At the same time, inside the Shrine...

"I hate everything." Vastoria limped down the stairs, "Stupid Vastoria, stupid! Why did I have to lose my wings? Ugh, how am I ever gonna get back home after this?"

Here we returned to a rather regretful female seraphim. With her friend separated and her wings gone, she had no other choice but to painfully walk through each and every dark corridor of the Shrine. She wasn't harmed in any way, but merely stepping on her right foot would cause her a great deal of discomfort. Gilded parts are awfully sensitive to the touch, after all.

"Throne got what I was trying to do, right?" She tried to keep her mind off the discomfort by talking to herself, "I hope he gets here soon. I'd liked to have waited for him at the entrance, but he'd definitely just get mad at me for wasting the opportunity to explore."

Now more than ever, the term "unfamiliar territory" applied itself to the Shrine Vastoria was in. She didn't know the layout, the contents nor the rules of this dungeon, and for all she knew she could get teleported out any second. There's also a non-zero possibility of finding a White Monster lurking around each and every corner of this decrepit cave. Still, progress had to be made, no matter how scare it was.

"Light..." She squinted once she entered the next layer of the Shrine, "Oh, that's convenient."

Before her very Eyes, the labyrinth in front of her had seemingly began to twinkle like the night sky. One star illuminated the path, then another, then a third... But these were no stars. Nay, she was in a dungeon, aftera all, and inspecting the specks of light only revealed them to be tiny little crystals peeking out of the dungeon walls, floor and ceiling. She had reached floor 2 of the Shrine.

"Fascinating... Whoa!?" She felt her balance betray her as she hugged the wall, "Ugh, guess that's another thing to be wary of..."

The more she walked, the twistier the place had gotten, and as she made her way deeper into the crystal cavern, it felt more and more like even gravity was beginning to shift. By now, she had already switched from walking on the "floor" to walking on the "left side wall". Whether or not it was really gravity or just the architecture of the Shrine remained a mystery in her Eyes. All sense of direction was robbed of her in such darkness.

"Ah, there it is." She chuckled, "Finally, I was wondering when it was gonna make its appearance—A fork in the road."

Picking the fork up, she had pondered whether to keep it or throw it aside. Realistically, there was nothing to dine upon here, nor would she ever start to feel hunger given the fact Heavenly Beings couldn't starve. Still, her hands were free, and this eating utensil proved to be the first piece of loot she could hold in her inventory. Who knows, maybe it's an important key to solve a future puzzle or something.

"All jokes aside, this place just never ends." She eventually stopped walking for a bit to take a breather, "I wish I had some shoes, dammit... I got so used to puffy clouds that these rigid rocks are a nightmare in comparison."

At the very least, she reasoned, her path was a simple one. It was a bit disorientating, and she felt she was making a lot of twists and turns during her descent, but there truly were no branching paths, traps or the like. For now, so long as she found the end of the tunnel, there was nothing stopping her from potentially learning the secret to resurrection.

"Phew, alright Vastoria. That's enough rest for now." She hyped herself up, "Time to-Hrmph!"

Shutting herself up the moment she heard something in the distance, she quietly tiptoed towards the next 90 degree turn. Behind this very corner was something that was alive. Breathing sounds, they were ragged, and frankly seemed almost in pain. From experience, she knew this sound all too well.

"A White Monster..." She whispered to herself, "Oh no, oh Gods... What now?"

This was it, the end. Her only paths were forwards or backwards after all, and due to the barrier encompassing the Shrine just outside, even the latter of the two seemed bleak. Right now, a goat skulled individual was within arm's reach of her, and all she had to do was turn the corner for them to meet. Of course, her first instincts were to shut her Eyes and listen closely. The thing is, White Monster Apostles maintain a "passive until provoked" mindset towards seraphim. Even without her wings, it should still recognize her as such, meaning she could possibly just walk right past it, and it won't chase after her. Thus, she steeled her resolved, gripped her fork tightly, and turned the corner.

"Ghahh, haaaaaahhh..." The White Monster's breathing began to speed up the moment she showed herself to it, "Ghack, hack!"

"Mn..." She held her breath as she trudged past him.

Slowly, carefully, she walked so quietly that not even a sleeping baby could wake up from her footsteps. By all accounts, there was no scenario in which the White Monster would have reacted to her. Tracing the wall next to her with her fingertips, she finally found the next turn. Success, she had made it!

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"Stop..." It beckoned her over, "Please stop..."

"L..." She bit her tongue, daring to reply to it, "Let me go about my way, please. I'm not gonna open my Eyes."

"S-STOP!" It suddenly let out a blood-curdling screech.

Vastoria had mere seconds to react. Turning around whilst still keeping her Eyes closed, she punted the fork straight at the White Monster in a last ditch effort. To her surprise, the sound of the fork impaling it came a bit later than expected. Contrary to her belief, it had not actually lunged at her. Still, its pained screamed awoke her to the truth.

"AAAARGH!" The voice screamed, "AHHH GOD, WHY!?"

The Heavenly Being that was in that corridor with her was not a White Monster.

