Chapter 75: The Cavern of Echoes

Kizawa is a man kneeling in the void, holding a corpse.

His roar of "NO!" is a raw, shattered sound that echoes in the infinite blackness. He is shaking Mizuki, his movements frantic, desperate.

"MIZUKI! WAKE UP! THAT IS AN ORDER!"

Her head lolls. Her silver-white hair, brittle and dead, swings with the motion. Her skin is pale, chalky. The inner fire that always defined her is gone. She is an extinguished candle.

I am Erima. I am the Arrow. My mind is a fortress of logic. And my logic dictates that she is dead. The cost of cleansing the King was her own life-force. A simple, brutal transaction.

But logic does not stop the tears. It does not stop the cold, hollowing dread that is clawing its way up my throat.

"Kizawa- stop," I whisper from my perch on the high web. My voice is a pathetic croak. "She is gone."

"LIAR!" he screams, his voice cracking. He does not look at me. He bends his head down, pressing his ear to her chest.

He is listening for a heartbeat that is not there.

"She is- she is just tired," he whispers, his rage collapsing into a child's denial. "She is- sleeping. Mizuki- wake up- please-"

"K-Kizawa-"

Hachiro's voice. He is standing on the surviving web-island with Kizawa. He, too, is broken. His good hand hovers over Mizuki's still form, his Miasma-chi too weak to even try to heal her. His face is a mask of utter, soul-crushing despair.

"She- she cannot be gone," Hachiro sobs. "She is the Flame! She is- Mizuki! She promised!"

"She is GONE!" I finally yell, my own grief breaking through my control. I am climbing down, my limbs shaking. "She sacrificed herself! She chose this! She saved him!"

I point to the other body on the web. The silver, humanoid form of the cleansed King. It is still unconscious, breathing shallowly.

"She- traded- her life- for HIS!" Kizawa spits, his voice thick with a venom so pure it is terrifying.

He gently lays Mizuki's body down on the web.

He stands up.

He draws 'Silence'.

He begins to walk toward the sleeping, silver man.

"Kizawa, no!" I scream.

"She died for him," Kizawa whispers, his voice a dead, flat thing. The chasm is back. The cold, empty void is in his eyes. "He- does not deserve it. I will finish this. I- will unmake him."

"Kizawa, stop!" Hachiro yells, grabbing his arm. "That is not what she wanted! She saved him! If you kill him, her sacrifice- it means NOTHING!"

Kizawa stops.

Hachiro's words- they are a key. They are logic.

Kizawa looks at the sleeping man. He looks at Mizuki's body. He looks at his sword.

He is a man trapped between his grief and her dying wish.

The silence stretches, a thin, taut thread in the Abyss.

And into that silence- comes a sound.

A thud.

A slow, agonizing, thud.

It- is not coming from us.

It- is coming from ABOVE.

I look up.

THUD.

Far, far above us- up in the darkness- where the Spire should be.

A faint, sickly green light- is pulsing.

"The- God-" Yogawa whispers. He is awake. He is clinging to my leg, his eyes wide with a new terror. "It- it is still alive."

THUD- THUD- THUD-

The heartbeat is getting faster. Angrier.

"It- is not just alive," Hachiro chokes out, his hand flying to his head. "It- it is furious."

"What- is it doing?" I ask, my skin crawling.

"It- it knows the King is gone," Hachiro gasps, his eyes rolling back. "It thinks it is free."

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The sound is a frantic, terrified drumbeat.

"No," Hachiro corrects, his voice a scream. "It is not furious. It is DYING!"

"What?!"

"The CHAINS!" Hachiro screams, pointing up. "The King is gone! But the CHAINS are still there! They are still draining it! But now- there is no one to CONTROL them!"

A low, grinding sound. A sound of rock on rock.

The Abyss begins to shake.

"The chains- they are on autopilot!" Yogawa shrieks, his logic returning in a wave of pure panic. "They are draining the God at a fixed rate! But without the King to siphon the power off to other *worlds- the energy is BACKING UP!"

A new light.

Cracks of *pure, sickly green energy are appearing in the darkness above us.

The Spire is OVERLOADING.

"It- it is going to EXPLODE!" Yogawa screams. "The entire Spire! The Hollow-God! It is a DIVINE BOMB! It will wipe out this entire cavern! Torchlight! US!"

