*Puff *...Apolo lost his balance and fell to the floor, causing his eyes to snap open, only to discover that he couldn't see anything at all. On the other hand, Apolo immediately realized that his ears only allowed him to hear an unusual constant ringing that was causing him a great headache. Even though the noble's entire body seemed to be failing suddenly, the sense of touch fortunately did not abandon him and provided him with some clues about his current situation: As he sat on the ground waiting to regain his sight, Apolo felt that the ground was no longer earth but felt like polished wood that one could find in any house of the empire. So the young man understood that at this moment, he was no longer underground and seemed to have mysteriously emerged from the underground refuge.
Although the noble tried to remember how he had come out of the underground refuge, the last thing he could remember was putting the fluorescent slug in his ear, and then having the slight intuition that he had somehow been blinded again by a flash of green color. Although the noble did not understand how that flash had appeared or why he couldn't remember what he was doing when he received it, since everything that happened after putting the slug in his ear was an enigma to him.
Despite his many doubts, Apolo's main problem right now was fighting the horrible feeling of being blinded. So the noble tried to solve the problem by rubbing his eyes while blinking constantly, hoping that his vision would recover in this way.
After a few good seconds of trying, the dubious recovery method turned out to be effective, and the young man regained his vision. But despite that, Apolo realized that he was in a place too dark to be able to distinguish where he really was. So the noble raised his hand, and a small fireball formed in his palm, thus showing the perplexing landscape where he had somehow ended up.
Opening his eyes wide, Apolo realized that he was in one of the hallways of his mansion. While the noble could not exactly recognize where in the mansion he was, the truth was that he did recognize the old wooden planks that formed the wide hallway where he was.
Despite this shocking discovery, Apolo immediately noticed a mistake: He realized that there was not a single window in the entire hallway, and he couldn't see any glass to provide illumination. So Apolo could only rely on his own flame to light the way, which was something he did not remember happening in his mansion, as far as his memory served, all the crystals for lighting were still working. Nevertheless, the number of hallways in his mansion was sufficient for the young man to forget to check some crystals, so this could still be his home.
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After discovering that he was in his mansion, the second thing Apolo noticed was that he had stopped being a child and had returned to his original body, since the hallway's ceiling was not too far from his head. Another detail that caught Apolo's attention was that he was not wearing his characteristic black toga, but instead was wearing a black robe, very similar to what all the mages of this era wore.
This robe reminded Apolo that this was no longer his home and that he had died since he had never bought such a garment. But despite remembering his tragic reality, the young man still did not understand why he had returned to his mansion.
In search of answers, Apolo walked through the hallways trying to find someone who could tell him what was happening to him. However, the young man didn't have to walk far to discover that this hallway was particularly empty, and his only companion was the wind coming from both the back and front of the hallway. While feeling the wind coming from two different directions was strange for the noble, unfortunately, the hallway was too dark, so Apolo couldn't see the end of either of the two ends to satisfy his curiosity.
After walking for a few more minutes down the endless hallway, the young noble finally managed to discover the second major flaw in this place when he realized that there didn't seem to be a single door in this hallway. This was also something quite frustrating to discover because the lack of doors also indicated a lack of changes, and without changes, this hallway would remain in absolute solitude for eternity. This implied, in turn, that Apolo would never manage to understand how he ended up in this place because thinking on his own would only get him tangled up in his thoughts.
Struggling not to despair due to the lack of answers, the young noble walked through the endless hallway until the passage of time finally granted him the calmness of a man who saw himself as dead.
Losing count of his own steps, Apolo finally remembered that time no longer mattered to him: He had died. Accepting that fact, the noble began to think about the matter that was preventing him from continuing with the new path he was beginning to tread in this stage of his existence: Revealing the mystery of why he ended up in this infinite hallway, reflecting on all the events he could remember since he became an ancestor: The apparent death of Tea, Helena's hiding place, and now this infinite hallway. All these events must mean something that the ancient ancestors were trying to teach him, but Apolo could not reveal the hidden truth of this spiritual "journey".
While meditating and walking, feeling the breeze hitting his black robe, Apolo finally saw something that snapped him out of his trance: A few meters away was the exit of this place, or perhaps the entrance to the real teaching. In any case, after a few meters, there was the first door that Apolo had seen in this hallway.
The door in question was made of rotten wood covered in bluish moss, it was quite corrupted by the passage of time, and it seemed that it would collapse with just a touch. However, when the young man approached close enough to put his hand on the bronze knob on the door, he could turn it normally: Unlocking the door's lock and revealing the secrets hidden behind it.