Chapter 42 "Jervis"

Chapter 42
Jervis

SOUL CLEANSING FACTORY
HADES DISTRICT
HELL KINGDOM

Two souls are crying for help as they try to dig their translucent fingers into the floor but it has not stopped one of the demons from dragging them.

“Bringer of Grim Reaper.”

“What the hell-” The demon with a little long blonde hair, who has been dragging the souls, yells angrily as they slip away from his hands. He growls loudly, watching the souls getting absorbed into another demon’s scythe. He quickly gets himself together as he half-smirks. “Of course, it’s you, Aooni…”

Aooni is sitting on one of the large red boulders along with his large scythe. He scratches his blue-haired head as he asks, “Where are you going with those souls…” He narrows his sharp yellow eyes in suspicion as he finishes his question, “...Jervis?”

“Oh, Death King put me on a special job.” Jervis gives a few chortles. He takes out a roll of scroll and tosses it at Aooni. “See?”

Aooni jumps off the boulder as soon as he finishes reading the scroll. “You’re taking the souls out of the factory… for the royal guards?”

“Death King’s personal guards, to be specific!”

Suddenly, the scroll bursts into flames. Aooni flashes a huge evil grin on his face, showing off his sharp shark teeth. “Mind if you take me on your ‘special’ job? I was sent by Death King to investigate this place… since way too many souls have gone missing.”

Jervis begins to sweat nervously at Aooni’s request. “Oh, is that so? Well…I don’t know if Death King would like it for you to go with me--”

“You better not fucking make a fool of me!” Aooni slams his scythe onto the floor, barely missing Jervis. His sudden impact has created a large deep hole.

The blonde-haired demon laughs loudly after he somehow evades Aooni’s powerful attack, leaping back onto the floor. “Damn! I totally forgot that you have the power of lion. What an amazing massive strength you have right there!”

When he points his fingers at Aooni, several sharp icy cones emerge out of the air and are being sent flying toward the blue-haired demon.

Aooni cuts every single ice attack with his scythe without receiving any damage. Only to realize that Jervis is completely gone. 

He slams the bottom part of the pole of his scythe on the rocky floor with a frown on his face. No matter where you run. I’ll find you… and then I’ll kill you. 

~*~

THE HELL’S CORE MOUNTAIN

“I’m going to kick Tenshu’s ass,” Death King growls angrily. “He should’ve stayed out of my problems.”

The whole mountain is trembling from the constant increase in Death King’s power.

Knapp makes a step back nervously. He wonders if it’s a mistake telling him. No… As long as it keeps my friends safe, it’s no mistake.

“But you have a valid point. Someone has been harming the core.” Death King takes a quick peek at the devil symbol hovering behind himself. “I have my suspicions about a few of my demons… But I didn’t want to believe it until now.”

He starts chuckling at first and then bursts out into loud laughter, along his hand on his face as if he does not want to display any emotion.

Knapp shivers as soon as he senses the power of Elixir suddenly climbing higher and higher.

The symbol of the devil is glowing in a bright red light until it breaks off into pieces, which then sticks to his sword. His weapon has turned into a large scythe in a constant red glow. The red knight-like outfit that Death King is wearing has transformed into a simple black cloak with a large hood that covers the top half of Death King’s face. His two fangs have grown a little bigger.

He is exactly just like the Grim Reaper that Knapp read or heard so many stories about back on Earth.

Universe Warrior knows he has no chance against Death King. Does he still want my soul? Even after I told him everything?

“I’m pissed off.” The Grim Reaper suddenly talks, startling Knapp a little bit. His pulsing energy is starting to take the mountain apart- piece by piece at a time. “My own… Even my own, stupid subordinates dared to steal from me! Souls. Even the life of the planet. After I fucking created them?! Don’t they know that they owe me with their lives?!”

“H-hold on!” Knapp shouts nervously. Fuck, where is Double God when you need him?!

He barely has time to block Death King’s fast weapon attack with his Divine Sword only to get pushed back all the way to the outer wall of the mountain right next to the cavern.

He holds his breath as soon as he hears the first crack coming from his black sword. No…!

A spirit suddenly jumps right out of Knapp’s Divine Sword. It is the soul of Ezekial.

“What?” Death King growls questioningly as he turns to Ezekial, but the soul from the First Universe does not even flinch at the Grim Reaper’s appearance.

“Empty,” Ezekial says ominously as he points his open palm at Death King. The intense energy that is surrounding Death King gets a little smaller.

“Eirian!” Knapp yells as he points his sword at Ezekial but Death King has gotten to the soul first.

“You’re mine now!” Death King shouts as he swings his scythe through Ezekial’s soul body neatly in half.

After a few seconds, he begins to realize that Ezekial has not moved into the scythe at all. Instead, the separated parts of his soul get together as one once again. “Huh…?”

