Chapter 20

Chapter 20

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
JANUARY 1, 2049

[Ryu Mitsukai (Shadow) - 22 years old
[Skylar Lawrence (Starry) - 26 years old]
[Tezuka Kejinto (Storm) - 22 years old]

Tezuka cries in panic when Sky falls onto him. He quickly raises his hand, releasing a sudden burst of dark energy ball at Leon. The leader of Big Five shouts in surprise as he gets sent flying through the air, dropping the sharp metal in process.

"NO! No, no, no...." Ryu starts off loud but ends at a quiet tone, as he approaches his comrades. He drops to his knees next to the blonde-haired healer. "Sky, wake up... please!"

Sky whimpers in pain as he slowly opens his blue eyes, much to the friends' relief. "T-Tez...? Ryu?"

"You dumbass!!" Tezuka screams tearfully. "Didn't we tell you that our lives are in Double God's hands?! Ryu and I can't die as long as we are connected to Double God!"

"I-I am s-sorry," Sky mumbles softly after he flinches at Tezuka's outburst. "I for-forgot."

"Hurry... heal yourself, please." Tezuka calms down but tries to contain as much emotion as possible, but it manages to get away from his mouth anyway. He carefully places Sky's hand on his heavy-bleeding area. 

"N-no..." Sky says softly, trying to ignore his pain, but it is showing up on his face. "I-I can't. I ran out of healing energy. I used up the last remaining to heal your wound."

"What?" Tezuka asks.

"No, you can't do that to us!" Ryu cries. "It's..."

"Pierced my heart, I know." Sky chuckles softly. "I never... expected to die like this."

"No, you can't say that! You're not dying!" Tezuka grabs Sky's shoulders harshly, but quickly lets go of them when the blue-eyed man cries in pain. "Sorry... Please... don't die on us... Not yet..."

"Dark Team will be here soon!" Ryu says almost anxiously. He quickly presses his own hand on Sky's wounded area, making him wince at sudden pain. "They will help you!"

"D-don't w-worry about me," Sky almost slurs, as if he is going into unconsciousness anytime soon. "Leon i-is coming."

"I don't care!" Tezuka shouts at him. "We are taking you to somewhere safe!"

"But if we move him, then he will bleed faster!" Ryu stops Tezuka from picking up Sky when he grabs the lavender-haired man's wrist.

They stop bickering with each other when they feel a wet hand on each of their hands. Sky is holding each hand of Ryu and Tezuka. He smiles weakly yet brightly at them.

"I w-will be o-ok. I c-can..." Sky mumbles almost unintelligently. "See him."

"Who?" Ryu asks, as he looks around expecting Leon to suddenly attack them out of nowhere.

"Double God.” Blue eyes are becoming more and more dull. His skin is becoming paler and paler. He gives a light sigh, as if he is not in pain anymore, before he continues, "He's right th-there."

Fresh tears are streaming down Ryu's face cheeks, his voice breaking. "Please... Don't... Don't leave us...!"

Sky moves his lips, but his voice is completely gone. Yet Tezuka and Ryu still manage to understand him.

Please move on without me.

Sky’s hands go limp into his comrades’ shaking hands, just as a single tear slides down from one of his dull blue eyes.

~*~

Sky feels nothing but warmth all around himself. Has he gone to heaven yet? Is he going to see Double God?

A warm hand touches Sky’s chin and lifts his head a little bit. The sudden sensation causes him to open his bright blue eyes. He sees nothing but darkness all around except a bright light figure with its hand extended to Sky’s face.

“W-who are you?” He asks suddenly, almost startling himself when he hears his own voice.

“Skylar Lawrence, I’ve been watching over you ever since you joined the Dark Team,” the figure says, ignoring Sky’s question completely. “I’m very grateful for what you have been doing so far. I decided to give you a second chance.”

“S-second chance?” Sky asks, almost eagerly. “Is that you, Double God?”

