Eternal Ordeal

The Eternal Ordeal is a secret challenge which can be found in the Hall of Gods in Godhome. It requires the player to attempt to defeat as many Zotes as possible before dying.

Location
The Eternal Ordeal is located inside the Hall of Gods. To access it, the player must first navigate to the upper right of the main hall, and break the ceiling above the third arch from the right. First, reach the hidden ledge above the arch via crystal-dashing off the right wall and then using double-jump to grab the wall. Howling Wraiths/Abyss Shriek is easiest for finding and breaking the barrier. After which you must wall-jump further up to the new screen. Break the left wall after this, and a statue of Zote will explode into the room, accompanied by Zote's voice. Challenge it to enter the ordeal.

The Eternal Ordeal will always start with the player facing Zote the Mighty, who can now deal damage to the player. After defeating him, a full-screen title card will inform you of THE ETERNAL ORDEAL, and a counter with Zote's head will appear as a HUD in the lower-left to track Zote-kills. Zote will begin to sing along with the music as waves upon waves of Zotes will begin to spawn. For each Zote killed the difficulty will increase and more variants will appear, some exclusive to the Ordeal (the Zotes unique to the Ordeal do not have Journal entries).

Once the player has killed 57 Zotes, the counter will turn gold (as does the hidden Zote statue) and a new title screen will be unlocked: The Eternal Ordeal. The title screen features a statue of Zote with Zote singing the main menu theme of the game.

Trivia

 * The fifty-seven kills to unlock the Eternal Ordeal title screen is a reference to the fifty-seven precepts of Zote.
 * Clip of Zote singing the combat tune: Gg_eternal_ordeal_music.ogg