Shrouded Seascape

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A piercing alarm echoed from the Feuerbachs. The Feuerbachs revealed stupefied expressions upon realizing that Anna was trying to dig into their memories for information.

"Hehe, this is really interesting. They actually have mind defenses. Unfortunately, this little trick is not going to work against me.

"Hm, let me see… Goodness, they're clones born from eggs! The Foundation truly has a high level of genetic engineering."

"Don't bother with useless information like that; just examine their memories throughout adulthood."

"Why are you rushing me? I know," Anna retorted. Just as she was about to do further checks, Charles noticed that the faces of the Feuerbachs looked a bit off; their faces were becoming ashen gray.

Charles rushed forward and pulled open the mouth of one of the Feuerbachs. One of the Feuerbach had crushed one of his molars, and his mouth emitted a strong metallic and rusty smell that made Charles' eyes sting.

"Charles, don't smell that! It's highly toxic!" Anna warned.

Charles moved instantly, swinging his fist toward the Feuerbach's chest and sending him flying away. That Feuerbach crashed into the steel cabin door and bounced off of it before falling lifelessly to the ground

Dull thuds echoed one after another as the remaining Feuerbachs went limp and fell to the ground. They decisively ended their lives upon realizing that they could not stop Anna from prying into their memories.

Charles checked their pulses and was dismayed to find that they were all dead. He was certain that their memories contained a bunch of valuable information.

"Anna, they're dead, but can you still read their memories?" Charles asked, unwilling to give up.

"Ha, who do you think I am? A god? How can I read the memories of the dead," Anna said.

Then, she looked up and stared at the towering, pitch-black wall. She sounded touched as she said, "So you've really found it. Charles, you're amazing. You're about to become mankind's savior."

Charles walked up to her side and frowned at the pitch-black wall. "It's not over yet. We still have to bring the darkness back to the Subterranean Sea. From what I've seen of the Foundation's actions earlier, it seems to be easier said than done."

Time ticked by slowly as they tried to come up with ways to take away the darkness. Eventually, a day passed; Charles knew that he couldn't wait any longer and had to do something.

"Jimmy, go back and notify Colossal Hole Fortress of everything that has happened here. Tell them that we've found the darkness," Charles said. Jimmy was the captain of the exploration vessel that had discovered the darkness.

"Understood, Governor Charles." Jimmy nodded vigorously and returned to his crew to follow the original, specified route in reverse to return to the Colossal Hole Fortress.

"Sniffler, this is a camera. Take it with you and fly up to see what's up there," Charles said to one of his vampire sailors.

"Uh... me? On my own?" Sniffler pointed at his nose with wide eyes.

"That's right, I'm talking about you. Hurry up and go!" Charles added resolutely.

Sniffler revealed a bitter look, but he knew that he had no choice, so he transformed into a bat and flew toward the towering, pitch-black wall.

Charles was aware of the danger level of the sky above the surface. After all, none of them knew what was up there, and from what had happened just now, the sky above the surface was extremely dangerous.

However, someone had to perform reconnaissance. Sniffler was a qualified scout, as he was a vampire from Dark Crystal Island. In addition, Charles didn't actually trust Sniffler. To make matters worse, Sniffler's faith was definitely in the Mother, Lilith, rather than in Charles.

When Sniffler disappeared into the sky, Charles turned to Anna beside him and said, "You can go back now. I can handle things from here on out."

Anna propped up her chin with her hand and stared straight at Charles. "You're going to send me away before going on an adventure by yourself?

"The Foundation has suffered many casualties in their encounter with what's up there. Do you really think that you can go up there and leave that place unscathed?"

Charles didn't retort nor say anything, but Anna immediately knew what he was thinking.

Charles noticed that and said, "Don't worry. Sniffler is already up there, and I'm not a scout, so I'm going to be at the very front."

Anna didn't reply to that. Instead, she glanced at Lily among the mischief of mice next to her and leaned closer to Charles. "I'm not going to stop you, but you have to take that little mouse with you. If something goes wrong and you can't handle the enemy yourself, just grab her and throw her at the enemy."

Charles was stunned by Anna's remarks.

Anna then went on to explain, "That little mouse has the power of the Light God inside of her, but it's only triggered when she's in danger herself. Take advantage of that fact, and she can be pretty useful."

"But Lily might die if I do that..."

"Oh, I had no idea that you have such a great relationship with her. Is her life more important than yours? We're talking about a Divinity's power here. It's a waste not to use such power."

Charles unconsciously glanced at Lily. The little mouse turned to Charles upon sensing the latter's gaze and flashed a radiant smile.

"That's it. Anyway, be careful. I'm going back now," Anna said. She tiptoed on her high heels and pecked Charles' lips before disappearing into thin air.

What followed afterward was an excruciating wait. Everyone was waiting for Sniffler's return, and Charles was the same, even though he felt that Sniffler would most likely not return.

It was unknown whether it was because of Sniffler's good luck or something else, but Sniffler actually returned three hours later. He stumbled and fell headfirst on the deck; he was sweating profusely and was trying to catch his breath.

Charles pulled Sniffler up the floor and asked, "What's up there? What did you see? Is there any danger?"

Sniffler's trembling hand took out a metal flask from his cloak. He gulped down the entire flask of human blood, and his complexion recovered slightly. After a few moments, he said, "I saw an island up there, Captain."

"An island? An island in the sky? Are you sure you weren't hallucinating?" Charles asked, sounding extremely surprised.

"Yes, it was an island in the sky. I took photos, but I didn't dare to get too close to it, so the photos are a bit blurry," Sniffler said, taking out the camera from his cloak.

The sailors took the camera away to the darkroom to develop the photos. After a while, Charles finally saw what Sniffler was talking about. It was indeed an island in the sky—there was a floating island in the photos.

Due to the darkness, the photos were blurry, but the outline of an island was captured. There was indeed a colossal floating island in the sky. Unfortunately, Charles couldn't accurately deduce the island's size, as he didn't have any object of reference.

There was light on one side of the island, but the light wasn't coming from a fire. It looked strikingly similar to a bright welding light. Charles surmised that the island had to be housing the members of the Foundation.

It seemed that they hadn't been annihilated, after all.

"Captain, I think you should bring an airship here. The island is too high up in the sky. Our ship can't go up there."

Charles examined the photos a bit more and shook his head. "We don't have that much time to wait. If we wait that long, the Foundation members might no longer be up there by the time we reach the island with an airship. They've just been attacked, too, so this is a great opportunity for us to go up."

"It doesn't matter what we're going to do; whether we catch one of them to interrogate or lend them a helping hand in retrieving the darkness, this is the golden opportunity to do so. We must go up there now."

There weren't that many people qualified to go up to the floating island.

Dipp's special ability was especially effective against those translucent creatures earlier, so he had to come along. The ship's doctor had to come along as well, and then the powerful Bandages and Nico.

Charles transformed into a bat and—with Sniffler and Audric's help—carried the qualified crew members toward the towering, pitch-black wall.

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