"A cherubim." Sheep repeated, "And that's what, exactly?"
"Sounds like a rare ore, honestly." Energy figured.
"I was leaning more towards a scary monster." I shrugged.
"Don't worry, it's nothing to be wary of." Pry chuckled, "A cherubim is merely another Being of Heaven, just like you and we."
"Its closest relative is actually Sheep's archetype, the archangels." Selz added.
Ah, so I was right on the money, then. Sigh, I swear Heaven sounds more dangerous than the Living World at this point. Like sure, down there we had some messed up animals and stuff, but that's only if you looked hard enough for them. Kinda like... what we're doing right now.
"Wait a second, is it our fault for always provoking the Staples of Heaven?" I realized.
"Took you long enough." Selz groaned, "Had you just remained in this district without causing trouble, there'd be no "monsters" for you to face in the first place."
"Too late to be thinking about that now." Energy comforted me, "Now that we're this deep, there's no use in regretting your choices. You Two, tell us more about the cherubim."
The Gods' body language didn't really make us think we were dealing with a deadly threat in any way. Just from how nonchalant they were when speaking about it, we figured there might even be a chance we deal with it quickly.
"It's a bunch of wings spliced together." Pry briefly described, "Only difference it has from the Shopkeeper's body is that it's got a head in the middle."
"Oh wow, that somehow sounds scarier than an archangel." I retorted.
"Eh? You think I'm scary?" Sheep slumped forward.
"So long as we have Elegy with us, there is no reason to fear it." Selz continued, "Well, there is no reason to fear it regardless, for it is a pacifist."
"It doesn't attack?" Energy was left baffled, "Then why would you ever need Elegy's help in the first place?"
They needed Elegy because he's undoubtedly the strongest of us when it comes to combat, or at least that's what we assumed. So then how come they need him for a beast that doesn't fight? Of course, Elegy's got more than just combat prowess going for him, but what makes him different than any of us if that's the case?
"Put simply, he's a Wildcard unbound by fate." Pry explained, "A man born to change the world's preset path. You could even call people like him our natural enemies."
"Wildcard?"
"More importantly, what's that got to do with the cherubim?" Energy interrupted.
"Sigh, cherubim are protectors." Selz tiredly lectured us on the topic, "Guardians, if you will. Their goal is to protect you from yourselves."
"Protect us from ourselves? You guys are making less and less sense..." Sheep couldn't understand it.
"That's why we insisted on drip-feeding you this info throughout the course of the mission..." Pry stared at him intensely, "But what my colleague here meant to say was that they make sure you don't act up past a certain point. One good look at them and they'll remind you of your fate."
"Ah, I get it." I nodded, "And our fate is of course to stay in our yards and not cause trouble, right?"
"At least someone is paying attention."
Getting praised by the lecturers... This is university all over again. But I now understand what they mean when they say there's nothing for us to fear. Unlike the White Monster or even the bat roaches, this cherubim fella doesn't really do much but tell you to turn around and head back. No scary face, no falling unconscious, just a warning and off you go.
"Of course, one cannot defy the hands of fate, hence why we need a person immune to this ironclad rule." Selz elaborated, "Elegy is one such example. Even during his human life, he..."
"Ahem." Pry nudged him.
"...Any other questions before we can finally get going?" Selz glanced over at us.
No no, you were definitely gonna say something interesting there about Elegy. But wow, to think that guy's actually so incredible even with all his other talents. Hey, hold on a second, if he's my ancestor, then doesn't that mean I should be able to twist fate a bit as well? If not, that's kind of unfair...
"Yeah, I got one." Sheep worried, "You said one good look at the cherubim and we turn around, but is the cherubim as scary as the White Monster?"
"Oh, that." Pry was surprised by the innocent query, "Quite the opposite, actually. Its head takes on the shape of what you find most beautiful in a person. Male or female, or even an androgynous mix if you're so inclined, its powers are to captivate you in such a way that you simply cannot ignore its heartfelt advice."
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"Sounds pleasant." I remarked, "But how come you, as Gods, aren't immune to it?"
"Simple—we're no longer Gods." Selz dropped his head down, "I'm really starting to regret doing that to us now..."
"I thought you were smarter than this, dude..." Pry tacked on, "This is the kind of plan I'd expect of Auros, but not the God of Knowledge. Sigh, and you even got me roped into it."
"Don't equate me to that bird-brained, mayonnaise-covered lummox!"
Eh~? So even the Gods have some drama between them? This sounds interesting, I'd actually pay to watch a full show based on it. To think the God of Knowledge is even capable of thinking this way about his coworker... Hold on, what's this about mayonnaise?
"Well, at the very least now that you know the entire plan, we don't have to worry about walking on eggshells around you anymore." Pry turned to us with a sunny smile, "And with the Shopkeeper's speed, it shouldn't take long before we find Elegy and recruit him to our cause!"
"...Rii~ight." We gulped.
We messed up big-time, didn't we? Oh God, we totally did...
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***
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"How strange, reading your minds shows no sign of where Elegy went..." Selz pried.
"Ha-ha..."
