"Well, we're finally here." Sorbet looked over yonder.
"This place...!" Hats gasped, "I remember it!"
"You do? What is it?" Elegy inquired.
Before them, a cold and heartless border proudly stood erected from the ground. Unforgiving metal bars, polearm wielding guards, everything was precisely and carefully set up for the express purpose of keeping any and all seraphim and angels alike within their own district. This was by and large their first monumental hurdle to pass, and if they couldn't find a way to cross the border, then their journey will have to end here.
"What's the plan?" Elegy asked.
"We should first try and talk to them." Sorbet replied, "Asking never hurt anybody."
"They won't let you." Hats immediately shot the idea down, "I tried before, they just summoned the White Monster on me and that was the end of that."
They still kept their distance from the area, figuring it to be best if they didn't engage without some sort of plan.
"In that case, hopping the fence seems like the only real option." Elegy figured.
"No, I'll talk to him." Sorbet was adamant, "The hell can one guy do? Plus it's the day, so there's no way he'll summon in a White Monster while people are around."
"Hmm..." Hats exhaled through his nose, "You'd be surprised."
Rather than talking to the guard about crossing peacefully, Sorbet was a lot more interested in asking someone "within the ranks" about his wings. In fact, this was his chance to do so without the other two getting word of it.
"Fine, if you two are so scared, I'll go alone."
"No way, you'll get us put to sleep!" They protested, "We'll come with-!"
"No, stay back." He returned a threatening glare, "You've made your points, now stick with 'em."
And with that, Sorbet left his team briefly for a quick chat with the guard. Immediately upon spotting the fallen seraphim approaching him so gleefully and innocently, the guard raised his weapon and warned him of the consequences of such thoughtless actions.
"Step back, civilian." The guard stated, "No one is permitted to go any further than this."
"Hey, lower than tone, I gotta ask you something." Sorbet moved the spear tip aside with his finger as he whispered back, "What about seraphim?"
"Eh?"
"Y'know, winged dudes—Seraphim. I'm one, but I lost my wings, so since I could pass over the border before, can you let me through now?"
Of course, he had no proof of being a seraphim to show to the guard at all, but this worked in his favor. In fact, the only feasible "proof" would be his memory retention, and if that's enough for the guard, then the other two should be granted passage as well, even if they were never seraphim to begin with. Then again, this would only work if Sorbet was allowed through first.
"...No, I cannot." The guard hit his polearm on the ground once, "Now, if that is all, please leave."
"That's not all. I need to know one other thing." Sorbet inquired, "What are all the ways I can get my wings back?"
"You're still going with that cheap story?" The guard laughed.
"Just tell me, I don't care if you believe me or not."
"...Heh, that much is simple." The guard stomped on the ground once more, "If you're really telling the truth, then there're only two ways to get a pair of wings again—Find your lost ones, or take someone else's."
"Is there truly no "recall" function on those damned things? The hell kinda design is that?"
"This is Heaven, bud. Not some sort of game with Keep Inventory on." The guard shrugged after the third stomp, "You lost 'em, so you better face the facts."
"Tch, whatever..." Sorbet backed off just moments before the fourth and final stomp that would've called forth the White Monster, "See you around, then."
"Let's hope not." The guard smugly waved him off.
Backing off for now, Sorbet had figured out but one useful tidbit of information—The guard's a huge prick. Nothing he said wasn't already known, and even the things Sorbet was unsure of weren't exactly good news.
"Either find your own, or take someone else's..." He muttered angrily, "Like hell I'll do the same thing that bastard did to me! I just hope no one else finds mine before I do."
"Find what?" Elegy snapped his fingers in front of him, "You doing alright? You've been muttering something to yourself for a while now."
"...N-No, it's nothing." He stuttered, not realizing he was already so close to where these two were.
"So then, no dice?" Hats asked.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"Nada. But hey, at least he didn't sic a White Monster on me."
"There's always a bright side to the situation." Elegy smiled, "But damn, guess we'll have to find a way to sneak past after all."
To sneak past, in other words—Just busting through wasn't gonna be enough. The majority of their group knows full well just how impossible it is to escape a White Monster, even if the guards couldn't keep up. They had to find a way past everyone without being spotted. This was where the true difficulty came in.
"Hmm... Passing over the gate is impossible, and now we know passing through is the same." Sorbet stuck the serrated sword in the ground, "Then, why not just dig under?"
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***
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"D-Dig under...?" Elegy chuckled nervously, "With that thing?"
"I get we're standing on clouds, but is it really less difficult to dig than dirt?" Hats was skeptical as well.
"It's fluffy on the surface and hard underneath, but with a sharp enough blade we can cut through it."
At that, Elegy could only sigh.
"That doesn't answer the question..."
"What don't you understand? I did say we'd dig under, but in actuality, it's more like a slicing motion."
Glancing at each other for a moment, Elegy and Hats eventually just let Sorbet have the victory. He seemed sure of this plan working, and there really was no other option left for them but to try and see for certain.
"Go ahead."
"Alright, watch this...!"
