Oh no, he's trying to ruin everything again...
"Attention, everyone!" Throne waved upon rushing to the front, "May I have your attention? Yes, I have a rather shocking announcement to make!"
"Just shut up, please?" Sheep sighed, "We don't wanna hear it, man."
"What Sheep said." Vastoria agreed, "You're just gonna try sullying Gale's image again..."
"Audible gasp!" He actually said it instead of just doing it, "Do you truly think so lowly of me? Ah, but I can understand your worries. Truly, I can. But I'm afraid I must disappoint you all, for I do not in fact plan on telling lies just to ruin your preconceived notions of our dear friend Galey here."
Yeah, I'm still not really that hooked on listening to a guy that outright says "Audible gasp". I'm glad the other two aren't giving him the light of day either, 'cause it seems Throne's one and only goal ever since he reunited with us was to make Gale's life a living hell... Wait, is that what he meant back then? "Gale would have to go to Hell and back", I think he said. No, what am I even thinking? Throne's just a moron.
"Don't get too fussed about this." I reassured Gale with a gentle pat on the back, "We're on your side no matter what."
"Even if I revealed Gale's horrible secret?" Throne raised a smug Eyebrow, "A secret that turns your dear trustworthy leader into a selfish, one-minded mistake? Would you still follow such a pathetic man's back, I wonder?"
"Oh, is that what this is about?" Sheep donned a smug grin himself, "Well then, if you're planning on telling us Gale's secret for him, then count me out."
Immediately after, he cupped his ears and hummed a mocking tune at Throne. So this is his way of standing up for Gale? It's pretty genius, actually! If Throne's masterplan to get us to stop following Gale is to tell us his deepest secrets, then we can easily counter it by just not hearing them. Of course I wanna know what he's talking about, but I only wanna hear it from the man himself. Everyone has a skeleton in their closet or two, but it's not anyone's duty or right to out someone else's skeleton. For now, I'll just follow Sheep's lead and do the same for my ears. From here on, I can't hear a thing.
"...Hmph, Vasto-?" Throne turned to her already humming a tune herself, "Tch...! Heh, looks like they really don't trust me anymore, eh?"
"You did that to yourself, Throne." Gale just shook his head, "Hey, you said your end goal was the revive, right?"
"Aye, and since you're throwing that incredible offer away, I fully intend to take your place!" Throne folded his arms, "Honestly, what an idiot."
"Excuse me?!" Gale raised his voice, "I'm the idiot, am I? Dude, the only reason I gave up on it was so that you could trust me! Besides, weren't you about to chastise me for hurting everyone just to get said offer?! Why are you suddenly switching up your stance on this?"
"I see, so you don't get it, after all." Throne merely shook his head, "If it was me, I would have already gotten everyone out of the Shrine safely and returned to report back my success to the Gods."
"...What?"
"I'm saying, I'm a lot better than you in many ways." Throne kept piling it on, "And not just in leadership, but in conviction. You see, had our places been swapped, I wouldn't have even hesitated to leave you behind to explore the Shrine further. Less baggage that way."
"Baggage? You're calling yourself baggage?" Gale furrowed his brows, "I couldn't leave you there, moron! You'd die by yourself!"
"Exactly, but I was willing to risk that just to find a proper way to resurrect." Throne explained, "Yet you took that away from me. You had us all go to the very bottom, just to turn back at the final step and go home empty handed. Why? In not letting me go further, you chose your own goal over mine, and then I hear you say to my face how you're gonna throw that away as well?"
"A-Ah, that's..." Gale backed off, struggling to find a proper counter argument.
"I'm willing to throw all of you aside to get my way." Throne made it clear, "And so are you. But unlike you, I actually plan to make good use of your sacrifices. They wouldn't be in vain. However, you're the type of leader who would send his soldiers into the battlefield only to still pop the White flag despite the casualties! You're a coward, Gale! And cowards should at least be forward about their cowardice..."
"...I see." Gale looked down, "You're absolutely right. Pfft, ha-ha..."
"Hm? Laughing deliriously all of a sudden, are we?" Throne raised an Eyebrow.
"Nah, I'm just thinking." Gale smiled as he mimed for the rest of us to remove our hands from our ears, "This is the first proper good point you've made ever since we've met."
Ah, finally, they're done talking. I can finally stop singing that random song over and over, my voice was getting tired. Unlike Vastoria's song—which I could somewhat make out even with my ears cupped—my vocals weren't nearly as siren-like. And unlike Sheep's deep notes, I couldn't even reach what would be considered a regular range. Guess I'm just bad at it. Not that it matters, since we can now finally move on with this darned trek in peace. Gale's secret is safely kept to himself!
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Hey guys, I beat Sab up and took his wings to fly over here myself." Gale suddenly explained with his usual nonchalant chuckle, "It's the truth, and I don't intend on hiding it anymore."
"U-Uhh..." We all jolted in unison, turning our heads to stare at him like dumbfounded sheep, "Huh?"
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"Finally, some accountability!" Throne threw his hands up in the air, "It only took me wringing it out of you for the past couple of hours."
"You shut up!" I yelled at Throne first and foremost before turning to Gale, "What... What are you saying?"
"Yeah, didn't you guys say Sab was waiting for us back at the entrance of the Shrine?" Vastoria inquired.