“But.” Double God pauses briefly, as if he is in his deep thoughts. He resumes, “You have two choices.”

Sky flinches at the mention of choices. He has not forgotten that Knapp had to make choices between both of his loved ones dying or one of them dying. He asks nervously, “W-what choices?”

Suddenly, Double God releases millions of light orbs, which then change the entire world into darkness and light.

Sky cannot believe it, but he is looking at Double God’s true form. He sighs lightly at the warmth once again, even though nothing is wrapping his body.

“Welcome to the Heart of Fifth Universe. I have your key right here,” Double God says calmly, raising his key for Sky to see. He softens his green eyes. “That collar around your neck is your choice to make. If you decide to unlock it, then your life will end.”

Sky frowns in confusion.

“But like I said before, you have two choices.” Double God takes both of Sky’s hands and leaves the key in them. “Sky, you are the next Breaker. The last remaining Breaker.”

Sky is completely speechless at first before he starts speaking. “I-I am the Breaker?” Not Tezuka or Ryu?

“Long time ago, there were thousands of Breakers who were able to keep the balance of the Fifth Universe stable. If the Lockers created way too many chains, then the Breakers were there to destroy the chains. Together, they were like siblings.” Double God glances away from Sky. “The problem is, the chains take and consume the souls. The Fifth Universe had always been fragile, so I gave the Breakers their permission to unlock every single chain. Again, there is also a price for it. Without chains, the Lockers will die.”

"Your first choice,” Double God continues, “is to return to your body and help your friends to defeat the Locker. But the price for it is that Earth will never be free from the chains.

“Because you are only one single Breaker, the large amount of chains will be way too much for you. The Locker has been building it for the last three decades. Your second choice, in order to destroy the chains completely, is to sacrifice yourself.” Double God lets go of Sky’s hands.

Sky cannot stop his tears from coming out of his eyes anymore. “H-Hikyou-sama, why…?” He sniffs loudly. “Why are you so cruel?”

“I gave you a chance to return to life,” Hikyou says emotionlessly. “It is up to you to make your choice.”

Sky tightens his grip on the key. “What will happen to Earth if I decide to live?”

“You are the last Breaker. There will be no more Breakers,” Hikyou says. “As long as Earth is stuck in the chains, it is a waiting time bomb. Earth is the Heart of the Fifth Universe. If it dies, then the rest of the universe goes down with it as well.”

“You’re ready to give up your universe?” Sky asks almost anxiously. “All for me? Or is this a test?”

“No. Because I’m so tired.” Hikyou gives him a weak smile. He places one of his hands on his face, “I’m so tired of... everything.”

“But you saved us, didn’t you? If you wanted to give up, then why did you stop the Fall of the Moon in the first place?”

Hikyou does not answer right away. After a long minute, he says with full confidence, “Hope of Earth will bring us peace.

Sky raises an eyebrow in confusion.

“Faith of Heaven and Hell will end all of suffering and torture.

“Faith…” Sky almost whispers. He widens his blue eyes in realization. “Are you talking about souls of this universe?”

“Bravery of Angels will protect the people of the universe.”

“Dark Angel? Ketsu?”

“Love of Light and Darkness will bring me back.” Hikyou ends. He reaches out his hand for Sky. “The choice is yours.”

Sky smiles sadly, as he glances at the key in his hands. He closes his eyes tightly, trying to hold back his tears. He says, almost choking on sobs, “Either way, you will still have a loss. I’m so sorry, Hikyou-sama… I had no idea about how much this would affect you.”

He inserts the key into his metal collar and turns it without any hesitation, unlocking it easily. He then takes Hikyou’s warm hand.

~*~

Earth is in complete darkness and silence. The chains have been revealed to every single person in the world, blocking out the sun.

The silence does not last long when the loud painful and sorrowful cries and screams come bursting out of the chains.

“W-what the hell?” Tezuka asks, as he gets up from the ground. He narrows his blue eyes trying to see what is covering the entire sky. “Ryu, can you see the chains?”

