A/N: Lol it's been over a month since I last updated, but here it is! We're almost nearing the end of part I, and then y'all are gonna have to wait for me to finish part II, edit so that it's actually coherent (because my writing gets very out of control), soooo yeah. I will try to drop the last few chapters evenly across this time so there won't be like a half year wait. Anyway, onto the story!

Harumi's POV

"Yes, I am the Chosen One," I said, bowing my head, "And we seek to defeat the Shadow Knight."

"He has caused us much trouble."

There was a long pause where nobody said a single word. "Us too," Zane said to fill the silence.

"We were originally merfolk," the leader continued, "With torsos similar to yours and a tail. When the Shadow Knight asked us to capture you a day before you arrived, we originally refused."

I exchanged several looks with the others, and was surprised but glad that Jay hadn't said anything yet.

"Then he changed you into this, didn't he?" Cole asked quietly.

The merpeople nodded, and several dove headfirst underwater to reveal their scaly, tinted green legs with fins lined along them. Their feet were more like flippers but I could see how these changes would make their lives a lot harder.

"How does he have this type of power?" Morro asked, "First he was able to turn a whole kingdom into beetles, now this."

"Wait they weren't beetles to begin with?" I interrupted. I had met Chrysanthe, I just hadn't put much thought into anything, and felt my cheeks warm as I realized this. Morro looked over at me and shook his head. Of course. I quickly looked away so that I wouldn't be blushing even harder.

"Each kingdom has a magical artifact allowing them to prosper. All the Shadow Knight has to do is take it. The north tower is Jade City's 'artifact', and the most powerful of all by far, as Eve helped in its creation. The Shadow Knight was able to capture all of our magical artifacts throughout the millennia, thus allowing him to... change us. The north tower is the only one he hasn't been able to take yet. And if he gets it..."

"He can cross over to another world," Morro finished.

"Wait so there's actually a multiverse?" Jay shouted excitedly. Then, seeing so many pairs of eyes on him, he coughed. "Oh, um, cool. Yeah. Pfft."

"Wait, how do you know?" Nya asked, turning to Morro. He tilted his head towards the leader of the merpeople in response, and we suddenly all realized how annoying we'd been.

"Yes, as a matter of fact," the leader said, in a tone that suggested he was getting impatient. "All he needs is all of the artifacts, then he can cross over. I don't know why he hasn't done it yet, so he must be missing something."

There was a pause as Morro and I locked eyes, the contact only broken when Cole scooched forward so that he could listen better.

"But even after centuries, we haven't figured it out. You must get that Crystal Blade before he finds what he needs. We can take you to the southern edge of the gulf, so that you can get there faster. If he's so desperate to prevent you from getting to it, it must be crucial to your mission to defeat him."

"What do you mean by 'take us'?" Jay asked after he made sure the leader was temporarily finished speaking.

"Well, we can make you go much faster than... this," the leader said, gesturing with his spear at our raft. There were clear signs of distaste in their voice.

"Are you... suggesting that you carry us on your backs?" Zane asked innocently. The leader along with many others glared at him, not even bothering to make it discreet. Their glares were so obvious that even I could tell. Zane blinked and I fought the urge to laugh.

"Do you want our help or not?" the leader repeated impatiently.

"It would be our honor," Morro said, standing up then putting his hands together and bowing. He looked almost comical, as he was over six feet tall and still standing up, his head much higher than that of any merperson. Then I realized he was probably doing it in a mocking manner on purpose in response to their sense of superiority and hoped the merpeople wouldn't realize that.

Unfortunately, the leader did, and their eyes were in slits as Morro returned to standing upright, towering above everyone else who were either sitting or in the water.

"I was going to offer you a gift, but it seems like you don't want it," they said, their eyes still fixated on Morro.

"Is it the type you can summon at will?" Jay asked excitedly, and was immediately met with exasperated looks from Cole and Nya.

