Nine Paths of Asura-Original Wuxia

Chapter 4- The Deadzone

Thump.

Lineir never expected to wake up again. But the Heavens had different plans for him. His head bumped into the ground and the jarring shock pulled him back to wakefulness.

Alert again, he slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was still being dragged, but he was far deeper inside the Deadzone than anyone in living memory had ever been. The bony hands on his ankles were still pulling with the same force as before. As a matter of fact, they felt even stronger, as if they were being energized by the aura of death in the center of the Deadzone. Around him were scattered bones of every sort, and all was covered in a black substance which resembled dried blood. It was as if he was being borne on a giant scab in the land.

Thump

Presently, his head smacked into the ground again and his ears rang from the impact. Shocked, Lineir let out a stifled cry, he frantically glanced at the undead carrying him. It was another huge skeleton which was remarkably well preserved. It didn't seem to care in the slightest that he was still alive and kept dragging him forward like one might pull a sack of meat along the ground. Lineir was surprised that he couldn't see any other undead in this place. There should be millions of bodies here, but all he saw were scattered bones and this half dry black gel which covered everything.

Smack...Thump!!

The land beneath his head rhythmically jumped up and down every couple of minutes as if some giant beast was stomping on the ground. Lineir immediately paled as he imagined what massive undead could be causing this. Perhaps one of the legendary constructs which formed when hundreds of thousands of undead came together, a Bone Lord, or a Reaper's Creature. But Lineir felt there was something wrong with this idea. The ground was literally rising and falling so hard it hurt his head when it dropped. There was a distinct rhythm to it and whatever this thing was, it was just too big. Beyond anything he could think of. To make matters worse, he was definitely getting closer to it. His head was smacking more and more often. Eventually, Lineir came to a stop and his leg was dropped onto the dirt.

"Ahhhhhh"

Lineir uttered a grateful groan as his aching leg was finally released. Looking around, he dared not make any sudden moves, but saw that his surroundings were more frightening than any he had ever encountered before. A rising mound of corpses stretched out in front of him, higher than the walls of Brackenrock City. Every few seconds, it would pulse, a wave of movement passing through the whole mass. The whole thing was black and filled with that black, scab-like substance.

The skeleton that had been dragging him appeared to bow to the gelatinous mass and then it kneeled and fell apart into pieces. The black liquid on the ground rippled and the pieces were carried away on a black tide into the mass in front of him. The dark current continued to flow inside until it was indistinguishable from any other part of the mass. At that moment, Lineir felt his whole body rise, the black substance began to ripple, and he was propeled towards that black mass.

Thump

With that rhythmic pulse, Lineir realized what was in front of him. Bony corpses squished together into a coherent mass and given shape. This thing was no mere undead construct! It was an undead heart bigger than a city, made of hundreds of thousands of rotting corpses and he was about to be pulled in!

At that moment, however, a red light intruded into his view a few meters away. The spider, which had torn itself from his back, and gotten him into this predicament, was beckoning with a raised leg. Its back was no longer swollen with his blood. Instead the sack was empty and smooth now. Lineir thought it over.

The strange spider had already taken his blood, but the undead heart sucking in the black tide would most certainly be his end at this rate. He began to stroke weakly, parallel, to the pulsating black tide of gel. He was trying to make his way to the spider which was floating on top of the disgusting substance like a water bug. As he arrived, the spider grabbed onto his hand with its legs and then ran up onto his back and dug its fangs into him again!

"You leech! I'm about to die and you can't even let me go into the afterlife while I still have blood in me!"