Chapter 22: Strength of the Stone

Nick jumped in surprised at the sound. He turned around to see that the entrance had been truly shut. There was no way out until the entrance was once again opened. For now, the only way that Nick could carry on is to go forwards. And so, he did.

Taking one step at a time, Nick had to be careful in case he stepped onto any traps. The Earth Gormiti did warn him about that and any puzzles.

'Puzzles?' Of course. Nick had forgotten all about that.

"Remember Lord of Nature Nick, you have the smartest brains out of everyone," the hooded figure's voice said to him. "You have the power to figure out each one?"

'Figure out which?' Nick wondered. There were a thousand kinds of puzzles that could be presented to him. So, figuring them out shouldn't be too hard. Should it?

Grabbing his orb, Nick went over to the first puzzle that was one of the walls. It looked a bit like a chess board but instead of black and white squares, it had pictures on them. Nick knew what kind of puzzle it was now after seeing it. All he had do to was press the correct title and see what happens.

However, when he noticed the pictures, they all looked the same.

"Hmmm," Nick said to himself, stroking his chin in the process. "If all of the pictures look like stone faces then that means…"

He studied the pictures again. One by one this time. As he suspected, all of the pictures were stone faces but he was looking for a title that was different to the rest. He tried looking once, twice, and then…

"Ah ha!"

Nick spotted one title that had a symbol on it. Unfortunately, he couldn't make out what symbol it was. Something important? Or was it something dangerous? Either way, he had to press it somehow.

Taking a deep breath, Nick placed his hand on the title and…

The wall suddenly shook which caused Nick to step back. Bits of dust and tiny stone came out from the wall like specks of paint or rain. Slowly, the wall turned its way around so that the thinner part was facing the front of it.

'Did I…get it right?' Nick questioned himself.

No. There was no time to think about questions now. There were still a couple of more puzzles to figure out. Squeezing himself through the gap, Nick carried on his journey through the Earth Temple.

Meanwhile at Fire Mountain…

Magmion had a look on his orb that was placed above a small floating portal. From what he could see, there were three other Gormiti heading towards something. When he figured out who they were, he slammed his fist onto the ground.

"LAVOR!" he roared in frustration.

A Lava Gormiti, whose body was simply covered in lava like rock and waves appeared before him. "You call me, my Lord?"

"Why hasn't Lavion returned back here WITH THE INTRUDERS?" Magmion thundered at Lavor.

Lavor stuttered at Magmion's anger. "I…I'm sorry. It's just that we haven't heard from him in a while about the news and-"

"AND?" Magmion roared again for the second time.

"I know you're concerned but I would like to recommend something that might help."

Magmion returned towards his throne and sank into in miserably. "Tell me now, Lavor, before I erupt this volcano again," he grumbled furiously.

"I could go out and find Lavion myself," suggest Lavor, with a devilish look in his eyes. "Perhaps he could use a little…extra help to make sure these intruders will be taken care of for good."

Magmion's frown soon turned into an evil smile. Lavor brought him good news indeed. Hopefully with Lavor in the mix, Magmion's goal to conquering Gorm could come quicker than expected…

Nick felt his breath catching up to him when he finished his latest puzzle. Going through all of them had made his brain fired up. Still, that didn't stopped him from reaching the final area.

Upon entering, Nick was surprised to see that it was all blank. 'Strange,' he wondered curiously. 'Is this the final puzzle or…'

Or was it the end of the puzzle mission?

Nick noticed that there was a stone stand at the end of the room. From what he can see, it looked like a couple or rocks or shards made to create a mountain. On top of it was a flat square shaped block that hold together the rest of the rocks. Nick thought it was something else entirely.

"That's what you've been looking for," the hooded figure's voice told Nick straight away. "But be warned, count a couple of seconds, then run straight out of the Earth Temple."

Nick raised a sceptical eyebrow. "But why may I ask?" he questioned the voice.

There was no reply. The voice disappeared.

