Shrouded Seascape

Upon hearing Anna's words, the giant flesh tentacle writhed, and more eyes emerged from within it. The eyes were filled with intense curiosity as they looked around.

The eyes then turned toward the bright round moon in the sky, and they narrowed as they stared at it.

"Yes, that's exactly what I find strange. The surface world where I am from doesn't have anything like this. This is problematic."

"Goodness…" Anna muttered, looking quite irritated as she paced back and forth on the lake surface while kneading her forehead. "Just what exactly have you been doing? You've yet to lose that recklessness of yours after all this time?"

Charles didn't answer. The giant flesh tentacle grew, and eyestalks emerged from beneath the flesh, rising upward. The grotesque flesh tentacle transformed until it eventually became a hideous giant tree made out of flesh and blood.

To make the sight even more bizarre, deformed appendages with eyestalks were growing out of the tree's trunk, making it appear particularly healthy if it weren't for the fact that it appeared to be made out of flesh and blood.

"I'm talking to you! Do you hear?!" Anna exclaimed sternly.

The eyestalks froze and descended to look at her on the ground. "Sorry, I got distracted. I'm listening now."

"I don't care where you are right now; I want you to bring me back NOW! I don't want to stay in this damned place for even a second longer! I've had enough of this fragile human body."

Anna's anxious voice echoed throughout the blood-red lake, sending ripples in all directions.

Grotesque cracking noises similar to bones shattering at once echoed as the massive tree swayed slowly. "Sorry, Anna, but you can't come back here. I've seen fragmented scenes of the future. If you come back here, you will meet fate an extremely tragic fate. I don't want you to suffer that fate."

Anna's face distorted fiercely. She opened her mouth, seemingly to curse and vent her frustration, but in the end, she only let out a soft sigh, saying, "You told me that you don't want others to decide your fate, but aren't you doing the same thing to me right now?"

Charles' eyestalks were staring at the starry sky and the earth at the same time. "Those matters can wait, my love. First of all, we need to understand what's really going on here. Your concerns are trivial compared to this one."

"Ah!" Charles' eyes widened as an epiphany struck him. "I finally understood. Time on the surface world and time in the Subterranean Sea flows in opposite directions. We're both at the other end of the line, but you're in the past.

"The gap between us is a thousand years. It seems humanity's fate has already been decided."

Charles instantly understood what was going on by merely observing the surface world.

Anna adjusted her mindset and softly said, "A thousand years later, some disaster will happen here, forcing the IMF to flee to the Subterranean Sea to become the first-generation Foundation.

"I assume that's what's going to happen, but what does that have to do with us? You're thinking too far ahead."

The giant tree swayed again, generating cracking noises. "No, that's not the case at all. This is related to both of us, and it is related to everything in the world."

Anna frowned, feeling that Charles wasn't exactly mentally stable at the moment.

"How is it related to both of us? Explain," Anna asked.

Charles' tone of voice began to sound inquisitive as he replied, "I'm not sure. I just have this feeling. Give me a moment; I need to see more before I can give you any explanation."

The eyestalks attached to the giant tree rose once again, and they were transfixed on the round moon hanging in the sky. For some reason, the tree started bending and withering; its eyeballs caved in, withering like flowers.

Once the eyeballs had disappeared completely, the huge moon in the sky changed color, and it eventually transformed into an eyeball with a yellow pupil.

The moon-sized eyeball turned to look at Earth. The moon-sized eye opened, and as soon as it did, it saw every piece of knowledge on Earth and assimilated it at the very same moment.

Then, the mouths on the giant tree opened. "I see. I completely understand it now. So that's what this is all about."

As soon as Charles' words fell, the "branches" of the tree split open, and the tree bloomed with extremely brilliant and dazzling "flowers." At this moment, Charles seemed to have transformed into a different kind of existence.

Every human being on Earth looked up at the sky, and their breathing quickened as their hearts pounded wildly against their chest.

Their sanity decreased rapidly, and extreme panic began to seize everyone's hearts. As they stared at the eyeball in the sky, they felt like the apocalypse was nigh.

There weren't many beings capable of stopping what was about to happen, but fortunately, Anna was one of them. "Hey, Charles! Calm down! Are you planning on destroying Earth? I have to remind you that your past self is still here!"

Anna's words had yet to finish echoing in the air when time itself came to a halt before rewinding rapidly. The "flowers" on the tree closed and retracted into the flesh tree; the shriveled and withered eyeballs were restored, and the bright moon was restored to normal.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Time rewound to three minutes ago when the massive eyeball in the sky had yet to appear, thus leaving no one with any memory of having ever seen it.

Just then, the albino children who had summoned Charles couldn't take it anymore. Their bodies split open gradually, and their internal organs mixed with their flesh plunged into the blood-red lake before gathering beneath the tree.

The tree began to disintegrate as well, melting rapidly like a candle.

Realizing that Charles was about to leave, Anna became anxious. "Charles, bring me back. It doesn't matter where you are right now; you must bring me back!"

"Anna, I'm sorry. I know your feelings for me are genuine, but I can't bring you back. There's nothing here—hope is fleeting; only deathly silence is eternal," Charles replied. For some reason, his voice was gradually losing its warmth.

The burning flames in Anna's heart erupted into a conflagration upon being rejected once again. "Who do you think you are?! Do you really think that I want to go back to get together with you? I want to go back for my daughter, my Sparkle!"

The tree instantly fell silent. The appendages and thin eyestalks growing on it drooped as they quietly melted away. The air seemed to become a bit downtrodden.

The faint sorrow emanating from the giant tree was transmitted to everyone, and Anna's heart skipped a beat upon sensing that. Then, she seemed to have come to a horrible conclusion as her lips quivered ever so slightly.

Anna's trembling lips parted, and she sounded like she was pleading as she asked, "You know that you're her father, right? Charles? How is Sparkle doing?"

There was a loud crack, and the melting tree collapsed, creating waves in the blood-red lake.

Anna's breathing became increasingly rapid. Then, she lunged forward, jumping onto the giant tree. She thrust her hands into the melting flesh tree and dug around before pulling out an eye the size of a human head.

Anna held that eyeball in front of her face and roared, "Answer me, you useless waste of space! Where is our daughter?!!"

The yellow eyeball melted like lava that dripped slowly into the lake.

"Anna... I'm sorry..."