"I've been waiting for you to wake up for so long, sleepyhead. Are you even a man? What do you need so much beauty sleep for?!"

Lineir was speechless, the voice in his head was bouncing around his skull and was loud enough to make anyone want to clap their palms to their ears.

But since it was all in his head, he didn't even have that option! He looked at the blade in his hand closely and became immensely excited despite his fatigue.

"You wouldn't happen to be one of those legendary immortal blades would you? Have I struck it rich? Will I finally be able to become a hero and never have to worry about food again?" The voice in his head grew incredibly annoyed at his youthful thoughts,

"Me? An immortal blade? Don't be ridiculous. There's little time for your questions. That undead blood is pouring in here, and the undead heart will know where I am after all this time. It's almost done refining the souls of the old city. When that happens, not just you, but the whole new city will likely perish. Choose now, follow my instructions and save the world or die here asking pointless questions!"

Lineir hesitated, it could be a trick after all. This voice might deny that it was an immortal sword, but Lineir knew that only immortal swords could speak out with true human-like speech. Furthermore, it appeared like the blood-sucking spider was actually a minion of this strange sword. However, his blood had really been returned to him. He even felt refreshed and the wound on his back had sealed shut as if it had never been there.

The voice started taking a softer tone but still reeked of arrogance,

"Ok, I see that you are the kind of person that doesn't rush things. But there's really no time. How about this, I promise to answer any one question of yours truthfully, and then you follow my instructions. After we deal with this calamity, I will tell you exactly what you want to know in full!"

Lineir paused, the black liquid pooling up to his ankles. Soon the pit would fill with undead blood and he would drown if he didn't leave anyways. He asked the question that first came to mind and felt most important,

"Can I trust you?"

The voice chuckled,

"Trust is a fine thing, but it is fine to know that I won't kill you right now. That undead heart over there though, that definitely will end your sorry existence if it is allowed to return to life! So listen to me and run out of this pit now! If you can make it to the undead heart, I have synthesized enough power from your blood to stop it from resurrecting. Go, unless you don't value your own life or anyone in the entire city!"

Lineir was sold.

His sister's life was at risk as well!

Immediately he realized that he was out of choices and began to sprint up the sides of the pit. Climbing up the side of the pit was far more difficult than it might seem. The black liquid made everything slippery and holding the sword in one hand, Lineir could only scrabble at the ground with two legs and one free hand. Sometimes he would jam the sword into the side of the pit walls and use it as a cane.

"Hurry, every second you delay, it gets stronger. Can't you hear its heartbeat? If the interval between each beat increases to the speed of a normal heart, even I can't stop what is coming!" The voice in his head urged him on calmly.

Lineir felt frustration coursing through him as he slipped yet again and received a face-full of black muck.

"Can't you do something about this? If you're so amazing, then help me through this!" He yelled out. The voice sighed,

"Look, I could help you through this, but I can only possess your body for a short time before your blood will experience corruption and die. If I do it now, then by the time we get to the undead heart you will already be a dead man walking, and I won't have enough time to seal the heart before you drop dead! Just get me there as fast as possible, and I will take care of the rest. Don't worry about tiring yourself out, once you're there I will take over!"

Lineir pressed onwards relentlessly, trying to batter his way free of the endless blood and mud. The voice of the sword shouted bizarre encouragement to him all the way.

"Oh quite good, I didn't think you would get up past that spot so easily" and, "Oh, if you keep smashing my blade in so hard, we'll get there in no time".

"HAAAAWWWWHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"

With a tremendous cry, Lineir arrived at the top of the pit and stepped on the street level of the Deadzone. In the distance, the giant undead heart, bigger than a city, was beating faster than ever, causing ripples to spread out endlessly through the disgusting black liquid. With every heartbeat, more black liquid would pulse out of the rotting heart, shooting straight up into the sky like a pillar of blood. Once it's momentum was spent it would fall down like rain. Soon the whole town might be drowned in black blood. Looking back, Lineir saw that the pit he had come out of was almost completely filled, in another ten minutes or so he would have been sucked in and submerged.

"Kid, stop looking back! You're still not close enough. Get me right next to that sucker! As a matter of fact, throw yourself at it! Only then will I be able to take over and end this. Run like your life depends on it. If you don't get there fast enough, I won't hesitate to use all your life force to seal this thing!" Hearing this Lineir bolted. While he ran towards the undead heart, the voice of the sword in his mind explained its past to him.

"I was once an existence which could touch the Heavens and travel the dimensions. However, many years ago in another world, my body was destroyed by enemies. To those who have reached true enlightenment in the way of the sword though, our fleshly bodies' death means little. My soul in this sword sought to flee through a tear in the dimensions and recover my strength here. Little did I know that somehow the enemies seeking to devour my soul's power were nearby. They were alerted as I tore through the planes in desperate flight and they followed me here.

