Chapter 26 "Ezekial: Part III"
Chapter 26
Ezekial
Part III
“The executioner is here for you,” says a palace guard with a smirk.
“Oh, already? I thought it wouldn’t be for a few days?” Johnny yawns sleepily. “I was hoping to have some more naps…”
“I’m pretty sure you will have an indefinite nap.” The guard chortles as he opens the jail. He immediately puts handcuffs on Logy’s and Johnny’s hands. He calls, “Executioner! They’re ready!”
“Where is Ezekial?” Logy asks suddenly, his eyes turning lime green with mind energy.
“What?” The guard turns around only to be pulled down to the ground with heavy gravity. “W-what the hell?”
“He doesn’t know... Well, it was worth a try,” Logy says as he looks from the guard to Jade and Clear. Jade keeps his palm aimed at the guard, not allowing him to move at all.
Two birds are already out of the armors and are chirping happily and flying around in the air.
“I know where Ezekial is now.” Kawaii comes from behind Clear. “Let’s hurry up.”
~*~
Kawaii leads the Dark Team to the largest building right in the middle of the palace. Dozens of palace guards have already been alerted as they start yelling and charging towards them.
“Well, well…” Ezekial says calmly even after tens of palace guards are already knocked out unconsciously all over the throne room. “I was expecting that Double God would send someone, but… I did not expect that it was the Universe Warrior instead… or rather, just his puny team.”
Clear makes a few steps as she cracks her knuckles. “You dare to call us his puny team?”
“Want me to blow you up?” Johnny pulls his hand out of his jeans pocket with a baseball sized glowing orb hovering.
“The fact that you know your way around here… means that you have either the princess or prince with you. I’ve heard of blue and red birds from the palace guards.” Ezekial smirks at them as he gets up from the throne chair. “Are you sure you want to blow me away along with them?”
The red bird quickly bolts out of Jade’s armor. He screeches angrily. Soon, the blue bird joins him after flying out of Clear’s armor as well.
Jade proceeds to strip the armor. He stretches out his arms and then his legs. He says, “Ah, that feels much better!”
“Gules said go for it.” Logy nods his head at Johnny, who half-smirks in return. The tallest man of the Dark Team quickly enclosures the orb into his fist, dissipating it completely.
“What?” Ezekial raises an eyebrow as he looks down to find a bunch of light rays coming through the gaps on the wooden floor.
“I call it…” Johnny puts his hand back in his pocket. “Flash Explosive.”
“Shit!” Ezekial curses as he is about to leap away from the explosion point but he is too late.
“Gravity x10!” Jade quickly says as he points his palm at Ezekial, forcing him to be pulled to the floor.
The floor below Ezekial gets apart as the blast wave sends the debris all over the area.
“We got him!” Gules exclaims as he transforms back into his elf form.
“Hold on,” Logy says as he looks at the blue bird who is still hovering in the air. “Beryl, don’t transform back yet.”
After the smoke from the explosion fades away, Ezekial is already standing as he is swapping his upper arm with his own hand. “That surprised me, but… that isn’t enough. After all…” He displays the biggest grin on his face as he continues, “I fought the God of the First Universe once. I was wrong to underestimate him because he was pretty new at that time.”
“First Universe? Isn’t it the largest universe of all?” Jade asks. “Why are you here in this tiny universe?”
“Wait… how long did he live?” Kawaii asks as Logy repeats his question.
“I don’t know. Centuries, maybe?” Ezekial gives a light chuckle. “I always dreamed of becoming a God… and I thought I lost it until I came here because this seemed to be a good place to start over again. Double God is weak right now, correct? Because of the Locker?”
“News travels fast, doesn’t it?” Clear says. “It was just a few months ago that the Locker was defeated… yet the news is already here a few galaxies away.”
“Wait a damn minute,” Gules says in confusion. “W-what the hell are you all talking about? First Universe? Weak Double God? What the hell is this Locker?”
“It’s… a long story,” Johnny says sleepily.
“Well, then… it’s my turn,” Ezekial says amusedly as he lifts his hand gracefully, creating a snapping form. “I couldn’t use this power against the God of the First Universe because it was zero effective. However… I can kill you within just a few minutes.”
“I dare you to try!” Clear yells as she charges first.
