Chapter 395 - : The Sea of Life and Death
"This is where the border of the Western Continent lies," Cardinal Treniel infored Eren. "Beyond this river is the Northern Continent."
The Cardinal knew that he was going to be weaker the moment he left the borders of the Western Continent as the blessing of the goddess couldn't reach the Northern Continent.
Still, he didn't tell Eren about it. He didn't want Eren to know that he was weaker, not wanting him to think about returning to bring more people to be safer.
He didn't realize that Eren already knew about it. In fact, it was the reason he was accompanying the Cardinal in the first place.
"Do we need to take any special measures before entering the Northern Continent?" Eren asked the Cardinal. "Can they detect us the moment we cross the border?"
"There are quite a few detection formations spread throughout the border, but you don't have to worry about it," the Cardinal answered. "Throughout our investigation, we have detected quite a few blind spots. We will be using one of them."
With that, the Cardinal flew over the river while advising Eren to not look down when he was right above the river.
Although Eren didn't understand why he was advising against it, he followed through. He could also feel danger when he was above the two faced river as if an unknown beast was looking at him.
He felt as if he was going to be in real danger if he looked down, with all his senses warning him against doing that.
He also didn't quite understand this feeling. Why was he able to look at the river when he was above the land but not when he was right above the river?
This sensation only disappeared when he passed over the river and reached the Northern Continent.
After passing over the river, Eren finally looked back at the river. The river looked just as mesmerizing as before, but he couldn't sense any danger anymore.
"What is in that river?" he asked, growing quite fascinated. He had crossed the rivers between the Eastern, Southern and Western Continents but this was the first time he experienced something like this.
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"It is better if we don't know," Treniel told Eren, making it clear that even he didn't know the correct answer. "There are some things in the world that are better left unknown."
"Strange..." Eren couldn't do anything about it. Even when he asked Yelen about it, he didn't get an answer. She also didn't know the answer.
She told him that it was the same in the long forgotten era. No one actually knows what's at the bottom of the river, and those who tried to find out never returned to the surface.
Even the Overlords didn't know about this, and they didn't try to find the answer either. At this point, Eren wondered if the author was the only person that knew about it.
As someone who loved his life, Eren also stopped thinking about the river. He didn't want to try finding something that even those stronger than him failed to find.
He simply followed the Cardinal and disappeared into the distant horizon.
....
"This is the Demon Sect's Warship."
Not far from the border of the Northern Continent, the Cardinal stopped in front of a warship that looked like it had crashed on the ground harshly.
Even though the Warship was still intact, it looked like it couldn't be used anymore. The power source as well as the weapons were all stolen from the ship. Some cracks could also be seen on the surface of the ship.
This was the ship, on which the three Elders of the Demon Sect were traveling towards the Western Continent
Looking at the ship, Eren could feel that the ship came crashing because of attacks from the Northern Continent's forces. There were clear signs of it, that couldn't be faked.
If he hadn't known better, he really would have assumed that the Demon Sect's envoys were attacked by the forces of the Northern Continent.
He glanced at the back of the Cardinal, amused by the depths of the planning. Even after the Holy Church kidnapped the envoys, they weren't relaxed.
They took control of the Warship and brought it to the Northern Continent, forcing the Northern Forces to attack the Warship and bring it crashing down.
He even wondered if they had intentionally triggered those detecting formations to make it easier for them to find this Warship.
The Pegasus landed on the deck of the Warship with Eren getting down from it. He searched through the ship, as if investigating properly.
Along the way, he found a lot of corpses littered around. Most of them belonged to the crew of the ship, as well as the pilot.
"Did you find the envoys?" The Cardinal asked Eren with compassion, even though he already knew the answer.
Eren also acted ignorant to play along with the Cardinal. "They are not here. It seems like they have been taken elsewhere by the forces of the Northern Continent."
"At this point, it is more or less confirmed that this is the work of the Northern Continent. There is no point in investigating anymore. I will return to the Demon Sect and inform the Sect Master. This will not be forgiven." Eren said, looking at the corpses of the Demon Sect's members.
He appeared to be truly enraged as he turned around to return to the Pegasus.
The Cardinal was shocked to hear Eren's words. He couldn't let Eren return like that. He still had more to do before he could kill Eren.
"H-how can we return? Since the envoys are not on the ship, isn't there a good chance that they are still alive? If they have been taken by the attackers, shouldn't we try to save them? If you return, then it might be too late to save them," the Cardinal suggested, truly sounding desperate at the moment.
Eren already expected the Cardinal to react like this. With this, he had confirmed his guess. The Cardinal wanted Eren to die in the hands of the Northerners.