"Is that you Two, Pry and Selz!?" I screamed down the hole.

"You morons! Just what do you think you're doing hitting us with that usdamned-!"

"Yep, that's Selzion's voice alright." Energy smirked, "So it wasn't any kind of monster after all."

"Yeah, but if it's just them, then why would Elegy even... ah." Sheep figured it out, "They must not be too fond of him looking for alternatives."

No wonder I didn't see the Gods with him all this time. Looking back, this is the same place we left them to dig by themselves while they were looking for Elegy, isn't it? But there's no way they dug this far down, is there?

"Are you guys okay down there?" I hollered.

"We're fine, just kind of stuck is all." Pry explained.

Sheep added, "Need any he-mph!?"

Idiot, what's the one rule we were told to follow!? If Elegy told us to keep them in that hole for as long as possible, then wouldn't helping them have the inverse effect!? I swear, he's too kind for his own good sometimes...

"Well, now that you are here, I must ask if you have found Elegy or not." Selzion inquired.

"We... Yeah, we did." I looked down.

"Oi." Energy glared at me.

"What do you want me to do? I can't just lie to them, they'll know for sure!" I whispered back.

Besides, if Elegy knows they're trapped here, that obviously means he's seen them inside with his very own Eyes. Selzion just asked me to see if I was willing to lie to their faces or not, but I saw through his trick in time, thankfully.

"Then, is it fair to assume that Elegy has instructed you to come by here and keep us at bay for as long as possible?" Selz asked another question.

"He did." Sheep nodded.

"But you guys aren't gonna do that, are you?" Pry pleaded endearingly, "We're friends, right?"

"Friends or not, we have to follow orders." I declined, "Sorry, but you're gonna have to just bear with it until he says it's okay to let you out."

They were disappointed by my words, but hardly surprised. Both of them knew we wouldn't budge that easily, however they still had their ways of making our heads turn.

"We were told you encountered the cherubim." Selz's tone shifted to a much more cunning one.

"We did..." My Eyes squinted, "What of it?"

Interrupting him was the offputtingly chipper and excited voice of Pry.

"So you did!" He smiled, "Wow, and you managed to handle the pressure alright? It didn't tell you anything too scary, did it?"

"Huh?" We tilted our heads.

They think we never left? No, but they themselves said there's no way the cherubim would fail to sway us. To think even they would get put in a situation where they'd second-guess themselves like this...

"No, you got it all wrong. We did get demotivated. In fact, we still have no clue where Hats is." Sheep replied, "But Elegy managed to find Migu and Energy, who in turn brought me back, so it's alright."

"Should we be telling them this?" Energy worried.

"Do not fret, we knew already." Selz replied from the bottom of the abyss, "So, you've outgrown needlessly lying to us for no reason at all, it seems."

"We've just known you for long enough to understand you already read our minds before we even found this place." I groaned.

Yeah, I get what's going on. This is already a "game" they're playing with us, but we're gonna have to figure out what that game is. They're Gods, they can read minds and know stuff otherwise impossible for any other person to know. Actually, this could work...

"Hey, since you claim to know everything, what's Elegy planning to do?" I tossed them an offhanded question.

"Sigh, pick and plant, I'm afraid." Pry heaved a tired, pitiful sigh, "In other words, he's wasting his time, for there is no way to bring "the real" Vastoria back to a conscious state."

He put quotation marks around the "real" part, indicating he doesn't even wanna humor the idea of their plan creating a "fake" Vastoria. That part kind of pisses me off, but I'll hold off on correcting him in exchange for listening to any more intel we could pick up.

"Regardless, he refused to tell us what he was doing, so at least for our sake, tell us." Sheep added.

"He did, didn't he?" Selz chuckled, "Smart of him. Well, not smart enough, but I can clearly see the logic in his decision. He must believe that we can only read the minds of those near us, and that in not telling you, we will be unable to track him from here."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Is that not the case?" I furrowed my brow.

"We are Gods." He chuckled, "We know all, we see all."

Yeah, except right now, you're powerless humans who probably can't even see anything in that dark hole you're trapped in. Still, I can't help but get my intrigue piqued just by his sheer tone. He definitely does know where Elegy is and what his goal is, but I don't think he used mind reading to extract that info.

"And are you gonna tell us?" Energy sounded done with their suspense-building.

"Why? So you can leave us stuck down here while you go and help him?" Pry pouted, "If that's the case, we'd rather you stay here waiting like we are!"

"So you're waiting on purpose, is that it?" I smirked.

"You have no idea." Selz's toothy grin shone through the darkness, the faintest glimmer sending chills down my spine, "Trust me when I say—this could all be over with the snap of a finger."

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***

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And so, that's the situation. We're seated around this giant gaping hole in the ground somewhere in the middle of the street, people are crowded around us, some having woken up after the initial Flash, whilst others were still knocked out. The Gods are still safely stuck down at the bottom of the hole, and whilst we can just barely make out their silhouettes through the darkness, it's way more accurate to say they're far from visible.

"Then do it." I called his bluff.

"Come again?"