“Y-yes.” Ryu wipes his wet eyes. He uses aquila energy in his eyes for a short time. “I see someone there. He is trying to break the chains!”

“The new Breaker?” Tezuka turns to Ryu. “Is it Double God? I thought he couldn’t get rid of the chains by himself?”

“I don’t think it’s Double God,” Ryu says softly. “He does not have any wings. I think that’s Sky...”

“What?” Tezuka turns to him quickly. “How can there be two Skys at the same time…?” He glances at Sky's body still lying on the ground.

The calm blonde-haired man, close to the large growling chains, withdraws his new longsword from his dark scabbard. Even though he is hovering in the air, he gets into a sword-fighting pose.

“Break,” He simply commands, as a red flaming energy bursts around his longsword. He quickly thrusts it forward and pierces it through one of the large chains easily. Light suddenly flashes right out of the new cracks which run along the chains around the blue planet.

Thousands of shrieking transparent souls suddenly burst flying right out of the collapsing chains. Each single of them is leaving Earth right away, heading for their afterlife.

“Chains are made out of souls?” Ryu asks in surprise, as he collapses to his knees.

“Faith of Heaven and Hell will end all suffering and torture… That’s exactly what Double God said,” Tezuka says softly. “It finally makes sense. Leon has been stealing the souls that the Fifth Universe desperately needs…”

“That bastard!” Ryu thumps one of his fists on the ground.

The blonde-haired man is not done yet. He waits patiently until the chains have been dissolved completely. Then, he tosses his longsword into the air and shouts, “Self-sacrifice!”

His entire body drowns into so much light until it becomes a yellow-glowing orb. It moves faster and faster through the air, leaving behind smaller sparking orbs until the point where it flies around the planet within mere minutes multiple times.

The sparking orbs fall onto Tezuka and Ryu and fade into their bodies. They are both glowing in the bright light.

“Wh-what is this power?” Tezuka takes a look at his hand. “It feels like we got our full powers back.”

“T-Tezuka!” Ryu sounds startled.

“What?” Tezuka follows the direction of Ryu’s eyes only to find the man whom he has known since childhood. “F-father?”

Suddenly, two more figures appear. One is female and the other is male. Tezuka does not recognize them at first, but he feels quite familiar for some reason. The woman has beautiful long lavender hair and bright warm blue eyes. Light breeze ruffles the hem of her white dress. The man standing next to the lady has the same blue eyes, but he has black hair locked up in a ponytail. Surprisingly, he looks more Asian in some way.

Before Tezuka can say at least one word, three people suddenly fade away into white orbs, which then launch themselves right out of the planet. “Mother… Grandfather…” He mumbles at himself. Now he knows where he got his looks from.

Ryu cannot hold his tears back, as they are streaming down his face. He is looking at his parents who are smiling. He is trying to say something, but he does not have any idea what to say. He reaches out his hand, hoping to touch them physically somehow, but a hand suddenly grabs his wrist.

“Wha--” Ryu freezes when he recognizes whose hand it is. It is the man in all of his family photos. “G-Grandpa?”

His wrist is being let go of, as his grandfather walks over to Ryu’s parents. He glances back at Ryu one more time, giving him a smile. He has wild black hair and dark eyes. His face consists of strong Asian features - mainly Japanese. Like Tezuka’s family did, they turn into orbs and then fly out of Earth.

Ryu cannot help but cry even harder. He has no idea how much he has missed his parents until just now.  Then, a realization hits him.

“So, that explains their disappearances…” He says softly. “Leon took their bodies and turned their souls into chains… He had been doing it for decades...”

“That son of a bitch…!” Tezuka clenches one of his hands into an angry fist.

“No!” Leon’s shriek makes Ryu and Tezuka jump startled. “Impossible!! How the hell did my chains get destroyed?!”

