Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 379: Door

Chapter 379: Door

The pungent and thick semi-liquid engulfed Charles before rapidly cooling down. Charles felt as though he was sealed in cement. He was thoroughly sealed, and he couldn't even breathe.

Charles wanted to escape, but what felt like steel cuffs had bound his limbs and torso and immobilized him completely. His tentacles and his electric power were ineffective against what had sealed him.

What's this stuff around me? And what are they trying to do to me? Charles' mind was filled with many different thoughts, and that was when he felt a sense of weightlessness.

Charles suddenly felt like he was in a car; he could feel himself moving at a high speed.

Where are they taking me? And who are they? Charles thought, but he soon realized that he didn't have the luxury to even think about the answer to his question as he was starting to suffocate.

I have to get out of here, but what can I do? I can't even move! At this rate, I'm going to suffocate! The cogs in Charles' mind spun rapidly in desperation as the oxygen coursing through his veins diminished rapidly.

Right as Charles was about to lose consciousness, he suddenly recalled that there was one part of his body capable of moving, even if he couldn't move any other parts of his body.

The palm of his steel prosthetic hand opened, and the Dark Blade burst out of it. It tore a slit in Charles' unidentified prison with its exceptional sharpness.

"Open up for me!"Charles roared as he gripped the Dark Blade with one hand and forced it down with all his might to regain his freedom. Before Charles could take a peek outside, he was hurled roughly to the ground and landed on a hard, smooth floor.

Footsteps! Three people in total, and they're retreating! Charles hurled the Dark Blade with all his strength toward the direction of the nearest footstep sound before squeezing himself out and tearing apart the cooled-down substance on his face.

Charles' chest ballooned instantly as his lungs greedily took in the surrounding air to replenish his oxygen, and he breathed frantically as if nothing else was more important to him at the moment than air.

After taking a few big, deep breaths, Charles finally decided to look around.

"Where am I?" Charles looked down to find himself standing on what seemed like smooth glass. There were palm-sized silver fish scales in the glass and what looked like tiny yellow balls in between the silver scales.

Charles jumped down the glass and landed on the ground below it.

Strange, why did they throw me here? Charles looked around warily at the eerily quiet surroundings. It turned out that he was on the rooftop of a building, and there wasn't anything else around aside from the strange glass floor and a staircase.

The visibility was great; Charles could clearly see the array of lush greenery and the island's distinctly unique flora.

Charles soon found a puddle of blood on the floor. Clearly, he had injured one of his assailants. He crouched and dipped his finger in the puddle of blood before giving it a lick. Sure enough, it was human blood; his kidnappers weren't strange entities but human beings.

If that's the case, why did they kidnap me here?Wouldn't talking to us first be a better choice than just attacking us outright, regardless of our intentions? Charles was completely puzzled. He mulled over the matter for a while until he saw a figure flying over toward him from the distant forest.

The figure belonged to none other than the Pope. The Pope's face was twisted in a grimace, and there was a wound on his chest, which oozed golden blood as he moved.

"What's up with that injury? Did you fight them?" Charles asked.

"Yes, and I'm no match for them. Those figures dressed in black are very strong," the Pope said in a gloomy tone.

Charles' pupils constricted. If those figures in black were truly as powerful as the Pope said, how come they were beating around the bush rather than just subduing them outright? The island was truly getting stranger and stranger.

Just as Charles was in deep contemplation, the Pope raised his right hand, and a crumpled piece of paper from the corner of the rooftop floated toward his palm.

"Haha, it seems that they've left us a message," the Pope said with a sardonic smile.

Charles approached the Pope and saw the messageturn on that light.

"What are these four characters? What do they mean?" the Pope muttered with an indescribable expression.

However, it would have been strange if the Pope could understand what the four characters meant together, as those four characters were Chinese characters!

The fact that those mysterious figures in black knew Chinese characters meant that they might be his countrymen, and they had most likely come from the surface! Of course, they could also be personnel tasked to stand guard here.

Charles' heart started to beat wildly against his chest as he thought of the many possibilities, and the trembling of his right hand intensified.

The Pope noticed Charles' odd behavior and asked, "Do you know what these four characters mean?"

Charles nodded quietly before reaching out for the note. He examined the note briefly before taking a good look at the glass floor where he had jumped down from earlier.

Moments later, Charles discovered the identity of the glass floor. It was a colossal searchlight, and the silver scales he had seen earlier were its reflectors made from tinfoil.

Charles looked around and eventually found an electrical cable. Following the electrical cable, Charles soon discovered the power switch under the stairs. A click echoed, and the colossal searchlight came to life.

Whiiir!

The massive fan beneath the searchlight started spinning to cool it down as a huge pillar of light shot took to the skies.

Charles and the Pope craned their necks and looked up; what they saw overhead dumbfounded them both. Charles looked as if his heart had been smashed by a sledgehammer.

A huge eyeball-like object was embedded in the dome overhead. No, it wasn't an eyeball. It was a colossal metal valve as big as the entire islandit was none other than the "Door"! The exit to the surface world!

"Pope, I'm not imagining this, right?" Charles asked. He didn't even dare to blink, afraid that the door overhead would disappear if he did so.

Meanwhile, the Pope looked even more excited than Charles. He floated and flew straight toward the door.

Charles waited anxiously for the Pope to return, but the latter didn't come back down, even as Charles' crew members and the twelve bald men alongside the Pope arrived to gather with everyone else.

The Narwhale's crew were dumbfounded as they stared at the colossal metal construct up above them.

Dipp stared agape, and he unconsciously ripped a scale off of his body. "Ah! That hurts. I guess it's real."

Bandages approached Charles and muttered, "Where are thosepeoplewho kidnapped you"

"I don't know, but I can confirm that they led us here. I don't know who they are, but it's very likely that they're from up above," Charles replied.

Bandages nodded quietly and said, "I think I can absorb a second relic now."

However, the thrilled Charles slapped his First Mate on the shoulder and stared excitedly at the latter, saying, "Buddy, I really couldn't care less about that right now. Do you see that? That's the exit to the surface world!"

"I know you've already said it once," Bandages replied calmly with a nod.

Charles laughed boisterously upon seeing Bandages' helpless expression. Then, he wrapped his left arm around Bandages' neck and pounded the latter's chest using his right hand.