Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 440: Saviour Born of the Lake

Chapter 440: Saviour Born of the Lake

The roar of the Bake-kujira echoed across Lake Shinji and to the land. It was no longer the lone threat it had been moments ago. It was neither stronger or weaker, it was...

Booker felt it first. His vision dulled and his breathing grew labored as though the weight of the atmosphere had doubled. His finger, squeezed tight on the trigger, suddenly left.

"Fuck, I feel..."

Matty dropped to his knees, gasping. "J-Jules...!"

"M-Matty, are you okay!?" Jules didn’t seem affected.

Why was that...?

Booker grit his teeth. Her phoenix. Its light was shining upon her. Its healing light was apart of her and protecting her. But not Matty and Booker. "The plague...!"

From here, he could see the signs spreading. Boats and rowers slowing.

Astrid, who had moments ago been dashing across the humongous skull and fighting the monsters, stumbled. She caught herself quickly and kicked into a hoard of monsters, slashing them fast and quick. Her pink sword trembled in her grip, the vibrant aura of the great metal dimming like a candle struggling against the wind.

Kurōtarō the giant paused mid-swing. His massive nodachi hung limply at his side as he leaned on one knee, his broad shoulders heaving. Even from this distance, through the sniper scope, Booker could see the faint sheen of sweat on the samurai’s face and the slackening of his typically ironclad posture.

They were closer to the Bake-kujira. Far, far closer and the effects struck them hard.

The creature’s mana was seeping into the battlefield, spreading like a noxious cloud. With its echolocation organ destroyed and its body thrashing in disarray, the leviathan’s raw power was no longer controlled. Its magical essence poured out like poison, tainting everything it touched.

Booker pulled himself to his feet tried to walk. His knees trembled violently. His heart raced, pumping blood that felt like fire through his veins. "Feels like a damn chemical weapon..." he rasped. His breaths came in shallow, wheezing gasps. The mana wasn’t just heavy—it was invasive. It crawled under his skin, burrowing deep into his muscles and bones, draining his vitality like a parasite.

He was confident he could still fight. However, that was only here on the land. If he came closer and joined everyone else...

"Even this far, it’s so strong....?"

Here and there, it affected all. The weaker players and samurai clutched at their chests or collapsed against the rails, their strength visibly sapped. Arrows fell short of their marks and the once-defiant shouts turned into groans of pain and confusion.

Perhaps not confusion. Perhaps anticipation and desire. They had a solution. They did—

"Jules, take out Feenie. This is going to hurt her if she’s around."

For a moment, Booker thought the Bake-kujira was behind. A huge, unfathomable skyscraper of mana swallowed him whole and made him consider he was dead. He wasn’t.

"Divine Miracle Water."

Kazi Hossain was back.

His hair and garbs seemed to flicker.

Upon his eyes opening and his beauty rising, Kazi disappeared. One moment, he was close to them and the next he was elsewhere. Only Booker was able to catch his movement. He ended up at the shore, feet in both the water and the dirt. The chaos of waves were no longer there with his presence.

Not just the sea, the skies answered to his presence.

Clouds formed overhead with unnatural speed, churning and darkening as if summoned by a god. The air grew cool and electric, the oppressive heat of the Bake-kujira’s mana dissipating like a distant memory.

And then, the rain came.

It wasn’t like any rain Booker had ever seen. Each droplet shimmered faintly, almost as if infused with light. The rain fell in steady sheets, covering the battlefield in moments. The first droplets touched the earth and spread outward in ripples, soaking into the poisoned soil and washing away the plague’s taint.

Matty gasped as the rain hit his dark skin. The suffocating weight in his chest eased instantly, replaced by a cooling sensation that spread through her veins. Jules was right by his side, smiling at his recovery.

"Thank god...! You can breath, right? Do it slowly, in and out, in and out."

"I-I’m alright," Matty said, his stoic mask cracking for a brief moment. "I’m feeling...stronger." The aching fatigue melted away, replaced by a warmth that reinvigorated his limbs.

Booker stood in stunned silence, his drenched dreadlocks sticking to his face as he tilted his head back to feel the rain on his skin. The burning in his chest, the numbness in his fingers—all of it was gone. He felt stronger, sharper, like a man reborn.

"Holy hell..." Booker looked back toward Kazi. So far. He seemed so far.

Kazi stood unmoving, his arms relaxed at his sides, yet the glow around him had intensified. The rain seemed to orbit him, drawn to his presence as though he were its source. He was no longer just a man. His hair had changed. It had become blue, a colour so sharply azure like the ocean, it was like a calling. The blue spread. His clothes, a gift from death herself, shifted into twin shades of azure and sky blue.

What was this?

Who was he?

Kazi Hossain was something more—something Ascendant.

Everything changed from the hands of this blue-haired man. The many samurai and players who had been on the brink of collapse found their footing again. Shouts of despair turned to cries of hope as the rain cleansed them, body and soul. Even the waters of Lake Shinji seemed to calm, the noxious green hue fading back to clarity.

The Bake-kujira roared, thrashing violently against the rain. Steam rose in erratic bursts as the divine water made contact with its corrupted mana. Suddenly, its once-overwhelming presence visibly diminished.

’He said he was going to have Jules and Matty throw potions that will stop the plague...’

Not this. Not literally manipulating the clouds into what he wanted.

A beat passed and arrows were flying again. Astrid was slamming her blade down, grinning. The crack atop its skull grew. She more than anyone felt the effects of the Divine Water. She had been the closest and the least affected too. Something happened.

Kazi waved a hand down.

Lightning struck Astrid—and powered her up.

"Ha!? Hahahaha!" She didn’t understand what was happening and she didn’t care. "Thank you, Thor! Hahaha! Yngling Sigil: Hagalaz! Monarch’s Wrath!"

Slam! Crack!

Upon her strongest strike, the Bake-kujira moved on to its next phase. Booker had already blinked next to Kazi, side-eyeing him and then gazing upon this monster.

Monstrous amounts of mana arose from it. Dark shapes spilled from its skeletal ribs, countless forms writhing and snapping in unnatural synchronization. They were spectral, translucent yet corporeal, monsters pulled from some cursed abyss.

This was nothing like the monsters it had summoned before. These were without shape. These were demonically black and made of a goo that Booker instinctively believed was the plague personified.

Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.

In ordinary circumstances, these creatures would have killed hundreds. Today, their forms gasped and hissed from the Divine Rain. From the Saviour Born in the Lake, Kazi Hossain.