Ouch got friendzoned today, stings pretty bad, was really hoping to play videogames with this girl. I planned this chapter years ago though it kinda fits my mood today. Sorry if it comes out a bit unclear, still kinda tilted smh.

LIneir was almost gone. The drifting flecks of white ash were unraveling ever faster, and if anyone were to look at him, all they would see is a blur of cloudy white surrounding a tired unclear body. As for his vision, all he could see was one half of his vision, the other half had gone black as his eye disintegrated. He took one last look at the sky, despairingly.

"Is this all my cultivation comes too? To walk two of the Nine Paths? To let my master down time and time again?" He said it almost like he expected an answer but of course the Heavens did not answer. I can feel the unending rot entering my bones right now. It burns...

Despite the terrible pain, which would cause any regular mortal to shriek, Lineir was somewhat numb to it. His understanding of Madness and the fact that he was already preoccupied with his monumental failure blunted the impact of losing his body and he just stood there on the cliff's edge, overlooking the Hells. I should just let it all go. If only I could cut myself off from these feelings.

Suddenly the strange voice of the demon inside came,

"Severance is not the way...but it may seem a safe haven."

Lineir was too tired and uncaring to pay heed to its warning. He viciously began to organize his thoughts and feelings. Then one by one...he cut them off!

"SEVER!" He screamed into the cliff, and no one heard as he began to lose himself. However...there was one technique...just one which activated as the sea of blackness in his Third Heart began to swirl.

The Black Heart!

It was the technique he had learned in Lord Midnight's tomb from one of the tablets. Yu's technique, the Hematoma was actually derived from it. The ancient spirit which had masqueraded as Lineir's friend had studied the tablet and used it to preserve his spirit after death. It involved condensing all of one's energy into one singular mass. For what purpose however...that remained unknown. When it activated, all of the Qi in the air near Lineir began to condense inside him. It grew heavier and heavier, becoming something resembling Darkness Qi but not quite the same, it was even thicker, almost like darkness itself. As it gathered, more and more of the surrounding Qi came in faster and faster. After a moment, Lineir realized the technique was actually consuming parts of his very own body.

Bits of his legs were being pulled into the swirling essence, his blood, his skin, and even his bone. The more indifferent he became, the more he cut off, the more he lost to the Black Heart technique. One of his hands was beginning to be consumed, and he wondered if he should keep going. Even though he had lost it all, he was still, in the end, a cultivator. Though he did not fear dying in battle, he inevitably feared death to some extent. However, it was in that moment where he severed even that final lingering thread of emotion, feeding it into the Black Heart.

"Hmmm? What's happening?" The Three Step King glanced over in the direction of the cliff. Stopping his meditation, he started to rise, but upon realizing where it was coming from, settled down once more. "Oh...it's ending."

The disturbances even reached the mysterious lair of the Hell's Ice Emperor. He took a look as well, and a puzzled expression reached his face.

"Why do I get a familiar feeling, from a dying man?" He closed his eyes, memories of a different time coming to mind. On the cliff, Lineir crossed his legs, as his feet began to twist and swirl into his core. What remained of his Second Heart and Merideans creaked and trembled as cracks formed and then chunks began to stream away like pebbles washing down a river. Sadness crossed his mind as he lost the body which had carried him so far, but then he fed that emotion too into the darkness. 

Skkkkk

A terrible pain swelled in some of his nerves, more than he would imagine possible so close to the end of his life. The Unending Rot was still ravaging him, causing him indescribable pain despite his efforts.

"Ahhhhkkk!" He groaned before his lungs gave way and most of his organs were crushed and consumed. Am I really doing the right thing? Should I really be severing everything? Do I want to die as an emotionless husk? 

Severance is not the way...

The mysterious voice inside whispered once more, but Lineir cut it off. This time, as if in a final act of defiance, he even fed his bruised and torn Second Heart into the black hole. There was nothing left of him now. Just a tattered black robe, his head with a missing clouded eye, one arm, and a swirling mass of darkness in his center. Finally, a measure of peace came over him, as he realized it was almost over. For a brief second, he entertained the hope that by practicing this technique, some miracle would happen, perhaps the Nine Paths would whisper a way out to him, or the poison would burn out. However, the terrible pain spreading throughout him told him the truth. Almost every part of his body had been infected. What little bits that remained would soon meet the same end and crumple away.

I'll burn it all away before that!

Lineir thought...and then he severed his Third Heart and his very own mind and it all twisted away-