Ezekial snaps his fingers.
All of sudden, everyone except for the blue bird and Ezekial, drops to their knees. They are gasping, trying to get some air. Some of them are grabbing their necks as if they are trying to find a reason why they cannot get air at all.
“This power… is known as vacio energy. Basically it’s exactly like a vacuum space,” Ezekial smirks. “Can you survive it in the next few minutes?”
Jade gasps loudly when he gets some air back into his lungs somehow. He instantly yells within his first breath, “Gravity x25!”
Ezekial gets sent flying against the inside wall of the house, yelping in pain and coughing out blood. The impact creates several cracks on the wall.
Everyone can breathe again.
“Are you ok?!” Beryl yells in worry.
“S-sister… of course… you have that air energy. What luck!” Gules chuckles lightly as he takes a few more deep breaths.
“Now what? If he tries that again…” Clear says worriedly.
“I’ll keep giving you air!” Beryl exclaims. “Make sure to defeat him!”
“I-is this all you can d-do?” Ezekial hisses as he painfully moves his fingers. He doesn’t need anything but his thumb and finger to snap.
Clear quickly slams her hands to send lightning attacks through the floor until they reach Ezekial but they suddenly disappear into the air as soon as he snaps his fingers. “Huh?”
“That reminds me of Knapp’s universe energy,” Logy says. “They can cancel all powers. The only difference is that Knapp doesn’t take damage at all…” He points at Ezekial and says, “But this guy does.”
“So do we have to distract him so one of us can hit him with our powers?” Johnny gives a half lazy and exhausted sigh. “That sounds like a lot of work.”
“Damn,” Clear says as she gets back up from the floor. “Jade, how long can you hold him?”
Jade shrugs his shoulders. “Hours, perhaps. I have plenty of stamina, thanks to the battles and training sessions all those past years.”
“Plenty of stamina, eh?” Gules gives Jade a flirting wink.
“Shut up. You really do want to die, don’t you?” Jade snaps. His retort has failed to make Gules tremble in fear. Instead, Gules’s smirk only widens into a big grin.
“Logy, can you send the message into Knapp’s head? Ask him to come here as soon as possible?” Clear asks in sign language. “So he can get Ezekial’s soul.”
“Sure,” Logy says. Hey, Knapp. If you’re not too busy with the kids, can you come here at the soonest--
Pain shoots up throughout his entire body. He coughs out blood. He turns his head around towards a fallen palace guard who is still alive. He had thrown a spear at him and pierced it through his chest from behind.
I did not hear his thoughts because I was busy sending my own thoughts to Knapp… Logy rolls back his eyes as he collapses to the floor.
“Logy!” Clear yells as she quickly shocks the guard with lightning power until he is knocked out.
“Y-you think you are o-only one here?” Ezekial smirks widely as his voice strains a little bit due to the heavy gravity. “The entire… palace guard and army are mine to c-command! The princess and prince are traitors in their eyes!”
“He is right.” Kawaii frowns in concern.
“...How many are coming?” Johnny asks nervously.
“Thousands. Maybe tens of thousands.”
“Can someone help Logy?” Jade asks worriedly.
“Gules can heal him,” Beryl says as she shoots her brother an urgent stare.
“Right!” Gules snaps out of being in a shock state as he begins to run towards the bleeding deaf warrior.
“How does it feel…” Ezekial begins to move his hand. “...Watching yourself and your friend dying?”
“Times 30!” Jade yells angrily. An increased power in gravity slams Ezekial’s hand back to the wall. “Don’t you do anything!”
“The more power you use, the faster you run out.” Johnny warns. “Hold him there until Knapp comes -- Wait, did Logy already contact him?”
“I--” Kawaii starts to say but he vanishes into the air all of sudden, to the entire Dark Team’s confusion.
“Kawaii?” Clear asks softly. “Where are you?”
Ezekial begins to snicker at first before he bursts out into loud laughter. “The minute you start talking to someone who I can’t see… I already figured out that you have been speaking to the universe through some kind of form.”
“But he didn’t snap his fingers… What did he do?” Jade asks.
“I didn’t have to,” Ezekial says, his smile not going away from his face. “I told you before. I’ve fought a God before… Although I lost to him, my strength was pretty close to the God level at that time. I did a good amount of damage to him.”
