Rivers of the Night

Theron felt something explode in his mind once more. This time, however, it didn't just feel like his mind was being pulled into a new world, but instead like he was—his entire being.

But the feeling was more than just a little uncomfortable, almost like a black hole had appeared where his heart was, sucking in all his blood, then his flesh, then his bone, all before his soul.

It was a feeling that forced him to bask in the discomfort of it all, as though it wasn't to make him feel the essence of pain and sacrifice before he saw what he was going to see.

Anyone else would have felt fear, apprehension, a sort of inferiority when coming to face something like this. It was like the slab of polished marble was trying to assert its dominance.

But the moment Theron understood that this place wouldn't be his burial ground, nor would this time be his death date, he was deathly calm.

Theron didn't fear death. What he actually feared was dying before getting revenge for his family. They deserved more than his failure.

But it could be said that the day the Seijin fell beneath his blade…

He would no longer have any fears remaining.

Drip.

It sounded like a droplet of water falling into a deep pool in the midst of a cave. The sound echoed for miles—or so it seemed. The reverberations were just endless, pounding against Theron's skull in an attempt to force him to awaken.

But he was already awake, and he was seeing it all laid out before him.

A world of chilling blood.

The sticky crimson clung to his feet, the pool lacquered in a deep red of unfathomable depth.

Standing there, on its surface, in this world of endless darkness, Theron couldn't help but form a crude thought…

Was this blood his own?

Was this what was formed from the suction the slab had caused?

In that case, did he even have a body remaining in the outside world? What happened to him? And how did this relate to Mazes of the Mind at all?

He had been expecting a soul technique, or cultivation method… not this… whatever… "this" was.

But was it so different?

\\[Blood Escape] was named as such because of the changes it caused to blood, and the crimson mist that formed when one pushed themselves beyond their limits. But technically, it, too, was a soul control method.

Who was to say that something related to the soul couldn't be tied to the blood as well?

Theron looked down at himself, finding that he was flesh and blood, but he had lost his robes and stood entirely naked.

He looked around some more, only to find that there was nothing else for him to experience.

He couldn't seem to take a step forward… he couldn't sink down, and he couldn't rise up.

What was this place? Was this all?

'I'm doing it wrong.'

The answer came to Theron swiftly.

If this was truly a place to cultivate the soul, then he should be using his soul. He was trying to control this body just the same as he always did, but what if it required something else?

Without the old assassin, Theron would only be able to have these nice thoughts and do nothing about it. However, the old assassin had not just taught him one technique, but three techniques that required soul control.

A flashing thought came to Theron's mind. 'Could it be…?'

Aliza was supposedly the old assassin's granddaughter, and she had been looking for this slab all along. Could it be that this was where the \\[Songful Blade] technique and the others came from?

As Theron had these thoughts, he began to pull on his soul, modifying the sensations and feelings he got from the three techniques he had long grown familiar with to try and control his body.

And then, he suddenly succeeded.

First, it was just a twitch of his fingers, and then a firing of his quad muscles. But then, he successfully took a step, and then another.

But the problem remained the same. The world shifted around him, the blood lake was unmoved, and he hadn't felt anything different.

'In that case…'

Theron looked down beneath his feet. This was the only direction that made sense.

The blood here was the only thing of real importance aside from Theron himself. So… should he try and sink into it?

Theron felt a great amount of resistance immediately.

The first thing he noticed when he stepped into this place was this lake of blood. But more importantly than that, he realized that he wasn't actually standing on top of it, but instead, half of his heel and the soles of his feet seemed submerged.

When Theron began to push, he could feel why.

It was like the blood was rejecting him, punting him away as though he was unworthy.

He remembered this annoying feeling. It was the same sort of feeling he had experienced when he saw those Laws of Water. They felt disdain for him, and this blood… as deep as it was, as resonant as it was with his soul, it fundamentally rejected him.

It felt that he was inferior, that he wasn't on the same level as it, that he could never stand together with it.

And much the same way, Theron wanted to prove it wrong, to push against its narrative, to crush it where it lay and comprehend it in its totality.

But he barely managed to sink another half centimeter before his soul collapsed.

All the stamina he had had, all the strength—it all crumbled in a single instant, snapping as though it had never had much life or strength to it at all.

Theron's body shattered into countless pieces, becoming part of the pool of blood and vanishing. He had crumbled to nothing at all, and yet even now, the pool rejected him.

When his eyes opened again, he was a barely recognizable mess.