Meanwhile, as these two traversed down the Shrine at breakneck speeds, our other party was equally good at breaking their necks digging under the ground.
"Tch, damned district borders..." Sorbet complained, "Why don't either of you have wings? Things would be so much easier that way!"
"Why are you the one complaining while Elegy's the one doing all the digging?" Hats glanced back at him.
The two stared each other down for a while, but it should be noted that neither one picked up the serrated sword to dig in Elegy's place even once. Hats wasn't being rude by complaining, but he failed to realize that he is just as useless as Sorbet. That being said, Elegy couldn't care less.
"I just gotta ask, first—how is Migu faring?" He glanced over at you.
"Who?" The other two tilted their heads, confused about this sudden name drop, "Are you talking about the girl we pushed down that hole back when we just entered the district?"
"No, different girl." He shook his head, "I'm talking about my teammate. She's a girl from the group I told you guys about."
Sorbet quickly deduced that this girl was Maggie, as he knew her, but was left puzzled as to why Gale decided to change the way he addressed her. Regardless, he didn't pay that detail too much mind, as this innocent question was wasting valuable digging time.
"You'll find out when we get there, now come on! The tunnel ain't gonna dig itself!"
"Elegy, for the love of the Gods, please make him dig the rest of the tunnel!" Hats begged.
"Nah, he can't hold it properly." Elegy, however, refused, "We won't ever reach the other side of the border, much less the Shrine if I do that."
They were making reasonably good time, all things considered. During their stay in this district, they figured out they were in H district, meaning the one they were tunneling to was I district. They had a long way to go, but they somehow managed to already make it to the next border before even a single bedtime hit them. In other words, if they played their cards right, they could be seeing the Shrine in less than 3 weeks of traveling.
"Oh? We hit the border." Elegy turned to announce, "Hats."
"On it." He nodded, bending the bars with ease, "Huh?"
"What now? Just move aside and let Elegy continue digging!" Sorbet hissed.
Despite his haste, Sorbet could only be seen lying against the wall listlessly. At the same time, Hats worriedly darted his gaze between his shaky hands and the metal bars he bent.
"N-No, I felt vibrations in the bars..." Hats gulped, "We might have been found out."
"Shit. You damned moron!" Sorbet immediately began name calling, "How is it that easy for you to mess everything up for us?"
"Sorbet, get off your ass and help us dig." Elegy wasted no time in hurrying up, "If what Hats said is true, then we've only got a few more minutes before the guards find our hole and attack us."
Sorbet, however, couldn't care less.
"Why should I help? You guys messed up with being too lou-"
Despite this, it seems the other two were now demanding, not asking. They were in a race against the clock, and if they didn't emerge in an inconspicuous spot soon, there's a high chance they'll get a White Monster sicced on them.
"Hmph." Hats grabbed him with ease, slamming Sorbet's body up against the wall, "Dig."
"Mnf! N-Not... gonna... hap-"
"I'll give you the sword back." Elegy offered.
"Deal!"
With a newly returned vigor and a spring in his step, Sorbet took the serrated blade only to barely even be able to lift it up, much less slice the cloudy wall before him. That being said, the other two now had to rely on just clawing their way through, but it worked out somehow.
"Don't stop for even a second!" Elegy shouted at Hats, "You're tired, I know you are, and so am I! But we need to get out no matter what!"
"Yeah, do your best!" Sorbet motivated them from behind, not even lifting a finger as he spun the sword below his chin idly.
Eventually, despite the tense atmosphere, they managed to safely exit out into a secluded, safe alleyway, successfully having made it to their next area—District I. Given that these districts are always random and don't have any distinct differences between them, the trio could only assume they were named arbitrarily after the alphabet. If anything, it gave them a rough estimate of how much longer they had until they reached the Shrine.
"Only in our third district..." Elegy slumped forward tiredly, "I'm pooped, though. Isn't there someplace to rest?"
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"If you fall asleep you lose your memories, so no." Sorbet denied the idea, "Sorry, but we should try and hold out for as long as we can until that happens."
"Eh? Oh come on, you can just explain to me the entire situation again if that happens. Like you did this morning!"
"That was different, you two were already memory-wiped by then!"
Elegy pleaded and pleaded, but alas, Sorbet wasn't having it. He was traveling for a long time, dug not one, but both of the tunnels so far, and yet he's not being allowed even a moment's reprieve. If this was the Living World, our poor Elegy would be working in a black company.
"Narrator, do a cutaway gag." Elegy, in his despair, directly addressed me, "Just something that'll allow me to pause for a sec!"
"Dude, Sorbet, he's gone crazy. You made him crazy." Hats sighed.
"Not my fault!"
Well, dear Elegy, cutaway gags aren't a thing in this novel series... or probably any novel series for that matter, but I will bless you with those three little magical asterisks that signify the halfway point of every chapter. Please rest up for the latter half.
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***
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"Wah, I feel so much better already! Thanks!"
"Oh come on, Hats!" Sorbet kept whining, "Even you gotta agree he's gone cuckoo!"
