident and that the monster they had seen was an ally.

Bandages told them to return their deck cannon to its original position.

"So what do you think? My physique alone has already surpassed yours, not to mention the many abilities I've acquired recently," Anna said, sounding a bit proud of her achievements.

Charles wrapped his arm around Anna's slender waist and lifted her up. She was so light that Charles found it suspicious. "You just brought out so many tentacles, so how come you're so light? Where are you hiding those things?"

Anna winked with her right eye at Charles. "Guess. I'll give you some hints—it's one of my few secrets, and there's some sleight of hand involved in it."

Although a bit surprised by Anna's unexpected decision to stay on board, Charles still allowed Anna to stay on the ship. Their current situation called for more allies, and the stronger they were, the better.

"What's your level of strength? I'm talking about the Subterranean Sea's power ranking system here. Are you Level 15 like Julio?" Charles asked.

Anna smiled as she glanced at the flickering "Inexistence" around Charles.

"It depends. To be honest, the Subterranean Sea's power ranking system is too general. I have obtained quite a few abilities, and I've become strong enough to easily erase Julio whenever I want to do so."

"Hmph! Don't you think you're going a bit too far with your bragging?" Julio asked. He was standing on the gunwale, and his sharp eyes looked daggers at the two.

"I immediately set off as soon as I received your message. Fortunately, your daughter helped me save quite some time. She helped me catch up to you," Julio said, jumping down the gunwale.

"Of course, I'm here as well." A feminine voice echoed just then.

Everyone turned and found a sweet-scented crimson bat in midair. The crimson bat promptly transformed into a young woman, who immediately smiled at Charles with her scarlet eyes fixed on him as well.

The young woman was none other than Lilith, the Vampire Mother of Dark Crystal Island.

Several dozen figures were standing behind Lilith, and they all made their way onto the Narwhale's deck through their own unique methods.

"We're approaching the end, so I brought with me every single expert that I know would be helpful here. As for the situation down below, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that," Julio whispered to Charles upon walking up to the latter.

Charles swept his gaze across everyone and noticed something amiss.

"Where are the Gods of the Haikor Tribe? Where are they?"

When it came to raw power, those reclusive monsters could definitely be relied on, so how come they were absent at such a critical juncture?

"Who can say for sure whether those 'gods' will come here or not? Anyway, we're not afraid of them taking advantage of the situation to ambush our islands down below. There's nothing left in the Subterranean Sea that is worth stealing anyway."

Charles opened his mouth and was about to respond when the seemingly perpetual darkness around them vanished!

The darkness reappeared as fast as it vanished, but the brief change brought about a drastic change in everyone's expressions. Regardless of whether it was good or bad, something big had definitely happened to the darkness up above.

"Bandages! Tell everyone in the turbine room to overload the turbines! Don't worry about the gravity! We need speed! The faster we go, the better!! Don't think about the debris above us as well! I'll handle all of them by myself!"