As the sound of air leaking from the balloon continued, the entire airship began to teeter precariously.

  "To the top! Repair the balloon! If it fails, our mission is over!" the leading female believer commanded. Five crew members flew toward the balloon above.

  Before long, the sound of leaking air ceased.

  Although the crisis of the airship crashing was averted, Charles knew the ordeal wasn’t over.

  He stood at the edge of the ship, gripping the ropes that tethered the balloon, leaning most of his body over the side to scan the surroundings.

  The light pollution here was severe, everything a blinding white. Charles couldn’t see where the enemy that had attacked them was hiding.

  "Dammit, what the hell is that thing?" Charles’ muscles tensed in preparation for the impending battle.

  Suddenly, a black shadow flashed above again. In the next second, half of a believer’s body, gushing blood, slid past Charles and plummeted downward.

  By the time Charles, agile as ever, climbed up the ropes to the balloon, the thing had vanished, leaving only the few believers who had come up earlier.

  Wiping the sweat from his face with his sleeve, Charles asked them, "Did you see what it was?"

  "Big. Felt like a bug."

  Before Charles could ask more, the Ascension Vessel below began to shake violently. The thing had gone down there.

  Charles leaped from the balloon.

  "Clank, clank, clank." As the hook from his prosthetic arm shot into the deck, Charles swung down and landed on the underside of the ship. The monster hanging upside down appeared before Charles for the first time.

  It was a colossal creature, six meters long, resembling a mantis covered in barbs. Its swollen abdomen and scythe-like forelimbs were similar to a mantis, but where its head should have been was a bud-like structure.

  The creature had no eyes but could sense Charles’ presence. It charged at him with terrifying speed.

  "Bang! Bang! Bang!" Gunfire rang out, and purple holes appeared on its body, but the creature seemed unaffected, moving as if nothing had happened.

  The bud on the creature’s head opened, revealing not a mouth but a grayish, slimy, amorphous mass.

  The chain on Charles’ arm rapidly retracted, lifting him just in time to avoid the creature’s grotesque mass.

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  "Clang!" The creature’s scythe-like forelimb slashed downward, first severing the chain attached to the deck, then aiming for Charles.

  The blade was incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, the gleaming scythe was upon him.

  At the critical moment, Charles’ right hand twitched, activating the ring of tentacles. Semi-transparent tendrils shot out, deflecting the blade.

  "Crack." Charles felt the phantom pain of severed fingers.

  Though the invisible tentacles were easily cut, the slight diversion allowed Charles to shift his body mid-air. The blade only took a small section of his bangs.

  Its attack ended, and Charles’ counterattack began.

  Charles grabbed the back of the scythe and swung down. As the blade neared the creature’s swollen abdomen, Charles pushed off, launching himself toward it.

  His left hand slapped against the barbed exoskeleton, gripping tightly. In the next second, Charles pulled out the Thunderbolt Wand and activated it against the creature’s abdomen.

  "Zzzz." Arcs of electricity danced across the monster’s body, and both Charles and the creature began to smoke.

  Faced with the intense electric shock, the creature couldn’t hold on. Its limbs loosened from the ship’s underside, and both Charles and the monster began to fall toward the dark sea below.

  But Charles wasn’t planning to go down with it. Unlike the lone monster, he wasn’t alone.

  Believers from the Ascension Vessel quickly descended, catching Charles and pulling him back to the ship.

  When Charles was placed on the deck, his body slowly regained sensation. He knew the fight had been perilous; one misstep, and he would have been cut in half.

  "The outcome isn’t bad. Whatever that thing was, it’s dealt with."

  He shakily stood up, looking around. Compared to his injuries, one male believer wasn’t so lucky.

  His left leg was bubbling and rapidly rotting, his body convulsing.

  Charles guessed he had been touched by the creature’s grotesque mouth.

  Seeing the rot spreading to the man’s chest, Charles spoke to the believer tending to him. "Don’t let him suffer. You or me?"

  As the man turned his head, Charles raised his revolver and fired, ending the man’s pain.

  After a quick headcount, Charles realized the losses were significant: three believers dead, two out of commission.

  "Let’s hope the rest of the journey is smoother. Otherwise, we won’t have enough people left to die."

  The believers’ morale recovered quickly. After disposing of the bodies, the Ascension Vessel continued its ascent toward the crack.

  As they entered the crack, the light above grew even more intense.

  In such brightness, Charles noticed the walls weren’t smooth but pockmarked with underground structures and tunnels.

  The scale reminded Charles of modern underground parking lots and subway tunnels.

  Charles soon stopped looking. The environment outside was too blinding. Even with his eyes closed, everything was a deep red.

  As Charles rubbed his eyes, a voice called out. "Father, what is that?"

  Charles quickly opened his eyes, looking in the direction of the voice.

  A giant white flower, thirty meters in diameter, hung on the wall, pulsing with light in a rhythmic pattern.

  The priest being questioned shook his head. "Not sure. Maybe flowers in the Land of Light just grow like this."

  As they continued to ascend, more of these giant flowers appeared on the walls.

  "Am I seeing things? I feel like they’re moving."

  Charles shook his head. "No, they are moving."

  He stared at these pulsating flowers, feeling a sense of familiarity, as if he’d seen them before.

  Suddenly, the petals of the giant flowers were enveloped by green, barbed exoskeletons. They turned, revealing the hidden scythe-like limbs and grotesque bud-heads.

  Just as Charles thought they were about to attack, all the mantis creatures began fluttering their transparent wings. The rhythmic sounds of their wings intersected, forming a sentence in the language of the underground sea.

  "Light-skins, leave! Going up will only bring disaster!"