"Sorry again for all those things I did." He made sure to apologize as we entered the Shrine.
"Sor-!? Ugh, just shut the hell up. I'm trying not to think about it..."
He beat up Sheep to an inch of his life, and even killed Vastoria. Honestly, I just wanna curl up into a ball and die right now, but if I did that then their sacrifices would've been in vain. For now, even though it really hurts me to have to do this, I have no other option but to team up with him. Even after all that he's done...
"Look, I can see why you'd be mad." He kept being annoying, "But suck it up."
"Excuse me?"
"It's the emotional people that are prone to dying first." He explained, "You did good in taking Vastoria away, and Sheep is at the very least alive for certain. If you fuss over them too much, you'll never make it to the end of the Shrine."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Blaming others is a sign of insecurity and immaturity." He kept preaching, "In fact, I would argue you have no one else to blame but yourself, Migu, for it was you guys failing to kill Sab that got me involved."
Well, he's definitely not beating the hypocritical senior citizen allegations. This guy's insufferable to the core. Almost as much as Throne, and that guy got closer to killing us than this moron! Geez, I'm really disliking the Gods' decision to shut Hell down...
"Tch, what are we even doing anymore..." I sighed, ready to give up, "What good would reaching the bottom of the Shrine even do us? Those beds advancing time won't do anything to help Vastoria and Sheep, if they're even alive anymore even..."
"The beds heal your wounds." He explained.
"Hm?"
"Vastoria's chest wound got healed, right?" He explained, "Surely that can't be a coincidence."
Oh yeah, she did mention that... But wait, how come his wounds didn't heal then?
"Quit looking at me like that." He noticed me staring at his missing foot and Eye, "My hypothesis still checks out, y'know?"
"How though?"
"You're operating under the assumption that I fell asleep." He revealed.
...Huh? Wait, no way! Vastoria definitely said they both fell asleep on their beds! Could he have just been pretending? But what good would that do them?
"I always sleep with one Eye open, or in other words, I'm never fully unconscious when I sleep." He explained, "I got to see what would happen to someone that slept on the beds."
"What happened?" I worriedly inquired, "Energy, what the hell happened to Vastoria while she was asleep?"
"...Something beyond my technological knowledge, I presume." He said with an uncertain expression, "Claws, metal ones. They moved on their own, operating on her like a doctor would."
Metal claws...? Why does that sound familiar...
"Did some of the claws perhaps have... saws on them?" I raised an Eyebrow.
"Huh?!" He stood surprised, "How did you know?"
I see, now things are starting to line up! Right, that makes sense, the claws that substitute your wounded parts with golden ones! Of course, it's so clear to me now, I'm surprised I never thought of it sooner!
"Right, the houses were all Gray when we first arrived...!" I muttered, "And the room where I first got my golden spine was Gray too! So this is where angels get their gilded parts!"
"Hm? Sorry, you're gonna need to repeat all that out loud for me." He didn't quite follow.
"Back when I first entered Heaven 2.0, I didn't yet have my body turned modified with gold." I recalled that nostalgic time, "I was with two others, and we were the first guests of Heaven 2.0."
"How come you're the first? Logically speaking, shouldn't it be the first humans to have ever lived?"
"That's what I wanna know too. It's still a mystery." I pondered, "But, after Prylos explained to us the basic rules of Heaven, we were sent off to get our bodies "rid of impurities" as he called it."
"So that's what the gold meant..."
Yeah, now it's coming back to me. I briefly woke up in a dark, Gray room, and got my spine ripped out by metal claws and saws. It was traumatic, and I'm still surprised I lived through that, but even back then I found out that that was the exact moment I got my gilded parts. So now I know that that place was actually here, on the fourth floor of the Shrine...
"So the Gods lied after all." I nodded solemnly, "This place isn't some kind of scrapped area from before they made us invincible. The thing that makes our bodies prone to feeling and wounds again is a deliberate choice!"
"Are you sure that's the case? Those hands are truly safe?" He fretted.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
"They may look scary, but at the end of the day, their job is to repair you." I nodded, "When we reach the beds, I urge you to fall asleep and let them fix your wounds."
"So then... I'll really get my foot and Eye back?"
Yes and no, dude. Yeah, you'll probably get them replaced with golden ones, but keep in mind that those ones are hypersensitive outside of the Shrine's domain. What this means is you'll feel every other step, and Gods only know what you'll see with that golden Eye, if anything.
"...I hope so." I merely kept walking, "Ah, already made it to the second floor."
"That's the trap area, right? Let me take the lead."
"Energy." I called out to him.
"What?"
"...Don't get too emotional." I smirked, "I heard the ones that get too excited are the first to die."
"Heh, good call." He continued slowly down the staircase, "Who knows, that advice might have just saved my life."
----------------------------------------
***
----------------------------------------
As we turned each corner of the second floor very carefully, we made our way down the hallways that progressively became more glowy with crystal light. It was magnificent to look at, however the faint reflections made the rooms look like a kaleidoscope, making it even more difficult to look for traps in the area. It was also quite difficult to traverse in my dress.
"Man, now I remember." He smiled, "This is the exact spot where Vastoria and I first met."
