Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 464: Her Realm

Chapter 464: Her Realm

Where was he?

What was this?

He himself had nearly split a lake. He witnessed catastrophic destruction. He had fought a goddess and a yokai. Yet this...

What was this? What in the world could bring so much power? So much power that the flames on Feenie waned in colour and might. So much power that Kazi’s left eye was urging him to flee. The eye itself was owned by him. It did not react or work on its own.

This...this was his own body speaking. This was his experience, his knowledge, and what he gained from Odin—ordering him to flee. The woman up in the sky was not to be challenged, not to be looked at.

Everybody could only stare. The womanly face peering through struggled to come through. Crackles of mana burned her and forced her back.

The woman screamed.

The world shook.

Queen Izanami could not come through. She had ripped the sky but she could not come through. She could only see them. She was larger than the Bake-kujira, larger than Princess Otohime, larger than the moon. Behind her was a cloud of darkness, the true Yomi. Izanami...

Izanmi was trying to get in. She was trying to break into the Heavenly Tower.

The barriers between dimensions were straining.

Her very gaze flooded the realm with darkness. Even Kazi winced and he inched closer to the phoenix for protection. Kurōtarō did not do the same. He continued staring at Izanami and he buckled. His eyes went dim.

Kazi wanted to call out to him, to pull him in and tell him that he was going to lose himself. He couldn’t, not when this monstrosity was destroying reality as he knew it. Izanami’s eyes pressed against the crack in the sky. The single giant eye squinted.

"MY...ReaLm...! ThE HeaVenS TOOK my REalM!"

One hand was maintaining this crack when the other finally introduced itself. It went forward, forward, forward—

"She’s trying to reach us," Matty whispered. "J-Jules, we need to go?"

"B-but where?"

"Anywhere! Just...!"

A shriek echoed and rumbled the world. Her middle finger was burning trying to reach them. She could see them, make them feel a tiny infinitesimal fraction of her power, but she could not come inside. She tried. She kept trying to break it.

"Jules...!" That was Booker speaking. He was at Feenie’s tail, clinging to it like—no, his life did depend on it. "I need that Phoenix Tear!"

He ran over to the front. Feenie whimpered and the tears came fast. Two tear-shaped fires that touched Booker’s palm and invigorated him. These tears were not like the ones with Kazi. These were authentic. These were true. They made the magic healing all the more stronger.

Only a tiny portion of the middle finger penetrated the realm between the real Yomi and the Heavenly Tower.

Not even the nail of the finger.

Yet suddenly, the world changed. Everything darkened. Feenie let out a cry.

"My...ReAlm... My...RAeaLm...!"

Buildings. People. This was a dark reflection of Matsue.

The finger curled ever so slightly and everybody and everything turned to dust. All of them except Kazi, Jules, Matty, and Booker.

"Kurōtarō—!"

In seconds, his face became ash and withered away. Kazi could only catch what was left off him—dust particles that slipped from his fingers.

"W-what...?"

Kazi couldn’t believe what was happening. The world had gone from at least something to a plain of blackness and dust. The only source of light came from the phoenix.

"G-guys...?" Jules was seated atop her pet phoenix and trembled with Matty behind her. He could not speak. "We should go. We should r-run!" The talons of the phoenix were trembling. "We need to go!"

Izanami, goddess of both creation and death in Japanese mythology. Izanami, a Primordial Goddess. What little chance did they have against her?

Only the Chosen One could speak. Only the Chosen One was able to stand with a semblance of light. "Hey, Kazi, did you know? Most players in the Heavenly Games start off with every stat valued one or two. But I suppose like me, you were an exception."

Kazi looked over his shoulders. He knew that. Kazi saw his own numbers and compared them to Marta’s and William’s. He was aware that at base, at the very beginning, he was already near superhuman. He could have outright been inhumane had he not become a full-time archeologist and built rust.

Booker Davis Jr walked. He was able to walk without Mastered Flow of Mana or anything of that sort. Why? There was a difference between breaking one Olympic record and breaking all of them. His baseline stats were double or triple Kazi’s from the start.

