Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 452: Hell Explosion

Chapter 452: Hell Explosion

The Mother Bake-kujira: capable of steam that countered any and all threats, bringing down the plague upon people, a strong echolocation and magnetic sensing, a natural ability to boil the water around them, immense speed and strength, and to top it all off, it had been giving birth.

The brother Bake-kujira was obscenely fast—likely as fast as his mother if she had not been pregnant—and possessed a spewing mixture of the plague and steam. No monsters could be birthed. A pure offensive-based monster, its echolocation and magnetic sensing made a bull who did not miss its targeting. Crushing all those within its path with its sheer weight and momentum.

The sister Bake-kujira was slow and methodical. Defensive in nature, its primary method of attack was through swarms of steam missiles and monsters. Both methods were reliant on her echolocation and magnetic sensing. Both methods were near impossible for an ordinary fighter to deal with.

Kazi Hossain’s Gargantua Super Strike was embedded through the brother. All he needed to do was slice it half. His samurai garbs bellowed and his freshly blond hair crackled and spiked up. His eyes had turned a deep shade of gold. Time to finish this...!

"Haaah!"

He sliced it in half.

Its tail and spine crashed down on one side while its skull and ribs tumbled in the other.

Kazi Hossain exhaled sharply as he straightened, the conjured blade humming with residual energy. He did it. The Gargantua Super Strike had cleaved the Blue Bake-kujira in half. The lake rippled violently from the mana radiating off of him, the rain hissing as it met the raw electricity still sparking from his form.

It should have been over.

But it wasn’t.

Kazi felt it before he saw it—a pulse of malevolent heat surging from the severed remains of the great beast. His golden eyes widened as the Blue Bake-kujira’s flesh began to glow an ominous, molten red. The air grew thick with energy, and then—

The water began to boil.

His left eye pulsed. He could see it now—the severed organs at the center of the Blue Bake-kujira’s body, pulsing with unstable mana.

"No..." His heart pounded. "Oh, hell no."

The future he saw? It was a total hellscape. Nothing but raging fires.

The heat radiating from the corpse was unnatural, violent. Something deep within was building up to an eruption. His left eye pulsed for a second time. He gleamed into the future, counted down the seconds and the location of the explosion. The organ responsible for its Fire Annihilation Breath was destabilizing. He watched in horror as steam exploded outward from the scattered pieces of the skeleton whale. Kazi could feel his own magic flickering in response, the sheer intensity of heat frying the natural mana flow around him.

’If this thing explodes, it’ll wipe out the lake.’

He gritted his teeth, eyes flicking toward the battlefield. The Red Bake-kujira was still alive, locked in a battle with Booker Davis Jr., and in the distance, the Mother Bake-kujira’s colossal corpse lay like a mountain of death. Three of them. Three Bake-kujira with massive, mana-filled bodies.

If this explosion triggers the others—

Matsue will be obliterated.

"Shit!" Kazi spat, forcing himself to move.

He thrust his hands forward, willing the water to rise, just like before.

Nothing happened.

His breath hitched. The water had turned to steam, rising in scorching torrents. The sheer heat had burned away his connection to the lake’s mana, making it impossible to manipulate. He tried again, focusing, but the water recoiled from him, no longer his to command. It was already beyond his reach, twisting into a nightmare of raw heat and destruction.

The explosion was coming.

Nine seconds.

"Damn it, think, think—" Kazi’s mind raced as his body moved, his feet skimming across the lake’s surface as he circled the boiling remains. If he couldn’t move the water, maybe he could redirect the force? No—too unpredictable. If it detonated unevenly, the energy could still spread toward Matsue.

Eight seconds.

A containment field? That could work! If he compressed the explosion, he could keep it from setting off the chain reaction.

Seven seconds.

His hands shot up, mana flaring from his fingertips. A golden glow erupted around him as he began forming the barrier, shaping the raw magic into a spherical cage. He had to be precise. He had to be fast.

Six seconds.

This was Ultra Magic Barrier but on steroids. The sphere grew, encasing the massive corpse in a shimmering wall of golden light. Kazi’s pulse thundered in his ears as he poured more power into it, his fingers trembling. The rain stopped.

Five seconds.

The sky held its breath, as if the entire world had frozen in anticipation of what was coming. Kazi gritted his teeth, sweat beading down his forehead despite the cold. The mana strain was immense. He was forcing the explosion to stay in, trapping it within his barrier.

Four seconds.

The glow from the Bake-kujira’s remains intensified. The sheer amount of mana compressed in one place was starting to tear reality apart. The heat inside the sphere was hotter than a nuclear blast.

Three seconds.

Cracks spider-webbed across the barrier. Kazi’s heart lurched. ’Come on, come on...! Hold it...!’

Two seconds.

"Hold—hold—hold—" His hands shook, the mana resisting his will, like trying to contain the sun itself.

One second.

The world went white.

BOOOOM!

The barrier buckled under the force of the explosion, the sheer energy screaming for release. Kazi dug his heels in, his body vibrating from the impact. He could feel the mana fighting back, pushing against him, trying to tear itself free.

Crack.

Kazi’s breath hitched.

A single fracture split down the golden sphere.

Shit.

The force inside raged, desperate to escape, and with that first crack, Kazi knew he had seconds left. His jaw tightened, and he pushed harder, trying to reinforce the barrier.

More cracks spread.

’If this was just about him, he could escape. He could run. But Matsue was right there. His allies were still fighting. There were people depending on him.

"I—"

The barrier shattered.

The explosion screamed outward.

Kazi barely had time to think one final thought.

This is the end.