They look up to find Leon hovering in the sky and freaking out over his precious chains, which are completely gone.

“30 years worth of my work!” Leon says angrily, as he turns to Ryu and Tezuka, giving them a deadly glare. “Which Breaker are you?”

“We haven’t done anything!” Ryu shouts back.

Leon returns to the surface of Earth and lands his feet on the ground safely. His face is completely red from anger. His hair, usually neatly combed, is now completely messy. He takes out his pistol. “You punks…! I should’ve killed you right away when we met for the first time!”

Every single bullet that Leon fires completely misses Tezuka, who swiftly moves to dodge. He glances his icy blue eyes towards the former Colonel.

“What?!” Leon is completely surprised. H-he is so fast! I didn’t even realize that I missed him every time until I stopped firing…!

He scoffs loudly at his own thoughts. He quickly tosses his empty pistol aside and then powers up for lightning bolts. “It doesn’t matter…! I’ll just create new chains… by starting with your souls! They will provide a decent amount of energy because you have been touched by Double God!”

He sends hundreds of bolts at Tezuka, only to miss him again.

Leon almost growls in frustration. “If I can’t hit you, then…!” He quickly turns around only to find a glowing-eyed Ryu lying on the ground not too far away and pointing his heavy sniper rifle at him.

“No!” Leon shrieks, about to run toward the sniper but he hears loud bangs coming from behind. He quickly puts up his reflect barrier, which deflects the bullets out of his way. He chuckles softly, “I-I can’t believe that I forgot about my reflect energy…! I panicked for nothing.”

“Dammit!” Tezuka tosses his empty pistol away. “Ryu! Run!”

Ryu tightens his grip on his sniper rifle, his eye still on the scope. “No. Sooner or later, he will run out of reflect energy. I’m staying right where I am. I’ll avenge my family… no…! Every single soul that Leon stole!”

Tezuka sighs lightly at Ryu’s stubbornness. “Just use your light energy this time.”

“No!” Leon cries in panic. “Please! Please spare me!”

Ryu makes sure to cover the large bullet with his light energy -- He widens his dark eyes in shock when he realizes that no light energy is coming out of his hand. He nearly squeaks. “W-what?”

Tezuka reaches out his palms, creating a black barrier -- No, there is no barrier at all. He asks himself nervously, “What? I-I can’t use dark energy anymore?”

“You fools!” Leon laughs out loud, as he raises his fist, lightning bolts sparking around it. “It turns out that none of you are the Breakers… neither are you the next Gods! What can you, normal human weaklings, do against me, the universe’s strongest?!”

He suddenly rushes off using hawk energy in his feet towards Tezuka. He raises his fist with lightning bolts.

“Tezuka!” Ryu yells worriedly as he quickly pulls the trigger, shooting a large bullet out of his own sniper rifle.

It is a perfect shot… until Leon easily puts up another reflect barrier, which deflects the large bullet out of the way once again.

Now that Tezuka and Ryu have lost their godly powers, Leon has nothing to worry about Ryu this time. As long as his reflect barrier is up, Ryu is not capable of combating at this point.

Tezuka quickly feeds rush energy into his feet, but before he can run off, he gets hit by one of Leon’s lightning bolts. He cries in pain, collapsing to his hands and knees. He thinks that his heart has stopped just for a second there.

Ryu has already abandoned his sniper position, as he is running towards Leon with his spare pistol out in one of his hands. After firing a few shots at Leon only to get deflected again, it only angers him any further.

“You’re quite a nuisance.” Leon scoffs, as he lifts himself into the air. One of his fists is glowing in the white energy.  “Your puny weapons won’t hurt me at all.”

Tezuka, using rush energy in his feet, runs as fast as he can towards one of the trees. As soon as he jumps, landing on the bark, he quickly leaps as high as possible until he reaches Leon from behind. He throws a hard fist.

Leon gets hit in the back of his head, falling back to the ground and crashing into another new crater.

