Chapter 287: What on Earth Happened?
Orion’s face went pale as he listened to Evangeline. The hand at his side slowly clenched into a fist.
’Still, a part of me wants to believe they’re fine. He and Holly have a Contract, after all. If she were in real trouble, I wouldn’t be standing here perfectly unharmed. Even if they couldn’t cross the Triangle Sea, they shouldn’t have been dragged into the depths by the waves.’
’Even if my clansmen did something wrong, it wasn’t a crime punishable by death.’
’The Sky-Rend Tribe can fly; even at the last moment, they’d have a fighting chance.’
’And as for the beastmen of the Mysticeti Tribe, they’re children of the ocean. They should be fine, too.’
Orion silently repeated these assurances to himself, but for some reason, his heart began to pound wildly, as if something terrible was about to happen.
Elias Moretti walked over from the Grymdale Tribe’s camp, his fair, bare chest exposed to the biting wind.
The moment he saw Evangeline, his scarlet eyes flickered. He stepped forward and said, "The blizzard has stopped, and the Cold Season is almost over. This is the perfect time to cross the Triangle Sea. Is My Lady Priestess ready?"
Evangeline raised an eyebrow. ’No matter what anyone else thinks, Elias Moretti has trusted me completely from the very beginning.’
’Even after the Sky-Rend and Mysticeti Tribes joined forces to steal the airship, he still believed I could lead everyone out of the Norfell Region. He’s even kept the Grymdale Tribe’s beastmen under strict control. Heh, what an incredible amount of trust.’
’I’m well aware that things within the Grymdale Tribe aren’t as peaceful as they are in the Mer Clan.’
Evangeline didn’t answer Elias Moretti and instead walked to the edge of the coast.
For the past few days, the Tideborn Beastmen had been coming to the shore to fetch water. While the Triangle Sea was rife with treacherous undercurrents that prevented anyone from venturing deep, the water near the shore was no different from normal seawater. Sometimes, when the tide receded, they could even gather shellfish and crabs from the coastline. It was one of the few ways the beastmen had been able to supplement their food supply recently.
This proved there was life in the Triangle Sea—it just wasn’t a place where beastmen could survive.
Danton and the others followed Evangeline, their expressions solemn as they gazed out at the endless expanse of water. Listening to the waves crash against the rocks, they knew that beyond the horizon, past the Triangle Sea, lay the Beastman Continent.
What lay there, no one knew.
Just then, Evangeline formed a sign with her fingers. A wisp of spiritual light shot into the distance, and for a heartbeat, it was as if the waves and the sea breeze themselves had stopped.
"What’s that for?" Elias Moretti asked from the side, his curiosity piqued.
He knew how formidable Evangeline was, so he was interested in everything she did. She never wasted an effort.
"What’s it to you?" Thorne shot Elias Moretti a sidelong glance, clearly displeased with his eagerness.
Elias Moretti shrugged, completely unconcerned by Thorne’s hostility. Instead, he mimicked Evangeline’s posture and gazed into the distance.
After some time, Evangeline raised an eyebrow. Her lips curved into a faint smile as she said softly, "It’s here."
’Here? What’s here?’
The same question rose in everyone’s mind, and all eyes turned to the horizon.
Suddenly, a tiny black dot appeared in their line of sight.
Gradually, the black dot drew nearer and grew larger.
"HISS—" Orion sucked in a sharp breath, his voice rising in disbelief. "The airship?!"
’Many of them had personally witnessed them pushing the airship deep into the sea. How could it have returned?’
Stellan rushed over when he heard the commotion. Seeing the airship so close, his eyes were wide with shock.
He walked to Danton’s side and whispered, "Clan Leader, is this... Did My Lady Priestess summon the airship back?"
Danton nodded, his expression grim. His heart leaped into his throat as he stared at the airship. The beastmen aboard had left in a rush. Though some had seen them leave Norfell safely and enter the Triangle Sea, no one knew what condition the ship was in, or if its occupants had already reached the continent beyond.
These questions hung in the air. The shore was now packed with onlookers—the Mer Clan, the Grymdale Tribe, and the Fallen Beastmen alike. Everyone was craning their necks, trying to get a clearer view of the airship.
Evangeline watched the airship quietly and suddenly snapped her fingers.
Instantly, with a soft POP, the enormous airship shrank to the size of her palm. The next moment, the beastmen aboard tumbled out one after another, like dumplings from a basket, crashing onto the ice-covered shore with sickening crunches.
An uproar swept through the crowd, who clearly hadn’t expected the airship to bring these people back.
The palm-sized airship hovered over Evangeline’s hand, twirling slowly.
She remained where she stood. A second later, Orion lunged forward to get a look at the beastmen who had crashed onto the ice.
"Holly!" Orion spotted his female at a glance.
She was sprawled on the ice, her eyes dazed and vacant. Her expression was ghastly, all traces of her initial pride and arrogance gone. Her clothes were in tatters, barely covering her body, and her healthy, wheat-colored skin was marred with bloodstains. The sight of her was truly wretched.
Most of the other females were in a similar, wretched state.
Of the male beastmen who had fallen, barely one in ten remained, and all of them were from the Sky-Rend Tribe.
Their faces were still pale with shock, and when they saw Orion rushing toward them, their expressions shifted.
"What in the world happened?!" Orion grabbed a clansman by the shoulders, his eyes bloodshot as he scanned the area. "Why are you the only ones left? Where is everyone else? Did you actually see land beyond the Triangle Sea?!"
’Were there ferocious behemoths there that preyed on beastmen?’
Most of the beastmen present had the same thought, and a chill of fear ran through them.
Gable quietly came up behind Elias Moretti and said in a low voice, "We shouldn’t take the risk. The Cold Season is over, so we should go back to Norfell, right? Even without a new territory, we won’t lack food in the future!"
’So many tribes had emptied their lands for this massive migration. Norfell will have far fewer beastmen competing for resources now. The Snake Beastmen of the Grymdale Tribe could easily expand their territory!’
A thousand thoughts raced through Gable’s mind. He looked at Elias Moretti with hopeful eyes, praying he would come to his senses.
Elias Moretti, however, paid him no mind. His attention was fixed with great interest on the surviving male beastmen on the ice.
’They’re all from the Sky-Rend Tribe. That’s odd. The Mysticeti Tribe had more beastmen than the Sky-Rend Tribe, yet there wasn’t a single male from their tribe left, only a few females. And those females look just as wretched as the others.’
’This situation... it doesn’t look like they ran into some external danger. It looks more like...’
While Orion was still looking over his clansmen with concern, a dark figure flashed past, flinging the one closest to him away.
"Thorne?!" Orion’s pupils shrank as he watched his clansman fall into the sea and be instantly swallowed by the waves.
Thorne pulled Orion back a few steps, staring warily at the beastmen from the Sky-Rend Tribe. He said in a low, grim voice, "The stench of blood is too strong. Orion, that guy just now... he was about to attack you."
At his words, Orion’s eyes widened. He stared in disbelief at his clansmen, whose faces were now twisted into savage snarls.
