Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 789: Shrouded Seascape

When T6 yelled out the Foundation's oath of enlistment, the remaining GK Council members forced their crumbling figures to look up at the gaping hole in the ceiling with a layer of writhing, sinister scales.

Then, their vocal organs quivered as they shouted at the top of their lungs along with T6. In the face of such a powerful god, every effort was futile, but it didn't mean that they couldn't display their steadfast beliefs to the being before them.

Every single one of them felt like they had returned to the day when they made the oath of enlistment at the same time—back when they still had human forms.

"Our beautiful emotions are the foundation of our sublime faith! We must press on to protect them! We are humanity's last line of defense against anomalous entities! We must win this war, not just for our sake but for the sake of humanity as well!!"

"I! T6!"

"I! K9!"

"I! V3!"

"I! A2!"

"I! O5!"

"I! C7!"

"I! N8!"

"We solemnly swear that we will be absolutely loyal to the Foundation and humanity! We will obey orders, remain disciplined, and be tight-lipped! We secure! We contain! We protect! For mankind's sake!!!"

The GK Council members used all their might to roar out the final word of their oath, and their figures finally crumbled beneath the influence of the sinister scales.

The echoes that had yet to finish echoing in the air were the only evidence of their existence.

The majority of the islands that formed the Haikor's Shattered Heart Isles had sunk, and only a few of them remained. One of them was an island on the periphery of the Sea of Mist.

A tilting wall suddenly melted, and Charles' heavily injured figure fell out from within the wall.

Thanks to 004's influence, the central computer's teleport became extremely unstable. As a result, more than half of Charles' skin was peeled off, his right hand was twisted into a knot, and his face had cracked open.

He looked horrible, but he was still alive.

It had been just a few seconds since Charles fell out of the wall when Sparkle appeared next to him with a white flash of light.

Tears welled up in Sparkle's eyes upon seeing that Charles was still alive. She opened her arms wide and threw herself into Charles' embrace.

With a choked voice full of grievances, Sparkle said. "Dad, you scared me to death!!"

Charles stood up quickly with the help of Sparkle. He felt extreme pain all over him, but the pain couldn't distract him, even in the slightest. He turned to look in the direction of SITE 6 and froze.

The white mist on the distant sea was dissipating gradually, and the Subterranean Sea's signature darkness was encroaching upon the territory, enveloping it thoroughly.

Charles' torn mouth was dripping with blood, but he ignored the pain and roared, "You bunch of lunatics! Do you really think you're so great just because you're dead!! I'm telling you here right now that I— Gao Zhiming—will never become the next generation of the Foundation! Never!

"Don't even think that I'll follow your bullshit sublime faith! You got the wrong person! I'm just selfish, and I will always be selfish!!"

"Dad, stop it. You're seriously injured right now," Sparkle extended her fair hand to press on Charles' wound, and her flesh and blood went straight for Charles' wounds, becoming flesh that repaired her father's wounds and filled in the holes.

Sparkle extended a few tentacles to wrap around Charles' bent right foot. Just as Sparkle was about to force it back into place, her delicate face abruptly became extremely solemn.

The next moment, Sparkle's slender figure swelled instantly, and hundreds of tentacles burst out of her. The tentacles immediately wrapped around Charles to protect him from what was to come and to teleport him away.

However, Sparkle was stupefied to find that her ability to teleport seemed to no longer exist.

A woman covered in black bandages and shrouded by a black robe emerged from the ruins of a temple next to them. The woman wrapped in black bandages was carrying a cat in her arms as she slowly approached them.

"Don't be in such a hurry to leave. I still have a few words to say to your father."

Before Sparkle could do anything, the severely injured Charles staggered out of her tentacles. The woman wrapped in black bandages couldn't possibly be someone else but 005.

"I have to say, they were a group of people worthy of respect. They managed to reach the limits of what humanity can achieve," 005 said, sounding emotional as she looked in the direction of SITE 6.

Charles stared deeply at the god before him, but he had no plans of chitchatting with her. After a brief moment of pondering, he decided to go straight to the point, asking, "Why did you come here?"

005 didn't bother chitchatting as well as she replied, "The Foundation has fulfilled its duty, and you should accept the last spark that they left behind."

A hint of mockery appeared on Charles' face. "Duty? So, the Foundation has decided to try and annihilate mankind to fulfill that duty? My apologies, but I'm not that ambitious. The previous generation and the current generation of the Foundation are no more, and I have no plans of becoming the third generation."

005 shook her head and said, "Let me tell you a secret—this is a secret that the Foundation has been protecting with everything they had. I'm sure your opinion will change once you've heard of it."

"Speak. I'm listening," Charles said, pushing away Sparkle's hand, which was reaching out to him. He used his fingers to gesture at her to leave, but Sparkle stubbornly refused to leave by herself.

"Your world hasn't been destroyed. It still exists."

005's one sentence made Charles feel like he was struck by lightning in broad daylight. His mind went blank, and he staggered as the memories buried in the deepest recesses of his memories surfaced at once.

The school he once attended, his sister back at home, his loving parents, and the world he had been searching for with all his might… they still existed?

005 walked up to Charles. She raised her right hand, which was wrapped in black bandages, and placed it horizontally in front of Charles. "You were looking in the wrong direction when you were searching for the surface world.

"Who told you that the surface world must be above the sea?"

005 then flipped her hand, showing the back of her palm to Charles.

"Why can't the 'real' surface world be below the water?"

Charles glanced at the pitch-black seawater next to him and then at the rock layer up above his head. A thousand thoughts instantly flooded his mind.

The surface world is down below? If that's the case, then this shrouded seascape is upside down! In other words, the so-called surface world above us wasn't the surface world at all! 002 isn't in the surface world's atmosphere, either! It's actually in the Earth's core!!

The shocking information shattered Charles' worldview. He never would have thought that the closest he had ever been to the surface world was when he was at the bottom of the Dark Abyssal Trench where God Fhtagn was sealed!

Charles' breathing quickened, and he eventually started breathing in ragged pants. In response to his tumultuous emotions, he felt like his crystallized heart was quivering as if it wanted to beat again.

Sparkle bit her lip and tugged at her father's hand. Then, she cast a wary gaze at 005.

"No, something's not right. You must be lying to me! Otherwise, why would the Light God mistake the Earth's core for the surface world? He has the power of God Fhtagn inside of Him, so there's no way He could have failed to differentiate between the two!"

"Under normal circumstances, that is true. The Light God can easily distinguish between the two, but think about it—think carefully about what He said before His death."

Charles emptied his mind and focused on recalling the moment when the Light God perished. The Light God's final words soon echoed in his ears.

"They deceived me! They deceived all of us!"

"How did He mistake the Earth's core as the surface world, you ask?" 005's voice echoed in Charles' ears. "Simple. It was all because He was deceived."