Chapter 449: Dream

"Captain! We've been overloading the turbines for several minutes now! The turbines are struggling to keep up!" Third Engineer Audric's voice echoed through the brass communication pipe in the bridge.

"Maintain heading and stop overloading the turbines! I'll go outside and take a look," Charles ordered before walking onto the deck. He looked around and saw the pitch-black waters of the sea and felt the salty sea breeze.

There wasn't anything out of the ordinary, and the waters were calm. However, Charles knew better than to relax, and he knew that the matter was far from over; they were definitely watching the Narwhale from somewhere in the depths.

Why are they looking for Dipp? They need his help? Help with what?

Charles pondered hard and long about it to come up with a few clues about their motives, but he emerged empty-handed from his contemplation.

"Captain, if it's really no good, I can disembark now if you want," Dipp said, walking over with a complicated expression.

"It's useless. They're here for me. Do you really think that they'll let the Narwhale go just because you've left?" Charles asked. Then, he grabbed Dipp by his clothes and pulled the latter toward the cabin door.

"Rather than wasting time talking nonsense, how about you do something practical with me? Follow me; we're going to patrol the entire ship. If there are any enemies lurking in the shadows, we'll kill them immediately,"

Soon, the crew members on board heard of the incident. They picked up their weapons and followed Charles to patrol the entire ship to see if there were any enemies lurking in the ship.

However, the Deep Dwellers weren't foolish enough to stay put and allow themselves to be captured. The crew searched meticulously to no avail. Still, none of them dared to let their guard down; they held their weapons tightly, ready for battle at any given moment.

Time passed by slowly, and even though it had been hours since the alarm was sounded, the intense battle Charles had imagined had yet to happen. It seemed like Dipp's warning had all been nothing but lies.

However, Charles' keen intuition born from his years of experience told him that something was amiss. His heart was gripped by an ominous sense of foreboding, and he was convinced that this was just the beginning.

Charles commanded everyone never to let their guard down, and the crew dared not to rest for even a moment; they held their weapons tightly and were prepared to fight the moment a battle erupted.

However, people weren't machines. Keeping one's nerves stretched taut for an extended period of time was unsustainable, so the crew was forced to stand guard in shifts.

Charles gripped the steering wheel tightly with his eyes as bloodshot as a rabbit in heat. The crew could rest, but the Captain absolutely couldn't rest. With that in mind, Charles had never slept a wink over the last three days and three nights.

Dipp cast a distressed gaze upon Charles and said, "Captain, why don't you rest for a bit? At this rate, you're going to collapse before we suffer any attacks."

Charles glanced at Dipp and replied, "Go and tell Bandages and Conor to come here."

"Why do you want them to come here? I can take over for you," Dipp said, reaching out for the wheel, but Charles raised his hand and stopped him.

"Stop it with the nonsense and go!" Charles raised his voice, sounding irritable. It wasn't strange, as anyone awake for an extended period of time would become "slightly" irritable.

Bandages and Conor soon arrived in the bridge.

"I'm going to take a nap. You three should watch each other's back. Wake me up immediately if anything unusual happens, especially underwater," Charles said. He pulled a stool over and sat down.

He closed his eyes slowly, and a sense of weightlessness took over him the moment he closed his eyes. Charles' eyes shot wide open almost immediately, but the Narwhale's bridge had vanished. Instead, he found himself falling in a kaleidoscope of distorting darkness.

Charles looked down and saw himself melting, gradually fusing into the utterly bizarre scenery that seemed both real and illusory.

I'm dreaming? I must be dreaming.

Charles' wildly beating heart calmed down at the realization that he was dreaming.

"Captain Charles, why have you been ignoring our invitation?" A voice echoed from behind Charles. The voice seemed to have come from someone with phlegm stuck in their throat, as it sounded as though they were gurgling.

Charles sneered as he turned. He had thought of many possibilities, but he truly didn't expect that they would contact him in his dream.

"We come with good intentions, and we simply want to discuss a few meters with you, Captain Charles. However, you've run away before we can even start talking; you've really put us in a troublesome position."

The voice was coming from a tiny ball covered in green mucus as it floated over in front of Charles.

I just have to wake up, and I can escape this place. But how do I wake up?

Charles thought.

Charles had remained silent, but the ball of green mucus remained undeterred as it continued, "Your relationship with the Pope isn't exactly that solid, right? I know for a fact that you two are wary of each other."

"What?" Charles stared at the ball of green mucus. "Have you fallen at a disadvantage against the Pope in the battle?"

Charles was still falling in the kaleidoscope of distorting darkness with no end in sight. It appeared like the dream itself wasn't going to end any time soon.

"No, we're not here to ask you to help us deal with the Pope," the ball of green mucus replied, "We're here to talk to you about your ongoing mission."

"My ongoing mission? Do you want to go to the surface as well?" Charles asked with furrowed brows. It'd be a bad idea for the surface world if that were the case.

"No, we would never go to a place beyond the reach of God Fhtagn's voice. We have to be as close as we can to the Great One before the Final Day for us to have a great chance of following the Great One and becoming immortal beings."

Charles had no idea what the other party was saying; all he wanted to know was the other party's motives.

The ball of green mucus seemed to have seen through Charles' thoughts as it chuckled and said, "What we want you to do is very simple. The Pope has sent you on a mission to find the key to rescue the Light God, but we do not want that."

"I'm afraid that's impossible. It doesn't matter what you say to me; I'm going to the surface no matter what," Charles said, firmly rejecting their suggestion.

"No, no, no, you've misunderstood. We don't care whether you reach the surface or not; we only care about the Pope. And we don't want him to reach the surface."

The implied message was unmistakable: they would do whatever it would take to stop the Pope from reaching the surface.

"All right, I promise" Charles stopped mid-sentence as an intense, burning pain enveloped him all over. The extreme pain wasn't just on his skin; the pain had pervaded him from the inside and out.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The strange darkness around Charles peeled away, and his eyes shot wide open to see that he was back in the bridge. His first mate, second mate, and his boatswain were staring at him with nervous expressions.

Charles was already awake, but the burning sensation bestowing upon him extreme pain was still there, tormenting him thoroughly.

What's going on?

Charles thought, trembling like an aspen tree.

Did those Fhtagnists make a move against me? That's impossible. We were just about to negotiate terms, and I was about to agree

Charles' pupils constricted just then. He had just realized that the extreme burning sensation was caused by

that

contract. He could still remember

that

contracthe had signed it with the Pope while Lily was ill.

The contract terms stated that the Pope would mobilize the entire Divine Light Order to find a cure for Lily, and Charles would assist the Pope in locating the exit to the surface world in exchange.

If Charles had agreed to the Fhtagn Covenant's offer, he would have violated the contract. The extreme burning sensation that had pervaded his bones, radiating all the way to his skin was the contract's way of telling him that he was about to violate the contract terms.