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Vol.5 Ch.105 - Change of Scenery

"Boom! Cliffhanger!" Elegy shouted all of a sudden.

"Gah, stop doing that!" Sab smacked him.

"I swear, you guys are the worst passengers known to man..." Sheep tiredly flew through the sky, carrying the two on his back and holding Hats up with his hands.

"Are we there yet?" Hats whined.

A real squad of warriors, they were. By this point, Migu and Energy were still carefully making their way through the first floor of the Shrine, their bodies still mostly intact. Because of their last interaction, Sheep had a very negative opinion on Energy, wanted nothing more than to defeat him and save Migu from his clutches.

"We're here, don't worry." Sheep nodded.

"Wings sure do make any journey trivial, eh?" Elegy almost sulked.

"I for one don't mind one bit." Sab chuckled, "After seeing what he did to Vastoria, the bastard ought to get the same treatment as soon as possible."

At his surprising thirst for revenge, the other three could only look at him in bafflement.

"Just a few hours ago you could barely even remember her name." Sheep tilted his head, "What made you change tunes so quickly?"

"You kidding? You of all people should know why." Sab shivered, "Carrying her mutilated, mangled body like that back to her head... I-I mean, bed! Ugh, mortifying. That bastard's gonna pay for traumatizing me!"

A wave of relief washed over Sheep and Elegy, for they knew things would get very awkward if something like Sab catching feelings for Migu's girlfriend were to occur. Especially after knowing that they're dealing with the guy apparently destined to cause the downfall of Heaven 2.0, they know all too well how important it is to keep him appeased. Hats, on the other hand, was worried about something else."

"W-Wait, didn't you guys say she was just sleeping...!?"

"Hph-!" They all jolted, "Y-Yeah, that's right! She is, ignore Sab!"

"Yeah, I'm just hyperbolizing, man!" Sab tacked on, "Chill!"

"High... perbo...?"

"Gah, why don't you know any sophisticated words!?"

As the men panickedly descended in front of the Shrine's force field barrier, it gradually began to show its true, ice wall appearance. They couldn't care less, though, since their primary focus now was to calm Hats down.

"Look, once we take down Energy, we can traverse the Shrine with Migu until we reach floor 4!" Elegy talked a mile a minute, "We can recover Vastoria's health down there with the beds!"

"No, you idiot!" Sab scolded him, "If she or even Sheep step inside the Shrine's barrier, they're as good as dead!"

Quietly, Sheep thought it best to take a step or two away from the ice wall.

"T-That's a fair point from Sab." He nodded, "In that case, you all will have to deal with Energy and the Shrine's perils without me. Don't worry, I won't go anywhere in the meantime."

"My ass, you have your... Gasp, my wings!" Sab recalled, only now spotting them idly leaning on the barrier, "Oh, how I've missed you sooooo much~! My precious, my beloved! Squeeee~!"

To him, this level of appreciation and endearment for the seraphim wings was completely natural. Of course, it is a high only someone who had the ability to fly and lost it could truly understand, leaving the other three unable to relate.

"Creepy..." Hats scowled.

"I'd almost call that level of perverted love for an object interesting." Sheep couldn't look away for whatever reason.

"That boy ain't right." Elegy added.

Ignoring their hurtful comments, Sab instead took to equipping his long lost wings before enjoying a short little fly-by of the Shrine's perimeter. Obviously, given they were at the very edge of Heaven 2.0, he really didn't have much to see, but he enjoyed the feeling of the wind hitting his face nonetheless. To Heavenly Beings, this could be most similarly attributed to the feeling of joyriding a motorcycle.

"Sure looks fun." Elegy looked on from below, "Hm? O-Oi, he's escaping!"

"No way, that bastard can't be this shameless!" Sheep reacted quickly enough, "Get back, you idiot! We need you here!"

And so, the seraphim and the angels were separated just like that. In a way, this didn't change all that much. Given that Hats and Elegy were their only capable fighters anyways, they reasoned it would be alright to just leave them alone while they went to go look for Migu. Alas, phasing through the ice barrier showed no signs of either of their targets.

"Crap, he must've chased her inside." Elegy clicked his tongue, "Proceed with caution."

"Mn." Hats nodded, teetering behind him.

"You can be a bit less cautious."

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The light jab made Hats' face go bright Red. Despite wanting to so desperately prove himself to the big kids, so to speak, all he ended up doing was showing Elegy his weaker side. Of course, Elegy could only find that interesting.

"You're just walking in without hesitation." Hats muttered, "Aren't you scared?"

"Hm? Of what?"

"Y-Y'know... That something might jump out?"

"...Eh?" He turned around, "Hats, are you afraid of the dark?"

A surprising revelation befell him suddenly. The burly man with large, golden arms standing before him, was in fact afraid of something most kids would learn to get over the fear of. To say that he was surprised by this would be a huge understatement, but Elegy also knew that there were all sorts of people in the world.

"H-Huh!? No, of course not!" Hats vehemently denied the accusation, "I'm not s-scared!"

"..."

"...Huh?" He quickly found himself alone in the dark passageway of the first floor, "E-Elegy? Are you there...?"

"......."

"...M-Migu?" He whimpered.

"Boo!"

