Arriving at Palo town the three men got off the ship. Floyd looking angry and bored, Raven looking as pleased as a child who got away with stealing candy, and Xavier preparing the ship for return to the man he rented it from. After he talked to the fisherman and returned the boat, with a contract, the three headed into the town towards the Grand Navy base. Xavier told Floyd to watch Raven. The two had tied him up so he wouldn’t be as prone to running.
Heading into the Grand Navy base he went straight to the receptionist. “Excuse me. I would like to speak with the Grand Navy admiral on site. I am here on important business,” Xavier informed the receptionist.
The receptionist looked up, she seemed to recognize Xavier, “Right this way sir,” she said gesturing for Xavier to follow.
Xavier followed the receptionist and they reached a different room then the last time he was there. The receptionist closed the door behind him after he walked in. Sitting at the desk was the same Grand Navy admiral he had seen last time. “Excuse me sir, I have done as you asked and would like to help establish business with the Warseas and Magius,” Xavier announced to the admiral.
The admiral took one look at Xavier and responded, “Good, if you have Raven take him to Magius, We don’t want him in the War Seas. You may take the next boat leaving Palo town and heading to Magius,” the admiral then handed Xavier a paper. “Safe travels through the dark seas.”
“Safe travels, admiral,” Xavier responded before he left.
“What!?” Floyd yelled when Xavier told him they would be taking Raven to Magius.”This guy has been nagging me for the past 30 minutes! If I have to spend several days on a boat with him, I’ll toss him overboard!”
“Not if I get to it before you!” Raven said cheerfully.
Xavier looked at the two. Raven was still tied up but swaying side to side smiling. “Let’s go before either of you kill one another.”
“I couldn’t agree more. Well, I would love to kill Raven,” Floyd responded.
Xavier sighed. He then led his two companions to the ship scheduled to leave and the crew was looking for someone to protect the ship from dangers. Xavier and Floyd came aboard with the letter the admiral gave him and said they would protect the ship from dangers. The Captain’s name was Steve.
The Ship left harbor during the afternoon that day. A good portion of the crew had never sailed the dark sea. Steve had sailed it six times. The ship was a large ship designed for luggage, not speed. Morden’s ship was the second fastest ship on the waters. He wasn’t sailing again for at least a week. His boat still required repairs.
Floyd began by picking the furthest hammock from where Raven slept. Xavier had persuaded Floyd to untie Raven much to Floyd’s displeasure. Xavier picked a hammock near the entrance so he could be on deck as soon as a threat was spotted or felt.
The first day at sea was uneventful, they sailed into a storm and the lightning was annoying but because of the ship’s size it was nearly unscathed by the storm. Raven had disappeared halfway through the day after the ship left harbor. Raven wasn’t found until the second day of their trip. He had slept in the crow’s nest unfazed by the storm that had gone all throughout the night. He had also acquired two long black one handed swords. Floyd wanted to confiscate them but Xavier said, “The more people able to fight off the sea, the better,” No one said they were theirs either so Raven was given ownership of the swords.
A white-eyes attempted to attack them when the water was calmer and they hadn’t hit any large storm yet. The white-eyes was killed, by Xavier and Floyd, before it could even reach the ship. Some crew members began experiencing symptoms of insanity two.
The Night on day two was very eventful. Steve accidentally sailed into an area of pitch black. A few of the crew died to Insanity four because of it. After sailing out they were hit by a huge storm. Which battered the ship and tore one of the crew off of the ship dooming him to the waves. They also nearly got sucked into a whirlpool where a giant lurker was waiting at the bottom.
Day three passed quickly and uneventfully as the crew continued to battle the storm taking shifts. Raven took over steering at one point much to Steve’s relief. When day four came a very interesting occurrence happened. Off in the distance someone spotted a rowboat being paddled by a character with black hair. Xavier just gawked at it.
Raven stood up on a barrel and shouted to the crew pointing, “Everyone, that guy out there, is cooler than any of us will ever be only the truest of heart and strength can survive the dark sea in a rowboat!”
Floyd responded, “Your stupid, that man is gonna die as soon as even a poison-jaws sees him.”
Everyone just watched him continue paddling, Raven waved and the man in the boat waved back. All of a sudden the rowboat was engulfed in the jaws of a megalodon. Floyd laughed, “See Raven he was just lucky before,”
Raven just watched. And then, the sky was on fire, black and orange fire filled the horizon and the nearly freezing water turned into boiling steam. Some of the crew screamed. Steve yelled, “Someone do something!” The air then cleared leaving the normal gray-darkness of the dark sea. At the empi-center of the blast, water began rushing in to fill the gap. Steve’s boat was quickly dragged in as well.
Everyone grabbed onto something screaming. Xavier on the other hand jumped to the front of the ship, the water below was pushing them fast, he could even see the sand at the bottom of the sea, which had been converted into glass. The water’s force was gonna tip the boat, “Flaming Beam!” Xavier shouted. The beam of magma went flying and solidified from the water hitting it. But it did its job, The new stone pillar formed, stabbed into the ship and held in place stopping it from sailing any further forward to its certain doom at the bottom of the sea. Xavier then jumped inside the hull of the ship using the hole he had just made. A lot of the boxes and crates at the bottom had been pierced by it as well but stopped it from going all the way through the ship. Xavier could only hear the roar of the sea about to come filling into the boat when he yelled, “MAGMA MAGIC: INFERNO BLAST!‘’ His magma filled the hole but was stopped there by the water which cooled it down and sealed the hole.
Sighing he collapsed backwards into the dust and blackness of the ship’s hull.
When he was prodded awake it was by some guy with matted black hair, he wasn’t part of the crew. “Hey, you alive?” a man said, prodding him. A couple others of the crew were also there including Floyd. Raven wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Ow, my head, Everything is ringing.” Xavier tried to stand but failed and fell back down.
“Let me introduce myself. I’m Apocalypse. It’s a pleasure to meet friends of someone who appreciates my art. I don’t see many other travelers in the dark sea,” The apocalypse said.
“It’s okay, no one died. Also where did you come from again?”
“Oh, I’m the rowboat main that you saw,” Apocalypse chuckled, “My magic is what caused that apocalypse of art.”
“Oh. Well it’s nice to meet you?” Xavier’s vision blurred and then he collapsed.
When Xavier woke up again, The Apocalypse had rowed away and everyone seemed to be doing okay, Raven was at the helm steering.
The next two days passed much like the first two, and Xavier was at the peak of his strength again very quickly. A day before they would reach Magius, Joe, who was up in the crow’s nest, said he saw a white-eyes swimming towards them. It wasn’t swimming though. All of a sudden the main sail-shaft was cleaved and broken by a flying white-eyes. Xavier spotted the huge bite mark that nearly split the shark in half. It had been flung. Joe fell with the sail into the sea.
Steve looked forward and cursed, “Xavier, Floyd, Raven! 8:30!” The three were at the side of the ship in a heartbeat. Swimming towards the ship was the largest eel Xavier had ever seen, easily triple the length of the ship, and its eyes held nothing but fury.