The girl with the braid stood before the titan statue. She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the sculpture. She felt a mysterious energy flowing through her. Unexpectedly, Malia was surrounded by a bright green mist. She was terrified. She couldn't do anything. She couldn't move neither scream for help.

After a moment, the rest of the team and also their enemies saw a large green barrier where Malia and titan statue were.

"I sense trouble." Cathy remarked, a little worried about her new friend.

"I'm so sorry." her opponent laughed. "It's known that someone who isn't an Andern will be rejected by our God." he finished his monologue.

"With all due respect, but nobody asked for your opinion." Lambert hit the opponent's chest with her fist.

Andern member fell to his knees. He coughed violently. Lambert girl felt sorry for him, but he was her enemy. She couldn't show any compassion towards that man.

Dante summoned Caliban to deal with three Redcaps. With full precision, Vale's titan cut one enemy in half and severed the arms of the remaining two. The confrontation continued. The temporary leader deduced that Malia might not return to them quickly. On the other hand, Vale wanted to give her the time she probably needed.

The team was still not fully recovered from the last fight with the Death Spiral. From the beginning of this mission, the assumption was to conclude the action as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile inside the barrier

The paralysis effect faded after about two minutes. Malia looked around. It seemed that the place she found herself in, stretched into infinity. Everywhere, there was a greenish mist. Beneath her feet, she felt softness. With every step, she felt like she was walking on a cloud. For a moment, she thought she had entered another world and the titan was dealing with her newly acquainted colleagues from Huntik Foundation at that moment.

Girl didn't know what to do, so she decided to walk forward. Unexpectedly, girl bumped her head into a transparent wall. She rubbed her forehead.

"This has never happened before" she muttered.

Unexpectedly, a small square appeared in front of her. She touched it with her finger, and after a moment, the invisible wall turned silver. Golden doors with an engraved symbol opened before her. Surprisingly, it wasn't the Casterwills' family emblem, which had the right to be in such a place.

Malia was slightly concerned. It was the first time she had seen that symbol. She crossed the golden doors. On this side, she noticed titans who looked injured. For a moment, she felt as if someone from the team was next to her. Unexpectedly, two titans looked at seeker.

"I didn't know this was even possible." she said incredulously.

She approached titans. One of them was a bird with a golden armor. The other was a large, flightless dragon with two tails and golden armor.

"Are you titans that were lost by Lok and Dante, right?" she asked, but she didn't expect any response. 

After all, titans could only communicate through the bond and only with their owner.

"Yes, you're right." a new titan appeared behind her.

She turned to him. It was the same character she had seen on the statue.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"An oasis where injured titans end up."

She pinched her arm, thinking she needed to wake up from this strange dream. But it didn't change anything.

"This is a joke, isn't it?"

"The fact that you've reached here speaks for itself. Not everyone has the chance to enter."

Girl didn't know what titan meant at that moment. They exchanged a few words, including whether titans could be extracted from this closed area.

"Why did you come here?" titan finally asked her.

The girl got straight to the point. 

"I have to help one of Huntik Foundation members. My experience and healing skils are too weak to remove poison from her body. I need your help or she'll die very soon" she explained.

A creature asked her to perform a certain task. Malia had to prove that she was worthy to create a bond with him. After completing it, without saying anything, titan used a blinding spell.

A green barrier shattered. Malia stood again before the statue. She placed her hand on it. 

"Heal the wounded, Legendary Titan of Life - Eladriel!" she said.

The stone covering the titan crumbled into particles. The figure of a titan shimmered with bright, green light.

"Impossible. How did she do that?" one of the Andern members asked.

"I did it." medical seeker said to herself, wiping away tears from her eyes.

All the members of the sect gathered in front of the Foundation team.

"Disaster will soon come, rejoice my brothers and sisters. We will be saved by our god!" said the priest, who just a few minutes ago led the service in the main part of the building.

"That girl has bonded with Eladriel. From today, this titan is no longer your god. Let us go." Dante announced.

The seeker raised her hand up to make the titan return to the amulet. A golden ring with a green gem appeared on the middle finger of her right hand.

"Can we go now?" Den asked.

"It would be good." Cathy replied.

Malia moved to the front to ensure that no one from her team would be touched. She had the impression that the person who had their god would not be hit. One person in the crowd of blue robes wanted to say something, but quickly reacted "Whatever you say now, Eladriel will turn it against you. If you want to be saved, worship him. Your god is still with you and will save you when the time comes."

Of course, she had to say something to satisfy these people. She didn't want the fight to start again. Huntik Team left the building. Perhaps the sect members took the Malia's words seriously.

After a dozen minutes, team was already in Foundation's safe house. Their flight to Italy was scheduled for a few hours later, so team decided to rest for a while.

Lok played checkers with Cathy. Den talked to a local seeker. Boy wanted to learn something interesting about Croatia. Perhaps he was planning to come back here again, but for vacation?

Malia went to the library in hopes of finding out more about her new titan. Eladriel had told her a few things that made her uneasy. "You are not a Casterwill, but you are somehow connected to them." That sentence lingered in her mind.

Suddenly, Vale appeared in the same room.

"Do you even read after the mission?" he asked.

"There's never too much reading." she replied, flipping through another book.

"You don't look too good. Did something bad happen in the barrier?"

"Uh... how should I say it..." she sighed. "Eladriel has a special ability that can stop titans from returning to Spirit World" she said, looking at the ring.

Dante froze. At that moment, he didn't know if what he heard was his conjecture or if it was really true.

"Is something wrong?" she asked when she saw that the man couldn't get anything out of himself.

"Indeed, an unusual ability. How many titans have you seen?"