"We would appreciate any help we could get," I said, silently praying that we wouldn't screw up the interaction. Sometimes, especially in times like these, I really wanted to snap at the Ninja and Morro for their careless remarks but never dared to in fear of how they would react. Though I doubted they would hate me if I did, I still felt like I needed to treat them well as some sort of reparation for all the damage I had caused. "I also believe that defeating the Shadow Knight would be beneficial to both our parties," I added for good measure.

"As impolite as you imbeciles are," the leader said with what was probably an eye roll, "We will aid you in our interest to return to our former states." They gave some sort of gesture and I watched as another merperson swam over, bowed down to the ruler, and handed them what looked like a spherical pill. The leader then gave the merperson their spear and held up the object for us to see. After a closer look I realized it was a pearl with a light blue tint.

"These pearls are very rare and we guard them as our most prized possessions. All you need to do is swallow the pearl and you will be healed completely, no matter what your condition. And if you were wondering, yes, you can summon it." They paused, and Jay reached for the pearl, only for the leader to pull away. "But whoever takes this can only save themselves. Once a human has touched it, the pearl is only able to save whoever that person is. So choose wisely."

Jay instantly drew his hand back as all eyes turned to me. I shook my head. "No, I've already received enough gifts. Someone else should take it."

"Is it even a question?" Nya said before anyone else spoke, "Of course you'll take it. We can't risk any harm to you. Last time was close enough and we don't have another first aid kit or healing tea." The others nodded in agreement.

"But―" I started as the Ninja all shook their heads.

"No, Harumi," Morro said, "You should take it." I couldn't help but wonder why he still called me Harumi. Then again, it wasn't like I cared.

"Are you taking it or not?" the leader asked curtly.

With one more look at everyone's determined faces, I reached for the pearl. I felt selfish taking it when it was highly likely that one of the others would have to suffer a fatal blow and I wouldn't at all, but I knew the Ninja were stubborn and wouldn't let anyone else take it. If only we had gotten it earlier, we might have been able to save Kai. My hand stopped in midair, just as my fingers were about to make contact with it.

"Wait," I said, hope blossoming in my chest, "Would the pearl be able to bring someone back from the dead?" In my peripheral vision I saw Nya's eyes widen for a split second before going back to normal.

"No," the leader said, sounding even more frustrated than he had a minute ago. "Are you taking it or not?"

"Does anyone have a spare piece of cloth or something? We can wrap the pearl―" I started.

"Are you taking it or not?" the leader boomed, making us all jump.

I grabbed the pearl from his fin and wished it away, not daring to say another word. In the next few minutes, I vaguely heard the others discussing a way out of the gulf with the merpeople, but my mind could only ponder whether or not my decision to take the pearl was right. Should I have done that? What if something happened and somebody needed it? Best case scenario would be that nothing happened to anyone, but if Kai had already... Who knew what was to come?

The Shadow Knight wanted me alive. Why would I be in any danger? The more I thought about it, the more I regretted my choice. Even if something happened to me, I had healed from the wrist-slicing incident in less than two days, and yet Cole wasn't even close to having recovered. He still had to lie down most of the time and only sat up every once in a while even after he had taken most of the healing tea. Sure, I hadn't been stabbed but it was still veinal bleeding.

The merpeople began helping us speed up our journey and the wind tossed my hair back, getting it out of my face. It was comfortable and refreshing but still didn't blow my worries away.

Would it be better if I'd ripped off a piece of my shirt and wrapped the pearl in it to save it for later? I hoped that taking the pearl for myself was the right decision, but I highly doubted it. Now I had the power to heal myself once. But at what cost?

Lloyd's POV

As I fell, my arms helplessly flailed around, trying to grasp onto anything that would stop the fall. Then somehow, in the midst of all the panic, I remembered how I could create fire out of my bare hands. Since the space was large enough, I shouldn't be running out of oxygen anytime soon.