Tezuka lands his feet hard on the floor next to the crater. Afterward, he sighs loudly when he realizes that he has not broken any bone upon the hard impact. He glances at the sky. “He couldn’t have survived the long fall.”

Suddenly, Leon leaps right out of the crater towards Tezuka with a large white energy bursting around his angry first. “You die!!!”

Tezuka quickly covers his face with his own arms, trying to protect his head from Leon’s powerful fist.

BANG!

“W-what…?” Leon glances at where the sudden pain comes from only to find his heavy-bleeding shoulder. He tries to land safely on the ground only to fall over onto his bottom.

Ryu is still pointing his pistol at Leon. His forefinger is still on the trigger, as his grip tightens. “It’s over, you bastard! You manipulated all of us… You killed everyone… including our loved ones! Our parents… our grandfathers… and all of the lives you took away from people…! And… even Sky…!”

He closes his eyes tightly, trying to hold back his tears. “It’s because of you that Sky is gone. You… you murderer!”

Suddenly, Leon gives out a loud laughter. “If you really want me to be gone, then why didn’t you shoot me right in my heart? Or in my head? You have an aguila energy, don’t you? Your aim should be perfect…! Go ahead and take revenge if you want to… Kill me, you miserable fool!”

Tezuka glances at Ryu’s shaking hand with the pistol. Sighing lightly, he places his hand on Ryu’s shoulder, “It’s over. The Dark Team should be here by now.”

Suddenly, Leon takes out his spare pistol and shoots at both of them within just one second. Tezuka gets hit in the stomach while Ryu gets shot in the left lung.

“Soul Chains!” After throwing his pistol aside, Leon yells, pointing both of his hands at them, as the chains are being literally shot out of his palms.

Before they even know what is happening, the chains quickly wrap around them and pull their souls right out of their bodies. Whimpering in both confusion and panic, they are trying to get back into their bodies, but Leon refuses to let them go, pulling them onto the ground and towards himself with the chains.

“Not so fast.” Leon gives a light chuckle. “If you had killed me before, then this wouldn’t happen. That happens when you’re being sympathetic! Ryu, I’m starting with you.”

“N-no, Ryu!” Tezuka surprises himself by shouting. He would never think that a soul could talk.

Ryu’s soul quickly touches a cold metal collar with his own hand. He glances back behind himself to find his real body, which is lying on the ground. His chains come from his real body’s chest and are connected to his soul's metal collar. “I’m out of my body?”

Leon walks toward Ryu’s soul and kneels in front of him. He reaches his hand into the pocket of Ryu’s white pants. He flashes a big grin when he pulls out a key.

Ryu widens his dark eyes in shock.

“Oh, you recognize this key?” Leon shakes the key lightly. “Interesting. Usually, all of the others were confused when they saw their keys.” He scoffs, “I see… It was Double God who brought you back to life before, didn’t he? It’s too bad that your soul is mine!”

He inputs the key into the hole of Ryu’s metal collar, making him shut his eyes. “Yes… your soul will provide nice energy to my chains…!”

Tezuka keeps trying to get himself out of the chains, but they keep getting tighter and tighter every second. The chains firmly wrap around his body, completely trapping his arms underneath. No, no! Not Ryu too!

Ryu's real body suddenly threw up a large amount of blood onto the ground, convulsing violently.

A warm hand lightly touches the back of Ryu's real body, shattering the chains into pieces. Within an instant second, his soul is back into his body.

"Eh?!" Leon cries in surprise when Ryu's soul disappears from his hand suddenly. "W-what?!"

Tezuka, still in his soul mode, glances at Ryu only to have his eyes widening in shock. "S-Sky?"

Sky gracefully walks past Ryu towards Tezuka's body and places his hand on the same area as it was on Ryu's.

"Tezuka..." Sky says softly. He smiles sadly, "I'm sorry that this had to end this way. I'm so happy that we became friends. I'm really grateful that... You accepted the way I am."

