Meanwhile, up on Gale's side...
"Stupid morons!" He cussed his former party mates out as he angrily trudged back towards the residential area, "Bunch of naive, idiotic pricks! How can they even begin to trust that Throne?!"
Nothing about the current situation made sense for Gale. He was suddenly dethroned from his position as leader, tossed away by the ones he considered most dear to him. Sab was attacked, and yet not a single person chose to go look for him or even side with him for that matter. This made Gale's stomach churn with lividity, not unlike how it does when he recalls Throne's tired yet smug, conniving mug.
"Okay, that's enough re-exposition for now." He put a stop to his self-pitying woes, "Change your outlook, Gale. Instead of looking at how unfair the past was, try and think of a way to turn the situation around in the near future. That's the way."
Somehow, his nigh insatiable anger had been quelled just like that as his storming through the streets became a calm and collected strut. To begin with, he had to first understand what Throne is plotting with all this. After that, he would have a way clearer picture of what to do next to stop it from coming to fruition.
"Let's say he wasn't lying about genuinely being mistaken in regards to Vastoria's "abandonment"..." He muttered to himself, "That would mean that after he lost Vastoria's wings, and assumed she left him for her own singular gain, he tutored her substitute in the form of Sab... But why Sab?"
"Sab didn't know him for long, and yet I highly doubt Throne just picked him up from the street at random..."
Sadly for our dear protagonist, however, that is precisely what happened. Throne didn't give himself the chance to meet many people in Heaven 2.0, thus when he recounted everyone he even just barely talked to, Sab was the most probable one to bear fruit. Back when he was searching for Vastoria's replacement, it was between GaLi and Magnes, who both wanted to rip Throne's wings off of him by force, or the laid back and indifferent Sab who could be easily manipulated. The choice was simple when put like that, though Gale obviously doesn't know this.
"He gave Sab the wings that helped us get to the Shrine, but he also attacked Sab and wanted to tear off his wings, hmm..." Gale kept pacing through the crowd until it suddenly hit him, "Sab's... wings... No way, he wouldn't be that crazy!"
The puzzle pieces began to click. One by one, he had pieced together what his motives were. He never did misunderstand Vastoria's intentions, he knew from the start what she was thinking when she entered without him. Of course, it was now so very simple for him to process, it was genuinely baffling how he hadn't figured the mystery out sooner.
"Vastoria lost her wings, and Throne wanted an extra pair of wings from Sab." Gale stopped walking, "He was cultivating her replacement wings! Instead of using him as her replacement, he just chose to win Vastoria back over by gifting her the wings he would take from Sab!"
The mere idea was harrowing. He was a pragmatic, sick bastard, Throne was. Nonetheless, Gale still couldn't bring himself to believe his own crackpot theory about the seraphim that was Throne. Of course, everyone in their group already knew full-well how useful Vastoria was even without her wings, so one could easily amplify these feelings for Throne, the one who knew her at her full power. He wanted that power for himself, a pawn to use to make many a matter trivial. But somehow or another, she had lost them, and that completely derailed his plans. In a desperate attempt to fix everything, he found Sab, won him over with the promise of such a powerful tool as the wings, only to then try and rip them off and take them to Vastoria.
"But he couldn't do it because we interrupted him." Gale realized, "With Vastoria on our side, and Sab already having fended himself off the first time and knowing more or less Throne's true colors, he knew he had to go about things more carefully."
And careful Throne was, for with his genius ploy, he somehow managed to separate Sab and Gale from the rest of the group. Not only that, but they were also alienated from their allies, to the point of being shunned. He managed to get rid of the suspicious ones—his obstacles—whilst also firmly establishing himself as the trustworthy good guy. Gale had now realized the depths of his enemy's genius—He had been dancing in the palm of Throne's hand the entire time.
"I gotta run back and warn them!" He almost turned back, but understood it was far too late for that now, "N-No, I lost all credibility after our squabble earlier. They won't believe a word I say, at least until I find Sab and bring him with me. Tch, I messed up...!"
He messed up, but thinking about the past won't do him any good. He had to find Sab and convince him to return him to the rest of the party, and fast. Otherwise, who knows what Throne would make them do... Or do to them, for that matter.
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"What even is his end goal?" He pondered as he sped up his pace significantly, "What does he need a winged Vastoria for? Is it because she can enter the Shrine?"
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But it doesn't matter who would enter the Shrine, he thought. As Vastoria explained it to them before, so long as someone goes to sleep down at the very bottom, time in Heaven would advance globally. He could have just as easily used Sab for that too, so why exactly is he not doing that? Why is he taking the more destructive path to achieve the exact same goal?
"...Maybe it's impossible for Sab." He reasoned in his mind, "Could it be gender? No, Energy entered as well... Hey, wait—Energy was a seraphim too, I believe!"
