Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 458: Human God

Chapter 458: Human God

Ziiiiip!

Stop. Watch. Breathe.

’I’m literally turning into lightning!’

His vision tunnelled and shifted into ever changing colours. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. He could still think, still move and act as he wanted. It was as though he had lost his limbs and could fly without needing them. The very world was light and without gravity.

It didn’t make to the mind. To the body, it was perfect. It was everything he needed. This form was fast and flexible.

He stopped right before Matsue Castle. His limbs returned, as did the rest of his physical form. A platform kept him up. His vision gradually returned to normal. He saw the hole at the second floor. He witnessed Marta crash into the castle. He glanced back over to the sliced corpse. The Red Bake-kujira was dead. The city was safe.

All because of Marta. If it wasn’t for her, everybody would have died during from that explosion.

He zipped down to the courtyard, his physical form changing twice in the blink of an eye. His golden eyes scanned the wreckage. Spears of broken fire had made their way here. The clash had been great indeed. Closing his eyes, he swung his arms with sparks of electricity and ridded the castle of the fire. Following that, he conducted a scan of the entire capital. He gleaned that nobody else had been injured nor were there any fires. These fires were magical in essence so it was quite easy to tell.

"Good."

A group of samurai stood in tight formation in the courtyard, guarding an older man in fine robes—Lord Mosuke. Beside him stood the young master of the castle, Horio Tadaharu. He was tense with worry. The samurai gripped their weapons tightly, their eyes flicking from the devastation to the figure that had entered their space. Kazi realized how he must look to them—his once-black hair now a shocking blond and he radiated power like a god stepping onto mortal soil.

Power like his could not be understood. Good or evil did not exist. It simply boggled the mind.

As expected, the samurai didn’t recognize him. They only saw something unfamiliar, something divine yet unknown. Their grips tightened on their weapons. Kazi could hear their hushed whispers.

"Who is he? Is he an enemy?"

"No human could move like that, could wield power like that."

"Perhaps he is a god of another land? A harbinger?"

He earned gasps and awed. He also earned fear from his skin tone. At the end of the day, he was a foreigner in a land of people who had never had a man like him. It was to be expected.

All it took was one man to change that though.

"Calm yourselves," Lord Mosuke said in a voice so steady it seemed to bring order to the chaos around them. "This is not our enemy."

One man. One voice.

All it took was one.

Lord Mosuke lifted a hand, a calm yet firm gesture that immediately earned the comfort of his men. Unlike the others, his expression remained serene, unwavering even in the face of something so inexplicable. That was why they called him Hotoke no Mosuke, Yoshiharu the Saint.

The samurai hesitated but they lowered their weapons. Kazi gave Lord Mosuke a nod of gratitude before zipping past them, searching.

His eyes flicked toward the broken beams on the backside of the castle. A weak cough caught his attention. And there she was, down on the ground, arms on splintered wood.

Marta.

Red tiles were on her face too, her breathing shallow. The terrifying Fujin mask still covered her face, though the energy around it had faded. Kazi rushed forward—ziiip! He tossed aside the wood keeping her down and the tiles on her face and knelt beside her. Her chest barely moved.

Shit. The Fujin Mask. From what he saw, it took away the wearer’s breath for forty seconds. He counted in his head. Thirty-seven... Thirty-eight...

Then, with a deep, desperate gasp, Marta inhaled. She ripped the mask from her face, dropping it onto her lap, its once-glowing green eyes now dull. She blinked up at him, dazed, her lips cracked and dry.

And then, unbelievably, she smiled.

With the last of her strength, she raised a hand, her fingers trembling, and gave him a thumbs up.

Kazi let out a short, breathless laugh. She was ridiculous. Looking up, she hadn’t just crashed here. She crashed through the castle, bounced two stories, and fell to the ground.

Marta started laughing too, her voice hoarse but full of life. It was a wheezy, painful kind of laugh, but it was genuine.

"Well," Marta croaked, "I’m alive. Great."

Kazi exhaled, shaking his head. "Idiot." His hair lost its colour and with that, he could heal her with Divine Miracle Water.

She grinned wider, then closed her eyes to sleep.

A movement in the corner of his vision reminded him that they weren’t alone. He turned to see Lord Mosuke and his grandson watching, along with the gathered samurai. The boy, Tadaharu, stared at Kazi with wide eyes, his grip on his grandfather’s sleeve tight. The samurai still looked uncertain, their instincts torn between reverence and wariness. But Lord Mosuke... he only had calm curiosity in his expression.

"Has the threat passed?" the old lord asked.

Kazi straightened, lifting Marta carefully to her feet as he met Mosuke’s gaze. "Yes," he said simply.

Lord Mosuke nodded, deep and respectful. "Then, we owe you a great debt."

Without hesitation, Lord Mosuke bowed.

Slowly, like ripples spreading through water, the samurai followed. Even Tadaharu, despite his youth, pressed his hands together and lowered his head. It was not a bow of obligation, not one forced by tradition—it was genuine. It was respect. Gratitude.

Kazi wasn’t sure what to do with that.

A hero. A deity. Maybe something in between.

His fingers twitched. The people of Matsue, who had feared for their lives now bowed before him, safe.

For now, that meant everything.

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