Adam asked his godfather for some more details and got ready to head towards the exit, explaining to the kids how to proceed in case they encountered either of the two creatures that inhabited this area. The three youngsters were on the stairs of hexagon 3, and Adam planned to go to the mirror in hexagon 2, using the main corridors filled with booksshelves where he could hold on to in case he heard anything strange.

To make sure they didn't encounter the dangerous creature, Adam decided to go up one floor using the stairs and search for the wooden mirrors on the second floor. But when he was about to reach the second-floor exit, the redhead realized that the exit was being blocked by the general, and the ascent to the middle third floor was also being obstructed by a marble wall.

—Could you open the entrance for us?—Adam asked impatiently.

—Yes, I could...—commented the general, looking at the kids with concern.

However, the general didn't open the entrance and kept staring at the group. Adam noticed the anomaly and asked:

—Is there something preventing us from leaving?

—Yes!—the general commented in a military tone.

—Why can't we leave? My ears hurt a lot, and I want to get out of here!—Hermes exclaimed angrily, kicking the general's face.

—A few minutes ago, you could, but the council has just forbidden it—said the general with great seriousness—The new rule states that children from the day care centers cannot enter the mezzanines today.

—Mezzanines? Are those the floors of the creatures? But we climbed 100 steps!—Adam expressed concern.

—I can't explain much...—said the general solemnly—But consider that they're helping you by not allowing you to enter this floor. Besides, you can't ascend entire floors using my stairs in the reverse world.

—So, how do we escape?!—Apolo asked, yelling in frustration.

—Go back the way you came!—the general shouted in a military tone, as if giving an order—Don't hesitate so much; the creature that was chasing you is already far away from the entrance to my stairs, and it's not normal to encounter it.

—Well, it looks like they're forcing us to go back the way we came...—Adam commented, trying to understand why the bookshelves were so concerned about these two kids.

The three youngsters descended the stairs and returned to the exit of the middle first floor. The general informed them that no one was on the other side, and the group proceeded to leave the stairs and find themselves again in the corridors of swampy ground. Adam confirmed that there was no one in the hallways and decided to head towards hexagon 2 with the kids holding hands.

Following his godfather's instructions, Adam walked very slowly, focusing on finding strange footprints on the ground and listening for strange sounds. The two boys also tried to help by listening, but their ears were hurting too much to hear anything besides the strange voices.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Adam arrived at the entrance of hexagon 2 without encountering anything unusual, but along the way, he began to notice some strange footprints: they looked like very small green claws, and there were many of them on the floor in this area. The young hero wanted to avoid them, but he realized that all paths to the mirror were filled with these tracks.

Carefully, the group made their way to the mirror, but on the way, Hermes heard something strange and told Adam:

—I hear someone asking for help. What should we do, big guy?

—We just have to...—Adam wanted to tell him not to worry about helping others, but he remembered how Franco and Bianca tried to help him while he decided to leave them behind. Since that day, the young hero had promised to try to help others, so Adam ended up saying:

—Do you also hear someone asking for help, Apolo? I don't hear anything.

—Yes, the noises are a bit further ahead, it's where we're going, I think...—Apolo replied with some fear, gripping Adam's hand even tighter.

—Well, if that's the case, let's just keep going forward...—Adam said with a bit more confidence, as that was the direction of the mirror anyway.

The three walked carefully until Adam could finally start to hear where the pleas were coming from. He observed that there were librarian footprints heading in that direction. The voice seemed to belong to a very old man pleading for help, and it traveled with the murmurs of the corridors in a way that Adam didn't understand.

Very carefully, the young hero walked towards the corner of the corridor where the sound came from. But before turning the corner, he stopped for a few minutes to listen; he wanted to be sure that nothing bad would happen.

—Help... Help... Help...—someone kept repeating the same message over and over again, sounding like a recording, and the intonation was very tired, as if the person asking for help had been doing it for years.

Adam held onto the wooden planks of one of the bookshelves and peeked his head to see what was in the next corridor: even if it was the inkwell, nothing bad would happen if he did this and the inkwell noticed it.

At a glance, Adam could see that there was an old man in ragged black robes lying on the ground. The old man's legs were missing, and there was a trail of blood on the floor. The old man's robes didn't seem normal, as they had a family of three people embroidered in silver on the sleeves: there was a stick figure man with a cane, an adult man, and a child, and all three stick people were holding hands.

Adam realized that the old man must have been crawling on the floor with bleeding legs to try to reach the mirror and be healed. Following this idea, they must have attacked him in the corridor across from where Adam was, as he didn't see any blood traces in the corridor where he was.

There were also several little green claw marks heading forward, so Adam assumed that the creatures that left these marks attacked the old man and then ignored him.

But upon closer inspection of the floor where the old man was pleading, Adam noticed several pieces of black robes scattered around the corridor across from him and a few books. Apparently, they didn't just attack the old man; they attacked a group of people traveling together, and the old man somehow survived.

The old man seemed not to have noticed him, still pleading for help and slowly crawling on the ground, trying to reach the mirror. Adam knew the old man would never make it at this pace.

So carefully, Adam decided to keep moving forward and help the old man. Strangely enough, the old man couldn't hear the three youngsters, even when they were right next to him. Adam reached out his hand and grabbed the old man's shoulder on the ground while telling the boys to take the wooden planks.

The old man felt Adam touching him and screamed with all his might when he saw his face:

—Please, I beg you! Help! We're just a few corridors away from the mirror! Can you carry me, young man?

—Don't shout, dammit!—Adam said angrily; he almost covered the man's mouth with his hand, but the old man couldn't hear him and seemed to want to keep screaming for help. So the young hero changed his approach: he took off his glasses and looked into the old man's eyes.