Just as I was about to run around the entire perimeter of the Gods' Abode just to find an entrance to squeeze myself through, I had tripped on a mysterious object poking out of the ground right in front of the main gates. Blood spewed out of my wound, though it quickly healed itself back to a healthy status. That being the case, I just couldn't ignore this sudden development.
Energy fretted, "Migu, now isn't the time. Sheep's in danger!"
But I knew what I was doing, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing! If I'm correct, then the moment I dig this thing out, we'll be right where we need to be!"
He was hesitant, but knew better than to try and persuade me any further. Though it does hurt me to leave Sheep hanging, there's also the fact that he might have to endure this pain even longer if I choose to gamble on a miracle, like just finding a random hole in the fence. Instead, I choose to believe in my gut feeling, to believe in Elegy.
"There!" I saw a golden shimmer emerge from the ground, "I knew it, Elegy must have predicted this!"
"That's crazy. But not even the Gods saw it..." Energy gulped.
The golden pickaxe we reforged. It was just sitting there, covered up by a thin layer of cloud. So that must have been what he was doing back when we called him! He must have dug this out so we can have something to use when the time was right!
"The Gods must not have spotted it because they were in a rush to get Sheep inside before we caught up to them." I smirked, "Besides, no one would even think to stand in this spot and get pricked by it unless they were denied access and wanted to look for another way in."
"So even something as simple as the location was so well thought out..."
Yep, and it's exactly because he thought so far ahead that we now have our ticket through the gates. Made mostly of metallic bars going sideways and vertically, even I know better than to try my luck in breaking through them, no matter how strong this pickaxe is. No, I'm gonna need to try another tactic.
"Digging under, then?" Energy suggested.
"Think back to the borders between districts." I shook my head, "Chances are we'll just run into more bars down there as well."
"But the pickaxe can dig through the stone layer too." He figured.
"Too risky. By the time we've reached that deep, the Gods will have already finished whatever they intend to do with Sheep."
"Then what?"
There it is, the oh so famous line. Yep, can't go through, under nor around the mountain, so what's left? In a way, the answer is so obvious it's painful. That's right, no other way to go about it—we'll climb over!
"Migu!?" Energy jolted as I stuck the pick between the bars, "That's not gonna...!"
"Sst! I'm focusing." I shot back, picking him back up before stepping up on the pickaxe's handle, "Nerys' house, don't fail me now..."
A few test presses to make sure it was okay to apply my full weight to it later, and I was completely on it. The pickaxe was now serving as a sort of step stool, something I can use to get just a bit more extra height. That being said, I had only reached a quarter of the way there.
"Not enough." Energy clicked his tongue.
"I'm not done." I replied, "Watch this."
Squeezing the pick from both sides with my heels as I held onto the bars with my hands, I had lifted the pick up and retrieved it like that. Letting go of the bars with my one hand to pick it up, I was now in a position to rinse and repeat.
"Genius! Bravo, my descendant!"
"Didn't I tell you to zip it? This isn't, urk... easy, you know?" I struggled, just barely lodging it into the bars above me.
Ah, maybe this one's too high up? I didn't really think about it, but for the first repetition, I had the ground to jump off of, so I could reach pretty high. But now, things are different. I don't have anything to "bounce" off of, and my arms are starting to hurt from holding on for too long. To make matters worse, I can't retrieve the pick, since it's too high for me to reach. If I fall, it's stuck there for good...
"Hmph!" I steeled my resolve, mustering all the strength I have to reach the pickaxe's handle, "Gah! Phew..."
"That was risky." Energy lectured me, "Next time, try and go for smaller distances."
"You..." I felt a vein pop for a second there, "You think I don't know that!?"
"Just saying. I wanted to warn you, but you told me to shut up and let you focus."
"That's...!" I pouted, "Sigh, y-you can speak when it's good advice..."
"Ehe~" He gave a smug reply, "Sure, gotcha."
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"You're being annoying." I raised my tone slightly, "Quit playing the wise grandpa and help me get across the rest of the way."
"For the last time, I'm not old!" He shouted.
"Hey, so how were the dinosaurs like?"
"I don't even know what those are!" He fussed, "Cause I'm not old!"
"Ehh? So your generation's so old that they don't even know what dinosaurs are? Gee, I underestimated you."
"Migu!"
"Yes, grandpa?"
"Grrr...! Gah!" He let out a thunderous roar before reverting back to a pouty expression, "Fine, I don't even care anymore. Let's just focus on saving Sheep."
"Hm, smart!" I smiled, "The wiser goat backs down, as they say. You really are wise, Energy!"
"Heh, with age comes wisdom, you know?" He resigned, chuckling with me this time around with self burns aplenty.
Man, it's not nearly as fun when he isn't screeching like a worn tire. Guess I broke him. Oh well, they say you shouldn't poke fun at the elderly too much anyways, so this must be my sign to stop... Not like I'm gonna, though.
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"Hup! Ngh..." I reached the top, "Phew! Finally!"
