Chapter 46 "Logy Oib: Part III"
Chapter 46
Logy Oib
Part III
The Savior’s Star does not blow up. Instead, it suddenly shrinks back into a small but happily bouncing red star once again. A tiny bright and sparkling orb gently comes out of the red star and is being carried through the air until it reaches Knapp.
The red star is floating back to Hiroshi. He gives a relieved sign as he takes a look at the entire palace. Nothing is left at all, not even a single piece of the large castle. Except Death King, Dark Team members, and a few demons still standing and alive.
“Oh my…” Liza smiles warmly. “Is that a new universe? But isn’t it too small?”
“Yeah. At least the fight is finally over,” Hiroshi says exhaustedly as he bends down a little with his hands sitting on his knees. “Phew. It’s been centuries since the last time I fought another Universe Warrior…”
Knapp gently lifts the orb of the new, tiny universe up, which is then being absorbed into the symbol on the back of his neck.
Suddenly, the sky is partially blue again, but everything else becomes so quiet like if someone tries to say just one word to Knapp, hell would have broken out once again.
Death King finally lets himself go as he collapses to his knees. D-damn…! I would never have thought the Universe Warrior would do something like this.
Knapp…
Knapp turns back to Kawaii, who is still in the adult form. He is clearly on the verge of tears.
I’m so sorry.
As soon as Knapp hears Kawaii’s broken voice, he collapses to the ground on his hands and knees and lets out all of his raw emotions. Pain, sadness, frustration, anger, and many more all at once. His loud heartbreaking screams echo throughout the silence before they turn into quiet sobs.
He gets pulled into a warm embrace. He realizes that it is Kawaii who is hugging him tightly. Shortly afterward, the rest of Dark Team members join in the embrace along with crying and sobbing.
T-they don’t hate me…? Knapp drops his head on Kawaii’s shoulder. Even after watching me almost destroy the universe?
“Put him down,” Gules says angrily.
As soon as he hears him, Knapp looks up to find Hiroshi bringing Logy over to them with Liza. Hiroshi carefully places the deaf warrior on the ground.
“Calm down,” Liza says with a small smile. “We mean you no harm. Promise!”
“We’re leaving. I’m so sorry for your loss,” Hiroshi says softly only to get a few glares. He raises up his hands as he backs away.
“Wait, wait!” Raven cries, running to them. “Don’t go just yet!”
“Huh? Are you talking to us, little demon?” Hiroshi asks.
“Y-yes!” Raven takes a few deep breaths before she continues, “You’re an Angel, right?”
Hiroshi and Liza look at each other. Liza says, “Yes, that’s right. I’m the Angel from the First Universe.”
“You can return a soul to its dead owner, right? Am I right? Right? Please tell me I’m right!”
“Slow down.” Hiroshi chuckles lightly. “What do you mean by that?”
“I have his soul in my book!” Raven lifts her red magical book. “I know this is too much for me to ask… After all, you helped out and saved all of us… even though we are strangers from two different universes… But even so… can you please bring him back to life?”
“I totally forgot that Angels can bring dead people back to life as long as the souls have not gone anywhere!” Clear exclaims.
“You’re asking me to risk not only my life but also the life of Ch— the First Universe. Don’t you know what will happen if Hikyou-sama finds out?” Liza no longer smiles.
“I’ll fight him if I have to,” Knapp says determinedly as he gets up.
“Us too!” Jade joins.
Liza gives Hiroshi a questioning glance. Hiroshi shrugs his shoulders and is about to open his mouth when his red star suddenly chirps and swoops until it bounces around in the air above Logy.
“Damn.” The Savior sighs lightly as he raises his hand up to cover some of his face. “Fine, I’ll take responsibility.”
Liza rolls up the sleeves of her lab coat and shakes her hands a few times as if she’s warming up. “Alright, can you please put the book next to him? Close to him as much as possible.”
After Raven does as she asked, Liza kneels down and places one of her hands on Logy’s chest. “First, I have to get his heart going.”
