The Core/The Path is Sealed

There is no combat here.

• This level is a terminal above The Core
• Vaelyn and several misc NPCs are stationed here

This floor is the last encountered in every arcade gate.

  Vaelyn

Vaelyn

Hail. I am Lieutenant Vaelyn, commanding officer of on-site Core research. You are clearly amongst the strongest of the Spiral Knights to reach these infernal depths, but strength alone will get you no further.

• What's the situation, Lieutenant?

Vaelyn

We're attempting to find a means to activate the Core through the power of the minerals found within the Clockworks. Those minerals are capable of transforming the Clockworks-we have seen this in the Haven Arcade. It is our belief that we can use that power to activate the Core and... open it somehow.

• You want to open it?

Vaelyn

Yes, Captain Ozlo himself has ordered that we hold out as long as possible and learn whatever we can. If we ever leave this planet, it will be because of this Core. I am confident that aside from a potential energy source, the Core is a kind of nerve center for everything you see within the Clockworks. You can feel it in what little air is down here; a wild, ominous sense that this is no mere machine.

• You're saying it's what... alive?

Vaelyn

I'm saying that we know this entire world isn't natural, and I for one don't believe that those hordes of miserable gremlins, no matter how industrious, could have built an entire wold. They had to have been aided by something far beyond their measure and perhaps whatever that is lies within the Core. The same goes for the Alpha Squad. They wouldn't just disappear, even within the furthest depths of the Clockworks. They were our very best. It was this Core that swallowed them.

• But I thought there was no way inside it?

Vaelyn

I don't know how, but they would have found a way. They must have... and now they're gone.

• End conversation

• 

  Map of The Path is Sealed.

• 

  These white screens displaying padlocks seem "sealed" as well.