"Gale, how do you plan to fix her?"

"Thanks for repeating the last thing you said from the previous chapter." Elegy smiled back, "Also, yeah I have no clue."

"I knew it!" Sorbet stomped on the ground furiously.

Despite putting on airs about how he had the perfect plan to bring Vastoria back to full health somehow with the help of the Hats Apostle, Elegy was suddenly backing out. This would not do well for his image.

"Alright, get the hell out. Let's go." Sheep motioned for them to follow him outside, "Come on, this was already a massive waste of time, so let's just go to the Shrine."

"Wait, you can't just leave the Hats Apostle alone with her like this!" Sorbet reminded him, "Sure, he can't move 'cause we tossed the rock over him, but we'd be losing a fighter if we didn't bring him along!"

Upon hearing this, Sheep blew a fuse.

"Grr...! Stop postponing the goddamn rescue mission, you troglodytes!"

"Hey, I take offense to that!" Elegy frowned.

"Good job, now are you gonna use that offense on something productive for once and save Migu with me or what!?"

Sorbet could have intervened, but he found them bickering amongst themselves funny, so he opted to just sit down next to Vastoria and laugh from a distance.

"Haha, you tell him!"

"Don't think you're in the clear either, jackass." Sheep roped him into the argument as well, "How'd you let this moron take your wings in the first place?"

"Eh? M-Moi!?" Elegy pointed at himself in shock, "When did that happen!? To begin with, I never even met Sorbet before I got snapped away by the Gods!"

"...Sigh." Sheep disappointedly stared at the fallen seraphim, "Sorbet?"

"I-I just thought a... n-name change was in order, ha-ha..."

"What the hell do you think a name is supposed to be, genius?"

"A haircut?"

"It's way more than a haircut, you goddamned mistake!" Sheep shouted his ear off, "It's not something you change on a whim! That's your identity there, man!"

Before Sheep stood two idiots. One was experienced in the field, so the way he carried himself was with high confidence and poise. The other was still a bit wet around the ears, but he reckoned he could get the hang of it pretty soon with a bit more practice and time. Regardless, Sheep needed someone with functioning brain cells, and these two were way off the mark.

"Wait, so then who's Sorbet actually?" Elegy scratched his head.

"Who-!? Sab, it's Sab!"

"What? No, he specifically told me that he's not Sab, though."

"Because you tore his wings off and stole them for yourself!"

Sheep was out of breath from all the shouting, and he felt no matter how far his screeches reached, they still weren't enough to go through such a thick skull as Elegy's.

"Woah, I did? Dang, sorry." Elegy turned to Sab.

"What the hell? Apology denied, I've been planning to kill you for a while now over it."

"You were?" Elegy cocked his head back, "So why haven't you?"

"Because, I can only do it in the Shrine."

"Ahh, I see..." Elegy flashed him a thumbs up, "Good job, I hope it works out for you!"

"Ehe, than-No wait! Don't wish me luck in that, moron!"

Sheep could only blink at the sight of these two as they seemingly chatted in leisure about Elegy's downfall.

"Oh great, now you wanna kill us too?" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Sheep?" Sab tilted his head.

"Dumbass, this entire mess is happening because of you!"

"Me!?"

"The Gods told us to kill you originally, but we refused because you're our friend!" Sheep fussed, "And now we're all getting hunted down by some other dangerous bloke because of it!"

"W..." Sab was left speechless, "Wow..."

"Yeah, that's tough..." Elegy slowly shook his head, "Just for the record, I wouldn't ever think to kill you either."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I know that!" Sab hissed back, "But regardless, you beat me up, took my wings, not to mention you broke my gaming setup!"

"A-Are..." Sheep looked puzzled, "Are you still angry about that?"

At this point, they had completely forgotten all about Vastoria, Hats and Migu altogether. Energy wasn't even a concept in their minds at this point. But something happened that jogged their memories in regards to the current situation...

"Hph!" They all three shut themselves up in unison.

" "

"Crap..." Sheep gulped, thinking on his feet and slamming the door to their room shut.

"You guys, that silence..." Sab gulped, "Hats escaped."

Suddenly, a lone chuckle filled the room briefly.

"Heh."

"Elegy, this isn't funny."

"It isn't, it's exciting." Elegy couldn't stop himself from grinning, "See, that's not Hats."

All of a sudden, what they thought was their biggest fear turned out to be nothing compared to what Elegy just uttered. The silence was irrefutable, but if it wasn't Hats, then that could only spell danger for them.

"You guys still don't get it?" Elegy turned back at them with a smile, "I did want to check on Vastoria, but I can't do anything to fix her current state. The other thing I wanted was a proper arena unreachable by the masses!"

"Just tell us who the hell is on the other side of that door!" The other two panicked.

"You two better prepare for the craziest battle of your afterlife." He squeezed tightly on the door knob, "Cause our opponent for today is the big bad White Monster himself!"

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***

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The sound of the doorknob turning, the creaks of the door opening, and all followed shortly by a deafening silence. Before them stood a figure with a goat's skull and a pure black robe. The color was so dark in fact, that it didn't reflect any light at all. It felt surreal to even look into it, but that was the extent of how far up their Eyes could wander.

