Can't see a thing in here... The ceiling collapsed on us, but Hats hugged me in the last second. I'm fine, but what about him?

"It's... warm." He uttered.

"You can feel the temperature?" I raised an Eyebrow.

"No, I don't have any gold on me, but..." He smiled, "This feels snug."

I can't argue with that. I guess if you think about it, cramped is just another word for snug. Regardless, we don't have time to be messing around like this, there's gotta be a way to break free from the rubble.

"Think you can free up some space for us?" I asked, "We'll try picking through the rubble until we find some light."

"Ungh, that's gonna be a bit more difficult." He admitted, "The entire building collapsed on us, the weight is humongous."

"Then regain your strength for now, I'll try and think of something."

Thanks to Energy's brain juices making me slip and fall, we didn't manage to leave the Abode before it came crashing down on us. As we speak, the Gods are rushing somewhere, carrying Sheep on their backs. Nerys and Sab are also MiA, with Elegy apparently doing his own thing. We're incredibly scattered, but that doesn't matter. Right now, the Gods and Sheep take top priority.

"Gah!" I freed my hands up, if just barely.

He yelped, "Ow."

"Did I scratch you? Sorry."

"I don't feel pain, I just said it out of habit." He tried shrugging, but his shoulders got stuck.

Sigh, this kid... Well, my hands are free now, so I can start digging up. Umm, actually, where exactly is "up?"

"Ew, did you just spit!?" Hats scowled, "Gross!"

"Relax, I heard you're supposed to do this if you ever get stuck underground." I replied, "The way the spit drops is where ground is, so if you wanna go up, dig opposite of that."

I didn't actually spit on him, but it landed on his chest anyways. I feel bad, but now we at least know our directions. Had I just dug where I thought was up, I would have actually been digging sideways. Now I know where to go for sure.

"The pick sure would have been useful right now..." I groaned, clawing my way through the tough rocks and marble with my nails.

"Would you even be able to swing it with this amount of space?"

"Good point."

I usually go for shortcuts of any kind just to speed up the process, but now when I most need one, there's no faster way to reach the Gods. The scratching and screeching sounds my nails make as they graze the marble hurts my ears, and the horrible friction it creates makes my hair stand on end. Regardless, it took about 10 minutes to free up enough space for me to stand comfortably.

"Great job." Hats said from below, "Now could you stop stepping on me?"

"Oh right! I forgot you were below me!" I quickly repositioned myself, "Alright, can you get up?"

"Ngh...! I-I think so?" He sat upright, but we didn't have enough space for him to stand as well, "Just keep going. Once you're free, I'll follow after."

"Got it. Don't worry, we'll get out of this!"

"I know, then we'll beat the crap out of those Gods for what they did to Sheep and Energy!"

The kid seems enthusiastic, at least. I kept digging slowly but surely, emphasis on the slowly—these rocks are just impossible to break through. If push comes to shove, this might take an entire day.

"Ack!"

"What's wrong!?"

"Don't worry, just some rubble..." I shook my head, "Ow! It wasn't funny the second time either, universe!"

Despite this, the rubble kept falling down repeatedly. I was actually starting to get worried that my digging was actually gonna bury us alive even more, but thankfully that wasn't the case. A few more pebbles hitting me in the face later, and I had seen a glint of what appeared to be some light.

"Guess it's not the universe that's moving the rocks." Hats grinned, "Someone's digging us out!"

The light reflected off my Eyes, its piercing Colors making me squint my Eyes reflexively. I gazed up at the face of our rescuer, and she gazed right back with a smile.

"Nerys?"

"Euuuuuwe betcha!" She snapped her fingers.

Hats was ecstatic.

"Nerys!" He shouted, "What are you doing here!?"

"Rescuin' yuz, wot else?" She snickered, "Mans tol' me yuu'd nid sum aide."

"Elegy did?" I lowered my brows, "How did he know?"

"Mans craezeh loik dat." She shrugged, "He been knowin' yus n' da brain'd need help, bot Oi' didn' expecc boye ta' be witcha' swell."

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I couldn't quite look her in the Eyes after she mentioned Energy. She lifted me out of the rubble and jumped down to try to fit him out after without so much as even mentioning Energy's name anymore. Guess she must have figured it out from our silence...

"Oye." She could finally rest after her job was done, "Tharr ye' go. Bofa' yus dun' been frid."

"Thanks for that, Nerys." I still couldn't quite act normal, "You saved us a bunch of time."

"...Men die a lot, dontcha' think?" She rested her chin on the rubble.

We both turned to her confused.

"Huh?"

"O'well nau, sum' deserv' eet." She explained, "Sum' die loik dawgs, othas' die 'eroically. Bot' dey boff git remembah'd."

"What are you talking about?" I cocked my head back.

"S'weird..." She jumped out of the hole we dug, "Hup! That brehn wuz moighty fun ta' talk to, n' he gottim' self a gud noggin fer' survoival. Wish Oi'd nevarr met 'im, he set a gud standard."

A good... standard? A good standard. For what? Men? Angels? Brains? Is that all she has to say about Energy's death?

"Tch..." I looked down, my Eyes growing teary, "Dammit, those words shouldn't be this emotional..."

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***

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After I had composed myself again, we left the Gods' Abode safely and without any further injuries. Of course, an angel's skin is mostly impenetrable, not to mention it heals quickly, so it's not like this wouldn't have been the outcome anyways. Nerys immediately started walking in a direction we weren't familiar with, which confused Hats and me heavily.

