We finally (somehow) managed to craft ourselves a replacement golden pickaxe! With the wing of an archangel and the clumsily cut wooden plank of Nerys, we had secured the one tool that will allow us to find Elegy!
"Now, onwards and downwards!" I shouted.
"Ah." Energy noted, "You guys wouldn't happen to know the rough area of G district, would you?"
"Why, we know its exact area!" Selz scoffed, "23,472,007 kilometers squared!"
"Yeah, that's a lot of holes to try..." I deflated.
Right, we may have the tools necessary to reach him, but we still don't exactly know 'where' to dig. Last time it was pretty easy to find them, because their group stuck out like sore thumbs, not to mention they weren't even trying to hide from anyone. This time, however...
"Ow." Sheep winced.
"What was that?" Energy inquired.
"It's the needle in the haystack I found sooner than we'll find Elegy." He groaned, "You guys have to come up with something better than just digging around and praying it works out!"
"Sigh, maybe if we were still Gods, we could." Pry slouched, "But as humans, we really can't do much of anything."
"Well, think of something!" I frowned as well, "Otherwise that cheru-something-or-other will die of old age before we find Elegy!"
I know I'm repeating myself a ton here, but we can't wake Vastoria up without the cherubim's powers, and we can't tap into those without Elegy's help. I don't know the details, but that's the gist of it. All because he's what the Gods call a "Wildcard"...
"Hey, how rare are Wildcards, anyways?" I asked.
"How rare?" Pry tilted his head.
"If you're asking whether or not it's possible to find a different Wildcard other than Elegy, then I am afraid you're fresh out of luck." He shook his head, "He is the only one in district G."
"And you know this how?"
"We checked while we still had our Godhood." He replied, "And before you ask—yes, that means we can't go outside of the district to look for others, because in truth we don't know who the Wildcards over there are."
"Rats, I was gonna ask that..." Sheep looked sad.
"So in the end, we really do have nothing but guesses to work with." Energy clicked his tongue, "Best get to digging then."
The boys figured we best get to it since we have nothing better to do, but I wasn't gonna stand for that. Pry and Selz swung with their usual awkward motions, but given that Energy and Sheep didn't really have fingers to grip the pickaxe with, they were exempt from the toil.
"Migu, you're next after Selz." Pry turned to me.
"Actually, I got a better idea." I shook my head, "How about doing anything but that."
"Whining already?" Selz said as liters of sweat poured down his brow.
"Look, I'm not telling you guys to stop. In fact, by all means, continue." I explained, "You got your walkie-talkies, so just tell us if you find anything. In the meantime, Sheep, Energy and I'll try a different approach."
"Eh?" The two boys turned to me, "We never agreed to that."
"Oh come on." I threw on my best puppy-dog Eyes, "I need Sheep's speed, not to mention Energy's sensing ability."
"In other words, you've just found the perfect excuse to get out of having to work." Pry and Selz said with a deadpanned expression.
Well can you blame me? I'm not about to go digging random holes in the ground until Elegy and Hats just magically manifest below us. Scratch years, it could take entire millennia before we got done checking every square inch of the district! Nuh uh, we're gonna go check the surface again. Gods know we didn't check all of it beforehand anyways.
"Well, holler if you need us, and we'll come flying back." I said, hopping inside Sheep's wings, "Ack, Vastoria... Scoot over, girl."
"Suit yourselves." Selz handed the pick over to his colleague, "But once we find them, WE will be the ones calling YOU."
"...That's what she said." Energy said after a pause.
"Yeah, but!" Pry chimed in, "The reason behind calling you will be different!"
"Just don't hurt yourselves." I rolled my Eyes, "See you later."
"Bye-bye!"
"Why so chipper? You're up next." Selz turned to him confusedly.
"Urk, I didn't think you'd get tired so soon..."
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"The human body is quite prone to fatigue, it seems."
"Your Divine body wouldn't fare much better and you know it!"
They really are like an old married couple turned young. Well, more like roommates that really can't stand each other. Either one works, pick your headcanon. That being said, we really should get going and let them work things out on their own. In the meantime, we'll go ask around the area a bit more just in case someone happened to spot them. Frankly, even that sounds more fun than just randomly choosing a spot to dig in the ground.
"Where to, Migu?" Sheep stopped midway through his flight to ask.
"I was thinking we start off with the Shrine." I figured.
"Hmm, okay~" He nodded eagerly before all his Eyes shrunk, "Wait, but that's outside the district."
"She's saying Elegy might have disobeyed the contract with the Gods so that we wouldn't find him." Energy elaborated.
"Eh? How can you be sure?"
It's just a hunch, and not a very plausible one at that. The chances of finding him outside are just the same as finding him inside, but that could work in our favor. Given that I instructed him to not get caught no matter what, there might be a chance that he purposefully left the confines of the district. After all, if I told him he was gonna get punished when he got found, then why not utilize everything you can to not let that happen?
"I'm just using logic here." I shrugged, "Besides, so long as Vastoria's asleep, we can freely move about anywhere in Heaven."
