Shrouded Seascape

Anna abruptly came to a halt in the middle of the alleyway.

The next moment, Anna's other half transformed, revealing more than ten thick and long tentacles, which lashed out and wrapped around a child, who seemed to be around seven years of age and was standing next to his mother.

The boy was terrified; his frightened expression and body language convinced everyone that he was utterly terrified. However, the boy's disguise crumbled instantly beneath the tentacles' suckers, and he turned out to be a Fhtagnist with a face covered in octopus tattoos.

A small stack of leaflets slid from his chest, landing on the ground.

"Heretic! You've betrayed the Great One! For His awakening—" The Fhtagnist stopped mid-sentence as Anna's slender waist slit open, revealing a meter-wide maw that engulfed him in the blink of an eye.

"A calamity is indeed a breeding ground for cultists. The Fhtagn Covenant has been making some waves recently, and their numbers are growing quickly. You better keep an eye on your island."

"Lady Anna, please rest assured. The prominent faith on this island is in God Sparkle, and the islanders are not going to change religions so easily. I will also send people to keep an eye out for them. I definitely won't let them infiltrate my island," Arandi replied.

"God Sparkle?" Anna turned and saw a portrait of Sparkle hanging inside a store; she couldn't help but burst out into laughter at the sight.

"You're making people honor me? I'm sorry, but I don't fall for such pleasantries," Anna said, glancing at Arandi.

"No, I haven't done anything like that at all. It was the islanders' unanimous decision. And it's a faith that exists in other islands or perhaps even in the other sea regions as well; it's not just on this island."

"I see..." Anna clapped lightly, and Sparkle instantly appeared in front of her.

"My daughter, look at that. That's a portrait of yours. You've become a Divinity in the eyes of the people here. How do you feel?"

Sparkle's green cross-shaped eyes blinked. "I don't feel anything."

"They worship you as a Divinity, but you don't feel anything at all?"

A few tentacles emerged from Anna's abdomen, and they wrapped around Sparkle, lifting her off of the ground.

"Why are they worshiping me?"

"Because you brought them banana seeds and hope."

"But... what does that have to do with me? Daddy told me to deliver them. I didn't even want to do it. Looking for so many islands was so troublesome," Sparkle replied.

Anna was stunned at the remark, and she looked down blankly at her daughter in her bosom.

"Mommy? Why are you staring at me like that? What are you thinking? Can I read your mind?" Sparkle asked.

Anna came back to her senses and stroked Sparkle's soft hair. "I'm just thinking... do the Divinities of the Subterranean Sea feel the same as you right now, despite so many people worshiping them?"

"Maybe. The faith of humans in me hasn't really given me anything. I feel the same with or without their faith in me. I don't think it matters."

"Hehe, your little mouth is getting better and better at talking. Come to think of it, you're already two years old. It seems that time really flies, "Anna said. Then, she leaned over and kissed Sparkle's cheek.

"I've learned a lot of things now, and learning is really fun for me. It's even more fun than playing with Nene."

"That's great. You should strive to learn more. You're just two years old, but you're already like this... I'm really looking forward to what you'll become once you grow up."

Sparkle's eyes blinked. "I feel that by then... I'd be very strong."

"Sigh, I really envy you sometimes. You become even stronger even without doing anything, while I have to painstakingly look for ways to become stronger," Anna said, pinching Sparkle's soft little cheeks.

Sparkle cast a deep gaze at her mother. Moments later, her head turned a hundred and eighty degrees to stare at Nene and Donna walking by them.

"Mommy, send Nene and the others to Daddy's island. It's dangerous here, and their living conditions are bad. Farming is too exhausting."

"Is she your friend?"

"Mmhm, she's my good friend. She taught me some things in the beginning."

"Okay, I'll handle it."

***

"How is it? Do you feel it? Do you feel this power? I did not lie to you. This is the power of the Light God."

Lily heard a soft voice amidst her sleep. She tried hard to open her eyes, but she couldn't open them no matter what she did.

Lily couldn't see at all and could only hear fragmented sections of a conversation.

"Let's make a deal. I know what you want. The chance of success is low, but what if it succeeds?"

"Let me... Let me see it first! I'll just take a look! Just one look!" A voice filled with urgency echoed from a distance.

Lily wanted to struggle, but her limbs seemed to be bound, and she felt uncomfortable about the ordeal.

"Hehe, how can I let you take a look first? Remember my rule: work first, and you'll rewarded afterward."

Lily was shaken awake just then. She opened her groggy eyes and found herself inside Mr. Charles' pocket rather than somewhere else.

So that was a dream? What a strange dream. Why was I having such a weird dream? Lily sat in Charles' pocket, rubbing her furry little cheeks with her paws to clean them somehow. She had no other choice but to make do with her paws. After all, they didn't even have enough water to drink, so where was she supposed to find water to bathe?

"Lily, we're here." Charles' words made Lily's drooping ears perk up. She poked her head out of the pocket and saw the Colossal Hole Fortress before them.

"Aaaah!" Lily climbed down Charles' leg and led a group of colorful mice to charge at the supply depot inside the fortress. "I want to eat all kinds of fruits! I want to take a bath! I also want... I also want—I don't know yet!"

Charles couldn't help but smile as he stared at the antics of the excited and thrilled Lily. Sometimes, he really envied Lily's easily excitable personality trait.

"Captain, I'll go ahead and carry over the bodies of the second mate, the second engineer, and the body of one of our ordinary sailors," Linda said calmly with three gray bags in tow.

Charles felt a pang of pain in his heart at Linda's remark. "Go ahead. Contact James as well, and tell him to compensate their families."

"Understood."

Charles was exhausted in both body and mind, but he couldn't rest right now. He had more important things to do. The Governor of Hope Island's party had returned, and the news spread like wildfire throughout the Colossal Hole Fortress.

An explorer thought that he was close enough to Charles, so he sidled up to the latter and teased, "You were out there for so long that we almost thought you'd never come back, Esteemed Governor."

However, the explorer was forced to erase the cheeky smile tugging at his lips in the face of Charles' cold gaze.

"Bard, how many of us managed to return?"

Commodore Bard was the person in charge of the Colossal Hole Fortress, and he immediately stepped forward. "Reporting to the governor—a total of sixty-two parties managed to come back.

"The rest have been out there for so long that we think they'll never make it back."

The numbers that Commodore Bard had reported meant that Charles had lost more than ten exploration parties. However, Charles was more interested in what the surviving expedition parties had brought back with them.

"Did they find any clues about the darkness?" Charles asked, sounding a bit nervous. The explorers nearby glanced at each other before shaking their heads in unison.

Charles fell into deep contemplation before turning to Bard next to him, saying, "Collect all their photos and logbooks for me. I'm going to browse them myself."

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