According to Vastoria's retelling of her time in the Shrine, Energy was the seraphim she met whilst down in the second floor. Apparently, he was also someone who got dragged into entering the Shrine by Throne, so they shared that connection at least. But maybe that's not where their similarities end, Gale thought.
"Energy also lost his wings!" It clicked for him, "Yeah, that has to be it! The reason why Throne can't enter the Shrine, but they can! Only those without wings can enter!"
It was a sizeable breakthrough, but it was nothing more than a hunch. Even he knew that he made quite the vast amount of jumps in logic to get to this conclusion—Mainly the one about it pertaining to angels who've never had wings to begin with as well. As it stood, he could only guess if this was the case or not, as he couldn't be there to test it out with say, Maggie.
"Dammit, Sab. Did you have to fly so far away?" He begrudgingly cursed him in a polite enough whisper, "Where even am I?"
He was walking for Gods know how long, but it was a pretty aimless stroll all things considered. He did start the search going in roughly the same direction as where Sab went, but obviously it would be like a turtle catching up to a hare, given Gale didn't have wings and Sab did. Sab could have turned in any direction, and it would have meant game over for Gale. Just then, a gate appeared in the distance, with guards disallowing any and all migrations.
"Halt, you there!" One guard firmly held his spear as he forbade Gale from passing through, "No angel is allowed to pass between Districts."
"Districts?" Gale tilted his head.
"You are in district Z, beyond this gate is district Y." The guard kindly explained, "However, we were instructed to not let any flightless residents of Heaven 2.0 pass between them."
"What? Why is Heaven even divided into regions?" Gale couldn't make sense of the logic.
"Districts!" The guard hastily corrected him, "And to answer your question, it was the Gods' orders! If you have a complaint, go file it with them!"
"Eh? But aren't they in my district and not this one?" Is what he wanted to say, but stopped himself before even uttering a single sound of the sentence.
Curiously, he was forbidden from going back to his home. It was soon to be bedtime already, meaning he would most probably be left stranded and devoured by the White Monsters if he didn't get back home. Even still, he didn't want to say too much and get himself in trouble, so he played dumb for a bit to extract some more info on the matter.
"Where are the Gods exactly?" Gale asked a disambiguous question.
"The Gods' Abode is 8 blocks that way, and 1 block to the left." The guard slammed his spear's butt on the cloudy ground.
"And you said no one can pass between districts?"
"Precisely."
"So, how can people from district Y talk to the Gods, then?"
By phrasing the question differently, he could get the answers he needed without outing himself as someone who's already crossed the border illegally, so to speak. The guard fell for it, too, as he answered without even skipping a beat.
"The Gods are almighty." He explained with a half-serious shrug, "They surely exist beyond space, as we all do beyond time in Heaven 2.0."
"In other words, you don't know the answer either." Gale lightly teased him.
"Hey man, I just work here." The guard gave up the facade, "Go there if you want, or don't, I don't care. You're just not allowed to leave your district."
"Gotcha. Then, I'll take it up with your managers." Gale joked, waving the guard off as he began walking in the direction of the Gods' supposed second Abode.
Following the directions he was given, it took him not too long to find the exact same large yard with the proportionately sized mansion resting atop it. The damages they caused to the roof were still noticeable even from afar, meaning what Gale saw was indeed the same house they almost got away with burgling. A reasonable person would understand this to be a stupid idea and would have booked it in the opposite direction, but Gale was desperate. He had no other choice if he wanted his friends to survive Throne's mysterious and highly-dangerous plans.
"Knock knock!" Gale loudly announced himself to the Gods at the titanic double doors.
"You... got some nerves, coming back here." Selzion immediately greeted him at said front door, "Well, either nerve or an extreme lack of shame."
"You said you Gods are Omniscient." Gale recalled the rough words he heard from them back then, "You know all and see all, right? In that case, you know exactly why I came to ask for your help."
"Selz, don't open the door by yourself!" An unkempt Prylos ran up to the door behind his roommate, "We're a team, man! We both greet the subjects at the same time, remember?!"
"Oh, zip it." Selzion rolled his Eyes, "We got a problem on our hands, check it."
Finally taking the opportunity to ogle the tiny "subject" standing before him, Prylos was both surprised and appalled by who he witnessed. Gale, the very same intruder who just recently almost figured out the secret behind the Book they keep in their house and use to write in. That same Gale is now asking for their help like he was no less innocent than the next guy.
"Explain to me how we saw you both here and in our district." Gale asked frankly, "After that, please help take me to Sab."
"Hey, y'know..." Prylos slowly pinched the bridge between his Eyes as he addressed Selzion, "I never did apologize to you for being the reason Hell shut down."
"We ought to take a page from this one's book and not think about past mistakes too much." Selzion sighed with a mischievous new plan brewing in his head, "Instead, why not try to use it to evade future ones?"