Gael felt his body covered in water when he opened his eyes and realized someone had thrown the liquid on him. The clear liquid trickled down his skin, highlighting the sun's glow reflecting on the surface. The sea breeze gently brushed the young man's face, mingling with the salty aroma of the ocean filling the air around him.

— Are you going to sleep all day? — asked the young man who was crouched beside Gael, the one who had soaked the boy. — I thought you were going to sleep all day.

Silva recognized him; the young man was one of the boys who had stood in the room when he had talked to the guardians. The boy's clothes gracefully moved with the wind, denoting his youth and vitality. The curious gaze of the boy revealed a lively expression.

— Where am I? — asked Gael, squinting his eyes, trying to open them to see where he was. — Where's Vinicius?

Gael's eyes sought to capture the details of the landscape around him. The beach stretched majestically before his eyes, with golden sand and sparkling waves dancing on the shore. In the distance, there was an imposing rocky formation rising majestically against the blue sky, painting a breathtaking scene.

— You're on a beach in Greece, and unfortunately, Vinicius was killed by the cyclops, — said the boy who was listening to Gael's question. — Now I'm the guardian in his place.

The words echoed in Gael's ears, resonating like waves gently breaking on the shore. Greece, the cradle of ancient civilization, was now the backdrop for his challenges and mysteries. Gael felt a mixture of surprise and shock at the news about Vinicius.

Gael blinked at the information. Vinicius dead? And how come he was in Greece? But the surprise was short-lived because Vinicius arrived, slapping the boy who had startled Silva on the back of the neck. The sound of the slap echoed in the surroundings, and a mischievous smile appeared on Vinicius's face.

— Stop scaring the kid, Lucas, — said Vinicius, approaching Gael to talk to him. — I see you've recovered from the beating you took from that cyclops.

Vinicius's figure was imposing, his mature and experienced features contrasting with the mischievous expression, as if he were a wise man with a youthful spirit. As he approached, the warmth radiating from his body was like a comforting embrace, enveloping Gael in a sense of security.

Gael looked at the boy, appearing to be roughly his age, but still, his expressions seemed like those of someone much older, almost like his grandfather. The backdrop of the Greek beach became the stage for an encounter between distinct generations, yet united by a greater purpose.

— Yes, the first blow I took from him almost destroyed my body, — Gael informed the guardian about what had happened in the fight.

— Your situation didn't get more complicated thanks to the elemental energy in your body, which held off the worst damage, — Vinicius informed Gael about what might have kept him alive after the encounter with the cyclops's club.

— So that's what happened in the battle when I tried to strike him and couldn't, — Gael concluded his thoughts about the futile blows he had struck against the one-eyed monster.

— Exactly, the elemental energy in each of us acts as a natural armor in our bodies; the stronger we become, the more resilient it becomes, — Lubu supplemented Gael's conclusion.

— When you attacked the cyclops and couldn't harm him, your elemental energy was much inferior compared to his, after all, you hadn't awakened the true form of your sword yet, — the guardian sat down beside Gael in the sand, and for the first time, Gael could pay attention to the place they were. It was no longer Brazil, but it was still a place on earth; they were facing a blue sea like the boy had never seen before. Mountains filled with trees closed the place where they were, giving an even more unbelievable landscape. The place was beautiful; not even in his most optimistic dreams had the boy thought that at some point in his life he could visit such an incredible place. As soon as Vinicius sat on one side of Silva, Lucas sat on the other.

— But what was that cyclops that attacked me, where did it come from? Are there more of them on earth? — Gael questioned as the waves continued to ebb and flow toward the sea.

— No, it didn't come from the earth. Karumo explained to you that humans don't have the ability to manipulate the axis in their bodies to control elemental energy, so these beings have no interest in humans, — Vinicius replied to Gael's question, which was preparing for his next one.

— Then where did it come from?

— It came from my land, Elysium, — Vinicius replied, making things a little more interesting — I am the guardian of what became known to you as Greek mythology, lord of water and protector of the beast Sarko.

Vinicius showed his arm, and a tattoo of a shark was revealed to Gael, showing that, like Lubu, he had a tattoo of one of the greatest predators of the seas. Silva had one of the greatest predators on earth.

— This cyclops escaped from our domain to earth; that would be impossible if someone wasn't connecting these shadows, — Vinicius replied, explaining his theory about what was happening. — Since supposedly they already have the earth jewel, they had no reason to be here.

— Karumo had told me that no enemies would come to earth anymore because the jewel is no longer here, but even so, I almost died for something that shouldn't have happened, — Gael affirmed, trying to process the reasons for the cyclops appearing on earth, right in his neighborhood.

— There really was no reason for the attack, but I don't know what reasons could be if it wasn't for the jewel, — Vinicius evaded, but he knew why the shadows were going after Gael; the sooner they eliminated a new guardian, the less work they would have — I think there's also something interesting to tell you; each jewel has a number of power cores; the earth jewel has 7, the other dimensions have 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

Vinicius tried to explain to Gael the objects that the guardians protected so much.

— In the dimension of Takaamahara, the place where beings you know as Japanese mythology live, there is a receptacle that accepts these 7 jewels and grants a wish to the bearer of the stones, but there's a catch to using them.

