The two of them entered the Secret Chamber one after the other. They soon discovered that its decor was nothing like the splendor outside. Instead, it felt far older and more solemn, as though beneath the school's brand-new shell lay an even more ancient soul.
The deeper they went, the dimmer the lights became and the stronger the air of mystery grew. The air became increasingly damp, with moss and Vines pushing up through the cracks in the floor. After an unknown amount of walking, a very old-looking room appeared before the Batmen.
It was a tiny room of barely a dozen square meters, with a low ceiling and numerous wooden beams overhead. It felt even more cramped and oppressive, completely unlike the spacious, luxurious decor outside.
The furnishings here were simple as well. Just inside the door stood a somewhat worn desk, with a chair behind it that bore obvious signs of use. Two rows of bookshelves stood behind that, filled with all sorts of magical tomes. Several crates were piled in the corner, but they were all empty. A Chandelier hung overhead, and an oil lamp sat on the desk. With only those two light sources, the room was quite dim.
"I think there's a serious problem here," Arkham Batman said. "We need to search carefully."
Main Universe Batman clearly agreed. The two began looking through the room, though there was not much to search besides the books on the shelves. To their surprise, most of the books recorded dark magic.
More precisely, they described evil rituals—how to sacrifice corpses, how to ignite massive fires, how to corrode magical shields, and so on. Though they required tremendous amounts of energy, these methods were not mere empty speculation.
The truly crucial clue lay on the desk. Main Universe Batman