The trumpets thundered from atop the rooftop, it's aggressive noise piercing through the air. Nearby, a lone suit of golden armor sat idly, seemingly waiting to decide on its next move.
"Stop... horns..." Its Eyes lit up a scarlet Red.
As per its lifeblood's orders, the mech suit was created for a purpose. Just as Elegy was in the midst of being petrified, he had used the rules of his golden wings to install a contingency plan. By ordering the wings to wrap around his body, he had given it a list of vague instructions that were to be followed subconsciously, even without Elegy being awake. Thus, the suit of armor was tasked with wandering through the desolate remains of Heaven 2.0, hoping to destroy the source of the petrification.
"Save... everyone..." It muttered breathlessly.
The giant mech's limbs clanked metallically against one another as it trudged through the soft cloudy ground beneath. Working tirelessly, it considered rushing to bring back Hats once he ran away, but figured there were more pressing matters. Still holding onto its petrified friend Sab, the suit of armor instead turned its gaze to the source of the noise.
Its wings stretched out behind itself, "Destroy..."
With this one solemn vow, it flapped its wings mightily... And proceeded to faceplant immediately after its confident jump.
"...Hrm..." The suit grumbled, turning its head to check on Sab before slowly lifting itself back up, "Wings... lack... Must... walk..."
Its body and mind were the most basic form of a living being. There were no unnecessary functions, like emotions or quips. Still, despite talking in its robotic, emotionless and monotone voice, one would be hard pressed to not feel bad for it in this situation.
Indeed, the suit was made of solid gold—the same exact material as its wings. In other words, it was far too heavy to lift off of the ground with them, meaning it had to resolve itself to a long and painstaking stroll until it could exact its mission.
"Destroy... Kill..."
With each tiny setback, the machine's goalpost shifted to a more dangerous agenda. Elegy, the one whose subconscious controls the mech, is an angel with an adaptive mindset, after all. As if testing the limits of fate, bending his capabilities and possibilities little by little, just waiting to see where it breaks. Where most stop their foolish attempts to take life by the horns, he excels the most.
The mech suit stands firmly in place. It bends the knees slightly, before hopping off of the ground. Point three seconds of airtime, it calculated. Less than a third of a second was all its weight allowed it to achieve, but this was more than enough.
"Hop... Hop..." It muttered.
Each hop, surprisingly, netted it just a smidge more airtime than the last. Indeed, chaining together jumps allows one to use its own body's vertical elasticity to gain height, but this only works when the surface is elastic as well. In other words—it'd need a trampoline.
"Hop... Hop..."
But then, where could this trampoline be hiding? Of course, beneath the mech suit was nothing more than the cloudy, squishy ground. A cloud is primarily made up of water, among other things. To bounce on clouds is to bounce on water, which would be impossible—if not for one simple aspect.
"Hop... Hop..." The mech suit then corrected itself, "Float... Float..."
Humans cannot hop on water, but they can swim in it. They can freely dive, but they can also float back up. Due to the surrounding pressure of water, most objects filled even slightly with air will push the object back up, and the larger the difference between pressures, the faster it'll spring back up.
The mech suit dug itself into the ground with each hop—utilizing its heaviness to the fullest—before the surrounding clouds pushed it back up. Then, again and again, it kept springing itself up and digging deeper down with each consecutive jump—a cloud trampoline utilizing nothing but physics and a creative mind.
"Float... Float..." Its wings spread themselves out as wide as they could, "Fly... Fly..."
Elegy's mind was certainly one that came about once every one thousand years. To quickly incorporate another tactic on the fly, one would have to strain themselves to their absolute fullest, yet in his past life, he would always prevail without breaking a sweat. Here, the mech suit began to switch to another law of the world—weight shifting.
Humans of the past thought up the idea to stick wheels on a small board, which they would then skate down and up hilly terrain. Quickly, they've come to understand that ducking down at the perfect moment as they were descending and lifting up as they were ascending would allow them to build up immense speed. Skaters today know this as "pumping."
"Soar... Up...!" The mech suit roared.
By lifting its wings at the apex of its jump, then clumping them up as it hit the ground, the suit masterfully kept pumping its vertical height to insane levels. Soon enough, it was entire tens of meters above the ground.
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But this was far from enough. Right now, all the mech was doing was moving vertically. Whilst impressive, it stands to reason that its objective stood kilometers in front of it. If the mech wanted to complete its objective to stop the source of the petrification, then it would need to move horizontally as well.
"Ten... Nine..." The mech counted down, awaiting the perfect moment, "...Three... Two..."
Locking in the source of the trumpet horns, it calculated deftly the trajectory required. Alas, from just its current movement alone, one could easily predict its failure. According to all laws of physics and aviation, no single person can humanly change trajectories at a sudden angle of ninety degrees. To do so would be to disregard the very nature of gravity and Change the very fabric of reality.
"One." The machine's Eyes glew.