Yeah, the pleasure's all mine, Elegy. I'm sleepy too, but who cares about me right now. Ahem, the three were now officially stepping through new land. Given they knew no one from here and had no reason to stop by anywhere, all they could really do right now was in fact continue moving at their accelerated pace.
"Hey, hurry it up, we ought to find a place to hunker down before nightfall." Sorbet urged.
"What ever happened to the 'digging a hole' strategy we discussed?" Hats tilted his head.
"Idiot, you can't just dig a hole in the middle of the street! We need to go somewhere we WON'T immediately get surrounded by Apostles."
It wouldn't be long before bedtime came, meaning they no longer had the luxury of picking and choosing their place of shelter. What they had currently was more or less what they would have to work with for the entire next 24 hour period. Needless to say, Sorbet wasn't about to get set back hours of progress just because of a single flub.
"We ought to look for a house again." Elegy took the lead in deciding, "Someplace inside, where they won't be bothering us."
"Nice try, but we can't dig a safety hole inside." Sorbet shot down the idea, though his words were duly ignored, "E-Eh? You can't be serious!"
"If we were to find a house with only wooden plank flooring, we could dig ourselves a hole yet."
It would be rude for the house's owner, yes, but they already decided they would stop at nothing to safely reach their destination. Caring about others would have to come secondary, lest their hospitality and kindness lost them all the time they had left. Quickly, Elegy chose a random house that looked like it was vacant.
"...There, that one story house there!" He singled one out.
"Guys, bedtime is coming any minute!" Hats worried.
Figuring they were fresh out of time, Elegy spared no time in bodying the front door and punching the wooden flooring. He was a man of his words, as not once did he ask for Sorbet to hand him the sword. That being the case, Sorbet wasn't particularly willing to help him out either...
"Alright, hop in!" Elegy wobbled into the hole he made first.
"You're tired as hell, man! You've been pushing yourself to the limit." Hats worried, "Sorbet, we need to... Hey!"
"Will you stop shouting?" Sorbet ignored him as he jumped straight into the shallow hole.
"Elegy's gonna fall asleep at this rate, we can't just ignore him like this!"
"Well, if you don't stop complaining and enter the hole already, then all his effort would've gone to waste!"
Hats despised that this logic of Sorbet's made sense, and since it had already gotten eerily quiet, he had no other choice but to hop into the hole they made inside that house. The cubby hole was quite small and cramped, as Elegy didn't have either the tools or time to make it big enough for all three of them.
"Oi, scoot over!"
"Wait, move your leg!"
"This is impossible...!"
They were all three men trying to fit into a single hole that would only ever realistically fit one person tops. Regardless, they had no other choice but to make it work. The moment they found a position that seemed to sit right with everyone was the moment they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"Guys... I think... I'm gonna..." Elegy blinked a few times intermittently, "Zzzz..."
"Crap! O-Oi, wake up, dammit! Why'd we put him on top of the dogpile!?" Hats panicked, "Elegy, wake up! If you fall asleep, you'll-!"
-lose all your memories, leave me alone, let Sorbet win. All of these were things he wanted to say, but it was too late. Elegy was tired from getting overworked for some time now, and it took a heavy toll on him until he could no longer handle it. To make matters worse, because he was the one on top of the dogpile, neither of the two could even do something to wake him up.
"Hey, what's got you so worried? Just go to sleep." Sorbet groaned, "Hey, it's okay. So long as I remain awake, we can continue the journey."
"..."
"Oh for the love of-! Rest up, man! We've got a lot of traveling to do tomorrow, and you're useless to me when you're like this prick!"
"You're the prick for making him like that in the first place!" Hats lashed out.
"What did you say?"
"You heard me! The poor guy has been doing your dirty work for the entire day now, and yet you didn't step in once to try and stop him!"
In Sorbet's mind, the only thoughts occupying it were to dial this conversation down before it got too derailed. Making Gale do all the dirty work was his way of getting revenge on him, but it kind of defeated the purpose when he just sucked it up and kept going. In truth, Sorbet expected Elegy to crack the moment he sniffed out even the tiniest amount of injustice, but that moment never came.
"S-Sorry..." He admitted to his guilt, "You're right, I was being horrible. Next time, I'll be sure to treat you well."
"..."
"Please go to sleep. Rest up, you've earned it." He smiled, "I'll stay awake to keep our memories going. Don't worry, they're safe with me."
"..."
"......"
"...Okay."
Before long, Sorbet was once again the only one left awake in the party, but he didn't mind. In fact, this was the desired outcome, as because of his fallen seraphim status, he could just conk out immediately now without worries and wake up with his memories intact anyways. The other two would be none the wiser, and he could immediately bring them back up to speed without even a hint of remorse. This is where the true terror of his revenge lied—It was repeatable, and the victim wouldn't even have a single way of knowing he was being used and abused every single cycle. With a content, deviously impish grin, Sorbet closed his Eyes under the dogpile in the hole Elegy had poured his blood, sweat and tears into making, and promptly fell asleep.