Chapter 478: Ghosts
The cogs in Charles' mind turned rapidly as he faced the pale-white figures sticking out of everywhere in the lower hold of the ship. What are these things, and how can I deal with them? Physical attacks don't seem to work on them.
Before Charles could figure out a solution, the pale-white ghosts charged at him, carrying with them a howling gust of wind. The gust of wind struck Charles, sending him flying toward the wall; the pale-white ghosts quickly surrounded him.
Charles instantly felt dizzy; he wanted to make a move but found that he couldn't muster any strength at all. Soon, an inexplicable sense of disembodiment overcame him.
Buzz!
A buzzing noise echoed as bright arcs of electricity burst out of Charles. However, lightning proved ineffective against the pale-white ghosts. Grotesque noises reverberated soon afterward as Charles' figure contorted, transforming into a bat.
Charles opened his maw, unleashing a sonic attack that pervaded the cramped lower hold in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, the sonic attack was effective, and the pale-white ghosts vanished upon getting hit by the sound waves. Charles shut his maw the next second for fear of blasting open a hole in the ship's hull.
Charles fell to the ground with an expression distorted in agony. The pale-white ghosts' attacks were vicious, and they inflicted upon him excruciating pain. He needed rest, but the pale-white ghosts weren't planning on giving him respite.
When the sonic attack faded away, the pale-white ghosts emerged once again, sticking out of the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. They were everywhere, and Charles seemed like he hadn't managed to kill even one of them.
In other words, Charles' sonic attack could only force them to retreat; his attacks seemed unable to harm them at all.
Charles swept his cold gaze across the pale-white ghosts. Then, he took a deep breath and taunted, "Come here! Kill me!"
A gust of howling wind rushed toward Charles as the pale-white ghosts made a beeline for him.
However, the pale-white ghosts' attack was part of Charles' plan. The moment the pale-white ghosts shot toward him, Charles used his invisible tentacles to propel himself through the hatch like a cannonball.
There was a corridor up above that would lead to the deck, but Charles had no intention of going to the deck. He couldn't endanger his crew by luring these ghosts over there.
Charles raced to the decompression chamber at his fastest speed. He spun the valve swiftly, opening the decompression chamber.
A column of water struck Charles, pinning him to the ceiling as ice-cold seawater pervaded the chamber in the blink of an eye. Submerged and with no way to breathe, Charles' face quickly took on the same blue hue of those who had drowned.
The immense pressure crushed Charles, compressing him to half his size, but Charles was not afraid. They were undying in the Dark Abyssal Trench, so the deep sea's pressure wasn't lethal to him.
The pale-white ghosts caught up just then and surrounded Charles. The same feeling of disembodiment overcame him. Although unsure of what the pale-white ghosts were trying to do, one thing was for sure: they had no kind intentions at all.
Charles gnashed his teeth and endured the agony to swim out of the chamber.
The instant he exited the chamber, the pale-white ghosts surrounded him completely; they stuck to him so closely that Charles looked like he was inside a massive pale-white cocoon in the eyes of the crew.
The pale-white cocoon burst apart as Charles morphed into his bat form. The tables turned instantly, and Charles chased after the fleeing pale-white ghosts with his maw wide open, unleashing sonic attacks.
Charles showed no mercy to the pale-white ghosts; there was no reason for him to hold back against those who had attempted to take his life. Charles was outside the Narwhale as well, so he didn't have to hold anything back.
Charles raised the volume to the maximum and shot sonic attack after sonic attack toward the pale-white ghosts.
Despite Charles' powerful sonic attacks, not a single pale-white ghost vanished into nothingness. In fact, the pale-white ghosts seemed to have sustained not even a scratch from the sonic attacks.
Indeed, the sonic attacks could only disperse them briefly rather than destroy them completely.
A torpedo exploded in the midst of the pale-white ghosts. The crew had launched the torpedoes to assist their captain, but the attack proved ineffective as well.
Charles' expression was both ugly and stern as he stared at the pale-white ghosts before him. No, things can't go on like this. Anna can hold on for only a few hours at most. I have to lure these ghosts elsewhere.
Charles rapidly came up with a plan: he would stall these pale-white ghosts by himself and allow the Narwhale to continue with the exploration at a faster pace. It wasn't an issue, as he wasn't going to die here, anyway.
Having made up his mind, Charles made a move and opened his massive maw once more. However, Charles had forgotten one thing. Although deranged, these pale-white ghosts had intelligence, so they knew what they had to do.
The fleeing pale-white ghosts came to a screeching halt and stuck closely together before flying into Charles' mouth. The pale-white ghosts rammed Charles' throat and rolled around his mouth. The obstruction was so large that Charles couldn't unleash his sonic attack.
Charles was about to dig out the ghosts in his mouth with his claws when the pale-white ghosts outside swarmed him in an instant. They enveloped Charles thoroughly, and the earlier feeling of disembodiment struck him once again.
As he struggled, the inexplicable feeling got stronger and stronger, and he eventually found himself floating above his own bodyhis soul was about to leave his body!
The pale-white ghosts cheered at the sight.
"Lawrence's body is mine! He owes me, so I must have first dibs!"
"Come with us! Flesh and blood are weak and burdensome! You must get rid of your flesh and blood!"
"You just have to come with us! Come with us, and you will never be able to steal what belongs to the Pope!"
Soul Charles stared at his trembling fleshly body. He had an undying fleshly body, but even immortals would die without their souls. Soon, Charles would become one of the pale-white ghosts.
"Brothers! Stop your attacks and look at what's in my hand." A feminine voice echoed, and the pale-white ghosts abruptly came to a halt.
Charles was sucked into his fleshly body the moment the pale-white ghosts let go of him. His gaze shifted downward, and he saw Linda with her white coat billowing out around her as she swam in the seawater.
Linda's bald head had become blue due to the lack of oxygen, but she wasn't panicking at all. She opened her hand, revealing a palm-sized, glowing metal triangle toward the pale-white ghosts around Charles.
Linda glanced at Charles before continuing. "Brothers, the Pope has also sent us here in search of something. We are not enemies!"
The pale-white ghosts approached carefully and stared closely at the object in Linda's hand.
"It's His Holiness' token! This woman has received the blessing as well! I can see what's in her mind, so she must be telling the truth."
"Great, so His Holiness hasn't forgotten us at all! I knew he wouldn't forget his wife."
Some of the pale-white ghosts were severely deranged, but they clearly had a bit of presence of mind to understand that Linda was one of them.
"Sister, can you tell His Holiness to beseech the Light God to bring us to the Land of Light? We really don't want to stay here anymore. Here, we can't leave, and we can't die as well."
Linda didn't respond to the pale-white ghosts. Instead, she turned to Charles and said, "Captain, I know that you have many burning questions, but this isn't the time to start asking away. You should take a look at what's behind us first."
At Linda's remark, Charles turned around slowly and saw a city, a very "special" city.
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