They flew through the neon canyons of the lower city. The wind whipped Kaelen's face.
"Who are you?" Kaelen shouted over the engine.
"Name's Rix," the girl yelled. "I saw your data signature spike in the dungeon. You're not a normal Civilian, are you?"
"Who are you working for?"
"Nobody! I'm a Jailbreaker!"
They landed on a secluded rooftop in Sector 7. Rix parked the bike and turned to him. She was barely 20, covered in grease and cybernetic tattoos. Her left arm was a high-tech prosthetic.
"Alright, Mystery Boy," Rix crossed her arms. "My scanner says you're Level 8, but your energy reading is off the charts. You smell like... Old Code."
Kaelen kept his hand near his knife. "Why did you save me?"
"Because the Church hates you," Rix grinned. "And I hate the Church. Enemy of my enemy, right?"
Rix tapped her mechanical temple. "I'm trying to hack the Mainframe. The System. I want to know why we're trapped on these floating rocks. I want to know what happened to the ground."
Kaelen touched his chest, where the Ember of Hope lay dormant. "I might know," Kaelen said.
Rix's eyes widened. "Show me."
Kaelen pulled out the Black Box. Rix gasped. "Void Steel. That's... that's the key to a Monarch's Tomb."
"A Monarch?"
"The Nine Monarchs," Rix whispered. "The myths say they guard the Devil beneath the earth. If you have this key... you can open a path to the Surface."
[Guide Update: New Main Quest Unlocked.][Quest: The Descent.][Objective: Use the Key to enter the Tomb of Umbra (Shadow Monarch).][Reward: The Truth of the Tenth Cycle.]
Kaelen looked at the city lights above him. He looked at the darkness below.
"Rix," Kaelen said. "Can this bike fly down?"
"Down?" Rix laughed nervously. "Into the Cloud Layer? That's suicide."
"Then we better get started."