Nick only had a few seconds to think out the final puzzle before him. This shouldn't be harder to do than a tricky maths or science question. After all, Nick was the smartest one out of all of them.

But this time, time was of the essence. He would have to be super quick about his decision or else he would never come out of the Earth Temple. Alive.

Finally, Nick closed his eyes and cautiously walked over towards the stand and placed it on top. He counted a few minutes in head to ensure that the hooded figure was right. In his mind, Nick thought about his older brother Toby, home back on Earth, Mum, Dad. Even Jessica and Lucas seemed to enter the picture somehow.

Nick only counted five minutes before he heard a rumbling sound.

He opened his eyes and looked up. The brown-dusty ceiling began to show signs of cracks while rain of dust poured out in a singular stream. The ground also began to rumble almost making Nick fall off.

"I guess that what the hooded figure meant!" he trembled with fear. He noticed his voice was way deeper than expected. What did this mean?

The answer would have to wait. Right now, he needed to get out of here.

Reminding himself to grab his orb, Nick sprinted down through the Earth Temple, forgetting the fact that the transformation was taking effect.

Outside of the Earth Temple, the other Lords were waiting outside for Nick's return. It had been quite a long time since they arrived at entrance but there had been no sign of their friend.

Toby began to cradled his hands in sadness. Nick was his younger brother and being the oldest, Toby wanted to make sure he was safe. He felt that if Nick didn't come back, he would fail.

Jessica floated beside Toby. "You ok?" she asked softy.

Toby wiped a tear away from his eye. "I'm ok. It's just that…" He paused for a moment before speaking again. "I'm just worried about Nick that's all."

Jessica placed both of her hands onto Toby's shoulders with a determined look. "I understand. It's difficult when you have siblings especially if you care them very deeply," she replied, solemnly. "Trust me when I say this: I can promise you that Nick WILL come back and transformed as well." She gave him the brightest smile to cheer him up.

Toby smiled back at Jessica. He was glad to have a friend like Jessica, even though he blushed at her lovely smile.

A rumbling noise suddenly interrupted them both.

"Did you hear that?" gasped Lucas.

Everyone immediately stood away from the entrance. The walls began to crack with every rumbling sound it made. Soon the door began to collapse as another big crack appeared at the door.

"NICK!" screamed Toby.

Instantly, an Earth Gormiti burst out of the door and skidded to the side. Soon after, the entrance door fell to the floor in a pile of rocks and stones.

Everyone observed the damage in full but the Earth Gormiti especially looked concerned with guilt.

Lucas walked up to it, placing his hand on his boulder shoulder. "What's wrong?" he asked sincerely.

"I feel like I've failed every Earth Gormiti," the Gormiti answered back in his deep voice. "All I did was place my orb into this stone stand I found and-"

"Nick?"

Toby immediately noticed from the way the Earth Gormiti described what he was doing, he could tell it was his younger brother. However, Nick looked incredibly different than when he last saw him. His arms were now muscled and strong which were covered by every stone and his glasses were now gone. Nick seemed to become really big now, which surprised Toby by a bit.

"Nick…you've transformed," he whispered.

Nick had a closer look at his stone hands in surprise. "I see. So, I have," He twisted his arms around to get himself a closer look. "Expect…I can't see without my glasses!"

Toby laughed. "You don't even need them in this form!" he chuckled.

Nick raised his arm up to touch his face. Sure enough, he didn't feel his glasses anywhere. 'Wow,' he thought to himself. In his Super Gormiti form, Nick felt like a different person.

"You're right," he answered back. "Although…"

"Although what?" Toby questioned.

Nick placed his hand where his voice box was. "It's going to take a bit of getting used to this new voice."

His older brother smiled at him and gave him a hug. "I'm honestly really glad you're back," Toby choked back his tears.

Nick was surprised by this sudden reaction from Toby. He had completely forgotten about the fact he had a brother in the first place. For the first time since they spilt up to find their power, it almost felt like an eternity.

And now seeing him and himself transformed, it felt complete.

Nick wrapped his arms around Toby and never wanted to let go.