They climbed fifty floors. The enemies here were strange—flying books that bit like bats, ink-elementals that tried to drown them. Kaelen used Decay to rot the paper. Rix used fire to burn the ink.
They reached the 50th Floor. It was a massive library. But the books were not on shelves. They were piled in mounds, rotting.
"This looks like a dump," Rix said.
Kaelen picked up a book. The title was legible: The True History of the Sun God.
He opened it. "Brave Sun was not a god. He was a jealous child who broke his father's arm."
He picked up another. The Recipe for Immortality."Take one human soul. Add fear. Stir until the humanity curdles."
"This is the Monarch's Diary," Kaelen whispered. "This is Umbra's collection of secrets."
[Guide: Correct. Umbra was the Monarch of Secrets and Shadows. He knew the truth about the Ancestor. That is why the other Monarchs locked him in here and starved him.]
Rix found a pedestal in the center. On it lay a skeletal hand holding a Scroll. "Kaelen, look at this."
Kaelen approached. The scroll was a map. A map of the Underground. It showed the roots of the tower going deep, deep down. And at the bottom, wrapped in chains, was a figure simply labeled: REN.
"He's real," Rix breathed. "The Ancestor is real. And he's right under us."
Suddenly, the shadows in the room elongated. A voice echoed from the ceiling. It sounded like a thousand whispers layered over each other.
"Thieves... Rats... Did you come to steal my secrets too?"
The darkness coalesced at the far end of the room. A giant figure formed. It wore a tattered robe made of night. Its face was a void.
[Boss: Umbra, The Corrupted Monarch.][Status: Insane.]