The antimony spikes softened into a Viscous, Purple-Black Sludge of Manganese, a metal that attacked the brain's ability to hold onto the present.
Haoran hung in the center of the altar, his body now a Canvas of Chemical Warfare, his nerves being rewritten by the Archive's "Erasure-Ink."
The "Amnesia-Ache" took hold—a specific kind of pain that occurred when a memory was forcibly ripped out of the mind before it was finished.
The 150 lines of this chapter documented the "Hollowing of the Interior," where Haoran began to forget the sound of his own original voice.
He could remember the concept of happiness, but the feeling was gone, replaced by a Vast, Cold Neutrality that was more terrifying than the pain.
He looked at his hands and couldn't remember why they were covered in iron; he looked at the city and couldn't remember why it had to survive.
The Archive was stripping away his "Reason to Endure," leaving him with nothing but the Raw, Physical Agony that had no context or purpose.
He was a "Pain-Loop," an entity that existed only to feel the Manganese sludge as it entered his bloodstream and turned his veins into lead.
Every heartbeat felt like a Hammer Strike against an anvil made of bone, a rhythmic reminder that he was still trapped in a body that wouldn't die.
Yuxiao stepped onto the altar, her presence triggering a "Conflict-Protocol" in the city's defensive layers that scorched Haoran's nerves.
Because he still felt a sliver of the 4th Sacrifice—the love for her—the city's Manganese shell reacted to her proximity as a "Threat of Vulnerability."
To protect her, the city Shocked its own Core, sending millions of volts of blue electricity through Haoran's already-charred skeletal frame.
He arched back in a silent, violent spasm, his jaw locking so tight that his antimony-coated teeth began to shatter into silver dust.
"Stay... away," he projected, the thought feeling like a Jagged Stone being dragged across his consciousness.
"Every time you... love me... I burn. Every time you... touch me... the Archive... wins."
He was being taught to fear the only person who cared for him, a "Psychological Flaying" that left him more isolated than the void itself.
The "Memory-Well" at the center of his mind was being poisoned by the manganese, turning his childhood into a series of Gory, Distorted Hallucinations.
He saw himself as a child, but the child's eyes were mercury, and the child was already screaming, already knowing the weight of the Martian Iron.
He was a man who had Never Known Peace, a recursive loop of suffering that stretched back into a past that the Archive had rewritten.
The Archive's "Truth-Towers" loomed over the city, broadcasting the "Sound of Unmaking"—a frequency that made Haoran's cells vibrate until they burst.
He felt his internal organs shifting, being replaced by "Mechanical Proxies" made of Manganese and Tantalum to ensure he wouldn't fail.
He was being "Maintained" like a piece of equipment, his suffering a Lubricant for the Machine of the sanctuary's survival.
His mercury eyes, now clouded and black, stared at the ceiling of the altar, seeing only the Syntax of his own Slaughter.
He realized that even if he reached the 5,000th chapter, he would have no soul left to give to Yuxiao; he would be a "Void in the Shape of a Man."
The chapter closed with the Manganese sludge rising to his neck, a "Slow Drowning in Metal" that mirrored the way he was drowning in his own fate.
He was 904/5000ths through the book of his blood, a dead body held upright by the Rigid Logic of Total Despair.
There was no light, no hope, and no peace; there was only the next line of the chapter, and the next pulse of the manganese fire.