Chapter 387: Fate
"Pope, can you handle so many of them?" Charles asked.
"May His light shine upon us. Just try to keep up! I'm not sure how long the aura can last," the Pope replied as he levitated into mid-air.
The tentacles moved and swiftly closed in on them. A hue of golden flashed across the Pope's eyes, and the purple tentacles vanished as quickly as they appeared.
"Hurry and stick together! Don't lag behind!"
Descending down the circular staircase was an easy thing, but making the ascent was a grueling task. The oppressive heat didn't make their predicament any better. Soon, the group found themselves drenched in sweat, as though they had been submerged in water.
Yet, they couldn't afford to stop even for a second and sprinted ahead at the fastest speed they could; their sole driving motivator was the newly regenerated tentacles below them.
"Bandages! Keep up!" Charles called out as he tugged his First Mate by the arm. The latter was struggling to keep up as he seemed to be not in his best form.
Bandages clutched his head, looking visibly distressed and in pain. "I I seemed to have been here before"
"Then you've been here! It's not the time to dwell on that now! Hurry up and run!"
"No I must recall I feel that it's an important matter"
Charles clenched down on his teeth as he hoisted Bandages up and urged him forward on their strenuous ascent.
He had thought they would safely reach the elevator according to plan. However, reality always had a different idea.
Swoosh!
A translucent tentacle writhed out from the wall and shot toward Charles' back.
Though the Pope manifested his aura once again, the tentacle merely hesitated this time instead of vanishing. It then speedily lashed out at one of the Divine Light Order followers, and the bald man disappeared without a trace.
A sense of unease washed over Charles. The Pope's aura was no longer as effective as before.
Swoosh!
Another tentacle aimed for Charles' leg.
Charles kicked off against the ground and leaped away in the nick of time. However, the mice around him weren't as fortunate and vanished in an instant.
"Captain! Hel" Assistant Cook Eggers cried out for help but was silenced before he could complete his sentence and vanished right before Charles' face.
"Do you have any other ways? If we still don't have one, we'll be trapped here!" The anxiety was apparent on the Pope's wrinkled face.
Charles was at a loss without a clue on what to do. The tentacles were invulnerable to all kinds of damage. Anyone else in this same situation wouldn't be able to find a way, not to mention him.
Am I really going to be trapped here today? That shouldn't be! Future me has clearly escaped from this place!
The tentacles closed in from all sides, leaving Charles and his group with no escape. At that critical moment, Bandage clasped his head with both hands and cried out in a sudden revelation, "I I remember now! I remember!"
Under everyone's watchful gaze, Bandages rushed toward Charles. In a startling act, he bit off three of his fingers.
"Bandages! What are you doing?" Charles exclaimed.
"Captain! Stay still! Don't move! You are the key to our escape!"
With that, Bandages grabbed his bloodied severed fingers and feverishly started drawing on Charles' shadow. Wherever the shadow fellon the stairs, the walls, or even over Linda's physical formBandage drew arcane symbols, all the while muttering words beyond comprehension.
The trail of blood soon materialized into strange, arc-shaped symbols, unlike any Fhtagn ritual formations they had seen before.
Knowing that their First Mate was attempting to save them, the crew stood frozen, not daring to move even an inch. They stared at Bandages and waited in palpating anxiety.
They had the patience to wait, but the tentacles certainly didn't. Like streaks of purple lightning, the tentacles flew from every conceivable direction toward them.
Ziiiiiing!
Charles's vision suddenly transformed, bestowing him with a multi-perspective vision. Charles' vision suddenly expanded, allowing him to see many things at once: his crew's horrified expressions, the writhing tentacles, and the reflection of a nightmarish beast in their eyes.
Charles felt like he was no longer himself. He questioned his own childish motivations all this while. Why did he have to return to the surface? Why did he want to resurrect Lily? Why was he deeply in love with Anna?
Suddenly, it dawned on him that all of that was trivial in the grand scheme of things.
However, that epiphany lasted for just a fleeting moment. When he came around, he saw that the staircase around him had been destroyed, and the tentacles were nowhere in sight.
His crew members were panting heavily and staring at him with terrified expressions. The tattered remains of their clothing were completely drenched in sweat, and they appeared disheveled.
Charles hurriedly patted his body all over to check himself for any monstrous transformations. Fortunately, he didn't grow any extra organs, and neither did he turn into a monster; he was still the same Charles.
"Bandages, what did you do? Also, what came over you? What did you recall?" Charles asked with a befuddled expression.
However, Bandages avoided the question. He simply held onto the railings and ascended the stairs. "We need to move There are many of those tentacles They may return."
Reminded by Bandages' warning, the crew's fear was renewed as they frantically hastened their ascent to avoid the encroaching tentacles.
Time slowly passed by. Just before they were about to collapse from fatigue, the doorway finally appeared in front of them.
"Look! Those tentacles are still down there!" Feuerbach commented.
Intrigued by his words, Weister leaned over to peer into the darkness below. The purple, semi-transparent tentacles were just barely visible at the base of the staircase. They seemed afraid of something and were hesitant to ascend further.
Weister let out an exhale of relief and remarked, "Captain, you are really powerful! It must have been painful for them. If it were me"
Weister's words were abruptly cut off as a hand wrapped in bandages pushed him into the abyss.
"AHHHH!" Weister's screams echoed as he tumbled down the stairs. The tentacles didn't let go of the opportunity, and Weister soon vanished from sight as the tentacles closed in on him.
The crew was in stunned silence at the unexpected turn of events. They turned their gaze onto Bandages, the First Mate of the Narwhalehe had shoved Weister down.
Driven by a newfound bravery in the face of his friend's death, the normally reserved cook, Planck, took the lead in confronting Bandages. Anger colored his face crimson as he clenched his fists and roared, "Why! Why did you do it? Why did you kill him?"
"It's fate"
"What nonsense about fate is that?! You've just taken a life! We didn't get to explore Hope Island like you old-timers, and we don't have the same rank on the ship, but we're humans, too!
"We have families! Have you ever thought about how his mother would feel upon learning that he's dead? Did that thought ever cross your mind?" Planck's voice cracked under the weight of his emotions.
"Weister is not dead010 will take him back through time He'll experience countless eventsin the passage of time many of them until" Bandages said slowly as he peeled away the bandages from his face and brushed off the moss, slowly revealing features that were both strange yet familiar to the crew.
Charles' eyes narrowed slightly before they widened in realization. He dashed forward and held Bandages' head to examine his face closely.
Despite the inked text covering Bandages' face, the basic structure began to align with someone Charles was familiar with.
"It all makes sense now! That's why Weister always seemed familiar! It's you! You are Weister!"
Cosyjuhye's Thoughts
Now looking back... Author actually has been laying out the hints when Bandages had been finding Weister's interactions with his mother familiar
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