CHAPTER 53: Missing XOC

"Then we're going to have a problem."

Azura lightly pushed Han onto the gangplank, without ever taking her eyes off Leon.

"Don't think just because you're ranked thirty-ninth that I'm afraid of you."

Leon's sneer increased, and with deliberate and purposeful steps, he walked toward her, hands in his pocket. "Well, you should."

Azura brought her fists in front of her face and lowered her hips.

No one was told or explicitly instructed, but everyone around them somehow knew to give room, leading to a wide-open area avoided by everyone on the deck.

Azura took several steps forward, leaving the area in front of the gangplank, and walked closer to Leon while keeping her guard up. Meanwhile, with that same arrogant, cocky expression on his face Alex casually strolled toward her.

They met in the middle of the wide open area and faced each other.

In a way, the image of Azura and Leon was an amusing and contrasting one, with one of them obviously cautious and wary, easily observed from her movements and the look in her eyes. However, the other was very lackadaisical about the whole thing, making it extremely obvious that he wasn't taking his opponent very seriously.

Moments passed as they stood mere meters away from each other. An intriguing and contradicting breeze, slightly chilly yet paradoxically frigid, swept across the deck, causing hair and clothing attire to twirl and flow like flowers. Simultaneously it intensified the strained and weighty atmosphere, making for a serious tone, ripe with a sense of dread and anticipation.

Surveying the deck of The Weatherer, Alex instantly discerned from the expressions of his fellow students and shipmates that they were anticipating a violent confrontation and hoping to avoid any possible fallout.

Abruptly, Alex realized that his mouth was as dry as a desert, a clear sign that the tension of the situation had affected him as well.

He swallowed heavily and let his gaze travel back to Leon and Azura.

"Are we gonna do this?" Azura exclaimed, hopping from one foot to the other.

Leon slowly closed his eyes, However, moments later, a humorless and slightly ominous chuckle swept across the deck—a spine tingling and faint inducing sound, frightening to the ear and terrifying to any listener unfortunate enough to hear it.

"What's so funny?" Azura asked, a flash of unease passing through her eyes as she lightly backed away.

The light laughter continued for several more moments, until it abruptly cut off, and Leon's head shot up. "The fact that you can't tell when you're totally outclassed."

Then with a crazed smile, he stepped forward.

Suddenly, at some distance—perhaps a kilometer away—a bright, almost blinding light abruptly shone, illuminating the area around and revealing everything from the grainy black sand to the warehouses scattered around the dock. Moments later, as if struggling to catch up with the light, there was a delayed response of several seconds before the sound of an explosion rang out.

*BOOM*

At almost the same time, all the eyes of the students aboard the ship, including Alex's, were drawn away from the ongoing confrontation and over to the shining light.

A frown appeared on Alex's face as he realized the location the light originated.

'The Senseless Coast?'

Moments later, that thought proved correct, for as the light faded, the towering and dark veil of The Senseless Coast was briefly made clear and visible, defying both the distance and the nighttime, and disregarding the natural darkness of the location.

Then the light fully disappeared, casting the sandy beach back into the dark and gloomy shadow of the nighttime, leaving only the moon to dimly light the area.

Now that the theatrics were over, one after the other the students turned back to observe Leon and Azura.

However, during the seconds that had passed, the tension had alleviated, leaving Leon and Azura standing and staring at each other with neither making any move that would be the cause of an escalation.

Seconds went by in that manner, seconds in which everyone present had one collective thought on their mind; what now?

Moments later though, it was made clear that the danger had passed as Leon sighed and turned around with a shake of his head.

"Whatever, I'm not in the mood anymore now that another one's coming." He walked back to the mast and slumped down against it before motioning over to his lackeys. "Let's leave it at that."

As the previous students came back and surrounded Leon, the heavy atmosphere fully dissipated and before long everything returned to how it had previously been; the Uppers conversing, while the Lowers were left contemplating.

However, even as everywhere returned to its previous state, Alex's mind was still stuck on one thing Leon had said.

'Did he say that another one's coming?' With that statement, Alex now had a faint glimmer of what that light signified. How it had shone while he headed for The Weatherer, the body he had seen seeming falling from the veil, Han showing up soon after he arrived. That statement made everything much clearer.

But he couldn't be sure, so he turned to the silently brooding Alistair.

"Alistair." Alex said, turning to face him.

"What?" Alistair replied, his gaze fixed elsewhere.

Ignoring his bad attitude, Alex pressed on. "Does that light shine whenever someone leaves The Senseless Coast?"

Alistair didn't say anything for a few seconds, before he eventually nodded his head.

Alex felt his heart skip a beat at this revelation, but calmed himself and asked another question.

"How can you be sure?"

Alistair sighed, his gaze briefly shifting toward Alex. "After the light shines, watch closely. In about ten to twenty minutes, you'll see a student climbing up that gangplank. See it happen enough times, and you'll start to piece together what's really going on."

His eyes shifted away, slowly growing unfocused. "The same thing happened for the twenty people that have come after I got here, including you."

Alex began nodding his head, but stopped seconds later. He turned back to Alistair. "How did you know how much time had passed?"

Alistair raised his shirt sleeve, exposing his XOC. He angled his hand, trying to get the moonlight to strike it just right. "Of course, I just checked the time on my XOC."

Alex gazed at Alistair's device with tightly knit eyebrows. Suddenly, though, his eyes widened, and he looked down, immediately realizing he also had an XOC on his wrist.

'When did that get there?' Alex thought in confusion. 'Have I always had it on, or was it not there in The Senseless Coast?'

Alistair frowned and lightly tapped his XOC. "Now that I think about it, it was only a while after I got here that I remembered I even had it.'

Alistair's words grabbed Alex's attention, causing him to focus on him.

"Before that," continued Alistair. "I honestly can't remember when I last used or even had it."

A heavy silence descended as the two conversants lapsed into their own thoughts, each following a distinct yet parallel path.

'Thinking back, I faintly remember having it while on the train, just as when I stepped off.' Alex focused, which led to an ugly frown appearing on his face, twisting his face into an unattractive mask of itself. 'But I can't remember having it while I was trapped there.'

He ran through his memories of The Senseless Coast. 'Now that I think about it, the whole time I was there I can't recall ever seeing it, or even feeling it, not for one moment.'

Alex skimmed over his vague memories of the month he had been there. However, even during the notable events such as his battle against Beasite, and his long healing process, nothing came to mind.

'Is this my brain remembering wrong, or maybe it's that I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to notice those kinds of things?' Alex leaned back against the railing and closed his eyes. 'Yet, even as I'm considering those options they don't ring true to me.'

*SIGH*

With a heavy sigh, Alex decided to drop those confusing thoughts for the moment.

'I came here hoping to get an answer, but instead I now have a greater amount of questions.'

He then lifted his head up and gazed at the moon. 'How will being here give me any answers?'

However, no matter how long or hard he stared at the moon, none of the answers he desperately wanted were beamed down to him.

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*BOOM*

A bright light abruptly shone, painting the dark night a dazzling color of white. Moments later an explosion followed, with the shockwaves in the form of wind which traveled for kilometers in every direction, announcing to all that something strange had taken place. The combination of both the light and sound created a scene that was stimulating to the senses.

Well, that would have been stimulating to the senses if it hadn't become a common occurrence over the past hour, now it just felt repetitive and overused.

Alex didn't even bother looking up, instead, he kept his head between his legs, continuing his vigil.

'Another one huh.'