"Everyone, be sure to suit up." I informed them, "You never know when that piece of armor could save your life."
"Huh?" They all turned to look at me weirdly.
What? Why do they have that look on their faces? Look, I get it's kind of an obvious thing to point out, but I noticed none of them were going for the armor pieces, so I just had to notify them.
"Um, Migu..." Hats timidly approached me, "We don't need armor."
"Our bodies are impervious to damage, genius." Energy scoffed, "Armor's only gonna weigh you down."
"...Oh." I blushed.
"Apart from that, you and Energy will need to go back to Sheep and the Gods." Elegy tacked on, "It'd be way too suspicious if you came back with a full set of armor."
Eh~? In that case, wouldn't my new clothes give me away either way? No, but from what it sounded like, Selz already knows we left to go warn these guys about the situation, so there's no reason for me to discard them. Yeah, definitely—the clothes stay on no matter what!
"T-Then I guess you do have a point about the armor being useless..." I scratched my cheek bashfully, "In any case, if you guys are gonna be hiding within the district, then why would you even need any weapons?"
They once more collectively tilted their heads in unison at me. I'm really not liking this feeling of being silently mocked for my ignorance...
"You never know what might show up in the future." Sab stated.
"Did ye' reely think we'd be usin' these agains' tha' Gods?" Nerys flailed her harpoon gun about, "Pish, euwemans 'r not, we cannae killem."
"That's... true as well." I nodded, "Geez, I get it! I'm stupid, and you guys are right, so let's just go already!"
"Oh, about that." Energy interrupted me, "You and I won't be joining them from here on."
...I'm gonna lose it.
"And why not!?" I hissed back, glaring harshly down the tote bag.
"They should find a place to hide away at without us knowing." He reasoned, "The Gods could find a way to extract their location from us."
"Urk, okay..." I slumped forward.
"Besides, we have nothing else to help them with. We did our part." He chuckled, "Sheep must be getting bored of flying around and keeping them from waking up as well, so we should return to him as soon as possible."
Oh right. Would it be wrong of me to say that I completely forgot about Sheep for a moment there? Right, not having a face to attribute to the person really does make him harder to remember. It feels bad of me to think like this, especially since he's busting his ass trying to buy us time and all, but that's just what happens when your body is just made up entirely of wings and Eyes.
"Then, it's already time for us to go?" I looked at everyone with a saddened expression, "What am I saying? You guys better find a good hiding spot."
"T'was tha' plan, lassie." Nerys winked.
"Consider it a game of hide and seek." Sab smirked as well, "The Gods will try to look for us, and in the meantime your job is to get them to spill the beans on why exactly they need this bozo with them."
"Hey, who are you calling a bozo?" Elegy smacked him, "Good luck out there, I know they can be a pain to deal with, but try and get them to understand that we're willing to be reasonable so long as they do the same."
"Yeah." I nodded solemnly, "And hopefully, by the time we do find you guys, the Gods will have been convinced."
"There's no hope in that equation." Energy remarked, "It all boils down to how hard we work for it."
Gramps is spitting facts again. Usually I'd discourage his little lectures, but this time it actually kinda sounded cool, so I'll let it slide. We bid farewell to everyone for now before going in the opposite direction of them. They could hide away wherever they wanted, so long as it was within the boundaries of district G. A single district might just be bigger than a continent in terms of size, and even though they probably won't be able to travel to the other side of it by the time we reach the Gods and Sheep, I'm sure they'll have gotten a pretty sizable headstart. From then on, it's up to us to get the Gods to spill the beans on their so-called master plan to fix Vastoria.
"Hey, now that that's settled..." Energy realized, "How exactly do you expect us to find the flying blur that is Sheep?"
"What do you mean? That's the easiest part." I looked up, giving him a signal by reaching for the sky.
In the very next moment, loud horns could be heard as our archangel friend seemingly just appeared before us. His wings looked crooked and fatigued, and his ragged breaths showed that he really didn't enjoy having to fly God knows how many laps around the district.
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"Y..." Sheep could barely even speak by now, "You done?"
"Huh!?" Energy yelped, "B-But how did you...?"
"Hmph! Guess it's finally time for me to be the bearer of obvious explanations!" I smugly puffed my chest out, "Sheep was flying at incredible speeds, but for him it was all happening in real time. He also wasn't straying away from this district, so regardless of where he went to, he would eventually circle back to see me giving out the signal to stop. Piece of cake!"
"Sheep, thank you for doing this." Energy ignored me.
"No problem..." He opened up his winged embrace, a whole bunch of vomit from the Gods spilling out as he did, "Alright, get in."
"...How about no?"
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It took a while, but I eventually got rid of all that upchuck once we decided to sit down and take a break. It seems the Gods really disliked getting their bodies thrown about everywhere while he flew, so they involuntarily had to gunk up his feathers. After I took out these Two and Vastoria, cleaning Sheep up was pretty easy.
