After so many hectic twists and turns, the boys had finally been given their well-deserved break. Though the Gods are still largely on the loose, the story has indeed winded down for the most part. Killing the cherubim and acquiring some proper materials to help Vastoria helped largely with that.

"Need help carrying all that?" Elegy flew next to Sab.

"You and what hands?" Sab retorted.

"You know I'd help you carry those wings if I could." Elegy shrugged, "You've got no one to blame but yourself."

"Oh..."

After seeing off Nerys, they set off to scan the rest of the districts. Nothing too detailed, they figured—just a flyby to see if they could spot anyone of interest. On the other hand, there was some planning to be made ahead of time.

"We need to think about what our next plan of action is." Sab uttered.

"No need to overthink it." Elegy disagreed, "We don't know whether we'll run into the Gods, Migu's team or anyone else for that matter, so why even bother with thinking ahead?"

Sab was fully expecting to get some praise out of his friend, but was utterly baffled when Elegy simply brushed him off without a second thought. Such a lack of hesitation felt like he didn't take Sab's words seriously at all, hurting him greatly in the process.

"Because it'll raise our chances of success, maybe?"

"How so? Sab, we only know what we know." Elegy explained it to him in detail, "If we meet the Gods first, we'll try and convince them to rejoin our side and help us turn these cherubim wings into a neck replacement for Vastoria. If we meet up with Migu and the others, then we'll discuss our next plan together with them after exchanging information. As is, we know far too little to be thinking up strategies."

Turns out, Elegy's broad strokes approach ended up benefiting them in the end, 'cause they would have surely gotten their own expectations trumped by reality. Thinking ahead is a wise move on many occasions, but if you're lacking in information about the situation, then you should expect to get a bunch of things wrong.

"I hate to bring this up, but there's a large chance that the splattered brain we saw in the Abode's ruins is in fact Energy." He continued.

Sab gulped at that.

"Why bring this up now?"

"Because it goes to show that expecting the best case scenario is naive of us." Elegy shot back, "To begin with, we don't even know if Migu and the others are even alive yet."

"I'm sure they made it out."

These lax words that came from Sab furiously angered Elegy. Deep inside, he felt a strange sensation of lividity that appeared to stem from the very soul. There's a certain level of optimism that one shouldn't ever cross, and that level is based on time. Expecting the best in a hopeless situation is romantic and all, but even Elegy only does that for short-term spurs. Expecting something as vague and long-term as "the rest of their mission" to go exactly as planned without any hiccups along the way is nothing if not completely stupid.

"Nothing is certain." Elegy glared at him, "One day you could be taking care of your pregnant newlywed wife, the next day she could die in your very arms."

"Where's this coming from?"

"You're missing the point. Everything can change in an instant, and that instant—at least for us—is gonna be when we hear back from the others." He continued, "Right now, our goal is to scan the area to try and find either an intact Gods' Abode, the Gods, or anyone from our party. Once we find one of those, we'll work from there."

Sab was still skeptical that these words were coming out of THE Elegy's mouth. A man as free-spirited and blindly optimistic as him was suddenly preaching the very opposite of his ideals. Maybe the loss of his arms really did affect him?

"...So, what district are we in now?" Sab concededly sighed.

"Hm?" Elegy turned to him blankly, "I thought you were keeping count."

Already, they went back to bickering.

"You moron!" Sab shouted, "Geez, and here I thought with less stuff to carry, you'd have more time to focus on paying attention!"

"Well excuse me, the Gods didn't exactly install roadsigns in the middle of the sky for us to take notice of!" Elegy shot back.

"Bastard, just how many districts have we passed without even keeping track of!?"

"Look, don't worry about it. We'll just descend and go ask someone on the surface." Elegy groaned, "Check it, there's a district border up ahead. If anyone knows the answer, it's gotta be those guys."

Sab had no retort anymore. Elegy was going back on his words constantly, to the point where even his most ironclad traits were turning out to be shaky at best. At this point, he reasoned the best course of action would be to just let him take the lead until something inevitably goes wrong.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Urk, you're way too laid back..." He groaned.

"Dude, in and out." Elegy replied, "We're just gonna go ask what district we're in, how bad could it be? Five minute ordeal, come on."

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***

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"Yahoo!"

"..."

Despite Elegy's loud entrance into the scene, the border guard didn't even so much as flinch at the angels' sudden descent. Once more, he tried to get his attention.

"Oii~!" Elegy waved his stub over the guard's face, "He's not moving."

"You scared him straight." Sab smirked.

"Hey now, he wasn't moving even before I arrived!"

The bickering continued on even into the second half of the chapter, it seems. Despite this, however, Elegy quickly took notice of the guard's other colleague, who was just as still.

"Are these guys even alive?" He muttered.

"Ugh, not another ordeal again...!" Sab rolled his Eyes, "We just got done with the cherubim issue!"

Just then, a thought occurred in Elegy's mind.

