Chapter 38. Hint of Sunlight
Watching the cannon's muzzle gradually move toward her, Akasha's panic grew. She scrambled to escape but Charles didn't give her the opportunity to.
As he raised his left hand, the tentacle ring was instantly triggered and an invisible tentacle coiled itself around the pig-nosed bat. Although the bat managed to get out of the tentacle's grip in less than a second, it was less than a second too late.
Boom!
In a blink of an eye, half of the monstrous bat's body exploded into a splattering mist of blood and entrails that rained down on the Narwhale. Disbelief was written on the bat's grotesque face.
As Charles was freefalling toward the waters below, a sudden flash of white light blinded him. Instinctively, he reached out and closed his fingers around the light source. It was the mirror that had fallen from the giant bat. Chart your course back to the origins of this substance at n0v^lbin
With a splash, the icy water embraced Charles. When he emerged onto the water surface, he witnessed the other half-human, half-bat monster fleeing toward the port. Clearly, he had no intention of avenging its fallen comrade.
"Coward! I dare you to not run!" Charles taunted while peddling in the waters.
The death of the duchess seemed to have intimidated the vampires. No bat came into their vicinity even until Dark Crystal Island had reduced to nothing but a speck on the horizon.
Drenched, Charles lay sprawled on the deck. He was extremely exhausted. Though the Clown Masked allowed him to unlock the maximum potential of a human's body, it couldn't negate the exhaustion that accompanied the power. Now, he didn't feel like even lifting a finger.
Having escaped from doom, the crew members erupted into cheers and hoisted him into the air.
The next day, Charles woke up. Half-rejuvenated, he ignored the painful protest of his muscles as he dragged himself to the deck.
Upon arriving at the deck, Charles saw his First Mate, Bandages, the sole sailor repairing the boat. He let out a sigh. Their casualties had been significant for this journey. During their encounter with the giant butterfly, they had lost two sailors and the Third Engineer. At Dark Crystal Island, another two sailors and the assistant cook had become vampire food.
Also, the new and pristine Narwhale was now scarred and battered. Their latest mission of exploring a new maritime area could thus be considered a disastrous failure.
Charles' only gain had only been a relic in the form of a mirror and a blind vampire.
Charles' heart skipped a beat the instant he heard the word 'sunlight.' However, he soon realized something amiss in the vampire's narrative.
"Wait, what? Sunlight? How would sunlight be contained in a box? Are you sure?"
"Yes. It's definitely sunlight. The moment it shone, my brethren were reduced to ash. I was only spared due to being quite a distance away from the box. But even so, I paid a terrible price."
Audric then removed his dark glasses to reveal his bulging eyes that looked like coddled eggs. Accompanied by the red, swollen veins surrounding them, his eyes appeared rather horrifying.
"Can you see this? My eyes are still aching from that incident. Only sunlight could inflict such torment."
Feeling rather restless, Charles paced around the cabin. Even being pursued by vampires yesterday had not unsettled his composure, but now, he was thoroughly shaken up.
"Perhaps... Perhaps it could be some other light-attribute weapon?"
The idea of sunlight being encased in a box sounded ludicrous to him. How could sunlight that was devoid of a physical form be captured and stored in a box?
Audric shook his head. "There were still some pirates who survived the battle with us. They remained unaffected while we ended up dead or critically injured. If it was any other kind of weapon, they couldn't have possibly escaped unscathed."
Charles' heart raced as his face lit up with excitement. This could be a crucial clue to find the entrance back to the surface world.
"Where did those pirates get the sunlight?"
"I'm not too sure. But those pirates are from the City of Chaos, Sottom. They probably got it from there. Mr. Charles, do you need sunlight?"
"City of Chaos, Sottom..." Charles reiterated the name to himself as a rare smile etched on his face. He then patted Audric on the shoulder before he turned and left the cabin.
Regardless of whether the box truly contained sunlight, he was determined to find it out himself.
Hearing Charles' footsteps fading into the distance, Audric stealthily retrieved a half-corpse from a nearby barrel. If Charles were present, he would immediately recognize that the corpse belonged to the vampire duchess that he had fought with earlier.
The blind vampire embraced the and greedily fed on it. In the darkness of the cabin, the sounds of gnashing teeth intermingled with James' snoring.