Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 462: Yomi-no-kuni

Chapter 462: Yomi-no-kuni

[ Status: Kazi Hossain

Class: Sorcerer

Level: 91

HP: 2180

HP/Minute: 223.715

MP: 4616

MP/Minute: ∞

Attack: 589

Defence: 436

Attributes

Strength: 589

Resilience: 436

Agility: 439

Deftness: 1488

Vitality: 443

Magical Might: 646

Magical Mending: 462

Distributive Points: 213 ]

His conversation with Samantha had ended hours ago. Night had fallen. While Kazi browsed through his own stats, the rest of the world was exploding in festivities. The smell of grilled fish, sweet dango, and sake. The people celebrated with joy, their fear of the Bake-kujira now a distant memory.

In the courtyards and along the stone-paved roads, dancers performed, specifically those from the Sada Jinja shrine. They did a sacred cleansing dance known as the Sada Shin Noh. The people loved it, for it was a dance for the gods to bless them with a brighter, better future.

Children ran between the stalls, munching on skewered treats. The young Lord Taraharu proclaimed that all expenses would be paid by him. Samantha likely tried to convince him not to. However, the youth were as stubborn as the old in some ways. He did not listen and so Lord Mosuke made the arrangements possible. Even the samurai had loosened up, partaking in festival games and sharing rounds of celebratory drinks.

High above it all, atop Matsue Castle, Kazi sat cross-legged on the slanted rooftop, the city sprawled beneath him. His golden hair swayed slightly in the cool night breeze. In one hand, he held a skewer of yakitori, the charred, savory chicken still steaming. In the other, a small wooden cup of sweet persimmon juice.

A voice interrupted his quiet observation. "Man, you really do have a way of findin’ the best seats, huh?"

Kazi smiled, not looking away from the glowing city. "Had to make sure I had the best view."

Booker Davis Jr. settled beside him, stretching his long legs out with an easy sigh. His dreads were tied back into a loose ponytail, and his usual laid-back demeanor remained intact, though there was a quiet appreciation in his gaze as he took in the festivities below.

Booker asked the question he had been holding back this hold time. "Question—what happened to your hair?"

"It’s a transformation. I am able to transform my mana into focusing completely on lightning. I call it Lightning Mode."

"Lightning Mode...sounds lame. You know what I did? I grabbed a giant skeleton whale and threw it across a lake."

’And nearly tore off your arm while doing it.’

Booker hid the discomfort well. Looking at him with normal eyes, no one would suspect he was hurt. But he was. He fought the Red Bake-kujira in an isolated one on one. He risked his life and paid for it.

"Congrats. You did good."

"Thanks, I appreciate it. You and me carried that fight. Do you drink?"

"No."

"Good, me neither. How about a toast with milk?"

"You seriously brought milk just to make this joke?"

"It was worth it."

"Sure, it was."

The two toasted with the glasses of milk Booker carried behind him. They watched the people dance and celebrate, before a rush of warm air swept past them.

"Woah. Is that...?"

"Judgement day. Please take me god. End it all."

Kazi cast him a look ."Are you okay, man?"

A brilliant, fiery glow soared through the sky—a phoenix, its magnificent wings illuminating the night. On its back was Jules. Just Jules, waving and laughing. Feenie and her were starting a light show. Everybody was struck with shock and utter delight. Applause started to ring out through the whole of Matsue as Feenie did flips and circles.

That was when Matty joined the boys, brushing soot from his sleeves. Jules had dropped him off here. "Mind if I sit?"

"Sorry, I don’t have any more milk on me," Booker said.

"You can sit," Kazi added a beat after.

Feenie made an impressive showing in the night sky. Brightening up the heavens and leaving trails of orange that became shapes. The sun, the moon, an elephant, a giraffe—Feenie and Jules were committed to making this the biggest lightshow ever.

"Thanks for saving us," Matty said. "I wouldn’t think Jules and I would have survived in the water without you, Booker."

"Don’t thank me, blame Kazi. He’s the one who made swimming almost impossible with all the explosions and stuff." Booker was joking, obviously. "What do you have to say for yourself, Kazi Hossain?"

"I would do it again if I had to."

"Villain. Villain, I tell you." Booker didn’t smirk or smile too much. He spoke in this sort of deadpan, sarcastic tone that sometimes went high up with faux excitement.

Matty snorted. "We get it, unc, relax."

Kazi nearly burst into laughter and suppressed it by shoving his mouth yakitori. Booker stared blankly, probably—no, definitely—wanting to sigh.

...

...

...

Elsewhere—eastern edge of Matsue.

Up, up, up.

Pauline walked with purpose, but her fingers twitched at her sides. Ever since this morning, something had been wrong. A presence, a pull, a whisper in the air that only she seemed to notice. The locals, when pressed, could only shrug and point in one direction. One potential place.

Otherwise, they didn’t care. They didn’t notice. Nobody did. She ventured alone through the narrow dirt path winding through lush greenery and leading toward the entrance, marked by two wooden lengths connected by thick rope.

Through it was divinity. Through it was legend.

Nobody dared to linger for long. Nobody dared to disturb it.

"The great goddess of the dead lives through here..." Pauline’s breath turned to mist. "So cold...and so heavy. She can’t actually be through here, right? The Heavenly Tower...a god of her calibre cannot be replicated in any sense. It would be blasphemy."

So what was this? What had she been sensing since this morning?

One foot went through. A chill went down. She ignored it and put her other foot forward.

To the side, a dark stone tablet bored inscriptions, likely recounting the myth of the gods whose tragic story was tied to this place. It was here that Izanagi, fleeing from the decaying form of his once-beloved wife, sealed the entrance to Yomi with an enormous boulder, the Rock of Senbiki, forever dividing the worlds of the living and the dead.

She was finally here though. Up a slope, through an instance, and now...she was inching toward it.

Yomotsu Hirasaka.

The entrance to Yomi. The place where the god Izanagi had sealed off the underworld itself with the immovable rock of Senbiki. A place no one should be able to enter—or leave.

And yet.

Pauline stopped in front of the boulder. The night air around it was wrong. Too still, too silent. The world held its breath.

Then she saw it.

A glow. Faint, like embers beneath ash. It pulsed from the stone’s deep cracks—cracks that weren’t there before.

Pauline’s breath hitched.

The glow spread. The cracks widened. And then—

The light went out.

Darkness erupted from the stone, thick and hungry. It didn’t simply spill out; it consumed. It swallowed the trees, the ground, the sky itself. It stretched and devoured, racing forward like ink spilling across a canvas.

Toward Matsue.

Toward the celebration.