"We- have to get back up there!" I yell, my mind racing. "The lift!"

I look around madly. The iron lift- is GONE. It fell when the web dissolved.

We are trapped at the bottom of the Abyss.

And a God is about to explode above our heads.

"This- is it," Yogawa weeps, collapsing. "We are dead. What a *stupid, pointless way to die."

Kizawa is not listening.

He is kneeling beside Mizuki's body.

He is running his hand over her dead-white hair.

"It is not over," he whispers.

"Kizawa, stop!" I plead. "She is DEAD! We have to MOVE!"

"She- is NOT- dead," he hisses, his voice a *low, fanatical growl.

He leans down. He presses his forehead to hers.

"She is a Phoenix, Erima," he whispers, his eyes closed. "She is not a candle. She is a FIRE."

He is insane.

"She- is just out of fuel. She burned herself out."

He looks up. Not at me. Not at the exploding God.

He looks at Hachiro.

"Hachiro," Kizawa commands, his voice like ice.

"What- what?" Hachiro stammers, wiping his eyes.

"You- are a conduit. You eat Miasma. You are pure chi."

"I- I am EMPTY, Kizawa!"

"NO. YOU ARE NOT."

Kizawa grabs Hachiro's one good hand.

He slams it down onto Mizuki's chest. Right over her heart.

"She- is the Phoenix. You- are the fuel."

"Kizawa, NO!" Hachiro screams, trying to pull his hand away. "It- it will KILL ME! I have NOTHING LEFT!"

"It WILL kill you," Kizawa agrees, his voice brutal. He holds Hachiro's hand in place with an iron grip.

"That- is the cost. Her life- for yours."

THUD!

A chunk of glowing green flesh the size of a house falls from the darkness, crashing into the void a hundred yards away.

The Spire is disintegrating.

We have seconds.

"HACHIRO!" Kizawa roars. "CHOOSE! DIE FOR NOTHING! OR DIE FOR HER!"

Hachiro looks at Kizawa's *mad, pleading eyes.

He looks at Mizuki's *pale, peaceful face.

He closes his eyes. He grits his teeth.

He stops pulling away.

"Okay," Hachiro sobs. "Okay. For Mizuki."

He takes a deep breath.

He PUSHES.

He pours the *last, dregs of his own life-force, his own Miasma-chi, into her body.

A faint, sickly green light envelops them.

"It- is not enough-" Hachiro gasps, his face turning gray.

"It WILL BE!" Kizawa roars.

He grabs Yogawa.

"Magician! YOUR LIFE TOO!"

"WHAT?!" Yogawa shrieks.

Kizawa drags the screaming scholar over. He slams Yogawa's hand onto Mizuki's other shoulder.

"POUR! ALL OF YOU! GIVE IT TO HER!"

"I CANNOT! I AM NOT A CONDUIT!"

"THEN LEARN!"

Kizawa- is a madman.

He looks at me.

"Erima. Your hand."

My mind is screaming NO. This is insane. This is suicide.

But I look at Mizuki.

I place my hand on her forehead.

Kizawa puts his own hands on top of all of ours.

We are a circle of *broken, dying fools, kneeling on a scrap of web in the Abyss, trying to resurrect a corpse while a God explodes above us.

"TOGETHER," Kizawa commands, his voice a prayer.

"NOW."

We all push.

We pour our grief, our fear, our *last, pathetic embers of life into her.

A green light. A blue light. A pale white light.

And- from Mizuki.

A flicker.

A single, tiny, golden spark.

It is not enough.

It is failing.

And then- a new light.

A silver light.

The sleeping man. The Cleansed King.

He- is awake.

He is standing.

He places his hand on Mizuki's heart.

And he pours his own *ancient, silver soul-light into her.

The golden spark- catches.

It IGNITES.

A wave of *pure, golden FIRE explodes from Mizuki's body, throwing us all back.

Her eyes snap open.

They are not gold. They are not silver.

They- are a *burning, furious, golden-silver.

She is alive.

"I- was sleeping," she gasps, sitting up.

"The Spire- is exploding."

She looks at us. All of us. Her *broken, half-dead team.

She smiles.

"Okay."

She stands up.

"Let's- go- fix it."