He pushes the wall with his own hands and steps on the floor, even with Jade’s gravity power.
What the hell is this guy…?! Jade has not stopped using his power of gravity at all. Yet Ezekial is able to walk away like it’s nothing to him. “Gravity x50!”
Ezekial gets sent flying once again and crashing the wall until he lands on the ground harshly. The ground below him begins to turn into a growing crater.
As soon as the so-called Prime Minister is out of their sight, Logy begins to sit up with a small smile. “Hey, thanks for healing me. I had no idea you could do it.” Although he is not as good as Sky at healing. Sky would’ve healed me within a couple of minutes with this wound.
Gules scratches the back of his head with a small blush on his face. “Sorry for taking a while. I heal someone one or two times a year ever since my power of healing first awakened a few years ago.”
Clear waves her hands furiously to get Logy’s attention. “Did you send the message to Knapp?”
~*~
Hey, Knapp. If you’re not too busy with the kids, can you come here at the soonest--
Knapp frowns when Logy’s message suddenly cuts off. He gives a brief glance at his kids playing and chasing a butterfly right inside the woods. What should I do about the kids?
He ends up taking them to the city by going over the wall mainly because there are no guards around. I guess they were summoned to the palace.
“Wooow! Can I have it?!” Katja points at an ice cream vendor excitedly.
“Me too!” Ketsu jumps up and down fast.
“Fine. Make it quick, ok?” Knapp says.
After taking their sweet time eating their ice creams, the kids are fully loaded with sugar and are already more than ready to zoom through the city.
I was going to take them to a daycare but they’re all full… Knapp rubs his chin as an idea pops up in his head. He is debating with himself whether to take the kids with him or not. Well, there’s no choice at this point.
“Hey kids! Can you keep up with me?” He asks with a big grin on his face. “C’mon! Follow me!”
“What do you--” Katja stops when Knapp suddenly blasts off into the sky. “Where are you going?!”
“Ohhh~ Chase game?!” Ketsu exclaims in excitement. He easily rips off his blue wristbands as small dark blue wings emerge from his back.
Before Katja can say anything, her younger brother has already taken flight with his own wings. “Wah, don’t leave me alone!” She keeps jumping up and down, desperately trying to fly by herself but fails to.
~*~
The big grin on Ezekial has not faded away from his face while lying in the crater along with the heavy gravity pushing him down.
The Dark Team has already come out but they dare not to move when they realize that the entire army of Alfur has them surrounded, armed with either crossbows or longbows and arrows.
“W-wait! It’s us!” Beryl exclaims as she raises her hands up in the air. “Princess Beryl and Prince Gules!”
“Mr. Prime Minister said you are traitors who killed the King!” One of the elf soldiers yells angrily.
“Hey, hey!” Gules says loudly. “Beryl doesn’t have anything to do with us. Please don’t hurt her and just let her go.”
“Don’t say that.” Beryl snaps at him. “You know that’s a lie.” She glances back at the elf soldiers. “It was the Prime Minister who killed the King! He lied to you all!”
“What do you mean…?” Another elf soldier asks as most of them look at each other, about to put down their weapons.
“She’s telling the truth,” Gules says. “Did you really think that we would harm our own father? Even kill him?”
“H-he’s right…!” One of the soldiers exclaims in realization.
Ezekial chuckles loudly, even with the gravity crashing him into the ground slowly. “I see… I underestimated you both. I’ve been here for centuries of years. I worked hard to gain the trust of the entire royal families and their armies. All it took was for the prince and princess to completely annihilate that trust…”
“I-I’m al-almost out of my p-power!” Jades closes one of his purple eyes in struggle and exhaustion. “I’m at my limit with Gravity x50!”
The red-haired warrior from the First Universe begins to slowly sit up, fighting against the heavy gravity. The grin on his face has not gone away even for a second.
“What are you waiting for?! Shoot him!” Gules yells at the soldiers, who in return, send their arrows into the sky.
“I bet you’re wishing that you did not switch over the sides, aren’t you?” Ezekial asks amusedly as he watches the falling arrows disintegrating into nothingness. He gets on one of his knees, barely denying Jade’s gravity power. After several seconds, he is standing on his own feet.
“W-what is this…?!” One of the soldiers is in complete disbelief.
