3 weeks later.
Ning, Saphandra, and Trevain were on a ship that belonged to the First Bond academy. Along with 22 other students and a few faculty members, they were on their way to the Forbidden Island.
They were already out onto the ocean but were staying inside due to the thunder and lightning that was outside.
The beasts tugged on the ship below and even through the rain and lightning, the ship continued moving on.
The headmaster was inside telling everyone what they should do inside to have a spiritual bond with the spirits.
"Be extremely respectful," the headmaster said. "Even if they look like they have no intelligence, I promise you they do. Not only are most of them fully sentient, but under extreme conditions, some can also even grow to be sapient."
"Gale here is almost sapient. Had he stayed in the Forbidden realm for another 60 or so years, I'm sure he would have been fully sapient," the headmaster said.
Ning nodded as he listened to the headmaster. Spirits were indeed quite intelligent, and as he could see, the headmaster's spirit Gale was pulling pranks on people by blowing on their hair or tugging at their clothes.
That only made him wonder however why the other spirit in the room wasn't so expressive in their ways.
Ever since coming to this world, and in fact, even before then, Ning hadn't really seen little blue play out. In fact, she barely even had any intelligence from what Ning could tell.
He couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong with her. But then again, Saphandra controlled her so much to hide her from the public eyes that it could just be Saphandra's influence that made her act like that.
Gale tugged on his blue hair and Ning was pulled out of his thoughts. He tried to touch the spirit, but his hands went through it as if it were just a soul.
Well, spirits weren't that different in a way. In a way, spirits were just what he was, Energy that gained sentience and then sapience.
The spirits could barely interact physically, so pulling bits of hair and clothes were the most they could do.
Once the debrief was finished, Ning returned to the cabin he was allocated along with Trevain and stayed there for the rest of the day.
Time passed and the storm died down. A few hours later, a loud sound that for some reason wasn't disturbing at all sounded throughout the entire ship.
"We're here."
Hearing the headmaster's voice, Ning and Trevain walked out onto the deck. Many other students were also walking out and they all lined up by the front.
Not far from them, an island stood with nothing but fog covering it. There were bits of colorful dots all over the island that floated in the air.
Trees could barely be seen through the fog, and there was even some dissonance between the island and the air to its side on the ocean.
Like heat waves out of a fire that distorted the surrounding, the edge of the island distorted the horizon in the back as well, making it look like there was a divide between the island and the outer world.
'That must be the seal around the island,' Ning thought. He wondered if there was a Will of the planet that had manifested, but he knew that a will didn't have to necessarily manifest for there to be seals and such in the world.
Kumia had its own Origin hidden inside a secret realm, which was probably the work of its will as well.
Ning looked to the side and saw about 4 different equally sized ships floating by the beach.
There were writings on the ship to let everyone know who it belonged to.
The ship to the farthest left belonged to Thousand Summons school, one of the 5 great schools of this world, alongside the First Bond school.
This school was situated in the Goldfire empire that was northwest of here.
The 2nd ship from the left belonged to the Crimson Wolf Academy, another one of the 5 schools, which was located in the Swega Republic in the southeast.
The 3rd ship belonged to the Divine Fangs school. It was another one of the 5 schools that was located in the Tristan empire in the south.
And finally, the 4th ship belonged to the Infinite Beasts school in the southwest.
The First Bond school itself was in the Taminghall empire and was located in the northeast of this location.
The ship pulled up side by side and the many students and teachers that were standing on the desk looked at the other groups.
Ning looked at the different groups and their uniforms. Black, white, red, and green. With him wearing blue, these 5 all looked very unique from each other.
The headmaster nodded toward the other headmasters to his side and looked at the giant barrier in front of him.
Ning looked ahead as well and the visual became much clearer.
The ocean waves would approach the island, but they would never touch it. The barrier kept the water at bay.
The fog on the island was very dense as well, making it so that aside from the very first tree or two, nothing else could be seen at all.
"This is where the gate will open," the headmaster said as he looked at the gathering of the many flying black dots in the fog.
When Ning looked closely, it turned out that it wasn't in the fog, but rather the barrier.
And there were 25 in total.
"Ah, is this what they use to figure out how many spirits there are inside?" Ning spoke softly.
"Must be," Saphandra said from the side. The various students were talking amongst themselves as well. Almost everyone that was here was here for the first time.
"The barrier will open anytime now," the headmaster said. "Once it opens, it will only close once all 125 of you are inside."
"So prepare yourselves. We will disembark anytime now."
