Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 448: Death

Chapter 448: Death

Death by a hundred monsters. Unfair death. Certain death. Agonizing death. Jules refused to accept such a tragedy.

The Red Bake-kujira—it was a she. A girl that could give birth, unlike her brother whose abilities focused on speed and acid. Put simply, an aggressive male where the female Red Bake-kujira was a natural defender.

The greatest defence could become the greatest offence.

A hundred monsters doubled in a matter of seconds. Five seconds of Booker Davis Jr, the carrier of the bomb, being mauled and killed.

"We have to enter Burst Mode," Jules exclaimed. "Feeni—"

"Wait! Calm down!" Matty put a hand on her shoulder. "Just listen!"

"Listen? L-Matty, look!" Despite the panic and panting, the Mythical Beast Tamer calmed from his touch. She swallowed her fear and looked down. All she saw was an impossible situation. "Feenie, burn—"

"I said hold it. Don’t you hear it? Like I said, listen."

"H-hear it...?"

She looked down. She focused. She couldn’t hear like Matty could. Not with the fear and redness encroaching on her vision.

"H-huh? What is...?"

She heard...flesh being torn. She heard...

Bang.

Bullets being fired off.

"Is he...?"

A gap was suddenly formed and she could plainly see it. A human arm.

He...

He was killing ALL of them.

It was not a battle; it was a massacre. Booker Davis Jr, the living weapon. Elbows shattered skulls. Fists tore into feathers and scales. His bloodied boots smashed through bone and cartilage. A relentless fury of destruction that tore through the 469 monsters as if he were possessed.

Four hundred became a thousand in ten seconds.

So many replaced. So many spawning.

So many falling.

The water below churned with the remains of the creatures, their bodies sinking into the lake in pieces.

He burst from the carnage. The horrifying canvas of red rain fell. The lone figure dived down, his skin was torn, his clothes in shreds, his arms trembling as he clutched the final Ember Hive Bomb.

He was still carrying it.

Even with the impossible angles, he was able to hold on. He switched seamlessly. He switched as though he was some God of War. Blood dripped from him, blurring his vision as he dived down faster and faster. Kazi Hossain, watching from afar, had NOT seen this moment through his Future Sight. He had seen Booker’s demise, seen him torn apart, broken, lifeless. And yet, this—this was different.

This was impossible.

In so little it, in so little space...!

More monsters birds rose to meet him. The Bake-kujira had known something was wrong from the start. This human...

What was he?

Booker Davis Jr whirled, grabbed a bird and crushed its skull, and kept falling down. He used the corpses as a sword, then spun forward and threw it down to crash into the incoming birds.

Finally, he had space.

"Last one," Booker rasped, his voice barely audible over the storm. The bomb had one second left. One second till detonation. He pulled his arm back, his muscles screaming in protest as he prepared to throw it.

And then, he hurled it.

The bomb spiraled down, a golden beacon of destruction. It struck the into the skull and glued itself before....

BOOM!

B-B-B-BOOOM!

B-BOOOM!

CRACKLE! BOOM! B-BOOM!

...detonating. A chaotic swarm of explosions that decimated the spawning monsters. Hundreds of little pulse of fire and light erupted outward, tearing through the skeleton in brutal, devastating implosions. The explosion consumed it, steam and blood erupting from its bones. The monsters couldn’t spawn even if they wanted to. They died upon birth and then lost the thing that created them.

Booker turned, his vision blurring as exhaustion finally overtook him. Through the explosions, the female Bake-kujira managed to fire off three steam missiles. Their fiery trails converged on his position. He could see no way out. He had done his part. This was the end.

But then, a streak of flame shot through the air.

Feenie.

****

"There are weapons forged by men and there are weapons aided by the gods and forged by men. The Emberhive Bomb belongs to the latter. It is no mere explosive, no alchemist’s trinket nor mortal mage’s creation. It is divinity captured in a vessel of death, an inheritance of the Sun God himself, Ra.

The myths tell us that in the earliest days of the world, Ra wept over mankind’s wickedness, and where his tears touched the sand, they became bees. These were no ordinary creatures, but divine foragers, carrying the power of the sun in their wings and the judgment of the gods in their stingers. It was the desert shamans who first discovered their true potential—not as docile servants of nature, but as instruments of war. Through rituals lost to time, they bound the essence of these celestial bees into waxen hives, shaping them into the first weapons of Ra. Spears tipped with the carcasses of the insects. Metal lathered in their honey.

To wield one is to wield the wrath of the heavens.

The Emberhive Bomb is unlike any explosive made by human hands. It is not a singular detonation, but a cascading swarm of destruction. When the bomb is hurled and shatters upon impact, the waxen casing splits open, releasing thousands of embers—each one a furious, vengeful emberbee. These embers do not burn like ordinary fire. No, they seek. They hunt. They do not simply ignite flesh; they consume it, swarming like living things. The heat they generate is intense enough to sear through steel, turning armor to molten slag and flesh to charred ruin within seconds.

The bomb functions in three phases of devastation:

The Initial Detonation – Upon shattering, a small but highly pressurized burst of Ra’s mana erupts, dispersing the embers outward in every direction. This blast alone is enough to incinerate anything within ten paces.

The Swarm’s Hunt – The embers, like the bees of old, seek out movement and living essence. They do not simply burn indiscriminately; they target anything with a pulse, swarming and clinging like fire-gorged insects. The more a victim struggles, the more the embers latch on, burrowing through flesh and bone alike.

The Chain Reaction – As each emberbee completes its task, it explodes in a secondary burst, scattering even more fire and igniting anything nearby. In battle, this means that a single Emberhive Bomb does not simply kill its initial targets—it spreads. One explosion begets another, and another, and another, like wildfire taking root in a dry forest.

It is said that a single Emberhive Bomb, if detonated within an enclosed space, can eradicate an entire battalion. In open fields, three of them are enough to become turn a hundred-man army to smoldering ash. Against monsters of the abyss, they are one of the few weapons capable of bypassing thick hides and enchanted defenses.

So although it is Class 5 in power, theoretically, it COULD go above and beyond. However, I sincerely doubt an Class 6 creature would fall. To fall to the mere tears of a god would be unworthy of their strength.

There are limitations too. Water, though unable to extinguish the embers entirely, can dampen their effectiveness. Heavy rain weakens their spread, as does the presence of Sun God energy Think Amaterasu or the Nine Tailed Fox. Creatures blessed by night-bound gods can endure longer.

The original recipe was forged by an Egyptian man during the Chaotic Era. The jump from spears and small bombs to a cluster was....impressive. Nobody knows the inventor’s name. Nobody knows the original schematics. Someway, through word of mouth, its creation spread and during the height of the Second Heavenly War, it was used quite thoroughly. In modern times, I suspect people will forget and only a select few will know how to properly use Ra’s tear and turn them into the Emberhive."

- Legendary Journal of Raoul, Leader of the Monster Hunters, ??? HE