"Throne said that to cover for me." Gale clicked his tongue at him, "I guess he did that to try and maintain the peace."
"No, I did that to keep you on a tight leash." Throne proudly corrected him, "To let you know that unless you tell them, I can always reveal how you brutally ripped away Sab's seraphimhood away from him myself."
"Well, there you have it." Gale shrugged, "Now that you know, I assume you're all probably pretty furious with me."
"...Honestly, I'd do the same." I chuckled.
"Come again?" Throne cocked his head back.
"Yeah, Sab's pretty annoying to deal with." Sheep chimed in, "I can already hear him turning himself into the victim, shooing Gale away and not offering to help him."
"You were strapped for time, so you had to do what you had to do." Vastoria nodded at him.
It's obvious that Gale, and especially Throne, didn't expect this kind of positive reaction from us. They probably thought we'd exile Gale completely from the team, but I stand by what I said earlier—There's nothing he could say to make us hate him. Gale has proved not with his words, but with his actions that he's more than just a kind soul. He was under the impression that Throne was dangerous for us to be around, not to mention he was told by the Gods themselves that the Shrine wasn't safe, so he obviously was under a lot of pressure to reach us as fast as possible. That quick thinking and ability to make the hard choices ended up saving us, too, so I'd have to really be stupid to hate on him for that.
"You guys..." Gale quickly wiped the warm smile off his face in favor of a guilty frown, "No, I did it for myself, even saving you... It was all my selfish dream."
"Do you find it hard to believe?" Throne pranced around him, "Your great, selfless leader has nothing but ulterior motives for saving all of you! In truth, he was promised a second chance at life after he brought all of us back from the Shrine!"
"...Is that actually what they said?" Sheep turned to Gale, "Cause if it is, then I'm sure you're the one that most deserves it!"
"Heck yeah, Gale solved the mystery!" I rejoiced, "Congrats, man! A-Ah, probably shouldn't be counting our chickens before they hatch, but still!"
"G-Guys..." Gale whimpered.
"Are you all out of your minds!?" Throne raged, "He was merely using you for his own benefit! Only he would get resurrected, no one else! Don't you find that deplorable?"
"We don't." Vastoria sternly told him off, "Because Gale is our friend. And when your friend succeeds, then it ought to feel like you've succeeded yourself."
"Everyone...!" Gale began to tear up like a huge baby.
Heh, just look at him—All proud of his buddies for believing in him and stuff! Yeah, obviously we wouldn't turn on the guy that's literally been supporting us throughout this entire journey. And the fact that he was the one to reveal this supposed dark secret himself only makes our point stronger. Gale deserves that second chance, at the very least a lot more than we do. At any rate, I'm just glad we found out there actually exists a way to revive in the first place. I feel like we've finally made the first real step to solving this whole divine mystery since arriving at Heaven 2.0.
"I'm sure Sab will forgive you eventually if we explain everything to him." Vastoria reassured Gale.
"Yeah, and besides—After you give him back his wings, it'll be no harm no foul." Sheep chuckled.
"That's-" Gale was about to reply, but Throne cut him off one more damned time.
"Ahem." He cleared his throat audibly, "Isn't there a tiiiiny little detail you forgot to mention, Galey? Perhaps in regards to the offer's availability?"
"A-Ah, the offer... In the end, I won't take it." Gale solemnly lowered his head in shame, "Despite everything, I did Sab in my attempts to get it, so although I don't think there's ever really going to be a proper way to atone for my actions, I believe it won't ever be fair unless I do this."
"...Hah?" I glared at him, "You're not gonna take the offer?"
"But it's your, nay, OUR only chance to learn what it's like to revive!" Sheep explained my disgust with words, "Gale, you can't be serious."
"You two, it's his decision." Vastoria sided with him, "So long as we're together, we can find another way."
"Face it, there is no other way." Throne crossed his arms, "Gale told me before. He said the Gods would only allow him this one exception. He IS that exception, and there will be no others."
"Then he has to take it!" I voiced my opinion, "Gale, disregard Sab. We'll convince him that you had to revive, and I'm sure once we explain everything fully, he'll...!"
"I'm not gonna take the offer no matter what." Gale stood his ground, "I... I think the Gods lied about being able to revive me."
What's this all of a sudden? He's gotten serious again, which means what he's about to tell us is something he can only dish out with a heavy heart. The Gods would lie about such a thing? There's no way, they'd have to be lesser than a flea to such a horrible prank...
"What are you on about now?" Throne rolled his Eyes.
"I'd die anyways, regardless." Gale explained, "For me, it'd be an entire lifetime back in the World of the Living, but for Gale, it'd be less than an instant. For all I know, the Gods could just snap their fingers and tell me something like "There, you lived a proper life and are back here" and I would have no way of knowing if they're telling the truth or not."
"That's... N-No, they might let you keep some memories as proof!" I refuted.
"Memories they could probably just make up to keep me happy?" He sighed, "Realistically, it's not even worth it to try asking them to give me the offer. Realistically... this entire chase for the secret behind resurrection is probably not worth it."
His spirit is broken. We all wanna desperately prove him wrong, but the sad truth is—No one has anything to refute him with. Gale has shown us his bare emotions and laid them out for us fully, but we as his useless teammates can only sit there and poke them with a stick. No matter how I try and cut in, there's just no counter argument to make here. After you die, there is absolutely no coming back.