Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 457: End of the Storm

Chapter 457: End of the Storm

Kazi Hossain’s mismatched eyes zoomed thirteen kilometers. The details emerged. Not some blob, not some smoke, real details of what had happened with the Red Bake-kujira. First, Jules and Matty were nowhere to be seen. The same could be said for Booker. Second, the tinge of red that illuminated the skeleton whale had grown thicker. Stronger. Bolder.

Oh no.

"Kazi, is something wrong?" Pauline cocked her head. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t feel it. None of them could

’Is the organ going to explode? Stopping one after the other...’

The Red Bake-kujira. Its spine almost melted and practically dangling with the rest of its body, half-dead and trudging forward with nothing but sheer force of instinct and love for her brother. It was moving and even at such a pathetic rate, it was going land. It was going to reach Matsue Castle and cause mass destruction.

Kazi left eye pulsed. He saw the future, the truth of the matter.

Not an explosion...a fire breath? Ah. A Fire Breath. Immediately following the Fire Breath, it would die. That was okay. That meant the only loss of life would be the people at the shore. He foresaw that it would not reach Matsue Castle or the lords there. Their reward was still secured.

Let the few men on the die. Rest. It was only what? Ten? Twenty people? Booker, Jules, and Matty did their job. It made no difference.

"Whenever I see someone in pain...it aches. Right here."

That ache. That damn ache. Kazi seized his heart. Already, it was thrumming. Already, his eyes and hair were changing shades.

"Kazi, what are you...?"

He did not need to point or gesture. The illumination of the horizon began and everyone turned and noted it. The Fire Annihilation Breath was nigh.

"Is it...another explosion...?" Samantha questioned. Panic settled at the potential loss of life. "No...! Not Matsue...! Not the lords!"

"Samantha."

His voice was a small tremor. Not just Samantha, but everyone with reservations stopped. They looked. Kazi sent them the softest of smiles with the most comforting of eyes.

"Nobody’s dying today, I promise you that."

They believed him. There was the power. There was the attractiveness. But most of it all, it was the honesty. The empathy. The kindness. They could all feel it roll off of him and into them.

His fists clenched, his eyes closed, and the lightning sparkled wildly.

Everybody beheld him. Everybody stared at the whips of lightning crackling from him.

"If you’re going to fight, take my sword."

Sword? Without looking, Kazi caught the thrown sword. A boat had hit shore and veered a bit to the left of him. "Nash..."

The gangster and his tuxedo crew were here. They had always been here, fighting on the front lines, doing what little they could do to dent the Bake-kujira.

"We’ve come this far. All we need is one last push." A foot on the end of the boat with his arms crossed was the blonde jock himself. "I’ve expended all my mana. So has the rest of my gang. We hail married that bloody whale as hard as we could and nothing. It’s now or never, Kazi."

A sword...

Trust...

Nash was right. It was now or never.

Kazi Hossain’s blonde hair became spikier than ever. He released the sword, as if it let it drop, only to have it encased in an electrifying golden barrier. An arm was stretched out to the side like he wore a cape.

"Marta, I’m going to bring you with me. Conjure a barrier, will you?

Marta was surprised by the suggestion. She resolved herself not to be afraid. "S-sure!"

Snap! The moment she conjured a barrier, she was encased in another, a bubble of golden lightning.

Whatever this golden hair transformation was, it made everything he touched and did into lightning. Some sort of Lightning Mode.

His eyes deepened in colour.

"Kazi," Pauline called out. "Be careful."

He did not look back. He simply smiled. "Where’s the fun in that?"

Fourteen kilometers of distance.

Ready, set...

Go!

Ziiiip!

Like thunder in the sky, a blinding miracle arc of light tore across Lake Shinji. From the west bank to the east, he zipped, leaving only a crackling wake of electricity that made the lake water hiss and boil in his path. Within the sphere of golden energy that traveled with him, Marta hurled across—shielded by herself and tethered to him, connected like a cloud.

Time was of the essence. The Red Bake-kujira was heaving itself up, its broken form still full of unyielding rage. Its great jaw opened wide and the air boiled with blistering heat. The little water it sat on churned violently, steam rising in thick, oppressive waves. Fire flickered to life in its massive maw.

The Fire Annihilation Breath.

It was going to reach Matsue Castle. It wasn’t going to kill that many people.

But it was still going to kill someone. That, Kazi could not allow.

A thunderous boom signaled Kazi’s arrival. Like a comet striking the battlefield, he and Marta materialized in the space between the beast and the city at the very moment the Bake-kujira released its hellish breath.

"Marta!" Kazi bellowed. He didn’t need to say anything else.

The barrier disappeared and the mask was on. The incantations were complete.

"Shippūga!"

She swung the fan.

An explosion of wind surged forth, not merely air, but a divine gale, an unstoppable typhoon imbued with the breath of Fujin himself. It roared forward with unimaginable force, crashing against the oncoming inferno.

She was losing.

A second swing.

The clash was cataclysmic. The world turned into a battlefield between fire and wind, two primal forces locked in an instant of sheer destruction.

For a terrifying moment, it seemed as though the fire might push through, its fury too great. But Marta roared, swinging again.

"Shippūga—unleash your complete crimson tempest!"

She struck with all her might.

The wind did not simply repel the flames; it obliterated them. The roaring inferno twisted and screamed as it was torn apart, scattered into nothingness by the force of a divine storm.

All of Matsue was safe. The people would live. The city would stand.

But the impact sent Marta flying.

Kazi barely had time to register it as she was launched backwards like a shooting star, her body crashing through the wooden beams of a Matsue building.

He wanted to go to her, to see if she was okay. But there was no time.

Because of the failure, Red Bake-kujira planned to charge through. Just swim, leap, and smash and kill whatever it could.

Lightning crackled in Kazi’s golden eyes.

Enough.

In Lightning Mode, every cell of his body surged with power, every nerve fired with divine speed. He no longer needed to chant. No longer needed to call upon anything. He simply acted.

In an instant, Gargantua Super Strike manifested.

A sword of pure energy, massive beyond comprehension, dwarfing even the colossal form of the Bake-kujira. It crackled with sheer, uncontainable might.

The Red Bake-kujira saw it. It thrashed, sensing death. It tried to escape. It tried to backpedal.

Too late.

"I killed your mother with this. I’m sorry to say, but I have to kill you too." He smiled a sad expression. The fear in its movements...the ache in his heart returned. "I wish it didn’t have to be this way."

With the speed of lightning itself, Kazi raised the blade high above his head.

"Haaaaah!"

He swung.

Gargantua Super Strike came down, a golden arc splitting the sky, splitting the very fabric of the battlefield.

The impact was apocalyptic.

The blade didn’t just cut through the Bake-kujira. It annihilated it. Flesh, bone, spirit—severed in one clean stroke. The very lake beneath it rippled outward in an explosion of displaced water, bowing to the sheer force of the attack.

The Red Bake-kujira and both pieces of its sliced corpse crashed into the docks. Its organs spilled from the inside out.

It was over.

Kazi exhaled, standing on the surface of the water, electricity still flickering around his form. His body ached, but he remained standing. He had won.

The storm had ended. The city was safe.

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