Charles' body began to swell uncontrollably; his bones snapped and regenerated, becoming bigger than before.

Deformed organs, limbs like crab claws, bubble-like black spheres, and triangle-shaped eyes similar to that of a fish sprouted all over Charles.

His lone eye swiftly mirrored the gazes of the other eyes on his body, becoming cold and emotionless.

The next moment, Charles' swollen and grotesque body vanished from the deck and reappeared atop the gasbags of the Narwhale.

The countless eyes on his body shot open collectively. Every body in sight—their scattered heads, limbs, and organs—vanished from the scene, only to reappear in other places where they were not meant to be.

Some bizarre configurations would be a head being lodged in someone else's abdomen while that body's head had mysteriously vanished and was attached to another body's neck.

Seeing that his captain had made a move, Dipp, at the helm, instinctively turned the wheel and altered the Narwhale's course. Instead of a downward plunge, she was now ascending. Their counterattack had started.

Charles ascended as the falling corpses rained down on the Narwhale. As both sides closed the gap, dismembered bodies and blood filled the sky, creating a macabre rain of gore.

Drenched in blood, Charles' deformed and swollen body was still undergoing its nightmarish transformation.

The bodies raining down on them still numbered plenty. Suddenly, all the writhing organs on his body froze.

Boom!

With a sudden explosion, Charles' deformed body exploded. Simultaneously, the colossal chunk of meat in the air exploded into pieces as well to reveal a shattered, smaller triakis octahedron hidden within it all along.

As soon as the smaller triakis octahedron shattered into pieces, the bodies of the Divine Light Order followers ceased all movement.

Charles' various organs scattered across the sky swiftly writhed and swam back, reforming his form atop the airbag.

A swollen, deformed monster drenched in blood amid the cascading waterfalls of disfigured bodies struck a chord of horror in everyone who witnessed it.

Julio's eyes widened with evident shock. He realized he could no longer fathom Charles' true power. "Damn it! Just who is this Charles?! Which entity's power is he using?!"

Seeing her father's new appearance, Sparkle appeared rather thrilled. She was about to rush toward Charles but was held back by one of Anna's tentacles.

"Don't go! He looks very unstable!"

Just then, a burst of purple light illuminated the area next to them. The shell of the octahedron had been cracked open once again.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

No one had any intent of missing this opportunity. The jet fighters and everyone aboard surged toward the purple glow.

The moment they emerged from the insides of the octahedron, the blinding purple light caused everyone to squint involuntarily. Now that the darkness had dissipated, everything was once again bathed in the purple glow of 002.

The sight that greeted him was also drastically different from before. All of the Foundation space carriers had exploded, leaving only a dense field of floating debris in the air.

In the center of the sea of metal debris was the massive triakis octahedron and Pede. While the triakis octahedron maintained the same appearance as before, Pede was only left with half of His body. From the looks of the battlefield, it was clear that the triakis octahedron had won.

Standing on the deck of the Narwhale, Julio turned toward Feuerbach and said, "We've retrieved the darkness! Let's get out of this wretched place and return to the Subterranean Sea!"

However, Feuerbach shook his head, and a bitter smile crept onto his face. "If we leave now, that thing will follow us too. It's too terrifying if that thing appears in the Subterranean Sea. We have to destroy it!"

"Destroy it?! Are you kidding me! How are we supposed to kill something like this?!" Julio's voice almost cracked in disbelief.

Anyway, their thoughts didn't matter because the triakis octahedron clearly didn't intend to let any of them leave. Its massive form began to churn with malice intent and surge toward the Narwhale.

Meanwhile, Charles stood motionless atop the Narwhale's gasbags as though he didn't see the impending threat.

Suddenly, Sparkle appeared before him. She reached out a tentacle, wanting to grab him and pull him to safety, only to find her tentacle passing right through Charles' figure.

"Daddy! We need to leave now!" Sparkle's voice was choked with tears, but Charles remained still in his spot.

Without warning, his body's mutation began to speed up, with grotesque and repulsive organs appearing in succession. Finally, a massive yellow eye pushed the other organs out of its path and emerged from Charles' body.

The moment the yellow eye emerged, Charles' flesh began to dissolve at an alarming rate. It was as though he had to pay a hefty price in exchange for summoning the eye.

Seeing the situation, Sparkle didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second. She revealed her original form and leaped onto Charles, merging her form with his. With the addition of Sparkle, the massive yellow eye instantly grew to three times its size.

When the yellow eye was summoned, everyone who laid their eyes on it collapsed in agony. Their bodies also started to mutate just like Charles'.

Gradually, everyone's appearance was diverging from human forms.

Of course, the triakis octahedron in front of the Narwhale wasn't spared. Quivering cysts sprouted all over the gray tendrils that were facing Charles. When those cysts burst, the foul fluids within sprayed out, triggering even more severe mutations.

At the same time, the dark sphere beside the Narwhale suddenly exploded, and everything was engulfed in darkness once more. A colossal human face appeared, stretching across the entire sky. This time, there was truly no boundary to the darkness.

The darkness started to corrode the triakis octahedron, stalling it from approaching Charles. As time ticked by, the once impenetrable shell of the octahedron began to turn into bloodied flesh.

When the triakis octahedron finally turned into a complete lump of flesh, a bright light illuminated the nearby black hole once again. The iridescent cone, surrounded by glyphs, shot out from the portal and embedded itself deep into the octahedron's body.

Under everyone's relentless assault, the octahedron finally halted in its trajectory. Its form slowly turned rigid before it eventually melted away and dissolved like snow.

Following the demise of the octahedron, silence took over the chaotic battlefield. The gigantic yellow eye swiftly withered away. A thoroughly exhausted Charles could be seen back in his human form and collapsed on one of Sparkle's tentacles.

Just then, Pede's battered form moved toward the darkness. Grabbing the dark tentacle that connected Charles and the darkness, He turned and flew toward the portal.

Anna seemed ready to intervene, but Feuerbach stood in her way, blocking her advance. He then said something to her.

Together with the darkness, Charles was pulled into the black hole. Emerging from the other side, they appeared above seawater. Judging from the thick fog that surrounded them, they seemed to have arrived in the Sea of Mist of the Southern Seas.

The moment the darkness arrived at the Subterranean Sea, the bright surroundings quickly dimmed.

Charles shifted his gaze downward. Upon seeing the rapidly receding seawater, his lips curved upward into a relieved smile. The water levels were decreasing; the Subterranean Sea was saved.

Cosyjuhye's Thoughts

You know what they say about this novel and its author. I ain't trusting this "happy" ending.