"Let's see it." I crossed my arms confidently, "You say you can end this all with the snap of a finger, so I wanna see you do it."

"W-Wait, no..." His voice lost its strength.

"What?! You were huffing and puffing so seriously just a second ago, and now you're telling me you can't actually do it?" I started bullying him, "Tch, got my hopes up for nothing..."

As to be expected, a brief pause happened where neither side exchanged any words at all. They wanted to so badly move on from the hole they dug themselves in (no pun intended), but so long as I expectantly kept silent, they felt there was a need to prove themselves.

"Uuuu..." They whimpered.

"Go on."

...S-Snap.

"Whoa." Sheep's Eyes bulged out of their sockets.

"This is painful." Even Energy couldn't look anymore.

"Bahahahahahaha! That was it!?" I mocked the sorry excuse of a bluff, "The damned snap was so weak that even the narration stuttered!"

Whoa, kinda sounded like Elegy there. That was weird...

"We had to do something to break the awkward silence!" Pry whimpered, "I-I just figured...!"

"Ahem. Enough of that." Selz stopped him from ruining his image any further.

Ah, so it was Pry after all. A shame, I was really hopeful that it'd be the stiff Knowledge God himself, but apparently the God of Meditation doesn't do so well with peer-pressure. Somehow, that makes it even worse.

"As you could probably tell from my colleague's... demonstration," Selz continued, "We currently do not possess the promised powers."

"So why put on hot air, then?" Sheep asked.

"Oh? Do you not recall what we have told you just a few measly days ago, when we first got reduced to this pitiful mortal form?" He replied with a query himself.

"Nuh uh." Pry immediately corrected him, a light shove echoing through the darkness, "I got reduced, you were the one doing the reducing. Don't go making yourself out to be the victim, I'm sick of it."

"They understand my intentions with the wording-"

"No! You're gonna learn to accept your mistakes and you're gonna like it!" Another shove echoed from the bottom of the hole, "Every time I do something bad, you always say "Pry did it", and yet you're somehow different!?"

"This is no time for..."

"Zip it!"

Some would call this typical roommate behavior.

"Okay, since 'I' reduced us to this pitiful mortal state." Selz caved after a bit more back and forth, "Now, can I continue?"

"Thank you."

"Oh my Me... Okay, where was I?" Selz's head looked to us for help.

"Uhh... Something-something recall what you told us a few days ago." Energy replied.

"Oh yeah, we're gonna turn back into Gods soon." Selz said nonchalantly.

"Hm." I nodded, "W-Wait, huh!?"

"Oh please, you knew this much already." Pry rolled his Eyes, "Obviously we're gonna need to return to our positions soon, otherwise Hell would break loose, both literally and figuratively."

"But that means...!" Sheep started panicking.

They're gonna get their powers back soon, and then that pitiful snap will have the power to destroy us behind it! Next time they snap their fingers, it won't be Selz and Pry, but the God of Knowledge and Meditation respectively!

"So that explains Elegy's rush." Energy smirked, "That being said, doesn't that mean nothing we do will mean anything in the end? After all, even if he does somehow succeed in bringing Vastoria back, you'll just snap us away for causing so much trouble anyways."

"That is partially correct." Selz replied, "Though due to our personal goals, we stand to gain nothing from destroying your souls, we can and will snap the situation back to how it was originally supposed to play out."

"To put it simply, we'll just replace the "real" Vastoria with the intended "fake" one." Pry tacked on, "Then again, that won't change a thing for you guys, so it effectively doesn't matter."

It doesn't... matter? Wait, what the Hell are you saying? Of course it does! How many times do I have to tell you Two morons, no matter how identical the fake Vastoria ends up being, I won't love her the same! I won't treat her the same, I won't see her the same... Urgh, she's not the same!

"B-But then..." I gulped, "All of our efforts..."

"Will have been for naught. Yes, you finally get it." Selz snidely remarked, "Of course, you "can" do it this way, it'll hardly change anything in Heaven 2.0. But we will set everything into place, whether you like it or not."

Amidst the silence, it was Energy's voice that suddenly spoke up, "But wasn't it you guys who said your goal was to create a world where everyone is happy!?"

"H-Huh...?" I turned to him.

"Migu, don't they just get on your damned nerves!? How are you even capable of standing there instead of jumping down and beating their asses!" He glanced up at me, "Disrespecting us and our hard work is one thing, but disrespecting Vastoria is a step too far!"

"I'm on his side." Sheep agreed, standing next to me, "If nothing we do matters, then why not blow off some steam by showing this two 'humans' what their own creations can do to them?"

"I see...!" I nodded at the both of them, "An angel, an archangel, and a flawless brain against a few measly humans. They might become Gods soon, but if they're gonna make us miserable once that happens, then why not beat them up while we still can!"

"So that's the conclusion you came to..." Selz resignedly sighed.

"W-We didn't mess up, did we?" Pry had second thoughts, however.

"Just let them have this." Selz replied, "Call it..."

I then smirked, finishing the sentence with him, "An advance payment in whoopass!"