Books older than the dawn of time disintegrated with each step Lightning took in the disheveled library she had landed in. The once grand ornate pillars were shattered and the ageless tomes had been scattered far and wide across the cracked marble panels. Row upon row of shelves had been knocked over like fallen soldiers.

Silently, Lightning sheathed her blade and coughed, sending dust clouds swirling through the air. They danced and flowed on unseen currents, weaving out of the warrior's path as she proceeded deeper into the bowels of the castle.

Her steps echoed off the ruined draperies and shattered banisters as she made her way to the ivory steps that were just ahead.

The trip in hadn't been comfortable, per se, but she got in anyway. In a storm of black feathers she landed in the ancient library upon a mountain of tomes easily as tall as a mansion. Strange creatures of the night, smaller than her own fingernail, scuttled away anxiously at her arrival, hiding and burrowing deeper into the mountain of articles.

Gigas clearly wasn't a book lover.

Slowly, she ascended the gleaming white steps, miraculously untouched by the particles that floated so freely, clogging up the air.

With every step, the library around her shifted, showing random images from her and Serah's past. Shared memories, and ones unknown to her, intermingled in a confusing maelstrom of emotions and thoughts. Undeterred, she pressed on and made it up to the top of the grand stairway. A map hovered upon a pedestal blacker than the night itself and she cautiously picked it up.

"Stairway of Lost Dreams? Tomes of the Forgotten? How weird…" She thought to herself as she made her way further down the hallway that loomed ahead. Something unpleasant was back there, she was certain. After all, it was labeled, "Auditorium of Insanity".

She wasn't wrong.