Around the unfortunate duo skies of pink returned to azure hue. Kneeling on the ground in front of Sab's jittering body, Elegy examined the wound.

"It's... healing." He noticed.

But of course, though the gaping hole through Sab's stomach would have instantly killed any human down in the Living World, they are angels now. Tendon by tendon, organ by organ, the hole had repaired itself until Sab could properly breathe again. Soon enough, he could properly speak too.

"Gu-huuuuhh..." He barely breathed in again, "That was... unpleasant..."

"Sorry, did it hurt?" Elegy replied with a curious question.

Sab answerer, "It felt like getting the wind knocked out of me, multiplied by getting my spine realigned."

A painful description, but overall the best outcome that could have occurred given the situation. At the very least, it's better than dying.

"Right, so, are you gonna explain to me why you just did that?" Sab casually spoke to him.

"I was tricked by the cherubim." Elegy shook his head, "I let my guard down thinking I was safe from its control."

Not only did the cherubim manage to keep Elegy away from finding out what was written in the Book, but it also successfully avoided its own fate by pitting the two against each other. A cunning beast, one that knows trickery like the back of its figurative hand.

"Okay, I trust you." Sab nodded, accepting the info surprisingly quickly, "There was nothing you could have done, and hey—I'm still alive and well."

"What now?"

"Well, not much has changed, has it? The cherubim has always been, and continues to be, our enemy." Sab shrugged, "You reckon we have time to catch up to it?"

"With those wings it has, I doubt we'd be able to outpace it..." Elegy sulked.

The harsh reality was that the sky had already turned Blue around them, indicating the cherubim's signature pink sky domain was distant. Given they had barely any navigation to work off of in district A, and now coupled with the fact that their target was moving aimlessly through the expanse—finding the cherubim a second time would be like finding a needle in a wheat silo.

"When I find that thing...!" Sab smirked proudly, "You best believe I'll be beating it to death a thousand fold!"

"..."

"What? Don't tell me you're thinking of sparing it?"

Elegy replied, "I don't know. We might need its help to bring Vastoria back."

"Is that the issue? 'Cause if it is, we can do it without the cherubim."

Elegy was thrown for a loop. Granted, he had the basic idea of how he was gonna go about it, but even the cherubim outright stated the method would be a rather difficult one. Nay, damn near impossible. To mold the pickaxe's gold into such a precise shape as a human neck, it's unheard of.

"And what makes you so sure we don't need its help?" Elegy asked.

"Pft, you kidding? It'll be easier to work without that backstabbing trickster than to work with it." He smirked, "Now come on, let's go find it and end its suffering."

"Wait a second, why would it be suffering?"

"When'd you get so dense, Elegy?" Sab smiled wryly, "We'll be the ones causing it all the suffering, and personally cut it short! Bahaha!"

It appears this most recent traumatic experience had left a hard to remove stain on Sab's heart. He was a changed man, one that wasn't just going to let some beast of Heaven almost kill him and get away with it. This holds especially true when you take into account all the smug aura it exuded for the entire duration of its conversations with them.

"The sky's turning pink again." Elegy noted, "Urk, no. I'm starting to see things."

"...Or maybe you're not." Sab turned around, "Yeah, it's headed this way. We'll use the sky as a proximity detector!"

Running around in what felt like circles for what felt like an everlasting eternity, the two boys had found themselves still stuck in nowhere-land. Despite their best efforts, it seems rushing towards the cherubim only served to tire them out and nothing else. Even the cherubim, a being with wings tons faster than their legs, had been supposedly mocking them with this charade. Constantly slowing down to give them the faintest of hope only to quickly turn the sky Blue right from over them. The boys were getting impatient.

"Alright, I give up." Said Sab suddenly.

"Eh?" Elegy jolted, "Wait, what? But weren't you just now on about...?"

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"Sst, you didn't let me finish." Sab laid down on the ground, "I give up on running around chasing after the thing, it's too tiring and it's obvious it'll never let us reach it."

"So, you got a better idea?"

Though he was the one to ask, Elegy already had a rough guess as to where this conversation was going. For the past while, he had been keeping track of their direction so as to not get lost. At the very least, he had come to the realization that the cherubim was going around in circles. Hence, some assumptions can be made in accordance to this.

"The cherubim could've booked it to the Abode and left to go to another district, but it's still here, just out of reach." Sab explained, "Don't you find that odd?"

Elegy responded, "Hmm, I see what you mean."

"This is just a theory, but I think it doesn't have the ability to leave the district in general." Sab elaborated, "Either that, or it'd be put in a huge disadvantage. But no matter how you slice it, that's not something it wants to have happen."

Lying down on the floor, Sab had decided it was time for some camouflage. Using the surrounding clouds to bury himself in the shroud of pure White, his skin melded perfectly with the Colors. After him, Elegy followed suit.

"If you can't chase the prey, wait for it to come for you!"

Now came the waiting game.

