"I don't believe my countless Eyes." The cherubim giggled, "Instead of chasing after me and wasting even more of your precious time, you opted to go straight back to investigating the matter on the Book."
"Sorry, but we can't play for long." Elegy smirked back, "We're on a tight schedule, you know. The Gods could have climbed out of the hole I dug them in right as we speak."
"Eh? Hole?" Sab turned to him briefly.
A standoff, or rather a death sentence. The only query left now is whether the sentence is addressed to the cherubim or these two. The duo was standing right in front of the Abode's entrance, they were this close to entering it... But the cherubim had already caught on to their plans.
"You understand there's nothing to be done now, don't you?" The cherubim tilted its female head cutely, "As for the Gods, they're already inside, duking it out with Hats and the others."
Sab's Eyes shrunk back, "In that case, we have to-!"
"Don't open the door!" Elegy stopped him.
Tensions were high, so rash decisions were bound to occur eventually. Sab hadn't yet realized that entering the Abode in his haste would only doom their entire party altogether.
"What's wrong with you? We need to help save them!" He protested.
"Your friend Elegy is actually thinking with his brains, Sab." The cherubim backed away slightly, giving them some breathing room, "If the Gods are inside the Abode, what makes you think you'll have any power inside there?"
"Powers? We have no powers even out here!" Sab yelled out.
Immediately, the sentence he uttered in his fit of rage enlightened him to the truth of the matter. They have no power, no strength, no weapons. All they have is a walkie talkie to their name, and some clothes to boot. On the other hand, the cherubim is strong enough to take control of everyone safe from Elegy, so if they three had invited themselves into the already uphill battle, they'd certainly be done for.
"That was close..." Sab gulped.
"So, you're gonna let us fight you 2-on-1 out here in district A, huh?" Elegy put his palm on the doors, "Odd how you'd actively prop us up on an even playing field when victory is your end goal."
"My end goal is to protect everyone." The beast prepared itself for a lunge, "Though seemingly paradoxical in your ex-mortal Eyes, to a cherubim like me, it makes perfect sense to even harm someone in order to accomplish that."
"Pheh, some joke you are." He let go, understanding the cherubim wasn't bluffing, "In that case—Sab."
"Hm?"
"There's a strong chance the cherubim takes control of one of us midway through battle, but we have a card up our sleeve." Elegy explained, "The cherubim can only control a single Wildcard or a larger group of Heavenly Beings."
"Wait, so that means...!"
"You got it, since we're the only two here, and I'm a Wildcard...!" Elegy turned back to face the cherubim head on, "It can't control both of us to call off the battle like it did the previous times!"
A battle that simply can't be postponed anymore. The cherubim tried and failed to get them off its back, but they persevered until the perfect setup was achieved. If it kept running away like a coward, the boys would just enter the Abode to help Migu and the others. On the other hand, fighting them is going to prove difficult, what with Elegy's physical prowess and Sab's murderous intent.
"Don't get too cocky now." The cherubim reminded them, "I can still control one of you."
"And we'll be ready when you do." Elegy fistbumped his pal, only to run to the opposite side and have them surround it on all fronts.
"Kheh." The beast let out a weak chuckle, "This sucks."
Immediately, a flash of light blinded the boys; its piercing glow burning its way into their retinas. Soon after, they were both flung into the sky, unable to even dodge without knowing what had hit them. The cherubim made its first move.
"Sa-URK!"
"El-GHA!"
One gut punch for Elegy, then another for Sab. Rinse, repeat until they were both out of breath, all the while they were being suspended helplessly in the air. The cherubim had the speed to keep them separated from one another and still switch between both of them, and it used that speed effectively. As it stood, this battle was already over as soon as it began.
"Sa-" Elegy yelled, "I'm call-" He struggled, "Backup!"
"Oh no you don't!" The cherubim smacked the walkie talkie out of his hands, "Not like anyone would be able to do a thing about it anyways, haha!"
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Crap...!"
Despite their best efforts, even the one item they had at their disposal was thrown away just like that. The cherubim kept piling on hit after hit, constantly keep them in the same elevation. It wasn't even game over, rather the game hadn't ever even started to begin with. Regardless of strength or intellect, the power gap between an angel and a cherubim is simply too large...
----------------------------------------
***
----------------------------------------
"Elegy-!"
"I'm here-!"
"They comin-!?"
"How many times do I have to tell you!" The cherubim got annoyed slightly, "No one's coming! Besides, even if someone did hear you distress signal and walked out just as the Abode moved them to district A, we're so high up they couldn't possibly reach you!"
The cherubim wasn't even getting winded from this incessant back and forth. Zipping from one to another was a simple feat for the beast, and yet it found great joy and purpose in doing so. In purposefully wasting their energy and time with this maneuver, the cherubim allowed the Gods to properly finish their own side of the battle without interruptions. As for these two, all they could do was hopelessly take the hits.
"You're, so, goddamned, dead-!"
