"Oh, this is it!" Vastoria cut the chit chat short once she caught a glimpse of it in the distance, "We found Throne's house!"

"Ehhh?" Gale looked skeptical to say the least, "But you said his house was a shed?"

"Well, I might have been a bit harsh when I said that..." She quieted down timidly.

"No, he didn't mean it like that." Sheep shook his head, "Well, it's more like you weren't being harsh enough."

"Yeah, sheds can at least hold a few tools in them." I added, "This feels like it needs a few more meters of galvanized square steel before it can even fit a single person inside."

"Oh come on, it's not that bad." Vastoria sort of glared at us as she knocked on the front door, only for it to tumble forward the very next moment, "O-Oh. Good thing these get fixed every cycle, ha-ha..."

"Having to rely on the laws of the world to constantly fix your broken down house is somehow more sad than just having it stay that way." I sighed, the other two agreeing wholeheartedly with me.

Despite the rather loud entrance we made, no one came to check on who the guests were. Given how long it took us to find the damned place, it isn't at all a surprise that he already left. Right, he was with Sab last time we saw him, so they're probably flying around looking for each other. It's a pity, but there's nothing we can do anymore, safe from waiting for them to come back here before the end of the cycle.

"Shhh!" Sheep noticed some rustling behind a dusty bookshelf, "No one move a muscle..."

"...."

"......"

Ah, there it was again! Creepy! I definitely saw the cabinet shaking for a moment! Hold on, no need to get flustered, Maggie. It's probably just a rat or something... Yeah right, do animals even exist in Heaven 2.0?! Wait, that's actually a pretty good question—Why haven't I seen any by now? Is Heaven seriously only reserved for humans? Do animals get their own paradise? If not, that's kind of cruel on the Gods' parts... N-Never mind that! The shelf is still moving, and it looks like it's gonna tumble over any second now!

"Stop!" Gale ordered.

"Mph!" The shelf immediately stopped shaking, "...Who goes there?"

"Shouldn't we be the ones asking you that?" Sheep tilted his head, "Hiding behind a shelf, freaking us out like that..."

"Yeah, that was messed up!" Vastoria pouted.

"...Do you know whose house is this?" The shelf asked.

"We do." I remained alert just in case.

"Did he send you here?" The shelf still seemed hesitant to reveal itself, "If not, then I'll kindly ask you to get lost."

Oddly enough, I do recognize that voice. I might just be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure I've talked to this person before. Maybe it's just a stray memory from a previous cycle or something to that degree. Nonetheless, he seems more scared of Throne than anything if we were to go off of his tone alone. He's pretty on-edge, so I think being truthful would be the best way to gain his trust and calm him down.

"We did come to meet up with him, but he didn't send us here." I explained, "We wanna talk about something that happened in the previous cycle."

"Previous cycle... Hold on, could it be something to do with the Gods' Abode?" He asked somewhat desperately.

"So my hunch was right." Gale smirked, "You're Sab, aren't you?"

At the very next moment, the shelf fell forwards until it smashed onto the ground in a similar fashion to the front door. Seriously, is everything in here broken? As the dust settled, we saw the winged seraphim greet us with a grin wider than his wingspan. He looked terrified and anxious, but thankful that we weren't an enemy. Hold on, did I miss a page? Aren't Sab and Throne good friends? Err, disciple and master? Whatever the case is, I just can't find a single reason as to why he would be hiding from him, and in his own home much less.

"Oh thank goodness!" He gave us all a hug each, granted he respected mine and Vastoria's personal space by giving an awkward high five instead, "Okay, but seriously—I need your guys' help!"

"We could've guessed as much." I smirked.

"Throne's gone totally crazy." He explained, "After the reset, I flew over to here as soon as I woke up. That bastard, instead of giving me praise for a job well done, he slammed the door open and tried to lunge at me!"

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"Talk about strict teaching..." Gale joked, "But there has to have been a reason for why he did it. He doesn't strike me as the type of guy to just get mad for no reason."

"You're saying it's my fault?!" He got offended, "For your information, I literally did everything exactly as he told me to! No, it's something else, and I think it has something to do with the Shrine..."

"The Shrine!" Vastoria gasped.

"Ah, you've heard about it already." He nodded, "Good, it saves me the need to explain everything."

"That's true, but we're still kind of lost as to what you meant exactly." Sheep shrugged, "What in the world would he gain from attacking you if his goal was the Shrine?"

Sab was a tad apprehensive about admitting it vocally, but he eventually caved. Lightly, carefully moving his wings back and forth so as not to further damage the house's interior, his body language gave away his next words all too early. Immediately, Vastoria's story of when she got surrounded by a horde of White Monsters came to my mind, but it still chilled me to my very core to hear the words come out of Sab's mouth.

