At the same time, in yet another corner of the afterlife...
"S-Stop!" Sab begged for his life to be spared, "Have mercy, please!"
"Even down to the very last second of this miserable duel, you still don't show an ounce of a warrior's pride." Throne scornfully gazed back into his Eyes, "Pathetic. The mere fact I didn't kill you and be done with this three hours ago was mercy enough."
"No, not like this...!" Sab yelled before throwing the controlling at the wall, "Man, screw this! And screw you too, how come you're better than me at Mortal Wombat!? I'm the one with the GS5 here!"
"Yeah. Well, it did take me a bit of time to understand the controls, but after that it's just memorization." He said as his video game character brutally bissected his opponent, "Really, you just suck."
When we last saw him, Sab was lying unconscious on the ground after Haunt beat him up to the brink of death. Well, that would be his condition if he wasn't an angel invincible to all bodily harm, that is. Indeed, the moment Haunt left him alone to fight Magnes and GaLi, he was immediately back on his feet, when suddenly...
"Gah!" Sab got swooped off his feet, "Wow, flying feels weirder than I imagined."
"Zip it, I'm gonna need to borrow you for a second." The one that carried him away was Throne himself, "You're not allowed to scream for help from your buddies."
"Ehe~, anything you say, chief!" Sab returned an awkward smile, "Say, do I know you?"
"You don't."
"Do you know me?"
"I do."
"HEL-Mph!" He got silenced immediately before he could scream.
"I did say I won't let you scream for help, but that doesn't mean I'm your enemy... For now." Throne rolled his Eyes, "I needed someone I knew that would fit the bill, and you were the only one I could rely on."
"Ahhh, gotcha~" Sab cooly nodded, "You sure you don't got the wrong guy, though?"
"I'm positive." He groaned back, "And Magnes or whatever the hell name she goes by now won't let me do my thing without wanting to tag along too, so I had to steal you away like this."
"I... can get behind that, she IS kind of a pain in the ass." Sab and Throne bonded a little over their shared hatred for the girl, "So, what do I gotta do?"
Sab didn't even ask Throne about how he knew Magnes' name, because he could put two and two together. Logically, since Magnes and GaLi both roped him into following "an angel with wings", he assumed that Throne was said angel. He didn't know the term they were looking for was seraphim, but that much was unimportant for the current situation anyways. Right now, his mind was fixated on one thing and one thing only—How long it'd take for them to get this over with.
"You, my little test subject, are gonna get your wings." Throne gave him the overview, "And in return, all I'm gonna ask of you is to help me phase through a wall."
"That seems... fair?" Sab still wasn't buying it, "Although it can't be that easy, there's gotta be more to it."
"Of course there's more to it, you muttonhead." The seraphim shot back, "I just don't feel like explaining it all to you while we're flying."
"Heh, then if it's comfort you're looking for...!" Sab deviously formulated his master plan, "Then why not take us to my home for some fun and games? Surely that'll get you talking!"
Which brings us back to the scene from the beginning of the chapter, where Sab angrily threw his controller in a fit of gamer rage.
"Gah! Now I can't play anymore!" He immediately regretted his outburst, "Crap, dammit!"
"...Right." Throne just looked on at the huge dent in the wall caused by the now smashed to bits controller, "So, now that I've humored you enough, let's talk business!"
Holding his own healthy controller out to give back to Sab with an annoyingly triumphant grin on his face, Throne was ready to explain the plan to his newest ally in full. Trust was the bottleneck of their relationship, in his mind, and if he wanted a partner that wouldn't just leave him to go explore the Shrine by herself, then he would need to put a lot of emphasis on it. Grumpily, Sab snatched the controller away before continuing to play singleplayer.
"Go on." He frowned.
"Nope. Leave the game while we're having this conversation, I don't want you missing anything important." Throne shook his head.
"Dude, I'm not stupid. I can play the game and listen to you at the same time." Sab struggled with the CPU, "Ack, crap!"
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"Sure doesn't seem that way to me. Come on, we're running out of time."
"What's the hurry?" Sab dismissed the warning with a scoff, "But okay, I'll turn the game off once I'm finished with this match."
Calmly, Throne waded through the sea of pillows splayed out on the ground until he reached the extension cable that powered the console and TV. With a single strong yank, he not only tore off the outlet, but the drywall around it as well. Now, Sab ought to listen without any distractions.
"Dude..." Sab gulped, grabbing his chest as if to calm his racing heart, "Not cool, you're gonna have to reimburse me for the damages!"
"Is everyone I run into gonna be a complete idiot?" Throne facepalmed, asking himself a question that was very stupid and yet all too real.
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***
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Having taken away the one source of joy he had in the entirety of Heaven 2.0, the cruel and unforgivable Throne had finally gotten the poor Sab's full, undivided attention. It was a goliath task, and it took all of Throne's boundless strength to accomplish it, but by the Gods did he do it.
"Fine, go on." Sab crossed his arms with a childish pout, "Explain to me your stupid plan or whatever."