Tezuka clenches soil into his fist and tries to open his mouth but no words come out.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead --" Leon freezes as soon as he finds Sky's corpse a few yards away. He glances back at the blonde-haired man who looks exactly like Sky. "Who are y-you?"

Sky flashes a big grin on his face, "I'm your worst nightmare! Double God granted me the power of immortality as long as I serve the Fifth Universe as the sole Breaker in case there are more Lockers out there. As long as I will not be reincarnated, I'll maintain my soul form forever... Even though that means nobody will ever see me at all... Except those with the power to see the spirits."

Leon clenches his jaw in frustration. "Why you --"

Suddenly, Sky vanishes into thin air as Knapp lands his feet hard on the ground, sliding across the field for a few feet and leaving the dust of dirt behind.

White and black lightning bolts are sparking around his angry fists.

Logy, Jade, and Johnny catch up with Knapp, panting heavily. They have forgotten how fast their leader is until he gets his powers back just recently.

Knapp widens his dark eyes in shock when he spots the blonde-haired soldier lying on the ground. "W-what the hell happened?"

"Sky..." Logy says sadly.

"Ryu! Tezuka!" Jade cries in concern when he notices that they are badly wounded. He rushes toward them, who cannot stand up at all.

Sudden flash of light and darkness inside Knapp's angry eyes almost makes Leon flinch. The rest of Dark Team shudders at how much power Knapp has. "You bastard...!"

“Kna--” Johnny is trying to calm down his leader but gets interrupted by a sudden shockwave, which is released by Knapp’s power.

“Leon… Or should I call you Shishi, which is your real name?” Knapp growls lightly, as his power is causing the tiny rocks to float in the air around him. “Shishi, your so-called master plan failed. You thought that by trapping us in the chains of Earth, then our godly powers would be taken away?”

A wide smirk appears on Shishi’s face, as he shrugs his shoulders arrogantly, “It doesn’t matter anyway. When Jikan finds out that I’m defeated, then she will come back and warn me! Then we will perform the Fall of the Moon properly next time! The entire universe will be finished for sure --”

Knapp instantly moves from his position to Shishi suddenly. He wraps his hand around Shishi’s neck, nearly choking him. “I thought so. You were going to go down with the Fifth Universe.”

Shishi gives a choked laugh. “You underestimate me…!” He quickly sends lightning bolts throughout Knapp’s body.

Knapp does not even flinch at the lightning attacks.

“W-what?” Shishi frowns in confusion.

“I’ve been given the powers of the Fifth Universe when I became the Universe Warrior.” Knapp tightens his grip on Shishi’s neck, making him whimper in fear. “For the past 30 years… you killed and took thousands of souls… Most of them came from Earth. You’ve been hurting the Fifth Universe long enough!”

Strong breeze takes away Knapp’s loose white scarf and carries it through the air. It reveals a black star-shaped mark on the back of his neck. It is glowing brightly in the yellow light. Suddenly, the glow spreads out and covers his entire body.

“W-what is he doing?” Ryu asks weakly and winces at sudden pain from the alcohol pouring on his fresh wounds, receiving a quick apology from Jade.

“It’s universe energy.” Jade answers quickly, focusing on wrapping bandages around Ryu’s chest. He makes a quick glance at Knapp. “Now that Earth has been freed from the chains… Soon… You’ll get to witness the power of the Fifth Universe.”

“In the name of Earth and Fifth Universe… of all the people you murdered…” Knapp places his forefinger on Shishi’s trembling forehead. “I’ll avenge them all!!”

Stop!

Knapp realizes that it is too late as soon as he hears the familiar voice. He has already shot a long yellow beam made out of the universe energy. Not only that it is powerful, but it is also huge in width, which is the size of an average tunnel used for cars. It goes flying right out of Earth, heading for only Gods know where.

