Shrouded Seascape

Hearing Lily's question, Sparkle shook her head. "Forget it. You don't need to know it. Even if you know, you won't be of much help. Just stay here and do your own thing."

With that, a white light suffused Sparkle's figure.

Lily had seen that before; a white light would always engulf Sparkle just as she was about to teleport away.

"Wait!" Lily reached out to grab her, but her hands phased through Sparkle's figure.

"Father has wasted a wish for you, so you ought to repay him by not letting his wish be in vain," Sparkle said, and her figure vanished into thin air.

Lily stared blankly at the empty bench, looking a bit torn and her thoughts inscrutable. When Lily came back to her senses and rushed to pick up her sister, she was told that her crying sister had been picked up by her father.

Lily felt down as she quietly hurried home. Just as she turned a corner, the cemetery next to her caught her attention. She walked into the cemetery and located the old ship doctor's tombstone.

Then, she hugged the tombstone and poured out her concerns. "Grandpa Doctor, did I do something wrong? If I did, what exactly should I do to make it right?

"Making choices is so hard. I'm really missing the time when I was with Mr. Charles. Back then, I didn't have to think about anything. I just did whatever he said."

Lily ranted for a long time. When she felt that her mood had improved somewhat, she bowed to the tombstone in front of her and said, "Grandpa Doctor, thank you for listening to me.

"From now on, I'll always face reality, and I will not run away anymore. Thank you, and I'll bring you some alcohol on my next visit," Lily said.

Then, she turned around and left. The next thing on her to-do list was to buy a gift for her sister on the street and apologize to her once she got back home.

Just then, Lily stopped in her tracks. The number of tombstones seemed a bit off. She raised her finger and pointed at the tombstones one by one. When she counted eighth tombstones, her finger trembled.

"Audric, Linda, Norton, Conor, Grace..."

Tears unconsciously slid down Lily's face.

This plane was truly different from that plane.

When Sparkle reappeared, she found herself inside the house built on Charles' colossal frame. She sprawled out on the bed, hugged a pillow, and took deep breaths. She was always at ease here.

Charles' voice echoed from outside the room. Sparkle had no intention of eavesdropping, but she couldn't help it, as she had gotten too strong.

"I am Charles, and I am a human being. Perhaps I'll truly become a god in the end, but I can't become a god right now. I must use the power inside me to achieve my goal. The chance of achieving it is slim, but I have to try."

"But is this really going to work?" Charles' voice suddenly sounded a bit strange. "Why am I even doing this? This is meaningless. They're just a group of low-level creatures capable of making only random guesses.

"Their thoughts and their capabilities are visible to me at a mere glance. What's the difference between them and inanimate objects?

"Is there a difference between a cup of water and a human being? No, there's no difference. They're all the same. No, no, no, don't overthink it—"

Charles' voice came to an abrupt halt. The next moment, the bed beneath Sparkle squirmed, and the ceiling swayed left and right. The house was transforming into a massive lump of flesh and blood.

Sparkle's heart tightened at the bizarre sight. With a flash of white light, she instantly teleported to the living room and saw Charles.

Charles had fused with the sofa, becoming a mangled mess of flesh. He was clutching his head in pain.

"Daddy, are you okay?" Sparkle walked over and hugged him gently.

After a few seconds, Charles calmed down, and the squirming house returned to normal.

"I'm fine. This always happens every day, and I had to discard a part of my brain again," Charles said, smiling faintly at Sparkle.

However, Sparkle was no longer as calm as before. A hint of worry suffused her face, and she felt like the time she could talk with her father like this was running out.

"Don't worry, Sparkle. This is my choice, and I am willing to accept the consequences of my choice," Charles said, reaching out to pat Sparkle's head.

Since she had already grown up, Sparkle disliked getting patted on the head, but this time, she didn't avoid Charles' hand.

"You went to see Lily?" Charles suddenly asked.

"How did you know that, Daddy?" Sparkle asked, looking a bit surprised. She had yet to tell him about it.

"I can see fragments of her skin on you; I can smell her on you; and I can see her afterimage beside you," Charles replied. He stretched his hand out toward Sparkle to try and touch something in the air.

"Since absorbing Pede's corpse, I've been seeing afterimages around me," Charles said in a light, airy voice. "They seem fake and real at the same time."

"Given enough time, I feel like I'll eventually know what they are," Charles added.

Sparkle had long gotten used to Charles getting engrossed in his own thoughts, and knowing that it was about to happen again, Sparkle said, "She asked me why you came here, but I didn't tell her."

Charles emerged from his thoughts at that remark. "Don't contact her again. The more contact you make with her, the harder it will be for her to forget us. The Narwhale has been decommissioned. The crew ought to live their own lives and leave the rest to me."

Sparkle stroked the sofa beneath her and found that it felt no different from a real sofa.

"Can you really do it alone?"

"It is difficult, so we have to find a way to make it easier," Charles said.

Just as his words fell, there was knocking on the door.

Sparkle glanced at her father and walked up to the door. She opened it gently and found another Charles.

It was the Charles of this plane.

The Charles of this plane looked young, and he looked just like a teenager. He had no missing parts and was also devoid of any scars. However, Charles had seen through the two eyeballs hanging at the door that the fleshly body standing before them was fabricated.

What was the difference between him and the Charles of this plane? They were about to find out. The Charles of this plane had also received wishes from 005 and had become a god as a result of it.

"You're too slow. I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"You're too anxious. Some things can't be rushed. And it's not like we're on a race against time, unlike before."

"What do you mean we're not on a race against time? I'm slowly losing my humanity here, and I don't know how much time I have left before I transform into a true god. All I know is that we don't have much time left."

"What's the point of coming here for that? How much help could I possibly be to you?"

"I'm sure you know the answer to that question. You're also Charles, and you've chosen that path as well, after all. You know what's the goal."