Shrouded Seascape

In the face of such an abnormality, Charles' expression twisted fiercely, and he reached out into his scalpless head, gripping the pinkish brain within. In an instant, his mouth fluttered open; it seemed to have escaped Charles' control as it mechanically repeated the murmurs inside his mind over and over again.

The special ability of his crystallized heart allowed him to barely tolerate the indescribable sensation. However, he was still trembling like an aspen tree as he directed his gaze at Fhtagn in the dark.

Shockingly, Fhtagn's deformed giant eyes were ajar, though only a narrow slit!

"Enough! Stop! We surrender!" A panic-filled voice echoed from the communicator.

Charles forcefully raised his hand, and 134's singing voice, which was steadily climbing in frequency, disappeared at once.

Everyone was unwittingly transfixed on Fhtagn.

None of them dared to breathe until the giant fell into slumber once again. With each inhale and exhale, the surrounding time and space were forcefully torn apart before rapidly mending once again.

A significant change occurred in Fhtagn's appearance—the slumbering giant obtained feminine features all over its terrifying and grotesque figure.

Almost at the same time, everyone dropped to the ground, gasping for air. They were in extreme depths, so they felt extremely exhausted, even though they practically hadn't done anything.

When Anna left the concentric circles array, the giant painting that had been rolled up slowly unrolled again, returning to its previous appearance—a bizarre, green-hued city in the Dark Abyssal Trench.

The exhausted Charles smiled at Anna in front of him and nodded. "I told you, didn't I? There's a third way. All of us have survived."

"Charles, Plan Three has been terminated, but do you really think that you've won? You've betrayed mankind, and if humanity were to become extinct in the future, then you're the culprit behind it!

"You're leading mankind into an endless abyss!"

Charles had no idea who had spoken, but there were no longer any voices coming from the metal disk. Charles smiled at the metal disk, but he didn't say anything in the end.

Soon, Sparkle teleported everyone back to Hope Island, and they immediately received news about how the black wall had disappeared and that everything that was devoured by the black wall had returned.

The Subterranean Sea was safe once again.

Charles was utterly exhausted, so he had no idea what happened afterward. His mental strength was several times higher than ordinary people's, and his crystallized heart also granted him immunity to any mental contamination, but standing too close to Fhtagn still almost shattered his sanity and sea of consciousness.

On the same night, he had a dream. He was falling endlessly in the dream. When he finally opened his eyes, he found himself wrapped in an exceptionally soft blanket that seemed to be made of silk.

"You're finally awake? Hungry? The food is ready. Get up and eat." Anna's voice echoed from behind him.

Charles sat up and found both his daughter and wife tidying up his hair. He was about to open his mouth to speak, but Anna beat him to the chase, saying, "I know. The Foundation won't give up so easily, and we must be prepared for their next actions.

"We're also ready to appease 134 because we will be limiting their movements from now on. We can't let the Foundation find them, after all.

"The personnel at the Relic Research Institute are speeding up their respective research as well. We'll do our best to improve the Subterranean Sea's technology as soon as possible. Our technological level has to become comparable to the Foundation before our deterrent is no longer effective against them.

Anna's words had told Charles everything he wanted to know. He opened his mouth, but he couldn't add anything. The silent Charles then noticed the hair in Anna's hands.

Hair? I don't even have a scalp, so how come I have hair? Charles immediately stood up and turned to the full-length mirror next to him.

The black hair that had disappeared along with his scalp had returned, but it wasn't real hair. It was a bunch of writhing tentacles riddled with black scales.

The tentacles were thick, and it wouldn't take many of them to cover Charles' entire head.

At a glance, the writhing tentacles looked like dreadlocks.

"How is it? Looks good, right? Sparkle wanted to use her hair, but we figured it was best not to do that because her tentacles are green.

"I'm sure men wouldn't want anything green on their heads," Anna said. [1]Then, her hands reached out from behind Charles before wrapping around him.

Charles raised his hand and found that he could no longer touch his brain directly, but his scalp hadn't returned. Instead, a layer of intertwined tentacles had replaced his scalp. Clearly, Anna's tentacles had replaced both his scalp and hair.

