That was when the Heavenly Dao answered in full. Punishment slammed down, not lightning, not fire.
A stripping. A sentence. Banishment from the plane. It did not cast him into the void. It was worse than that.
It tore his registry out of the order of things. The world would not count him as a denizen of the samsara realm.
No return. No reincarnation. No familiar heaven to bargain with later.
This was what Radeon was after all had been after.
As heaven's malignance etched itself into his soul. The crystal formed a vortex to assimilate the surrounding energy.
Radeon's skin came apart grain by grain. Bone followed, a fine cracking that ran through him.
Even his soul, already under heaven's torment, began to fray at the edges, each breath a smaller thing than the last.
Radeon forced his shape to change. His ribs stopped screaming and started creaking. He became wood.
He lifted one arm and chopped it off like a man cutting his own finger to save his hand.
