Sans inspected the inscribed totem before him.

“Trial of Heaven. Forward, backward, sideways, and across. With man’s greatest strength, leap with faith and pierce through the darkness. Discover the path and ascend to the heavens.”

Earlier, after entering the tomb’s entrance, he immediately found himself alone in a dark hallway. The smooth stone floor was carved into multicolored tiles that echoed his footsteps. The hallway ended with a ledge that peered over a deep ravine.

At the side of the ledge was an ancient totem, while protruding upward from the ravine were rows of evenly spaced columns of stone that rose in height. The closest row of columns were the shortest ones, while the rows that came after increased in height. Beyond the last row was an opposing ledge that led into a dark tunnel.

It’s odd. As soon as I entered this place, I could no longer feel my connection to Elsie.

Sans frowned and shook away the unsettling feeling that encroached on him.

“I need to jump from column to column in order to pass this trial. Most importantly, I just can’t fall… sounds easy enough.”

Without any hesitation, Sans jumped onto a column in the first row. He landed with a graceful step and waited for a brief moment.

“The column didn’t move when I landed on it… was it supposed to?”

With another light leap, he landed on the next column. Just as he landed on the column, he heard a subtle grinding noise and froze in place. A moment later, the noise faded, returning the ravine back to silence.

“What was that sound?”

He remained still, but the column beneath him didn’t move at all. He jumped to the next column, but the sound didn’t return.

“Interesting…”

Shrugging his shoulders, he jumped to the next column. There were only two more rows to cross and the final jump to the exit.

“Second to last one! Oh-whoa.”

The column he landed on sank a level, making it even in height to the row behind him.

“So that’s the tricky one that Meysi was talking about.”

Sans glanced at the row ahead of him, which seemed even taller than before.

“I could make the jump… but I can also jump sideways and use that as a steppingstone. That seems safer.”

Without second guessing his decision, he leaped to the column at his side instead of moving forward. The moment he landed on the column, a familiar grinding noise entered his ears—but the column he stood on wasn’t moving!

“What in the world…”

Instead of proceeding to the last row, he scanned his surroundings. That’s when he saw it.

“Columns in the previous rows are different heights. Even though I didn’t jump on them… their height changed? Wait, those are the columns that I jumped from. That’s the path I took to get here. Why would the columns bother to change in height if I’ve already crossed over them?”

His head swiveled to the column by his side, which was where he last leapt from.

“The column sank lower…”

Casting his eyes toward the exit, he lingered on the same column with a pensive expression.

“A step forward, a step back, a step to the side, and a step across…”

With a determined look, he leaped diagonally to the next row. Upon landing, the column sank a level lower.

“Discover the path and ascend to the heavens…”

He glanced at the exit lying just before him, but then he ignored it completely. Tilting his head up, he tried scanning the endless chasm with his eyes. However, no matter how hard he tried to make anything out, it was all shrouded in darkness.

“Ascend to the heavens… this isn’t the real exit.”

Sans turned around and faced the rows of columns with bright eyes.

“This is a puzzle!”

He leaped to another column, causing the previous one to sink once again. Without wasting any time, he leapt again to the prior row. This time, the column rose once his feet touched the surface.

“Depending on what column I jump from, will cause the column I land on to either go up, down, or stay the same. Simultaneously, I have to track the previous column for changes as well.”

He made a quick count of the columns.

“There are seven columns in each row, and there are seven rows. In order to solve this puzzle, I’ll need to jump from each column to each of its neighbors. From there, I’ll need to devise a pattern to increase columns evenly in order to… ascend to the heavens.”

He craned his neck upward once more in thought.

“How high does it go? How many jumps would I have to make? This Trial of Heaven… might be much more difficult than I initially thought.”

He sucked in a sharp breath of air and immediately got to work. Starting from the last row, he leaped to every adjacent column and mentally memorized their movements with each jump.

Some time later, he sat cross-legged on the final column, completing his experiment. His eyes roamed across the rows of columns, rapidly shifting back and forth between different routes.

“The main pattern is as follows, a central ring that needs to rise together. The issue is that in order for the central ring to rise, I need to jump from outside columns in a particular pattern. This means that I need a different pattern in order to increase the outside columns at the same time, otherwise the ring will get too tall.”

He let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes, mumbling to himself in the silent ravine.

“I mut be missing something. There’s 512 different types of jumps I can make, but if I include tracing my path to complete the circle pattern alone…how many jumps is that?”

Sans grumbled and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Who the hell designed this thing?!”

He picked himself up and leaped across a series of columns. Looking back, he studied the shifts in height before making another series of jumps.

“I must be correct… this circle pattern is only one piece of the puzzle, but I need to resolve the outside pattern as well before I can continue. There has to be another trick to this…”

He tapped his foot and rubbed his chin while his eyes retraced the path over and over again.

“Whoever made this puzzle is a particular kind of bastard. I hope he struggles with everything else in life and fails spectacularly and makes a fool of himself.”

Sans stamped his foot on the column in frustration, fuming out loud.

“And, and—wait…?”

