The Messenger of Death

The battle between Scar and octopus lasted for about 10 minutes, and those 10 minutes might have been the most painful 10 minutes of the octopus's life. While they were battling, Scar took out his frustration on the octopus.

He managed to tear the octopus hands whenever he threw an attack. The octopus screamed every time that one of its hands is torn off its body, and although it hurt, the octopus could regenerate the lost arms in almost an instance.

Yellow goo from the ripped-out octopus tentacles filled a particular side of the sea. After ripping and punching parts of the octopus, it couldn't regenerate anymore, that was when Scar took the opportunity to reach its head and give it a finishing blow that turned its brain to liquid.

When Scar was done he returned to the ship that he unintentionally destroyed some parts of. He had the yellowish blood of the octopus on some parts of his body. Scar glanced at Xander and saw that Xander was looking at him with his normal expression, and with his hand clasped behind him.

This temperament of Xander's made Scar feel as if he was being looked down on – like he wasn't anything much. He had just taken his frustration out on the huge octopus and now he felt his emotions swelling up again.

Scar retrieved a ship from his storage ring, a ship bigger than the one that they were on, and jumped onto the deck of this bigger ship. Everyone else on his ship knew what step to take next.

Since he had destroyed the ship that they were on, and they had no time to fix the ship, he offered to carry them on his ship without saying anything. Everyone including Xander jumped to the new ship and abandoned the destroyed ship.

['He still looks pissed.'] Alex uttered.

['That will be good for us, the angrier he gets, the more monsters he'll rush out to kill.'] Xander said.

['Now that I think about it, how are we going to make it back to the academy after we are done with what we have to do on this island?'] Alex questioned.

['We'll figure it out when the time comes… and if push comes to shove, we just need to summon Nana.'] Al answered.

['Uh point of correction, you need to summon Nana. Who knows what she'll do to us for calling her over just so we could hitch a ride. You'll be in control when the moment comes, since you're the one that suggested the idea.'] Alex said.

['Oh please, Lex and Xander can do it too.']

['No, thank you.'] Lex chipped in quickly.

['I'm also not interested in that type of 'push comes to shove' instance.'] Xander refuted too.

['Seriously, I still don't know why I'm still speaking to any of you when you guys either ignore, interrupt, or dump everything on me these days.'] Al complained, he was hurt that he was being treated like this. But they couldn't tell because Al is a complicated person and was hard to figure out sometimes.

['You're welcome.'] Alex said, however, contrary to what he expected, Al refused to reply. Alex didn't think much of it and decided to stay silent too.

A few days went by and they came across many octopuses that had yellow skin and brown polka dots on their body. However, these octopuses weren't much of a hassle because they didn't come in groups but in ones or twos. This made it easier for Scar to fight them, and he was getting better at it as time went by.

Kymani only helped him a few times, when she saw that he couldn't handle them properly on his own, she would rush out to help him.

And then a week went by in the blink of an eye, and finally, they could see signs that there was land not far from where they were.

"Look, everyone!! Schools of birds in the sky!" One of Kymani's subordinates pointed out.

Everyone turned their attention to the birds in the sky and they saw that the species of birds weren't the type to migrate from one place to another. They were the type who couldn't bear to go far away from their homes and that meant that there was land somewhere close.

The excitement that had died down in the hearts of these escapees boiled once again and some of them gave a loud cheer; "Hurray!!" They chorused.

"To our freedom!! Hurray, hurray, hurray!!"

Although they couldn't see the island yet, they knew that they were not far off from there.

Argus saw the birds first, and he knew that they were close to the island that had the opening to the Ordain plain realm. "Something is wrong." He whispered underneath his breath as he stared in the direction of the island.

"These auras aren't meant to be on this island," Argus looked at Xander and thought for a while. 'He'll be alright if I leave him here for a few hours. After all, he hasn't needed my assistance since he crossed the barrier. I'll be back after checking what's happening on the island.' Argus thought and left his position.

Leaving Xander and the rest of the prisoners where they were…

Xander had been starring at the birds for a while now, trying to figure out why he was having an uneasy feeling about the island. ['I can't tell why I feel uneasy.']

['Maybe my paranoia has rubbed off on you.'] Alex joked.

['No, it hasn't.'] Xander replied coldly. ['This is something different from that. I can feel immense danger coming from the direction of where the birds are.'] Xander placed his left palm at the back of his neck and rubbed it a bit. The hair on his neck had been on attention, standing as if danger was coming.

['Xander's instincts are on point most of the time. Something very dangerous might be ahead.'] Lex confirmed.

"Full speed ahead!" Scar ordered.

He out of all them wanted to get to the opening on the island so that he could leave the Lower plain realm and bid good riddance to Xander.

Xander place his right hand on the helm of his sword and tightened his grip on it for a while.

…

Argus had just circled the whole island and was just miles away from the shores of the island now. He could sight monsters that he didn't recall being here, flying over the mountains of the island.

"These monsters are not indigenes of this place, they live far away from here… how did they get here? They couldn't have swum all the way here, could they?" Argus wondered. The feeling that something ominous was about to happen on this island where the opening to the Ordain plain realm is.

Argus knew this region and was aware of how far the no-fly zone extended. Only indigenes of the island that had the opening to the Ordain plain realm could fly in the no-fly zone. But there were monsters that weren't meant to be here, present on the island, and they were flying too. This perplexed Argus greatly.

"But then again, if they had to swim all the way here, it will explain a large number of monster carcasses close to the East shore of the island. Something weird is going on this island." Argus began to wonder if he should return to the academy and report this abnormality to the Headmaster. After thinking for a while, Argus chose to return to being in charge of Xander's safety.

…

Similar to the feeling that Argus was having, Xander, was experiencing the same thing. An hour passed before anyone on the ships could sight the island.

"There it is!!" A man shouted happily.

The humongous shapes of seven mountains graced their eyes with their magnificence. There were thick and long vines that stretched from one mountain to the other, some connecting each mountain to the other. It looked as if they were natural bridges for those that might wish to journey directly from one mountain to another without going down. The peaks of the mountains pierced through the clouds, making it hard for them to estimate their heights.

"Those are some huge rocks," Kymani blurted out.

From afar, they could all see monsters flying in the sky. However, they couldn't estimate their strength from this distance. But this didn't stop them from approaching the island, they didn't care if there were monsters that could kill them on there at this moment.

"If those monsters are able to fly on that island, wouldn't it mean that we will be able to do so when we reach there?" A woman said.

"Maybe." Another answered.

Some of them had tried flying when they reached the place that they had seen the birds flying over. They taught that the rule of the no-fly zone didn't extend to this part of the sea. But after trying, they were appalled by the result and gave up on that idea.

"Full speed ahead!!" Some of them screamed out with vigor, anticipating the freedom that they had dreamed of for years.

Xander too was feeling a bit nervous, anxious to get his hands on the Midas petal and return to safety…