Chapter 74: The Cost of Sacrifice

The Spinner King does not die. He unravels.

The golden light that Mizuki pours into him is not a poison. It is a purification. It is the 'First Flame', the fire of life and rebirth. It is the antidote to his billion-year-old sickness.

The black, oily chitin cracks and falls away like a burned shell. The mountain-sized spider-body dissolves into black dust, scattering into the infinite void. The eight milky eyes close, one by one.

All that is left is the humanoid torso.

It is no longer a part of the spider. It is free.

It falls from the web, unconscious, a being of *pure, silver-white light.

Mizuki catches it.

She hovers in the void, her golden armor fading, her hair dimming from molten gold back to silver-and-gold. She is holding the *sleeping, humanoid form of the King's original soul.

She saved him. She did not kill him. She freed him.

"Kizawa!" she calls out, her voice her own again. Tired. Strained. But hers.

He is already there. He has climbed down the web-strands like a madman. He catches her as her power finally gives out.

They land on the *single, surviving island of web. Kizawa holds her, and she holds the *sleeping, silver man.

Hachiro, Yogawa, and I just stare.

The Abyss is silent. The King is gone. The threat is over.

"Mizuki... what... is that?" Hachiro pants, pointing at the silver man.

"He is the King," Mizuki whispers, her voice weak. "Or he is. Before he became a monster. The pool it showed me. He is the first one. The first soul to be corrupted by the Abyss. He did not choose this. He is a victim. Too."

Kizawa is not listening to her words. He is looking at her face.

"Mizuki... you are burning," he whispers, his voice thick with a new terror.

I look.

He is right.

Her skin is glowing. Not with power. But with heat. Her silver-gold hair is fading to a *dull, brittle WHITE.

The power from the souls- the Phoenix form- it is a loan. And it came with a price.

It burned her out from the inside.

"It is the cost," she whispers, her eyes fluttering shut. "I am so tired, Kizawa."

"No. NO! MIZUKI!" he roars, his panic returning.

He shakes her. "STAY AWAKE! That is an ORDER!"

"I cannot," she murmurs. "It is so warm... so quiet..."

She goes limp in his arms.

Her flame is gone.

She is gone.