Seeing the black cannon on the deck swing in her direction, Akasha panicked. She wanted to flee, but Charles, who was right beside her, wasn't about to give her that chance.
He raised his left hand, and the Tentacle Ring activated instantly. Unseen tentacles wrapped tightly around the bat.
Although the bat broke free in less than a second, that single moment was enough.
"BOOM!!"
In the time it took Charles to blink, most of the giant bat's body vanished. A rain of flesh sprayed everywhere, and the creature's grotesque face was twisted in disbelief.
As he fell toward the sea, Charles suddenly saw a flash of white light in front of him. He grabbed it on reflex. It was the Bat Monster's mirror.
With a splash, the icy seawater swallowed Charles whole.
When he broke the surface, he saw another half-human, half-bat monster scrambling toward the harbor, clearly not intending to die avenging its companion.
"Coward! Come back and fight if you've got the guts!" Charles yelled from the water.
The death of a Duchess seemed to have genuinely terrified the vampires. Not a single bat appeared, even long after the crew of the Narwhal had lost sight of Dark Crystal Island.
Soaked to the bone, Charles lay spread-eagle on the deck, completely spent. The mask might allow his body to reach the peak of human limits, but it couldn't erase exhaustion. He didn't want to move a single finger.
The overjoyed crew, ecstatic to have survived, rushed over, hoisting him into the air and cheering wildly.
「The next day」
With his energy about half-recovered, Charles opened his eyes. He ignored his still-aching muscles, got up, and walked out onto the deck.
Sighing softly, he spotted the bandaged first mate on deck, patching up the ship.
The losses this time were significant. In the battle with the giant moth, they had lost two sailors and the Second Chief Engineer. On Dark Crystal Island, another two sailors and the assistant chef were gone.
Combined with the battered Narwhal, the mission to explore new sea routes was a total failure.
All Charles had to show for this mission was a mirror and a blind vampire.
He took out the round mirror and angled it at himself, only to find the surface was so hazy that he couldn't see his reflection clearly.
An idea struck Charles. Carrying the mirror, he headed for the crew's lounge. If anyone on board was likely to know about this relic, it would be their only "local."
The moment Charles stepped into the lounge, he was hit by the smell of blood. The blind vampire, Audric, was sucking on a bloodied bandage. Nearby, James—the producer of said bandage—snored in his hammock.
The blind painter's neck writhed as scarlet buds of flesh intertwined. It looked as if the wound would heal completely in no time.
Hearing the familiar footsteps, Audric jumped up. "Captain Charles, you're here."
Charles drew Black Blade and placed it in James's hand. The Chief Engineer was badly hurt, having taken on the Bat Monster with nothing but his own body.
However, as his physique had grown larger, his skin, fat, and muscle had all thickened as well. Most of his injuries were superficial and hadn't damaged his Internal Organs.
He felt the big man's forehead and was relieved to find he didn't have a fever. Charles then turned and shoved the mirror into Audric's hands.
"This was the Duchess's relic. Her ability to turn into a giant bat seems to be connected to it. Do you know how to use it?"
The blind man's hands explored the surface of the mirror. "This… this should be Duchess Akasha's artifact, the Bat Mirror. I've heard that if you smear blood on it, you can transform into a giant bat with tremendous combat strength."
Charles recalled the giant bat in the sky, and the thought of its powerful sonic abilities made him burn with desire. Still, he hadn't forgotten the dangers that came with relics. "Does it have any side effects?"
"It does. Members of the Blood Clan who use this mirror develop a more severe Blood Thirst. If it's used too often, the power will eventually take over, and the user will completely transform into a beast. Its previous owner, Viscount Lance, is still hanging upside down on Dark Crystal Island to this day."
Charles looked at the mirror in his hand. That's a heavy side effect. It looks like this relic can only be used in a critical moment, unlike the Clown Mask, which I can use anytime.
The blind vampire suddenly seemed to remember something. He hurriedly held the mirror back out to Charles, well aware of his position on the ship.
Audric's neck had already healed completely. Charles felt a tinge of envy watching his powerful Healing Ability.
He tucked the mirror into his pocket and asked casually, "You vampires recover so quickly. What happened to your face? Was it some kind of special weapon?"
A look of lingering fear crept across Audric's terrifying face. "It was an accident."
"My companions and I robbed a pirate ship. We found a box hidden in the hold. We thought it was treasure, but it turned out to contain sunlight."
The word "sunlight" made Charles's heart nearly stop, but he immediately caught something strange in the vampire's words.
"Are you certain? Sunlight? You mean actual sunlight, stored in a box?"
"Yes, sunlight. The moment the light appeared, my kin were instantly turned to ash. I only survived because I was standing farther away, but even so, I paid a terrible price."
With that, Audric took off his black sunglasses, revealing two bulging eyes that looked like soft-boiled eggs. They were ringed by grotesque, red, swollen veins—a truly gruesome sight.
"You see? My eyes still ache to this day. Only sunlight could inflict this kind of torment."
Pacing the cabin with uncharacteristic anxiety, Charles felt his composure, which hadn't even wavered when he was being chased by the vampire Duchess, begin to fray.
"Maybe… maybe it was some other kind of light-based weapon?"
The idea felt absurd. How could sunlight be put in a box? Could something as intangible as light be captured?
Audric shook his head. "There were living pirates right next to us when it happened. They were completely unaffected. If it was some kind of weapon, they couldn't possibly have been unharmed."
Charles's heart began to pound, an excited expression on his face. This could be a key clue to returning to the Earth's surface. "Where did those pirates get the sunlight?"
"I'm not sure, but those pirates were from the Chaotic City of Sodoma. It's very likely they got it from there. Mr. Charles, do you need sunlight?"
"The Chaotic City of Sodoma…" A rare smile touched Charles's lips. He patted Audric's shoulder and turned to walk out.
Regardless of whether it was truly sunlight in that box, Charles was determined to go and see for himself.
As the footsteps faded into the distance, Audric furtively pulled the upper half of a corpse from a barrel. If Charles had been there, he would have instantly recognized it as the Duchess he had just battled.
The blind vampire clutched the corpse and began to gnaw on it greedily. In the dim cabin, the sounds of chewing and snoring intertwined.