Once Vorden was well out of Hilston’s sight, he began panting heavily, holding his head tightly.

"Does he know? Does he KNOW?!" Raten yelled in their mind.

"I don’t know!" Vorden mentally shot back.

"That wasn’t natural at all, idiot, you practically gave us away!"

"Could you have done better?!" Vorden retorted, pointing at him in their mental space, "YOU try coming up with a lie with him around!"

"He’s going to attack us at any second now, just watch," Raten said, staring at Vorden’s vision in the outside world, but despite waiting a very tense minute, nothing happened.

"... He’s probably going to show up later, just to prove a point," Raten whispered.

"... We’re fine," Vorden whispered back, trying to take in deep breaths, "We’re fine. Let’s just continue with our plan. If he knew then he would’ve done something by now."

After collecting himself, Vorden activated the invisibility ability once again, and quickly left the castle. There, he made his way away from the old building, and into the jungle of the island.

The island was sorted into two sections, one where their family members lived, and the other half where powerful beasts roamed the tropical jungle.

The moon cast down a faint light as Vorden made his way through the thick foliage, stepping over roots, and bushes. Even with the threat of getting ambushed by a king tier or emperor tier beast, it was worth the risk as to not get spotted by another member of their family. If they knew what Vorden and Raten were up to, they would alert the head in no time.

Thankfully, they still had the invisibility ability, and they were able to travel through the jungle quietly enough to reach the far end of the island. The beach.

The shore was quiet, with only the sounds of waves crashing into each other. It was the kind of silence that made the two minds inside of the one body reflect upon what they were about to do. Some part of Vorden had a brief thought to return back to the castle, and forget this ever happened, but he knew what awaited them if he did.

After sitting and waiting just long enough to fully replenish their MC, Vorden internally allowed Raten to take the chair.

"Alright, Raten, you’re up."

Raten took control and cracked his knuckles before parting a section of the ocean. He waved his hands around, forming a giant water bubble around their body, then, he walked along the ocean floor, safe from drowning.

Thanks to Raten pooling the MC of both the level 7 water ability and the level 7 octopus ability, he was able to raise the water ability up to a level 14, something that would be devastating to fight against. This meant that even with the vastness of the ocean, they would have more than enough MC for the trip, and keep up the bubble with ease.

As the two walked through the ocean without any trouble, a worry popped up in Vorden’s mind. There was one last issue that they were likely going to face as they left the island.

"Hey, Raten, keep your eyes open in case the kra—"

"Shut up!" Raten shouted, "It’s not going to—"

That was when the dim moonlight had suddenly dimmed. Turning to see what had caused it, Raten spotted a giant shadowy figure casting the silhouette of a squid. It was dark under the ocean, and they didn’t have any sources of lights, but they could definitely tell that they had to do something fast as a giant tentacle was slamming down in their direction.

"Raten! Use the octopus ability—!" Vorden shouted.

"I know!" Raten yelled as his body began to transform.

The water bubble collapsed around them, and immediately, they could all feel their body change, but would it change fast enough so they wouldn’t drown?

The tentacle slammed next to them, flinging his body around in the ocean. Raten’s fingers merged together into one limb, then split into two. The same happened to his legs, and he could feel the back of his head bulging. His skin turned a sickly yellow, with light blue rings forming all over his skin.

Soon, his mouth disappeared, eyes growing large, gaining wavy slits for pupils. His blonde hair receded, merging with his now giant head. He still had a relatively humanoid torso, and a neck, but the rest was all octopus.

Luckily, the octopus form allowed them to breathe underwater, and he quickly swam away from the giant beast in the ocean.

"Ugh, I was really hoping not to use this form," Raten commented in their shared mind. He couldn’t even speak in the outside world if he tried, "But I’m glad we’re off that island."

Turning around, with their new octopus eyes, they could now see the giant looming kraken beast clearly. It looked at them for a moment, deciding what to do, before swimming off.

"Does it think we’re the same species?" Vorden wondered.

"Does it matter? We’re FREE!" Raten cheered.

—

Back at the family castle, Hilston was looking at a painting on the wall, deep in thought. The painting featured nobody important, at least, not anymore, as they had long since passed.

That was when a spry servant had come up to him, shaking a little as he was nervously fidgeting with his hands.

"Sir, I uh... I have bad news," The servant began, "It appears that you were right, he has left the castle. We can’t find him anywhere."

"Hmm, " Hilston grumbled, "And has he been seen anywhere else?"

"No sir," The servant gulped, "We tried searching for him, but it appears that he had... Well, disappeared."

"... Just as I thought, he really did leave the island," Hilston spoke with a quiet intensity.

When Vorden had come across him just a few hours prior, Hilston was not blind as to know he was unusually nervous. He had his suspicion that he was planning something, so when he copied the boy’s abilities, Hilston realized what exactly it was.

"You uh, don’t seem mad? ... Are you mad?"

"Not at all," Hilston replied casually, "In fact, I believe this will do him some good. I had done many things to try to get his old strength to come out, but getting time outside of the island was one of the things I hadn’t tried."

"But sir! He’s escaped!" The servant pointed out.

"He didn’t escape, I allowed him to leave," Hilston corrected, "Besides, I can find him at any time."

The servant watched Hilston stride towards the family dinner room, and raised a hand up.

"Call the family over. Tell them it’s about the boy," Hilston said before turning a corner, disappearing from view.

—

Hilston sat at a large rectangular table alongside his family. Sitting on one side was an older lady, one with crows feet lining her eyes, and long golden blonde hair with streaks of gray. Next to her was Vicky, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed.

On the other side were two males, an older man with the bottom half of his hair growing gray, and a clean shaven chin. Next to him was a younger man that looked nearly identical to Vicky, having all the same features as her except having a marginally more masculine chin, and a T-shirt instead of a tank top.

None of them had spoken up, aside from a few small complaints from Vicky about having such a meeting late in the day, but they all saw there was an empty chair in the room, the one where Vorden usually sat.

Hilston gave them a quick rundown of what had happened, that Vorden had ’escaped’ the island without anyone but him finding out about it. Despite him going directly against the lock down, Hilston was strangely not upset.

"So HE gets to leave the island?!" Vicky practically shouted, before the older lady next to her glared at her with worried eyes, indicating to silence herself.

"Now, I don’t like spending too much time away from family, but for this instance, I am lifting the lock down," Hilston began, then looked to Vicky with a smile, "As well as sending a group to find him."

Immediately, Vicky’s posture perked up, and she raised her hand.

"Can I volunteer?" Vicky begged, "Please, please, please!"

Hilston nodded, "You may leave the island, and use whatever tools we may have."

Vicky smiled, fist bumping the air, "Yes! I promise I won’t let you down!"