"Nerys, give it a rest already." Sab consoled her, "You're gonna hit the ground and die, just accept it."

"Accept wot!?" She squirmed in his embrace, "Euwe wan' me ta' doye jus' loik that, eh!? Well, fack off!"

Her proclamations of fighting back were strong, but unfounded. No matter what she tried to do, Nerys couldn't escape his grasp. They were plummeting to the ground at an alarming speed, and soon enough Nerys will be getting her soul shattered by him.

"Mutton!" She shouted for the seraphim desperately chasing after them from above, "Throw me yer' wing!"

"Huh!?" Sheep gasped, "But then I'll be the one to fall!"

"Yer' fallin' ollready!"

Her logic checked out, so Sheep had to do something he never before thought possible. Reaching for his right wing, he yanked it off and threw it with all his might. The heavy object had a bigger terminal velocity, so it quickly caught up to Sab and Nerys just in time. She couldn't break free just yet, but with the wing hitting him right before latching onto her like a magnet, Sab was successfully stopped. Not only that, but now that they both had fully functioning wings, they could no longer fall and hit the ground.

"Ugh, stop flapping those wings!" Sab ordered.

"Nah, Oi' needa' catch Mutton, y'see?" She kicked herself off of Sab right before swooping in to save her savior, "See? Easy peasy, innit?"

It was a close encounter with death in Heaven 2.0, but now they were facing a different issue. Sab was still eager to kill Nerys as soon as possible, and she had to not only deal with him, but also keep Sheep safe as well.

"Let's talk, Sab." Sheep broke the tension.

"Let's not."

Their one shot at getting Sab to calm down before he did anything too rash had gone by. He refused to see Eye to Eye, or even to accept the very high possibility of Nerys' faith having nothing to do with the actual Gods they were beefing with. As far as Sab was concerned, Sheep being on her side only made him an accomplice.

"Whoa! Switch time!" Nerys announced as she dodged Sab's lunges.

"Huh!?" Sheep felt his wing transfer from her to him mid-flight, "W-We can do that?!"

"Course we can! Woddya' think?"

"I think you need to warn me ahead of time before doing that!" He said, now picking her up instead of the other way around.

"You two are dodging the inevitable." Sab remained calm, "Sheep, you're smarter than this. What will the others say when they hear about her allegiance?"

"Allegiance and faith aren't the same thing, dude!"

Despite the wild shouting as they flew through the air, dodging and attacking endlessly, Sab still refused to even hear a single word from either of them. To him, Nerys was an enemy, or at least a threat, and that was enough for him to be unable to continue working with her.

"What would Vastoria think?" Sab asked all of a sudden.

"...What?"

"Go on, be honest." Sab finally stopped briefly to let himself speak, "Last time you let someone far less suspicious into the group, you got your ass kicked and Vastoria's body got mangled."

"Yeesh, socks ta' be 'er..." Nerys winced.

"Are you implying she'll do the same?" Sheep glared over at him.

"I'm not implying anything, I'm asking you a hypothetical." Sab replied, "If Vastoria were to find out we let this girl into our group, what do you reckon she would say?"

Sheep, in all honesty, wanted to laugh at this man's face. He would laugh so loudly it would piss off even a saint, but he held back. He knew what kind of person Vastoria was, and if anything, she would probably be the one standing by Nerys' side the most here. She's neither grudgeful nor spiteful, so what Sab was insinuating made absolutely no sense. But this was Sheep's chance—the one time he was calm enough to let up in his attacks and properly listen to him.

"Yeah, let's assume Vastoria would be on your side." Sheep sighed.

"Oi! Ye' turnin' on me!?"

"Shut it, wench!" Sab yelled at her, "Sheep, continue."

"...Even if Vastoria would agree with you on killing Nerys, what would that do for us?"

"Elaborate."

"The pickaxe this entire operation is reliant on is made of her right wing." Sheep shook his head, "What if we kill her and the pickaxe disappears?"

This was, by all accounts, a bluff. While in truth they didn't know how exactly the pickaxe worked fully, Sheep knew for a fact that killing the seraphim wouldn't do anything to the wings. He killed Throne back then personally, and the wings remained free for them to inherit. This was a matter of Sab trusting his friend, more than anything...

"And if it doesn't disappear?" Sab inquired.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Then you'll be getting booted out of the team without dilemma." Sheep declared, "This I can assure you. And we all know what will happen once the team stops caring about whether or not you're alive..."

Suddenly, it clicked in Sab's head that he wasn't amongst friends at all. Everyone in the team was his ally, his protector, but if Sab decided to not respect their words, then they wouldn't hesitate to give him up to the Gods as well just so they can continue to live their afterlives without having to dodge hitmen anymore.

"From the very start, you guys never had any skin in the game...!" Sab accused.

"Of course we did, and we still do." Sheep smirked, "You see, the moment we took you into our care, we've been getting attacked left and right. We've been doing nothing but bust our asses so you could continue to exist with us, because we deemed it unfair for you to be the only one dead."

"Sheep..."

"But things change, especially people's opinions on you." Sheep shook his head, "So if you want us to keep feeding skin into this "game", then you ought to keep your rating above favorable."

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***

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The fight ended without anyone getting hurt, thankfully enough. The trio descended back down to the bottom of the hole they dug, with Sheep gently letting Nerys down after he touched the ground himself.

"So oll's well that ends well?" Nerys patted the two men strongly on the back.

"Ugh, you're on thin ice." Sab grunted, "Just try and do anything to us and I'm gonna make you wish you had died back there."

"Euwe wish, laddie!" She then tossed him the pick, "Now gow on! Get ta' moinin'!"

