Chapter 381: Ambush

"Hurry up. We're running out of time. The Pope will soon lead our past selves here," Future Charles said to Charles with hints of apparent frustration on his countenance. His impatience was natural, as he had already experienced this thrice.

Charles waved his right hand, and the crew members followed him aside from Weister, Assistant Cook Eggers, and the two ordinary sailors. Charles frowned upon seeing their lost looks. He then proceeded to grab Weister by the neck to drag the young man away with them.

"Drag those three away. We have no time to waste here," Charles said to the other crew members. Charles had no choice but to drag the four away, as everyone would die here if they were to waste any more time.

The other crew members looked troubled, but they proceeded to follow Charles' order. At sea, the Captain's order was absolute, and it was an iron-clad rule on any vessel.

Terrified of his impending death, Weister stammered as he relayed his last words, "C-c-captain! T-tell my family that I love them. And I hope you can grant me my final, dying wish. I hope you'll look for my father for me. He disappeared many years ago, and he still hasn't"

"You guys didn't die" Future Bandages interrupted Weister.

Weister's eyes instantly shone in a glimmer of hope. After all, who would want to die when they could live? Everyone would most likely choose to live if they could choose, and Weister was no exception.

"Really?! I'm still alive? Where's my future self?" Weister asked excitedly.

Future Bandages looked away and continued walking without saying anything. He didn't seem like he wanted to divulge more information to the present crew members.

However, Future Bandages' words had invigorated the four crew members, and they could finally walk on their own, as they were no longer as afraid as they had been earlier.

They seemed to trust Future Bandages' wordsno, it was more like they dared not to doubt the former's words.

The flashlight in the crew members' hands flickered amidst the dense forest as the future and present groups weaved through it, making a beeline for the strange buildings they had encountered before.

Future Charles wasted no time and turned to everyone, saying, "Everyone! Go and look for any car tires. It doesn't matter what kind of tires! Just hurry up and find as many car tires as you can!"

Charles had no idea why they had to look for car tires, but he obliged and ordered his crew to follow Future Charles' order.

Fortunately, they had no issues finding car tires, and the crew soon returned with eighteen car tires in tow. The nine bald men from the future group rushed over to the tires and started slashing them apart. It seemed they only needed the outer rubber of the tires.

One of the nine bald men from the future group took out a palm-sized red cog and presented it to the present version of himself, saying, "Past me, come and help me draw upon the power of this red cog. We'll transform these sheets into a big rubber bowl."

Charles saw the rubber sheets transforming into what looked like a huge rubber bowl, and he instantly understood the reason behind their decision to craft such a big bowl out of rubber.

It finally made sense why Charles' lightning was ineffective. It turned out that he had been imprisoned in a huge bowl of rubber. Clearly, Future Charles had taken into account all of Charles' abilities.

Charles knew what was to come, so he decided to learn more about what was unknown to him. He turned to the future group and saw that they looked bedraggled.

The supplies that were supposed to be on the backs of the crew members were nowhere to be found, and four crew members were even missing. All signs showed Charles that his future self had experienced a grueling battle.

Where am I going after this? What else am I going to experience? Shouldn't I have gone back to the ship right away?

Charles thought as he grew more and more uneasy as time went on.

Charles didn't ask Future Charles. The fact that Future Charles hadn't beaten him to the chase meant that Future-Future Charles had decided not to ask him either, which meant that Charles couldn't ask Future Charles, as he couldn't do anything outside the closed loop.

Swoosh!

A shadowy figure descended, instantly alerting everyone.

Charles put down his weapon upon taking a good look at the shadowy figure. The shadowy figure was none other than the Future Pope dressed in black. "My future self is already standing on that small hilltop. How are your preparations?"

Future Charles patted the huge rubber bowl that the bald men had created using a special relic. He turned to Charles, about to speak, when Charles walked over and picked up the huge rubber bowl.

Then, Charles turned around and started walking toward the dense forest. "I know what happens next. The two of us will ambush my past self, and then we're going to throw him onto that rooftop."

"That's the specifics. Also, Iend me your mice. I've lost many of them," Future Charles replied.

Charles looked down at Future Charles' feet and finally noticed the existence of the mice around the latter. Unfortunately, it seemed that Future Charles only had a few dozen mice remaining.

Charles nodded at Future Charles. "Sure, no problem."

It was then that he realized that the distressed squeaks from earlier hadn't come from his own mice but from Future Charles' mice.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three crisp gunshots suddenly reverberated through the dense forest; Charles became a bit nervous just then. Moments later, Past Charles started going down the small hilltop.

"Hurry up and get out of here! Hide and make sure that they won't see you."

At the order, the future and present groups hurried into the dense forest. Future Charles gave a few instructions to the mice before catching up to the two groups and assigning instructions to the crew members of both groups.

The crew members of both groups had no issues memorizing the steps, as they had done all of them before. Charles remained quiet next to Future Charles while memorizing the latter's words. He knew that he would have to repeat those exact same words to himself soon, so he had to memorize them to err on the side of caution.

The two groups soon arrived at the ambush point. Charles and Future Charles carried the huge rubber bowl up a tree and crouched on a tree branch. The canopy of the nearby trees concealed them from plain sight.

The other crew members quickly got into position as well, and even the Present Pope was clad in all black, ready to work with the Future Pope against the Past Pope.

Meanwhile, the crew members incapable of helping quickly left the dense forest under Future Bandages' lead.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Was Bandages not lying earlier? Are Weister and the other crew members still alive?" Charles asked, failing to hold in his curiosity.

Future Charles' expression was complicated as he replied, "Don't ask. You'll find out soon enough, anyway."

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

The frantic squeaks of mice pervaded the air, and Charles' heart started to beat faster at the noise. Soon, a group of mice scurried into the dense forest, and Past Charles followed closely behind them.

Past Charles raised his left hand and launched his grappling hook onto a tall tree trunk. Then, he used the grappling hook as a swing to make his way through the dense forest like Tarzan.

The moment Past Charles swung past the future and present groups, a bald man lurking in the mud squeezed the black cube in his hand. A black mist manifested instantly and enveloped Past Charles.

At the same time, Future Dipp obscured from view by the black mist emerged from a pile of leaves and slashed the chain of Past Charles' grappling hook, which had pierced a tree trunk.

The chain broke instantly, and without any leverage in mid-air, Past Charles plummeted rapidly to the ground.

"Jump!" Future Charles ordered. Then, both Future Charles and Present Charles swung the huge rubber bowl in their heads toward the black mist.

Immediately afterward, two identical bald men appeared and used the same special relic earlier to instantly liquefy the huge rubber bowl. The huge rubber bowl transformed into a semi-liquid material that writhed as if it were alive, wrapping Past Charles in a snug embrace.