Doctor Sivana spread his arms, trembling, and greedily breathed in the stale yet magic-filled air.
"I've waited far, far too long for this moment!"
Ever since that damned old Wizard had cruelly rejected him twenty years ago with the words "You aren't pure enough" and thrown him back into the Mortal World, Sivana had sunk completely into a mad obsession.
He had exhausted the wealth and energy of most of his life frantically searching for this Hall of Magic that existed only in legend.
He had searched the world for children who, like him, had once entered the Rock of Eternity, only to be ruthlessly cast aside.
From their fragmented memories and scribbles, he had pieced together one mysterious magic symbol after another.
Although every attempt had ended in failure, he had never once entertained the slightest thought of giving up.
Just moments ago, when he had drawn his latest seven symbol sequences on the wooden door of that office from all those years ago, the runes on the door had finally erupted with miraculous white light!
He had pushed open the door, crossed the boundary between dimensions, and finally set foot once more in the place that had haunted his dreams.
Sivana adjusted the glasses on his nose, his gaze sweeping greedily over his surroundings.
It was still the same suffocatingly familiar scene from twenty years ago. The only difference was that the lofty, red-robed Wizard was gone.
He glanced at the Staff lying on the steps and the pile of ashes that had yet to disperse, and a mocking sneer curled his lips.
He cared nothing for whether that old fossil lived or died. His gaze fixed hungrily on the sealed stone pedestal in the center of the hall.
Above it floated the Demon's Eye, radiating a dim