— Would it be the sum of the cores, master? — And this time Lucas's question to Vinicius was respectful.

— Yes, the sum of the cores; to place the stones in the receptacle, they always have to add up to 7 in their positions. So the 1 jewel has to be placed together with the 6, the 5 with the 2, the 4 with the 3, and then the 7, if it's not done this way, the receptacle will simply break, and the stones will disappear through all dimensions, — Vinicius tried to reinforce to Gael the importance of those stones — Since the earth's one has already been taken by the

shadows, we don't know which dimension they will attack, which puts us in a complicated situation.

— In the time you guys left me alone, I was thinking about something, — Gael began to show a little more of his reasoning — If the guardians are the strongest beings of all, why all this fuss because of the shadows? There's something not adding up in my thoughts.

Lucas looked at Vinicius, seeing the questions Gael was asking. His master nodded affirmatively, and then Herhrick began to explain:

— When the guardians were created, the balance of power required something else to be originated to compensate for this proportion of elemental energy in the universes; in this condition, the gates of bliss were generated, and anyone who reached these places would have a power almost equal to that of a guardian — Lucas involved Gael in his explanations about this new power — Almost because the amount of elemental energy that the beasts provide to the guardians is gigantic, and the elemental energy spent with the powers of the gates of bliss is dissipated from its own user.

Now Gael was beginning to fit some things in his head; the pieces were coming together and making sense of these thoughts:

— So that's where the powers of the great shadows come from? — Gael asked, leading Lucas to continue with his explanations.

— Yes and no, — Lucas replied, making Gael confused again — Yes, because there are nine gates of bliss, and you only need two requirements to access them: to have the same element as their powers and to fulfill the challenge that the gate's emissary will pass on to you.

Herhrick tried to make things clearer for Silva with this explanation:

— But besides the challenges and elemental compatibility, there's still the need to be very efficient with elemental energy to be able to find the dimensional rifts where each of these gates is located.

— And the no? — Gael asked, not letting anything pass from that explanation.

— The no exists for the gift. A long time ago, with the creation of the blessed, before the separation between day and night, gifts were separated for some of them. These powers are beyond the common manipulation that a normal person can have — Gael's eyes followed Lucas's explanation of what he was trying to say about that — It's common for us to manipulate elemental energy, even to merge our powers, but those blessed with the gift can do things out of the ordinary. Manipulate time, speak with animals, transform into the very element, have visions of the future, manipulate senses. All of this using their gifts. But there are 3 catches to have this ability: you need to find someone who has a gift, extremely rare nowadays, that blessed one needs to want to teach you, and you need to have the same element as the one who has the blessing.

With Lucas's explanation, Gael clearly understood that he wouldn't be able to find those dimensional rifts now, let alone those who had the gift; his elemental energy needed to evolve much further before he could find them, and he wouldn't want help. He had decided he would evolve his abilities to the point of finding one of the gates alone, so he could then seek someone with the fire gift to help him.

The words of the guardian and Herhrick made Gael think about how he should improve his powers even further, but even though they had a conversation to understand the hole he had gotten himself into, Silva felt he was being tested by Vinicius. Until he remembered something he had seen in the battle of the red-haired boy next to him with the monster in his neighborhood.

— In the battle against the cyclops, I realized that my fire didn't have enough attack power to create any damage to the monster, — Gael brought up another subject because he had realized that with the old approach he wouldn't get where he wanted with the guardian — Even though I took some blows and was fighting to stay alive, I saw that you used your elemental energy to create ice on the cyclops.

Vinicius just nodded his head positively, agreeing with Gael's statement. He had indeed used ice, which led the boy to connect the dots with his next reasoning:

— With you controlling ice and having the mark of a shark on your arm, your beast has nothing to do with the element used, — Gael was able to arrive at a clear conclusion on the subject — You, besides ice, your main element would be water?

— Yes, — said Vinicius, smiling at the quick thinking the boy had, he remained quiet just watching where Gael would get with that.

— If you can use two elements, can I too? If so, could you train me? — Gael asked the two questions already knowing the answer and had understood the message that he needed to get stronger.

Even though Vinicius hadn't told Gael that the cyclops came to earth to kill him, Silva understood on his own the message. He didn't need anyone to draw, he just wanted to know if Lubu would train him.

— I will train you; it was my fault that the cyclops got to earth and almost killed you, — Vinicius confirmed that he would be Gael's new master — Karumo shouldn't care about this training, but I have one condition for training you.

— What would it be? — The curiosity of the boy turned into words.

— You, with your current strength, will have to touch one of your fingers to my forehead, — Vinicius made the challenge, showing what his condition for the training was, touching his right index finger to his own forehead.

— Like what Sasuke did to Naruto in the Valley of the End? — Gael thought aloud, but when he realized he had already spoken.

— What? — A confused Vinicius questioned Gael's question — Who's that?

— I'm sorry, I ended up thinking out loud again — Gael had once again let his memories with anime and manga influence his comparisons and was now extremely embarrassed.

— Are you ready? — Vinicius stood up from the sand asking Gael about what he would decide.

— I was born ready!