"You could see them?!" Marc exclaimed but then coughed hard as a result.

"I told you to stay still! But I guess if I were you I would get excited as well," said Yurika worriedly as she checked on the young man once more, "you have a slight fever, we really need to get out of here, fast. If only Riddele is here."

"Riddele?" he hissed, his face grimaced in pain.

"Wen's sister, she is an amazing priestess. I have never seen anyone who can heal as fast as --," Yurika had to cut herself. She suddenly remembered on the fact of Pononga legacy runs in Riddele blood too. It made her wonder if she actually infused the skill of a priestess with her special talent. Like what Wenona did with her skill.

Marc gazed at her curiously.

"I mean she is the best healer I have ever known. But then again, I didn't really have many people to compared her with," Yurika quietly tried to shrug her thought away, "anyway please continue the teaching? Like you said the quicker I understand the essence of mage skill, the higher chance we can leave this place."

'Yes we should continue. But you can see them? I wonder if that's also the power of that legendary gem.'

"Probably," she shrugged while her eyes admiring the glittering lines, "they are gorgeous. I can't imagine those people who used them for bad stuff. Thinking that they are some tool instead of a living being."

Marc sighed softly, 'I am one of them..., I have done stuff that I wish I could take back.'

Yurika went quiet, she didn't mean to criticize anyone. Especially not the young man that had just saved her life twice today, "sorry, I didn't mean to --"

'No, it's okay. It is something in the past, at least now I know that they are living beings and that taught me to be wiser on asking their strength to help me. I will never say 'use them' anymore.... it feels so wrong.'

"Yeah, I agree," Yurika nodded, "okay, now, how to ask their help?"

'Well, I could have just taught you the elemental magic like I had been taught back then. But the truth is when you let them teach you, it will be so much powerful and diverse,' he paused, '...unlimited.'

"Unlimited? Woah! That sound's... dangerous, don't you think?" Yurika gazed deeply at the young man eyes, "have you ever taught anyone else about the theory beside me?"

'No, you are the first one.'

"Wow, you trust me that much?!"

'Not really, I didn't know you that well to trust you actually,' said Marc frankly.

Yurika made a nervous laugh. She was flustered and awkward, "Yeah you are right, what am I thinking? Don't mind me, I can be a little stu--"

'But,' Marc cut her sentence midway, 'since the goddess trust you with the legendary gem and also the role as the saviour of the world. I think you are not someone who will use the knowledge that I've just shared you, imprudently.'

Yurika smiled gratefully in response, "okay let's do this. What should I do to let them teach me?"

'Communicate with them.'

"Talk to them? Err, I don't think they speak our language though?"

'We are the one who didn't speak their language, but they do. They have the ability to make us understand them. Listen, not with your ears but with your heart and let them show you.'

Marc's hazel eyes bore straight at Yurika's, a soft smile was on his lips and he made a gentle gesture with his head as if telling her to go ahead and try. Yurika inhaled deeply before she nodded.

Then her attention returned to the glittering lines, her mind wondering on how should she ask the elemental spirits in teaching her the mage skill. Then she decided to close her eyes again, to help her concentrate.

She let her mind drifted back to the previous feelings she got before. How the earth element cuddled her with warm and safe feelings while the soft noise of the air element danced in her ears. She felt her body and mind retired back to the previous dark but warm and safe cocoon. And as she let herself float and drifted in the sensation, she started to feel a pull and suddenly the cocoon broke.

There's a bright light all around her. Even with her eyes closed she just knew that she wasn't in a dark place anymore. The first thing she noticed was the air. There was a change in the air, it didn't smell stale like before. There was a gentle sweetness lingering. Yurika sucked in the air instinctively as if nothing had ever been so sweet. The fragrance of summer grasses and meadow flowers filled her nose. Her mind started to question her sanity, she was sure that she hasn't left the tunnel.

'open... eyes' a child-like voice touched her ears.

Her head whipped toward the source of the voice, but it disappeared as quickly as it came.

'see... us' the voice came back from another direction. Yurika then decided to slowly open her eyes.

The view that was uncovered before her eyes made her gasped in amazement. She was standing on a hill. It was like a patchwork of green with a rainbow of dotted flowers, made even more varied by the shadows of passing clouds. They were every hue from new spring grass to deep forest pools. Some are more shallow than others, but most have steep paths that took her to one side of the summit and then down to the next valley below. The grass was rustling gently in the breeze that for once she could really see. The wind has its own color, glittering, dancing around the trees, and kissing the flowers as they bounced all around playfully.

Yurika chocked as she held in a sob, she couldn't help to feel so emotional. The whole scene was too beautiful to be described in words.

'Do you acknowledge us?' A gentle voice echoed, the voice came from the hill. It was benevolent at the same time authoritative.

At first, Yurika was speechless, clueless on how to response the question. Her body shivered and she fell on her knees. She knew that she was facing ancient spirits that were as old as the world itself and to stay standing would be an ignorant act.

'Do you acknowledge our existent, little one?' asked the voice once more.

"I do," finally she managed to say something.

'and how are you going to use the knowledge?'

"Use? No, that's not what I am planning on," Yurika stuttered, blurting incoherent sentences, "I mean, it is a great honour for the ancient spirits to actually acknowledge a mere human like me. Allowing me to see and even talk to me like now."

'Are you calling us old?' a child-like voice protested as a glittery line swirled in front of her eyes, 'we are not that old you know!'

"Oh, no no I didn't mean to call you old, I--," Yurika was flustered didn't know what to say to fix it.

'We are just by a couple of billions of years of human life, tee hee.'

'Don't mind air, he was just teasing. And young girl, we both know that you are not a mere human.'

The air spirit suddenly circled Yurika, 'Oh, oh?! She the one? Is she the one mother Earth?'

'The time of the prophecy has finally come as it has been told. We will lend you our strength because that's what our promise to Eichoa the Divine God. But let me remind you, child, you still have to prove your worth to fully wield the true power of the elements.'

"Prophecy? Promise? Prove my worth?"

'In time you will find out, but now you need to focus on what's the crucial thing to do. Time will never wait for anyone.'

Yurika mind flew to Marc, Wen, Riddele and of course Marama. She really didn't have time to idle, she needed to get out from the dead-end tunnel.

'Tell me what you need child?'

"What I need...," she muttered. Her fuchsia eyes glanced down toward her hands. As she slowly closed them in determination, she rose her head and stared at the fast hills in front of her.

***

Marc watched the girl who was sitting next to him. She has been silent for a long time, almost as if she had frozen in time. He didn't even know if she was breathing. But he waited, he had experienced something too back then when he first acknowledged the elemental spirits. Maybe as the chosen one, she had something more amazing compared to him.

Suddenly he saw movement from her.

Yurika had stood with her eyes closed. She then walked toward the pile of stones that covered their only way out. Putting her hand on the surface carefully as she opened her eyes. They were glowing, but it was not the same glow as when she destroyed the massive boulder before. Then stone started to crackle, the rocks were crumbling to the ground. Then the crack grew larger, spawned like lightning of fractures in every direction. The sound of grinding rock filled the space as chunks of larger rocks coming out, turning to lumps of pulverized rock. The whole pile of rocks started to shake hard almost like a quake while the grinding sound became louder and louder. Then all of a sudden, all the rocks that were blocking the way separated, cracked, and exploded to dust. The exit is now unobstructed.