Shrouded Seascape

Charles was amused. After laughing heartily for a few moments, he said, "I know I look terrible right now, but I have no time to patch this up. I'll find some time to get myself patched up once everything has been stabilized.

"Please bear with my horrible looks until then."

"It doesn't really matter, and it's not like I have the best looks. Moreover, your womanizer antics will no longer work with this look of yours," Anna replied. Then, she seemed to have recalled something as a tiny crack appeared on her forehead.

A spider with a red pattern resembling an eye crawled out from Anna's forehead and leaped onto Charles' face. Then, it burrowed into Charles' shriveled right eye socket.

"Phew~ Thanks, my vision is clearer now," Charles said before rubbing his right eye with his hand.

"You have to be a bit more careful when handling your eye. That spider is rare even throughout the Subterranean Sea. Once those spiders from Redwood Island are extinct, you'll lose an eye forever."

Charles smiled at Anna and stroked her shoulder before asking, "Anna, are you hiding something from me?"

Anna was caught off guard by the abrupt question. However, she wasn't flustered as she calmly said, "Yeah, I've been hiding quite a bit of information, actually."

"Sure, don't worry about it; I was just asking."

Charles let go of Anna and sat up before getting dressed.

"Are you mad at me?" Anna asked, stretching her alluring figure lazily as she lay on her side.

"No, why would I be mad at you? Of course, I'm curious as to why you would hide things from me."

"Well, you can go ahead and guess what I'm hiding from you whenever you have nothing to do."

Charles picked up the sexy clothes on the floor and handed them to Anna, saying, "I don't have time for that. Let's save that for when we finally have some time to relax in the future."

BOOM!

A deafening explosion tore through the air as Charles was abruptly flung upward. Anna was sent flying as well, and Charles instantly realized that the Narwhale had been ambushed, suffering a heavy blow.

Anna and Charles' tentacles burst out of them, stabilizing them in mid-air. Black fur grew all over Charles, and he flew toward the window on the side.

Anna's alluring figure morphed into a tentacle monster. Her tentacles pushed against the wall, propelling her toward Charles. "I'm joining you."

Charles flapped his fleshy wings, pushing him into the air above the semi-desert region around them.

A white bloated maggot had drilled out of the ground and was trying to drag the Narwhale's bow toward the tunnel where it had come from. The white bloated maggot was none other than the "King" of Sottom.

Margaret had attacked them once again!

Charles didn't rescue his crew immediately. He took his time, flying up high to look around. He saw no other enemies. It seemed that Margaret had come alone with her crew.

Charles finally descended and saw his crew fighting the attackers in a chaotic battle. "King" had summoned a dense swarm of insects, and he seemed to have ferried quite a few Fhtagnists as well.

"Second Mate! Use the telegraph to call for reinforcements from the nearby exploration teams and from the Colossal Hole Fortress!!" Charles roared toward the bridge. Then, he and Anna landed on the messy deck.

The enemies reacted quickly in the face of Charles and Anna's arrival.

The black-robed Margaret and 134 rushed toward them.

Just as Anna was about to pounce on Margaret, Charles beat her to the chase, reaching Margaret before she could do so. Anna stared briefly at Charles' back before turning to 134 and blocking her way to Charles.

Clang!

Margaret's dagger and the black spike that had burst out of Charles' steel palm collided in mid-air.

Bright white electric arcs danced across Charles' tentacles as they wrapped around her and shocked her nonstop. However, Margaret ignored the lightning attacks. Her defense was so solid that she could ignore Charles' lightning attacks.

At most, Charles' lightning attacks would only inflict pain. Margaret proved that she had a high pain tolerance as she raised her dagger up high and thrust it toward Charles' heart.

The invisible tentacles converged before Charles' chest, taking the brunt of Margaret's attack for him. The next moment, Charles counterattacked, sending the black spike toward Margaret's neck in a thrust.

However, a torrent of black water drilled out of Margaret's black robe and shrouded the black spike before disappearing into thin air.

The two briefly made contact before jumping backward, widening the distance between each other. Charles glared at the pool of black water receding back into Margaret and asked, "The Fhtagn Covenant gave you a new toy to play with?"

Margaret didn't respond. The torrent of black water swirled and flowed into her hand. Charles' black spike then reappeared in her grasp. Margaret wasted no time; she kicked off of the ground and pounced on Charles as if she were a cheetah.

Swoosh!

The air let out a shrill cry as the black spike slashed at Charles' face, but he managed to dodge it by a hair's breadth.

"Did your father not warn you about taking other people's relics?" Charles asked. A radiant white electric arc manifested and ran across Margaret. This time, however, she let out an agonized scream; the black spike had amplified her pain sensitivity by three times.

Charles saw an opportunity before him and decisively made his move. He raised his hand, and the black spike buried itself into Margaret's neck, inflicting more pain on her. To make matters worse, the electrified tentacles wrapped around her emitted a radiant light, and the extreme pain almost sent her into a coma.

Charles pulled out another black spike and pressed it against her neck before asking, "Do you have anything you want to say to me?"

Upon seeing that Margaret would soon die at Charles' hands, 134 turned and rushed toward Margaret, but Anna easily blocked her. Anna had a meaningful smile tugging at her lips, treating the unfolding scene as if it were a show.

Margaret felt pain coming from her neck as the black spike pierced her tough skin. She looked down with difficulty, staring at Charles' terrifying visage. The next moment, tears rolled down slowly from her eyes.

Charles raised his prosthetic arm and clenched his fist. Then, he brought down his hand like a hammer on the black spike pressing against Margaret's neck.

Swoosh!

A soft purple light illuminated Charles from behind. Charles turned and saw Harold standing before a group of mages in robes adorned with strange inscriptions.

The reinforcements from the Colossal Hole Fortress had arrived.

"How did you come here so quickly?" Charles asked Harold.

Harold's face was exceptionally cold, and his laugh lines became like two black lines as he stared coldly at Charles. When he raised the black crystal staff in his hand, the mages behind him raised their staffs as well. The surrounding temperature rose rapidly, and even the air distorted beneath the heat.

Swoosh!

Harold and the mages brought their staff down at the same time, pointing them at Charles.

Boom!

A towering column of flame engulfed both Charles and Margaret in the blink of an eye. A massive fireball then manifested before bursting open, sending rolling flames in all directions. The flames illuminated everyone's faces.

Anna's expression stiffened, but she quickly calmed down. Thirty meters away from the towering column of flames, Charles had an arm wrapped around Margaret's shoulders as he vomited nonstop.

"Ugh… I really don't… like this relic. The side effect seems to be getting worse as well. Bleeeck!"

Margaret cast an astonished gaze at Charles. He had actually saved her.

"Are you surprised why I didn't leave you there to die? To be honest, I started having doubts about what was going on when Anna decided not to kill you during our previous encounter," Charles said. His tentacles then let go of Margaret, and he also pulled out the black spike sticking out of her neck.

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