"Crap...! Elegy!" Sab shut his Eyes just in time, "What the hell is this!?"

"What do you mean, the White Monster!?" Sheep followed his example.

The beast only stood in place at the door frame without moving a single muscle. Unlike the other two, who ran to the opposite corner of the room hoping to evade its next attack, however, Elegy merely stared back at it. Well, what he could safely stare at without getting put to sleep, that is.

"What's up, neighbor?" He lightly mocked the eldritch horror, "Need some sugar? Sorry, but we're all out."

"GALE!"

The other two wouldn't dare attempt what he was doing. They were far too afraid, and honestly, they didn't even have a proper reason to try it. What he was doing could only be chalked up to willingly giving himself up, but Elegy of course had other plans.

"Hats is still stuck down there, isn't he?" Elegy took a step forward, but the beast still didn't budge, "Yeah, you definitely should've freed him first before you came here. We would really be in trouble if you did."

"Elegy, close the damned door!" Sorbet was at the brink of tears by now, "There's a window in this room, if we just jump off...!"

"Shhh. I'm talking here." Elegy briefly turned around to quiet him down, "Now then, oop-"

The beast was no longer at the doorframe. It was now right in front of Elegy, to the point where all he could see was the darkness of his robe. Nonetheless, so long as Elegy didn't look up at the skull, he was safe.

"Phew! Heh, that made me jump!" He took a step back, "But now I think I get what your deal is. I played this game before."

The Beast would only move if no Eyes were looking at it. It would merely stalk its prey from a distance, hoping they would be the ones to do all the heavy lifting and look at its grotesque, hollow Eyes themselves. If it wanted to attack them directly, the White Monster would employ the help of any and all Apostles it could get its hands on.

"Well, we got one question solved." Elegy scratched his cheek awkwardly, "But the main one remains—How do we kill you?"

So far, every Heavenly Being he's encountered shared the same traits—White body parts mean they're impervious to damage and pain. In other words, since this thing doesn't have any gilded parts Elegy could see, there was a high probability he wouldn't be able to do anything to it right now.

"You two, what the hell's got you pissing your pants like it's some sort of sleep paralysis demon?" Elegy groaned, this time learning from his mistake and not turning around when calling out to them, "Hehe, oh, I get it. This is one of those shock twists where I don't turn around for a while, only to realize you turned into Apostles while I wasn't looking. Yeah, I can see it already. You're gonna grab my shoulders in three, two, one...!"

"Huh? No, we're not gonna open our Eyes so long as that thing's in the room with us." Sab clicked his tongue.

"Yeah, you're the only idiot here that would be dumb enough to try that." Sheep agreed, "Oh, but please don't do that."

"Haha, I won't..." Elegy let out a nervous chuckle, trying to hide the fact his Eyes have been open this entire time, "In any case, follow my voice and..."

"Dude, what are you doing? Let's leave, come on!" Sab urged him, "What's even the plan here?"

Despite his best hopes of them understanding his plan flawlessly, or even to a point—the two still remained puzzled. Elegy's true motives were left unsolved by them, which only further infuriated him.

"What's the plan? We kill it here, what else!" He shot back, "I knew the Monster was hot on our tail, so I had us lure it up here where no other Apostles could intervene! Had Sheep not trapped him in place with the boulder, I was even considering kicking Hats off the ledge."

"What...?" Sheep furrowed his brows, "For what reason would you do all that?"

"Tch, I get it." Sab smirked, "If we somehow kill the legendary White Monster, a lot of paths will suddenly open up to us. From then on, we won't have to worry about traveling during bedtime, and it'll immediately free Hats from skull-face syndrome without us having to wait for him to wake up."

"As such, we could make it to the Shrine and save Migu without ever needing Sheep to sacrifice himself for her sake." Elegy finished his thought, "Of course, that's IF we manage to kill it first."

With a slow yet determined waddle, the first one approached Elegy.

"Haha, I knew you guys would get it."

"Elegy..." They raised an Eyebrow each at that statement, "Get... what?"

All sorts of alarms went off in Elegy's head as the person behind him grabbed his head and twisted it up. Now facing the White Monster's hollow Eyes directly, Elegy was quickly put to sleep. Behind him was neither Sab nor Sheep. No, in that room was yet another person they forgot to account for.

" "

"T-That's...!" Sab screamed, "That's Vastoria's voice!"

"Gale!" Sheep called out to the empty abyss, "Elegy, you there!? Shit...!"

What separated the two opposing factions was but a single bedroom's length. From this distance, even disregarding Vastoria (and soon Elegy too), they would immediately see the White Monster's face if they opened their Eyes. Alas, they simply could not disregard the aforementioned Apostles, for it was they who were steadily approaching them with each passing second.

" "

"Shut your trap! You got us into this mess, and now you're joining their side as well!?" Sab shouted his heart out, "The least you could've done was toss us your stupid sword, dammit...!!!"