Gudan woke in darkness.
Cold stone beneath him.
Chains around his wrists.
A faint metallic smell in the air.
Then a voice.
High.
Sing‑song.
Wrong.
"Oooh… you're awake. Good. I've been waiting."
A figure stepped into the dim light — a girl with wild eyes and a smile too wide to be human. Her hair shimmered like metal shavings. Her fingers dripped with flecks of gold.
She twirled.
"Everything is beautiful," she said. "Everything should shine. Everything should be golden."
Gudan pulled at the chains. "Stay away from me—"
She giggled.
"Oh, but you're dull. So dull. So cracked. So sad."
She leaned close, eyes sparkling.
"I can fix that."
A furnace roared to life behind her.
Gudan's breath caught.
"No—don't—"
She dipped her hands into the molten gold like it was warm water.
"It doesn't hurt me," she said sweetly. "But you… you'll feel it."
She lifted a sheet of glowing metal, shaping it with her fingers like clay.
A mask.
A golden mask.
Gudan thrashed, panic rising. "STOP—!"
She pressed the heated gold near his face.
The heat was unbearable.
His skin screamed.
His breath broke into ragged gasps.
"Hold still," she whispered. "Beauty takes pain."
Gudan screamed as the mask touched him—not from gore, but from the overwhelming heat, the pressure, and the terror of being reshaped against his will.
The gold demon hummed a lullaby over his cries.
"There we go… there we go…
Now you'll shine."
William woke in a different chamber.
Damp.
Cold.
Alive.
Something crawled across his arm.
Then another.
Then dozens.
He jerked upright, but chains held him down.
A shadow moved in the corner.
A demon stepped forward—hunched, animalistic, covered in chitin plates. Its voice clicked like mandibles.
"You smell like the forest," it hissed. "Like prey."
William gritted his teeth. "Get these things off me."
The demon tilted its head.
"No."
The insects swarmed over him — tearing him apart and overwhelming him, biting, stinging, suffocating him with movement. Wiliam screamed in agony if part of flesh being ripped out circled in his mind. Every time he gasped, more crawled into the space he opened. he was healed but not from a savior.
He screamed, shaking violently.
The demon snapped its claws.
The insects scattered.
William collapsed, trembling.
Then the demon dragged him to the center of the chamber, chaining him upright.
A gate opened.
Something massive crawled out — an insect‑beast with too many legs and a maw that clicked hungrily.
The demon whispered:
"Fight."
William shook his head. "I can't—I'm chained—"
"Fight," the demon repeated, "or be eaten."
The beast lunged.
William braced himself—
And the trial began.
Every time he fell, the demon forced him back up.
Every time he collapsed, the demon healed him just enough to continue.
Every time he begged for it to stop, the demon only whispered:
"Again."