"What... just happened?" I blinked once, "Vastoria, what happened?"

"Can't you tell?" She turned around, "We died, got eaten by the monster."

"T-Then..." Sheep still cowered in fear on the ground, "How are we...?"

"Still alive?" She smirked, "That's the beauty of this Shrine, you see!"

"The beauty of the Shrine?" I tilted my head.

"Well, it may not be the Shrine, per se." She continued, "It may very well be that the Gods just made sure no one can die in Heaven 2.0, but for whatever reason, it seems we have this safety net of "being brought back to a checkpoint" every time we die. Like a mini version of the resets that happen on the surface."

"So, down there, our bodies are...?" Sheep assumed with sunken Eyes.

"Hm? Oh, nonono!" She chuckled, "Nothing like that, our bodies are right here talking to each other. It's like we get brought back in time, so you're not gonna run into your mangled body downstairs."

So that's the case. Due to the laws of Heaven 2.0, primarily the one that forbids death, we essentially have no other option but to clear this floor and continue downwards. Our success is assured, however it won't be easy. Those beasts, Vastoria did describe them as terrifying, but what I saw was just so much more than that. It was fast, faster than even light itself it appears. A real ghast, a supernatural monster whose sole purpose is to gnaw on our golden appendages. Honestly, is being able to recall such a traumatic event a blessing or a curse?

"How many of them are there?" I sat down to think up a plan, using the pebbles as their stand-ins.

"Mn, let's see..." She sat down across from me, "Going off of what Energy and I encountered last time, there was one at the entrance, a pair over here, a whole bunch of them after this one weird looking tree..."

"That's a whole lotta pebbles..." Sheep gulped at the sheer number of them, "So, how'd you deal with them?"

"I'm not done yet." She stood up to find a large rock that was at least triple the size of the other pebbles, "Hup! There, at the very end is one last beefy guy."

"Just when I thought things couldn't get any more difficult..." I let out a tired smirk, "So, in regards to Sheep's question?"

"Ah, about that..." She looked behind us, "We kinda made heavy use of the fork as our weapon of choice... Though, that fork was only good so long as it was in Energy's capable monster slaying hands. He made it look easy, in all honesty."

"Is that so." Sheep gave up, lying down on his back ready for the stoney ground to swallow him whole, "Let alone requiring some fork we don't currently possess, you're saying we can't do anything without some guy who's good with table etiquette?"

"We could always wait for him or Throne to show up eventually." She shrugged.

"There's no guarantee that'll ever happen." I shook my head, "For one thing, we don't even know if that guy is ever gonna return to the Shrine after what you guys went through."

"Yeah, and as for Throne..." Sheep glanced up, "He didn't exactly look like he was gonna phase through anytime soon."

As much as I would like for a miracle to occur in having one of them magically swoop in to save the day, I'm afraid we'll never amount to anything if we resort to sitting around and waiting for that scenario. In a way, you could call this a trial to test who's worthy of reaching the end, so it also wouldn't be fair to cheat. We've got as many chances as we want, so we should at the very least figure something out on our own.

"...Wait here." I stood up.

"Migu!" Vastoria was about to follow me, but I sat her back down.

"I said—Wait here." I sternly ordered before running back to the trap infested second floor.

It's the best shot we have, right? If I die, then I'll return unscathed, and if I lose a body part, then so be it! But I'll be damned if I have to face those icky bat roaches without a weapon! Actually, running up the Shrine was significantly easier than down it, because most of the traps are for people wanting to get to the next floor, and not the other way around. Thus, it didn't take me long before I found the fork—Sitting pretty and surrounded by ten tonnes of laughing gas and spike traps as far as the Eye could see.

"Pfft! N-No, calm down, idiot!" I couldn't help but mock myself for being so unserious at a time like this, "Pull yourself together, your pookie needs you!"

I was already spouting nonsense under the influence of the laughing gas, but thinking about Vastoria did somehow help me keep my head in the game. I didn't need to hurry due to this, so I could take my time in hopping over the tripwires and making sure to avoid stepping on any dangerous pressure plates. Having picked up the fork, a nostalgic movie scene of a cave explorer setting off a boulder trap came to mind, which inevitably made me crack up.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Haha! Imagine that!" I slapped my knee, "Wait, do I have anything to substitute it with? Nahhh~! ...Eh?"

Turning around to face the mysterious rumbling in the darkness, I was greeted by the greatest, most ironic boulder I ever bore witness to. It was large and in charge, and by in charge I of course mean it was charging headfirst at me. My smile quickly turned upside down, and I found myself running back to the gang so as to not get smushed.

"Wahhh!!!" I cried out in fear, "This isn't funny~! Even when I'm drugged out the wazoo, I still can't find myself a reason to laugh!"

Though I made sure to avoid the traps as I ran from the boulder, it didn't much care itself, so eventually I stopped caring too. I set off tripwires, barely avoided getting my feet chopped off by the sinking pressure plates, and eventually I managed to catch a glimpse of Vastoria and Sheep in the distance.

