"Sheep... died?" Gale fell to his knees.

"Y-Yeah?" Maggie raised an Eyebrow, "Come on, let's go."

"Wait, but did you see his body!?" He held onto her desperately, "Maybe he's not really-"

"He died. Those things took him out in a flash, I saw it." She groaned, "Now come on."

"A-Ah, hey!" He couldn't understand her tone, "That's not...? You're going back to the start, y'know?! And where the hell is Vastoria!?"

"Hmm, she ran away to hide behind a bush, I think." She figured, "She lost her shield in the battle, so she was kinda useless without it. We can go find her later, don't worry."

Was this heartless heathen standing before Gale really Maggie? Of course, she was never really the sweet type, as she would often speak in this casual, tomboyish tone. Regardless, there are limits to the bit, Gale thought. She saw Sheep die before her very Eyes, and she just shrugged it off like it was nothing. Vastoria too, she doesn't even wanna go look for her. It was at that moment when Gale considered the three of them to have somehow gotten into an argument that might have strained their opinions on one another's safety.

"I... I failed." Gale sighed, looking distantly at a random point in space as he sat down on the grass floor, "Sheep's... d-dead. I can't, the Gods' promise..."

"The Gods? Look, I don't know what you're on about, but you gotta pull yourself together." She hoisted him up, "I'm grateful that you saved us, so pick yourself up before another one of these things shows their ugly mugs."

Staring up at her in disbelief, he eventually gathered enough strength to do as he was told. Holding his trusty new blade at his side as he followed her back the way he came from, she couldn't help but disgustedly comment about it.

"You're seriously gonna keep that mandible on you? Gross..." She scowled.

"...S-Sheep, could I have saved him?" Gale ignored her, however.

"Gale, just shut up about that and answer the question!" She got fussy, "What the hell made you think to even touch those nasty bugs, much less rip their pincers off!"

"...It saved you, didn't it?" He weakly replied, "Not Sheep, though..."

"Oh my God, what is he—Your boyfriend?" She rolled her Eyes, "Hey, which way to the staircase again?"

"Huh? Why are you... N-Never mind, that way." He pointed.

A few more minutes of traversing the jungle layer later and the duo found themselves standing in front of the stone doorway. With her hand confidently placed on her hip, Maggie hollered for someone to come out.

"Yo, you there?!" She said, barely keeping a straight face.

"...W-What!?" Gale stood baffled at the sight of the person that peeked out from the corner, "S-Sheep! But wait, Maggie said...!"

"Hm?" He blankly stared at Gale, "Magnes, you didn't tell him?"

"Pfft, he was so worried, how could I have?!" She burst out laughing.

"Tell me... what?" Gale darted his gaze between them.

"Sigh, it's the third layer's blessing." Sheep explained the reason behind his miraculous survival, "If you die in the jungle, you get brought back here. In return, however, some of those things you killed get brought back."

"Sort of like a mini version of the daily reset we have up at the surface." Maggie consoled Gale, "Sorry for not telling you, I figured showing you would be more convincing than just explaining it."

"Thank Prylos..." Gale sighed in relief before gasping, "S-Sheep! Your hand!"

"Oh, took you long enough to notice." He chuckled at his bloody stump, "Yeah, got it ripped off during the second layer's run through. I really didn't expect a wall pressure plate, ehe."

"You don't seem too worried, though..." Gale then chuckled, "Oh wait, is this the same thing that happened to Vastoria?"

"Bingo, well, we think that's the case at least." Maggie added, "If all goes well, he should be getting a golden hand after going to sleep at the fourth layer."

The bedroom layer. Presently, this group believes that sleeping on the beds there causes time to advance to the next day globally, permanently moving the checkpoint of the reset for everyone and letting them remember the previous day. Gale was told this was not the case, and that the Gods were the only reason Vastoria even managed to escape the Shrine in the first place. Quickly, he had told them of this revelation before they made another mistake.

"So the bed's just another trap?" Maggie crossed her arms, "We were totally off the mark, then."

"Hey, hold on." Sheep fretted, "Vastoria ran away after her shield broke, right?"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Ah, that's what Maggie told me as well." Gale nodded.

"Crap, we ought to hurry then!" He ran ahead, "She already knows the path to the fourth layer. If she reaches it before we warn her...!"

"...Fudge!" Gale noticed it too, "Come on, then! Before that happens!"

Gale was thankfully given another chance with the third layer's blessing. All of his friends were alive (barring Throne, possibly). Was it a miracle, or did the Gods manifest it? He didn't know, but right now he was under a strict time limit. If after all this, he lost at the very end... No, he didn't even want to think about it! Finally, they found the staircase leading down to the fourth and final floor...

"Right, we're gonna find her awake down there..." Gale muttered quietly enough so the others couldn't hear him, "She's gonna be fine, everyone's gonna be fine, we're gonna leave the Shrine, and then I'm gonna... Right, that's what's gonna happen-"

Alas, before them stood a tragically peaceful sight. Vastoria—calm as can be—laid on one of the four personalized corners of the room, comfortably resting on her silky soft bed. Approaching her slowly, as if unsure of what to do, Maggie shakily poked her cheek, desperate for a reaction. But said reaction never came...

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***

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"Hyah!" She then smacked her flat across the face.

