Chapter 7. The Unseen Entity
January 11, Year 435
We have finally arrived. All honor belongs to the Great One. Once I bring the sacred artifact back, I will be able to go through baptism and become a true servant of our Lord!
This was the last diary entry. Judging from the contents, it was clear that the captain was a follower of the Fhtagn Covenant. It was not hard to guess that the Fhtagn cultists had sent their own members before seeking assistance from Charles.
Charles then instructed his crew to search the other ships, and the situation was more or less the same. The captains' diaries all recorded their last moments of excitement.
Just as Charles was stumped and could not figure out this weird situation, the skinny chef, Fred, handed him a diary—the last piece of the puzzle. Emerging from n0v@lbin☆, this material harbors clandestine details.
"Captain. Take a look at this. It's a little different."
Taking the diary in his hand, Charles flipped the pages, and his pupils shrunk to the size of a needlepoint. Disordered words filled the pages of the cream-colored diary.
Careful! Don't go to the island! Own crew!! They are not human! They want to eat us! I don't want to be eaten! I want to go back to the island! Safe! Island!
The illogical phrases mixed in a chaotic manner indicated the writer's abnormal state of mind. Everyone who saw the diary entry felt a chilling sensation down their spine as they wondered what this captain could have experienced.
Gulp.
Dipp swallowed down his saliva and retracted his head. He warily scanned his companions whom he had spent days and nights with. The diary spoke of dangers from their own crew. Did that mean there were monsters lurking among them now?
Charles knew what Dipp was thinking and tapped the latter's head with the diary. "Don't overthink things, we haven't even set foot on the island."
"Captain, are we still going?" Dipp's voice was laced with hesitation.
"Of course." Charles' expression became resolute. No matter what dangers awaited them on the island, they could not block his path home. Even if he had to face death, he would rather die on the way back.
S.S. Mouse slowly approached the sandy beach, and the rusty anchor was thrown into the water. The black smoke from the smokestacks slowly dissipated.
Dipp ran up to Charles and asked in a low volume, "Captain, I heard that when we get back, we will be getting a bigger ship. Really?"
"Yeah."
"Awesome! Then I can be like the boatswains on other big ships and be in charge of dozens of sailors. No more being in charge of less than half a sailor like now."
Charles threw a smirk at the enthusiastic young lad. How great to be young when one could always envision the most positive outcome in every situation.... But indeed, he ought to recruit more sailors when he returned. S.S Mouse was a small ship, but it was still rather absurd for her to have no sailors at all.
Charles and his party continued on the same path that seemed to stretch with no end in sight. If not for the ever-changing patterns of the scattered footprints, Charles would have thought that they had been going in circles.
After another nearly three hours of walking, just as their legs were growing sore from fatigue, the forest suddenly cleared and revealed a stone structure entangled in brown vines before them.
The building appeared dilapidated from the outside, making it difficult to discern if it was a shrine or a church. The wooden door that should have been there was nowhere to be seen, with only a dark hole in its place.
Charles pulled Bandages over and pointed at the gloomy entrance.
"Is it in there?" Charles asked.
Bandages hesitated for a brief moment before answering with a nod, "It... should be... I'm not... certain... Sorry... My memory is not very good..."
Regardless, Charles decided to enter and take a look. At the very least, the footprints on the ground led straight to the entrance and were not the least bit sporadic. That was an indication of the absence of danger.
He turned to his second engineer and chef and said, "Let's go. The four of us will go in to take a look." James and Frey nodded simultaneously as they followed Charles' lead into the building.
The light from their torches illuminated the interior of the building. Compared to its run-down exterior, the inside was contrastingly clean and spacious. Not even a speck of dust could be seen on the smooth, red floor. However, the things on the walls sent shivers down one's spine.
The walls were adorned with layers of grotesque relief that depicted unimaginable, amalgamated creatures with their twisted forms entwined. These bizarre entities seemed to be a crossbreed between a starfish and an octopus, with a deformed body and one single eye.
From the body language conveyed through their contorted limbs, they seemed to be engaged in some sort of worship.
However, these nightmarish stone reliefs did not capture the trio's attention. All their gazes were fixed upon the golden statue placed in the middle of the room. The strange humanoid statue with tentacles was clearly Fhtagn, the god of Fhtagnists.
1. Light auxiliary boat attached to a larger ship.