Sans stared at one of the columns curiously, but it wasn’t the adjacent column. Rather, it was the next column over.

“What happens if I skip a column? I didn’t consider it before, but… please don’t tell me there’s more combinations.”

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He sucked in a deep breath and calculated the distance. With a mighty leap, he sailed cleanly over the closest set of columns and landed on one two rows away. Light on his feet, he paused to ensure stability. However, no sound of shifting columns greeted his ears.

“Let’s try again.”

Sans proceeded to skip over columns repeatedly. He performed more tests and with each time he jumped, none of the columns shifted in height unless it was an adjacent one.

“Actually, this makes things easier. Now I can reposition anywhere I please, and I can even target specific columns if they’re out of order. Perhaps this was the way to resolve the outer pattern…”

His eyes revealed a sharp glint and he proceeded to leap across a series of columns. After completing one cycle, a small circle of inner columns had all risen up one level.

“With that pattern done, now I need to match the outer columns with the inner columns' height. This will cause one of the inner columns to increase in height by one, and one of them to reduce in height by one. That’s okay though because I can alternate the raised and lowered ones, eventually creating a shape that leads upward.”

With his new plan in sight, Sans immediately set to work on increasing the height of each column evenly. Sometimes he jumped to an adjacent column, whether forward, backward, sideways, or even diagonally. Other times, he skipped a row entirely in order to reposition without ruining the current set of levels.

“How high does this thing go? With how fast I’m moving, it takes me approximately 10 minutes to complete one cycle… I’ll be here for a while.”

He frowned while glancing upward. Bit by bit, he was ascending into the darkness above, but there was still no sign of an exit. It was only after a couple hours of jumping that he soon ran into his next problem.

“There’s no more lighting to see properly…”

In the next moment, his eyes glowed a misty white and he snapped his fingers.

“Luminate.”

The surrounding columns suddenly lit up as if someone had injected a miniature sun into the darkness. Strangely enough, the light wasn’t able to penetrate through the layer of darkness that hung overhead.

With deft precision, Sans completed another cycle of jumps, raising himself up another level. He glanced down toward the ledge that he initially started from and let out a whistle.

“Wow, I’m so high up. That totem looks like a tiny pebble from here.”

He could vaguely make out the ledge below, but now that he had worked his way up there was only one path forward.

“Up and up, we go to the heavens.”

He performed a series of jumps, however this time something was different.

“Some of the columns aren’t moving higher…”

After completing his next cycle of jumps, each of the columns now stood at an equal height. However, there was still no exit in sight.

“Did I do something wrong? Maybe I passed the exit without thinking?”

He peered over the side, scanning every inch of the wall.

“That can’t be right…”

Sans groaned and sat down on a column with a pondering expression.

“I hate this puzzle.”

He grumbled and mentally reviewed everything he had done.

“Did I really mess up?”

Looking down, he made out the tiny ledge leading to the exit.

If I jumped from here… would I even survive?

A sinking feeling consumed him. He shook his head regretfully.

“Maybe I can lower the columns… shit, I really messed up here.”

He had a strong desire to shed tears and would have done so if it weren’t for how exhausted he was from jumping the whole time. Steeling himself, he proceeded to leap to the next column.

“It didn’t go down…”

He jumped to the next one, quickly realizing that each of the columns were locked in place.

“Do I really have to jump?!”

He panicked and glanced down once more at the exit.

“Wow, I really did mess up…”

With his mouth agape, he continued to stare at the abyss below in disbelief.

Was there really no puzzle all along? Did I seriously spend all these hours for nothing? How could I have been so stupid!

As his thoughts ran rampant, he lightly leaned over the edge. The urge to fall to the depths and fail the trial was ever increasing.

“Is that my only way out of here? How terrifying. This was supposed to be the safest trial, and I managed to find a way to make it dangerous. Ugh…”

Sans pulled back from the ledge and sat once more on a column. He stared at the black above in despondence while murmuring incoherently.

“Hate this… stupid… dumb thing… dumb columns… dumb darkness…”

He paused, squinting at the layer of black above.

“Darkness? Why does it almost seem…foggy?”

Standing up, he inspected the area above him once more.

“What did that totem say? Pierce the darkness? Was it referring to this darkness or the chasm below? The exit tunnel was also dark, maybe it was referring to that.”

Reaching his hand in the air, he mumbled the rest of the passage from memory.

“With man’s greatest strength, leap with faith and pierce through the darkness.”

Is that to say… jump as hard as I can? A leap of faith into the darkness above? Or leap across the columns and enter the dark exit tunnel?

After letting out a sigh, he repositioned to the very first row.

“I’ll use the columns for a running start and jump with everything I’ve got. Worst case scenario, I fall to my death and blame Elsie as I go out screaming.”

Sans revealed a rare smile before hardening his gaze. His heart rate quickened and his breathing became controlled. His muscles tensed, and his blood seemed to pump faster.

“Now!”

Shooting off like an arrow, he swiftly and accurately landed on the columns, using them like a substitute floor. The moment he landed on the final row, he converted all of his momentum to launch himself further into the air.

