Chapter 481: Key
Amidst the biting cold waters, Charles dragged his battered body toward the metallic light in the depths of the bizarre city in the distance.
He had somehow persuaded Anna to leave, and she left after saying that she would definitely find a way to rescue him. She also told Charles that he had to hide down there and wait for her rescue.
Charles had promised Anna that he would keep waiting at the bottom of the trench, but of course, he had lied. Charles was willing to do anything just to make Anna leave this dangerous place.
After all, what was about to happen was his own business; he couldn't involve anyone else.
Charles swam slowly, moving at a sluggish pace. Chunks of his body would occasionally fall off of him, and he would always drag them back using his tentacles.
The semi-transparent Divinity had vanished, so Charles no longer had any obstacles in his quest for the key. Soon, he saw the identity of the light, but it wasn't the colossal key. Instead, it was a lustrous humanoid figure.
The humanoid figure was completely white and was shrouded by a bizarre pale halo. It was a figure capable of stimulating fear in just about anyone, but it was a strangely beautiful figure at the same time.
That isn't the key. What the hell is that? Charles swam over and waved his tentacle. A few severed fingers floated away in the water; Charles' tentacles had easily severed the lustrous humanoid's fingers.
The lustrous humanoid seemed to be just an illusory figure without a physical body.
Charles looked around the bizarre city around him, and his eyes glimmered in bewilderment. Where's the key? Where's the key to the surface world?
Thank you for helping me find it, Edikth's Chosen One. Now, there's only one final step. An androgynous voice echoed in Charles' head.
Who's talking? Charles asked inwardly. The question had just popped up in his head when his attention was attracted by some movement up above. Charles' tentacles swayed, turning his head to look upward.
A shadow was cast on Charles, and he found himself staring right at a bloody mouth made out of gears. The bloody mouth, which looked as big as a soccer field, was like a mountain as it came crashing down upon Charles.
Before Charles lost consciousness, he caught a glimpse of a huge cat-like vertical pupil just above the bloody mouth along with a human face made out of gears and metal.
After an unknown amount of time, Charles woke up and found himself staring at a ceiling made of flesh and gears. His eyeballs moved slowly as he looked around; he was surrounded by brass pipes as well as gears of varying sizes, which rotated ceaselessly in the walls made out of flesh and hair.
Charles was familiar with this place; he had been here before, after all. He was in the control room of that massive metal construct, Ronker.
"You're finally awake? I've already restored your body, so hurry up and stand up. There are some matters that need your attention." A familiar aged voice entered Charles' ears.
Charles sat up and looked down at himself. His fragmented body had been pieced together miraculously. There wasn't even a scar, and it looked as if he had never suffered such a devastating injury.
Charles finally turned to where the voice had come from and saw a familiar back profile. It was the Pope's back. He was kneeling on the floor and was drawing something.
"How come you're here? Aren't you in the middle of a decisive battle against the Fhtagn Covenant?" Charles asked. The strange sight was incongruous to him, and he couldn't help but feel that there was something amiss here.
"They truly managed to attract some of my attention, but if you think that they can slow me down and the Light God, then you've overestimated them," the Pope said. Then, he stood up and turned around slowly to look at Charles.
The Pope looked incredibly happy. His face depicted a child-like joy and innocence; he was brimming with the purest kind of delight with not a trace of impurity on his face.
Charles stood up and saw that the Pope had drawn strange, concentric rings on the floor. The lines and inscriptions between the concentric rings looked peculiar, and they also gave off a white glowthe same white glow as the lustrous humanoid.
There were four circles within the array, and Charles deduced that one would place offerings on those circles.
As Ronker moved, the control room quivered ever so slightly. Soon, the lustrous humanoid passed through Ronker's steel plates and appeared in the middle of the formation made of concentric circles.
The Pope seemed emotional as he stared up ahead. However, his gaze wasn't on the lustrous humanoid.
Charles looked up at the Pope and asked, "What is that thing?"
"That's the key and the door. You're the only one who can see it, and I've been searching for it for many, many years now."
"The key? The key to that door is supposed to be colossal!"
The Pope smiled at the remark and stared at Charles. "Who said that this is the key to that door? This is the key to another door, and it's the door itself at the same time."
The Pope didn't wait for Charles' response as he added, "I'm sure you're not aware, Charles, but They sealed the great Light God here. To rescue Him, we must use Their power as a medium. However, it is a task too difficult for us mortals.
"I spent so many years, and I finally managed to gather all the sacrificial offerings."
Footsteps echoed behind them just then, and there were too many footsteps for Charles to count. He turned around and saw a large group of Divine Light Order followers walking toward them.
The followers' eyes had been gouged out, and a layer of white wax had sealed their eye sockets. They were carrying a variety of items on their shoulders, and they reminded Charles of ants transporting goods.
The item that caught Charles' attention was an eye the size of an entire room. The eye was blood-red, and its color made it appear as if it were a giant ruby.
Charles instantly recognized the eye. He had seen it twice by now, after all. The first time he saw it was when he lost his arm, and the second time he saw it was when the Elder of the Deep Dwellers summoned it to kill him.
"Hypnos. When the Light God was born, His father was the one responsible for the destruction of the great Light God's body," the Pope said as the Divine Light Order followers carried the eyeball and placed it gently in one corner of the array.
Charles' pupils constricted at the sight, and he quickly came up with an assumption that he did not hesitate to reveal. "So the eye which fought Hypnos was Swann? And it was under your control all this while?
"You're strong enough to fight a Divinity?"
The Pope revealed a contemptuous expression at Charles' remark. "A Divinity? Who? Hypnos? In front of a true Divinity, Hypnos would be like a child."
The Pope stretched out a wrinkled finger and pointed at the second sacrificial offering. It was a mechanical humanoid woman with a broken frame. Charles peered over her frame and saw gears rotating ceaselessly inside of her.
There was even a pipe sticking out of her nape, and it was connected to the ceiling made out of flesh and blood.
A humanoid machine wouldn't be a shocking sight to Charles, but the mechanical humanoid had a huge, protruding belly, which told Charles that she was pregnant.
"The Feaster. He and his master, Tawil At-Umr had seized the soul of my Lord, which made it impossible for Him to escape through the Dome Door.
The pregnant mechanical woman was carried by the followers over to the lower left corner of the array. As soon as the pregnant mechanical woman was placed on the ground, her brass belly began to swell.
The pregnant mechanical woman seemed to have the intuition of a real person, as she seemed to have sensed her plight and opened her mouth, letting loose a discordant scream reminiscent of a broken cassette tape.
A crisp noise echoed as the pregnant mechanical woman's brass belly cracked open. A dark yellow liquid flowed out from her belly, and a familiar smell wafted from the liquid and struck Charles' nostrils.
It was a familiar smellthe smell of engine oil.
The Pope raised his hand slightly, and a deafening explosion echoed as the mechanical woman exploded along with her brass belly.
A dull thud reverberated afterward as an infant the size of an arm landed accurately in one of the circles of the array. The infant had an extremely bizarre appearance, as its entire body was a hodgepodge of flesh and gears.
However, its face was far more bizarre than its body.
The infant had the face of a mature middle-aged manthe face of none other than the former Governor of the Albion Isles, Swann.
"HAHAHAHA!" The infant on the ground erupted into a peal of boisterous laughter and waved his strange limbs frantically.
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