"Land of the gods"- Part 6: "Elemental Card"

"…Speaking of that, Toan immediately felt chills. He realized that he was about to tell Lan the part he wanted to forget the most, it used to make him extremely guilty, regretful and haunted. Lan saw that Toan's face was white, and his hands on the table were intertwined and trembled, so he asked:

'Hey, Toan, are you okay? Looking at your face, what do you have to worry about?'

'No... I'm fine. Just a moment of distraction.'- Toan replied-'Where have I been saying?'

'Ah, you're talking about the part where the two got into a heated argument and he made Linh confess his deeds. I was a bit shocked. She is always close and talkable with everyone, but I didn't expect her nature to be such a cunning, infamous person.'

'Her personality is corrupted, in my opinion, the reason partly due to this thing.'- Then Toan opened his pocket, took out something wrapped in brown cloth, and placed it on the table.

Yelena was attracted to that mysterious thing. She felt that there was some kind of magic that fueled her curiosity. She leaned over the thing, stared at it, then slowly reached out her left hand to touch it. This had been predicted by Toan. When Yelena's finger was only about 10 cm away from the object, Toan immediately grabbed her hand and held it tight. At this time, Yelena seemed to have escaped from the fascination, she looked up at Toan, blinked, breathed heavily, and asked:

'Oh my god, what's wrong with me? Suddenly I was fascinated by this thing, unconsciously I was driven by its curiosity and then lost consciousness for a moment. It's so scary.'

'Yeah, I know. Everyone who sees it is the same. Even I cannot explain this phenomenon. But I know how to get rid of it. Before we reveal this, you'll have to listen to my story, okay?'

'Of course. I'd love to hear the rest of it' Yelena replied.

'It took us two hours by car. It was raining quite heavily at that time. When I got there, I took all my gear from the car while Linh took out a large travel bag from the trunk. When I asked about how to break the pile of stones blocking the entrance, Linh threw the bag at me. With a curious feeling, I opened it and discovered it was a pile of dynamite along with a homemade bomb switch. 'Boom!'- Linh exclaimed, making me fall back. She happily teased: 'You coward, rest assured! Your life is in my hand. There's no way you can die when you stay with me .'

'Enough. Don't scare me. Just saying 'You will be safe when you stay with me' is fine... Don't do it anymore, all right?'

'OK, sorry. Don't be so serious, boy. I'm not your babysitter."

"Damn, watch your mouth, Linh. Crazy woman."

'I'm glad because you didn't call me 'bitch'

'How can you joke at this time?'

'Angry, aren't you? Ok, stop there. I do what I should do. No weird talk. I realized that my present talking way almost become similar to the guy who created these dynamites..."

I suddenly realized Linh's hidden meaning, asked Linh who was asked her to make those dynamites, gave her the recipe, and showed her how it works. She answered only one question:

'A mad scientist. I don't like his personality, but I have to admit he's really good and versatile. I like the things on display at his house, almost all of which he created by hand. Well, I also like the coffee he makes. What words should I use to describe him? Distinguished scientist and skilled bartender. He's also versatile, isn't he?'

I was very surprised by that answer. I also did not expect Linh to secretly do it to everyone. After that, Linh and I set up explosives around the pile of stones that blocked the door. While setting up, I wondered if she was still hiding anything. The next thing is to detonate them. I manually pressed the switch. And then a shrill 'Boom!' was heard. Everything was shattered and created such a huge shock that we were all sent four feet away. Their destructive power made not only me but Linh also gasped in surprise even though we had been warned about it. I was sent back quite a distance by the vibration from the explosion. When I still don't fully regain my sense, I was immediately pulled up by Linh. Looking at her face, she was extremely happy and excited as if she had won gold.

