Chapter 81: Nothing Serious.
"Hmm~ huhum~ hmhuhuhummm~"
The humming of a single man echoed through a dimly lit tunnel, his cheerfulness contrasting the gloomy atmosphere. He continued on the same path for a long time before stopping at a seemingly inconspicuous spot and turning to face the wall.
A chaotic mural spread indefinitely on either side, depicting the efforts of countless artists who didn’t hesitate to make use of the abandoned canvas.
The man stared at it for a while as if it was his first time coming across such a creation. Once he was done absorbing the sight, the man cleared his throat and focused his mind.
In a few seconds, lights flickered over his hooded head and quickly formed a ring of countless symbols. The ring rotated clockwise, slowly at first but then picked up the speed. The symbols forming it blurred until their shapes could no longer be distinguished with the naked eye.
"Open sesame!" The man said.
The words themselves had no power, but he enjoyed saying them nonetheless. The graffiti covering the tunnel wall moved and warped without making a sound. The chaos dispersed, and at the center of it all a single door of light formed.
Without a care, the man stepped through the light and the gate vanished a second later.
"I’m back! Did any of you miss me!"
His cheerful greeting was met with nothing but silence. He looked around and found nothing, not a single soul within the vast Hall of Doors—only a spacious empty room with a ridiculously high ceiling.
"Where did everybody go?"