Shrouded Seascape

Seemingly desperate to convey the gravity of the situation to Charles, Feuerbach anxiously added, "Captain! When the target's body was ruptured earlier, our instruments detected that the darkness energy within it was decreasing! If we delay any further, it will completely consume the darkness!"

Hovering beside, the giant black-glass intertwined worm expressed agreement to Feuerbach's plan. "Pogro and I will go with you. This concerns all of us, and we have no plans to back down."

Just then, the triakis octahedron was starting to close the gap between them. Dipp hurriedly maneuvered the Narwhale into a descent to avoid a potential collision.

When the Narwhale had descended to hover beneath a massive aircraft carrier and was out of harm's way, Charles quickly conferred with Julio.

After that, with a grim expression, Charles responded to Feuerbach, "I agree with your plan. When do we start?"

Charles had zero trust in the Foundation, but there were things that took precedence over anything. At such a critical juncture, retrieving the soon-to-vanish darkness was of the utmost priority.

Suddenly, another booming explosion from above made everyone flinch involuntarily. The giant aerial vessel overhead had split in two.

The writhing colossal worm next to the Narwhale seemed to have received some message. Its mouthpiece rotated slightly, and it spoke, "Now!"

The moment Paiper's word fell, the deformed Pede lunged at the triakis octahedron once again and tore away the newly regenerated dark sphere surrounding the creature. At the same time, the pitch-black hole beside it lit up with a white light once again.

Covered by a hail of cannon fire, the Narwhale, carrying everyone, charged toward the triakis octahedron

As the distance between them and their target gradually narrowed, Charles cast a brief glance at Anna and reached into his chest pocket for his journal.

However, Anna had anticipated his move and swiftly snatched the journal away.

"I'm not going back. Don't think of making me go back," Anna said in a firm tone.

"It's dangerous in there," Charles remarked.

Anna stood on her tiptoes and lightly pecked Charles' lips before giving him a playful wink.

"I know. Since you didn't want to come down, I decided to come up. But remember, this is the last time I'm going to let you have your way. There's no more next time."

A pang of emotions hit Charles as he stared into Anna's determined eyes. "Alright. This is the last time, I promise."

Like before, the massive iridescent, conical structure crashed into the triakis octahedron once again, creating the same bizarre sense of spatial distortion. Being at a closer distance this time, Charles could feel it more acutely.

He felt as though his body had turned into a piece of clay and could be freely stretched and compressed. The sensation felt real because he could even touch his elongated, deformed skull. The conical weapon seemed capable of distorting reality itself, and he couldn't help but wonder how the Haikors had even come up with it.

When a section of the triakis octahedron's outer shell vanished again, the Narwhale plunged through the fissure. They were accompanied by the twisted worm and Pogro.

As for the Foundation, they had dispatched two quad-wing jet fighters, and Feuerbach was aboard one of them.

As the group entered the triakis octahedron and into the swirling mist of chaos, Charles noticed that the deformed Pede was seemingly considering the idea of infiltrating the triakis octahedron as well.

But just then, the gray mist of chaos engulfed them and obscured everything around them. Charles had no idea if Pede had entered the breach.

An eerie silence surrounded them. The only thing they could hear was their own rapid breathing.

At the very edge of the group, Pogro's tendrils around its mouth twitched as if it had detected something in the darkness. The quad-wing jet fighters immediately pivoted their engines to point downwards as they hovered beside the Narwhale.

Feuerbach emerged from one of the jets and landed on the Narwhale's deck. A row of mobile task force members clad in their signature black suits stood at attention behind him.

"We are inside now; what's next?" Charles asked.

"Time is tight; I'll keep it short. In layman terms, the moment we entered this space, our bodies entered a temporal rift. This place is extremely dangerous and vast. So, everyone needs to follow my orders here."

"Temporal rift? Why would there be something like that in a creature's body?" Anna scanned her surroundings with her brows knitted tightly together.

Feuerbach took a glance at her. "Think of it like a snail's shell. This place is the creature's shell, its source of food and energy. Except, it's the opposite for this creature.

Feuerbach then turned his gaze toward Charles. "Your shadow is here. We need to locate your shadow through you. Once we find your shadow, we'll be able to find the darkness."

That was the entirety of the Foundation's plan and also the reason why they needed Charles for this operation.

"Cut the explanation; let's move." Charles wanted to get out of this strange place as soon as possible.

With a simple gesture from Feuerbach, a mobile task force member stepped forward and placed a helmet with strange engravings over Charles' head.

Upon wearing it, Charles felt nothing; it felt just like another ordinary motorcycle helmet.

The moment the helmet was placed over Charles' head, blue data and ripples manifested and surrounded Feuerbach. Feuerbach's fingers danced over an invisible keyboard, making swift work like playing a piano.

Nearby, Paiper was inserting its tail into the chaotic fog, seemingly using its own way to make new findings.

"Any discovery?" Julio asked.

Paiper shook its head and didn't speak a single word. A sneer of disdain crossed Julio's face. He removed a ring from his pinky and tossed it into the mist.

While it remained unknown if any of the others' methods worked, Feuerbach's approach was the first to yield results. The blue data in the air congealed to form an arrow that pointed southward with a note indicating that Charles' shadow was thirty kilometers away.

"Move out!"

Under Feuerbach's command, the unusual alliance stepped into the swirling mist of chaos.

The steel cables from the Narwhale had been secured to the jet while they were waiting for a direction. The sudden boost of speed caused everyone to jerk backward as soon as they set off.

The intense thrust from the quad-wing jets propelled them swiftly into a chaotic space. The vast area was filled with scattered debris, reminiscent of a dense asteroid belt.

The guiding arrow in the air abruptly shifted direction and pointed to the right. Everyone's gazes turned over to see that a young man had suddenly appeared on a floating rock to their right.

The young man's lips were curled up into a vibrant smile. His eyes scanned the newly arrived visitors before landing on Anna, who was lost in thought.

"An Asian, huh? Seems like I didn't end up too far off this time. Hello, miss, can you understand Chinese? Could you tell me where is this? Have you seen a place with sunlight?" the young man asked.

Anna looked at the young man before turning toward Charles. She then exclaimed in astonishment, "Oh my! What a transformation! You were this handsome in the past?"

The young man was none other than Charles from the past. To be exact, it was Charles' shadow with his memories of the past surface world.

Cosyjuhye's Thoughts

So... Paiper and Pogro are the doctors? And the Foundation has been hiding behind the Haikors? 0_0