"Ahhh~" He smiled, "You have no idea how much better that feels! Imagine flying in slow motion and witnessing your passengers begin to throw up without even having any way to make them stop. Eugh, I tell you, it made 'me' gag...."
"Sorry again for making you go through this." I apologized.
"It's alright, so long as you get everything done on your part." He then took a closer look at me, "Wait, there's no way you made me keep them at bay just to get new clothes, right?"
"Of course not!" I shot back, "W-Well, that too, but there was another reason!"
"And you're not gonna tell me?" He raised an expectant Eyebrow.
"I can't." I shook my head, approaching the two Gods lying on the cloudy ground in front of me, "They can hear us."
Their bodies twitched a bit once I said this. After a few more seconds of thinking I didn't notice, they eventually came clean and got up with a grouchy attitude.
"How'd you know we were awake?" Pry asked.
"Cleaning Sheep up took long enough for even a coma patient to wake up." I explained, "If you still weren't on your feet by now, I'd proclaim you deceased."
Well, that's only partially true. I didn't actually mean what I said literally, I just meant they could read our thoughts at any moment and figure out what it is we've done while they were out cold.
"A-ha, so that's the case!" Selz laughed maniacally.
"Well, since everyone barring Vastoria is awake now, I might as well explain myself." I cleared my throat, "...But first, what do you think of my new clothes?"
"Oh my days..." Energy gave up.
"Uhh, they're fine?" Sheep confusedly replied.
"Amazing!" Selz loudly clapped for me, "That fabric is simply divine!"
"Hard agree! And the colors really match your vibes!" Pry followed suit.
"Ehe~, you really think so?" I admittedly got a bit embarrassed over the praise, "No wait, I don't need your flattery!"
"But you asked us for our opinions..." Pry looked sad.
Yeah, maybe if it wasn't so obviously fake! These Gods have no shame, are they really trying to butter me up just to get me to slip up on some info regarding our outing!? And to think I almost fell for it... I-It can't be helped, okay!? None of the opinions I got on it were good, so I kinda got a little excited for a second there! Sniffle, I-I'm not crying, you're crying!
"Can you all stop holding conversations I can't follow along to?" Energy looked annoyed.
"Ditto." Sheep agreed.
"Migu, just tell us what exactly happened while mister archangel here was taking us for an unprompted joyride." Pry asked nicely enough.
"I can't trust you enough to do that." I shook my head.
Selz really disliked my thick headedness on this matter, so he had to raise his tone.
"Have we not already long since established that trusting us is of the utmost importance to making this plan work in the first place?!"
"Sigh, you guys still don't get it?" Sheep exhaled, "All we wanna know is what your plan is."
"That's right, we're tired of playing back and forth games." I added, "So I come to you now with a deal."
"This should be fun..." Pry folded his arms, "Then, we're all ears."
"We'll tell you outright what Energy and I did while we were away." I explained, "We'll even stop complaining and fully embrace helping you with that plan of yours."
"Good, that sounds like what we would want out of any kind of deal being made..." Selz stared me down, "So what's in it for you?"
"All we're asking for is brutal, unfiltered transparency." Energy chimed in, "Whether or not we will back out of it should be a choice made by us, not you. It's unfair of you to expect us to simply comply without any information about what exactly we'll be doing."
They sat there for a moment, discussing amongst themselves what exactly to do. Pry kept repeating that they absolutely shouldn't reveal anything, but Selz in fact sighed, explaining that we will undoubtedly try to find another way to save Vastoria if they keep quiet, which anyone could understand would probably just serve to cause even more trouble. In the end, they both nodded at each other in agreement, briefly glancing over at Vastoria's unconscious body before turning to us.
"We plan to create a carbon copy of Vastoria." They said in unison.
"I'm out." I immediately replied.
"Whoa-Hey, hey!" Sheep stopped me, "We got them to speak to us finally, so let's at least hear them out fully!"
"Hrm..."
After that, the Gods explained in detail what it is that they needed Elegy for. We had originally assumed it was a sacrificial offering of sorts, but it seems to be something way more intricate. The Gods would merely use Elegy's fighting prowess to win against another beast.
"Without the bed, Vastoria has no hope of ever recovering." Selz said some harsh words, "But we can create a new Vastoria. One that looks, sounds, thinks and even remembers everything the same as this one before you. An exact copy is no different than the original, don't you agree?"
"...But it's not 'her', is it?" I pouted.
"It is. Effectively speaking, at least." Pry continued, "We knew you would have this reaction, but it really isn't as bad as you might be led to believe."
"I see." Energy understood their point of view somehow, "But that still doesn't explain Elegy's role in all of this?"
"In order for this to work, we needed two things." Selz put two fingers up, "Vastoria's original body to be used as "raw materials" for the new one, and a cherubim's head to serve as the power source for the ritual."
Cherubim...? What the hell, not another beast that needs slaying!