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***

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The cherubim flew for a while more, though not sensing a change in its hunters' positions.

"Have they given up?" It asked itself, "Have they been stopped by a third party?"

"No, far more likelier than that... They have switched up their strategy." It grunted.

The cherubim has the ability of convincing and controlling a set amount of people, or a single Wildcard, but never both at the same time. It already threw itself in front of harm's way to avoid having Elegy read the Book inside the Gods' Abode, but now it has to hold out until help from the Gods arrives. This situation was seemingly becoming less and less hopeful.

"Hmph, so they believe me to be so simple." It laughed at them smugly, "Hiding among the dirty clouds of which your body's Colors draw inspiration from. How incredibly moronic of you, I expected more!"

For a second, it considered taking a rest as well. Of course flying is tough, so why not? After all, no one was chasing after it...

"No, I mustn't get complacent." It quickly began moving again, "One small victory means nothing against them. I am dealing with a Wildcard of all people, so the last thing I should be doing is underestimating their danger levels..."

The flying had become a gentle floating with max speeds barely even reaching a running gait. Despite putting on all those airs, the cherubim was taking it easy. It considered that wasting energy on useless running would exhaust it before anything could even happen, so the decision wasn't at all a hard one to make. After a while, it saw in the distance a mansion.

"The Gods' Abode." It admired it briefly, "I must say, a splendid idea from the Gods. Incredible, simply amazing."

To think, Elegy was inside that very building not too long ago. He had somehow managed to enter inside without the Gods being around to teleport him back, he had somehow climbed up the lectern, he had somehow opened the Book...

"Wait, isn't this a bit too much, even for a Wildcard?" The cherubim paused, "No wait, how come one person had made it this far. There's gotta be some sort of mistake!"

If Elegy really was seconds away from reading the Book, then maybe he already did read it. It knew that the moment he had read his name, he would have been revived, but since Heaven 2.0 is beyond time, then his soul would have just continued to exist here in no time at all. Maybe... Maybe Elegy did reincarnate, and the reason they've stopped tailing it was because he was explaining all this to Sab. Letting one person reincarnate would lead the cherubim to a heavy punishment from the Gods, but letting two go? That's far too much.

"I-I need to find them...!" It quickly scanned the area, "U-Uhhh, that way!"

Flapping its wings wildly, the cherubim desperately began to search for the duo. Somehow, the tables had been turned, and it soon began cussing out Sab for his ingenious plan.

"For you to force me to actively look for you instead of the other way around...!" It muttered, "I need to find them, I need to make sure they're not exchanging important information...!"

It flies past a tiny mound in the otherwise flat cloudy terrain. The mound shakes and tumbles, revealing two angels hidden inside it.

"Bah! Why didn't you let me attack it!?" Elegy grinded his teeth, "It didn't notice us!"

"That's exactly why." Sab shot back, "It'd just run away again if we exposed ourselves. Instead, why don't we let it stress itself into a corner some more before we make our move?"

Sab was eager to play the long game. The theory checks out—if the cherubim really wanted to, it could have left the district at any time, but it still decided to stay here. Possibly, there was something stopping it. Some kind of rule or barrier...

"By the way, what did it mean by exchanging important information?" Sab turned to him.

"Beats me. Although..." Elegy thought about it in a bit more detail, "Before I met up with the cherubim, I was on top of the lectern in the Gods Abode."

"Eh!? Say that sooner then!" Sab raised his voice, "The Hell were you doing there...?"

"Take a wild guess."

Once more, Sab had lost himself in thought before snapping out of it excitedly. He stood up, dusting off all the clouds from his body, much to Elegy's confusion.

"Hey, what happened to playing the long game?" Elegy inquired.

"We're still doing that, just a bit differently!" Sab nodded decidedly, "Let's go take a look at that Book again!"

The cherubim was terrified of a few things—letting the two exchange information, and letting the two progress on their investigation. Both possibilities made its breath grow ragged and its wings flap wilder, so it was safe to assume that it would immediately pick up their scent inside the Gods' Abode and start panicking.

"Even back while I was inside, the cherubim had to talk to me through Hats' microphone." Elegy recalled, "Yeah, it's possible the cherubim can't enter the Abode!"

"In that case, we'll be giving it a nasty ultimatum indeed!" Sab gave him a high five, "Let's see what it'll choose—to let us progress, or to break an ironclad rule it has!"

The two had made it in front of the gates. They entered the yard, walked down the long pathways, strolled past the fountain, and stood in front of the titanic double doors. Elegy felt it necessary to announce a few things ahead of time.

"I dug out a climbing route on the lectern with the golden pick, but who knows if it's still there."

"Even if it's not, just the mere fact that we're cutting off its one and only exit is enough." Sab shook his head, "The cherubim is looking to find us, but it also supposedly can't enter the Abode. We got this in the ba-"

The cherubim cleared its throat behind them, "Ahem."