Xavier looked at the girl for a long moment before speaking again.

"You clearly know more than I do," he said. "So explain everything properly."

She frowned at him, wiping the remaining moisture from her face with the back of her hand. "I already told you everything I know."

"No," he replied. "You told me fragments. I want the whole thing."

"That is the whole thing," she said, sounding irritated. "This is where the Golden Lineage comes when they die. They stay. They face what they must. They let go. They take the river. They pass on. That’s it."

Xavier watched her carefully.

"Then why were you crying?" he asked, "And who are you?"

She hesitated before answering.

"My name is Aurethiel," she said. The name carried weight, even from her. "And I was crying because I am alone."

He did not comment on that.

"Xavier," he said instead. "Xavier Eleazar Zenith."

She looked at him more closely when he said his full name.

"Are you not from the Golden Heaven?" she asked.

"I don’t know what that place is," he answered.

She stared at him, confused.

"What god do you serve?"

"Astraea."

Her reaction was immediate. Her eyes widened, and she took a step back as if the answer unsettled her.

"That is not possible," she said.

"Why?"

"If you serve Astraea, you should not be here," she said. "And you should not look like that."

"Like what?"

She gestured toward the crystal beside him.

"Golden."

Xavier turned toward the crystal and looked at his reflection again — pale hair, golden eyes, features that felt both familiar and foreign.

"I have no idea," he said. "That is what I am asking you."

She stared at him.

"How do you not know what the Golden Lineage is when you are clearly one of them."

He exhaled slowly.

"I don’t even know if I’m dead," he said. "I was in the shower."

"You are dead," she insisted. "You were completely erased. There was nothing left."

"Yeah, you told me this already and I don’t remember that happening."

"You mentioned tests," he said instead. "If this is where the Golden Lineage comes, and they stay until they finish, then where do I go to finish?"

She looked toward the distant sound of water.

"Beyond the stone ridge," she said. "When you begin, you cannot stop. Once you step forward, the trials will start."

"Good," Xavier said. "I want to leave."

She watched him closely, uncertainty returning to her expression.

"You may not like what you see," she said.

"I haven’t liked much today," he replied.

The ground beyond the ridge wasn’t dirt or stone. It was calcified ash, brittle and white, crunching under Xavier’s boots like dry bone. The mist that clung to the lower elevation thinned out here, revealing a landscape that stretched into a horizon of jagged, broken pillars.

He walked with a singular focus, his new golden eyes scanning the terrain. He didn’t look back, but the soft, scraping footsteps behind him told him Aurethiel was there. She kept a specific distance—close enough to not be left behind, far enough to avoid his shadow.

They passed the first statue about fifty meters in.

It wasn’t a sculpture. It was a person, fused into the ground, their skin transmuted into a dull, lifeless gold. The figure was on its knees, hands clawing at its own throat, mouth open in a silent, eternal scream. The detail was sickening—every vein, every terrified wrinkle preserved in metal.

Xavier stopped for a second, looking at it. Then he kept walking.

Another statue appeared. A woman, curled into a fetal ball, her face buried in her hands. Then another. A warrior standing tall, sword raised, but his face twisted in absolute despair. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Don’t look at them," Aurethiel whispered from behind him. Her voice trembled.

"Why?" Xavier asked, not slowing down.

"Because they looked," she said. "That’s why they are still here."

The terrain opened up into a vast, circular amphitheater. The air here was still—unnaturally so. No wind. No sound. Just the pressure of something immense watching them.

In the center of the amphitheater, the atmosphere warped. Space bent inward, folding over itself until a shape tore through the emptiness.

A face.

It was colossal, a shifting topography of molten gold and starlight that filled the sky above them. It had no eyes, only deep, hollow sockets that burned with a cold, white fire. Its mouth was a rigid line of judgment, ancient and terrifying.

Xavier stopped. He tilted his head back, staring up at the entity. It didn’t look like a god. It looked like a natural disaster given consciousness.

"What is that?" Xavier asked, his voice echoing in the dead silence.

Aurethiel stepped up beside him, her small hand gripping the fabric of his pants. She was shaking.

"The Judgment," she whispered. "It guards the exit. You cannot fight it. You cannot kill it."

"I don’t intend to fight it," Xavier said, crossing his arms. "I just want to pass."

"It will ask three questions," Aurethiel said, her eyes fixed on the ground, refusing to look up at the face. "You have to answer. And you have to tell the truth."

Xavier raised an eyebrow. "And if I lie?"

Aurethiel slowly lifted a finger, pointing to the perimeter of the amphitheater.

Xavier looked. Hundreds of them. Golden statues. An entire army of failures, frozen in various states of pleading, bargaining, and arrogance.

"You become one of them," she said softly. "Gold is eternal. But it cannot speak. It cannot move. You just... wait. Forever."

Xavier looked back at the massive face. He didn’t feel fear. He never feared anything. In fact, he didn’t even understand the concept of what fear was. It didn’t matter who was standing in front of him, he was always... fearless.

He stepped forward, separating himself from the girl.

"Ask," Xavier said.

The Face didn’t move its mouth, but the voice slammed into Xavier’s mind with the weight of a collapsing star. It wasn’t sound, it was absolute authority.