Charles stood frozen for a full three seconds, jolted back to reality by Bandage's fervent prayers. He looked down to see the first mate kneeling beside him, repeatedly bowing towards the colossal eye in the sky.

  Grinding his teeth, Charles yanked Bandage by the arm and stumbled into the cockpit. His face was pale as he slammed the door shut, quickly manipulating the controls to extinguish all the lights on the Unicorn Whale, merging the ship with the darkness.

  Just then, the second mate's voice crackled through the communication pipe. “Captain, what’s happening up there? Why did you—”

  Before he could finish, panic seeped into his voice. “My God, are we facing a ‘deity’ in the darkness? We’re doomed! We’re utterly doomed!!”

  “Second mate! Shut up!” Charles roared, veins bulging on his forehead.

  Bandage trembled uncontrollably beside him, his bandaged body curling up on the floor, mumbling incoherently in prayer.

  Charles rushed over, covering Bandage’s mouth with his hand, lowering his voice. “That’s not your Furtan god! Can’t you see that thing is in the sky?”

  In the pitch-black cabin, a tense atmosphere settled in, broken only by the sound of rapid breathing.

  After a few minutes, Deep’s low voice broke the silence, as if he were suppressing some intense emotion. “Captain, what kind of deity did you just see? Should we pray to it? I’ve heard that if you encounter a ‘deity’ and pray sincerely, it might spare us.”

  Charles remained silent. He didn’t care what that thing was; he just wanted it to leave.

  A low, resonant hum echoed from above, sending chills down the spines of everyone on board. Moments later, strange noises began to emanate from the deck, growing louder.

  “Damn it! Something’s boarding the ship!”

  Charles’s heart raced. He knew he couldn’t remain passive any longer; if this continued, everyone on board would die.

  Resolutely, he dashed to the control panel and activated all the lights. Outside the glass, writhing red masses—unknown creatures—were crawling on the deck, devouring the bright yellow “snow.”

  “Chief Engineer! The turbines are overloaded! We need to leave this cursed place at full speed!”

  The dormant Unicorn Whale emitted a low rumble as its speed rapidly increased.

  As Charles watched the grotesque creatures leap off the deck and into the sea, he felt no relief. The true danger lay above; he dared not look up, knowing that a single eye could obscure half the sky. He couldn’t fathom how large the being behind that eye must be. All he could do was flee with all his might.

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  Suddenly, the Unicorn Whale lurched violently, sending Bandage and Deep crashing against the wall. Moments later, chaotic noises and screams erupted from the turbine compartment.

  “Captain!! Something’s jammed in the turbine room! The second turbine is dead!”

  A metallic screech echoed outside as several giant, finger-like appendages reached down from the sky, grabbing hold of the ship.

  Then, Charles realized the ship had stopped moving and was slowly rising; something was grasping the Unicorn Whale.

  “Damn it! This is my ship! You can’t take it unless you step over my corpse!” Furious, Charles disregarded everything else and yanked the searchlight upward, racing to the deck.

  Upon reaching the deck, he looked up and finally saw the true form of the entity above: a moth-like creature, larger than the Unicorn Whale itself, with its grasping appendages clutching the ship. The eye he had seen was merely a spot on its wing, and as it flapped, glimmers of yellow scales fell from the sky.

  Despite the overwhelming presence of the creature, a smile crept onto Charles’s face. This wasn’t some divine being; he had almost been fooled. It was just a monster, and no matter how large it was, it was still just a beast.

  Another low-frequency hum resonated, and the creature’s appendages lunged toward the searchlight, clearly annoyed by the bright light.

  “Lily, load the cannon!” Charles shouted as he dashed toward the deck cannon.

  Once the cannon was loaded, the Unicorn Whale had risen about seven or eight meters above the sea.

  He couldn’t let it cling to the ship any longer! Charles aimed the cannon at the massive appendage embedded in the side of the ship.

  “Hold on!” With a deafening boom, the chitinous limb exploded, showering the area with red and green ichor.

  The Unicorn Whale crashed back into the water, creating waves that surged around it. If it had been a wooden ship, it would have splintered apart by now.

  Ignoring the blood streaming from his chin, Charles shouted excitedly into the cockpit, “Set sail! Get us out of here!”

  “Captain! Look behind you!” Deep exclaimed, flailing his arms in panic at the glass.

  Charles turned around just in time to see the giant moth’s severed limb appearing directly in front of the ship. Its two antennae quivered, emitting increasingly loud low growls as if it were enraged.

  “Want to come back for more? Fine! I’ll take you on!” With a hint of madness in his eyes, Charles adjusted the cannon’s aim toward the creature’s grotesque head.

  Just as the tension in the air reached its peak, a massive water column, three times larger than the moth, erupted from the sea.

  The water exploded, revealing a gigantic, translucent hand adorned with sinister patterns, rising like a mountain from the depths.

  The moment he saw that hand, Charles was overwhelmed by a deafening whisper, and everything around him began to warp. His sense of self rapidly dissolved.

  With a furious wind, that colossal hand descended toward the giant moth. Upon contact with the water’s surface, a massive wave surged upward, transforming into a violent tsunami that crashed toward the Unicorn Whale.

  In a daze, Charles glimpsed a giant walking between heaven and earth. It was green all over, its soft head covered in countless tentacles, and its forelimbs resembled limp claws, with a grotesque, slimy mouth stretching from its chin to its belly.

  “Boom!” The overwhelming wave crashed onto the deck, sweeping Charles into the sea. Deep, witnessing the scene from the cockpit, leaped in after him.

  “Captain! Wake up! Captain!!”

  Charles slowly opened his eyes, realizing he was back in the captain’s cabin.

  “Whew.” As soon as the crew saw Charles awake, they collectively sighed in relief, with Lily bursting into tears of joy.

  Ignoring the pain in his head, Charles turned to the second mate beside him. “Are we safe now? Where are we?”

  The red-haired youth managed a wry smile. “We’re safe, but I’m not sure where we are…”