"...The cherubim, that's it!" He yelled out, "Sab, an archangel's wings can make one move in hyperspeed."

"Ye-"

"And that in turn makes the wearer perceive time in hyper slow motion, no?"

"Well yes, but-"

"You get what I'm trying to say, right!?"

"Stop freaking interrupting me, dammit!" Sab crashed out, "Ugh, I get what you mean, but we're wearing cherubim wings, NOT archangel!"

"Well maybe it's a case of the same diffs!" Elegy retorted, "In fact, if an archangel's time is slowed, then it would only be natural that a cherubim's is stopped completely."

The logic worked out just fine in Elegy's head, given he considered the cherubim to be a rank above an archangel, but Sab was more than skeptical. To begin with, the entire theory falls to the wayside once you recall their past encounter.

"Alright then, genius, riddle me this." Sab crossed his arms, "How in the world did Nerys move and talk normally when we saw her last?"

Elegy paused to think of the answer before blurting out, "...We gave her a wing!"

"And how do you suppose we communicated before we gave her the wing?"

"I don't see you coming up with anything better!"

No, rather than a simple time stop ability, the duo was facing something much more worrying. As mentioned, not only did the border guards not move an inch from where they stood, but so too did the other passers-by around them. The situation was too crazy to even think about.

"So is the entire Heaven 2.0 stuck like this?" Sab worried, "Is Nerys okay?"

"Heh."

"Dude, I'm being serious here! She could be in danger!"

Elegy replied, "From who? Nothing's moving."

Sab had enough and was getting ready to fly back and check on her, but he was quickly stopped by a loud trumpet in the distance. The two hid behind the still border guard, waiting for the horrifying sound to end. Eventually, they felt it was safe to uncover themselves.

"What was that...!?" Sab jittered.

Elegy replied with a shrug, "Dunno, but I get the feeling that that sound was the reason behind this mass petrification."

They could both talk, and their bodies listened to their every command without fault. They weren't petrified like the others, or at least not yet, but something in their hearts knew for a fact that the sound that had just erupted from afar caused all of this. Their greatest fears were proven correct once they tried to walk towards it.

"Urk!" Sab fell to the ground, knocking down Elegy with him, "S-Sorry."

"...Eh?" Elegy looked down in fear, "My legs...?"

"Huh?" Sab felt it too, "No, not the entire legs. My knees and hips are still fine, but..."

"My ankles are petrified."

A loud trumpet horn was their newest worry, and it seemed to be that they were on a timer to defuse it. Had it not been for their cherubim wings, this would be game over already. Their feet felt heavier than cinder blocks, and soon enough, so too would the rest of their bodies.

Elegy led his friend through the sky, "Move it, move it!"

"Gah, I'm trying!" Sab lagged a bit behind him, "Urk, it was hard enough to steer these things without the extra weight making it harder!"

Just then, the trumpet horned again.

"Brace yourself...!"

"Waghhh!!!"

Like a metric tonne was thrown on top of them, they both sank to the cloudy ground below in an instant. This time, the petrification spread all the way to the knees.

"Pheh, this is just like a game of hangman!" Elegy joked, "How many more tries do you reckon we got?"

"Don't you usually start with the head in hangman?"

"Would you prefer that over this?"

"Hell no."

Barely lifting themselves up this time, they felt their time with the wings grew ever more limited by the second. With each new horn of the trumpet, they were getting more and more petrified. A few more of those and they'd be just like the others around them.

"Hey, remember when you were a kid playing hangman, and to make the game give you as many lives as possible, you'd give yourself a stiffy as well?"

"Elegy, the Hell are you on about?"

"Y'know, like, you normally got 6 tries, right?" Elegy elaborated, "But if you add the D and then all 20 of your fingers and toes, that'd practically make you immortal."

"There's only 26 letters of the alphabet." Sab grunted, "You're guaranteed to win with 27 tries."

An odd segue from Elegy, but not one without a purpose, sadly.

"See, now you're getting it!" Elegy winked, "What do you say we try it?"

"Hey now...?!"

"You know what I mean, darn it!" He fumbled over his words, "There may be a chance to buy us some time by attempting to focus the petrification on individual body parts."

As he was saying that, another horn rang out. This time, the two stood up to face it proudly. With all their might, they focused on but a single finger. The result?

"I can't feel anything from my hips down." Sab looked below him.

"Darn, I really thought I was onto something there, too."

"You goddamn idiot!" Sab screeched, "Quit wasting precious time, this is a life or death situation!"

"But we're already dead?"

"I-I meant afterlife or soul destruc... Why the Hell am I correcting you on this, even!?"

Just as calm as Elegy was, so too was Sab losing it in equal amounts. The situation was scary, sure, but Elegy felt panicking would do much for them anyways, so he refrained. Their next few attempts had to contain a winner in them, otherwise the boys would be turned to statues before they even left the district.

Sab hyperventilated, "Oh Gods, it's almost time for the next one...!"

"...I got it!"

Just then, the trumpets roared.