“Eirian, Ezekial!” Knapp tries again but Ezekial refuses to barge at all. He shouts out of desperation, “Stop! That’s enough!”

Not only the power from the Elixir but also more and more of the air on the planet is getting vacuumed. Knapp can only imagine his own comrades choking for the air. STOP!!!

~*~

“Knapp? Knapp, please wake up!”

Knapp can barely open his dark brown eyes. His entire body is painfully sore, and he realizes that he is dangerously low on the universe energy.

“Thank god you’re still alive!” It’s Gules. His hands are pressing on Knapp’s chest with a green glow. “We thought you died for real!”

“...What…” Happened? Knapp's throat feels so scratchy and dry.

As soon as Knapp sits up, he gets tackled with a big warm hug from Logy. He can clearly hear loud sobs from his lover. He begins to look around. His entire team is here. And some are crying and others are trying to hold back their tears.

“Here’s water.” Jade hands a water bottle over to Knapp who wastes no time drinking the whole thing.

“W-where is Death King?” Knapp asks dryly.

“Over there.” Gules shakily points one of his hands while he still has his second hand healing Knapp’s wounds. 

Viola, Thorn, and Raven are jumping around and panicking over the unconscious Death King who is just a few feet away. Death King is back to himself in his original red knight outfit along with his sword. No Grim Reaper’s cloak nor scythe are to be seen anywhere.

“He’s fine. He was wounded but he self-healed pretty fast. I guess you did huge damage to knock him out?” Gules gives a light yet exhausted sigh. “Jade already checked him. You were in much worse shape.”

“I-I don’t remember,” Knapp mumbles. He instinctively reaches out for his sword only to stop. He is staring at it in disbelief. Is it even the Divine Sword anymore?

There is still the large crack part on the side of the blade but that is not what Knapp is concerned about. The sword was always black. All of it. The entire blade and handle.

This time, the half of the blade is completely white. Not silver. Just pure white with a large crack. What the hell did Ezekial did-- wait, where is he?

“Fucking hell…”

The entire Dark Team, including Knapp and Logy, shudders at Death King’s voice as if it reminds them how insanely strong he can be.

“Death King… what happened?” Knapp asks again. “Where is Ezekial?”

“That soul? He’s back in your fucking sword,” Death King hisses in pain as he tries to get up.

“Eeks! Will you be ok standing up?” Viola exclaims in concern only to get “Of course yes, you imbecile!” from Death King.

“Although I can only remember parts of it. I was kinda blinded by the rage,” Death King mumbles, almost as if he is embarrassed. 

“Of course you were…” Kawaii emerges from the air, startling Viola who yelps in surprise. “You both would’ve been goners if I did not intervene. But…” 

~*~

Use the power of all the galaxies in the universe!

Kawaii’s voice echoes throughout Knapp’s head. Immediately, the Universe Warrior yells, “Ten Souls of the Fifth Universe, I need to borrow your power, please!”

Ten sparkling rays of light come rushing from the red sky, crashing into Knapp. Right through his chest cleanly. He coughed out a large amount of blood.

The symbol of the Fifth Universe on the back of his neck is on fire. Overflowing with the universe energy, Overwhelming not only Knapp’s body but also his consciousness, even.

The Grim Reaper frowns. Even he can clearly tell that Knapp is no longer conscious. The Universe Warrior is still standing but the overwhelming power of the Fifth Universe is making him to.

Knapp manages to move his hand, calling for the nearly broken Divine Sword. It suddenly moves flying toward him until he catches it easily. His entirely black weapon is getting engulfed in a bright light until its power becomes split with pure light and darkness. Half black and half white.

He shifts his dull eyes towards Ezekial. “Eirian.” This time the soul from the First Universe cries out and finally gets sucked back into the Divine Sword.

“How are you not dead yet?” Death King asks, watching blood pouring out of Knapp’s chest freely. “You’re Universe Warrior. Why are you not healing yourself?”

“Because the threat to the Fifth Universe is still here,” Knapp says monotonously. He points his sword at the Grim Reaper. “That’s you.”

Death King grins widely. He gets in a fighting position. “I feel honored. I regret that I didn't say it in the first place… Welcome to Hell.”

Suddenly, the entire planet starts shaking as soon as Death King draws the power of the Elixir into a large ball of flames. It is hovering in air just right above him, in the size of a normal house from Earth. “Blazing Hell!”

He tosses the huge fireball attack towards Knapp.

“Divine Sword Art…” Knapp adjusts his position into a sword attack posture. He swings his sword at the Grim Reaper’s gigantic attack. “Galaxy Stars!”

~*~

“...And that’s when you almost destroyed each other,” Kawaii says. He takes a brief look at the Divine Sword in the new form. “Knapp, I advised you to use a new power called Ten Souls of the Fifth Universe. They came from all ten galaxies in this universe. Although I believe it might be too soon for you. It almost killed you… I thought I was mistaken to think that you were ready but… it saved yourself, your friends, and even the planet.”

