Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 519. Divinity's Land

Charles stood at the airship's bridge, frowning as the airship was forced to fly flower and lower due to the rocky terrain overhead. The airship was eventually forced to fly so low that it was almost touching the sea surface.

Everyone felt an inexplicable sense of oppression; they felt like they were being forced into a narrow tube and were afraid that they'd eventually become completely immobile at this rate.

"Captain, I really didn't expect the Eastern Seas to be so oppressive! Don't the people living here feel uncomfortable at all?" Dipp standing next to Charles scratched the gills on his neck, seemingly annoyed.

Charles flipped through the island introduction book in his hand and said, "This is unique to the Fhtagn Covenant's territory. The other places in the seascape aren't like this."

"Aren't those octopus heads—ah, right, they can live underwater, so I guess this is more convenient for them."

"We're almost at the Divinity's Land, so stop talking nonsense," Charles chided. He reached out and grabbed a black microphone before shouting into it, "Ralph. We've entered someone else's territory, so be prepared for battle. Don't let them ambush us!"

Commodore Ralph, who was in charge of commanding the entire fleet below, immediately replied, "Roger that, Governor, sir!"

Splashing noises echoed incessantly afterward, as the navy fleet down below dropped mines into the water. Soon, the fleet took on a formation—a formation composed of dozens of ships.

Meanwhile, the airships opened their bomb bays; hundreds of kilograms of bombs were ready to be dropped at any time and at the governor's command. The air around the fleet was cold and tense.

Charles briefly fell into contemplation before taking out his diary from his chest pocket and tapping it lightly. "Come here, we're almost there."

The next moment, Anna and Sparkle appeared beside him. These two were great assets, and Charles couldn't allow them to stand idly by this time.

Anna stretched lazily and remarked, "Oh, we're finally here. Making our way there and back would take us more than half a year; we are really going a tad bit too slow."

Soon, the Divinity's Land, where the headquarters of the Fhtagn Covenant could be found, appeared under everyone's gazes.

The scene before them was so astonishing that everyone's eyes were wide open as they observed it. The seemingly flat sea surface had suddenly dipped down, forming a depression that went straight down.

However, there was an extremely vast land exposed at the bottom of the depression, and a variety of bizarre-looking buildings dotted the expansive land.

The majority of the buildings seemed to be temples.

The turbid deep-brown seawater surrounding the expansive land seemed to be being drawn in by something, as it orbited the land without submerging it, transforming it into a basin within the sea.

No wonder it was called "Divinity's Land" rather than "Divinity's Island."

It was indeed a piece of land—a piece of dry land on the seabed!

"How is this even possible? What an illogical place..." Charles watched with knitted brows as the escort ships entered the depression and docked at the pier. In order to avoid an ambush, he didn't let the fleet enter recklessly.

"This isn't the only illogical place throughout the Subterranean Sea..." Anna muttered as she stared at the Divinity's Land.

Sparkle, standing in between the two, licked her lips secretly as she gazed at the Divinity's Land.

Fortunately, Charles didn't have to wait for too long; the Fhtagn Covenant soon welcomed him, and it was a grand welcome.

The sound of rolling waves filled the air as ships of a variety of sizes began to surface around Charles' fleet; the ships were covered in barnacles and seaweed, and Deep Dwellers were standing on the ships' decks.

The Deep Dwellers stared at Charles' fleet with their protruding fish eyes and weapons in hand.

Just then, a fleet of several dozen steamships set out from the Divinity's Land pier, rushing in Charles' direction. The majority of the people on the ships were Fhtagnists with octopus tattoos on their solemn faces.

Just as Charles thought that it was all over, a group of disgusting monsters surfaced from the sea behind Charles and his fleet. The disgusting monsters were from different species, but they all had one thing in common—their grotesque appearances.

However, Charles was familiar with them; they were monsters that often attacked ships out at sea. There were so many of them that the turbid deep-brown seawater around them had taken on an ink-black color.

Charles knew that these monsters at sea often avoided attacking Fhtagnists, but he didn't expect that the Fhtagnists could actually control them!

Charles and his fleet had been surrounded. Everyone was nervous at the stupefying sight, and they began breathing in ragged pants.

Surely, the Fhtagn Covenant had more than just what they were showing at the moment, but everyone knew that the force that had surrounded them was more than enough for them to have difficulties breaking out of this encirclement.

However, Anna seemed indifferent to the sight and nonchalantly remarked, "Not bad. If this is all they have, then we can definitely take care of them."

Charles shook his head and said, "I think this is just a show of strength on their side to make sure that we're not going to have any bad ideas. Do you really think they're not afraid of us making a move against them?"

"I've contacted the followers of the Giant Bird of Suffering via telegraph," Anna said, smiling, "They can't send people here to help us, but if the Fhtagn Covenant suffers further losses, they won't mind kicking the Fhtagnists while they're down."

Anna's smiling lips parted open to speak, but filthy bubbles abruptly engulfed the front glass of the airship. The filthy bubbles surged, and once they vanished, twelve octopus heads clad in purple embroidered robes were revealed before Charles.

They looked the same at first glance, and they were all octopus-headed figures, but there were subtle differences between them. However, what caught Charles' attention the most was their transparent scalp, which allowed anyone to peek into their soft, pinkish brain. Overall, it was a bizarre sight.

"Governor Charles, long time no see."

The familiar voice of the octopus head at the helm of the group made Charles realize that the octopus head was the individual who had been talking to him through the watery shadow previously.

"We've been talking to each other for so long, but I still don't know your name. Are you their leader?" Charles said, sweeping an indifferent gaze across the octopus heads.

The nearby navy troops wielded their weapons and relics as they nervously stood before Charles.

"You can call me Octett. I'm an elder of the Fhtagn Covenant's twelve-member council. Governor Charles, why have you decided to stop outside of the Divinity's Land? Why not dock at our pier? Our deal is still ongoing, right?"

Charles sneered and replied, "The slope here is so steep that if we go down, it's going to be difficult for us to come back up. Of course, our deal is still ongoing. Cure my people of their madness, and I'll tell you God Fhtagn's location."

A surreptitious gleam flashed in the octopus-headed figure's eyes when Charles mentioned God Fhtagn and that gleam didn't escape Charles' keen eyes.

"Very well. Since we're already here, how about you tell us what exactly those Divine Light Order cultists have done?"

Charles was a bit surprised by the question. He didn't expect them to ask that question first.

Seeing Charles' hesitation, the tentacles on Octett's chin trembled slightly. "Why hesitate? We've gone to great lengths just to express our sincerity, and we are at the final phase of our deal as well, so can't you give us some answers in advance?"