"Selzion. Selzion!" Energy shouted, "Release her this instant!"

"Pheh." Selz replied, tossing Migu to the wayside, "Do you honestly believe I intend to hold her hostage? A mere pitiful angel without even her consciousness to her name?"

Energy laid on the floor, his brain turned sideways after it had fallen from Migu's shoulder. She had been knocked out from a point blank Flashbang, and Selz now had no one to stop him. Though they started off great, Migu and Energy soon found their positions to be... unsavoury, at best.

"I must applaud you for trying your best, however. Had it been any other God, there was a high chance you could have succeeded even." Selz continued, "Isn't that right, God of Meditation?"

Across from them stood a lone God, his hair Green and complexion pale, in spite of his human nature. Prylos had nothing to say in his shame, for it was his inability to act in the face of adversity that caused his ally to potentially lose his life in front of him. He gulped, not knowing what would become of him.

"S-Sorry about that, Selz..." He bit his tongue, "I was praying for you to win, you know?"

"Ah, sending thoughts and prayers my way, is that right?" Selz chuckled, "I commend you for the assist, or well, the goodwill at least. But you should know that—as a human—your meditative prayers don't hold much weight anymore."

"A-Ah, I didn't know, ha-ha..." Pry couldn't even bear to look him in the Eyes, "But hey, it worked out anyway, right?"

Immediately, Selzion picked the poor Meditation God up by the collar. Lifting him up along with his robes, they finally matched Eye levels so that Selzion's next words could for sure be heard loud and clear.

"Next time you stand there like a buffoon, I'm sending you back to Hell." His grip tightened, "Got that?"

"H-Hey! No need for the threats, man!" Pry kicked his feet about, hoping somehow to reach the far down below marble flooring, "Look, Migu's knocked out, Energy's useless, and Elegy isn't around either!"

"Are you suggesting we count our chickens before they hatch?" Selz raised a livid Eyebrow.

"I'm no farmer, so don't ask me!" Pry begged, "So could you just gently put me down so I can... Bwah!"

Tossed aside just like the others, Pry hit the ground with a few extra rotations to add to the pain. Selzion had successfully circumvented the attack just now, but the war was far from over. The fact that someone as weak as Migu managed to actually pose a threat to him was in his Eyes nothing but shameful. Though she was formidable by anyone's standards this time around, he still could not fathom the idea of any one being that once bore a mortal soul to be capable of defeating him.

"Here, don't lose it." Selz tossed him the Flasher, "Keep using it on the archangel. The last thing we need is an extra headache to hinder us right now."

He then moved to lift Energy's brain, hoisting him with his worn hands.

"Urk! What are you...!?" Energy grunted.

"Patience. We aim for the same goal, yet for some reason you detest ours." Selz replied calmly, moving aside to pick up the golden pickaxe as well, "A query, one of great significance for you."

"Whatever it is, I'm not interested." Energy shot back.

"Hrmm..." Selz shrugged, asking anyway, "Energy, where exactly do you believe the soul is stored in a human?"

"Huh?"

The question was sudden, unexpected, and not to mention quite deep. It's thought-provoking nature lent itself well to confusing the enemy, in this case the brain he had gently plopped down on the marble floor before him.

"The brain." Energy gave a shot in the dark.

"Wrong!" Selzion struck the ground mere inches behind him, "Guess again."

What was the Knowledge God doing with this? A sudden attack! ...Or was it a threat? A way to extort information from him? But no, the question being asked right now has no correlation nor use to the current situation. This was some form of twisted pop quiz, with Energy as the sole contestant. The prize? His continued existence.

"The body!" Energy yelled, seeing the pickaxe this time hit a few inches in front of him, "Crap!"

"Ah, ignore him." Pry chuckled at the display before him, reassuring Energy that everything is under control, "He's a real theater nut. Selz just gets giddy when things start to go his way."

"Guess again, brain!" Selz laughed maniacally, lifting the pickaxe over his head expectantly, "Or your downfall will come sooner than you think!"

"Whoa whoa, wait! You're actually gonna kill me here!?" Energy cried out in confusion.

"Answer the damned question!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

This was when Energy realized the exact position he was in. With none of his friends around to help him, and no body to fight back with or dodge the oncoming lethal strikes, he truly was at the mercy of these two merciless Gods standing before him and laughing.

But there was a way to win. A way to somehow succeed in making it out alive, though it was highly improbable at best. The name of the game was stalling, as even though Sheep was now back to getting regularly Flashbanged and probably wouldn't wake up to rescue him, Migu was far enough away from Prylos to maybe possibly regain consciousness in time before the pickaxe finally struck him.

"You're doing this to spite me..." Energy snickered back at his enemy.

"Did you know? The first ever kill in this Universe happened due to a sick, morbid sense of curiosity." Selz could barely hold back his chuckles, "One guy said to the other—if we're different from the animals we hunt, then surely stabbing you through the chest with my spear won't amount to anything!"

"And what did the other guy say to that?" Energy braced himself.

"The other guy ripped him limb from limb, until only the head remained."

----------------------------------------

***

----------------------------------------

"Clock's ticking, Energy." Selz continued to trail the pick's tip around him, "Speak. Up."