“And when we came out, we saw you and Death King passed out like that. You were bleeding to death. Gules was healing you as much as he could,” Clear explains. 

“We thought you were dead for real!” Jade exclaims.

“Basically you both lost the control of your powers. I’m so sorry. I should’ve stopped the battle before it happened,” Kawaii mumbles.

Logy is helping Knapp to get up from the floor. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” Knapp can stand without Logy’s help, although his legs are still a little shaky. Thank goodness for Gules’s healing power.

“Glad to hear you’re still alive,” Death King says in annoyance. “I told Tenshu to stop meddling in my business. I didn’t ask. I told him. I warned him what would happen if he did it again.”

“Death King…” Kawaii says in concern. “Why are you walking the same path as before? The one that led to the third Soul War?”

“That was thousands of years ago,” Death King snaps. He lightly smacks himself in the face. “I’ve gone too soft since then.”

He wipes his dirty knight outfit with his hands as he turns to Knapp. “What did Tenshu promise you? I’ve known him since the beginning of the universe. He’s the exact kind of the guy who gets everything his way as long as he makes the deals.”

Knapp pauses for a minute, clearly on the fence whether to tell him or not.

Death King rolls his scarlet red eyes. He says, “Leave now.”

“Now, wait a minute--” Knapp gets interrupted.

“I’m not asking.”

After a few minutes, Death King is giving the Dark Team a deadly glare like if they do not leave soon, there will be a severe consequence. 

“We have a problem,” Clear says nervously.

“What?” Death King snaps.

“We have no way to get off,” Knapp adds. “That was what I was trying to say. Tenshu-sama sent us with his portal--”

A portal suddenly appears right out of the air. “There. You can leave.” Death King waves his dismissive hand. At this point he is getting impatient every second. He stops Knapp from opening his mouth as he says scornfully, “I don’t want to negotiate with you any longer.”

“Um, sir, may I please make a suggestion?” Thorn asks nervously.

“If you’re with them, you can go with them.”

“N-no, sir…” Thorn mumbles as he begins to kick the floor anxiously. “You remember… That guy has the power of mind reading?”

“Oh right. You stay here,” Death King points his sword at Logy, who flinches at the sudden movement. “I want your soul. Mind if you become one of my demons?”

“Oh hell no, you have to go through me first!” Knapp snaps, withdrawing his sword as well.

“W-wait, sir!” Raven cries. “What Thorn was trying to suggest- Use him to read every demon’s head. You can find out who the traitors are!”

Death King intimidatingly stomps towards Raven, who yelps in fear and dives behind Knapp. “You know… That’s actually a good idea.”

Clear and Johnny both hastily put away the balls of lightning and exploding, silently hoping that Death King did not notice them.

Knapp gives Death King a half-smirk. Raven does not dare to leave the Universe Warrior’s side, trembling in fear for her safety.

~*~

HIDEOUT
PLUTO DISTRICT
HELL KINGDOM

Jervis is walking forth and back, leaving behind a growing ditch on the floor. He mutters angrily, “Dammit, dammit… How the hell did Aooni catch me? Isn’t he that low-rank demon? Why did Death King assign him--”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Nothing!” Jervis quickly says as if he has said it thousands of times. He nervously looks up to find a pair of yellow eyes in the dark. “Nekros, is that you?”

Nekros leaps from the metal walkway that is suspended in the air with ropes connected to the ceiling. He lands gracefully on the concrete floor. He has been holding his own large scythe which is even taller than himself. He runs his free hand through his white hair in mohawk style as he says arrogantly, “Of course it’s me. Who else?”

“Right…” Jervis chuckles lightly. “I was worried that I was being followed-”

“By who?” Nekros demands.

“Aooni.”

“That guy’s nothing but a low-rank troublemaker…” Nekros scoffs. “Although… he has made a lot of huge jumps in his career though… It won’t be long before he becomes a high-rank demon and will be out of this hellhole taking people’s souls. Then he won’t bother us anymore. You don’t have to worry about him. Just make sure he doesn’t follow you.”

“Okay!” Jervis chirps. 

“Did you get the souls?”

“W-well… Aooni took them… But I can go back and get more!” Jervis exclaims. He hurriedly puts on his ice skates. “It’s just a few more souls… and then we’ll be stronger than Death King, right? Especially since the core is out of the question… You were heading there, right?”

“Yeah, some freaky outsiders were there,” Nekros frowns in concern. “And also Death King used the Elixir. I don’t know what will happen, but if Viola is no longer guarding the core… Well, that doesn’t matter anymore. We just need a couple of more souls… Soon we will take over the kingdom!”

Jervis beams a large grin as he gets up and then a new path of ice is being formed under his feet. He gives him a quick slate as he shouts, “All hail Lamia-sama!”