All eight ships of the expedition had successfully emerged through the wall and now sailed down the pathway that seemed endless.

The moon shone its light down on them, casting a faint glow atop the green water. The walls rose on either side of their ships, many hundreds of metres to their left and right.

As for danger, none could quite be spotted. There were no creatures in the water, which was strange. It was well known that chained creatures usually attacked any ship that tried to pass through the gate. It was the main danger that came with trying to cross oceans.

Yet now, there was nothing. No danger. Only the comfort of the ships in the fleet.

The Redflowers found themselves relaxed. Even the newcomers, who were filled with excitement from the journey, had finally managed to relax. They had been sailing for ten minutes now, and yet still there had been no change. They saw this as a sign to get some rest.

However, there were a few figures who were unable to relax.

One of which was Roseus, and the other was Navigator Silius.

As they sailed through the safe route, Roseus kept getting a strange premonition. It was like something was jogging his mind and soul, telling him that something was awaiting them.

Silius didn’t have any premonition, but when he looked at his compass, the Needle of Ruin kept spinning wildly in a circle. Ever since it reached Lv. 2, it would point towards the most necessary danger that the system believed his crew needed to focus on.

At first, he wondered whether this meant that there was simply no danger inbound. However, when he showed it to Captain Roseus, the red-haired young man seemed to have another idea.

They stood at the helm of the ship, looking around.

"I’ll be honest, Silius, I have a strange feeling in my gut too. What makes it even worse is that I believe I know what it is."

Silius raised a brow and looked at his captain.

"Is it danger?" he asked.

Roseus looked up at the sky.

Slowly, the moonlight stopped shining down on them. It was still there, but it was gradually being blotted out by the grey clouds that had started to form beneath it.

The more time passed, the more the clouds blanketed the skies.

None of the other ships seemed to be paying much attention to it. After all, storms were common once the gates had opened. However, for a priest of storms like Roseus, he could feel that something wasn’t right.

And it didn’t take long for him to realise what this was.

As he tried to reach out to those storm clouds above him, he was met by an extremely dominant presence pushing him away.

"Those storms don’t belong to Rai’zac," Roseus pointed out to his navigator.

At the same time, a great gust of wind blew into the safe route.

Despite the walls towering around them, the winds were still able to form and affect them. They were so powerful that crews were immediately forced to hold onto something that could keep them steady.

The world darkened as the clouds grew thicker. Everybody knew what this meant.

"A storm is worse than enemies, I guess!" one of the newbies, Quinn, said to one of the other newcomers.

But they didn’t understand the implications of what was going on.

The storm grew stronger. Not only that, but it began to seem targeted.

The ships that were closest to Roseus seemed to be affected the most.

Since they were Tier II brigantines, they were able to successfully man their ships to fight back against the winds, but they had to fully concentrate and focus their efforts in order to do so.

Even Captain Roseus himself was forced to get to work as he helped man the sails.

They continued fighting against the treacherous winds. Then suddenly, a great purple bolt of lightning shot down from the sky.

Roseus flinched, expecting to be struck.

When he looked up, he saw that the bolt was not aimed at him. It was the ship in front of him.

Captain Lionheart’s ship.

Crash!

It was struck again by a bolt of purple lightning. Even with its resistance to elemental damage, the ship was left in poor condition.

Roseus looked up and saw pirates being flung from the masts and over the railings into the water. Some of the sails fell, and the manoeuvres that had previously been keeping the ship on course were no longer being made.

Slowly, the ship began drifting off to the right, easily being carried by the directed winds.

Waves began to form that carried the ship further along. With every second that passed, the Lionheart ship sailed tens of metres farther away from the rest of the fleet.

"Shit!" Roseus cursed as he made his way to the helm.

He looked out ahead of him using his spyglass, towards Captain Bonnflammé, the 5th Rank Depthblessed. He expected to see the man turning to save his Templar ally. Lionheart wasn’t too far away yet. He could still be saved before he was dragged through the walls and out of the safe route.

However, what he saw instead was the man gesturing to his crew to ignore Lionheart and continue sailing straight ahead. The Bonnflammé ship was mostly unaffected by the storm, and yet he showed no care for his ally, whom he was watching being dragged away from the fleet.

What... What is going on...

Roseus turned and looked back towards the other ships. None of them seemed to care for Lionheart either. It was as though the man was a necessary sacrifice for the fleet to make it into the Third Ocean.

The captain’s fists clenched until blood welled in his palms.

This was not a sacrifice that he was willing to make.

Not when he knew who this storm belonged to.

Susanoo...

Roseus turned towards his men and roared at the top of his voice, making sure that he could be heard over the storm.

"Sail for Lionheart and prepare the grappling hooks! We will not be like them and watch an ally sink!"