At the very top of its course, the mech seemingly kicked off behind itself, launching forward at impressive speeds. With nothing to kick off of however, it had to improvise by placing its wings beneath and behind it.
"Reach... Target..."
This maneuver allowed the wings to act as a makeshift platform. Due to them being connected to the mech galvanically—that is to say, not physically—the mech had distanced itself from the wings, which in turn pushed it forward. This allowed the mech to once again kick off from them, repeating the cycle indefinitely. Elegy's subconscious was the first thing in the universe to invent the impossible—a true perpetual motion machine.
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As the mech approached the Gods' Carcasses at alarming speeds, only one word remained in its vocabulary.
"Destroy..."
Hellbent on making them stop, as per its master's orders, the mech kept kicking off of its own wings mid air until it had reached the fated building. Now was the time for it to slow down, but with its current speed, it would overshoot by a large amount almost certainly. It needed a full, immediate stop. A way to kill any and all momentum in a single moment. The best way to accomplish that? A wall.
"Stop." It ordered, its wings suddenly appearing before it, catching the suit in their embrace before dropping it straight down onto the rooftop.
The ground quivered before its mighty stomp. Heavens only know how the building didn't collapse from the sudden weight that appeared to strain its concrete. The infrastructure of Heaven 2.0 was certainly worthy of praise.
"Hrm..."
One quick scan of the surroundings showed the mech all it needed to know. To begin—two petrified female angels, Nerys and Migu. An archangel collapsed next to them, Sheep. Inside the archangel's embrace lay a frail, heavily injured Vastoria. And finally, at the center of it all—two human bodies, deceased with their Eyes rolled back into their heads. Their lips were dry, and a putrid scent invaded the otherwise sweet citrusy scent of Heaven.
"Selzion... Prylos..." The mech suit slowly stomped toward them.
For a second, the suit hesitated to go through with its plan, in spite of the orders it was given. Muttering repeatedly the words of the two Gods, its subconscious fought with its consciousness right then and there. As if Elegy's mind was yelling aloud, "No! They're allies!", the mech suit was constantly forced to step back again and again.
One step forward, two steps back. Soon enough, it had found itself at the very edge of the tall rooftop. Elegy wouldn't mind the fall, of course, but his last push was interrupted by a pair of loud, deep trumpet horns.
"..."
One step forward, one step back. Despite his best efforts, Elegy's conscious half was being put back to sleep by the Gods' Death Song until finally...
One step forward, zero steps back. Elegy's influence was now overshadowed by the suit's Authority. Despite his best efforts to keep it away, or at least stall the suit of armor, he was once again rendered useless. One trudge toward the Gods, then another, and then one again. There was no one to keep the mech suit from progressing its mission anymore. The destruction of the Gods' Carcasses was right in front of it.
"Complete... Mission..." The suit revved up for a mighty downward punch.
The punch accelerated at unreal speeds, as if propelled by thousands of jet engines crammed into a singular elbow. Just as quickly as it accelerated down, however, so too did it stop mere centimeters from Selzion's face. The mech stood firmly still as it craned its head to the side. A one armed male angel holding a brain in his hand stood at the staircase exit, leaning up against the doorframe with his one remaining shoulder.
"Whoa." Energy looked on in bewilderment, "Now I get why you had so much trouble explaining everything, kid."
The mech kept staring at them, or rather—at Hats specifically. Their Eyes locked in on one another, the silence between them was broken by the suit's bold declaration.
"I will... Destroy... Sound..." It readied its fist again.
"...Elegy." Hats sighed.
Conversely, Energy nearly fainted.
"You're saying that THING is Elegy!?" He yelled, "Actually, now that I get a better look at what he's holding... Isn't that Sab?"
The gang was fully reunited, for better or for worse. In such a dire situation, with great stakes at play, it really wouldn't make sense to call this get-together a happy one. Still, Hats didn't have time to get into semantics. Immediately, he threw Energy at the mech.
The brain, disliking this treatment, immediately piped up.
"Gah!" He cried out, "Eh? This thing actually caught me?"
Not soon after, Hats could be seen struggling to move across the concrete roof of the building. Though his speed was immensely impeded by the light exposure to the horns, he still managed to topple the mech immediately after reaching it. Despite being tackled, however, the mech suit never actually let go of Sab or Energy.
"How'd you know that was gonna work!?" Energy yelled out to his friend.
"That one's simple!" Hats smirked as he equipped himself with the golden pickaxe he grabbed at the Gods' Abode, "Even when I fought this thing before, it always kept Elegy's immobilized friends close!"
Soon enough, Energy got the gist of it.
"Ohh! So in order to keep its hands full, you handed me over to him! Good job!" He said before his voice grew threateningly deep, "I swear, try and sacrifice me again and I'll make sure you regret it."
At this moment, Hats was the one on top of the mech suit. Holding onto the pickaxe's handle with his one hand, he raised it high above his head, setting its sights on the mech's chest.
"Elegy, I know you're in there!" He grinned, "There's no better time to wake up than now, y'know!"