Shishi whimpers loudly as he collapses to his knees. He falls backward, trying to crawl away from the Universe Warrior. He is completely unharmed from one of Knapp’s strongest attacks. 

“W-who did it…?” Knapp turns his head towards a hand which is gripping his own wrist tightly. Apparently, whoever lifted Knapp’s arm right before he shot his energy beam in order to miss Shishi completely.

“You heard the Fifth. It’s not Shishi’s time to die yet.” The godly figure lets go of Knapp’s wrist. “I understand how you feel about Sky.”

Knapp flinches at the mention of Sky. “Hikyou-sama? You’re… here for real? Nobody summoned you here?”

“Not this time.” Hikyou gives a light chuckle. “Earth is free from the chains. That means I’m free as well. The Fifth no longer needs me to feed him my dark and light energies, now that the souls from the chains returned to him.”

He glances at Shishi one more time before he begins making his way to Tezuka and Ryu. Every step he makes, a circle of light appears on the grass under his feet. Lightning bolt sparks gently around his body.

He squats in front of Ryu and Tezuka, giving them a gentle smile. “Thank you. You’ve done more than enough for the Fifth Universe,” He says gently before getting back up and turning to Shishi.

“Double God!” Shishi growls lightly at him, as he hastily gets up from the ground. He is feeding hawk energy into his entire body just in case he needs to escape.

“Shishi, I’m here for you,” Hikyou says calmly with a small smirk on his face. The pair of his usual closed wings open widely. A few white and black feathers fall off his wings. “It’s time for you to come with me. As you can see, you’re in loads of trouble. Death King will tend to you.”

“No, no!” Shishi turns to run, but he bumps into Knapp, who moves from his place to here within one second.

“You’re lucky that Hikyou-sama decided to give you mercy.” Knapp grabs Shishi’s shoulder. He gives Hikyou an annoyed stare. He looks away with a scoff. “Here you go.”

The smirk on Hikyou’s face widens while he walks toward Shishi who keeps shaking his head in fear. “Shishi-kun, I’ll see you in Hell soon.”

He snaps his fingers, causing a light hole to appear below Shishi. The Locker screams fearfully, as the hole starts to drag him down until it consumes him completely.

“Literally.” Hikyou laughs lightly.

“Hikyou-sama, you son of a bitch! You closed the portal so I wouldn’t be able to see the Fifth Universe! Where the hell have you been?!” Knapp cannot hold his anger back any longer. “If you wanted this universe to survive, then why… Why did you save that Locker…?!”

“Well, well…!” Hikyou says cheerfully. “It’s nice to see you again, Universe Warrior!”

“Answer my questions!”

“Hikyou, your universe has been dying for a long time. Myou and Hikari made the biggest mistake to merge two universes into one. It’s been suffering for a long time. Can’t you let it die in peace? You can always make a brand new universe --”

Hikyou pushes away his memories of the red-winged God, as he looks straight into Knapp’s angry eyes. He shrugs his shoulders carelessly. “I lost track of time.”

“By screwing around with another God? Well, then, fuck you!” Knapp throws up his hands. Next thing he wakes up is when he is lying in the new large crater with a throbbing jaw.

“Knapp Mitsukai,” Hikyou says calmly yet dangerously, standing outside the crater. “This is your first and last warning. There is a huge gap between our powers as a god and an universe warrior. See, I managed to knock you out with only 1% of my power. I suggest you not to insult me anymore.”

"We really need to get them to the hospital! Without Sky...!" Jade cries in panic, watching Tezuka and Ryu both going in and out of consciousness. 

"They are not dying," Hikyou says calmly, turning away from Knapp. "But I can heal them..." He snaps his fingers.

Without him touching them at all, Tezuka and Ryu's wounds close easily. They sigh lightly in relief.

"My job is done here," Hikyou says, almost cheerfully. "You're on your own now."

Before they can say anything else, especially Knapp who wants to talk back, Double God disappears from their sights, leaving sparking orbs of light and darkness behind.