"W-What the hell!?" They jolted once they saw the situation I was in.

"Run down the stairs, quickly!" I ordered, "Come on, move it, move it!"

Though they had time to run down the stairs in an orderly fashion, I unfortunately didn't have the time nor luxury, so I had to dive down the stairs as if they were the deepest of pools. It was painful, tumbling down them a second time now, but it beat out the alternative of getting crushed by that damned boulder. Phew, mission accomplished?

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"I got the fork!" I held out my empty hand into the air before panicking, "Gah! W-Where did it go!?"

"Uhm, I know where..." Vastoria pointed with Reddish cheeks.

Following the direction of where her finger was bashfully pointed at, I actually winced with all my might once I saw a bent over Sheep with the fork deeply wedged up his... A-Ahem, let's just say it's somewhere where the Sun don't shine. Eugh, it even went in with the pronged end somehow, I just know that's gotta hurt... I wonder why he's not screaming right now. Oh, he must be unconscious from the pain, and honestly—I wouldn't blame him.

"Sorry Sheep, I think it'd be better to get this over with while you're not awake..." I gulped, tightly gripping the end of the fork before yanking it like the mighty sword Excalibur.

"Y-!" He immediately stood upright with Eyes wide open, "YEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWCHHHH!!!"

Oh wow, almost every letter got repeated there, so you just know that had to have been a pain in the... A-A pain in the... No, making jokes about this is too low, even for me. I'm sure he'd get butthurt over them. That being said, what wasn't funny was the bloody trail practically flowing like a waterfall down his legs. Truthfully, I think he's the very first person in Heaven 2.0 to get an anus. Somehow, I don't envy that achievement.

"Thank goodness for the clothes shops, am I right?" Vastoria giggled, "I can only imagine what they'd call you from now on if pants weren't a thing in Heaven."

"W-What is this...?" He inspected the blood with his fingers, "Did I just change genders?"

"I doubt it's that easy." I shrugged, "It's also coming out of the wrong hole, though I imagine you wouldn't know the difference."

"That's enough joking around." Vastoria cut the chit chat short, "Thanks to Migu, we now have a weapon to use against the bat roaches."

"Ugh, yippee..." Sheep groaned, rubbing his sore ass with a peeved Eye roll, "Geez, did you see how fast that thing lunged at us? Do you seriously think a fork that's only good for stabbing butts is gonna make a difference?"

"It might." I reasoned, "Vastoria, you said those things went for our golden parts first, right?"

"Not only that, but they only go for them." She corrected me, "Once they eat the golden parts of a person, they'll leave the rest of the body and continue on to the next person. It's why they're so difficult to deal with."

"Okay, but do they have a weak spot themselves?" I asked.

She tilted her head at that one. It wasn't that she didn't have an answer to that question, rather she found it kind of odd in general. She explained that it was like any other living being—The brain and heart is an instant kill, but slicing anything would significantly weaken it. In other words, slicing its legs or wings or even stabbing one of its Eyes would get it off our backs and give us a chance to finish the job.

"Instead of rushing them, why don't we do the opposite?" I suggested, "Their main strategy is to bum rush you without a thought behind those actions."

"What are you saying?" Sheep didn't quite get it yet.

"I'm saying—If I point the fork in front of me like this..." I showed off my stance.

"Ahh! I get it!" It clicked for Vastoria though, "The fork isn't all that pointy and effective by itself, but if we use their ungodly speed against them, then we can even stand still with something that just barely resembles a spike, and theoretically... They'll impale themselves without us having to do any of the heavy lifting! Genius!"

Hehe, praise me more! That's right, I got the idea from Sheep, actually. As I tumbled down the stairs, I only had to hold onto the fork for it to lodge itself... Let's not say where. In other words, using physics to our advantage could prove to be a mega-fruitful endeavor.

"Yeah, that's all well and good..." Sheep crossed his arms, his pants still soiled with blood, "But what'll you do about the giant monster carcass after it dies on top of you? Dead or not, what difference does it make if it takes you with it?"

"Always a downer..." I pouted at him.

"No, he's right about this." Vastoria took his side, "If we wanna make this plan work every time, then we'll need something to block the oncoming attack."

"...The shield!" I recalled from her previous tales, "You said you happened upon a shield somewhere in the Shrine, right!?"

"So you remembered that." She awkwardly smile, "Yes, in truth there was a shield, however..."

"There's always a catch with these things..." Sheep grinned.

"Do you remember that one weird looking tree I told you about?" She stated, "The shield is... hung up on it."

Weird looking tree? Oh yeah, she did say something like that while she was explaining the layout of the jungle layer. Let's see, if I remember correctly... Before we can reach that tree—and subsequently the shield—we'll have to deal with one roach bat at the entrance, and two after that. Three roach bats, one fork... Geez, couldn't we have at least been given a proper weapon?