Elegy was brutally killed by a mind-controlled Sab inside the underground tunnel of clouds and stone. The cherubim descended gracefully to the surface above them, smacking its lips deliciously at the deliverance of its enemies' defeat.
"Come forth, Sab." Its voice mimicked that of Nerys, "Bring him to me before his neck heals."
"Yeah, okay." He replied, slowly poking his hand out of the cloudy ground.
Barely even lifting himself up, much less the dead body he was carrying, Sab had found himself annoying the cherubim pretty dangerously. Though unintentional on his part, it still caused the beast to angrily grab his arm by force and lift him up that way. The result, a disgraceful welcome.
"Ugh, can't even lift up a body right!" It hissed at him, "Damn, did you drop him!?"
"Sorry, you surprised me and-"
The cherubim roared, "I don't care for excuses!"
Though Elegy's neck was snapped cleanly just a few moments ago, that didn't mean he was out for good. No, angels and other Heavenly Beings can't die unless they're mortally wounded in their gilded parts. That, or they get wounded inside the barrier of the Shrine, though that opportunity has long passed for this duo. Nay, Elegy would heal back up to full soon enough, and the cherubim needs to make sure he doesn't do that anywhere nearby.
"Geez, you just had to dig a tight hole... Ugh!" The cherubim gave up, "Sab, get in there and find him!"
"On it!" He gave a hearty salute.
Immediately bolting it into the tunnel, Sab disappeared into the endless Whiteness without a trace. The cherubim, now being left alone, had grown anxious of the possibilities.
"He should be waking up soon..." It worried, "What if that Elegy surprises me while I'm waiting for them to come out of this hole. What if...!"
Possibly, they're inside digging out another hole to exit from. The cherubim was already more than convinced of their true battle intellect, so it wouldn't be below them to try such a conniving tactic. It flew up, both for its safety and for a better view of the surroundings.
"You can't hide from me!" It muttered, it's hundreds of Eyes scanning every possible point they could emerge from, "The second you surface, it'll be like a hawk taking its prey!"
It was at this moment that the cherubim recalled the previous times they had done something like this. It groaned at the amount of times they annoyed the cherubim by stalling needlessly for time. But, it reasoned, it always seemed to work out for them. Thus, the cherubim felt stupid.
"What am I doing? Afraid of a few lowly angels..." It sighed, descending back down to the ground, when suddenly!
"We're back!" Sab poked his head out.
"Gyahhh!"
A girlish shriek, the only thing making things weirder was that Sab heard it with Nerys' vocal cords. It was embarrassed by its own shameful display, but found it thankful that Sab was under its control, and Elegy still dead.
"O-Oh, so you are." The cherubim giggled nervously, "Thank you, Sab. Please drop him on the ground in front of me."
"Gotcha." He nodded, plopping his friend haphazardly on the floor, "Like this?"
"Exactly, that's all for now."
Elegy's neck was twisted in a weird angle, and his body remained limp and motionless on the clouds below. A gruesome sight, but to the cherubim it was a feast for the Eyes. The Wildcard was dealt with, and now that he could no longer fight back, the cherubim was free to break, contort and trap him in any position it so desired. All this to ensure he would never wake up to hunt it down again. After that, Sab would soon follow.
"Stay here, I'll be back after I'm done with him." The cherubim announced.
Sab smirked back, "You got it!"
And like that, the beast whisked Elegy away in its winged embrace. Taking him high into the sky, the dizzying heights and speeds would make anyone vomit, but it was better than that. It cared not for Elegy's comfort, his little twitches, the contortions of his body...
"Wait, no-!"
"Boo!"
Elegy had seemingly arisen just like that, though that obviously wasn't the case. His neck was broken, such a critical wound should have taken a lot longer to heal, yet here he is good as new. No, the trick here came from when the cherubim left them below ground.
"Y-You woke up down there!" The cherubim said, struggling to steer itself midflight.
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"Played opossum, as they say!" He quipped, "Even fooled the almighty Sab. Hey, not half bad if I do say so myself!"
"Grr...! No, you gain nothing from this!" The cherubim lashed out, "Taking me down... taking us down! We're both immortal, there's nothing to do!"
"Hmph. Wanna bet on it?" He raised an Eyebrow, "How about this? I steer us to slam into the ground at full speed."
"The hell's that gonna accomplish?"
"Well, think of it like this." He replied, "Either we both get freed from this cursed world or you get another chance at being the immortal badass that doesn't fear death."
"What are you even saying!?"
"Shut up, I'm borrowing a quote from a book!"
Though Elegy said this, it was far from his intent to go straight down. Given his position, it was entirely up to Elegy to decide where they would land. The cherubim had no control over him, but instead it was the other way around.
"H-Hey, let's talk about this...!" The cherubim broke out into a nervous sweat.
"What's the matter? We're just taking a scenic route here."
They weren't headed straight down to where Sab is, and they had long since passed by the Gods' Abode. It had taken him a while to crack the code, but Elegy had figured it out—the cherubim's fatal weakness.
