"It should be just up ahead!" Vastoria looked back at us, "Come on, you can do it!"

"Where was this woman when we were up against the Gods?" Gale chuckled, "I feel like I could run a marathon in seconds with her encouragement."

"She does seem to be in high spirits, but that could also be from her reuniting with Magnes." Sheep explained.

"Not everything's about me, y'know?" I glared back.

"Oh yeah? Is that so, Miss First Person." Gale joked, "Tell that to the readers."

Readers? Ugh, I'm ignoring this idiot before his brain damage rubs off on me too much. Vastoria, a seraphim who's lost her wings. It's a damn tragedy, and yet she still keeps her head high as she faces the world ahead of her. Nonetheless, she even makes sure to slow down if she ever catches herself putting too big of a distance between us, and frequently does these cheerleader-esque shouts to motivate us to keep following her. Not like we wouldn't be doing that anyways, but it's nice to have a cute girl in your life that incessantly shouts "Go! Go!".

"...Go!" Vastoria looked a bit nervous as she continued cheering on us, "Go... Go?"

"Vastoria?" We looked at her with tilted heads.

"N-No, I just took a wrong turn is all!" She nervously explained, "But rest assured, I know exactly where my friend's house is! I guarantee you we'll be there in no time!"

Obviously, we weren't in any position to judge her for the occassional flub or two. Given that none of us know where Throne lives, it wasn't like we had a better idea in regards to finding it. She's an extremely important piece of this puzzle, so now it was out turn to cheer her up.

"You can do it!" I ran up beside her, "Come on, let me help you! What does the house look like?"

"Eh? There's no need, Migu-"

"What's. The house. Look like." I glared at her with the might of a thousand roaring lions.

"Mmm... A-A shed." She bent under the pressure way too quickly, "Or maybe more like a shack? It's very worn out."

A worn out shed for a house? That's where such a strong and capable man lives? I'm finding it pretty hard to believe, but I guess anything is possible in Heaven 2.0. Vastoria knows the guy better than any of us do, so I'll take her word for it. Ah, but looking around in the hopes of finding something as worn as that in a world of new and flashy houses isn't proving itself very fruitful.

"Vastoria." Sheep called out to her.

"Ha-ha, just a bit of patience please!" She chuckled back nervously.

"You have no idea where you're going, do you?" Gale was the one to call her out on what we were all thinking.

Immediately, she tripped and rolled a couple of meters before coming to a stop. Geez, even when she eats mad cloud, she still looks cute. Apart from my ponytail, I wouldn't say we look too different, so what makes her so sweet in comparison? Is it really all in the personality? It can't be the golden parts, because the only one she has is that chest wound that looks sort of like a heart. Eh, maybe it is that—Something like subliminal messaging, who knows.

"Wahh..." She looked disappointed in herself more so than anything, "Sorry, I could get there without a hitch if I still had my wings, but I guess the streets are just way more confusing to traverse..."

"Your wings, that's right." Sheep asked, "How did you lose them?"

"I was attacked by a horde of White Monsters." She explained, "They ripped them clean off, but I managed to escape thanks to Throne's help."

White Monsters, that sounds kind of familiar... Oh right, that brute with the two gold arms was shouting something about them while he was causing havoc on the streets. Yeesh, just when I stopped feeling as guilty for trying to leave Sheep to fend for himself against the guy...

"It's possible to survive a White Monster encounter?" Sheep raised an Eyebrow.

"If a seraphim keeps their Eyes closed, they could fly up and away to safety. Without wings, you'll never be able to evade them." She explained, "That's why I have Throne and his wings to thank for swooping in to my rescue."

"Incredible." Sheep gawked, "Wings truly are the best thing in this world..."

"Ahem." Gale suddenly raised his arm to ask a question, "Yes, uhm... What the hell is a White Monster?"

That's what I wanna know too. It's scary enough to make that golden armed lunatic go mad with fear, and from what we've heard from Vastoria and Sheep, they're pretty difficult to escape from, but we've never actually had them properly described to us. A White Monster... Aren't we all White in this place? Maybe what makes it a monster is its shape, then.

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"We're all White Monsters." Vastoria explained in brief, "Or at least, once we get put to sleep by a White Monster."

"Eh?" I cocked my head back, "What does that mean?"

"A cycle has 36 hours—12 for free time, and 24 for bedtime." Sheep continued from there, "After the first 12 hours, a being known as the White Monster is freed, and anyone who lays their Eyes upon its face becomes a White Monster themself."

"And what happens to the people that get put to sleep?" Gale inquired.

"They roam around until the reset, hunting anyone and everyone that may still be awake somewhere." Vastoria elaborated, "It's like a highly viral plague. To my knowledge, no angel's ever managed to survive all 24 hours of bedtime to make it to the next cycle without sleeping."

Right, I could see how that would prove difficult. Ah, but she specified angels, so seraphim can? Oh right, I forgot they can fly. So that's the case—You get put to sleep and by the time you wake up, your memory's gone. I think I get what she's saying now: It's never been proven, but it's everyone's assumption that if an angel were to stay awake the entire 36 hours, they would theoretically transport their memories to the next cycle.

