As the colossal tentacle disappeared, everything returned to normal gradually. When the radiant sunlight eventually disappeared, the dilapidated airship could no longer maintain its flight and rapidly plummeted into the darkness down below, bringing with it its passengers.

Just then, a huge deformed bat streaked across the darkness and arrived at the unrecognizable airship. The deck, which was supposed to be flat, was all twisted and wrinkled. It seemed like the vessel was transformed into a piece of paper, which was crumpled and then flattened out.

Unfortunately, the people on board had suffered the same fate. Grace was sprawled out on the floor. Her stomach was ruptured, and her steaming entrails were on the deck.

Grace was losing blood fast from her wound, but Charles hadn't come here for her. He searched the deck but was surprised to find that both Lily and Pope Lylejay were missing!

Charles picked up the severely injured Grace from the deck and stared at her face; half of her face was covered in blood.

"Where is Lily? Where did Lily and the Pope go?" Charles asked.

However, Grace remained motionless with her eyes shut. It did not seem like she was still alive. The deformed airship was still descending, and it was descending quite rapidly at that.

Charles glanced at Swann and saw that the latter had been reduced to a bloody pulp all over the deck.

Charles spread his wings and picked up the flesh half of Swann using one of his talons and Swann's mechanical half with the other. Then, he took flight with Grace in his arms.

Shortly after Charles' departure, the dilapidated and deformed airship began to disintegrate to transform into something similar to a "whale fall" but unique to the abyssal void of the darkness.

Two hours later, Charles was pondering over the recent events outside the infirmary of the Narwhale. Lily was missing, and the Pope had most likely taken her away.

Judging from the fact that even Grace was still alive, Lily's special ability had to have protected everyone. Unfortunately, it had protected

everyone

, which meant that those who were supposed to die were still alive.

Click.

There was a click coming from the door to the infirmary, and it was pushed open the next moment. Charles stood up and rushed into the infirmary.

"This girl's entire right side seemed to have been ripped apart and then stitched back together. Her bones, organs, skin, and flesh weren't spared. I had to use a large variety of illegal drugs just to save her life."

Charles' heart softened slightly while staring at the young girl wrapped in bandages from head to toe. However, his heart hardened almost immediately afterward.

"It's great as long as she's alive. Anyway, can you wake her up? I need to ask her some questions," Charles asked.

Linda picked up a metal syringe and loaded it with some medicine before immediately administering it to Grace.

Grace opened her eyes slowly, but her right eye, which was supposed to reveal a light full of innocence and purity, resembled shattered glass as she muttered, "Captain... how did I do? Did I complete my mission?"

Charles revealed a forced smile and nodded. "You completed your mission, and you did very well."

Grace's eyes curved slightly as if she were smiling, but it was impossible to say for sure because she was covered in bandages from head to toe.

Since Grace was awake and capable of holding a conversation, Charles no longer dilly-dallied and asked, "Tell me what you say on that ship? Did you see Lily and a handsome boy? What happened to them?"

Grace wanted to shake her head, but Linda held her head in place with both hands. "I… I don't know what happened. I think… I passed out from the pain when… my stomach exploded."

Charles looked a bit disappointed at the revelation. Clearly, he wasn't going to obtain any clues from Grace.

"How is Swann's treatment going?" Charles asked Linda.

Linda let go of Grace's head and drew the white curtains.

"To be honest, I haven't even attempted to treat him. I examined him, but I did not see even a single ordinary human organ inside of him. Right now, he's more like… Sorry, I don't know how to describe him."

Linda stepped aside and gestured toward a nearby metal tray with a chunk of flesh crawling toward a pile of scrap metal. Treating something like that was indeed too difficult of a task for her to fulfill.

"Still alive?" Charles picked up a bone from the chunk of flesh, shaking it back and forth.

The chunk of flesh wriggled, and a low, muffled voice echoed from within it. "Scram..."

Charles turned around and left the infirmary. The Feaster's Chosen One wasn't going to die so easily, but he would have to wait for Swann to recover to a certain extent before he could start questioning him.

Upon walking out of the infirmary, Charles saw the crew members standing outside, seemingly waiting for him.

"Captain, what are we going to do next?"

"We're going home," Charles said calmly.

"Captain, are you really okay? Yes, Lily is still missing, but we'll find her someday," Dipp said cautiously.

Charles thought briefly about it before shaking his head slightly. "We have no clues to her location at the moment. Blindly searching for Lily would just be a waste of time. Let's go back first and make plans."

"

Huh?

" The crew members were stunned.

"The Pope is not going to harm Lily. He clearly regards Lily as the Light God. It's not that hard to deduce what he's planning on doing. He'll inevitably head back to the Subterranean Sea, so we just need to set up a trap for him at the Colossal Hole Fortress."

With that, Charles turned and walked through the crowd to return to the Captain's Quarters. Upon entering his quarters, Charles' calm expression vanished and was replaced by agony.

Charles pulled out a bottle of alcohol from the bottom of the drawer in his quarters and took a big swig of it. The faces of the missing Lily and the severely injured Grace in his mind faded slightly.

Is this really worth it? What would have happened if I had just returned to the Subterranean Sea and taken charge of everything from up above rather than going here by myself? Would this incident not happen at all?

We've entered a collaborative relationship with the Foundation, so perhaps the explorers can do just as well without me. Why do I have to come here and endanger my family with me?

Charles looked back on what he had done so far in the dim room. Lily going missing was making him feel as if he had returned to the time when Lily was still dead. He couldn't help but doubt whether he had actually changed or not.

All of a sudden, Charles recalled Swann's words about Anna.

Charles took another big swig of the liquor in his hand until he had unknowingly emptied the entire bottle. He had no idea when he had fallen asleep, but when he opened his eyes again, it was already the next day.

Charles returned to the infirmary with bloodshot eyes.

The clicking of gears entered his ears as soon as he walked into the infirmary.

The chunk of flesh, who was Swann, had recovered significantly compared to yesterday. Swann's flesh half finally looked a bit human as he held a wrench while busily repairing his mechanical half.

Just then, Linda dressed in a white coat walked up to Charles and said, "Captain, Grace's condition is extremely bad. Even if she recovers, she can only walk at most. I suggest you retire her.

"And I believe she's already fulfilled her mission," Linda added quickly, seemingly afraid that Charles would reject her suggestion.

Charles turned to the bed next to him and stared at Grace, who was still covered in bandages. "All right, let's make her go back to the Subterranean Sea, and we'll compensate her as if she had fallen in action."

Linda breathed a sigh of relief at Charles' remark.

"Captain, I don't want to go back," Grace chimed in. Her voice sounded weak, but the firm determination within her words was unmistakable. "I want to keep staying on the Narwhale!"