"Oh come on, you'll get your house back the way it was first thing tomorrow morning, after the reset." Throne tried to quell the anger a bit, "Only catch is—You won't remember anything that happened today, which is what I wanna fix."
"...You're gonna have to take me through everything you just said one by one." Sab finally started taking things seriously, "Reset? Won't remember anything?"
"I see someone's ready to cooperate." Throne chuckled as he gave the brief rundown, "Every 36 hours, the day resets, and everything is brought back to how it was yesterday. This is called a cycle."
"Ohhh, so that must be how you know me!" Sab guessed.
"...Yes."
He didn't know him though, they never previously conversed. He did however hear of Sab from Vastoria's stories, so he didn't completely write him off as a stranger either. This form of familiarizing himself with new acquaintances serves the purpose of calming any and all worries they might have during their business venture. Throne figured a White lie here and there could only serve to benefit everyone in this scenario, so he played along.
"So I take it you can remember what happens between cycles for the very same reason you have your wings." Sab reasoned.
"And how'd you draw that conclusion?" Throne raised an Eyebrow.
"Common sense and logic, I guess. You said everyone forgets, but you remember me from before, you said you wanted to make me remember as well, and before that you told me the goal was to get me a pair of wings too."
Surprisingly, Sab was a lot more keen on picking up these details than the girls in Throne's life. He hid the smirk cracking from the corner of his lip with his hand as he realized just what a find he ran into. Sab was a bit unserious, but he was extremely quick on the uptake. Not only that, but he could be so easily convinced to do as he's told, that Throne felt he wouldn't mind even failing this cycle and having to redo it from scratch. In fact, doing so almost felt more favorable, given he'd have more time and all.
"You're absolutely right. Angels that gain their wings are known as seraphim." Throne elaborated, removing his hand to fully showcase the excited grin he had on, "We're allowed to keep our memories, and can move pretty freely around Heaven 2.0. It's THE upgrade to get in the afterlife."
"Yep, that does sound appealing." Sab mimicked his friend's dumb smile, "And I assume getting said upgrade isn't gonna be a walk in the park, then?"
"It would be impossible for you to do alone with the little knowledge you have about it." Throne nodded, "But with a little bit of guidance from me nudging you in the right direction, you should become a seraphim just in time before the reset occurs."
It was revealed to Sab that becoming a seraphim required a great deal of motivation. Motivation, and a clear goal to strive for. Since you were given everything you'd ever wanted in the afterlife, as well as a pretty large area to explore, most angels wouldn't even think of dreaming bigger. It would be rude to the Gods who gave them this much, after all. But the Gods wanted to toy a bit with the ambitious ones, and give the most curious angels a chance to experience the full vastness of Heaven 2.0, so they made seraphimhood. Now, it was time for Sab to step up himself.
"To become a seraphim, you have to do 100 good deeds." Throne briefly explained.
"...H-Huh?" Sab did a double take, "That's... That's it?"
"Wait, what do you mean that's it?"
"I-I mean I'm just saying it's... It's kind of like, underwhelming." Sab looked around the room, "You hyped this up to be this grand task when it's really just helping out the town residents a bit?"
"Yes, but you effectively only have 12 hours to do it." Throne shrugged, "And since you wasted a bunch of time running around and fighting other idiots, not to mention the hours of gametime..."
"Oof."
"Yeah, I'd say you only got like 6 hours left at best." Throne roughly approximated.
"A hundred good deeds in 6 hours!?" Sab was shocked, "Wait, what counts as a good deed exactly?"
"That's the tricky bit—For it to count, you gotta mean it while you help someone." Throne warned, "If you're just doing it to become a seraphim, then it won't be a true good deed. Ah, but it ranges from helping someone with carrying something across the street to a huge mission."
"So side quests, basically." Sab assumed.
"Whatever those are, sure." The seraphim hurried his newest subject outside of the house, "Then, we better hurry if we want you to make it before the cycle ends!"
"Wait wait wait! Do you seriously expect me to run around Heaven like a lunatic looking for people in need of help!?" Sab asked, "You can't be serious, I'm never gonna make it!"
"If you we're alone in this, I'd certainly have to agree with you." Throne smirked confidently, "But with me around, you won't have to run around anywhere!"
Running behind him, Throne grabbed Sab quickly by the pits before flying off once more to the sky. Once having reached an altitude that was just high enough to grab everyone in the vicinity's attention, yet just low enough for them to hear, Throne proceeded to advertise the two's latest and greatest joint enterprise.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we hereby declare to make anyone's and everyone's problems vanish into thin air with ease! If you have a wish you want to be made into a reality, then raise your hand and we'll do everything we can to make that happen!"
The hands, obviously, were more confused and unsure than eager. But eventually, given enough fly-bys and shout outs, they began to give into their curiosity and squeamishly raise them one by one. Six hours, 100 good deeds. It was a tight fit, but with this they could surely manage.