They sat back, watching as he barely hoisted the mighty sword high above his head, only to fall on his back due to the weight of it. Sorbet was anything but a swordsman, his true strength laid in playing video games, though even then he wasn't anything special. Embarrassed as all hell, he hastily sprung back up to warn the other two not to laugh.
"Look, that was-!"
"Phahahahaha!" Hats burst out laughing, "Him trying to play it off made it a hundred times funnier!"
"That was hilarious, Sorbet!" Elegy was in tears, clapping at the performance, "Man, you really showed us!"
"You're dead men!" He huffed.
"Yeah right, give it here..." Elegy got up to grab the blade in his hands, "Ehh, it'll work."
Sorbet was livid. Not only did Elegy take his blade back, but he also did so with such ease and grace. Despite claiming it didn't fit his sword style or whatever, he still looked like a professional whilst gripping it. Truly, a swordsman knows best.
"Whuh-Hey! I never gave you permission to take it!" Sorbet raged.
"Just shut up and let him do his thing." Hats pulled him back.
"...Huup~! Oh dang."
To everyone's surprise, but Elegy's most of all—The ground gave in just as Sorbet had predicted. Sliced through like a sponge, the newly exposed hard bits became just as soft as the exterior above. With this, he had unraveled the first layer of Heaven. If he just kept going like this, then they would make it to the other side of the border just like that.
"H-Heh!" Sorbet folded his arms smugly, "Told ya' it'd work, but you wouldn't listen!"
"Hwoh!" Elegy kept swinging, ignoring his words, "Hyah! Hup!"
"Man, he's really going to town." Even the nasty Sorbet couldn't help but gawk at his strength.
"He's good with the blade." Hats noted, "It's good that he's on our side, eh?"
"...Like I care." Sorbet smirked with an impish shrug, "At the end of the day, the work is done and I don't even have to lift a finger."
This entire conversation was well within Elegy's earshot, but he paid no mind to it at all. After getting one more good look at the distance between them and the other side of the barrier, he sunk his head below ground level and kept digging down until he hit something.
"Stone? No, just feels like it." He furrowed his brows at it, "Well, whatever. This is low enough to not get spotted anyways."
"What's up? You stopped." Sorbet jumped down the hole as well.
"You can take over if you think you can go faster." Hats rolled his Eyes as he jumped after him.
"Elegy's got it, ain't that right Elegy?"
"Hyah!"
"Heheh, see?"
"Hrm..."
From here on, he no longer dug down, but towards the border. Even just one glance was enough to roughly estimate the distance he needed to dig, so every couple of minutes, he would walk back to the start of the tunnel, counting the steps and using them as measures of distance.
"Hmm, another 40 steps or so." Elegy muttered as he picked the sword back up.
"Mn, and if you're off?" Sorbet said, sat on his ass doing nothing.
"Let's hope he's not." Hats glared back at him, "Though I trust in Elegy's judgment."
"Is that so? I don't think it's good to put too much trust in me though." Elegy chuckled back, "In truth, we're probably near the barrier even now, but I wanna make sure we're on the other side for sure, so I'm going the extra distance just in case. After all, what good will crossing the border do us if we dig out right next to the guards."
"So then what's even the point of measuring!?" Sorbet hissed.
Despite his angry comments, Sorbet was secretly quite excited about this working. It's kind of annoying to have to do, but it at least gives them a way across the border. Not only that, but the next time they find themselves nearing bedtime without any form of shelter, they now have the option to just dig themselves a hidey-hole of their own and cover themselves up with something opaque. A makeshift shelter that doesn't rely on other residents of Heaven.
*Clank!*
"What was that!?" The two jumped up in surprise.
"Hm, guess the border extends down even past the stone layer..." Elegy made a difficult face after realizing he hit the metal bars finally, "Squeezing through isn't an option, since the male body archetype is made to be wide."
They were at a dead end again, and just when they thought they were finally in the clear. The bars were hard and tough, there was no way a Heavenly Being could bend them enough to widen the gap.
"So, what now?" Sorbet asked.
"Move..." Hats stepped up, annoyed that they completely forgot he had his uses, "Hnghh...!!! Gah, there!"
"Whoa! Did you just bend them with your bare hands!?" They were taken aback.
"Yeah, hurt a crap ton, though." He inspected his rusty looking palms, "Golden arms, remember? You guys would do well to remember I'm just as, if not more useful than you."
They didn't dare give a reply to that one, Sorbet just meekly sat back down as Elegy bashfully continued to hack away at the cloud tunnel. With this, they knew for certain that they were past the border, so realistically it was up to them to decide when to start digging up. Just in case, Elegy kept going for the same length as before they hit the bars.
"Hah, huff...!" He was quite winded by now, "That's enough, right?"
"It was enough 20 steps ago, but whatever you say." Sorbet rolled his Eyes.
"It's enough, Elegy. Thank you." Hats praised him, "Hey, you've done enough. Want me to take over?"
"N-Nah, I got it." He tiredly kept slicing, only this time at a slight angle upwards, "I started this, and I wanna finish it!"
"Oh, attaboy!" Sorbet clapped, happily sitting back down once he realized there was still no need for him to do a thing, "Man, I'm such a genius for coming up with this idea. Where's my praise?"
"Hrm..."