d Mount,
lesser reservoirs of the Monster's force.

Neither the Emperor nor the Keeper moved, both seemingly indifferent to
the catastrophe fast developing around them.

Now I strained forward to the very thinnest edge of the curtainings.
For between the Disk and Cross began to form fine black mist. It was
transparent. It seemed spun of minute translucent ebon corpuscles. It
hung like a black shroud suspended by unseen hands. It shook and wavered
now toward the Disk, now toward the Cross.

I sensed a keying up of force within the two; knew that each was
striving to cast like a net that hanging mist upon the other.

Abruptly the Emperor flashed forth, blindingly. As though caught upon a
blast, the black shroud flew toward the Keeper--enveloped it. And as the
mist covered and clung I saw the sulphurous and crimson flares dim. They
were snuffed out.

The Keeper fell!

Upon Norhala's face flamed a wild triumph, banishing despair. The
outstretched planes of the Cross swept up as though in torment. For an
instant its fires flared and licked through the clinging blackness; it
writhed half upright, threw itself forward, crashed down prostrate upon
the enigmatic tablet which only its tentacles could manipulate.

From Norhala's face the triumph fled. On its heels rushed stark,
incredulous horror.

The Mount of Cones shuddered. From it came a single mighty throb of
force--like a prodigious heart-beat. Under that pulse of power the
Emperor staggered, spun--and spinning, swept Norhala from her feet,
swung her close to its flashing rose.

A second throb pulsed from the cones, and mightier.

A spasm shook the Disk--a paroxysm.

Its fires faded; they flared out again, bathing the floating, unearthly
figure of Norhala with their iridescences.

I saw her body writhe--as though it shared the agony of the Shape that
held her. Her head twisted; the great eyes, pools of uncomprehending,
unbelieving horror, stared into mine.

With a spasmodic, infinitely dreadful movement the Disk closed--

And closed upon her!

Norhala was gone--was shut within it. Crushed to the pent fires of its
crystal heart.

I heard a sobbing, agonized choking--knew it was I who sobbed. Against
me I felt Ruth's body strike, bend in convulsive arc, drop inert.

The slender steeple of the cones drooped sending its faceted coronet
shattering to the floor. The Mount melted. Beneath the flooding radiance
sprawled Keeper and the great inert Globe that