"Are you sure we won't get into trouble?" Sheep still seemed hesitant.
"Meh, even if we did, the Gods can't do squat against us so long as they're human." I reasoned, "Now, my dear wing-Eyed friend! Spread your wings and fly!"
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Like a bolt of lighting, we struck the Shrine in a flash. The familiar sight was more welcome than you could ever imagine. To us, this place almost felt like a second home with how much time we've spent exploring it.
"Hm?" I looked down my bag, "Energy? What's got you grunting like a constipated child?"
"I'm looking for any bat roaches..." He said in between huffs and puffs.
"Well, don't strain yourself." Sheep chuckled, "We need you to look for Elegy as well while you're at it."
"In a moment." He obliged.
A few seconds later, and he gave us back the results of his search. Alas, he didn't run into any traces of Hats nor Elegy inside the Shrine, but at least he didn't find any bat roaches either. Elegy really did clear the place out, huh.
"Alright, let's go to the next place." I sighed, "There's nothing here."
"We're really going from omega to alpha, huh?" Sheep inquired, "You're making me fly the extra mile."
"It's a bit more systematic than just going by proximity." I groaned, "Besides, I wanna be as far from those Two as I possibly can."
The next location we blitzed to was district Z, in other words, the closest one to the Shrine. They go from A to Z, and then there's the Shrine, but according to Sheep, no matter what direction he flew in, he'd always reach the Shrine.
"Seems like Heaven 2.0 is shaped like a bunch of rings, then." Energy figured.
"No, it's definitely got a shape. There's no hole down the middle." Sheep shook his wings, "The best way to explain it is by imagining a towel lying flat on a table."
"Hm? A towel?" I cocked my head back.
"Just follow me here." He continued, "Pinch the center of the towel and twist. Once you're done, you lose the center, but the outer ring becomes the new center. You get what I mean?"
Hrm... Sort of. It's actually a really intuitive analogy to imagine in my head, but wouldn't that mean we're always in the center? Wait, if that's the case, then the twisted spiral... So that's why digging to the bottom of Heaven took these guys so long! Gah, that's so well optimized, but... Damn is it annoying!
"Energy?" I sighed before patting him, "Got any readings?"
"Nope." He jolted, "Wait! ...No, nothing."
"That didn't sound like nothing, though."
"I thought I sensed them, but it must have been a false alarm." He apologized, "Sorry for getting your hopes up."
"No, you're doing more than enough in assisting us in finding them." I shook my head, "Thanks for all your hard work, gramps."
"Tch, I'm still young mentally, you know?" He shot back with a smug tone, "Especially now, 'cause mental is all I have left."
"About that, maybe we could ask the cherubim to give you your body back as well?" Sheep merely suggested.
"It wouldn't hurt to try, but Elegy should prioritize getting Vastoria to wake up first." He said.
Priority... Why should priority even exist in this situation? You both need medical attention, it's just that she isn't conscious to agree with me. Surely, Vastoria would say the same thing about you if she was awake, I just know it! Ah, but then we'd just be in an endless loop... Ugh, that's exactly why the only priority we should focus on is making the both of you feel better!
"Let's go to the next district." I heaved a long, tired exhale.
District Y was exactly the same as the one that came before it. So was X, and W, then V, U and T. In fact, its quite frightening how none of them deviated from one another for even a moment. Each time we'd enter a new district, Energy would mention how he caught a brief whiff of them before the feeling went cold. Elegy, what does this mean...?
"Just where in the world could he be?" I wracked my brain trying to think of the answer.
"Before we realized it, we've already reached district G again." Sheep flapped his wings tiredly, "What now? Do we report to the Gods or do we continue until we reach alpha?"
"We've never actually gone back, did we?" I thought about it, "Unless I'm misremembering it, we really only ever booked it to the Shrine whenever we left the district."
"That's because there's nothing of worth there." Energy explained, "Well, nothing we know of, for that matter."
"You think the Gods are hiding something bigger from us?" I tilted my head.
"Well, it 'is' the very center of Heaven 2.0." He figured, "You can't have something as grand as the center of the world and not put anything important in there."
He makes a fair point, not to mention we still haven't gotten to the bottom of why exactly he constantly catches very brief glimpses of those two before immediately losing them again. With that being the case...
"Ugh, this won't roll off the tongue nearly as well, but..." I grinned, "Off to district F we go!"
"Just a few more to go!" Sheep nodded excitedly, "Though, I still think something like district A is a bit too much to expect, even if it's Elegy."
"Never underestimate the capable." Energy said something that sounded profound all of a sudden, "And always overestimate the incapable. Follow these two rules, and you'll survive every encounter."
"Ehhh? You ruined it with that second part." I teased, "Now you just made it sound like paranoia."
"Para-who-ha?" He winced, "Sounds scary..."
"Exactly my point."
It came a bit too suddenly for my tastes, but it looks like we're gunning for the center of Heaven next. Well, if what Sheep said was true, that is. Wrung out towels, huh? How does he come up with that? Did becoming an archangel make him smarter too?