"Quite a few. Most of them probably ended up there after Legion's amulet was destroyed. But that's not what worries me." she replied shortly.

"Is there anything else?"

"Eldariel knows something about me that I have to figure out on my own."

At that moment, she quoted the words of the titan.

"Maybe you should talk to Teien? I think she might be able to help you." Dante suggested.

"Do you think so?" she asked uncertainly.

"Chin up. You'll find your answer for sure."

"Thank you, Dante. I'll deal with it after I'm sure Sophie is okay."

Team spent their reamining time in company of Croatian Foundation agents. A few hours later, seekers were in Venice.

"Good thing you're here." one of the Venetian medics greeted them and motioned for them to follow him.

They reached the room where Sophie was. The purple wound had spread to her entire arm and part of her torso.

"We're still trying to stop it, but it seems to be resistant to our spells." said the medic who had taken over caring for Casterwill girl.

"No time to be lost. Heal the wounded, Legendary Titan of Life - Eladriel!" Malia summoned the titan, who pushed other seekers away from him and created a green barrier. Medic and Sophie were inside of it.

"It's like the first time." Harrison remarked.

Inside the barrier, Malia and titan joined forces and embarked on a rescue mission. Eladriel strengthened her healing powers and helped her with the task.

"Withstand a little longer." she said to Sophie.

Girl was still unconscious, so the words of medical seeker didn't reach her. After a few minutes, the purple color was only present on the length of her arm. The medic didn't feel good. She had used up a lot of power, and soon her seeker power would run out. A green spell began to lose stability. Sometimes it was stronger, and sometimes weaker.

"I could exchange life energy for power energy, but it wouldn't be enough anyway." she said to herself.

Titan shook its head, indicating that it was a bad idea.

"Indeed, you're right. I was so determined to find you, and now I'm more determined to save Sophie." she sighed, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Eladriel then instructed his owner to stop using her powers. Malia raised her eyebrow in surprise. He explained that she needed to conserve power to keep him out of the amulet. It made sense to her, so she stopped using her seeker powers as requested by the titan. Taking advantage of the momentary break, she looked around. It dawned on her that titans she had seen just a few hours ago, had disappeared. The terrain had also changed. Underneath was still the fluff, but the greenish mist was gone. The area also seemed to be limited, as the barrier wall was visible.

She wanted to ask her titan again about words that had been haunting her continuously. However, she refrained from doing it. She leaned against the fluffy surface with one hand to stretch. There were audible cracks in her bones. After a while of sitting in that position, she felt a sudden surge of power. She resumed her healing work.

"I see you figured it out." a titan remarked.

"If you had told me earlier, it would have been faster." she replied.

After about twenty minutes, it was all over. A green barrier disappeared, and then titan returned to the amulet. Malia limply collapsed. Lok caught her just in time.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just used up so much power that I can't move anything." she replied quietly.

"Even though Eladriel has such powerful healing power, he barely managed with this." commented one of the Venetian medics.

"Treatment takes time, doesn't it? Just be glad that Malia managed to bond with that titan. She had an exam to pass." Den interjected.

"We could bond with him too. Surely this trial wasn't difficult." said the Foundation medic.

"What do you say to this?" Dante took out Solwing's amulet from his pouch. "I lost him during mission where we tried to capture Rassimov. If it weren't for Eladriel's special ability, I would never have recovered him. And I never even dreamed of this moment, that Solwing would be with me again."

The team and the staff of the Foundation hospital looked on in disbelief.

A few hours earlier...

"Thank you, Dante. I'll deal with it after I'm sure Sophie is okay. There's something else I'd like to give you." she said, pulling out the amulet with a titan that Vale would never see again.

"Where did you find him?" he asked, surprised.

"I mentioned the test Eladriel assigned me, right? I was tasked with healing one of injured titans. It turned out to be him. You don't have to repay me, unless you really want to." she explained.

He smiled, thanked her, and said he would definitely think of something. After all, it was his first titan, which he found as a child. When he lost it, he felt like he lost a piece of his heart reserved for his Solwing.

"Titan resurrection?", "What special ability?" both medical seekers asked almost simultaneously.

"Maybe a holotome can explain that" Malia responded, feeling a bit better.

"Eladriel: Attack 3, Defense 7. Type: Magical Medic. Size: Medium. Special abilities: Healing Barrier" holotome spoke after scanning the ring.

"Are you sure you didn't miss any information?" Lok asked the device.

"That's all I know about this titan." it answered.

"Nonsense! She must have stolen that amulet from someone" accused one of the medics.

"I'm not going to prove anything to anyone" Malia replied calmly.

"This is my amulet and my titan" Vale clarified.

"It's good that at least you know the truth." she thought to herself, smiling quietly.

Malia said she would stay in the room until Sophie woke up. Other Foundation medics went to take care of other patients. In the room remained part of the team. Harrison and Den went back to Dante's house under the pretext of being extremely tired and hungry. It sounded credible, so no one even tried to make them stay. Cathy briefly considered going with them but decided to stay for Lok. She knew her brother needed her more than ever.

"She should wake up soon." Lambert boy spoke up, having held the Casterwill girl's hand for some time.

"Not necessarily. She may wake up in a few minutes or even days. I've done 95% of the work. The remaining 5% is up to her. Namely, it's her will to survive." Malia replied, standing by the windowsill and admiring the sunset obscured by buildings.

"Are you suggesting something?" he asked suspiciously.

"Not at all. I believe Sophie is a strong girl. Otherwise, she wouldn't be with an even braver guy." Malia smiled.

Lok glanced towards girl. He couldn't see her expression. Did she say that to compliment him, or was it her opinion about him and his girlfriend?

Unexpectedly, Casterwill girl's hand twitched.