Boarding the small boat, they began to slowly drift away from the island.
Along the way, they saw five other islands — all of them destroyed, slowly sinking beneath the waves.
An hour passed. They had traveled more than thirty kilometers. The sun still shone brightly overhead.
Suddenly, a thought struck Emma, and what she said next made the others tense up.
"I think… this isn't a sea. It's an ocean."
David frowned.
"Where did you get that from?"
"Look out there. See how the water seems to disappear over the horizon? That's an ocean for sure."
"You're right… which means, if we don't make it before the day ends, we might meet the same fate as those islands."
Meanwhile, Lucy was asleep, her skin damp with sweat. She suddenly sat up as if waking from a nightmare.
Emma quickly asked:
"What happened?"
"I… can't say," Lucy replied, her voice trembling.
Emma didn't press her, knowing something serious must have happened.
David, on the other hand, stayed on high alert as they continued southward across the ocean.
The sun was already dipping toward the horizon, and tension hung in the air.
Then, about ten kilometers ahead, they spotted a massive tree.
"See that tree ahead?" David said.
They looked in that direction. The tree was colossal — about a kilometer tall and nearly as wide.
They began rowing toward it, and in the meantime the sun slipped completely below the horizon. A deathly silence fell. Only the sound of waves could be heard, and darkness surrounded them.
David, who could see in the dark, didn't change course and kept heading toward the tree.
Suddenly, the water began to churn violently, spiraling into a furious whirlpool like a tornado. Their makeshift boat barely held together.
Fear gripped them all. When they were only about two hundred meters from the tree, the boat gave way, splitting apart and leaving the three of them in the freezing water.
Lucy couldn't swim and began to choke on the waves. David grabbed her, hoisting her onto his back, and tried to swim away from the watery vortex. But his strength was quickly running out.
Emma had managed to get out of the whirlpool's pull, but it had drained most of her energy. She knew that if she went back for them, she'd drown too.
"Leave me, David! We won't make it together!" Lucy cried.
"Damn it… I can't leave her… I'll have to take off the blindfold," David thought.
He tore the blindfold from his eyes, and his abilities instantly doubled. Stroke by stroke, he could feel himself escaping the whirlpool.
Finally, reaching calmer waters, David swam over to Emma and handed Lucy to her. Then his body went limp, sinking from sheer exhaustion.
Emma caught him and started swimming toward the tree.
When she finally reached it, she found herself before an enormous trunk. Its leaves were crimson, as if soaked in blood.
Suddenly, a low growl echoed nearby. Emma quickly hid inside a crack in the bark.
A demon walked past. His body was massive, his skin deathly pale. One arm was human, the other resembled a giant crab's claw. His face, too, was li
ke that of a crab.
Finding nothing, the demon moved on.