Nine Paths Of Asura - 36 First Walk of Madness

One of my favorite early chapters. I feel it’s one of the most memorable. As always, please feel free to let me know if you have any thoughts!

Floating above Lineir in the treetops was precisely one of those lower sect elders that Mei was talking about. He was wearing the black robes of the Nero Sect and hovering atop a two meter long immortal sword as wide as a man. When Lineir showed no reaction he called again in an imposing tone of authority,

“Kid, where did you come from? Did you see a hooded figure go this way? I’m looking for an old man coming from the city of Dracherus, he may have been flying or on foot, and the Nero Sect will pay greatly for any information on him. Have you seen anyone matching this description?” The man had a very arrogant manor, while his words may not have been that imposing, showing that he wasn’t of very high birth, his manner and the fact that he expected all of his questions to be answered without question revealed his true nature as a Nero Sect disciple. Lineir still didn’t answer. A bubbling force was welling up inside him, as if a gushing red spout of blood was bursting through his burning veins. Mei was trying to get Lineir’s attention,

“Kiddo, answer him, the Nero Sect is looking for you. He has no idea who you are. Unless you want to alert his suspicions and have to fight the entire sect then say something!” But Lineir was still standing there frozen. The man floating above finally got suspicious. While Lineir didn’t fit the profile, and he never imagined that he was the same man who had dominated the arena with such a terrifying aura, he figured that this youth knew something and was reluctant to say it.

“Do you know such a man? Come on, the Nero Sect will definitely reward you handsomely. Just come with me now…” He swooped down on his flying sword, and made to grab Lineir. Immediately, as he swooped down, Lineir’s eyes which had been squeezed tightly shut this whole time snapped open.

“Fight the entire sect you say, Master? That sounds like an excellent idea!”

*SHICK*

From Lineir’s elbows came his bone scythes and his eyes slitted like that of a feral animals. A murderous dark aura came from him, and before the man on the flying sword could react, Lineir was whirling about, completely bypassing the outstretched arm and it was as if the reaper’s very own scythe had risen from hell itself to tear out his soul through his throat. The man didn’t even have time to shout before dropping dead, his sputtering blood streaming out to water the dirt. Mei wryly said,

“Well, I didn’t say you should fight the whole sect, but at least you see how easy it is to deal with these hollow elders. As I said though, you are still technically in the same realm of power as them. It’s good that you killed him quickly, if he were to actually call out and assemble with more of them, it could get dangerous fast. One ant alone can be squished, but an army is far more difficult to exterminate.” Lineir was taking slow deep breaths, but his heart rate was spiking to no end.

A slow character formed its way across his eyes in blood.

“To guide you on the first path, I leave behind one who knows.”

In a gentle, almost girly elegant scrawl, the same character from before came as the world transitioned completely to red,

“Madness”

From Lineir’s mouth, came laughing words which he didn’t exactly want to speak… yet neither did he attempt to stop. They echoed through the empty night sky.

“Come out enemies, Madness greets the world again!”

Instantly the clear sky and stars were joined by three dark robed elders of the Nero Sect.

“Who is it that so boldly calls out his enemies!” As they came, they spotted the crumbled black robes of the first elder, soaked with blood.

“YOU…! I’LL HAVE YOU PAY NINEFOLD FOR YOUR SINS!” They rushed together at Lineir who stood without a care in the world. However, this only brought them closer to their deaths. With a snarling leap five meters straight up, Lineir was level with the first elder’s throat. Wordlessly, he cut it open with a backhanded whirl of his bone scythes which started him into a graceful spin of death. Still ascending from his leap, past the corpse which had begun to fall to the ground Lineir spun up and cut another throat with his other arm. The world whirled by and to his eyes which could now see so much more than before, it was as if the stars were swimming amidst dark rivers of flowing blood. The third elder stopped, unable to comprehend what he had just seen. In his entire life, he had never seen an elder of the Nero Sect die, let alone two to some youth. It had all happened so fast he couldn’t believe it. As Lineir fell down back to the ground, this third elder began to fly backwards, wetness between his legs. Lineir was simply staring up at him as he revolved around and around in the air. His face would face him, then his back, then his face, as if he was a coin flipping in the air.

Heads… tails… heads…. tails… with every revolution, his face became less and less human, more and more demonic, his eyes glowed unnaturally bright, yellow, black, red. The character came again across his eyes.

“Madness”

As he was about to slam into the ground, and the third elder was just about to reach the tree tops, some ten meters away, Lineir’s face flipped up one last time. An unspeakably evil snake head rushed out of his throat and shot up, snapping into the third elder’s chest as if it was paper. From it was ripped out his heart and with it, the center of his cultivation, the Second Heart. A terrific gout of blood came out and the third elder’s body also began to sink out of the sky, heartless. The snake, which had come out in an instant, retreated back inside Lineir’s mouth by the time he had spun about to face the ground, and his limbs automatically snapped out to hit the ground, landing as a cat might, upright and undamaged. Around him rained down three bodies, two throats slit and one savaged beyond repair.