A Regression

Ryu gasped, a violent cough suddenly coming from him. 

He wheezed and gagged, but nothing seemed to come out. It was only after several moments and his heart finally calming that he managed to regain his composure, still breathing heavily on all fours. 

In that moment, he had felt death again. He tried to fight back against it with all his might, but it didn't allow him to do so. It only made it worse that his body had been drilled down with an unimaginable pain, as though it was being ripped to shreds and put back together only to be ripped to shreds again. 

Ryu's eyes widened. 'What…?'

The first thing he noticed was that his Body Realm had fallen completely out of the Blood Tempering Realm, returning to the pinnacle of the Vessel Tempering Realm. 

This wasn't a small fall by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it was the equivalent of falling through four entire Realms!