Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 467: PrImOrDiAl DarkNESS

Chapter 467: PrImOrDiAl DarkNESS

This realm of Yomi...

This realm of death...

Everybody was dying. The realm of death. The goddess who loomed and watched and relished the sight. No transgression could be committed against her. It was not allowed.

Izanagi. Humanity. None of it could defy her.

Waka-ikazuchi towered in front of him. Two feet away, two steps away. The ash that picked up from his steps tensed Kazi’s senses. Every looming part of death caused his body to react in some way.

But his left eye did not pulse. His brain did not go into overdrive. His Divine Healing Circulation did the opposite and started to weaken. The future...

There was no future against this thing.

"You give up, mortal?"

This darkness.

This world.

This hell.

His hair lost its luster and shine. His eyes blackened.

"Where in the world am I...?"

"You are in Yomi."

"I...refuse."

A tilt of the head.

"I refuse to be here. I refuse to be in such a place."

William. Sun-young. Marta. Elena. Pauline. Yuna. The people who got him this far, he couldn’t stop. He went from a slave to a textile manager. He went from Bangladesh to America. He went from nothing to a saviour.

He was supposed to be more.

He HAD to be more.

Kazi Hossain did not lose. Kazi Hossain did not taste defeat. Kazi Hossain was not supposed to die.

His skull nearly shattered. He was smacked aside and tumbled like a doll. His Divine Healing Circulation saved him from death once again. He healed, blood vomiting from his lips and nose and eyes, and he pushed himself up.

"You wield lightning and you heal. It is as though you are a demigod," Waka-ikazuchi stated. "You Otherworlders are good at imitating what we deem precious, don’t you?"

"Heroes don’t lose."

"Heroes do not. Humans do."

His fist clenched up the ash. He held darkness and despised it. He despised this dark power so much. He despised Yomi. He despised the death she brought.

Why?

Why do people have to die?

Why? Whywhywhywhy?

This darkness and ache in his heart...it was too much. It wanted to explode. It wanted to let itself out.

Kazi Hossain swayed to his feet. Wake-ikazuchi’s eyes glowed and struck with lightning greater than any before it.

This was the end.

He saw black. He saw darkness.

Primordial Darkness.

He saw it, tasted it, felt it, and then let himself get engulfed by it.

A human no longer stood.

"What...?"

The red lightning slammed against this blackened form and did nothing. The dark form remained true and darkness exploded. Kazi Hossain disappeared in the darkness. A figure of utter darkness took his place.

Waka-ikazuchi had never lost ground to a human before.

"You...!"

Today, he skidded back from the explosion in mana.

"What in the world—? This...this is a human’s mana? It can’t be...it’s too much like...!"

This Primordial Darkness...

Ｐ҉Ｒ҉Ｉ҉Ｍ҉Ｏ҉Ｒ҉Ｄ҉Ｉ҉Ａ҉Ｌ҉ ⳗᗡＡＲ҉Ｋ҉Ｎ҉Ξ𝕊𝕊

Before the darkness completely took him, he reached a hand out. Waka-ikazuchi gasped and his physical form, his flesh, was seized by him. Massive arcs of lightning getting sucked up like a blackhole. He tore himself away but it was too late. He had lost some of its colour.

Kazi lost himself into the darkness. The realm of Yomi turned quiet and the split sky where Izanami observed and interfered with a fraction of her finger blurred. Reality...

Reality was distorting.

Kazi Hossain had become some sort of dark, menacing figure. Mana exploded from him and Waka-ikazuchi skidded back three feet.

This should not be happening. How could a mortal push him back!?

The mana suddenly ceased. Kazi...Kazi did not breathe yet somehow he seemed exhausted. His pupils and sclera were one with the darkness. His arms hung over and he seemed to breathe, seemed to recognize something had happened to him.

Then he laughed.

Then his form fell into the ashen ground of Yomi.

"What—? Where did he...?"

The lightning kami’s own shadow grew and by the time he turned, a leg struck him hard. He didn’t flinch this time. Pain flared up. A crack of silver fell.

A mortal had hurt a god.

Blades formed in Kazi’s hands. Waka-ikazuchi had the sense to kick himself into action and dodge them. He who was the First Thunder, child of Izanami herself, being forced to dodge!

Waka-ikazuchi was faster than lightning, however, and a god trained in the arts of combat. His white eyes glowed, he side-stepped past one of the blades, and then slammed his fist into his face.

Only for the dark hero to merge with the shadows.

Only for Waka-ikazuchi to feel a blow to the back of his skull.

He crashed to his knees—and refused to stay that way and swung his arm back. Metal met flesh. His eyes saw more flesh. It didn’t make sense.

How were there seven of them?

Where was this power coming from?

Why was he suddenly being attacked in all directions by blades he could not perceive?

What had happened to this mortal?

"I’LL CRUSH YOU!"

Red electricity raged from his form and incinerated the shadow clones. The scarlet rage did not disappear or weaken, it larped and warped him. Eyes turning black, he spun and caught Kazi by the skull and slammed him into the ground. Kazi instantly became one with the ground and instantly re appeared behind him.

His roundhouse kick made sure to get rid of that Kazi and the two clones that were with him. Two more clones appeared from behind and slammed his back. Waka-ikazuchi recovered fast and destroyed them away with his eyes.

They kept coming. More and more. Appearing from the shadows, appearing from behind. Always from behind. Waka-ikazuchi adapted. He learned. He countered.

They were fighting as fast as lightning could be. One moment it was Waka-ikazuchi with the advantage and in the next it was Kazi that was overwhelming him. Slowly, they lifted off the ground. Slowly—

Zip! Zip! Zip!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

As metal and lightning clashed against darkness, reality darkened. Izanami’s eyes could not believe what she was seeing.

"A moRtal...fiGhtIng EqUAL TO My son...?"

Kazi’s clones suddenly merged into the real one. He struck the shoulder of the lightning kami. Waka-ikazuchi struck back and his eyes glowed to blast him.

Kazi disappeared and swung one blade down.

Waka-ikazuchi disappeared and hurled a leg down on him.

Kazi disappeared. Another counter.

Waka-ikazuchi disappeared.

"I see you!"

They swapped hands. Punch for punch, kick for kick, knee for knee. They exchanged blows and the land of Yomi suffered for it. Lightning splattered onto the ground. Tectonics plates moved and shifted. Ashes and darkness and shadows kicked up.

"What—?"

One of those shadows flicked up and wrapped around Waka-ikazuchi’s leg. He reacted and tore himself away from it.

What he did not expect, however, was for the earth itself to turn into shadow and swallow him. As though the earth became a thing of flexible rubber, bending and chasing and eating at the lightning kami. He ripped and fought his way through the ever encroaching primordial darkness.

So much darkness.

"Don’t think you will—mmmph!"

Darkness. Darkness.

Sinking. Sinking. Sinking.

He screamed. Lightning roared out and it was all sucked up. Primordial Darkness was the darkness that belonged to that which began the [ ]. Without Primordial Darkness, Yomi would not exist. Without Primordial Darkness, the universe would not be stable.

With Primordial Darkness, all was equal and all was sucked into nothing.