"Woah woah, holy hell!" Gale stood in between them, "The hell are you doing!?"

"I figure we've got nothing to lose, now move it." Maggie turned her on her stomach, "This is a prime chance to smack her other pair of cheeks~"

"Nope." Sheep didn't let her sexually harass Vastoria, however, "She's unconscious."

"Yeah, but her and I are...!"

"She's unconscious." He firmly stood his ground until she gave up, "Do that stuff when she's awake and can consent to it."

"Guys, this is serious!" Gale barked at the both of them for making light of the situation, "She might never wake up now, we gotta do something!"

"...Hey, something's been bothering me about that thing the Gods told you for a while now." Maggie got suspicious, "They said whoever fell asleep on these beds never wakes up, and though we can't know for sure about Energy's case, she definitely said she slept on it before waking up in her home."

"That's... the Gods said they could only afford to do it once." Gale replied with the exact words they told him.

"They also told you that we can die inside of the Shrine, yet we've revived countless times before." Sheep added, "Look Gale, we're not saying we don't trust you, but you gotta understand that it maybe isn't the smartest idea to trust the Gods."

"Eh? How can you even say that?" He took offense to this, for some convoluted reason, "They probably have their reasons as to why they can't save us more than once! And besides, didn't you say that the "no dying" rule only applies to the third floor?"

"We only know for sure that it works like that on the third floor." Maggie crossed her arms, "We're just not stupid enough to try dying anywhere else."

"Yeah!" Sheep thought about her comment just now, "Wait, was that a dig at me for losing my hand?"

"Maybe." She smirked.

"Look, what I'm saying is—We've got no other choice but to trust them on their word." Gale glanced down at Vastoria.

"And that'll give you what?" Maggie groaned, "Let's say we do trust them—believe the part where they said she'll never ever wake up—what then? You saying we should leave her here to rot for all of eternity?"

"No, that's not-"

"Gale, I'm not abandoning her." She glared at him fiercely, "You can't have it both ways. Either you believe everything they say or nothing. And if you truly wish to find a way to wake her up, then I'm sorry to say, but your faith is kind of thin."

Her points weren't all that good, in all honesty. To dumb something like your own trust in the Gods of this world to only think in absolutes is everything but reasonable. As with anything really, dealing in absolutes makes you a stuck up moron. Regardless, her tone was more than enough to convince him. The way she spoke of Vastoria, the way she looked at her... It was obvious even to Gale that she was the one most distraught by this situation. Yet, she didn't allow it to get the better of her. Maggie is doing everything in her power to save Vastoria, and Gale figured it was time he got serious as well.

"...Smack it." Gale nodded seriously at her.

"Eh? Wait, what?" Sheep did a double take.

"We have to try everything, and well, Maggie already volunteered." Gale shrugged, "I'm telling her to go through with it."

"Ohoho! Alright!" She got extremely hyped.

"No!" Sheep called them out, "No one's gonna smack her, anywhere! Look, let's first try and shake her awake or something."

"Aww, what?" Maggie quickly deflated, "Come on, you're no fun, Sheep!"

"If only she could hear the crazy coming out of your mouth right now..." Sheep rolled his Eyes before beginning to nudge her, "Hey! Vastoria, wake up! Vastoria!"

"Why are you whispering?" Gale whispered to mimic him.

"It's what you do when you nudge someone awake!" Sheep couldn't stop whispering, "What, do you seriously wanna shout-?"

"VASTORIAAA!" Maggie screeched like a banshee, practically giving both men tinnitus with her lovely vocals, "VASTORIA, WAKE UP! EVERYONE'S DYING, AGGHHHH!!!!"

"God, what the hell!?" Gale covered her mouth, "Warn us before you do that, geez!"

"Ehe, so long as it works~!" She stuck her tongue out after he let go, "Look, her expression changed."

"Yeah, into a worried frown!" Sheep pointed out, "You probably just gave her nightmares after all that talk of us dying or something."

"Oh..." She slumped forward, "I just assumed she'd wake up if I raised the stakes."

"Of what, exactly?" Gale's heart sank once they heard footsteps coming down the staircase behind them, "Crap, now look what you've done!"

"Eh? Me!?" She hid under Vastoria's covers.

"Who else!" Sheep scolded her, "So help me, if your shouting alerted those damned bat roaches down here...!"

"Everybody, stay behind me!" Gale readied his mandible sword at the shadow that was about to turn the corner, "...Oh fudge."

A slow, unnerving and disrupting clapping sound emerged from the shadows of the spiral staircase. With the same cursed smile he gave to Gale just an hour before this, it was none other than Throne who came to greet them. The arm that got struck by the dart trap was completely black, causing even the other two to hesitate on running up to greet him.

"T-Throne, you made it!" Maggie let out a nervous chuckle, "W-What happened to your arm?"

"Throne..." Gale glared at him, still holding the sword pointed directly at the man.

"I think I get it now." Throne kept smiling at him, "You and I are nothing alike, after all. Pardon my earlier mistake."

"Tch, doesn't take a genius to figure that one out." Gale clicked his tongue.

"Maybe not a genius, sure..." Throne's smile turned crooked, his dark hand emanating a faint putrid scent, "But you gotta go to Hell and back if you wanna truly get what I mean."