Shrouded Seascape

Huff...

Hiss...

Breathing through their oxygen tubes with a rhythmic hiss, Charles and his sailors were clad in their diving suits and exited the submarine once again.

There was no longer a slope at their present location. Instead, it was a gaping black abyss directly beneath them.

The abyss emitted an ominous gloom; Charles felt as though walking through it would bring him straight to the earth's core.

Soon, they were nearing their destination—the sea creature's lair was in the vicinity.

From their previous clash, Charles concluded that the sea creature didn't have particularly high intelligence, and that was their only advantage against it.

Suddenly, the pitch-black wall right next to them flipped open like eyelids in a nightmare to reveal three vast cavities. Three menacing sea monsters glared at them intently with their eighteen crimson eyes.

The next moment, the sea monsters' physical forms collapsed and vanished. It took only a mere few seconds for them to reappear in the vicinity of the divers with their monstrous maws gaping wide.

Before anyone could react, they had been swallowed whole. Just when the monsters were about to chew, a stinging sensation sent them into a violent tremble.

Four torpedoes shot down from above the three sea monsters.

Charles had planned for him and his team to be the bait to lure the beasts into a trap. After all, their heavy-duty suits had high defensive capabilities and could withstand a bit of chewing.

Though it was a risky plan, it was highly effective. In an instant, the torpedoes had blasted the three creatures to pieces. Chunks of flesh were torn out from their original spot as the surrounding water was stained a deep purple hue.

Struck by the torpedoes, the monsters' focus was immediately shifted toward the immobile Narwhale positioned overhead.

Their physical forms deflated and vanished once again. The next moment, they blinked, and when they reappeared, they had the Narwhale surrounded.

However, before they could even react, more intense explosions erupted from all directions. The enormous bubbles from the blasts enveloped the water, and the deafening explosion sounds echoed throughout the water.

This was the power of torpedoes, and the submarine was equipped with watermelon-sized ones. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

All of it had been a trap set for the three sea creatures. Though Charles couldn't predict where they would reappear, countering it was still possible.

The assault had used up all the torpedoes aboard the Narwhale. It was a do-or-die strategy. Fortunately, Charles' plan had succeeded.

The explosion echoes gradually faded, and peace returned to the waters.

Within the purple-stained water, massive bones and chunks of flesh tumbled with the waves. The three enormous sea monsters had been utterly obliterated by the continuous blasts.

But Charles didn't have the luxury of time to examine his victorious results. The violent explosions had also dealt damage to the Narwhale, which had been in the center of the chaos. Cracks could be spotted in some areas, and high-pressure seawater was gushing into the submarine.

"Fuck!" Charles lunged forward and pressed his body toward an opening to block the water from entering it. The other sailors then followed and mimicked his actions in a frantic effort.

After a chaotic struggle inside and outside the submarine, the crisis was over as those aboard had managed to seal the cracks. Of course, the Narwhale's animated ropes played a crucial role in the repair operation.

Panting heavily, Charles rested atop the submarine. He then turned and peered into the chasm below them.

It was the same deep and gloomy chasm with unending darkness. However, something felt amiss. The dozens of Whitebeasts that 198 had mentioned never made an appearance.

Charles swam toward the glass window and rapidly gestured to Bandages within. The Narwhale then continued its descent into the chasm.

As Charles followed the submarine's descent, he gripped the flesh revolver tightly. This was the only weapon that was effective against those wretched creatures.

It didn't take long before the Narwhale arrived at the location where Feuerbach's sharks had scouted earlier. In a depressed cavity, a giant purple sphere hung suspended as though it was a living creature.

The massive bubble measured over fifty meters in diameter and emitted a faint purple glow.

According to the sharks' intel, just an hour ago, they spotted many Whitebeasts transporting things into this sphere.

Charles pointed at the purple sphere, and a red shark next to him darted into it with a quick flick of its tail.

One minute, two minutes. three minutes later...

The red shark still hadn't reemerged after three minutes.

Could this thing be alive? Charles started to feel doubtful.

Charles was contemplating his next move when a diver next to him patted against his chest in a confident gesture. He was volunteering to investigate the sphere.

Charles didn't stop him and watched as the sailor passed through the purple glow and disappeared from sight.

Swiiiiiish!

The diver's oxygen tube was rapidly pulled into the sphere as though something else was tugging at it from within.

Charles grabbed the oxygen tube and pulled at it; the tube instantly went taut.

At the same time, the Narwhale ascended rapidly to forcefully extract the diver from within the sphere.

As soon as he emerged from the sphere, the diver seemed extremely worked up as he began to gesture frantically in front of Charles.

Charles could only bring him back into the submarine to find out what he was trying to convey.

Upon bringing him aboard, Charles realized that the brave volunteer had been Weister.

Sounding breathlessly excited, Weister said, "Captain! There's no water inside the sphere! It's full of green plants, just like... like the gardens of the central islanders! Also, I saw humans in there!"

"Humans?!" Charles reiterated his words in disbelief.

Hearing Weister's words, Charles promptly instructed the other sailors to scout the sphere. Only after triple-confirming that it was safe inside did he cautiously enter the enormous purple sphere himself.

The dark, chilly seawater was shut out, and Charles' pupils shrank in astonishment at the sight that welcomed him. It was a forest, a dense tropical forest.

The red shark from before was twitching nearby on the forest floor.

Charles found the scenery before him extremely absurd. He looked around in bewilderment.

How deep am I in the sea? Six hundred meters? Seven hundred? How could there possibly be a forest here? Is this some successful contingency plan of the Foundation?

To Charles, that was the only plausible explanation for such an abnormal and illogical situation.

He pondered over his options swiftly before he instructed, "Lily, send your mice out. Find out where the Whitebeasts are and also locate the humans Weister had mentioned."

Hundreds of mice swiftly scattered into the bushes and vanished from sight.

Charles looked up to see intertwined vines forming a canopy overhead. They obscured any hints of what the entire place was made of.

It still remained a mystery if this was a Foundation's refuge point. Also, the Whitebeasts had attacked them immediately previously. If the people here were really from the Foundation, they wouldn't have been so hostile when they spotted a submarine.

Perched on Charles' shoulder, Lily pointed her tiny paw at the weakening shark on the ground.

"Mr. Charles, let's quickly throw this shark back out. It's about to die," Lily suggested.

Charles approached the shark and grabbed it by the tail. With a few brisk steps, he tossed the shark out of the purple sphere.

It hadn't been a couple of seconds since he had thrown the shark out when a drenched Tobba entered the sphere.

Charles pointed at the towering, lush trees behind him and asked Tobba, "Have you been here before?"

A look of utter confusion appeared on Tobba's visage as he replied, "No? Where are we?"

Before Charles could ask another question, a mouse suddenly scurried back and erupted into incessant squeaks as it circled around Charles.