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***

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"Why, woman? Why!?" The man yelled.

"What now?" She contemplated, "This... No, it has to be a trick. White Monsters mimic others' voices all the time to get you to open your Eyes. You can't trick me!"

"Agh, wrong, you fucking idiot!" He chewed her off, "They only mimic voices you know!"

"Oh, right..." She deflated.

A blunder, there was no other way to call this situation. Vastoria had just attacked someone with a fork, and to make matters worse, she did it without even checking who that person was beforehand. In her mind though, she was more surprised with her blind aim than anything else. Really, for the man to be feeling the pain from getting a fork stuck in him must mean Vastoria perfectly hit his golden spot. Now, what could it be? She aimed kind of low, going off of the source of the breathing, so was it the face? The shoulders? The chest? Opening her Eyes, almost excited to find out, she was instead met with a gruesome sight.

"Oh dear God!" She jolted, immediately switching gears to go back and help him, "Sir, y-you're bleeding!"

"No shit, you threw a fork at me!" He shot back angrily, "Take it out, dammit!"

"N-No, that's not what I'm talking about!" She still found it hard to believe, "You're bleeding from your Eye!"

"I said take it the fuck out already, geez!" He was practically screaming at this point, "It hurts like hell!"

"B-But, your Eyeball isn't..."

Golden, is what she wanted to say, but just that mere fact scared her from vocalizing it. Here sat a wounded man in Heaven 2.0. Already, this was supposed to be a terrifying thought, but then you add in the fact that he's bleeding. It's been so long since Vastoria saw any blood in her life, she had almost forgotten that it was a thing. After all, she only knew of it from her time in the World of the Living. Carefully, she put her hand on the fork's rear end.

"A-Ah, you're gonna dig out my Eyeball!" He held onto his face tightly, "Dammit, first my foot, now my Eye..."

"Your foot?" She looked down, only to see a pool of blood where his left foot was supposed to be, "Oh Gods!"

"H-Hey, careful while you're holding the fork!" He chewed her out, "Okay, on the count of three, you're gonna try and yank the fork out WITHOUT taking my Eye along with it."

"Okay." She took a deep breath.

"One, two..." He steeled his resolve before handing out the order, "Three! A-Ack, you didn't pull hard enough!"

"Four, five, six...!" She kept tugging and pulling to no avail.

"It's not a fucking gym workout, stop going to failure!" He begged before falling on his back, "Doof!"

"Ah, got it." She breathed a sigh of relief as she held the bloody fork in her hand, with the black and White Eyeball stuck firmly on its prongs, "Yah!"

"You moron, I told you to leave the Eyeball in!" He lunged at her with just one Eye.

"Ew, stay back!" She started waving the fork in between them to set some distance, "Get away, get away!"

"Gimme back my Eye, woman!" He took the fork from her before shoving the Eyeball into its socket.

"Yuck..." Vastoria scowled before asking, "So, did it work...?"

"Of..." He blinked a couple of times, "Of course it fucking didn't."

"You put it on backwards, eugh!" She couldn't even look at the man's face.

"Hm? Oh." He rotated it like one would a bearing until, "Still nothing."

"I'm somehow not surprised. Eyes can't just get put back like that..." She still didn't wanna look, "Sorry, I thought you were a White Monster."

"What, is that like this place's equivalent to rotted?" He asked, promptly popping the Eye out after he realized there was no salvaging it.

"Rotted? No, they're humans with goat skulls for heads." She explained the concept, "Look one in the Eye and you go to sleep until the next reset."

"Eh? Just that?" He actually laughed, "Geez, you gouged a guy's Eye out over a sandman goat thing?"

"Don't put it like that, you're making it worse..." She sulked.

"You deserve it! What the hell, now I don't have both Eyes because of you!" He barked.

But how, Vastoria pondered in her head. Taking another look at the Eye, it was White with black Pupils. Just like anyone else's. He didn't have any gilded parts on his body just like her, but he somehow still felt pain. Not only that, but he's actually an amputee. He's missing his left foot, something that should be impossible in Heaven 2.0. In fact, the only gold he had on him were the stitches going from the back of his neck to his forehead.

"Quit looking at me all dumbfounded, surely you've noticed it too by now." He pointed out, "Inside this Shrine, we feel pain normally just like we would in the Living World. Actually, my head's never felt better than now, so I imagine the Shrine flips the script and makes it so our golden parts are the only numb parts we have."

"It's inverted..." She put her hand over her heart, realizing it truly stopped hurting every time it beated, "Wait, your head-?"

Wishing to inquire about it, she certainly didn't expect the man to already be in the process of showing what he meant to her. Undoing the golden threads carefully, the man pried open his scalp like a vertical mouth, revealing the truth behind his being.

"My name is Energy, taken from N.G, and I have a golden brain."

"That's..." She immediately booked it in the opposite direction, "Yaaaahhh! Gross, gross, totally gross! Don't follow me~!"

"...Crazy lady." He squished the scalp back in place with a smirk before realizing, "O-Oi, wait up! I can't move without my foot, come back!"