"Ngh... Gimme a minute." He replied.

Tensions were sky high as the two faced each other, waiting for even the faintest snap to advance their battle to the next step. Though, with how one-sided this is, it could hardly even be called a battle...

Energy had figured his best choice to be to stall for as long as possible. Hopefully by that time, Migu will have woken up to save him, though the chances were slim of that occurring. Prylos was keeping Sheep under a tight slumber, and Selz eagerly awaited for the next wrong answer.

As for the question itself, Energy already assumed he wouldn't ever find the answer the Gods were looking for. To answer the question "Where is the soul inside the human body?", you would first have to know what a soul is. Energy, as a mere human born and raised in an era where such existentialism was trivial and unimportant in comparison to say, fighting, hunting, gathering and applying medicine—he just couldn't ever bother to imagine an answer past the two he gave already. Chances were, the Knowledge God knew this.

"..." He remained quiet, hoping they'd buy into his trickery, but alas...

"Bap!" Selz slammed the pickaxe to Energy's right side, "Time's up! That's one more "life" down the drain, you know? Soon enough, you'll be out~! Bahahahahaha!"

"Urk... And how many more lives do I got?" Energy inquired.

"Judging by the shape, you got two more chances left." Pry chimed in, "Make 'em count, I really wouldn't want another death to occur in Heaven 2.0."

Of course—there was one other who had died in this plane of existence. Throne was his name, or rather, The Dethroned, to be precise. His exploits, cunning as they were, showed great promise and eventually—results. Though unfavored by the group led by Migu and the others, he did in fact show great care for the future of his comrades, as well as Heaven as a whole. Such a man met his untimely demise by the hands of Sheep, who was now reduced to no less than an unconscious blob of gilded wings and horrifying arrays of Eyes.

Energy didn't know much about Throne, if anything for that matter, but he knew that there existed those whose souls were destroyed permanently—and he knew what that meant for him...

"So, you gonna stand there in silence and patiently await your demise, or are you gonna try your luck in saving yourself for a change?" Selz hoisted the pick over his shoulder.

"Hey now, at least be honest yourself, Selz!" Pry hollered, "If he 'does' get the question right, are you actually gonna let him go scot-free?"

"Ah, so that's the issue? I hadn't realized it." Selz lightly gasped, his further intentions unknown, "So, is that it, Energy? You were scared to answer because you believed there was actually 'no right answer, hmm?"

Energy remained silent.

"..."

"You are permitted freedom of speech, you know?"

"...R-Right." He finally cracked under the pressure, "Yes, I was... scared. 'Cause knowing you, chances are you'd change what the "correct" answer is the moment I got it right."

"Oh, Heavens, no! There can only be one "right" answer, you know? Truth and tautology allows us to look at it from an objective point of view." Selz reassured him, "So now, once more without further stalling—could you tell us your answer?"

"..."

Migu wasn't waking up. Minutes had passed since she had initially been Flashbanged, yet it seems her body's recovery rate is much slower than that of Sheep's. Alas, he's done all he could, yet even now all he could muster was a measly 4 minutes and 11 seconds. He had no answer to give.

"So that's the case..." Selz swung the pick, hitting Energy's left side now, "Hup! Gahhhh, that one felt scary, didn't it?"

"I've memories of worse things happening." Energy let out a pained chuckle, his brain bulging from the supressed fear within him, "Alright, so you've made a nifty cross around me. Looks cool, but I take it the next swing will be the last?"

"It really is a shame, you gave up after the second time." Selz let go of a sarcastic tear, "You could have at least tried to give an answer, you know?"

"I speak when I have something smart to say." He replied stoically, "Otherwise, I will wallow in my own ignorance silently."

"How... commendable. But well, I suppose it's about time we wrap this up." Selz lifted the pick high above his head one last time, "So, are you curious to hear the true correct answer to the question?"

"You'll let me hear it before I die?" Energy laughed at him, "How merciful you are, God of Knowledge. I could have used a man like you during my travels in the Rotted World."

"You surely could have." Selz acknowledged him, "The question was—where is the soul stored in the human. Your first answer was the brain, and the second the body."

"Both incorrect." Prylos solemnly nodded along.

"And what's correct?" Energy asked, if not purely out of curiosity by this point.

"Oh, I must apologize, Energy, but it was a trick question." Selz frowned sympathetically, "The soul is its own construct."

Energy felt truly defeated. Outwitted, outnumbered, and now even outpowered. Simply speaking, Migu had failed to wake up in time to change his fate, and they had officially run out of time.

"Oh. In other words..." Energy chuckled, Eyeing down the man who was seconds away from splitting his hemispheres into two clean partitions.

"In other words, your brain has no soul." Selz announced, "So destroying you now won't hinder our plans to create a world where everyone is happy. Not. In. The. Slightest."

"Smart as ever, Selz." Pry gave the thumbs up.

His thumb synchronized with the pickaxe, and with the wrist moving it down, so too did the pick follow suit. A splatter of bloody gore stained the otherwise pure marble flooring, with barely any recognizable trace of Energy remaining. The deed was done—one party member down, just a few more to go.