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"You know, this feels much like riding a paraglider." Elegy noted.
"W-What!?"
"Yeah, I faintly remember riding one during my lifetime." Elegy remarked, "Don't know how far it went, though. Oh, speaking of, what's your prediction?"
"P-Prediction!?"
The cherubim was fumbling over its words. Stuttering and stammering as it failed to answer his incessant, seemingly innocent queries, it had found itself in an impasse.
"Yeah, like." Elegy looked it dead in the Eyes, "Which district do you think we'll land on?"
Looking back, it was all too obvious. The cherubim could only ever be found inside district A. Likewise, it actively strayed the duo from entering the Gods' Abode, though it didn't at all seem scared to enter it itself. Elegy grilled himself for not noticing it sooner.
"You probably know this, but entering the Abode actually zips you around all of Heaven 2.0's districts one by one indefinitely." He nodded along, "26 letters, 26 districts, in 1/26th of a second. Or was it a millisecond? I honestly can't remember, I just time it based on instinct and feel."
"I know that much, buffoon!" It yelled, "What are you insinuating!?"
"Just saying, it's pretty difficult to guess where you'll end up if you get forcefully kicked outside." He continued, "In a hectic situation like a battle with the Gods in it, surely even a cherubim might get knocked around."
They were fast approaching the edge of the district. Elegy had completely forgotten about the whole descending part of the wager, and was more horizontal than anything. The cherubim was too scared to notice, though it's not like it mattered.
"Elegy, I-I'll help you fix Vastoria!" It begged for mercy, "This time for real! I swear on my afterlife!"
"Afterlife, you say..." He smirked, a pair of devilish Eyes staring it down, "You have no soul, cherubim, you're just a cheap mimic! What makes you think you have an afterlife to swear on, anyways!?"
As district B entered into view, the cherubim screamed with all its might, its skin peeling off and Eyes experiencing a wild case of haemolacria. Still, its wings were being steered by Elegy even if it was in this state of perpetual agony.
"So I was right." Elegy breathed a sigh of relief, "You can enter the Abode, you can freely traverse district A... Yet you can't leave and go visit the other ones."
"Ugyahhhhh!"
"Such a shame, truly a shame." He pitied it, "A bird trapped in a cage can't even spread its wings properly once in its lifetime. You're no eagle, lady, you're a damned dove."
The genius play was rewarded with a choir of agony sung by the beast itself as they crossed the border over to district C. Then, moments later, they were in district D.
"Seems we're picking up some gnarly speed." Elegy noticed, "Oh, but if I reeled you in, it might cause us to fall. Sorry, you're gonna have to bear with it a bit more, but I trust you're strong enough. Remember, just gotta ride the wave."
Soon after district D came E, then F, then G. They were crossing incredible distances in a flash, yet Elegy never felt better. It was an incredible moment of synchronisation—truly, the worse the cherubim felt, the better it was for Elegy. This was what would be known as the end of the Guardian of Heaven.
"Eh~? Don't tell me you got used to the pain." Elegy smacked its head around a bit, noticing the Eyes had long since closed around him, "You stopped screaming. What—dead already?"
Riding a corpse felt sort of wrong, but Elegy knew there was no other option at this point. Just cruising along, riding the wave until they had hit the ground. Where they'd land or how gracefully they'd make it was still up in the air (for lack of a better term); in other words, all he could do now was wait.
"Phew, that was such a pain!" Elegy rubbed his sore neck, cracking it a few times even, "Cherubim, protector of all... what a joke! Ugh, when I land this thing, flying back is gonna be a slog... Or is it?"
But of course, he was currently surrounded by powerful wings ready for the picking. Granted, these wings didn't belong to an archangel nor seraphim, but rather a cherubim. Still, if he could find a way to attach them to himself, then not only could he easily and quickly fly back to Sab's location...!
"But he could also mold these other wings into as perfect of a neck replacement as he wanted!" Elegy yelled, "Oh, oops. Sorry, I got a little too excited and accidentally spoke in third person. Didn't mean to steal your job, narrator!"
It's alright, just don't let it happen again... E-Err, ahem! Eventually, a few more minutes later, he landed in front of the Shrine, of all places. The very edge of Heaven 2.0, and one of the first mysteries of this strange and bizarre world. Finally making contact with the ground wasn't as smooth as he had expected either, for he tumbled on another good 50 meters before the clouds killed his momentum.
"Like I said, such a pain..." He groaned, getting up to dust himself off before walking over to the dead carcass, "Look at you, can't even recognize the face anymore... Or the head, for that matter."
As if scorned by the Sun, the cherubim's head was completely charred black. There was no sense of identification as there was before, and even after Elegy had kicked it a few times to make sure it wouldn't revive, it stayed motionless.
"Yuck, got some charred cherubim on my boot." He rubbed it on the cloud below, "Welp folks, we're still far from over. See you next chapter, after I'm done breaking off this thing's wings and hopefully using them for my own benefits... How in the world did this feature get approved by the Gods again?"