"Wait, did we teleport to another district again?" I walked up next to her.

"Dis' be tha' rong wun." She shook her head, "Shoulda' been Ae, bot hoo knoes which wun we wentto."

"So the Gods are there?" Energy raised the question.

"Thems?" She turned her head, dumbfounded.

Apparently she didn't know we were on the hunt for the Gods in the first place. Even though she found us buried in their Abode... just how couldn't she have known that? As it turns out, she really did just follow Elegy's orders and come here without any prior knowledge on the situation. I guess I can't bash her too hard, since she 'was' the one that saved us.

"Sos thass tha' caes." She nodded, "They dun' took Mutton n' killed Brainy. Hard fer' me ta' defend 'em afta' dis, 'onestly."

"They've either gone crazy or were crazy from the start." I furrowed my brows, "We don't know where they went to or what they're planning to do with Sheep, but we can't let it happen."

"Gottit." She then pulled out a walkie-talkie, "Oi, mateys! Boye n' lass'r sekyur'd!"

Wait, she had a talkie on her? When'd she get that? Well, ignoring that question—from the other line answered Elegy and Sab. My assumption was correct, these three met up in person, then.

"Nice going, Nerys!" Elegy praised her, "We're almost at the Abode too, so come by as soon as possible."

"Oh look, the sky's slowly turning Blue again..." Sab added offhandedly.

Nerys bashfully scratched her cheek.

"Ah. 'Bout dat..." She chuckled, "We be stuck 'ere. Abode's destroy'd."

Elegy's voice slightly cracked.

"You said what?"

"Wait, where are you guys right now?" Sab butted in.

I replied, "We could ask you the same thing."

So Elegy gladly explained his master plan. After he had left me alone with Energy back at my home, he had gone directly to district A to fight the cherubim head on. While he did, he met up with Nerys and Sab, to which he advised Nerys to fall back and help us while Sab came along with him against the cherubim.

"Still, that doesn't really explain why Hats is with you guys." He finished it off with a question of his own, "How come he arrived before Nerys?"

"Huh? Why wouldn't he be?" I tilted my head.

"Hats, you doing alright?" He asked back.

"My mind's kind of fuzzy, but otherwise I'm fine."

Seems that was a good enough answer for him.

"In that case, all is well." He nodded.

"So wot nau?" Nerys asked.

"Well, we're done on our part." Sab shrugged, "What about you?"

"Ugh, we still need to find Sheep." I groaned.

Just then, I got hit with a guilty query by Elegy, "By the way, where's Energy?"

"Ulp! Y-You're breaking up! Connection... fuzzy!"

I wrestled the talkie out of Nerys' hands, hanging up on then before I had to explain what had happened. Energy's death is gonna come as a huge shock to them, and I'd rather they don't have that distraction looming over their heads right now. It'll have to wait, but for now we've got bigger fish to fry.

"Come... find Gods...!" I still kept up the farce of the talkie's signal breaking up, "Save... Sheep!"

"Uhh... Okay?" The boys on the other end of the line awkwardly replied, "Well, call back later when your talkie starts working again."

"Phew... Ow!" I shouted in pain as soon as the communication ended, "Nerys, what was that for!?"

"Dun' chu' evah steel me stuff agehn, lassie!"

"I didn't steal anything, dammit!" I rubbed the back of my palm after she snatched the talkie back from me, "Anyway, we finally got some good news for once, so we should go find Sheep and the Gods as soon as possible."

Though we can't really move between districts quickly at all anymore, Sab and Elegy can. Thankfully, they said they're finished with whatever it was they were doing, and now that we've relayed to them their next order of business, we at least know Sheep's life isn't completely over.

"Huh?" Hats squinted, staring off into the distance, "Wait, that's...?"

"Oye, waittamin...!?" Nerys jolted, "Bot wot're dey doin' ere?"

"The Gods, and... Sheep!" I yelled.

What district are we even in right now? No, that doesn't matter, more importantly—how come the Gods are here too!? Didn't Nerys say they were supposed to be in A district? My hands are shaking like crazy.

"Gulp..."

From the distance the two Gods that were lugging a large archangel with them stopped to stare back at us. As if to taunt the fact that they can see us just as we them, their body language showed they not only felt no need to rush away from us, but also that they were actively inviting us to try and catch them. Meanwhile, Sheep's still knocked out from the perpetual Flashbangs...

"Come on!" I shouted.

"A-Ah, lassie wait-!"

A thud knocked me back. As if I had hit a wall, but there was nothing there. No, it wasn't that I hit something, but rather that my body listened to Nerys before it did to me. Truth is, I'm terrified to face off against them. What they did to Sheep, Hats and me... what they did to Energy—I don't want to repeat it. Even without their Godhood, they're still incredibly strong opponents.

"Lass." Nerys helped me up, "Yer' emoshins fer tha' fellow man be admirable, bot ye' need ta' understan' chance."

"Chance?" Hats raised an Eyebrow.

"Rushin' in won't do squat." She explained, "Fer' evry battle, tharr's a certen momint wen victory be assured—yer chance. Loikewise, ignorin' it'll lead to an early defeat."

"B-But... But they're right there!" I pointed to them, my voice quivering.

"They be slow regardless, n' we can always catch up ta' dem." She reiterated, "We'll tail 'em until we git hour chance."

Well certainly they'll have great difficulty in trying to shake us off, but it feels wrong just letting them Flashbang Sheep while we look on from a safe distance. Chance, huh? It better come soon, 'cause I'm not sure I'll be able to wait!