Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 609: Paiper

"Ugh!" Charles' face contorted as he clenched his teeth and mustered all his strength to yank off his prosthetic limb. The metal arm, with bits of blood and flesh, was tossed to the side.

"Captain, why do we have to take off our prosthetics too? It's been so long; they should be fine," Dipp said as he stared bitterly at his mechanical legs placed in front of him. He was now stark naked, and with his legs removed, he was left kneeling on the ground.

Charles shook his head slightly. "No. We don't know what kind of relic our prosthetics might turn into and what their side effects would be. It's too risky to have them on us. We need to get rid of everything except our own original relics."

Meanwhile, a crew member next to them was making gagging noises as he shoved his fingers down his throat to force himself to vomit up the food he had eaten earlier.

Since everything had the possibility of turning into a relic, the food they had consumed just moments before couldn't be trusted either.

By this moment, all the crew members were stark naked. Even Bandages had removed the bandages on his body. They stood stark naked, facing each other.

Despite being the only woman among the crew, Linda's face remained completely calm, and she showed not even a hint of shame.

In stark contrast, Lily, perched on Charles' shoulder, covered her eyes with her tiny paws in embarrassment. Though, from time to time, she would secretly peek outside through the gaps in her fingers.

"Captain, what's our next move? Without food or medicine, we can't continue the exploration," Nico said as his eyes scanned the surroundings.Updated chapters at novelhall.com

"I know. Unless something happens, we're heading down now." With that, Charles flipped open the diary on the ground to check the latest entry.

Although he wasn't exactly sure what kind of relic his diary had turned into, based on the previous interactions, Charles suspected it to be related to some prophetic ability. The diary entries that had mysteriously appeared seemed to detail events that might happen the following day.

Unfortunately, this time, there was no new entry. The latest entry was the very same page that was supposedly written from the perspective of a dead Charles.

Charles lifted his head to look at his crew. All of their gazes were on him as they awaited his next order.

"Let's head back," Charles declared. He decided not to wait any longer. Previously, he didn't take any action as he hadn't figured out who was the one writing in the diary.

Now, they had already concluded that it was the diary itself after it had turned into a relic. Since it was just a relic, there was no need to worry. The unknown was always the most fearsome.

"But Mr. Charles, the diary says you'll die," Lily voiced out, her words laced with concern.

Its body was composed of two colors. Half of it was ink black, and the other half was transparent, resembling a blend of glass and obsidian. The colors twisted and intertwined with each other.

Clearly, the crescent beam from before had not come from this worm as it appeared severely injured. Visible cracks could be seen all along its bizarre body. Yet, Charles found the creature oddly familiar.

However, he immediately composed his thoughts the next moment. This was not the time for him to ponder over it. They needed to escape this dangerous place as soon as possible.

Charles rapidly flapped his wings and began his downward descent. Suddenly, a man's voice rang in Charles' ears.

"Don't move! Hide! It will see you!"

The next moment, Charles felt a chilling gaze from the darkness overhead. His body started to go numb from fear, and he struggled to move.

He strained his neck to look upward. In the infinite darkness, he spotted three sinister eyes that glowed with a pink hue and were positioned in a triangular arrangement. Bulging out like a fish's eyes, they were staring directly at Charles.

At this critical moment, the strange, plummeting worm from earlier suddenly appeared next to Charles. Its slimy, writhing body twisted rapidly, enveloping Charles and his crew in an instant.

The worm spiraled down with Charles and returned to the ground. However, it didn't stop there. Its sharp, grotesque mouthparts spun rapidly and effortlessly bored a large hole into the rocky terrain before diving in.

Instantly, the ominous gaze and the three eyes in the darkness disappeared.

Charles stayed still and signaled his crew to do the same as he watched the worm's movements silently.

"Don't move. It's still out there, waiting for us to show ourselves," the same voice sounded in Charles' ears again.

Putting two and two together, it was not hard to figure out that the voice had come from the worm.

Charles calmly looked at the giant, horrifying worm's head before him. "Did Anna relay the message to you guys via telegraph? You arrived quite fast. Aside from that Divinity earlier, what else did you discover up there?"

The worm's slick, elongated body writhed slightly before the voice responded in Charles' mind. "You know who I am?"

"A few years ago, I had some matters to deal with and visited Shattered Heart Isles in the Sea of Mist. I saw a Haikor selling some statues of you. If I remember correctly, you're their main god, Paiper, aren't you?"