As one could assume, Elegy jumped out from behind him, causing an incredibly discordant screech to begin permeating throughout the Shrine. He soon apologized for the prank, but it was too late—the scaredy giant was by this point already on the floor, unconscious and foaming at the mouth with his Eyes rolled back into his head.

"Yikes." Elegy felt bad, "Maybe I did go too far."

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"Ughhh..." He finally awoke, "Bwah! Monster!"

"Nope, just me." Elegy chuckled, "Sorry for scaring you."

"Geez, that was mean!"

Elegy could hardly believe the adorable pouty expression coming from this hunk of a man. And what exactly was with that mean comment? No matter how he sliced it, there was just no way that Elegy could believe Hats was an adult.

"Hey, pop quiz." Elegy decided to make sure.

"Eh? O-Okay..."

"Question 1! Can you read and write?"

"No."

This question, alas, could only prove effective for Elegy's time period. He deduced Hats was so far no less than 16 mentally, for reading and writing were both only taught at school after that age. Of course, for Hats' era, things could be completely different, which means he really didn't narrow it down at all. Besides that, people can be born poor or even homeless, so they might never become literate despite their age being well past that. This leads them to the next question.

"Question 2! How many continents are there in the world?"

"Uhh... Five? No, wait!" He thought about it a bit more before locking in his answer, "Four!"

Again, due to the fact Elegy didn't know what era Hats was from, there was a possibility that the Living World looked different back then, so there was no way to know if 'his' answer was correct or not. If you go back far enough in history, it would also be correct to say one continent, after all. In the end, only one question truly seemed like a universal one for all eras in history. Something so human that it bordered on timeless.

"Question 3." Elegy asked with a serious expression, "What other uses does your dick have apart from peeing?"

"Is there more than one?"

"This man's a child!" Elegy shouted triumphantly.

Immediately, Elegy sifted through his past encounters with Hats. One by one, they had all begun to make sense when viewed under this new light. Easily frightened, naive and aloof, doesn't know many sophisticated words, if any... Yes indeed, Hats was merely a child in a man's body.

"Oh wait, that's actually horrible." Elegy understood the meaning behind such a fate, "Oh Gods, but then...?"

"What's wrong?" Hats worried, "Did I fail the pop quiz?"

The boy had died young, and due to the fact Heaven 2.0 only has one body type, he was forced into a body he had yet to grow into. His arms were golden, signifying he had been brutally mutilated and killed even if he was a child. Irked by this horrifying news, Elegy's disgust at the world below was abated only by the naivety of this young boy. He had gone through so much, and even now in Heaven, he selflessly offered his team a helping hand.

"You passed with flying colors." Elegy ruffled his hair, despite them being the same height, "Now come on, let's go save Migu."

"U-Uhh..."

"Hmph. Give 'er 'ere!"

Seeing the frightful boy still somewhat hesitant to move his petrified legs, Elegy exhaled through his nose, extending a hand for him to hold on to while they descend further through the darkness of the Shrine. Though he was unaware of this fact, this was in fact the second time Elegy came to this realization regarding Hats. And of course, both times he made the same exact vow.

"I promise I'll keep you safe." He said a warm, friendly smile, "Now, shall we?"

"...Yeah!" The young giant returned the smile in full.

A wholesome and charming resolution came about as they walked down the latter half of the corridors of the first floor. At the same time, however, the winged seraphim playing tag in the skies up above the surface were in quite the contrasting state.

"You... Sab, stop right there!" Sheep sped up, gradually catching up to him more and more, "You can't get away from me, bastard!"

"...Now!" Sab nosedived, throwing off his pursuer as he hit the clouds below.

"What...!?"

This was nothing if not a self-sabotage. A feeble attempt to try and juke Sheep out after realizing he wasn't going to be able to run forever. But when Sheep followed him down to the ground, he had finally found what it is that made Sab suddenly decide to leave as abruptly as he did.

"Is that... a seraphim?" Sheep was taken aback.

"Phew, thought you could get away, eh buster?" Sab rubbed the victory in the female seraphim's face, "Well, too bad! If you're gonna spy on us, given our current situation, I can only assume you were doing it because you're an enemy!"

"An enemy!?" Sheep jolted.

The lady resembled Migu. Well, and Vastoria as well. In truth, there really was no difference in neither her face nor body from the rest of the women of Heaven 2.0. Her hair was tied into a lovely pair of twintails. This much is nothing out of the ordinary, but the thing that caught their Eye was her gilded part. Namely, down the middle of her entire body, she was half and half—her left side was White, and her right was golden.

"Mngh...! The hell are you blithering on about, you twit!?" She tried breaking free of Sab's hold, "I dunno what you're talking about!"

"Ain't that cute?" Sab turned to Sheep jokingly, "She thinks she can just walk away after I saw what was in her hands."

"Her hands?" Sheep instructed, "Wait, turned her around!"

"Ugh, unhand me!" She squirmed about, unable to stop the men from forcibly laying her over on her back.

A pickaxe. One that was made of pure gold, molded into the correct shape. The tip was sharp enough to pierce most anything, and the material was durable enough to maintain its durability even whilst breaking through even the toughest of surfaces. She was certainly a fascinating one indeed.

"What were you attempting to accomplish with this tool?" Sheep asked her.

"Isn't that obvious?" She looked away, "I want to dig out of Heaven."

After having turned her around, they finally noticed another hidden detail about her appearance that proved quite unique—she only had a left wing.