"You... purposefully left their group without hearing or seeing where they went to throw us off." Pry's Eyes went cold, "How very... careful of you."
Okay, we get it, I messed up! Geez, am I ever gonna make the right call? Is there just some higher force at play here making always pick the worst possible decisions or something? No, but that would be these Two, so they're to blame!
"Hey now, this is entirely on you Two." Sheep raised his voice.
"Yeah!" I shook my fist at them.
"If you were more transparent with us from the very beginning, she wouldn't even have a reason to go behind your backs and warn the gang in the first place!"
"Ye-" I paused, "Yeah, that's what I was gonna say too."
"Hrm... Be that as it may, we have no way of convincing the cherubim to help us without him." Selz sighed.
"Eh? Convince?" I cocked my head back, "As in, not kill?"
"Why would we ever kill a cherubim?" Pry mirrored my reaction, "They're friendly, and are fully capable of communicating."
"But you said earlier that we needed a cherubim's head to revive Vastoria." Even Energy recalled their words.
"Yes, we need its head. But we don't have to kill them for it." They rolled their Eyes snidely, as if we asked such a stupid question, "A cherubim has the ability to regenerate, you know? Hell, it'll just shed its own head and hand it over to you if you convince it to."
Eh? It's that much of a pushover!? How sad, are you saying we have to bully the poor guy?! Make everyone in Heaven happy, my foot...
"As a sidenote, we did mention that they are most closely related to archangels, but this is only in regards to their outward appearance." Pry heard my mind's thoughts and decided to address the concern, "They have no souls, just like the bat roaches and White Monster you've encountered before."
"They have no soul, but are fully capable of reasonable communication." Energy saw the hypocrisy in that logic, "Then how are they in any way different to what you want to do to Vastoria?"
Hey, that's a good point! The Gods also couldn't quite refute him instantly, having chosen to stand there in a guilty silence instead. If they want to make an exact copy of Vastoria, claiming it's fundamentally the same as healing her, then how come she's a person but cherubim aren't?
"The Vastoria you know has a soul that lived in her era's Vast World." Selzion said with that signature gloomy glare of his, "A cherubim was created originally in Heaven 2.0. None of them ever had any souls to begin with."
"And will Vastoria's copy have a soul, too?" I asked.
"..."
His silence... says it all. These guys aren't here to make us happy. They're here just to fulfill a quota! A self-fulfilling sick experiment of theirs to find out if it's possible to make everyone be happy! And yeah, maybe they can make us be happy, but we'll never 'feel' happy! Vastoria... It's too soon to make any promises, but I'll definitely try my best to find another way to get you back—the real you! Not some cheap imitation!
"An exact copy means an exact copy." Pry sighed, breaking the loud silence with his own calm and collected tone, "Soul and all. Don't worry, we wouldn't trick you."
"...Migu." Sheep put his wing on my shoulder.
"Huh? Don't tell me you're actually siding with them!" I smacked it off, "Sheep, you know just as much as I do how much Migu means to me-!"
"And she means just as much to me." He revealed.
...Huh?
"Ah. P-Platonically, I mean." He hastily corrected himself.
"Phew..."
"Listen, we're not getting anywhere bickering like this." He reasoned, "Migu, I know it may sound harsh, but Vastoria is lying mangled inside my body." He added, "Each passing second I yearn more and more for the moment she gets better. The moment she wakes up, is able to walk on her own two feet and talk to us just as sweetly as she did before. But right now all I have with me is a corpse."
"She's still alive, though!"
"She might as well be dead." He took a deep breath, "So the best we can do for her is to make her might as well be alive."
"Whoa..." Energy was left speechless.
"Spoken like a truly sound individual. I knew making you a shopkeeper and later an archangel was the correct move." Selz nodded proudly.
"Everything you've mentioned, Shopkeeper, you will be able to do once we get the cherubim's head." Pry too smiled proudly, "But before that, we're gonna need to find Elegy."
Everyone's so determined... But I'm sorry, I just can't accept it. Outright replacing Vastoria, even if all of her atoms were exactly the same down to the last one... I don't find it a humane way of going about it. She might not even know she's not the original, but we will, and I find that horrible. I don't wanna live in a world of trickery and lies, and I'll walk down as many thorny bushes just to pave a way to honesty.
"I'll help you guys find Elegy." I calmed down a bit, "But I still think this is wrong."
"That's enough for us." Selzion smirked, "So long as the end result remains unaltered, your emotions mean nothing for us."
"A-Ah!" Pry was quick to word it better, "Ignore that last part, I'm pretty sure even you guys have been around him enough to know he always tacks on annoying insults at the end of every sentence."
"And what does that mean, you blithering bimbo?"
"See? My point exactly!" Pry crossed his arms, "That's why you're single, dude. No girl would date a guy like you!"
"Nonsense, the Five Gods are the only constant throughout time. Everything else expires!" Selz refuted him, "The only female of us currently is Allucius, and as far as I know she's already made a lover of that whimmy idiot Ouroboras."
No wonder you lot are so miserable...
"Psst, did I just hear that right?" Energy and Sheep whispered at me, "Allucius is female?"