Chapter 41: The Severing

The jump is an act of pure, terrified faith.

My feet leave the fleshy platform, and for one heart-stopping second, I am weightless. There is no air, only the thick, pressurized, living atmosphere of the chamber. I am a stone dropped into a deep, green ocean.

Then the rope catches my weight, and the universe jerks to a halt.

The force is brutal. It slams into my shoulders and spine, nearly ripping my arms from their sockets. The rope is not a simple line; it is a conduit. The absolute cold of the Void-chain flashes down its length, an anti-life energy that bypasses my kimono and my skin, aiming directly for my bones.

"HOLD!"

Kizawa's roar is a distant, tinny sound. I hear Hachiro's answering scream, a sound of pure, burning effort. They are my anchor, two small, stubborn points of life braced against a cosmic absolute.

I swing.

The chamber spins around me in a blur of green, pulsing light and deep, shadow-filled chasms. My arc is impossibly wide, a terrifying pendulum swing across the heart of existence.

My focus is singular. The target. The 'weakest link'.

It looms closer. It is not a chain in any human sense. It is a river of pure nothingness, a column of un-creation thick as an ancient tree. It hums. It does not make a sound, but it vibrates with a low frequency that I feel in my teeth.

'THE FLAME...' The God's mind-voice is a breath of encouragement. 'IT HATES THE FLAME...'

The God is right. As my arc carries me closer to the chain, my power roars to life in defense.

My hair, which had dimmed, explodes into a torrent of silver and pure gold. The Phoenix-flame unfurls from me, a shroud of instinctive defiance. 'First Flame', my dagger, answers it. The golden light roars from the blade, not as a weapon, but as a shield.

The cold intensifies. The Void-chain senses me. It senses the First Flame. The sentient nothingness recoils. The shadow writhes.

I am a comet of golden fire on a collision course with a pillar of emptiness.

My arc peaks. My feet slam into the chain.

There is no impact.

My boots sink into it. It is like landing in cold sludge that is also a void. The unmaking energy swarms over me. It devours the leather of my boots. It climbs my legs.

But the Phoenix-flame fights back.

My flame clashes with the shadow. They annihilate each other in a furious, silent war on the surface of my skin. I am burning. I am freezing. I am being unmade and reborn every microsecond.

"NOW, MIZUKI! CUT!"

Erima's voice. She sees the rope. The grappling hook is dissolving. The steel is flaking away into dust.

I roar. I let go of the rope with one hand. I cling to the Void-chain with my legs and one arm, my entire body sheathed in golden fire.

I raise 'First Flame'.

The dagger feels alive. It is not fighting me. It is guiding me. It KNOWS this enemy. It remembers this war.

It is a key.

I plunge the blade into the heart of the shadow.

For a second, there is nothing. Only resistance. Like pushing a knife into a mountain of ice.

Then... the reaction.

The chain SCREAMS.

It is not a sound. It is a psychic shockwave of pure HATRED. The Spinner King, far below in the darkness, feels this.

I FEEL HIM FEEL IT.

A colossal sentience of infinite gravity and starving hunger TURNS its GAZE UPON ME.

MINE.

The pressure is absolute. It slams into my mind. It tries to crush my soul. It is the voice of the ABYSS.

And the chain THRASHES.

It jerks violently, a cosmic serpent in its death throes.

I am flung like a ragdoll.

"MIZUKI!"

Kizawa's voice is pure terror.

The rope snaps taut. The force is unimaginable.

I hear Kizawa's boots screaming as they are dragged across the fleshy stone.

"I CANNOT HOLD HIM!" Hachiro roars, his voice strangled. "IT IS TOO MUCH!"

I slam back into the chain. My grip is broken. My dagger is ripped from the wound.

'HOLD, CHILD...'

The Hollow-God's voice. It surges. A wave of pure green Rekka-light slams into me. It is not hot. It is warm. It is LIFE.

It feeds my flame.

My golden fire EXPLODES, doubling in size. The Spinner-King's pressure recedes. The cold retreats.

I find my footing. I plant my feet on the Void-chain.

"AGAIN!" I scream to myself.

I raise the dagger. 'First Flame' sings a song of pure golden joy.

I strike.

This time, I aim for the same wound.

The blade sinks to the HILT.

CLANG.

The sound is not real. It is the sound of a concept breaking. A law of physics being undone.

The chain stops thrashing.

It freezes.

The low hum of un-creation dies.

There is a moment of perfect, absolute silence.

And then it SNAPS.

It is not an explosion. It is an implosion.

The chain does not break. It devours itself. The darkness folds in on itself, collapsing from the point where my dagger struck.

A silent flash of pure darkness and searing golden light.

The rope attached to my waist goes slack.

I am weightless.

I am falling.

The recoil is instant. The severed upper part of the chain whips upwards, dissolving into nothing as it goes. The lower part falls away into the abyss, a dying serpent of shadow.

The rope slams taut again, catapulting Kizawa and Hachiro forward. They fly across the platform, skidding to a stop at the very edge.

My fall is arrested with a jerk so violent it steals my breath.

I swing wildly, uncontrollably.

My arc carries me back towards the Spire wall.

"MIZUKI! BRACE!"

Erima's shriek.

I cannot. I am limp, spinning.

I slam into the fleshy cartilage of the chamber wall.

My golden flame takes the impact. It flares brilliantly, absorbing the kinetic force. The wall sizzles where I hit. But I am unbroken.

I dangle.

My body is screaming. My arm feels pulled from its socket. My chi is empty. The golden flame sputters, receding back into my hair, leaving it a dull silver. 'First Flame' is cold in my hand.

Thud... THUD... THUD-THUD-THUD!

The Heart.

I look up.

It is beating faster. Stronger. The gaping wound where the chain was is gushing green Rekka-light. But already, the flesh is stitching itself back together.

The song of agony.

It is still there. But it is diminished. A single note of pain has been removed from the symphony.

I feel Hachiro's relief even from here. It is a gasp of fresh air in a drowning man's lungs.

"PULL HER UP!" Erima is yelling.

The rope jerks. I begin my slow, painful ascent.

I look at the Hollow-God.

One chain is gone.

Dozens remain.

I have won nothing. I have only proven it is possible.

As my team hauls me up, hand over agonizing hand, the voice of the God whispers in my mind.

It is not a plea this time.

It is a command.

'AGAIN...'