Shrouded Seascape

The organs were laid out in a line on the ground. It was a spectacular and bizarre scene at the same time, especially since they were once within Charles.

As Charles stared at the jars before him, the memories of when he lost them flashed through his mind. Finally, he took a deep breath and bent down to draw the summoning array for the Feaster using the black spike jutting out of his steel palm.

When the last stroke was drawn, he heard movement behind him.

"You found them? That's great."

With a black cat in hand, 005 phased through Charles' figure and arrived before the jars. Charles felt like he could see 005's face revealing a satisfied expression beneath the black bandages.

005 swept her gaze across the jars and said, "This isn't the right quantity. You're missing one more thing."

Charles' brows immediately furrowed. He hadn't expected this to happen. "What? I'm missing one thing? What's missing?"

"You should ask yourself, not me. I'm afraid our deal will not proceed without that one last thing," 005 replied, and her figure became illusory.

Charles looked down and carefully examined every organ on his body. However, he couldn't find anything missing. He believed that he had already gathered everything that he had lost.

Charles reached out to his head just to check whether his skull and scalp had magically healed, but he froze upon making contact with the writhing tentacles on his head.

After a brief moment of thinking, Charles turned to Sparkle and said, "Call your Mommy over."

Charles had just discovered what 005 was talking about.

Sparkle nodded, and a massive, terrifying tentacled monster appeared in the wall next to them, collapsing it with a deafening explosion. The startled maids shrieked in terror before running away in a hurry.

Anna had arrived in her true form, but she looked a bit different compared to the last time Charles had seen her. It looked as if some parasites had burrowed under the skin that was supposed to be covered in black scales.

Charles could also see bumps of varying sizes writhing constantly underneath her skin. Moreover, eerie pitch-black holes were all over her tentacles as well, and Charles was familiar with those tentacles, as he had seen them in Pede's corpse.

When the huge yellow eyeball with a cross-shaped pupil saw Charles, the tentacled monster contracted. It throbbed like a heart, contracting and expanding a few times before Anna finally managed to return to her human form.

Anna's human form was still as sexy as ever, but there was clearly something wrong with her. Her eye sockets, which were supposed to contain her clear, bright eyes, were filled with writhing tentacles instead.

To make matters worse, the pitch-black holes in Anna's true form appeared all over her human form as well.

A glance was enough for Charles to deduce that Anna was trying to control her fleshly body, but she couldn't control it for some reason.

"What's wrong with you? What exactly did you absorb?!" Charles asked sternly.

Anna grinned exaggeratedly and said, "You really thought you could deceive me by hiding Pede's corpse? Stop being so arrogant! Now, I'm one step closer to becoming a true god!"

Charles could feel that something was wrong with Anna's mental state. Anna's demeanor and overall attitude were vastly different from the Anna whom he was familiar with.

Charles wanted to say something, but he held himself back. He took a deep breath and looked at his wife, asking, "Did you extract some memories from my brain?"

Upon discovering that he wasn't missing anything else, Charles knew that there could only be one thing missing from him.

Anna's grin became even more exaggerated, verifying Charles' assumption. It seemed that Anna had altered and extracted some of his memories. "Give them back to me. I need those memories to get these three wishes."

Anna coughed, and the tentacles in her eye sockets retracted, leaving two pitch-black holes in their place. The pitch-black holes stared at Charles, and her voice carried a hint of teasing as she said, "So the Governor of Hope Island is actually begging for something from me?

"Are you saying that you won't get those three wishes unless I return your memories today?"

Sparkle couldn't take it anymore and chimed in. "Mommy! Hurry up and give Daddy's memories back! Now's not the time to joke around."

"You shut up!" Anna glared at Sparkle and then looked at Charles again. "Want your memories back? Simple. Since you have three wishes, it won't be too much for you to trade your memories for just one wish, right?"

Charles' brows knitted, and he fell into deep contemplation. After a while, he nodded and said, "All right, we have a deal. Hurry up and return those memories to me."

Anna was astonished by Charles' straightforward and forthwith attitude, but the next second, her entire body split open, and a shrill voice reverberated in Charles' mind.

"HAHAHA! Do you see this?! I no longer need your charity. I can get whatever I want without relying on anyone!!"

"You're going crazy—your desire for power is driving you mad. You better give up that power inside you before it's too late," Charles said in a low voice.

"What do you know?! I know much more than you about how to absorb a god's power! I can make quick work of this tiny issue! We are living in a world where the strong prey on the weak; without enough strength, you are nothing here!

"Without power, you are a mere ant in the eyes of certain beings!"

Just then, Charles noticed something and glanced at 005.

005's figure had become so hazy that it seemed like she'd disappear any second now. There was no time to waste. Charles extended his right hand toward Anna and said, "Stop the nonsense and give me those memories."

A tentacle fell from Anna's hair; it writhed and twisted on the ground.

Charles was about to pick it up, but Anna kicked it toward 005. "Want to know what memories I had modified and extracted from your brain? Fat chance. You'll never know for the rest of your life."

005 raised her hands, and the jars on the ground flew up, orbiting her a few times before disappearing into thin air. Then, three white balls the size of ping-pong balls manifested before her.

Anna's eyes became heated as soon as she saw the three white balls. The three white balls represented three wishes, and they could make everything come true using those three white balls.

"These three balls are yours. Tell them your wish, and twenty seconds later, your wish will come true as long as they're still in your hands. Don't forget that you can't make the same wish twice. You wouldn't want to know the consequences of doing that," 005 said before disappearing into thin air.

Charles reached out and picked up one of the white balls in the air. After staring at it for a while, he glanced at Lily, who was standing on his shoulder.

Lily seemed to have realized what wish Charles was about to make, and she hurriedly said, "Mr. Charles, actually I—"

"Make Lily human again," Charles whispered, interrupting the little mouse.

The white ball in his hand turned red.

Twenty seconds wasn't a long time at all. Soon, a white light engulfed Lily. When the white light disappeared, a naked, young girl appeared behind Charles.

Startled and embarrassed, Lily hugged herself and crouched down. Having been a mouse for more than a decade, Lily was obviously unfamiliar with a human body, and her movements were still reminiscent of a mouse.

Lily was at a loss for words, and she had no idea what to do. Before she could try to do anything, however, a warm coat was wrapped around her. It was Charles' uniform as the Captain of the Narwhale.