“I’m going to start with…” Ezekial says as he scans all people until his hazel eyes land on Jade. He lifts his hand until his palm is facing the gravity controller. “You!”
“Don’t!” Gules quickly dives in front of Jade. He takes a large inhale of air before yelling out, “Fire Breathing!”
“What?!” Ezekial cries in surprise as the scarlet-eyed prince blows a large amount of flames at him.
“T-thank you, Gules.” Jade sighs lightly as he collapses to his knees in exhaustion of overusing his gravity energy. “I had no idea you could use fire power.”
“He’s alive!” Clear shouts as the black smoke begins to clear, revealing Ezekial standing in the exact same spot. It’s as if Gules’s fire attack has zero effect on him.
Ezekial is rubbing his fingers calmly. He glances at Gules and Beryl. “This is getting boring. Is this all that the Dark Team and the royal army can do?”
“Ezekial… Haven’t you been our father’s most trusted Prime Minister for years? Weren’t you his friend?” Beryl asks. “Why are you doing this now?”
“Friend?” Ezekial chuckles lightly in amusement as he covers his face with his own hand, not wanting to show any emotion being displayed at anyone. “After all I had to go through for him… For the past thousand of years… Your father saved my life when I randomly crashed right here after the God of the First Universe banished me from my own home universe.”
“So what changed?” Gules asks.
Ezekial has not taken his hand off his face yet as he remains quiet. He finally starts to display a smirk on his face after a full minute. “I wanted to be a God. When I arrived here, I was expecting three Gods but they were all gone. Because Kira beat me to them. I never thought they would ever come back. Until a year ago.”
“Wasn’t that when Double God showed up?” Johnny asks.
“Yes, I felt his presence.” Ezekial lifts his head. “I’m sure everyone in this universe did. How could we miss such huge pulsing energy coming from him?”
“So you killed the King just because… you wanted Double God to come here? Because you merely wanted to become God?” Gules asks, his anger rising. “You got to be fucking kidding!”
“But instead of Double God, the Universe Warrior and his stupid team came here,” Ezekial says bitterly. “While I’m grateful to your father for saving my life, my ambition for becoming a God is greater than friendship. So will it finally take Double God to care enough to come here if I kill you both?”
“Beryl… Gules… you have to get out of here,” Clear says nervously. “We will protect you until Knapp gets here.”
“No, how are we supposed to protect our home if we run away?” Gules snaps.
”For once, I agree with my brother.” Beryl places her hands on her hips. “It’s our duty as the prince and princess… I think it’s time for us to grow up.”
”Very well… you’re making it too easy for me.” Ezekial grins widely as he holds up one of his hands in the air and makes it into a snapping form. “But even if you run away, you wouldn’t be able to escape from my power!”
”Beryl… Use your air energy!” Gules yells.
Just as Ezekial snaps his fingers, Beryl quickly spreads air within a city range.
”The minute you run out of your power,” Ezekial says with a smirk on his face. “It’ll be all over. Your friends won’t have any air left.”
Suddenly, a bright yellow orb the size of basketball stops right next to Ezekial after being sent flying fast by Johnny.
”Useless, useless!” Ezekial tosses his other hand across the air, disappearing the orb completely. “Anything that comes to me… will vanish! You don’t want to come too close or you’ll meet the same fate as that attack did!”
”Damn,” Logy mutters, as he himself is a close combat fighter.
Clear tosses a lightning attack at Ezekial but it completely vanishes into air as well. “Tch!”
”It’s amazing that you all managed to delay your death this long. But eventually you will suffer without any air… so why don’t you just die right now rather than later?”
”You!” Gules shouts at the royal army. “You have to warn the people and get them out of this city!”
”It doesn’t matter where they will go… the entire planet will be deprived of air soon enough.”
Half of the royal army quickly leave the battlefield so they can warn the elves while the remaining stay behind.
“I… I-I can’t do it a-anymore…” Beryl hisses. She can feel that her power is getting weaker and weaker as she keeps using it.
“I know your father won’t forgive me…” Ezekial softens his hazel eyes in sadness. “We could have… Without the Gods in this universe, I could have continued playing pretend friendship until I died.”
”You call that friendship pretend?” Gules growls. “We grew up looking up to you because we considered you our family. For centuries!”
