As the morning sun scattered its rays across the gently moving sea, Daniel was the first to step out of the cabin. He joined Jonathan and Genevieve at the boat's helm, where Genevieve's palm emanated a steady stream of emerald wind power.

A light fog hovered over the water, creating a soft contrast to the vivid pink and orange hues painting the sky. The few clouds overhead were bathed in golden light. The sea's calmer waves hinted at a peaceful day ahead.

"How are you two this morning?" Daniel asked.

Both had bags under their eyes but managed to say "fine" simultaneously.

Daniel gazed out at the horizon and smiled from ear to ear. "Well, I think we are about to be a lot better! Thank you so much to the two of you! Look, we have managed to arrive!" Daniel pointed ahead, and a solid, wide formation became prominent through the fog. Daniel marveled at it for a few minutes. "I'm not sure if either of you got any sleep, but has that prevented you from seeing what's ahead? I thought you'd be more excited!"

Jonathan and his girlfriend squinted at the land mass, which seemed unlike any island they had ever seen. It was a thick, smooth wall of gray rock. They were used to seeing cities on the horizon, mountains, or trees. This had nothing.

"Are you sure this is the island?" Jonathan asked.

"Yes! Yes, of course, it is!" Daniel shouted.

The boat kept cruising forward, and as they got closer to the wide rock formation, Daniel ran into the cabin and woke everyone up, bringing them outside.

"We're here! We're here!" Daniel paced around the boat, focusing on the island but never lost his grin.

"Uh, Daniel, I'm not seeing any place to dock," Genevieve said.

"That's okay, just get us as close to the island as possible. We can put out the anchor pretty close to the land."

As the boat came near the rock formation, Genevieve stopped the wind stream, and the ship came to a stop. Everyone on board helped throw the anchor overboard and parked the boat 30 yards away.

The rock island had layers like steps that went straight up, no one could see what was on the actual island, it was too tall, even from the crow's nest on the boat.

"Do you expect us to swim to the land out there?" Hawthorne asked.

"Yes," Daniel said. "I need you all to get on the island, and the only way we can do that safely without risking damage to the boat is by jumping off here and swimming across the water. None of you should be worried, though, the water is quite shallow, and the waves are weak."

Daniel's students all gave each other an uncertain glance.

"Seriously. It's not the end of the world. I'll get there first and show you all. It's not a big deal." Daniel went to the front of the ship, looked behind at everyone, and winked at them before diving into the water. Flying through the waves, Daniel made short work of the swim before arriving on the island. Turning around, he waved back to everyone and yelled, "It's your turn now! Go individually or all at once, but we must get here as soon as possible!"

Jonathan approached the front of the boat. "Sorry, everyone, I didn't know we would have to swim either, but I will be the last one on the ship to ensure everyone gets across okay. If there's any struggle, Daniel or I will help you."

Everyone hesitated, but Patrick was the first to nod and step forward. "Come on, everyone, let's finish this as soon as possible."

All the students exchanged looks but nodded and joined Patrick at the front of the boat.

"If it helps all of you, I can count to three, and you can all jump and swim across. Do we want that?" Jonathan asked.

"Yes," they all responded.

"3... 2... 1!" Jonathan hollered.

Everyone dove into the water, but Hawthorne was the only one who lagged behind. Elijah was technically ahead of him but was also behind the rest of the pack.

Patrick and Elliot were the first to cross the waters without any issues. Richmond was next, and then Hawthorne managed to get ahead of Elijah. But something had slowed Elijah down, he kept swimming forward but stayed still in one place.

"Elijah! What are you doing?" Daniel screamed.

From the other side of the ship, Jonathan noticed something was amiss, it looked like something was holding Elijah.

"Daniel! He needs our help!" Jonathan yelled. Jonathan spun around and beckoned for Genevieve. She came rushing to him. "I need you to blow out some water to see what's holding Elijah."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Okay!" She aimed her hands at Elijah and shot forward a wind strike, clearing out a section of the water. A decrepit ghost-white arm had wrapped its fingers around Elijah's leg.

Elijah stopped moving and shouted at the top of his lungs.

With a powerful forward thrust of his hand, Jonathan unleashed a piercing iox bolt at the imposing arm. The energy beam cut through the flesh, breaking it into two halves and, in the process, liberating Elijah. Swiftly, Jonathan plunged into the depths as Genevieve cut off the wind stream. Despite their efforts, the water claimed Elijah, filling his lungs with water.

Desperation fueled Elijah's struggle towards the surface, his hands clawing desperately against the engulfing sea. Exhaustion, however, was relentless as his energy levels plummeted. His arms wildly flapped above the surface in a futile plea for assistance.

Daniel sprang into the water and swam after Elijah, Jonathan was also swimming toward him with as much power and speed as they could muster. All the others watching from the island yelled, "Everything will be okay, Elijah!" "Hang in there, Elijah! Help is coming!" "Elijah! We need you!"