When I battled them, it was with but a phantom body as there was no time to recover and manifest a new physical form. During that fight, I came to realize that without a true physical body, there was no way to win without some sacrifices. I seized upon my only option and used all my remaining power to seal the tear and cut off enemy reinforcements. This action killed my enemies but also trapped me here on this plane. Though I won, I was too weak afterwards to properly devour their souls and ensure that they were truly vanquished. While they are not capable of surviving within their swords as I am, they had another method to endure! They slowly used dark sorcery to refine the mortal souls of this city's dead.

When I realized that they had survived, I attached my spider technique to the wandering undead around here hoping to steal someone's blood essence and use it to revive myself. While it's a technique which I am not very proficient in, I hoped somebody with powerful blood might be stupid enough to be caught by the undead and I could be revived. After all this time, you came, and I used your blood to bring us together.

Unfortunately, you came a bit late and my enemies are almost done reviving themselves in the center of that undead heart. I have only your life force to work with, which while unusually powerful is no match compared to their power. They have millions of souls to devour. If they finish refining so much Qi, they can immediately be reborn in their true fleshly bodies and it's all over. Before that happens you must get me as close as you can to the undead heart, throw yourself upon it, and then try to hold on to your sanity!"

Like a madman Lineir dashed towards the heart in question, which was big enoughto rival a city. When he reached its base, the sword's voice triumphantly crowed,

"Excellent work young man! I'll take it from here. Watch closely, you won't see this kind of power again in your lifetime!" Lineir's limbs suddenly moved of their own volition, a black haze surrounding him as all the hair on his body began to stand up. With a wrench, Lineir's back snapped as his chest was brought up without any urging from him.

"OWWWWWW" He groaned.

"Sorry, don't you work out? Your pectorals are so light!" The voice apologetically teased him.

"I'm lucky to eat twice a day, you try putting on weight with my diet!" Lineir answered in his mind before he fell into a sort of trance. The black haze around him condensed and suddenly he found himself shooting up and away from the ground! He had taken a great leap, propelling himself hundreds of meters into the air. He found himself halfway up the length of the city-sized black heart!

"Your blood is excellent kid, I got up to this height in one jump and I don't even think I had to permanently damage your life force!"

With a vicarious cackle there was a boom as his feet kicked off of a platform of the black haze condensed in mid air and he found himself accelerating up and above the black heart as it pulsed gushing spouts of undead blood. Lineir, in his trancelike state, had no say in his actions as his knees bent and he tilted forward to face the heart below.

"Well, I only have enough blood energy for one strike, and the real target is inside all that undead crap. Looks like I'll have to hold back the Black Blade for the final strike and break into the center of the heart with something else...

Sorry kiddo, only way, try to stay sane! It'd be a shame if you lost your mind after all this!"

A final kick off another condensed-black haze platform, and Lineir felt himself plummeting face first into the undead heart! What was this person thinking? Surely the sword would be brought in front of his face so at least if they were going to enter this festering thing, the blade would open a path for them! Then he remembered that the voice had said the sword would be held back for the final blow.

*Spurt*

He plunged in forehead first like a mad diver, ramming into corpse after rotting corpse at breakneck speeds.The black haze covered his forehead so he didn't directly touch the undead, but it was still horrifying to be moving through hundreds of meters of congealed flesh and bone with his forehead as a drill!

Occasionally gaps in the solid matter would appear and he would be submerged in the black liquid as if he was really was entering a heart of corpses. There were these weird blood-filled veins and arteries winding about. everywhere The whole heart shook every few seconds with a pulse as it came ever closer to resurrection! Suddenly, he broke through a final layer of rotting flesh and in front of him were 54 perfect bodies floating in a pool of undead blood right in the center of the corpse heart.

"Excellent, we made it. They haven't completed their rebirth yet. After this strike, I will drain your body of all spare life force and try to escape. You will lose consciousness quickly and you can only pray that I get your body out to safety, or else you will be lost in this pile of dead flesh forever. Before that happens though, watch closely. This technique once broke the Heavens and defied the gods. If you see it, even if you die, you will at least die having seen true power!"

Having spoken it's final words, the sword behind his back swung forwards and a crushing crescent of black haze solidified and rushed down like a tsunami. Whatever it touched appeared to be absorbed into it as if it was never there. It reached the perfect, still bodies below and they were instantly obliterated, but the blow didn't stop there. It continued down, expanding the further it went!

*Splash*

The entire lower half of the heart was simply gone. A huge current rippled and suddenly Lineir wasn't inside of the undead heart anymore, he was floating in the air as the rotting matter surrounding him was blasted away.

Booom! Pac pac pac pac pac pac pac pac pac pac

The explosion was as if a meteor had slammed down from the Heavens and tattered pieces of decimated flesh rained down for kilometers!

The black haze around him quickly pulsed and he kicked off one last time into the distance. In a matter of moments, he flew clean out of the deadzone and into the old city, with the walls in the distance. As he was about to hit the ground, a heavy fog coated his mind. Complete exhaustion gripped him, and he immediately passed out.