Was it just a pretend to me? At first, it was but then they actually grew on me… Ezekial looks away from the Prince of Planet Alfur. “Hmph…” He scoffs at first before chuckling lightly. “That’s right… this entire… I mean, this so-called friendship has been a joke for the entire time!”
“Why you…!” Gules suddenly blasts a large amount of flames out of his hand at Ezekial. The rest of the royal army follows immediately after him with their bows encompassed by their various powers, such as ice, spikes, lightning, and many more.
All they can see is that all of their attacks are being pulverized into nothingness when they get close to Ezekial.
“Keep going!” The red-haired prince shouts. Clear and Johnny join the offensive attack with their own powers, lightning and exploding right away.
All of their attacks still have zero effect on the Prime Minister at all. Even so, they keep going, hoping that Ezekial will eventually run out of his vacio energy.
The red-haired man from the First Universe is not showing any sign of exhaustion at all. He notices that Beryl is no longer using the air energy due to being exhausted but decides to wait until the enemies run out of their powers. But why? I can kill everyone now… What… What am I waiting for?
He glances at Gules and Beryl. Is it because of them… Is it because of the fact that they are the children of King Ranish, who was supposed to be my dear friend?
All of sudden, he senses a fast approaching presence from behind. He quickly turns around to find Logy who is already in the kicking position. His deaf opponent’s foot is literally just a few inches away from his head. W-what is this strength…?! It’s massive compared to all other attacks from others!
Within a split second, Ezekial quickly swings his hand towards Logy, armed with the power of vacio. When he looks up at Logy, he freezes at how determined and fearless the deaf warrior displays on his face.
As he gets kicked hard in the head, he gets sent flying across the field until he crashes into one of the large Japanese style houses. He sighs and then gets up without any struggle. He wipes his dirty clothes with his own hands as he steps out of the pile of debris from the destroyed house.
“You’re really pissing me off,” He mutters in anger. “Didn’t you almost die? Why aren’t you afraid now?”
Logy does not answer his opponent’s question. Instead, he begins to jog towards Ezekial. As soon as the warrior from the First Universe lifts his hand, Logy suddenly changes his direction by going around until he completely gets behind.
Son of a-- Ezekial tries to deprive the air from Logy’s lungs but he is way too fast for him. Logy lands a powerful punch on his foe’s face, sending him crashing into the ground.
“Wow!” Jade exclaims. “When did he get that strong?”
“So all those years of training must have paid off for him, huh?” Johnny places his hands in his pockets as he yawns sleepily.
“Is he even alive after that powerful punch?” Beryl asks softly but soon she finds out.
Ezekial pushes aside pieces of rocks and dirt from the ground as he calmly gets up once again. He shoots Logy a deadly glare as he says, “I guess you’re going to die first.”
“That’s fine,” Logy says with so much confidence. “Give me all of your wrath. You want to be God, don’t you? If you’re losing to me, then how are you going to win against Double God? Or even Universe Warrior?”
“H…he’s trying to distract him from using the power to deprive the entire planet’s air…!” Clear whispers.
“Wait…! I can’t use my air power for him yet!” Beryl cries in concern.
“You really want to die right now, eh?” Ezekial says. “Well then… Say goodby--”
A scarf with white and black patterns is falling onto the ground between Ezekial and Logy with a light thud. The red-haired man from the First Universe frowns in confusion. What the hell is this--
He freezes at a sudden increase in pulsing pressure coming from somewhere above. It’s really close by. He carefully turns his head towards the roof of the most nearby Japanese style house.
Knapp is casually sitting on the roof with his two children who are staring with their big curious eyes.
I-Is that the Universe Warrior? How long have they been there…? Ezekial cannot tell how furious Knapp is at all. He briefly glances at Logy. Was that the reason why he became super confident all of sudden…
“Bad guy?” Ketsu asks innocently, tilting his head to the side a little bit. Katja giggles at her little brother.
“Stay here,” Knapp says to his kids as he gets up. He then leaps from the roof and lands easily next to Logy. He then faces the so-called Prime Minister. “I had been waiting for the past 10 minutes for you to notice me but I guess I got impatient.”
“What?” Ezekial frowns.