Jonathan got to him first and wrapped his arm around him, and then Daniel joined, and together they brought him to the smooth rock shore of the island.

Laying Elijah down on the ground, he tried to breathe but struggled. Jonathan instinctively pumped Elijah's chest until he spat out all the water from his lungs.

After a huge deep breath, Elijah was coherent once more. "Thank you so much, you saved my life back there. What in the world was that thing?"

No one said anything, but they all looked to Daniel for an answer.

"I'm sorry to say, but I don't even know what just happened. I've never seen a creature like that before in my life," Daniel said.

"Do you even know where we are?" Elijah asked.

"Yes. We are exactly where we need to be."

Elijah scoffed." But what does that even mean? I'm talking about pointing to it on a map, where are we in relation to Hartsera? Ever since we started getting closer to you and learning the iox magic, you're taking us to all these weird places, and I almost just died for you. Twice if you count the invasion last night from the hellions."

Daniel held his hands up, laying down his guard. "There's a lot of islands that the mages long ago deemed unnoteworthy, or land that belonged to the gargoyles, and even gargoyles had places that weren't desirable. So I was able to own an island further away because no one wanted it. There's not much there. You saw how gray and abandoned everything was, no one wanted to live there, but I needed a place to run this operation out of the public eye. So there, that explains my island. But this one, Glimarxa, is rumored to have only existed in mythology."

"I don't think any of us have ever heard of this island."

"It's because you haven't. People don't want this information known. They don't want it to be public. I had to do all the research myself, and even then, it was very hard for me. I can't just tell you all about it because It's all very complex and difficult to recite, but I can tell you this!" Daniel pointed his finger in the air. "This island harnesses a special power that requires all of us to unlock."

Elijah sighed. "That didn't really answer my question, but okay. Whatever. It's too complex, yeah, sure." Elijah continued muttering something under his breath. Patrick gave him a dirty look, but Elijah didn't notice.

"I don't want to keep wasting your time, so let's go up the steps and see what's in store for us, shall we?" Daniel said.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your flow, but we can't see what's above the top step there." Elijah pointed up at the rock wall. "The layers keep rising, but we can't see above it. How do we know there's not a giant monster waiting to kill us? We don't know what's going on."

Richmond and Elliot both nodded.

Daniel narrowed his eyes at Elijah.

"That's a good question, Daniel. I'll check up top to make sure we are okay," Jonathan said.

"I'll go with you, just to confirm," Hawthorne said.

"I can guarantee you there's no monster there, but if you want to check, go ahead," Daniel said.

"I've already been ambushed twice by monsters!" Elijah snapped. "I think I speak for everyone when I say I want to check there's nothing going to jump out at us. I'm sorry, Daniel if you think I'm being difficult, but your explanations of where we are and what we're doing haven't inspired a lot of hope."

Jonathan nodded and moved ahead first, jogging up the broad steps of the perfectly formed layers from the rock. Hawthorne followed behind him. They made it to the top and gazed at the center of the island.

"Honestly, Hawthorne, I've never been to this island. I had no idea what to expect, but I knew that Daniel had been here before, and he wouldn't lead us into an attack." Jonathan turned around and waved to everyone waiting at the base of the steps. "It's safe! There's nothing up here!"

"But, Jonathan, what's that hole in the island's center?" Hawthorne whispered as he pointed.

From beyond the top, the island sank down to a bowl of stone. It would be awkward to walk on, but It was possible to approach the gaping black hole at the center.

"I'm not really sure. Daniel will know more," Jonathan said.

As Daniel and the rest of the group joined them at the top, they all took a moment to gawk at the massive bowl-shaped island.

"I've never seen anything like this before. This is so weird," Elliot said.

Everyone else agreed except for Daniel.

"All right. You see? There's no monster here. We just have to go to the island's center and enter the portal there," Daniel said.

"That's a portal? Where does the portal go? Is it to the Nomagi world?" Patrick asked. "You know, that's where I'm from originally. I don't want to go back."

"No, it's not connected to the Nomagi world," Daniel said. "At least, I don't think it is. It's actually a gate. According to my mythological studies and text, which has been verified by many trusted sources, this hole will take us to our next mission of immense wealth."

"I hate this!" Elijah yelled. "I'm growing tired of getting the runaround here. We are on the island, for crying out loud, and we still don't know where this portal goes or what we will do to get all this money you're talking about! Why should I still keep trusting you? What if we're just being raised like animals for slaughter?"

Daniel clenched his jaw. "Fine. We've made it this far, and we've all trusted each other since then, I just didn't want anyone to be frightened off by this point. Could you imagine me telling you all these things we witnessed so far? But to be honest, I didn't expect the hellions, and I didn't expect that last creature to attack us. But fine, you want to know what's down there and why we need to get through that portal?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Explain however you have to, take as long as you have to, but I think I speak for everyone when I say I need to understand what lies ahead," Elijah said.

Daniel cleared his throat and thought about how to phrase the information.