"What on earth are you talking about? Didn't you disappear? Why are you here?"
Charles asked Richard in surprise, but his question did not receive an answer from the other party.
With a "bang", Richard's figure shattered like a burst bubble, and then everything around him continued to collapse, including the woman wrapped in black bandages.
As the shed under his feet shattered, Charles struggled and fell downwards. Under the shed was not the tall or short houses of Hope Island, but a dark abyss with nothing in it.
Amid his own panicked shouts, Charles sat up suddenly on the bed, gasping for breath.
After a while, he finally realized that everything that had just happened was just a dream.
"I dreamt of that woman twice? Where did she come from?" Charles, frowning, lifted the quilt and walked to the drawing board next to him, trying to draw everything in his previous dream.
However, just as his pen touched the paper, he stopped again, and he found that he could not remember the woman's specific appearance.
After thinking for a moment, Charles threw his pen away in annoyance, turned around and walked towards the balcony. At this time, the dock was still quiet and motionless.
Now all the artillery batteries on the island are fully loaded with shells, the coastal defense nets have all been put down, and sandbags have been piled up to form sand walls around the beaches.
It is no exaggeration to say that Hope Island is now a solid fortress.
Everyone was ready, waiting for the Deep Ones to attack, but they just didn't attack after such a long time.
Charles knew that it was not a good idea to be so tense. There was no reason to guard against thieves a thousand miles away.
He has ordered the fleet of speedboats to spread out and gather intelligence around, but there is one crucial point now, that is, these things live on the seabed, and they attack from below, so reconnaissance on the sea surface is very limited.
But it is too late to form another submarine detachment now.
After basking in the sun for a while, Charles turned and went into the bathroom to wash up.
After coming out, Charles suddenly realized that something seemed to be missing. Lily, who was always energetic, did not follow him.
Charles walked straight to his bed, pulled back the sheets and looked underneath. An extremely delicate, colorful little house appeared before him.
This house looks very cute. It seems that it is made of various brightly colored candies. Through the small window, you can see small stools and tables inside. This is Lily's new home.
Charles grabbed the wall with his hands and squeezed it gently, tearing down the entire wall. He saw Lily sitting on a huge red book.
Lily was watching so intently that she didn't even hear Charles coming.
"Lily, what are you looking at??"
The little mouse was frightened and trembled all over. He turned his head and looked at Charles' big face with a panicked expression.
"Cha... Mr. Charles, why are you here?" Lily said as she hurriedly tried to put the book away.
Seeing this scene, Charles was a little confused: "What is this little girl hiding?"
He reached in and grabbed the book, but Lily bit him, a rare move, as if to stop him.
But how could Charles be afraid of this? He just snatched the book and started reading.
"Gentle Lips?" When Charles saw the title of the book, he immediately felt something was wrong. This didn't seem like a book that a child would read.
As he turned the pages, a strange look appeared on Charles' face. He had not paid much attention to this aspect before, but he did not expect that the various writers in Earthsea also had their own unique styles.
"I... I picked it up on the road. I just took a look out of curiosity..." Lily hung her head as if she had done something wrong.
"Can you find such a brand new book on the street?" Charles looked incredulous.
Lily seemed to be angry and jumped directly onto the book and looked at Charles angrily. "I'm already fifteen after my birthday! What's wrong with me being curious about this! When Mr. Charles was fifteen, wouldn't he be curious about these things?"
Charles was speechless for a moment. Just when Charles was about to say something, he suddenly heard an extremely sharp and piercing whistle sweeping across the sky above Hope Island.
"This is the sound of an enemy attack!!" Charles' body tensed up instantly, and he grabbed Lily and rushed quickly towards the sea.
Seven or eight tentacles invisible to ordinary people stretched out from his body, supporting Charles as he quickly moved towards the dock.
In the eyes of other islanders, the Governor seemed to be flying.
"Squeak~squeak~" As Lily screamed, various rats quickly jumped out from the dark corners in all directions and gathered behind Charles.
Soon the ground was covered with a wave of rats. Charles couldn't help but feel shocked when he saw these rats. They could actually reproduce in such large numbers.
When Charles approached the dock, he immediately saw a hint of green in the dark sea water in the distance. It was none other than the heads of the green divers.
"Boom, boom, boom!" The artillery on the dock began to get angry, and shells continuously blasted columns of water on the water.
Although impressive, it can be seen that these things have little effect on deep divers.
The wet fishmen slowly walked onto the golden beach, their sharp fangs bared, and their gills and fins on their necks stood up, looking extremely hideous and terrifying.
But no matter how horrible they were, they were still afraid of bullets. As the gunshots rang out from behind the sand wall, several streams of blood mist suddenly burst out of their bodies and they fell backwards.
The deep divers were not frightened by these. With bloodthirsty gleams in their eyes, they kept coming up, stepping on the corpses of their own people.
"Woo~!!" A whistle suddenly sounded, and the Hope Island Navy fleet began to approach with billowing black smoke.
The navy dumped red-painted wooden barrels into the sea, giving the dark sea water an oily sheen.
As a torch was thrown in, "whoosh~" a sea of fire suddenly ignited on the sea. The raging flames directly separated the coast from the open sea, making it impossible for the deep divers to land.
Charles looked around, grabbed the pillar supporting the greenhouse next to him with his transparent tentacles, and climbed up directly.
Standing on the extremely high shed, Charles could see the entire battle situation in front of him.
At this time, there were billowing black smoke in all directions. It was obvious that the navy of Hope Island had surrounded the island with flames. Under the fire attack, the deep divers had no chance of landing at all.
But Charles knew that the other party must have more than just these tricks.
Sure enough, before long, the gurgling sound of bubbles continued to be heard, and rows of rotten railings slowly rose from beneath the water.
They were a row of shabby shipwrecks covered with barnacles. No one knew how long they had stayed underwater, but now they were floating on the surface again under some force.
The deck of the sunken ship was now filled with ferocious deep divers. On one of the ships, Charles saw a deformed monster with an octopus head. That was probably the clan that Dipper mentioned.
(End of this chapter)