CHAPTER 48: LOST ON THE ISLAND

Lindy pulled Damian close. "I can use my magic to keep us alive, but ideally we need to land somewhere with solid ground," she said.

Falling straight into the water wasn’t ideal. Damian tried to look out the airplane window as it plummeted, and he managed to spot an island.

"There’s an island over there—could we aim for that?" Damian asked.

She looked out the window too. "Yes. Hold on to me, please."

Damian did as Lindy asked. That’s when she suddenly jumped out of the plane. The move caught Damian completely off guard—he hadn’t imagined she would do something like that without warning.

While in the air, Damian noticed they seemed to be slowing down, almost as if something was making them float like feathers.

"What is this?" he asked.

Lindy was deeply focused. She could barely respond.

"I’m using my wind magic to guide us toward the island. Let me concentrate."

It was something that demanded a lot from her—it wasn’t easy. Any mistake could cost both their lives.

Well, Damian still had his teleportation ability, the one he had gained by absorbing that demon, so he could save them both if it came down to it. But for now, he wanted to keep that as a secret—especially since he was currently at the academy, essentially working as a sort of spy.

They drifted slowly toward the island. It took quite some time to reach it. By the time they finally landed, Lindy looked exhausted. Damian could feel that the mana in her body had been heavily drained.

Any magic related to flight or teleportation was notoriously difficult to execute. Few hunters had the ability to pull something like that off—which showed just how skilled Lindy was.

Only Damian could teleport so easily, and that was thanks entirely to his System.

In any case, the two of them managed to reach the island safely. Not only that, they had also retrieved the bags they’d brought with them. Lindy carried one while Damian carried the other.

That’s when the reality of the situation finally sank in.

"The pilot and co-pilot were hired to kill us," Lindy said, "or maybe... they were hired to kill you."

"This is way too strange. First they try to rob you, then they attack me, and now they’ve tried to kill both of us. Tell me—what the hell did they steal from you, and why do they want you dead?" Damian asked.

Anyone could tell that Lindy was at the center of all this. Damian had been attacked simply because he’d become her assistant—and, by sheer bad luck, had seen things he never should have.

Lindy seemed hesitant to talk about it. She didn’t want to—this was a secret she wanted to keep to herself, just as Damian had his own.

"I’m investigating something at the academy..." she finally said.

That caught Damian off guard. After all, he too was at the academy investigating something—something Leo had tasked him with.

"Investigating something? I need more details," Damian said. "And can I trust you?"

"Of course you can! Look, I didn’t join the academy with any sort of investigation in mind—I was just a ’normal’ teacher like all the others. But the person in charge of the academy changed two years ago, and things have gotten... strange," Lindy explained.

"Strange how?"

"Strange as in... they’re doing something underground, holding secret talks with people from other countries. You saw those two people who robbed me—and now it looks like they want me dead..."

Damian’s curiosity was piqued. If they were willing to kill Lindy—and him along with her—that could only mean they were hiding something, and whatever it was, it wasn’t simple.

"Do you have any idea what they might be doing underground?" Damian asked.

Thinking for a moment, Lindy replied, "I have a guess. I think they found something beneath the ground, and from what I’ve overheard in certain conversations, it has something to do with the new continent they believe they’ve recently discovered."

"New continent? The one they say is full of demons? I thought humans had already explored that," Damian said.

"No, not that one. This is another one—a continent discovered recently, but even SS-ranked hunters can’t reach it. And our technology doesn’t work there either. It’s as if there’s a barrier surrounding it," Lindy explained.

She knew more about it because she was a teacher at the academy—one who specialized in studying demons and everything related to them.

"And you’re sure that’s what it is?" Damian asked.

"It’s impossible to be sure, but I think so. And after I started digging deeper into it, that’s when I was robbed—and now attacked. I think I was getting too close to the truth."

Never in his life would Damian have imagined that Lindy was investigating something inside the academy.

Once the two had cleared the air, the reality of their situation set in.

They had crashed on an island in the middle of the ocean—practically in the middle of nowhere.

The forest on the island was dense, clearly a place untouched by human presence.

The only sounds they could hear were the calls of animals and the waves crashing against the shore.

"What do we do now? How are we going to get out of here?" Lindy asked.

Damian had his teleportation ability, but the distance was uncertain. There was a very real chance he could teleport in one direction and end up in the middle of the ocean—which would be even worse.

Lindy, despite having some wind-element magic at her disposal, didn’t have enough power to fly both of them far from there.

For the moment, they were trapped. But neither of them panicked.

"It’s only a matter of time before we figure out a way to get out of here—or someone finds a clue and comes looking for us," Damian said.

"Let’s hope so..."

Lindy wasn’t nearly as confident that anyone would come looking for them, but she still tried to keep calm and take the lead.

After all, she was the more experienced and powerful hunter. She was the teacher. Lindy wanted to keep Damian reassured.

As they walked through the island, searching for anything useful, Lindy said, "I’m honestly surprised you’re not panicking. I think most students would be terrified right now."

"Maybe I just haven’t realized how screwed we are," Damian replied with a nervous chuckle. "The worst part is, even if we make it back to the academy, there’s a chance we’ll be attacked again."

"We’ll worry about that once we get back," Lindy said.

In that situation, she wanted to focus her mind only on the things she could change in the moment—basically surviving and getting out of there alive.

Everything else could wait. Thinking about it now would only cloud her mind and make things harder.

With that mindset, Lindy and Damian headed into the forest, searching for anything that could help them escape the island.

There was nothing. It was pure virgin wilderness, a place that seemed untouched by humanity.

To make matters worse, their phones had no signal. There was no way to call for help.

"Notice anything interesting?" Lindy asked.

From the way she said it, it wasn’t really a question—it was more of a statement. She was testing Damian’s perception.

He was quick to catch on. "No demons? I don’t sense anything on this island, and since nothing has attacked us, it seems demon-free."

Lindy nodded. "It is strange, yes. But no place is ever completely free of demons. Maybe the ones here are simply dormant. Since there’s no human presence, they hibernate to avoid having to feed."

"Seriously? That’s a thing?"

"Of course," Lindy replied. "Some demons eat very rarely because they wake, feed, and then go back to sleep. There’s even a legend about one that attacks only once every thousand years—but when it does, it devours an entire city."

Demons really were fascinating creatures. Damian couldn’t deny that.

The two kept moving forward—until something they saw in the middle of the island made them stop in their tracks.

It was something completely unexpected to find in a place like this.

Stone structures!

Or rather... ruins.

The place was clearly in disrepair in some areas and abandoned, with vegetation slowly reclaiming the land.

Even so, finding a man-made (or seemingly man-made) structure here was both strange and fascinating.

"Looks like humans have been here before and built this," Damian said.

Lindy, on the other hand, shook her head. "Easy there, my dear student. Maybe this wasn’t built by humans at all—but by demons. I’ve told you before that they had all sorts of societies and cities."

Hearing that made Damian’s excitement spike. He suddenly had a strong urge to explore the place. Maybe it wouldn’t turn out to be anything of real importance, but that didn’t matter.

The two approached the ruins, and from up close, they could see that it might have once been a large castle—or perhaps a mansion—entirely built of stone.

What was curious was that this type of stone didn’t exist naturally on the island.

Someone must have brought it from somewhere else.

That’s when they discovered a staircase leading down into the dungeons of the ancient structure.

Of course, they went down.