"Getting nostalgic all of a sudden?" I rolled my Eyes, "Just so you know, she's my girlfriend. Well, was..."
"Kheh!" He stifled his chuckle.
"...What?"
"Nothing, it's just the way you said girl friend made it sound like girlfriend."
"I did say girlfriend, though."
"...You ARE a girl, right?" He paused with severity in his tone.
"Of course I am, jackass."
"Wow..." He could hardly believe it, "Wait, so you and Vastoria are romantically inclined?"
"We were." I corrected him with a glare, "Until you killed her."
Taken aback by my words, he couldn't bring himself to continue moving along the trap infested hallway. He was too preoccupied with this, so he couldn't afford to be distracted.
"W-Wait, you're really confusing me here." He chuckled nervously, "So Vastoria's a he?"
"What? I get you've only got the one Eye, but you're not that blind." I glared at him, "We're both women."
"So you're... the hell!?" He actually took a step away from me in disgust, "The hell are you doing in Heaven then!?"
Ah, have I finally reached the intolerant era of history? Both Sheep and Gale couldn't care less about the fact I kiss girls, so would it be wrong for me to say this reaction is actually a refreshing change of pace?
"What's wrong?"
"It's suboptimal!" He shot back immediately.
"E-Eh? Sub...?"
"Suboptimal! How the hell do you expect to have children when you've got nothing to stick it into!" He got angrier and angrier the more he talked.
"Stick it in-!? Hold on, that's not the only part of a relationship, is it!?" I bit my tongue.
"Then what IS the point!? Two women can't repopulate the world, can they!?"
...Ohhhh. Right, he's from an era where humanity is sparse. Of course—to him, reproduction is probably like, a huge deal or something. Yeah, in a cursed era such as his, the general populace probably had bigger worries than thinking about which gender they liked more. I imagine survival and continuing to give birth to future humans was way more pressing.
"When I'm from, we can afford two less mothers in the world." I chuckled, reassuring him that it's not that bad.
"Every human counts." He crossed his arm, firm on his stance, "Sorry, you're my family, so if you don't have children, then it's like my effort was wasted."
"Can angels even reproduce in Heaven?" I cocked my head back, "Honestly, I really feel like your worries are misplaced here."
"I don't mind you being with whoever you want, Migu, but you two need to find yourselves a man to wed!" He said something super weird, "Rear a child each, then when you've checked off your biological goal, have as much fun as you want."
"That's... Sigh, regardless of how crazy that sounds, does it even matter?" I slumped forward, "Vastoria's dead."
"Ah." He remembered, "Sorry again."
"You really think a simple apology will do the trick?"
"What else can I offer you?" He leaned on the wall, triggering a dart trap, "Duck!"
"Whoa-!?" I evaded it just barely, my glares pointed at him growing exponentially, "Sigh, start with not killing me too, you idiot."
After this accidental flub, he remained deathly quiet for the rest of the floor. This small scare was enough to get him focused back on the real matter at hand, and thanks to his dangersense, we didn't hit even a single other trap after that. Luckily, because the Shrine resets every cycle it seems, we didn't have that blasted boulder blocking the stairway down to the jungle layer.
"Hm?" I heard faint digging sounds just on the other side of the wall, "You hear that?"
"Migu, focus on the task at hand."
"Says the guy that was worried about my preferences." I shot back, "Damned hypocrite grandpa."
"Stop calling me that!"
No, I don't think I will. It's funny seeing him rage when I do. Ah, but I can't judge him too hard. He's just a product of his time, I think. The way he reacted to me and Vastoria all but gave it away. He's not opposed to us being together, but to us not having children. In his world, the main priority was to have children and provide them with a better life than yours. Of course, operating under the assumption that the Gods wouldn't deceive him and actually did remove the curse from his era, then he would essentially be doing just that by killing a measly 4 angels who were already dead to begin with.
"Energy..." I stopped walking down the stairs.
"What is it now?" He looked back, "Whoa-!?"
Kicking him down the stairs felt soooo satisfying! Hehe, serves you right, gramps! Vastoria's probably laughing from the grave right now! Ah, but she died in Heaven, so she doesn't even have a soul anymore... Sniffle, dammit!
"Augh, ptu!" He spat at the bottom of the stairs, "The hell was that for!?"
"S-Shut up!" I said, tears streaming down my cheeks, "As compensation for killing her and hurting Sheep, you're gonna let me push you down every staircase we come across until we leave the Shrine!"
"Ah..." He ashamedly got back up, "O-Okay, I understand."
"Even on the way up." I appended.
"Eh!? But then I'd have to climb up just to get pushed down!"
"If we didn't do it like that, you'd only have one more staircase to worry about." I shrugged, "Hardly a punishment like that."
"Tch... Fine." He obliged nonetheless, "But you gotta stop calling me gramps!"
"Sure thing, old man!"
"Can't call me that either!"
"Bag of bones!"
"Nope!"
"Cursed ancestor of mine!"
"Okay, fine! Just call me gramps, geez!"
Well, since Vastoria's gone for good, I might as well hang it over his head for as long as I can, right?