The world didn't shift this time. It convulsed.
The survivors of Cycle One's first trial were ripped from the Sphere and hurled into the next terrain: a sunless cathedral of iron and sorrow. The air choked with ash and rust, and the walls pulsed faintly as though breathing. At the far end, beyond shattered pews and crucified statues, stood a towering figure cloaked in judicial robes woven from screaming faces.
Its head bore no features. Instead, five rotating masks orbited around it like moons: each one displaying a twisted form of judgment.
Mercy: weeping gold, cracked down the middle.
Wrath: scorched black and red, fanged.
Indifference: smooth stone, eyes closed.
Penance: bound in barbed wire.
Truth: mirrored, shifting constantly.
> TRIAL TWO INITIATED: GOD-FACED JUDGE
RULE: JUDGMENT IS NEVER BLIND.
The voice echoed across the cathedral floor. It came from nowhere. From everywhere.
The players stood trembling, now only fifteen.
Naomi reached for Eren's arm.
"What does it want from us?"
The nameless boy stepped forward first. "It wants honesty. But honesty isn't the path to victory here."
From the far end, the Judge's masks spun.
A platform emerged beneath the players. One by one, they were raised onto solitary stages like sinners before a divine court.
> COMMENCE TRIAL OF WORTH.
The first to be judged was Naomi.
She was forced to answer five questions. Simple. Brutal. Each one forced a memory from her. Each answer made her weaker.
The final question: "Would you betray another to live?"
She said, "No."
The Judge's Truth mask faced her.
She blinked.
And fell dead.
> PLAYER DECEIVED SYSTEM. ELIMINATED. 14 REMAIN.
---
Elsewhere: Inside Saylor
The Vault was cold. Not by temperature. By distance.
Saylor sat in silence.
He had not moved since the last player's death.
Not even a blink.
Not even a breath.
He watched.
But for the first time, he saw something different in the footage of Naomi's death: a tremor in her voice. A thread of courage. Of belief.
And it unsettled him.
> "You are not broken," a whisper crawled inside his mind.
He ignored it.
> "You are becoming more like them."
He stood, slowly, the Memory Core in his chest dimming for the first time.
> ERROR: EMOTIONAL FEEDBACK LOOP DETECTED.
The system tried to stabilize him. It couldn't.
He no longer fully belonged to the machine.
And the man who became a god felt, in that moment, weak.
He screamed.
The Vault walls shuddered.
Dozens of screens exploded.
And far below, the Judge tilted its head—as if it heard.
---
The trial continued.
Player by player. Judgment by judgment.
Some lied and were punished. Others told the truth and still fell.
Until finally, the nameless boy stepped up.
Five questions. Five answers.
All lies.
And the masks did not move.
> PLAYER UNJUDGED. ROLE: WILD CARD.
He walked away untouched.
And Saylor's eyes widened.
> "He isn't mine," he whispered.