They landed on a metal grating. They were in a massive underground chamber beneath the Sanctum.
It wasn't a dungeon. It was a Server Room. Thousands of crystals hummed in racks, processing the System's logic. And in the center, a massive, ancient machine built around a petrified tree stump.
The Machine of Neo. And beneath the machine, a heavy blast door made of Void Steel.
"This is it," Kaelen said. "The Ninth Seal."
Rix looked at the machine. "This... this controls the whole world. If we open this door, the System goes offline. Permanently."
"If we don't open it," Kaelen said, "Valen will reboot the System and wipe us out."
Kaelen pulled out the Void Key (the Black Box) and the Shadow Key (from Umbra). He walked to the blast door.
There were two keyholes. He inserted the keys.
KLANG. The gears turned. The sound was deafening. It sounded like the earth groaning.
The blast door hissed. Ancient air rushed out—air that smelled of the Primordial Era. Air that smelled of Ren.