From my left hand I shot out fire to keep myself from falling, and from my right I created energy balls to throw at incoming rocks. My eyes were still adjusting to the darkness so I couldn't see anything. After sending one last energy ball, I decided to take the risk and boost myself upward with fire, since my one hand couldn't hold me up for much longer.

It seemed that luck was on my side, as I survived the flight and was back where I started without any boulders smashing down on my head. Sure, there were smaller rocks that slammed themselves into me, but the damage wasn't severe enough for me to black out. By this point my eyes could see again, and I saw a large rock taking up most of the tunnel, only a few feet from the hole. That must've been what I had crashed into.

With the rocks still falling down and no time to consider my options, I landed on the ground and began stepping on the raised stones as fast as possible, at the same time holding two energy balls at my sides to hopefully block anything the cave would throw at me. Sure enough, more of the floor gave way, and as I flew backwards with fire to give it some space before it knocked me down with it, the boulder fell into the endless abyss below. Seeing that the coast was clear, I flew forward, this time making sure I was seeing where I was going and what was up ahead.

Several minutes later, I decided to land on the ground again, having gotten tired of needing to shoot fire out of my hands continuously. Besides, my flight was wobbly and I could potentially crash into something. I made sure to land on a flat stone, and since I was already much farther down the cave, all the stuff that had happened earlier on wouldn't affect me here. Distant sounds of crashes could still be heard, but for now I was safe.

The tunnel seemed endless. Shouldn't it have ended already? While I was flying I had also noticed how the frequency of flat stones remained pretty constant despite the clear decrease in the first leg of the passageway. I could've sworn there were more now than in the area where I had almost fallen. Was I not supposed to be here? A part of me wondered if I was actually supposed to fall down during the crash because who knew what these tests were. The only thing I knew was that they would filter out Shadow Riders. And Shadow Riders, from what I had seen before, could fly.

There must've been something I missed. Turning around, I began jumping from each flat stone to the next, remembering how girls used to play hopscotch in elementary school. I'd never really understood how they played it, but thinking back to my childhood put a smile on my face, making the task at hand a lot less boring. The blue crystals lit up my path as I hopped merrily on my way. I thought about my friends, and how excited they would be at my return with the Crystal Blade. Knowing them, they had probably already found a way to leave the island. As for Ruby, I prayed that the Shadow Riders hadn't found her yet. And if they came here, well, hopefully I would've figured out the first test by then.

After a while I noticed a circular patch of light up ahead that I'd never noticed before. The stone that the light shone upon was so bright I almost suspected it to be sunlight. I didn't know how far or deep into the mountain I was, so there was no telling. Once I got there, I looked up and saw a sword hovering maybe five feet above my head in some sort of vertical hole. It had a shiny black hilt and a blue blade, the exact same shade and hue of the crystals illuminating the cave.

I squinted. If that was the Crystal Blade, this would be way too easy. I'd barely gone through anything. Of course, the journey thus far had been quite dangerous already, but compared to what I had read and heard about, there should definitely be more tests than this. But just to be sure, I threw a small energy ball upwards and the sword vanished.

The tunnel immediately began collapsing on itself and I jumped out of the way just as a giant rock crashed down from the vertical hole, landing where I had just been seconds ago. If I had gone up to retrieve the Blade, there was no way I would've made it out alive. On instinct, I began jumping on the flat stones back towards the starting point, and almost as soon as I did so, a stone wall slammed down behind me, its purpose probably being trapping whoever had gone for the Blade if they managed to survive the boulder. I figured more would come and hopped off as fast as I could. Sure enough, barely a second later, a new wall came into place only a foot or so behind me, its collision echoing in the cave.

Now that I had the energy to use fire again, I formed two flames in my hands and flew off. Several more walls came down, and after a long pause where nothing happened, I deemed it safe to return to the ground and resumed my jump/run.

Taking some time to digest what had just happened, I figured that that was what the Crystal Blade looked like. It must've been an illusion.

