Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 485: The Chosen One

Being able to see his wife again. Charles was overwhelmed with emotions as well. Yet, he knew this wasn't the time to dwell over their reunion. They had to escape immediately.

However, before Charles could make a dash toward the bridge, a beam of white light swept past and vaporized a significant portion of the Narwhale's bow. It was an attack from the Ronker's laser cannon.

"Charles! There's no escape for you. Look around you! Every follower of the Divine Light Order in this Subterranean Sea has gathered here. You can't run anywhere!! Brethren, bring him back to me!" the Pope roared, his voice thundering across the sky.

Steamships swiftly converged on the half-wrecked Narwhale from all directions. The entire region had been blocked off, leaving Charles with no route of escape.

Searchlights of varying sizes illuminated every corner of the Narwhale's deck, leaving not a single spot in the dark.

Realizing there was no way out, Charles whispered in a low growl to his daughter beside him, "Sparkle, take Mommy and leave."

Anna knew what Charles had in mind. Refusing to follow, she swelled rapidly, reverting to her terrifying monstrous form.

"Do I need you to tell me what to do? Don't think you can fool me away this time! At most, we'll die together!"

"Just go. I'll be fine; I'm a monster, after all." Charles' prosthetic chainsaw whirled to life. Peeling off a layer of his flesh at his fingertips, fresh blood trickled down the wounds as he crouched onto the titled deck and swiftly started drawing.

"Sparkle, take Mommy and leave. Be a good girl," Charles reiterated his instructions.

Sparkle cast a glance at Charles, who seemed to be preparing something. She then gently touched Anna's tentacle and in an instant, their figures vanished.

When a group of Divine Light Order followers appeared on the Narwhale's deck with their signature white robes and various relics in hand, Charles had completed his drawing.

He rose to his feet and completely ignored the followers around him. Instead, he turned his gaze to the distant platform that was radiating a dazzling golden light.

"Bring it on, Your Holiness. Since you claimed that everything is within your calculations, then let's see if this was part of your anticipation," Charles roared.

He then took a step to the left, allowing his shadow to align perfectly with the crimson runes behind him.

Charles swelled and distorted unnaturally. Grotesque noises echoed as Charles' bones cracked. Amorphous clumps of flesh and internal organs sprouted all over him. His limbs morphed into crab-like pincers, and he was marred with swollen, bubble-like growths. Triangular, bulbous eyes reminiscent of a fish's eyes emerged all over him, which made him look even more monstrous.

His original pair of eyes turned cold and emotionless, like the rest of the eyes all over him.

Just then, a chain writhed toward him like a sea serpent in an attempt to ensnare Charles. It was the relic of a nearby Divine Light Order follower.

But the moment the chain was about to touch Charles, Charles' mutating form instantaneously blinked two meters away from its original spot.

With a mere flick of one of his tentacles, adorned with numerous eyes, the heads of everyone around him vanished in an instant.

The headless corpses plunged into the sea with echoing splashes. However, Charles paid them no heed as more deformed limbs and tentacles continued to grow from him; his appearance gradually mirrored Edikth, a Divinity he had encountered only once before.

Meanwhile, the golden radiance atop Ronker had faded. The Pope stood unharmed in his original spot while the remnants of the Chalkboard Erasers were broken into fragments and scattered around him.

"Charles!" The Pope roared in fury. With a lift of both hands, he swiftly pulled the mutated Charles toward him.

With a whoosh, and no prior warning, Charles vanished and reappeared embedded within the Pope's body.

Charles' tentacles composed of various organs stirred within the Pope's aged body, devouring the latter's organs.

Brilliant light burst from every opening of the Pope, causing the flesh and organs on Charles to rapidly wither and desiccate.

Charles vanished once more, only to reappear a short distance from the Pope. As he glared with the eyes all over him, the Pope's upper half began to disintegrate into nothingness.

The Pope's eyes shone with a golden light. His voice imbued with Divine authority, commanded, "God said: Obey!"

In response, Charles' multitude of eyes instinctively narrowed, directing their gaze downward as if compelled to bow before an overwhelming power.

However, Charles would never be one to submit. He started flickering at a high frequency. As the flickering intensified, the platform was soon engulfed by Charles' monstrous and aberrant forms.

They were not mere afterimages; they were all versions of Charles existing in fractions of a moment across time.

The Pope couldn't defend against all of them. The moment he showed an opening, a Charles from behind him immediately extended a tentacle and coiled it around him.

"God said: Pierce!"

Blinding golden spikes burst forth from within the Pope, and he resembled a porcupine as he impaled everything close by in the proverbial blink of an eye.

This included Charles, who was quickly bound by chains ejected from the needles, rendering him incapable of teleporting.

With a mere lift of his hand, The Pope levitated the immobilized Charles back toward the original sacrificial spot meant for the latter.

Just as Charles seemed about to be imprisoned within the circle again, he swelled explosively. The myriad of grotesque organs and mutations all over him burst open and scattered across the ground in a gruesome display.

Before the Pope could react, Charles moved even faster this time. The clumps of flesh rapidly coalesce to form a giant yellow eye.

The eye widened in a fierce glare, and the Pope's right arm instantly vanished. Having suffered his first instance of damage, the Pope visibly winced in pain.

The flesh fragments from Charles gathered in an instant and lunged toward the Pope.

A shield wrought from golden light intercepted Charles' assault. Spikes sprouted from the shield, and it turned into a weapon poised for a counterattack.

Amidst the tumultuous clash between Charles and the Pope, Swann, the infant mechanoid, used his mechanical digits to cut his mouth open once more. With eyes brimming with spite, he eagerly encouraged the ongoing battle between the two.

"Yes! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Swann didn't care who died. He would be pleased as long as one of them their demise. After all, the two had overturned his island, and they were his enemies.

The situation entered a deadlock. Both sides were the Divinities' Chosen One and their strengths didn't differ significantly.

Just then, Sparkle suddenly appeared at the Pope's feet and wrapped herself around his left leg. The Pope's left leg vanished instantly, causing him to stagger and lose balance.

The golden opportunity presented itself before Charles, and Charles would never allow it to go to waste. All the eyes on his body widened simultaneously and emitted eerily bizarre beams of light.

The Pope swayed to the right in an attempt to dodge Charles' lethal glares.

However, Sparkle's earlier interference had cost the Pope the upper hand. Charles' light beam struck the Pope and shattered the latter's body into pieces.

With only his upper torso left, the Pope collapsed on the ground like a broken doll.

Golden blood trickled from the corners of the Pope's mouth as his gaze shifted upward at Charles, who was approaching him. A look of astonishment appeared on his face before it gave way to a faint smile.

"I truly did not see this coming" The Pope remarked with a dry chuckle, and as his consciousness began to blur, Lylejay caught a glimpse of a child all curled up in a fetal position in his fading vision.