Chapter 73: The First Flame Reborn

Mizuki attacks.

She is not a hunter anymore. She is a comet.

She crosses the half-mile of the chamber in a silent, golden streak. The air sizzles in her wake.

The Spinner King reacts on pure instinct. It lifts its eight legs, creating a defensive cage of obsidian chitin around itself.

NO!

It is too late.

Mizuki does not stop. She does not go around.

She plows straight through the King's defense.

Her golden, flaming body hits the first leg.

The sound is a deafening SHATTER.

The obsidian chitin, which deflected Kizawa's steel and my arrows, CRACKS. It MELTS.

The Phoenix-flame is not a fire. It is a solvent. It is pure, conceptual LIFE and PURITY, and it is UNRAVELING the King's Void-magic.

Mizuki smashes through the first leg, showering the web in molten chitin.

She spins in the air, her golden hair a whip.

She cleaves through a second leg.

SHATTER.

Kizawa and Hachiro are frozen, staring in awe.

"She is a GOD," Hachiro breathes.

The King is screaming. A physical, ear-splitting shriek of agony and FEAR.

It forgets us. It forgets its own defense.

It turns and tries to flee, its mountain-sized body scuttling backward on its remaining six legs.

It is afraid. For the first time in a million years, the spider is afraid of the fly.

"You do NOT get to run!" Mizuki's chorus-voice roars.

She lands on the web in front of it, blocking its path.

She plants her feet. She stabs 'First Flame' deep into the silken floor.

"PHOENIX SANCTUARY!"

A wave of golden light explodes from her. It is not a barrier. It is a wave of pure, cleansing fire.

It washes over the silken floor.

The web DISINTEGRATES.

The King's own home is being UNRAVELED.

The King screeches as the floor of his parlor burns away, leaving only the infinite, black abyss below.

He is clinging to a single, massive thread that leads up into the darkness. The last remnant of his web.

He is trapped.

Mizuki stands on a small, surviving island of silk, her golden armor blazing.

She points her dagger.

"You took my friends," she booms. "You poisoned a God. You fed on a million souls. I am the vessel of their agony. And we are your JUDGEMENT."

She leaps.

She soars across the abyss, a golden arrow of pure vengeance.

She slams into the King's humanoid torso.

She plunges 'First Flame' deep into its chest.

The King stops screaming.

It looks down. All eight of its milky eyes look down at the golden, flaming girl who is impaled on its own body.

"I am Creation," the King hisses, its voice now a gurgle. "You cannot unmake me."

"I am not here to unmake you," Mizuki booms, her voice full of a terrible, sad power.

"I am here to CLEANSE you."

She lets go of her dagger.

She places her flaming, golden hands on either side of the King's face.

She pours her flame, all of it, into him.

The King shudders.

The black chitin cracks.

The milky white eyes clear.

And a light from within begins to shine.