"Your sacrifice, Ae#&%… is accepted. Through you, the gifts of Celestial power shall be given to the mortals, and your deeds, though unknown, shall echo through the epochs, until the end of all things."
Light fell from the highest heaven, and it took him apart.
You know, I have watched a great many things die. I have been a great many of them. What happened on that platform was not a death, and I do not have a word for it.
The light took him apart cell by cell. He made no sound through any of it, even though I thought it must have been unbearable. I watched the light enter his body, go up his arms and across his chest, and as it faded it carried away pieces of him until there was nothing left.
I saw his skin and muscle and bone vanish into that light as it rose into the air, and when the light was gone, his soul was left standing there, and I had never seen a soul like it.
