Chapter 422: Worm
Charles kicked off of the seaweed stalk and swung his grappling hook once more, clearing the rings of sea otters in mid-air.
Charles turned to Tobba and sounded anxious as he asked, "How are things outside?"
"Things are going well outside; they're facing waves of sea otters, but it shouldn't be an issue with Sparkle out there with them," Anna replied.
"Sea otters? I thought that place no longer had any sea otters. How come they're facing sea otters?" Charles asked.
"Well, we're waking up these sea otters, so it's not strange for them to appear outside. Do you really think that those sea otters exist only in this perspective?"
Charles was about to reply when he sensed something amiss and turned to find Anna clearing the rings of sea otters.
"How did you get in here?!" Charles exclaimed in shock.
"Do I need your permission to come in?" Anna replied and flicked away a door frame flying toward Charles using her tentacles.
Charles wanted to retort but realized that this wasn't the time to argue.
"Give me back the Bat Mirror!" Charles roared at Anna.
Anna smiled indifferently upon hearing Charles' roar, but she still hurled over the Bat Mirror to the latter.
A giant bat appeared soon afterward, and it weaved through the world at breakneck speed, annihilating every single ring of otters in its path.
Although slightly unhappy that Anna had chosen to come here and risk her life, Charles admitted that their pace had picked up since she joined them. The buildings became fewer and fewer as they annihilated the ring of otters.
Soon, only less than half of the otter rings were left, and the creator of the metropolis could no longer sit still. A violent tremor ran through the metropolis, and a massive rift opened up in the middle of it.
The tremors intensified, and a colossal translucent worm several kilometers long squirmed out of the rift. Dark green beads-like eyes riddled its head, and its translucent body seemed to be covered with an unknown dark liquid.
The metropolis liquified as soon as it emerged, and it draped over the worm as if it were a cloak. The colossal worm looked horrifying, and it was emitting an oppressive air.
Charles had no clues about its abilities, but he knew that if it were to attack them, they would no longer be able to clear the rings of sea otters. With that in mind, Charles made a decision and roared, "I'll lure it away!"
Charles' voice had yet to finish echoing in the air when he spread his wings and rushed toward the colossal worm down below. It didn't take him long to arrive before the colossal worm.
The colossal worm's hundreds of dark green bead-like eyes cast a hateful gaze upon Charles. The hatred that glimmered in the hundreds of eyes was so intense and thick as to seem almost palpable.
The colossal worm opened its hideous maw, revealing a mouth filled with rows after rows of dense, spirally arranged clusters of teeth.
Charles neither knew nor cared about what it wanted to do. He only had one jobto keep the worm busy until the rings of sea otters were annihilated.
When the colossal worm's maw opened to the fullest, Charles wasted no time and flapped his huge wings to rush toward the ruined metropolis on the colossal worm's frame.
Unfortunately, the ruined metropolis hadn't become a mere decoration after the colossal worm wore it like a cloak.
The ruined metropolis was ever-changing, and Charles was even ambushed by a carriage that transformed into a huge, centipede-like monster with its maw wide open, intending to snatch Charles out of mid-air.
Charles dodged swiftly, and he didn't even bother fighting it. He squeezed through a tiny gap and continued making his way downward.
The ruined metropolis distorted and transformed, but the obstacles posed no threat to Charles at all. His job was to be a distraction, so he simply avoided the obstacles and ambushes while poking at the colossal worm using sound waves.
Charles relaxed upon realizing that the colossal worm was staring at him rather than chasing after Tobba and Anna. Charles believed that they would win as long as he made sure that the colossal worm was occupied.
Just then, two figures emerged from the ruined metropolis and sandwiched Charles from behind and up ahead. In response, Charles folded his wings and was about to take off when the attackers exploded.
The ambush had worked; Charles was blasted away. He rolled on the ground and wanted to stand up when something heavy landed directly on him. To make matters worse, it was getting heavier and heavier.
Charles looked up and discovered that the culprits were the denizens of the metropolis. Each and every one of them was under the control of the colossal worm, becoming mere puppets. Charles could also see deep-seated hatred in their eyesthe same hatred in the eyes of the colossal worm.
Crackle!
A powerful surge of electricity burst out of Charles, and the denizens writhed as they fell off Charles after getting electrocuted.
Charles was about to take advantage of that opportunity to stand up, but the ground cracked open. Moments later, countless white worms roughly seven to eight meters in length rushed out of the rift and flew toward Charles.
The white worms had a singular dark red eye on their heads.
At the sight, Charles finally realized why Tobba had referred to the metropolis as "they" rather than "it."
Charles quickly took to the skies, and he dodged rapidly in mid-air. Unfortunately, there were simply too many white worms for him to avoid all of them; the white worms were slowly pushing Charles into a corner.
Soon, Charles found himself stuck with nowhere to hide. Right as the white worms lunged at him, Charles folded his wings and reverted to his human form. Then, he ran away and nimbly weaved through the ruined metropolis.
His boots capable of sticking to any surface helped him shake off both his human and worm pursuers. However, Charles couldn't be delighted at all, as the colossal worm gave up on Charles and turned its attention to Anna and Tobba.
He couldn't let the colossal worm attack Tobba and Anna!
Charles swiftly morphed into a giant bat, and he opened his mouth wide to let loose a piercing shriek that destroyed everything around him. The colossal worm was struck by the sound waves, and it turned around to stare at Charles.
Charles was elated at the sight, but fear immediately gripped his heart upon seeing that the colossal worm's dark green eyes had turned red.
The colossal worm opened its maw. Then, something of indescribable color shot out of its mouth, engulfing Charles in the blink of an eye.
Charles blacked out briefly and was stunned to realize that he had been blasted awayno, only his head had been blasted away, as he no longer had a body!
Clang!
A resonant noise echoed as Charles' head struck a collapsed utility pole before falling to the ground and rolling down the street. The cement road cracked open, revealing a wide-open crimson maw that seemed to be waiting for Charles to roll into its mouth.
I'm dead. Charles thought. He had lost his body and couldn't stop his head from rolling into the crimson maw.
However, he continued rolling until he found himself lodged in a coral on the seabed. Charles realized just then that he had fallen out of a worm's torn belly.
Charles cast his gaze upon the colossal worm overhead and saw that it was disappearing ever so slowly. The colossal worm's maw was wide open, and it seemed to be letting out an indignant cry.
Unfortunately, the expansive seaweed forest no longer had any sea otters for them to use as a medium.
Charles wasn't the only one who had fallen. Countless stiff corpses were falling like raindrops from the ruined metropolis. The corpses belonged to the former denizens of the ruined metropolis.
Anna eventually found Charles, and she cradled Charles' head in her arms.
"Good job," Anna said.
Charles wanted to shake his head but realized that he had no neck.
"Don't mention it. Everything here is fake, anyway. My body outside is what matters the most, and we can finally leave," Charles said.
Just then, Charles and Anna heard a peal of crazed laughter.
Anna turned and saw Tobba gleefully stuffing the human corpses into his mouth; the moment those corpses made contact with his mouth, they were vaporized and sucked into Tobba's mouth.
Tobba swallowed nonstop while cackling like a lunatic, looking utterly bizarre.
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