"He went for my wings." Sab sighed, "I think... I think his goal is to pry them off me."

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"Yeesh, that does sound serious..." Gale stiffened up, "Hey hold on, but didn't he help you get them in the first place?"

"He did, but... Sigh, it's a long story." He slumped forward.

"We've got time." Sheep crossed his arms and leaned up against the supporting beam.

"...Originally, the plan was that I would become a seraphim and get my wings, and then we'd visit the Shrine together." He hesitantly answered, "That was how it was supposed to go, but then he suddenly pulled this stunt. I somehow managed to fend him off, though I think he went easy on me, and then he just left."

"Eh? He left?" Vastoria raised an Eyebrow, "Just like that?"

"Yeah, though as you can imagine, I didn't feel like following him to find out where he went." Sab scratched his cheek, "I used the situation to find a hiding spot, some place he'd never find me, and just stayed there until things blew over."

"And that ultimate hiding spot was in his house." I lightly mocked him.

"Don't laugh, it's actually super smart!" He angrily defended his choice, "They say you never spot the thing hiding right from under your nose, no?!"

"Yeah, it is a good hiding spot." Gale clowned on him too, "That's why we found out you were there immediately upon entry."

All jokes aside, this does seem like a pretty bad turn of events. Throne, around whom our entire plan revolved around, now turned out to be a guy that turns on his teammate at the drop of a hat. He's cunning and careful, so I doubt he did it just for fun, but that honestly makes his supposedly sudden attack all the more scary. What could his motives be? How does this align with the Shrine?

"Say, how do you guys know him?" Sab asked us about Throne, "I only met him like two or three cycles ago, when he helped me become a seraphim. But when he went after you guys back when the Gods ordered him to, what did he tell you?"

"...He knew Maggie from before, though she didn't know him." Gale answered after a brief yet uncomfortable pause, "Me and Sheep are first time acquaintances with him, however."

"And I knew him for a bit less than Migu." Vastoria looked at me, "The location of his house is mirrored to my own from hers, so she got us mixed up on a map and he had to fly her over to me."

"So our meeting was a complete coincidence?" I asked, "Wait, if I was following some map to get to you, that means we've known each other longer than I did Throne."

"That's exactly right, it's because of you that I met him." She explained the full context of the relation chart, "After that, he and I were supposed to go ahead without you to find a way to send you back to the Living World, since that's what you said you wanted."

Oh wow, is that the case? I eventually wanted to revive even back then? I guess it makes sense, since I kinda came to that conclusion even when it was just three of us talking to that Divine Voice. Still, did they seriously not let me go with them because I wasn't a seraphim? That kind of peeves me...

"I thought we were going to the Gods' Abode to ask them for pointers, but instead Throne took me to the Shrine." She continued, "That's when I lost my wings, and later entered the Shrine without him."

"Eh? You... entered the Shrine?" Sab raised his Eyebrows in astonishment, "Hold on, you're a seraphim?!"

"I've gotten used to that reaction by now..." She giggled.

"My wings, I'm not sure what he wants to use them for..." Sab looked at all of us with a tinge of severity in his glare, "But I'm definitely not gonna hand them over to him. Can I trust you guys to help me out when the time comes to face him?"

Whoa, I don't do well with straying off the path to my main goal. I just wanna reach that Shrine, and then hopefully find a way to revive inside it. Ah, but then again, those two don't have to be mutually exclusive. Maybe we could find a way to make everyone's wishes come true!

"Sounds to me like we both have something the other needs." I extended my hand to him confidently, "As long as everyone's in agreement, we'll happily help you with Throne."

"Hell yeah! Thank yo-!"

"But only under one condition." I backed my hand out for a moment, "You're gonna be our wings from now on."

"E-Eh?" He looked like he just got his soul crushed.

"I think that's more than fair." Gale commented, "Wings get people around way farther and faster than running, and since our goal is the Shrine at the very end of the human race, it's obvious that we're gonna need winged seraphim's help for that."

"Was that a dig at me?" Vastoria sighed.

"It's a dig at Throne." Sheep groaned, "If that guy didn't mess everything up, I feel like we would've had a way easier time with everything in regards to the plan."

"I'll drink to that... You got yourselves a deal." Sab ultimately chose to seal the deal and shake my hand, "I got my endgoal in the form of these wings, so I think it's only fair that I put them to good use."

Great! We got a new member added to the team! Sab, he's gonna be our mode of transport from now on. Ehh, that sounds kind of wrong though. Like I'm calling him a horse or something. Alright, since he's flying, let's just say he's our... airbike! Right, he's our flying motorbike, 'cause that makes more sense.