Flying through the cloud of darkness, his eyes widened as he harmlessly passed through.

“There’s another ledge!”

Sans exclaimed while reaching his hand out. He felt his ascent slowing down—perhaps too quickly.

I’m not going to make it!

He grit his teeth and prayed that his extended hand would latch onto anything at all. Reaching the apex of his jump, a fleeting sense of despair assaulted him as his fingers fell a few feet short of the ledge.

All of that effort…

Just as his body began to fall, a streak of black and red caught him by surprise. In the next moment, a petite hand firmly grasped onto his own!

“E-Elsie?”

Sans dangled in the air as he hung on to Elsie’s outstretched hand. Her arms were stretched taut between holding Sans and grasping the cloth in her other hand. The decorated cloth dangled over the ledge and acted as a tether.

That’s her cape!

“You couldn’t even make this small jump? Were you expecting to just fall to your death?”

Sans grimaced as Elsie commented on his lack of ability.

“Can you just pull-“

Before he could finish his sentence, Elsie launched him overhead, causing him to land face first on the ledge. While Sans recovered, Elsie followed him up by climbing her own cape to safety.

“You could have been more gentle…”

Sans rubbed the top of his head while watching Elsie unfasten her cape from a nearby stone post. However, there was one burning question on his mind.

“How did you know I would try to do the puzzle?”

“Hmm? What do you mean, I’ve been watching you the whole time. It’s because you’re too slow.”

Sans stared at her in confusion.

“Uh, what?”

“Come here and look.”

She beckoned him over to the ledge, where she poked her head out over the side. Standing next to her, Sans glanced below as well. To his surprise, the black fog was no longer there. Instead, a shimmering and see-through film took its place.

“That’s an incredible view.”

Far below, he could see a stream of illusionary bodies leaping across the columns. It looked like flowing water as each person in the trial overlapped with every other person. From his overhead view, he easily spotted any outliers, those who broke the mold and didn’t take the most straightforward path.

“I thought the first trial wasn’t a shared space.”

He asked Elsie who had already stopped spectating the others.

“It’s not a shared space, but this place is. That’s why you and I are together. Come this way, let’s get our reward for completing the trial.”

She responded while pulling him away from the ledge.

“Reward?”

Sans’ eyes lit up as he ambled behind her.

That’s right! Since I solved this difficult puzzle, surely I’ll get a juicy reward?

As they progressed through the dark tunnel, torches automatically set themselves ablaze on either side and guided them forward. Eventually the tunnel transformed into a grand hallway, similar to the one at the start of the trial.

Their echoing footsteps came to a halt when the last set of torches came to life. Before them was a double-doored entrance, made of a type of crystalized jewel that reflected the light within.

“There! Our prize awaits. Go forth my servant, open it for me!”

Elsie pointed at the door and declared in triumph. Sans could sense the thrill in her voice, even though it was slightly distorted by her full helm.

“The door certainly seems special enough.”

Sans remarked as he approached the entrance. With one hand on each door slab, he pushed lightly, but the door didn’t budge an inch!

“Push harder! The door can sense your weakness!”

Elsie giggled in the back as Sans exerted more energy. He roared and pushed until his faced turned blue, before finally releasing his pent-up breath in an exhaustive sigh.

“Gah! This thing is impossible to open!”

“Here, let me try.”

Sans stood off to the side and made an inviting gesture toward the door.

“Be my guest, oh powerful one.”

I hope she makes a fool of herself. Although, somehow I doubt she would. That door is way too heavy.

He smirked as he watched Elsie pretend to roll up her sleeves. Dramatically placing her hands on the two doors, she then reached for the circular handles below and pulled them open without any resistance.

“See? Sometimes it’s not impossible, you just have to believe.”

Sans’ mouth twitched as he watched his supposed master waltz inside the room. There was no way to describe his current emotions, save for his burning cheeks. He followed after her without a word.

The reward room expanded out from the hallway, its walls and floor made of the same type of jewel as the door. Light reflected everywhere that Sans looked, and yet it strangely didn’t affect his visibility.

Another door awaited them at the far side of the room, while at the center of the room were two columns, which looked like like miniature versions of the ones in the Trial of Heaven. Floating above each column was a talisman that slowly spun in place.

“Is that the reward?”

Sans pointed toward the talismans after seeing nothing else in the room. Elsie nodded before stepping forward and swiping her talisman away from the column.

“What does it do?”

He asked as he retrieved his own. On the talisman’s surface was a detailed design of a golden orb. The orb sparkled in the light as if the sun had been captured within a still image. Flipping the talisman over, he noticed a passage written on the back in beautiful script.

“Man shall fear the heavens.”

Sans spoke the passage out loud and glanced at Elsie.

“Does yours say the same?”

“Mhm.”

Elsie nodded her head.

Well? …Is she going to explain?

Sans waited patiently for her to speak further, unfortunately she merely stowed the talisman away in a bag before walking toward the exit.

“Our friends should be waiting for us. Onward we go… to the Trial of Water!”

Before he could ask any further questions, she had already opened the door and marched out.