Chapter 76: The Phoenix's Ascent

The golden-silver light of Mizuki's rebirth is a sun in the darkness. It is a pure, defiant, living fire, and it pushes back the infinite, crushing black of the Abyss. She is on her feet, her body a pillar of pure, consolidated energy. Her hair is a cascade of molten gold and silver, and her eyes are burning with a power that is both hers and not hers.

Kizawa is on his knees. He stares at her. His expression of raw, broken grief is replaced by a stunned, disbelieving awe.

"Mizuki," he breathes.

A loud thud shakes the Abyss. A gargantuan chunk of green, fleshy stone, the size of a building, detaches from the unseen ceiling far above and plunges into the darkness. Its passing is a terrible, rushing sound.

"The Spire! It is overloaded!" Yogawa shrieks. His logic returns in a tidal wave of pure, abject terror. "The God is detonating! We are dead! We are all dead!"

"No," Mizuki says. Her voice is a chorus, a blend of her own sharp command and the ancient, silver, soulful voice of the Cleansed King who stands beside her.

She looks at Kizawa. She holds out her hand.

"We are not dead, Kizawa. We are late."

He takes her hand. The moment he touches her, the golden-silver flame surges into him. It is not a gift. It is a connection. His wounds, his exhaustion, his cold are burned away. He is whole.

"Hachiro!" she commands.

Hachiro is slumped on the ground, his life-force guttering. He looks up. His eyes are dim.

Mizuki pulls Kizawa to his feet. She walks to Hachiro. She places her hand on his chest.

"You gave me your fuel, Fist," her chorus-voice rings. "Now, let me return the favor."

The golden-silver light pours into him. Hachiro gasps as his Miasma-chi ignites. His green light is pure and strong again. His shattered arm knits together with a sickening crack. The bone is instantly healed.

"Yogawa. Erima."

She does not need to touch us. The aura of her power is rolling off her in waves. It washes over me, Erima, and the broken, weeping Yogawa.

My fatigue vanishes. My trembling stops. The obsidian bow in my hand, once an impossible burden, now feels light.

Yogawa stops crying. He blinks. His terror is replaced by a scholar's astonishment.

"The energy," he says. "My magic. It is full!"

"The Spire is collapsing," Mizuki states. Her voice is a calm, terrible command. "It is going to explode. And we are at the bottom of the well."

Another larger piece of the Spire falls, crashing into the web near us. The web groans and tears.

"We have no lift!" I yell over the rising din. "We have no way up!"

Mizuki looks at me. She smiles. That same insane, stubborn smile.

"I am the way up."

She grabs Kizawa's hand. She grabs Hachiro's.

"Grab on!" she orders. "Make a chain!"

Kizawa grabs my wrist. I grab Yogawa's. Hachiro grabs the Cleansed King's hand. We are a circle of six, standing on a single, tearing strand of silk.

"Hold on," Mizuki whispers.

She closes her eyes.

"I am the Phoenix."

She unleashes the flame.

It is not an attack. It is not a shield. It is propulsion.

A torrent of golden-silver fire explodes from her body, downward, a roaring rocket engine of pure, divine Will.

The web beneath us incinerates.

And we ascend.

We fly.

We rocket upward, away from the Abyss, a single, six-person comet of fire and defiance. The King's parlor vanishes below us. The silver light is gone.

We are in the infinite shaft again, flying up past the leering Shriekers, who scream and scatter from our light.

"This is the coolest thing I have ever done!" Hachiro roars. His voice is pure joy.

"She is a god!" Yogawa screams. His terror is now turned to pure, hysterical awe.

Kizawa is silent. He is watching Mizuki. His face is a mask of pain and love.

"The Spire!" I yell, pointing up.

We are approaching it. The Hollow-God's cavern. It is a storm of green, explosive light and falling stone. The God is detonating.

"The Hunters!" Kizawa roars.

They are swarming. Thousands of them. Stalkers, Devourers, Shriekers. They are in a panic, fleeing the collapsing Spire.

And we are flying straight into them.

"They see our light!" Hachiro yells. "They are coming for us!"

"They see the Phoenix!" Mizuki's voice booms. "They see their Mother! And they are afraid!"

She does not slow. She accelerates.

We punch through the first wave of demons.

"Form up!" Kizawa bellows. "Protect her!"

We break our chain. We are flying in her aura, a bubble of golden-silver light.

Kizawa is at the front. His twin blades are a blur of steel, shredding any Hunter that gets too close.

Hachiro is a wrecking ball. His newly-healed fists glow green, punching Stalkers into paste.

"I am back, baby!" he roars.

I am the Arrow. I am Erima. I fire my obsidian arrows, and they fly like missiles, exploding Shriekers from the air.

Yogawa is laughing, a mad, cackling sound.

"I am the Scholar!" he shouts. "I am the Law! K'thall's Rebuke! You are false! You are false!"

He waves his hands, and the Hunters near him flicker and dissolve, their magic unmade by his logic.

We are a storm of five.

The Cleansed King, Argent, is at Mizuki's side. He holds no weapon. He raises his hand, and a shield of pure, silver light forms, deflecting the chaos. He is her guardian.

We burst through the center of the cavern, through the eye of the storm.

The Hollow-God gives one final, agonizing throb.

"It is blowing!" Yogawa screams.

"Faster, Mizuki! Faster!" Kizawa roars.

Mizuki screams, and the golden-silver flame doubles.

We shoot up the last tunnel, the one that leads to Torchlight.

We erupt from the ground, blasting through the floor of Krell's Nexus in a shower of obsidian and light.

We land in a heap on the cold stone floor of the command center.

Krell is there. Staring. His four black eyes wide in utter disbelief.

Mizuki collapses. Her light fades. Her hair returns to its silver-gold.

A low, rumbling sound shakes the foundation. The entire city of Torchlight shakes.

A vast, silent, blinding pulse of green light shines up from the hole we just made.

The Hollow-God is dead. The Spire is gone. The Miasma is gone.

Krell stares at the hole. He stares at us, a pile of broken, exhausted, victorious insects.

He looks at Mizuki, panting on his floor.

"You actually did it," he whispers.

"You killed my God."