Shrouded Seascape

"Gao...?" A slow, dull voice that sent ripples in the surroundings echoed in everyone's ears. Under 002's influence, even the darkness had gained consciousness.

Charles looked up at it with an anxious look. He nodded repeatedly, and he sounded like he was coaxing a child as he said, "Yes, that's right, it's me. I'm Gao Zhiming, and I've been living with you. Come here. Make yourself a bit smaller, and I'll take you home with me."

The darkness stared blankly at Charles, and anger slowly suffused its face. "Gao... is dead?! You... killed... Gao!!"

The surrounding environment underwent a drastic change beneath the darkness' fury. The swirling mists of chaos churned and rolled like boiling water.

Alarm bells rang in Charles' mind, and his intuition was telling him that he was in extreme danger. In response, Charles hurriedly shook his head and exclaimed, "Gao is okay! He's my past self, and we've simply become one!

"Friday! Have you already forgotten how I gave you your name and how I taught you how to think? We're each other's only friends!

"Do you remember it now? And it was just yesterday when we were telling each other about what we were going to do after getting out of here! You said you wanted to see what the sun looks like, and I promised to take you out!"

Fortunately, Charles' sincere words seemed to be effective.

The swirling mists of chaos calmed down.

"You also promised me that once we're out of here, you'll help me find my way back home. We promised each other! Friday, I really am Gao Zhiming!!" Charles exclaimed, attempting to persuade the darkness.

The darkness' face vaded away just then, and the swirling mists of chaos condensed in front of Charles. The surroundings brightened as a black sphere that seemed to be darker than black itself appeared before Charles.

The sphere was so dark that it couldn't reflect any light. At first glance, it looked like a black disk rather than a sphere.

A long pitch-black tendril sprouted from the black sphere and wrapped around Charles' wrist like a big ring.

Everyone sighed in relief at the sight. They had mobilized so many people, but the issue was ultimately resolved by Charles on his own, which was a bit anticlimactic.

Regardless, the fact that the darkness was found was what mattered the most.

"Paiper! Tell your people to crack open this octahedron. We're leaving," Charles said. The darkness was found and retrieved, so it was time for them to leave.

The giant black-glass twisted worm nodded and replied, "Give me a moment to contact Pede outside."

Charles glanced at the black sphere that had shrunk to the size of a planet before turning to Feuerbach and asking, "Once the darkness returns to the Subterranean Sea, what's going to happen to its consciousness?"

Feuerbach looked at Charles and shook his head slightly without saying anything.

Charles felt a piercing pain in his heart at Feuerbach's wordless response. Clearly, the existence of the intelligent darkness that had accompanied him in this dark place for several years would be threatened.

Charles couldn't help but feel pain for it; it was inevitable, as they were each other's only friends in this pitch-black world.

"What's up with that look? Wait, Charles, you're going to cry?" Anna asked, her voice carrying a hint of teasing.

Charles blinked his slightly red eyes and replied, "Stop the nonsense and keep an eye on our surroundings. I don't think this octahedron is going to just give up and hand its prized possession over to us that easily."

Charles' words had just fallen when a rift appeared nearby. A torrent of purple light rushed in from the outside. The triakis octahedron was cracked open once again!

"Let's go!" Charles exclaimed.

A powerful force pulled everyone away at the same time as the jet fighters dragged everyone outside. Just as they were about to break through and exit the triakis octahedron, a thunderous boom echoed, followed by a tremor.

Everything went dark once again, and they were still trapped.

The swirling mists of chaos had thinned out and were beginning to fade away. Soon, a colossal corpse exuding a powerful, oppressive presence appeared above everyone.

When Linda saw the bodies that made up the colossal corpse, she collapsed to the ground, and her eyes became filled with fear.

The bodies belonged to the roughly ten million followers of the Divine Light Order, who had disappeared with the Light God!

The scars hidden deep in Linda's heart were torn open as soon as she saw her brothers and sisters.

The colossal corpse exuded an incredibly oppressive air, instilling terror in everyone's hearts. It was inevitable, as it was composed of ten million bodies with limbs twisted into unimaginable angles and faces distorted in extreme pain and despair.

To make matters worse, these bodies were still alive—they were still moving!

The triakis octahedron had not only stolen the darkness from the Light God but had also stolen the corpse made from the bodies of the Divine Light Order's followers!

"Hehe," Anna smirked as she stared at the colossal chunk of meat. "Now, I'm finally in for some real work."

Anna's words had just fallen when the colossal chunk of meat in midair trembled, and the bodies up above descended toward everyone like rain.

Boom!

A deafening noise echoed as Anna revealed her true form. More than ten black tentacles slammed on the deck, propelling Anna into the air. With a slight tilt of her three monstrous heads, the Inexistence swirling perpetually around Charles flew up.

The Inexistence resembled liquid white bones, and it moved like a white bolt of lightning, rapidly weaving through the bodies. Every single body that it touched melted away into nothingness, disappearing completely from existence.

The others sprang into action just then.

Governor Julio gestured, and everyone's shadows manifested before jumping into the air to tear off the heads of the plummeting bodies.

The bloated old dog, Pogro, raised its head slightly. The squirming pustules on its bloated figure abruptly vanished before reappearing on the bodies in midair, replacing their heads with something grotesque.

Once the pustules had replaced the heads of the bodies, the bodies turned against their own kind, attacking the others with their twisted limbs. The pustules spread among the bodies like a plague, climbing slowly toward the colossal chunk of meat up above.

Even Lily took control of the deck cannons, firing nonstop at the falling bodies.

Unfortunately, the bodies were still getting closer and closer to the Narwhale, as there were just too many of them to fend off.

"Captain!" Feuerbach exclaimed, his voice laced with urgency as he said, "Can you persuade the darkness to help us here? There are too many of them! We can't get out of here until they're gone!"

Charles glanced at the darkness, which had shrunk into a ball and was staying put. He then shook his head and said, "No, it's become too weak."

Before Feuerbach could say more, Charles added, "I'll do it instead."

With that, he took out a black spike and gripped it tightly in his left hand. Then, he slashed open his right palm and clenched the wound before crouching down to carve peculiar cuneiform lines on the ground.

Soon, a human-shaped array was made. The return of Charles' shadow meant the return of his identity as Edikth's Chosen One. When the array was ready, Charles patted the pitch-black ring around his wrist.

Charles revealed a determined look and stepped to the left, allowing his shadow to align perfectly with the crimson runes behind him.

Moments later, Charles' figure swelled and distorted unnaturally.