From the hole above them, Sasha saw it coming. "Rock! We should move!"
But they were at a tight junction; they couldn't move left or right, and Elias was barely controlling the Noble Skill as he ignored her warning.
She reached out to release lightning, fingers crackling with energy. "Leave it," he said. Fear and uncertainty made her grip his arm hard until the rock rammed into them and exploded into dust, which the craft stone absorbed and hardened itself.
"You knew it would break!" She punched Elias in frustration, her heart still racing.
"Haha. Of course I knew!" Elias chuckled. "This is a Noble Brand Skill I can unleash using my book, so its power is stronger than any normal stray rock."
"Alright. Let us focus on reaching our destination. As these places were already explored, the danger is in getting lost!"
With a map and some device that had a pointer swinging wildly in different directions, she guided them amidst the mountainous ancient relic burrows.
Uneven swaths of rocks, some smooth but cracked, and a few seemed to glow under the lights. The path twisted and turned until they reached a location of numerous caves which were another minor path.
Elias's control of the Brand Skill had settled well; his movements were no longer shaky, so he slowed down as Sasha filtered through them, looking for the correct one.
"That one. It looks gloomy and my map compass can't read through it!"
Elias, using the Brand Skill, controlled the stone vehicle there. The feeling they felt earlier before they entered the broken door returned but weaker and more contained.
The cave was larger than them and so they slid inside. The path now split in two; they took the darkest one, which was a tunnel in the rock that descended downward.
"You always complain about me throwing stones; this is the benefit. If I hadn't trained those minor skills, my control would have been weak."
"I never complained during the day. At night one needs to rest and recover. You are just a training junky!" She spat back but added, "Still. This is amazing. The sheer amount of time we saved is great. We were supposed to spend a whole day before we reached here!"
Elias smiled, then she faced him; his eyes were closed. "Why close your eyes?"
"Please. I'm concentrating!"
Elias had his eyes closed from the beginning. His mind was deep into the Brand Skill, but he wasn't trying to comprehend how it was like to master it or to replicate it, but rather feeling how to manipulate the stone craft.
Sasha didn't know but all around them was the power of gravity, pushing and pulling at the right moment and interval. The rock that fell earlier met the gravity that shattered it.
Now too, they were gliding atop gravity forces that filled between the tunnels around them. There was no shaking, or bumping or scraping against any rock. It was all taken care of by gravity.
Elias only had to steer and direct location. They came out underground, the ceiling so low it seemed to be falling. The air was stale with damp soil.
Elias and Sasha's breath strained; they had to get out fast. Oxygen was low.
The journey was long; they moved for three hours straight. Elias didn't know where they were.
"We are not lost!" Elias asked for the hundredth time.
"Yes. We are not."
Sasha's voice was steady, firm with confidence that they were on the right track. Until they came to a dead end.
"Ha. Trap!" Elias said.
"Scale the mountain on that path and we will reach a hole!"
"Damn!" The mountain was almost kilometers tall and was very steep, but they went anyway. This was a chance for him to train too.
Wind blew and the stone craft trembled to escape his control. Elias steadied and focused more; he was beginning to pour his own talent energy into it. The energy stored in the book was beginning to deplete.
The hole was small; he had to readjust the stone raft before they went on. It was a fall, but with gravity they slowed down when they reached a large underground cave.
And the journey continued. One more hour and they came out of the cave into an L-shaped large turn.
"We shall rest. I'm depleting," Elias strained. His mind was ringing, his whole body tensed from maneuvering.
"Ha. I didn't know you could last this long!" She said, awe laced her voice, her gaze lingering on the leather book.
Slow, steady, the stone craft settled in a corridor. The moment she walked out she fell down, her legs powerless and her weight seemingly twofold.
"Haha. Serves you right. Why would you jump from one planet to another without adjusting!"
"You are cruel," she cursed and stayed down. She couldn't even lift her fingers.
Even Elias dragged himself out and felt the crushing weight of Earth's gravity on him and lay down on his back, resting, feeling the familiar embrace of a caring mother.
"Don't hate the weight. It's Earth's way of welcoming you back to its embrace!"
"Hmm!" She harrumphed.
It took an hour before they moved and sat properly. They pulled out their rations and water containers and began to fill themselves.
Chewing sounds and occasionally the whistling of the wind due to uneven rocks filled the place.
'She is upset. She was so excited that she stood but fell, and I laughed at her!'
"Cough! Sorry. I should have told you, but I didn't even know it would be that bad!"
"Hmm!" She harrumphed again. Clearly she was tired, but her face was shifting; she was just too eager.
"I think we can ride it again; I have recovered a little."
"We have arrived!" She said in an even voice, still not her usual self.
Elias stood and looked around before he walked to the L turn. At a distance of about 150 meters was a dead end with metal pipes and a large wheel at the center.
It looked old but also intimidating. A relic of the past that carried the ingenuity to the present.
"Sasha, you are incredible. You are truly made to be an explorer. I don't think I could drive aimlessly for four hours in the most complicated maze and arrive at this!"
"Hmm!" This time there was a hint of approval in her tone.
"You know, if you left me here, I couldn't take myself back. The fact you've never been here and still brought us using nothing but a confusing map and some compass made you incredible!"
She tried to hide a smile on her face, and Elias pretended he didn't see.
Wind blew fast, pulling down debris from high above, bouncing from one uneven slope to another, and they ran back into the stone craft to escape the stone rain.