"Are these useful?" Charles tugged at the tentacles on his head as he stood before the full-length mirror.

"Useful? How can hair be useful? It looks good on you, and it's better than going out there with your brain exposed to the air," Anna said. Her soft and slender figure then slid in front of Charles. She looked up at him with a smile. "Everything is over. It's finally peaceful again. You don't have to run around anymore."

Charles looked into Anna's eyes, and he sounded a bit emotional as he said, "I don't think so. There's still much to be done."

"Why are you such a killjoy? Since the search for the darkness, you haven't stopped to rest at all. You should rest for a bit, at the very least," Anna said. Her slender fingers gently stroked Charles' firm chest.

Charles was quiet as he embraced Anna's waist and kissed her gently.

Soon, their breathing grew heavy.

Just as Charles was about to proceed to the next step, he noticed something amiss. He remembered something just then and turned to look behind him to find his daughter staring at them with rapt attention.

"Ahem~ Uh... Sparkle, don't you have other things to do? Don't you need to go see your good friend?" Charles asked, blurting out a lame excuse to send Sparkle on her way out.

"No, she's in school right now. I don't want to disturb her," Sparkle said calmly, feigning ignorance of her father's underlying message.

The cogs in Charles' mind turned as he tried to come up with ways to send the third wheel rolling away.

And that was when Anna pointed at the door. "Out."

"Oh." Sparkle disappeared in a flash.

Anna's beautiful face immediately leaned closer to Charles, allowing the latter to catch a whiff of an enticing fragrance that was sure to agitate anyone.

After an unknown amount of time, Anna and Charles cuddled in the bed, breathing heavily as they stared at the crystal chandelier on the ceiling.

Charles wrapped an arm around Anna's smooth shoulders and kissed her silky hair. "The Foundation is behaving right now, but how long do you think that will last?"

"I think they're going to behave for a long time. Have you heard of nuclear deterrence? We might be in the best-case scenario."

"Haha, it'd be great if that were the case. I'm sure the Foundation will do many things behind the scenes. To awaken Fhtagn, four sacrificial offerings and the three keys are necessary.

"They just have to take away one of the keys or sacrificial offerings, and our nuclear deterrence is gone just like that," Charles remarked.

"They'll do their thing, and we'll do ours. We already know the location of their base. The Subterranean Sea is vast; they can't possibly control the entire Subterranean Sea. We can definitely take our time infiltrating their ranks."

Charles agreed. The Foundation was powerful, but it was no longer like an invincible god, as its goal and existence were already out in the open.

Anna twirled her hair with her finger, seemingly thinking of something. A few moments later, she asked, "By the way, did the Foundation do something to your brain?"

"Hm? Did they plant something dangerous in my brain?" Charles had just relaxed, but Anna's words immediately made him feel wary. "I remember that someone called N8 had done something to my brain."

"I'm not sure if they planted something dangerous in your brain," Anna shook her head and explained, "But there's something extra in your memories, and it feels very dangerous to me.

"It seems to be capable of devouring a sea of consciousness. Now I'm actually afraid of going through your memories."

Charles was surprised to hear that.

This was his first time hearing such words from Anna despite them being together for so many years.

"At the time, N8 told me that there was a memetic infection in my memories. She happened to have a similar memetic infection, and she wanted to do some kind of experiment using our memetic infections.

"I don't know whether her experiment had succeeded or not, but I don't feel anything abnormal," Charles said. He raised his head to touch the tentacles on his head.

"A memetic infection..." Anna in Charles' arms seemed to fall into deep contemplation.

All of a sudden, she remembered something and sat up abruptly. She took a closer look at Charles and found that the Inexistence that had been orbiting Charles was nowhere to be seen!

"How interesting. The Foundation actually managed to clean that thing up?" Anna muttered to herself, looking very surprised.

"What's wrong? What are you looking at?" Charles was confused by Anna's strange behavior.

"It's nothing. Anyway, halftime is over," Anna said and swung her leg over Charles, straddling him.

1. There's a Chinese slang where wearing green on your head means your partner is cheating on you. ☜