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After realizing that Vastoria is only human, ironically enough, we stopped rushing to the objective in favor of taking a more careful approach. Throne's house should be sticking out like a sore thumb, so it wouldn't do us any good to just run past it. We can take our time and scope out the scene properly, and all the while partake in some lovely banter between friends.

"Eh?! There's a Shrine far out away from the residential area!?" Gale couldn't believe what he had heard from Vastoria just now, "And you've explored it!?"

"Haha, it's not that big of a deal, really." She chuckled, "Heck, even I'm not sure how I came back out of it. That's what I wanna ask Throne."

"Has he been there before?" I asked.

"The outside, yes. But for whatever reason, the barrier around its entrance only allowed me to enter, and it didn't make it easy, I'll tell you that." She sighed, "Man, it would've been a breeze to reach the end with him around..."

"So there's even a magical barrier. That really does sound like something out of a fantasy novel." Gale noted, "Then, if it's a Shrine dungeon, then there had to have been some amazing loot down there, right?"

"Loot..." She thought about it for a bit before returning an empty stare, "A fork and a shield."

"E-Eh?" We were taken aback, "So little..."

"Ah, but I did find a friend down there. His name is Energy!" She put on a wide grin that quickly turned sour, "I gouged his Eye out with the fork on accident..."

How do you do that to someone by complete accident?

"Ah, but he got even with me by giving me this golden scar on my chest." She finally explained the story behind it, "I don't exactly get the details of why he did it, but I can understand that he was dealing with some heavy trauma, so I forgave him immediately. Haha, funnily enough, he used the fork to do so as well!"

"..."

"...G-Guys?"

What the hell kind of experience did they have in that Shrine?! Gouging Eyes out, stabbing ribcages open... I've heard of bad chemistry, but isn't this taking it a bit too far!? And she seems so nonchalant about it, too. Makes me wonder how that guy would describe it... Wait, speaking of, where exactly is he? Gasp, it couldn't be! Did she...?

"Be straight with me—Did you kill him?" Gale asked without reservation.

"What?" She stood there in shock.

"No, Heavenly Beings can't die." Sheep defended her with well-defined facts, "But then again, they can't feel pain or get hurt either, so I don't know what she's talking about."

"...The Shrine's power." She explained, albeit sheepishly, "Entering inside it inverts your golden and White parts. That's actually how I survived getting stabbed in the chest. My golden heart protected me from dying."

Hold on, that's way too much to throw at us all of a sudden. So inside the Shrine, I could feel like a... a human again? I've had my suspicions for a while now, but this just sealed the deal—That Shrine holds the key to revival! Vastoria and that other guy didn't find it, but if I tried my luck with it, then surely...!

"Hold on, you have a golden heart?!" Gale asked the more important question.

"Yes, and now thanks to Energy, I also have a golden chest wound." She looked at it, "It appears whatever damage one sustains in the Shrine gets healed up as golden parts once you leave. If my theory is correct, Energy should have a golden Eye and a golden foot to go along with his brain now."

"...Eh? Foot? Brain?" I noticed, "What the hell did you do to those?"

"Wha-!? How rude!" She pouted, "I had nothing to do with those! He got his foot caught in a trap before we met, and his brain..."

"How'd he lose that and still survive?" Sheep asked.

"...He got that one as a human." She switched to a more serious tone, "What I'm about to say may sound stupid, but please believe me."

"What's the matter?" We all tuned in.

"Energy... Hails from an era of a Black Iro Curse." She revealed, "According to him, he spent his entire life surviving in a disease-infested world. The disease causes people to feel an unquenchable craving for other humans' flesh."

"That does sound hard to believe..." Gale tried to picture it in his head.

"Yeah, honestly I'm at a loss for words." Sheep shrugged, "Like, I wanna believe you, but that just seems so farfetched..."

"...Oh, so like a zombie apocalypse?" I realized.

"Zombie...?" She tilted her head, "Apocalypse?"

"Yeah, I've seen it in movies and TV shows all the time. Though I obviously can't remember anything specifically." I explained.

It was only through their utterly puzzled and confused stares did I finally realize all three of them came from an era before me. Heaven contains everyone that has ever lived, lives and will ever live, so it's obvious that this would be the case, but it still feels a bit lonely to be the only one that gets these modern day references. Seriously, how can you not know what zombies are?

"...Sorry, I'm more so confused over those other phrases you used." Gale stopped to ask, "Movies? TV shows?"

"Yeah, and to make matters worse, you just brushed off the word "apocalypse" as if it were nothing." Sheep reminded me, "Do you not realize the gravity of such a disaster? Apocalypse literally means a worldwide threat! If you know what it means, then surely you should be afraid of such a thing happening, not smiling like you recalled a nostalgic event!"

"Geez, you guys are ancient..." I slumped forward, "And just because I know what a tornado is doesn't mean I should start spinning in the opposite direction, I mean come on!"