Strength. The soul. Mana. All these attributes contributed greatly to being able to move here. In Jules’ case, it was Feenie. The phoenix was able to extend its life-healing energy to her, and with a phoenix tear, to Matty as well.

From the black ground and dust particles, monsters manifested. Ugly men, foul in appearance and smell. They were like Izanami herself where their flesh was dug up by maggots and worms. Ten became a hundred. A hundred became a thousand.

Booker pointed his gun at them. "Let’s kill these things and get outta here."

A thousand became ten thousand. Ten thousand versus four.

They were in a plain of blackness; of nothingness. Could they escape? Did it matter? There was only one choice here—to fight.

His body lit up.

A surge of electricity burst from his core, his muscles tightening as pure, raw lightning coursed through his veins. His dark hair paled in an instant, snapping into blinding gold as his body flickered—no, zipped—across the battlefield in a flash. The first creature had barely begun to snarl before his foot exploded through its ribcage, shattering it into blackened dust.

The darkness of Yomi swirled around them, suffocating, pressing in like the weight of the grave itself. The air stank of rot and decay, of things that should have stayed buried clawing their way back to existence. The creatures came in waves—rotting men, bodies riddled with maggots, dragging themselves forward with twisted limbs and soulless, empty sockets. Their moans were guttural, wet, as if their vocal cords were still rotting in their throats. The blackened ground beneath them cracked with every shambling step, releasing more of the damned.

Kazi killed a dozen before they could take their fourth step. These things were not slow. Kazi was just faster.

Booker finally arrived.

Bang!

Booker fired.

A clean headshot. One creature’s skull burst apart like rotted fruit, but another lunged at him from the side. Before it could reach him, Kazi was already there, intercepting with a snap of his fingers—lightning arcing from his fingertips into the monster’s body, frying it from the inside out.

"Appreciate it." Booker barely looked up as he squeezed the trigger, his movements smooth, methodical, each shot clean and controlled.

Kazi grinned. "Don’t mention it."

More of them poured in. Too many.

Above, Feenie screeched, her enormous wings sending currents of hot air rippling through the battlefield. Jules and Matty clung to her back, eyes scanning the battlefield. Feenie couldn’t use Burst Mode—not without sunlight—but that didn’t mean she was useless.

"Matty! Firebombs—NOW!" Jules shouted.

Matty nodded, gripping Feenie’s feathers for balance before hurling explosive runes into the thickest part of the horde.

BOOM.

Fiery shockwaves ripped through the battlefield, sending charred remains flying in every direction.

But more came.

Ten thousand against four. The numbers were impossible, but Kazi didn’t give a damn. His Lightning Mode made him a blur of golden energy, weaving between the horde, ducking under Booker’s line of fire so precisely that the bullets zipped past him like he knew they were coming.

"Need a blade?" Kazi called.

Booker reloaded, eyes locking onto him. "Yeah."

Kazi materialized a mana sword in an instant and hurled it like a javelin. Booker caught it mid-air, flipping it in his grip before slashing through a monster’s neck in one clean motion.

Another ten monster jumped at Booker. Kazi zipped over and killed them with a mix of swords and Fire Darts. The next second, Booker grabbed Kazi’s wrist.

Booker threw him.

Kazi’s body became a golden streak, flying over the battlefield like a lightning bolt shot from a cannon. The monsters turned, sensing movement—too late.

Fire Darts!

Kazi extended both hands, fingers snapping like pistols as dozens—no, hundreds—of flaming projectiles erupted from his fingertips, turning the horde into a firestorm. Each one punched through rotting flesh, igniting their bodies before they even hit the ground.

Kazi hit the dirt in a roll, feet skidding against the blackened earth before launching himself back into the fight. He and Booker fought back to back, a seamless dance of gunfire and lightning, sword slashes and flames.

But still, more came.

The weight of Yomi pressed harder, the darkness thickening. Even the air felt heavier, like something else was coming.

Jules’ voice rang out in warning.

"Kazi! Booker! The ground—"

It was splitting open.

Something massive was clawing its way up from the abyss.

And for the first time, Kazi felt something gnaw at the edge of his confidence.

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