****
The Binding of the Ancestral Staff of Darkness was completed. The Ancestral Staff lied still after it was tied to Gabriel.
As the Mark of Darkness appeared right next to his Mark of Light, Gabriel's body also started recovering even more. The veins of his that had turned black returned back to normal as if a balance had been established where the darkness was being kept at bay by his light and vice versa.
Things seemed to have settled down as his life force was also stable. Not only was it stable, but his life force had only become stronger.
The Infernal King could finally relax as it seemed that Gabriel was fine now. Whatever problem he was facing, he seemed to have navigated out of it. Now all they needed was to wait for him to get up.
Gabriel was out of danger. The Prison of Darkness had been destroyed, so he was as safe as it could be. It was also when his consciousness started waking up, albeit slowly.
****
Gabriel was inside his dream, looking inside the Spatial Storage. His entire focus rested on the two Spheres of different colors, one being black and the other being white.
The Spheres were addressed as the Orbs of Time, which implied they had some connection with time itself. But what connection? And what was the Temple that was supposed to be after him? Also, why was it supposed to be a threat?
Moreover, there was another question. Why did Karyk take these two orbs? Just what did he want to achieve with them? Did he succeed in what he wanted to do? Or did he fail? How did these Orbs of Time end up in the Academy?
The questions didn't stop there either. The more Gabriel thought about it, the more his questions increased, similar to his headache. Why did Lelin want these Orbs in the Real World?
Since Lelin only took the white one and didn't even know that there was also a black one, that only made Gabriel convinced that Lelin wasn't the same person he had seen before.
The person Gabriel saw there appeared to be quite knowledgeable about the Spheres of Time and knew about them. There was no way he wasn't going to know that there were two.
"I need to ask him, but he can't even listen to me," Gabriel mumbled, glancing at the doors.
In the end, he just decided to follow the man. Even if he couldn't talk to the man who looked like Lelin, at least he could know more about that person through his movements. If anything, there was also a possibility that he could've traced him back to the people who he was working for to understand more.
Gabriel stepped out of the empty room to chase after the man.
As soon as his first step landed outside the room, he found his surroundings turn pitch white.
The world created in his dreams shattered into pieces, tossing him out of the realm of dreams and back into the real world.
****
It had been over three hours since Gabriel had fallen to the ground, being attacked by the Staff of Darkness. He still hadn't woken up.
He was still lying on the ground with everyone waiting for him to wake up. The Infernal King, Novius, Cylix, and the youngsters were all waiting in the distance, keeping an eye on the unmoving young man.
None of them had seen a phenomena even close to this in their entire lifetime.
"His condition seems much better now. He has been out of danger for quite some time, and he even succeeded in controlling the Staff of Darkness. Why isn't he waking up?" Cylix wondered.
They had so many questions, especially regarding that strange yet powerful aura that attacked them, but the only person who could answer that was Gabriel. They needed to wait for him to wake up first. Unfortunately, none of them knew how long he was going to take.
It was as if everything had come to a halt as everyone waited for Gabriel.
Gabriel's dream was broken, and he finally started waking up. Even though his condition was better than it had been before, his body was still aching, as if he had gone through a fierce battle and suffered a lot of damage.
His pained groan echoed in the hall, alerting everyone that he was up!
Gabriel's eyes momentarily opened, only to close right after. He felt as if his eyes didn't want to open, as if they wanted him to sleep for longer to give them more rest.
He forced his eyes to open a few times to get them adjusted to the light in the surroundings.
Holding his head, he sat up and observed his surroundings. He had expected to be back in the Prison of Darkness, but he found himself inside the Tower of Challenges. He also noticed the Infernal King and the two founders, who were looking at him with slight relief.
"I'm out?" he wondered. He was sure that Lira wasn't going to let him leave that easily. Then how was he back here?
"Was that also a dream?"
He didn't know that he had fought Lira for his freedom, which was why he couldn't make sense of his return.
"No... It definitely wasn't a dream! That couldn't be one! The pain was real!"
He couldn't accept denying all the pain he had gone through. His interaction with Lira was real. He was sure of it.
"Did you two help me in my return?" Since Lira wasn't going to let him leave, it made more sense to think that the two Founders helped him escape from that place. Or maybe it was the Infernal King? He could give credit to everyone except for taking it himself.
Cylix and Novius didn't understand what help he was talking about. Even though they wanted to help, there was literally nothing they could do. It was all the doing of him.
Seeing the confused gazes on their faces, Gabriel had second thoughts about them as well. It seemed as if they weren't the ones either. Then who?
As Gabriel wondered, he noticed the Grimoire of Necromancy lying right beside him. That made sense! His Grimoire helped him, he thought.
Strangely enough, a new page was open in the Grimoire with a new spell.
"Huh?"
He picked up the Grimoire and placed it on his lap, observing the new spell. He also turned pages back to see if it was the only new spell. Surprisingly enough, that wasn't the case.
There wasn't just one new spell, but two! He had seven Spells before, but now there were two new spells.