"I'm not your slave!" He shot back.

"Sab..." Sheep warned.

"...Tch, stupid pirate..."

Hoisting the pickaxe high above his head, he broke the stone one layer at a time. Oddly enough, even though he had plenty of trouble breaking through the cloud layer which was supposed to be softer, he was practically blitzing through the stone layer at a rate most similar to Sheep's earlier pace.

"This pick really is crazy, though." Sab inspected it, "I wonder what a golden weapon would do..."

"Eep! Dun' lookit' me loike that, ye' bastard!" Nerys hid away behind Sheep, "Mutton! Laddie 'ere be tryin' ta' taek me otha' wing!"

"So? What do you want me to do about it?" He raised an Eyebrow.

"Well protecc' me, dammit!"

"Oh come on, you're not even using that other wing." Sab rolled his Eyes, "I say it's just a waste of space without the other one. Geez, what a waste to even go through that trial."

"Mn?" She tilted her head innocently.

"What?" Sab paused, "You... You know? The trial to get those wings in the first place?"

"The one where you had to do a hundred good deeds, right?" Sheep turned to him.

"Wot're ye' tolkin' about?" She asked, "Oi' nevah did no troyal."

Once more, she was back inside the Red. If she had wings but never did the trial, then once again Sab's suspicions of her working with the Gods skyrocketed. He didn't want to say anything however, because he figured he'd wait to see what Sheep thought of this first.

"W-Wait, Nerys..." Sheep looked at her worriedly, "How exactly DID you get your wings?"

"Oi' stole 'em." She flat out admitted.

"Come again?"

"Ye' 'eard me!" She flaunted it, "Oi' met a bugger out in tha' street n' took 'is wings! Ehe, wot can Oi' say? Once Oi' sees me a bitta' gold, ye' can bet ye' keister Oi'm takin' it fer' meself!"

"...Pirate."

"Am not!"

Though the men kept calling her that to her face, they were internally breathing infinite sighs of relief over this revelation. They felt bad about the poor guy or girl that got their wings stolen, but at the very least this was the first proper thing she's said to them that fit with her personality. Instantly, she brought herself back into the Green.

"Sheep, once we reach the beds, what then?" Sab offhandedly asked.

"We sleep on them." Sheep cocked his head back, "What else?"

"Ye' needa' rest ollready!?" Nerys cackled endlessly, "Wee little men! Scrawny, the lotta' euwes'! Wot evah happun' to tha' reeel bad men?!"

"Yeah, I'm weak as hell." Sab smirked, handing Nerys the pick, "Really, I'm nothing compared to a pirate!"

"Oi'm not a poirrate, dammit!" She hissed and growled, "Mutton! Tell 'im off!"

"..."

"M-Mutton...?"

This time she no longer had the support of the guy she thought would always be on her side. After calling him weak and scrawny, he really couldn't handle that bratty behavior anymore, so Sheep ended up backing off, showing his stance in this argument without reserve.

"M-Mutton, yer' gunna' soide widd' this monsta'...?" She sniffled, "B-But Oi'm..."

"Go on, you said the only reason you crafted this pickaxe in the first place was because you wanted to dig down to the Living World." Sheep said with scary Eyes, "Show us the strength needed for that."

"Gulp, nuuu..."

Making a girl do the grueling task would usually be seen as frowned upon at best, and a crime at worst, but given the woman in question neither of the two valences applied. The men merely sat back and let poor Nerys cry them a river while she swung with her dainty arms. Of course, due to the pick's resonance with the stone, strength was no longer a factor, but she still felt humiliated over having to put in some actual work for once.

"Come on, speed it up!" Sab shouted, "We don't have all day!"

"Oi! Quiddit!"

"He's right. Pick up the pace, Nerys." Sheep shamed her, "Are you saying you're weaker than us dainty men?"

"Not yew too!" She fussed.

"Are we perhaps being too harsh on her?" Sheep turned to Sab, "Maybe I should..."

"Nah, let her be." Sab stopped him from taking over, "Trust me, there's nothing better than seeing a bratty snot-nosed girl break in front of you."

"How the hell did you get into Heaven with that knowledge?" Sab shivered.

"Just goes to show you how messed up these Gods are."

Overhearing their conversation, Nerys wanted to shout their ears off for cussing out the Gods. Her uncharacteristic love and devotion to the Gods was met with harsh backlash the last time she showed it off, however, so she had to begrudgingly keep it to herself. The entire time, the men sat back and enjoyed the show.

"Lord help me, I think I get what you mean." Sheep chuckled.

"You ain't seen nothing yet." Sab replied, "Let her dig for another hour or so, that's when the cinema starts."

"Cinema?"

The foreign word left a deep impression on Sheep, for he knew not what it entailed. Sab's refusal to explain the proper definition of it also didn't help much in this case. Nerys ended up digging down for the next hour and a half before she finally threw the pick on the ground, lying down in a fetal position with tears rolling down her Eyes.

"Oi' quit!" She would cry out, "Euwe'r roight, Oi'm sorrey! Oi won' evah disrespecc' ya', so please let me res'!"

"Huh, what do you mean?" Sab curbed his smile, revealing to her the true twist of this arrangement, "You could've told us to switch with you whenever you wanted, so why did you only say that now?"

"Euwe-!? Bot Oi'...!!" She burst into a teary mess, "Bwaaahhh~! Meanie! The lotta' yew~! Waaahhh~!"

Admittedly, finally putting her into place felt like attaining Heaven all over again to Sab, but he didn't want anyone to know, so he merely consoled her in silence as Sab took over.