As soon as Liza’s hand begins to get enclosed with a bright green magical glow, she glances at Raven. “You can open the book now.”
When the demon opens the book, Liza gently grabs the soul’s hand the second it gets out. She smiles brightly, trying to ease the look of fear that Logy’s soul is giving her. “Hi there! I’m here to help you find your way back to your body, okay?”
She carefully brings him into his body. She waits a little bit until Logy’s body is entirely enclosed with green magic. “Revival.”
Logy gasps suddenly as he opens his hazel eyes and arches his body but Liza is still not done yet. She instructs, “Breathe slowly. Good… Inhale. Exhale…”
The deaf warrior falls back in slumber once again but he is getting back the color in his face, and he is still breathing normally. The Healing Angel is done as she gets up and turns to Knapp. “He will be ok once he wakes up but I have to warn you. So listen carefully.”
She places her hands in the pockets of her lab coat. “As you see, every soul is connected to their body with a set of chains. As you can see, Logy no longer has the chains. It means the next time either he stops breathing or his heart stops beating, his soul will be long gone with no way of coming back at all.”
“That’s fine. I’ll protect him from now on.” Knapp takes Logy in his arms. He bows his head as he says tearfully, “Thank you. I owe you with my life.”
“Oh, it’s no biggie!” Hiroshi grins widely and then laughs lightly.
~*~
Logy groggily wakes up to find himself in a warm embrace of another person in the bed. He blinks several times as he asks hoarsely, “Knapp?”
“Sorry, that’s not me.”
Logy jerks out of the embrace and takes a quick look at him. Two large wings of black and white feathers are the first things that catch his attention. Then, that hair of his is half black and white- same with heterochromia eyes that are forever in the sea of darkness and light.
He hesitantly reaches out his hand and then gently strokes the familiar man’s face. He asks, “Kawaii? Why are you here…? And why do you look different now?”
“You died. Knapp asked me to keep you safe. I suppose you’re stuck with me for now.” Kawaii pulls Logy closer so he can wrap him in his large wings, trying to keep him warm. “This is just another form of mine. You were shivering, so I just wanted to help you.”
It takes a little bit for Logy to process what Kawaii just said. He suddenly bolts up and cries in shock, “What?! I died?!”
~*~
Logy cannot believe how much he missed when his soul got taken. He vaguely remembers that he tried to use his power of teleportation so he could save Raven, not knowing that Lamia would take his soul. That easily. He was prepared to block the Grim Reaper’s scythe but apparently it did not work the same way.
He feels really awful. Truly guilty about how it went down after he died. Knapp went mad and suicidal. Endangered everyone’s lives, even.
How could he have been so weak, especially right after he told Knapp he would get stronger and stand next to him?
He still has not seen Knapp yet but when Kawaii informs the Dark Team that he woke up, it was only Clear and Jade who came and filled in what happened during the battle.
“Where is Knapp?” Logy asks after he finishes processing the story.
“He’s helping with rebuilding the palace,” Clear answers right away.
“When can I see him?”
“Soon. You need to get some rest,” Jade says as he shrugs. “Doctor’s order.”
Liza. Logy thinks to himself. The Healing Angel from the First Universe. And Hiroshi, the Savior. How could it have been a coincidence especially when they arrived in time to stop Knapp? Why are they here instead of in their respective universe? Something doesn’t feel right. Aren’t the Saviors supposed to be the most feared of all immortals?
“Okay,” the deaf warrior says. “I’m going to take a shower.”
~*~
It was a little white lie. He did go into the bathroom only to exit using the window. It was pretty small, obviously made for little demons but luckily Logy was not too muscular and was a little thinner compared to Knapp and Johnny.
“Phew!” Logy says after landing safely with his feet from the third floor. He looks up to realize that it is an inn where he was staying. Right, the palace is gone. I wonder where Death King is sleeping at?
He is taking a stroll through the streets with several shops. He does not hear any yelling from the sellers trying to pressure him into buying something, so he’s thankful he’s deaf.
“Where are you going?”
