Shrouded Seascape

The vivid, almost sinisterly colored serpent slithered slowly out of the overhead rocky terrain. At the same time, the Albion Isles was hit with a ravaging storm as It descended steadily toward the island.

Bandages had no idea what the creature was. However, seeing that Its massive form stretched up to a hundred kilometers, dwarfing two islands, he knew that It was far from friendly.

Thud! Thud!

The sudden strange sound behind Bandages caused him to spin around quickly. He realized that the sailors who had been standing on the deck moments ago had vanished. In their places were babies.

Clearly, the infants swaddled in the sailors' navy uniforms were not even fully developed. Their bodies were crimson and raw, lacking proper skin. Even their facial features were incomplete.

Tears of blood flowed out of their lidless eyes and streamed down their cheeks. Their cracked mouths parted in silent cries as a bone-chilling, ghostly wail echoed in the air.

The cabin door beside Bandages abruptly swung open, and several elderly men tumbled out onto the deck. Judging from their attire, it was evident that they were the ship's cook and assistant cook.

However, their faces and bodies were marred with liver spots, and their wrinkled skin hung loosely from their frames. Their faces were gaunt without a hint of fat, and they looked as though a thin sheet of parchment was draped over their skull.

The elderly men approached Bandages like walking corpses. Their mouths hung open in terror as their teeth fell from their decayed gums. In barely audible, rasping voices, they croaked, "Admiral… Sa-save us…"

Looking at them, Bandages instinctively raised his glance toward the bridge. There, he watched as an infant struggled to stand up. With a captain's hat on his head, the infant clung desperately to the ship's wheel, attempting to turn the helm.

But soon, the infant's movements came to a halt. Its small, fragile body began to shrink into itself until it collapsed into a pool of blood that stained the ship's wheel.

Accompanied by a harsh, metallic screech, the entire ship began to jerk. Parts of it were decaying rapidly and rotting away before Bandages' eyes. Yet, other sections began to turn impossibly new, as if freshly built. In fact, it could be said that apart from Bandages, everything around him was either aging or reverse aging.

A grim expression appeared on Bandages' face as he watched his surroundings. Something stirred in the back of his mind; a long-buried memory seemed to have been triggered and was resurfacing.

Suddenly, Bandages' eyes widened. He sprinted to the ship's railing, his pupils dilating as he stared intently at the distant silhouette of the Albion Isles.

He remembered!

Everything was caused by the serpent! The very fabric of time around It was warped and unstable! Anything within Its vicinity would be subjected to the twisted time dimension!

In a long-forgotten distant past, he had seen this serpent before! It was a Divinity, and one far more powerful than any average Divinity!

Now, the only memory that he could recall was that this very serpent had devoured the god he once worshiped.

Without hesitation, Bandages pushed off against his feet and jumped overboard, plunging into the dark waters below.

Green seaweed sprouted from his body to propel him faster toward the seabed. He had to warn his captain immediately. They had to leave as soon as possible. If the serpent came any closer, none of them would survive!

Lacking Charles' night vision, Bandages could only rely on his grown seaweed to sense his surroundings. In the pitch black depths of the water, it was an extremely dangerous move, but he couldn't care about the involved risks now.

Gradually, he could sense the remnants of wreckage—decaying machinery intertwined with pulsating, grotesque flesh.

He seemed to have arrived at the battlefield, but he didn't sense Charles' presence. A heavy sense of dread settled in his chest.

Just then, a massive writhing mass of flesh appeared within Bandages' perception. Before he could react, his vision blurred, and he was back on the ship. The scene peeled away again, and the next moment, he realized they were beside a lighthouse on Hope Island.

Bandages barely cared about the ship captain's bisected body hanging limply from the lighthouse. He rushed toward the massive mass of flesh. That was his captain.

Just as Bandages were about to reach Charles, he suddenly froze. Twisted limbs, misshapen facial features, and a shrunken skull began to sprout from his flesh. His physical body had been influenced by Charles' mutated form.

Bandages gritted down on his teeth, and several gnarled vines shot out of his body. With their help, Bandages struggled toward Charles, finally reaching the latter. He slapped his hand firmly against the pulsing flesh.

The massive, pulsing flesh that was larger than a warship expanded slightly before quickly shrinking. Within moments, it retracted to leave only Charles and Sparkle in place.

Charles looked as if he would collapse any moment as he staggered to his feet with Sparkle's support. His panic had yet to pass as his breaths remained ragged. Fortunately, before the battle, he had anticipated that 004 might be drawn over and had prepared himself for it. Now, it seemed that his prediction had been spot on.

"Bandages, you alright?" Charles called out toward his first mate.

Bandages' horns swayed slightly as he shook his head in response.

Seeing that her father's body was on the verge of breaking down, Sparkle immediately teleported Linda over.

The moment Linda laid her eyes on Charles, she didn't waste time asking questions. She poured medicine down his throat while using a stapler-like device to quickly stitch up his gaping wounds.

"I'm fine. Just give me some human blood," Charles rasped before pointing toward Bandages, who was writhing on the ground nearby. "Go check on Bandages. He's got all sorts of things growing on him."

By now, Bandages resembled some grotesque, malformed creature. His body was swollen with tumors, and his once-human skin was now covered in a chaotic mix of tentacles, scales, and feathers.

Truth be told, it wasn't exactly Charles' formidable power that had resulted in Bandages' current state. Instead, it was Sparkle's growing power. With her amplifying Charles' influence, ordinary humans couldn't come near Charles without suffering the effects.

Under Linda's swift treatment, both Charles and Bandage were stabilized, though only temporarily. Only then did she have the time to deal with the other crew members—the wailing infants and elderly men—scattered across the ruined ships.

Meanwhile, Hope Island's navy fleet had arrived fully equipped. At the forefront stood Anna and her delicate visage was etched with worry.

After hearing the recount from Sparkle, murderous intent flashed across Anna's face.

"Those Fhtagnists are courting death! They're finished!" Anna growled.

Wincing from the pain, Charles slowly bent down to sit on the ground.

"I initially thought that after the previous crisis, they would at least lie low for a while. I never expected them to take a gamble at this point in time. They are probably terrified that as Hope Island's technology advances, the longer they wait, the less likely they could ever win the battle."

Charles then lifted his gaze to look at the ten commodores approaching him. "Ready the entire navy. I'll be calling a Subterranean Sea Council shortly. The Eastern Seas must be completely liberated."

Though this was a golden age of development and war was the last thing needed, the Fhtagn Covenant had made their move to launch an ambush. He was left with no choice; the cult had to be eradicated at all costs.

Hearing their governor's command, the ten commodores exchanged glances. War was imminent and it was a massive one. This was not just a conflict between islands but a full-scale war between entire sea regions.

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