Shrouded Seascape

The moment the words left the Charleses' mouths, the ominous feeling within them began to collapse and condensed. The faint sensation earlier transformed into somewhat fragmented, visceral glimpses of a potential future and swiftly tore through their minds.

Floating in the deep waters, Charles raised his gaze upward to look at the dark ocean's surface. The images of unknown origin began to project onto this inky black expanse.

Gaping holes emerged on the rocky strata overhead, each one glowing with a violet light—the signature hue of 002.

Massive whirlpools erupted and covered the entire ocean's surface. Like cascading funnels, they pulled the waters of the Subterranean Sea downward toward the surface world.

Amidst the chaos, a colossal, hundred-mile-wide tentacle radiated a purple hue as it extended from the Core, pierced through the rocky barriers to reach the Subterranean Sea. It then slammed into the ocean waters before extending even further to breach through the ocean floor and reach the surface world.

The three realms—the Core, the Subterranean Sea, the surface world—became interconnected in this cataclysmic instance.

Their wildly different physical laws collided with extreme ferocity. Everything was crumbling. Gravity faltered. The laws of the world were completely disrupted.

When Charles snapped back to the present from that projected future, his heart pounded erratically in his chest. His emotions manifested physically in the form of tremors on his fleshy island. The earth turned, trees toppled, and his countless offspring cried in terror.

He wasn't alone in this ordeal. The other Charleses experienced the same projected future. They exchanged gazes with each other. Yet for a very long time, no one had any words.

The images had been all too vivid, so vivid that Charles couldn't differentiate if it was reality itself.

Those fragments seemed more than glimpses of mere probabilities but rather snapshots of the inevitable future.

A deep sense of dread and despair descended upon the Charleses. If those visions were truly glimpses of the future, then what was the point of anything they did now?

Even if they are gods, if the future was already set in stone, all their efforts would amount to nothing. The apocalypse was inevitable, and the only thing left for them to do was to wait for it to unfold.

Eventually, Charles broke the heavy silence and voiced the doubt in his mind.

"Everyone, hold up. Shouldn't we first figure out where those visions came from? Why did they suddenly appear in our minds?"

He couldn't understand how those images manifested or who delivered those into his mind.

The other Charleses echoed the same doubt. When he was still just a mere human, Charles believed that his human frailty was the root of his ignorance to many things in existence. But after becoming a god, he realized just how much he still didn't know.

Just then, a mocking smile surfaced on the countenance of a Charles whose face was covered with grotesque burn scars.

"Hah. How interesting. So the future has been decided all along."

He turned his gaze toward Charles. His expression gradually distorted with disdain as his human form began to tremble.

"All those pointless things that you made us do before… They are all useless! Even as gods, we are still nothing but insignificant specks in front of them! We are just a bunch of clowns!

"Everything we've done, all our preparations—they all amount to nothing before them! Even up till now, we're still not gods! They're the true gods!"

His human form began to gradually crumble and as though triggering a chain reaction, one by one, the others began to undergo the same horrifying transformation. Bloodied tentacles erupted and extended in all directions.

Charles tensed up as he watched the scene before him. He wasn't afraid that he would be attacked. Rather, he was more worried that this particular Charles would lose control of his emotions and attain godhood on the spot. Right now, every single one of them present was like a ticking time bomb, primed to detonate at any moment.

He didn't want to give up; he refused to. Regardless of what destiny had in store for them, he had to continue moving forward.

"No. 24! Calm down! Listen to me!" Charles' voice rang out. "What if this vision is false? What if something is trying to shake our resolve?

"We've sacrificed so much! Are we really going to throw it all away over this sudden message?

"Don't be easily swayed by unnecessary things!"

Current Plane Charles pointed at the seal over Fhtagn and chimed in, "Disregarding the authenticity of the vision, one thing is certain: Fhtagn has stirred."

"And so what? Have we ever feared it? If, after everything we've gone through, we're still afraid of Fhtagn, then what's the point of us even being here?"

Charles' voice continued to echo in the lightless Dark Abyssal Trench, "From the moment we become gods, there's already no return.

"There's only two foreseeable paths before us: attain godhood completely or death. And honestly, there's no difference between those two.

"Think of our daughters, and also Lillies and the others. Think of our families living a peaceful life on the surface world. And if that's not enough—think of every human being on the surface world and the Subterranean Sea. We must keep moving forward, until the day we can no longer move.

"If death can't scare us, what is there left to fear? Gather that unyielding resolve we had when we first threw everything on the line!"

Perhaps Charles' rallying cry had struck a chord in his counterparts. Their monstrous transformations slowly ceased and the trembling figures began to regain their human forms.

Silence blanketed the scene for a while before a low voice sounded. "You called us all together. So, what's next? If those visions are true, we're not just fighting Fhtagn. We're up against the Core's 002 as well."

"We're not afraid of death, but we fear a meaningless, futile effort," another Charles added.

The other Charleses turned to face Charles.

Charles scanned the faces of his counterparts. A determined expression marred his visage as he said, "We keep going. Even if there's only a 0.001% chance of success, we need to continue on. That is the purpose of our existence."

"If those visions are true, then we're not entirely without hope. After all, the Light God has already shown us an example.

"We can still initiate the backup Plan 4. We gather the last sparks of humanity from across the Subterranean Sea and the surface world, and we escape Earth."

The idea of interstellar travel was all too risky. No one could guarantee they would be able to find a suitable habitable planet. There was too much uncertainty in this plan.

But even so, it was better than waiting around for their demise.

A glimmer of hope lit up in the eyes of everyone present. Even if it was just a temporary stop-gap solution, it had helped to significantly clear the previously oppressive atmosphere of despair by a large extent.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"What about the seal to the surface world? To initiate Plan 4, we need to first reach the surface world. If the other gods can't get out there, it probably won't be an easy feat for us as well," one of them asked. He had realized the critical issue in this plan.

Charles turned to the speaker and replied, "Then we find a way. If there's no way, we'll carve one. Our existence is for this very purpose.

"And everyone, remember, don't put all your eggs in one basket. We need more manpower. All backup plans from Plan 1 to Plan 6 can be initialized.

"We have to hold on, everyone! We just need to find one way before we completely become gods. Just one way is all we need to win!"