Logy stops walking when Kawaii’s child form appears in front. He says with a scowl, “They’re treating me like I’m a fragile thing. I’m looking for Knapp.”
“You died. And you don’t have the soul chains anymore.” Kawaii says.
“You too?” Logy sighs lightly. He walks literally through Kawaii, who yells “Hey!”
“They’re worried about you.”
“I know,” the deaf warrior says softly, not stopping at all but the child form of the Fifth Universe glides around to get in front of him.
“Knapp doesn’t want to see you anymore.” Kawaii watches Logy slowing down to stop. “And I think you need to leave the Dark Team.”
“What? Why are you doing this?” Logy asks angrily, making other demons who walk by stare at him. “What did I ever do to you?!”
All of sudden, Kawaii changes his form into an adult as he gets closer to Logy- enough to stare into his hazel eyes. He almost destroyed me- the entire universe because of you.
Logy flinches. Not because of Kawaii’s sudden movement. It’s because he read Kawaii’s thoughts for the first time ever. He is not sure whether it’s his ability growing stronger or if Kawaii has let his guard down. Wait… Did I just literally read the universe’s thoughts? Is it really possible? Or did I imagine it?
“If you saw what Knapp nearly did, would you fight him to save me… or would you stand by and abandon me?” Kawaii asks, his face expression turning painful at the end. He hurt me. A lot.
To Kawaii’s surprise, Logy reaches out to pull him into his embrace. He says gently, “You know I would always fight for you. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. I promise it won’t happen again.”
He smiles when he can feel Kawaii getting smaller until he returns to the child form.
~*~
Logy is hesitant as soon as he sees Knapp at the destroyed palace. The Universe Warrior is speaking to Death King who seems to grumble at every word.
A door-sized portal suddenly emerges out of the air. Death King growls angrily before he steps through it.
I wonder what they were talking about? Logy thinks. He takes a good look at the area. It is completely empty. Not even a piece of the castle or nature exists at all. All that’s left is just dry, rocky, and yellow fields. The waterfalls are still present, thankfully.
Now that Knapp thinks he is alone, he takes a look at his hand. From Logy’s perspective, he looks so…
Defeated. Before Logy realizes it, his tears are already coming down his face.
As Knapp turns to see Logy, he freezes in his place. All Logy can get from the Universe Warrior’s thoughts are both shame and relief.
The Universe Warrior is about to take off into the sky when Logy suddenly appears right in front of him. He blinks in surprise. “Huh?”
“I looked for you,” Logy says with a frown on his face. “They weren’t going to let me go and see you.”
“You still need to recover and--”
“Quit with that bullshit excuse!” Tears have never stopped freely flowing, but Logy cannot help but keep receiving not only Knapp’s thoughts but also strong emotions.
“What you did back then… You suicidal dumbass…! That was so stupid of you. Kawaii was so afraid of you. But even so…” Logy pauses for a little bit before he continues, “I realize that you’re still a human. We all have forgotten that because you are the Universe Warrior. Everyone has always treated you like a hero or a deity who protects the universe.”
There has been a small change in Knapp’s heart. How Logy senses that, he is not sure.
“Logy,” Knapp says as he reaches out his hand but is hesitant to touch the deaf warrior. “You’ve always stood by me. You were there for me when Sybil and others died. Helped me with my kids. Fought the enemies alongside me. You taught me more than anyone else. Every day I fall in love with you more. But it’s because of my feelings for you that I went too far, willing to destroy the entire universe just to bring you back.”
After the Big Bang, it changed into a small, new universe. Knapp could clearly see what was inside of it. But he realized that even restarting the universe also meant trillions and trillions of choices and paths that would have been made by both immortals and mortals.
Logy takes Knapp’s hand and kisses the back of it. “I know you would never attempt to destroy the universe. You were trying to restart it, but you stopped because you realized that Kawaii was in a lot of pain.”
In that new universe, there was no Logy Oib. He would never come back, even in the next universe. This was a chance that Knapp could never live with that fact.
“Right…” Knapp says softly as he cups Logy’s face with his hands, leaning down for a kiss.