The two walked inside slowly, Linh did not forget to turn on the flashlight to look around. I have to say my first impression is that this place is quite ancient, desolate, and monotonous. I mean monotonous because when I look at it, I see nothing but a few ancient inscriptions carved on the four walls, the steps led us to a stone coffin placed between two statues of two ancient gods holding lamps and facing each other. I accidentally stepped on a special brick on the floor, it immediately retracted and the lights on the other two statues glowed. Only now did we see that standing on the ground was the symbol representing the gods that people were talking about - the 'Buthuda' symbol.'

The part when Toan opened the cloth and revealed what was inside. At first glance, Yelena could not imagine what it was. Toan pulled out his phone, opened a photo, and placed it next to the thing, saying:

'Now I put this and this picture side by side, try comparing them and seeing if you can find similarities between them.'

Yelena tried to take a closer look. This thing looked like yellow origami. It's just as big as the palm of her hand and can be folded and unfolded. It is designed with four wings that spread out. Yelena suddenly realized a point: the icon taken was quite similar to that item when folded, although not the same in every detail.

'What is this? Why does it look so similar to that 'Buthuda' icon? Could someone have created this item through it? How come I'm not hypnotized by this thing anymore?'

'Let me explain. The truth was that within this thing there was an entity that beckoned her to use it as the official possessor to free it. It created a wave of stimulation in the brain, like a stimuYelenat in opium that made it difficult for her to refuse without strong intentions or a lack of desire. The main reason why you weren't manipulated by it was that you had no desire to possess it. The proof is that when I stopped her at first, you regained consciousness very quickly. On the other hand, this symbol and this thing are closely related to each other because it is related to the mysteries of who created them. Not just one, but three other cards were made. According to the ancient lines I read on the wall, it says they are Elemental Cards.'

'Elemental Card?! Is that the name of this thing? What was it created for? And you say there's an entity within it that tried to manipulate me?'

'Don't talk about the entity inside the Elemental Card now, because you will discover it yourself later. Are you sure you know the main natural elements that exist on our planet?'

'I know. Water, lightning, wind, fire,...'

'On first look, it seemed to be nothing special. But, if we study closely, we will know that it contains part of the nature of Lightning, one of the natural elements. According to Linh's words, a total of four were created. We don't know what elemental power the other three Elemental Cards have, because neither Linh nor I possess them.'

'What does that mean? What happened to me?'

'During that trip, Linh found them after following the written instructions on the wall. They are placed in a stone case and when opened they glow. As far as I can see, there are four lights red, blue, yellow, and green. I also looked at the coffin there was an ancient inscription, it was a message or suggestion from a predecessor...'

"Your reminder made me remember one thing, Linh once told me the meaning of that line: 'A chosen one could open the coffin and unleash our power. It could be...'- Yelena said.

'...Yeah, you're right. That's her, 'the chosen one' that the line in the coffin mentioned."

"Unbelievable. So... she's the descendant of the guy that created that coffin, isn't she?"

"Unfortunately, you're right."

"Do you mind hearing me tell the rest of the story?"- Toan asked.

"Sur...sure."- Yelena replied.

"...I have a feeling that I shouldn't open the coffin, or else there will be a bad omen. But Linh still insisted on opening it. She was attracted to the stone box… to be exact, to the four glowing Elemental Cards inside it. She said they were the ones that would open the coffin, just recite the incantation carved on the wall. After a while deciphering the text on the wall, she stood in front of the coffin, holding a stone box in one hand and a piece of paper with the translated spell in it, and read it aloud. When Linh finished reading, suddenly an unexpected phenomenon happened...'

Toan suddenly stopped after saying that.

'What is that phenomenon?' - Yelena asked.

'All four glowing Elemental Cards rose into the air and shined their rays on the coffin. The lid of the coffin was opened and a huge white light flew out of it and rushed outside. The other four lights also flew out, fortunately, I was quick to jump to catch one of them. That's what's in front of your eyes, Yelena'...

Yelena looked quite shocked and stared blankly at the glittering yellow Elemental Card...