"Hold up a second." He revealed, "You're only halfway there."
"What did we say about speaking out of line?"
"Wait, so now I'm an obedient soldier?" He asked, "No, seriously, you shouldn't be counting chickens before they hatch."
What's he on about now? Gods forbid a girl celebrate her small victories that pile onto a greater one. I climbed the top, now all I gotta do is jump over to the other side. Easy peasy.
"We need to discuss what we're gonna do when we reach the front doors." He sounded serious.
Though I had already jumped down with pickaxe in hand, I did fail to land properly because of his sudden words. It didn't hurt due to my body's composition, of course, but the shock made me a bit weak for a while after that.
"What's this all of a sudden?" I hid anger behind an arrogant chuckle, "Getting cold feet?"
"No, but we need to think about this carefully." He explained, "Migu, I'm sure you're well aware, but the time for making rookie mistakes and flubs is over."
"...I knew that." I glanced down.
"Sheep's been captured by the Gods, Elegy's off doing Gods know what, Sab and Nerys can't seem to find Hats and aren't returning our calls." He listed everything off, "And to top it all off, Vastoria waking up again is becoming harder and harder to imagine by the minute."
...Yeah, yeah, I get it. The situation's screwed, basically. Still, what do you want me to do about it? I'm doing my best, aren't I? Always have been. In fact, you telling me this isn't helping calm my nerves and anxiety even a little bit. On the contrary, you're just making things worse.
"We've gone through worse things before just fine." I quietly muttered.
"This and that are two separate things."
"But we've managed to get through those just fine!"
"Statistically speaking, our chances of miraculously making it out alright are dwindling."
"Quit being so negative!" I blurted out.
"And you should stop being so unserious." He shot back calmly, "Migu, I know things are hard right now. You're just trying to lighten the mood because you work best without any pressure."
"Ugh, if you get it, then..."
"I'm not finished." He interrupted me, "Sigh, we need a plan. Gung-ho no longer works. I know we can't predict everything, but we can plant seeds for the future."
"What are you even spouting?" I rolled my Eyes.
"I got this thought when I first saw you dig out Elegy's pickaxe." He continued, "It made me think—we really have been going into every situation without any form of preparation thus far."
"We couldn't have known that the things that happened would happen." I refuted.
"But we could have been more careful." He replied, "We could have held more group meetings, tactically used the tools we had at our disposal to better optimise our routes."
When did the old man get dementia, huh? Seriously, it's like he wasn't even there with us to the Shrine once. We 'did' use everything at our disposal! In fact, we couldn't have even made it out without using our tools and brains, with a hefty bit of prep work on top of it for good measure!
"Okay, wise guy!" I began walking through the vast yard splayed before us, "Gimme one good example of-!"
"My body." He immediately answered, "If we had stopped to take even just a second to make sure all of the bat roaches were dead, or even just moved aside after we dealt with all of them. I wouldn't have gotten myself caught with my pants down like that."
"Oh..."
"But even before that, I couldn't help but notice that the White Monster was killed only thanks to the selfish act of Sab cutting Hats' entire arm off to free himself." He continued, "There might not have been alternatives in that moment, but the entire situation could have been avoided if we just communicated to everyone to say, look down the entire time..."
I genuinely frowned, "Your hindsight is 20/20, I get it. But there's no way we could have known all of that at the time."
"Migu, there were plenty of moments where we 'had' the time to make preparations." He spelled it out for me, "This is one such moment. Please, for the love of the Gods, let's try and piece together a plan for when we reach the mansion."
That's... no, there's just no way to know what could happen! Hell, we're dealing with omnipotent Gods who are not only in their own domain, but also in their own home! For context, they might have the bodies of humans, but we have the souls! Our entire lives, we've lived as humans, and now we're quite literally three layers deep in unfamiliar territory. By all means, wasting time trying to "predict" what could happen would only serve to confuse us. His hindsight is making him blind to the truth—fact is, we might not have gone about this the best way possible, but we never once stopped aiming for the best outcome we could muster.
"You do that." I sighed, "I'll focus on running. Dish out ideas and information, and we'll see what I can make use of."
"That's good enough for now." He replied, a smidge of relief showing on the wrinkles of his brain, "Migu, I'm gonna say this just once more, but the time for jokes is over."
"I'm out entirely if we ban jokes." I grinned, "But I will be taking this fight seriously from now on. Vastoria might get the wrong idea if she sees me laughing about while I'm heroically saving her."
"By far, that's the worst joke yet." He cringed.
"Hm? What was?" I glanced down, "I haven't said a joke yet."
"The fact you actually think you'll be the one saving her and not Elegy." He winced mentally, "No offense, descendant, but there's no competition between you two."
"Eh!? I'm gonna get Vastoria stolen away from me?!" I cried out.
"I told you to stop with the jokes." His brows furrowed, "You're offending both him and Vastoria with your nonsense."
Yeah, might've gone too far on that one. Sorry guys, didn't mean to... But don't go getting any weird ideas either!