"Elegy! Calm, down-!" Sab realized, "Hm?"
As if noticing something after a while of this combo lock, Sab had enough time to register the true meaning behind Elegy's distress signal. Rather than alerting the others of their predicament, Elegy had merely used the fact that he could as an excuse to throw off the cherubim's timing.
An elevation imbalance. Due to Elegy getting the walkie talkie forcefully smacked out of him before he could say anything, he actually had to take three hits for that one cycle. In other words, Sab was being kept afloat a tad lower than his ally. This was the key, the secret Elegy was waiting for Sab to understand.
"10..." Sab began a count.
"Huh?" The cherubim furrowed its brows once it noticed him try to stall by dodging the blow, "What are you on about?"
"11!" Elegy shouted behind it, finally alerting it to focus on him too, "Gah!"
"You're counting up?" It inquired, "To what? Why start from te-"
"9...!" Sab hid his smirk.
"Now a nine...? You morons think you can confuse me with this!?"
No, this wasn't some odd count; it was a countdown, and they were both keeping track of their own ones. The name of the game was stalling out each one of its attacks to lose a smidge of airtime at a time, and given their limited space for freely talking, something as simple as an array of numbers would more than suffice.
In truth, any numbers would do, but giving the cherubim a sense of urgency as well as the slightest hint of confusion was more than enough to make its initial hits miss on occasion. And when the count got low...
"3... 2... 1...!" Elegy glanced down at Sab, "Zero, now!"
The cherubim flipped its head back over at Sab, "Wha-!?"
But nothing had happened. Another strike to the gut and everyone was still within its control. Or at least, that's what it seemed like to the worn cherubim, but they were actually whole tens of meters below their original starting point. This was it, an offset reverse ladder climb.
"Heh, still haven't figured it out yet?" Sab smirked, now even having the time to form a short sentence before getting interrupted.
"Quit pretending, you did nothing!"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Elegy continued where they had left off, "Just look up high." He pointed.
The cherubim, now mentally exhausted from maintaining the long combo, didn't think twice about doing just that, not realizing it was letting Elegy fall an entire 50 centimeters before it continued the chain. Now he and Sab were equally as high.
"Now look down." Sab pointed.
"Not gonna happen!" The cherubim retorted smugly.
"But your ears are pointed down."
"Wh-! Ear-? Did you get brain damage!?" It yelled out its confusion.
These Red herrings, coupled with the random meaningless comments and instructions sprinkled in, all served their purpose to further throw off the cherubim and lower them down more and more. By this point, the roof of the Abode was already in sight, yet the cherubim couldn't notice this at all.
"Not even gonna look at me anymore?" Elegy smugly noted, "Your Eyes are afraid."
The cherubim smacked him around an extra few times, "What did you do? Hey, tell me! What happened!?"
It was beginning to even doubt itself. Surely its ears weren't pointed down. Ears can't typically do that on their own, or can they? And how come its Eyes aren't looking at Elegy if it sees him clearly? Confusion amassed in its head until it could no longer discern right from left, up from down. And when all was said and done...
"Sab!" Elegy yelled.
"On it!"
Accepting the gut punch with grace, Sab clung on to the wing that struck him until it carried him over to Elegy. Locking arms, the two were now successfully reunited, but that wasn't all.
"Bastards...!" The cherubim grunted, hitting them repeatedly with a barrage of attacks.
Cuts, slices, punches and slashes all made their way to the duo, but unlike before, the cherubim had completely lost its rhythm. Since their angelic bodies nullified all physical damage, this was mostly just a matter of the cherubim desperately holding onto the chain, but it was all for naught. Tired and mentally drained, it eventually slipped one too many times, and didn't have the strength to recover, thus allowing the two to fall all the way down to the front of the Abode at mach speed.
The cloudy dust dispersed around them as the two quickly stood up, still linking forearms to avoid getting sent back into the same attack once more. They had successfully gotten out of this skillful display from the cherubim, but when it came to actually figuring out a way to deal damage or even take it down, they were still fresh out of luck.
"...Quick, dig!" Elegy ducked down in a hurry.
Sab had to take a moment to process this, "A-Again?"
"It can't fling us into the air if we're underground!" He explained, "If we fight underground, it won't be able to fly as freely as well! We might be able to trap it!"
"Ohhh, good idea!"
Thus, the two used up all of the time they had until the cherubim descended back down to dig themselves a small tunnel. The tunnel was covered up with clouds to allow them as much time as possible to make the necessary preparations, and even then it was a tight fit for just the two of them—let alone the cherubim as well.
"Shh, it's coming down now." Elegy hushed Sab.
"..."
The air was thick and coarse to breathe in. Panic and anxiety were at an all-time high as they both anticipated the direction of the cherubim's next attack. Briefly, Sab unlinked from Elegy's forearm.
"Hey, we still need to-"
Crack, Elegy's neck was snapped just like that. The cherubim had taken control of Sab while their guard was down. Another loss on their side...