When I reached the initial crash site, I took a second to survey all the damage I had caused. There was a giant hole separating myself from the small tunnel I had gotten here from. Before diving headfirst into it, I picked up a small rock on the ground and set it on green fire, then threw it down. The light dimmed, and after a while I heard nothing. Would jumping down be worth the risk?

I surveyed my surroundings again to see if there was anything else. And that was when I noticed the gaping hole in the ceiling. It was... hollow?

Following my gut, I flew up into a much larger cavern, still illuminated by blue crystals. There weren't any symbols or etchings on the smooth, even stone, so I gently landed. At the other end of the cave there was a bright blue outline of some sort of door. I carefully made my way towards it, in case something I did triggered anything. Each footstep echoed in the grotto, which was so silent you could hear a pin drop. The temperature was also at least several degrees lower than it had been earlier, or maybe it was because there was action taking place. I shivered, feeling goosebumps rise on my arms. Suddenly I found myself missing the cloak, but then if I had kept it on, running would have been much harder.

After checking the door several times for any markings, I reached out to push it open. It crumbled away at my slightest touch, and I stepped through the doorway onto a ledge and looked around. The room was burning with blue fire with a narrow, winding path starting from the ledge several feet above it on which I stood. At the opposite end I could see another doorway. I wondered how this was a legitimate test, as one could simply fly to the other end. As I pondered the logistics, the door reformed with a loud rumbling sound, trapping me in the room. I spun around and pushed on it with no luck. Well, I wasn't going to turn around anyway, so it didn't really matter.

First, I needed to see if I could fly. I used fire but as soon as my two feet left the ground, I was met with a strong gust of wind, blasting me sideways to the left. It was as if everything was in slow motion as I watched the rim of the ledge approached. With every ounce of strength I could muster, I extended both arms and latched onto the brim. The wind stopped instantly, almost making me lose my grip. My two legs slammed into the bottom of the ledge, since it was nothing but a slab of rock sticking out of the wall.

I dug my nails into it, but it wasn't rough enough for me to hold on for too long. My hands began to sweat and my feet could only dangle helplessly in the air as I felt my grip slacking. At least now I knew that if there wasn't some part of my body on the ground, the wind would blow me into the fire. I guess that was how the cave would cope with flying Shadow Riders. That was pretty smart, but I didn't exactly feel like complimenting whoever made these tests. As I contemplated what to do, one of my shoes slipped and fell into the fire, almost immediately burning to a crisp. Well then, at least now I knew what the blue fires did. That just made me more determined to not fall.

Shutting my eyes tightly, I remembered gym class, and how everyone had to do pull-ups for a test earlier in the year (speaking of school, I wondered what people thought when they saw that my friends and I simply stopped going). Despite looking underfed and scrawny, I came out top of my class. Cole, who came out top of his by at least 30, had said he was proud of me. I grinned at the memory. This wasn't really different, I told myself, this was only another pull-up with a thicker beam. For an extra morale boost, I thought about Rumi and her beautiful eyes and how happy she and my friends would be when they saw me with the Crystal Blade.

Summoning all my energy, I hoisted myself up and straightened my arms below me so that my waist was at the same level as the ledge then faceplanted onto the rock and dragged myself forward. I kicked off my other shoe and tossed it into the fires below. There'd be no use of it now.

I stood up to face the winding path. It pretty much went around the whole room, twisting and turning without intersecting itself, and even the closest legs were far enough that one would need to jump a large distance. But after having faced the wind once, I didn't want to do it again. The path was maybe two hundred meters long in total, but only about five centimeters wide.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto the path. Well, here goes nothing.

A/N: Yayyy I actually posted another chapter! I hope Lloyd's POV wasn't confusing, I read through it again a while ago to make sure you guys could understand what was going on. 

Thoughts/predictions?

I hope everyone's doing well! Vote if if you guys are interested in helping with my nonexistent self esteem, but I won't blame you if you don't cuz I wouldn't :D

Thanks for reading and putting up with me! You guys are awesome!