Chapter 54: Chapter 54

“This is going to be harder than I thought!” Rima knitted her eyebrows while looking out the window of what used to be the Tahat magistrate’s house.

As expected, the familiarity she built with the human king wasn’t contagious, the united armies were only united in name, whereas in reality, the humans and demons did anything but blend, the schism in their lines was far too obvious to be neglected, none of them tolerated the other’s presence, the animosity was palpable in the air, and there were many, many skirmishes, some even turned violent.

“It is perfectly understandable!”

“We will make it work!”

Eren and Henry said in the same time before exchanging a small glare, making the ice queen mentally slap her face, for even these two couldn’t fully tolerate each other, but unlike their soldiers, the human king and the shadows lord’s enmity wasn’t just because of their different kinds, it was because of the hybrid girl.

They were all involved in her death, each on his own way, but none of them wanted her to die and therefore blamed the other partially for it, the ice queen however found the matter to be irrelevant, the girl was already dead and the best thing they could do was to move on and create a better world where no one else has to die for the similar reasons.

Walking back to the table where a large map as well as several scrolls were placed, Rima found her spot next to Henry who offered her a warm smile, almost forgetting about the third person in the room who was rolling his red eyes at the two, the human king was yet again mesmerized by the ice queen’s beauty and grace.

Instead of her long white robe, the ice queen had a silver armor on, some parts seemed as if they were made of a bluish glass which was actually ice, the armor was made specifically for her and therefore fit her body perfectly, and just like her robe, it barely had any details, it was simple and practical, her brown curls were gathered in a side braid that slid over her shoulder, her demeanor was calm and serene as always, perfectly balanced between strength and softness.

“Are you two done ogling each other?” Eren finally snapped at them, the way they were neglecting the pressing matters just to eat each other with their eyes was truly irritating, and while the ice queen smiled wilder and shook her head, the human kind glared at him, wanting to smack him in the head.

“Eren is right! We need to focus!” Rima said, her smile was replaced with a serious expression as she stared at the map of the center.

The map was one of the many precious spoils the king retrieved from the holy tower, it was hanged in the high priests’ private meeting room and had more details about the forbidden sea and the center island than any other existing map.

“What is this circle here?” Eren pointed out at a crooked like drawn around the center, in the middle of the forbidden sea.

“The priests said the hybrid ruined the map when she was learning about the world.” Henry reported what he learned from the priests briefly, not dwelling much about it, unlike the shadows’ lord who frowned while looking at the line.

“I think we should be more careful about that line!” Eren said while giving the ice queen a side look, the human king caught that but didn’t comment, none of them liked the other, it was a given fact, but they were not here to like each other or even be friends.

“Why?!”

“I think we should take anything that comes out of the hybrid very seriously, she didn’t draw anything else anywhere, just around the center, and a circle above that, I believe it means something!”

“I second that opinion!” Rima added, the shadows’ lord knew the hybrid better than any of them and she trusted his good judgement, blood carried memories as much as it carried life, so maybe the crooked line wasn’t arbitrary but some kind of a memory the girl inherited from her mother.

“being too careful won’t hurt!” Henry added ad Eren almost scoffed at him, it was obvious that the human king didn’t want to give the shadows’ lord any credit, Rima, finding herself I the middle of two men with childish tendencies, cleared her throat.

“If that is the case, then we should send a scout expedition before our main forces, I suggest I lead it!”

“No!”

“I agree!” Henry then couldn’t help but glare at the shadows’ lord with all the sharpness and intensity his eyes could carry, ready to give the shadows’ bastard a piece of his mind.

“I am the best for the job!” Rima said quickly before the two of them start fighting for real, “The water is a great material for my magic, plus I had the direct blood, my resistance is much stronger than others!”

“I will go with you then!”

“Are you seriously expecting the humans to follow me without their king?!” Eren rolled his eyes, tired of how unreasonable the human king was, he understood the attraction the two shared, and the fact that he was worried for Rima, but this was a war, hard decisions were to be made, just like he made his when it came to the woman he loved.

“Eren is right, You two should stay here, I will take few selected members with me, humans so they can sail the boats, shadow demons so I can communicate with you, and ice demons because we are at our strongest with water around!” seeing that the human king was still worried, she gave him a gentle smile, “I will be careful!”

The human king wasn’t exactly convinced, but he still settled with that arrangement, but not before naming two of his best friends and fighters to join her.

The discussions as expected lasted all night, but once the first ray of sun shone over the town of Tahat, the ice queen as well as twenty-five others were already sailing off the shores into the forbidden sea.

The five boats were not small but they were not as big as ships, the scouting needed to be done in the calmest and most discreet way possible, they still didn’t know what to expect from this journey, no one had ever sailed the forbidden sea and returned to share their story, that thought filled her with caution and anticipation.

But even in the middle of the sea and silence, she wasn’t able to forget about the worried blue eyes she left behind,  it was something she only saw in the eyes of her mother before, and since her mother died in one of the demonic rituals, Rima was left with nothing but ice and cold, to be able to see that kind of genuine concern and affection towards her one more time was heartwarming, and she didn’t want to resist the warmth, especially when he bid her goodbye and made her promise to be safe, and to survive, she couldn’t help but feel his eyes were sealing a silent promise, for a future in which they can be more than allies.

“Something is moving!” a shadow demoness whispered in a very hushed voice, it was non other than the late lord’s granddaughter who was dressed like a maid when they were in the shadows’ castle, Rima knew she wasn’t a maid, but to think she was one of Eren’s best fighters wasn’t something she expected either.

“What?” Rima asked while focusing her eyes on the water, they have been sailing for nearly two hours with a constant speed, and if her calculations were correct, then they were near the circle the hybrid had drawn.

It was weird that the only moving thing they saw since they sailed was near the circle, Rima thought, too coincidental to be a coincidence, her doubts only grew bigger when her instincts sensed an approaching danger, and then she saw it, the moving shape under their boat.

It was fast and almost appeared like a shadow under the water, it was also relatively small, half her size or a little larger, the water surface wasn’t as stable as it was before but rather trembling, as if something was moving swiftly under it.

The thing then moved away from the boat and Rima followed it with her eyes, to where the waters were more instable, something swimming under it, and she doubted it was fish, the thing is, the instability went on in a continuous line.

A circle, she thought to herself before ushering to one of the boats, the five soldiers in it quickly emptied the boat and moved into the other ones, once the boat was emptied, she used her ice to push it forward, very slowly, until it was in the circle.

All the scouting team watched carefully, not a sound was made, nothing happened at first, and some even hoped that these creatures were harmless, but then, the creatures started jumping out of the water and inside the boat, tens of them.

Just as Rima predicted, the creatures were small with similar body structure to theirs, they were of the size of human children who were no older than ten, their skin was incredibly pale, greyish even, some parts of it covered in scales and fins, especially around their limbs.

The scary part about the creature however wasn’t their bare slippery grey skin nor the weird extremities covered in fins and claws, it was their faces, the creatures didn’t have eyes, nor ears at that, just huge gaps from one side to the other splitting their faces, the gaps were filled with big sharp canines, and above it, two orifices that looked like nostrils, and nothing else.

The other scary part, was how fast the creatures shredded the boat with their huge maws, it didn’t take them more than a second before the entire boat was turned into sawdust, they were very animalistic, savage, fast, and very, very numerous!

Thousands! Rima thought in horror, there must be thousands of them, forming a circle, a barrier all around the center, one which she had no idea how to breach!

“We should go back!” one of the soldiers said, and for a second it sounded like a tempting idea, there were just too many of them, more than they could take, but before she could even take the decision, the creatures started swimming their way.