“W-who is that?” Gules almost shivers at a large amount of energy that is leaking from Knapp but manages to stop himself.
“You’re looking at the Universe Warrior.” Jade flashes a big grin. “His name is Knapp Mitsukai.”
“He looks really different than I thought,” Beryl says. “I thought he would be like… bigger and more godly?”
“You knew I was going to kill them,” Ezekial says. “Why didn’t you step in earlier? If you’re like the Universe Warrior from the First Universe, then you are going to wait until one of them dies?”
Knapp raises an eyebrow. “I have full confidence in my team. I knew they wouldn’t lose that easily. There’s no way I would ever let them die. Not ever again. I don’t know what your history is with the Universe Warrior or God from your home universe, but I can tell you that our only one and same goal is to protect the Fifth Universe.”
“Well, that’s rather inspiring, isn’t it?” Ezekial lightly chuckles. “Well then… How about this…? If you can escape from my power of vacuum space or vacio, then you can have my soul. Assuming you have the same ability as the Universe Warrior from the First Universe.”
“I’m going to get your soul either way,” Knapp says bluntly. He briefly turns to Logy and uses sign language, “I’m going to fight him alone. Mind if you give us some space?”
“Sure.” Logy has already gone on his way to the Dark Team.
“Ready or not,” Ezekial says. He whirls around fast as he points his palm at two kids on the roof. “Too bad they’re going to die!”
Pure confusion is being displayed on both Ketsu’s and Katja’s faces. They are not gasping for air at all. They’re still breathing like normal.
“What?” Ezekial blinks in confusion. He swears that he has taken the air out of the children’s lungs.
The energy from Knapp has grown from pulsing to heavier. It feels similar to the gravity power that Jade used but also feels entirely different. It’s as if there is some kind of rage involved.
“How low can you really get…? You dare to hurt the children?” Knapp asks bitterly. He lowers his hand, calling back the power of the universe. That is when Ezekial realizes that the universe energy had already coated the kids right from the beginning.
“You may have protected them but… what about the entire planet?! You can’t protect millions of people at the same time!” Ezekial shouts as he slams his hands on the ground.
Every single person within the range of the city feels air being forced out of their lungs just for a second but then gets them back. It’s similar to gasping for air after holding their breaths underwater for a while.
Ezekial closes one of his eyes when Knapp’s entire body is glowing in both darkness and light, but the light is much stronger this time.
“I…It’s the symbol. On his neck,” Clear says as she covers her eyes with her own arm. “Has he been hoarding the universe energy for all those years?”
“Did he just release the universe energy from the symbol? As in giving them back… to replace what’s lost?” Jade asks.
“Damn…!” Ezekial curses as he helplessly watches Knapp take forward steps. He points both of his palms at the Universe Warrior. “Fine, then…! I’ll keep using my power until you run out!”
Knapp can feel a large amount of his energy being sucked out of the symbol on the back of his head. He smirks as soon as he stops just a few feet away from his foe. “Are you sure?”
“...What?”
“I’m not creating the power of the universe. I’m just borrowing it.”
Suddenly, the Divine Sword comes out of the sky flying until Knapp grabs its handle. He continues, “A simple pop quiz for you… Who created the universe in the first place?”
…I’m such an idiot. Ezekial clenches his jaw in frustration. Even though he is not from the Fifth Universe, he has stayed in one long enough to know how it was created. Gods create the universes. Universe Warriors borrow the power of universes. How could I not see that in the first place?
“You figured it out,” Knapp says as he lightly pokes the tip of his sword on Ezekial’s chest. He can clearly see that the fake Prime Minister has already lost his will to fight any further. Ezekial can no longer use his power as long as the Universe Warrior will forever replace what’s lost.
“I don’t want to die,” Ezekial says quietly. “Not until I become God.”
“By trying to overthrow the God of the First Universe and killing hundreds of people… Harming our universe and people. You’re not getting away this time. Eirian.”
Ezekial closes his hazel eyes as his soul, shaped as a jiggling red star with several smaller sparkling stars constantly falling off, comes out of his chest.
He said he didn’t want to die, didn’t he? Knapp watches Ezekial’s soul entering the Divine Sword without any effort. Why didn’t he fight with all he has?
“It’s over…” Beryl sighs as she collapses to her knees.