The Dawn of the New World

-Until the dial abruptly swiveled up and down and began to rotate wildly in every direction.

She felt something tug at her, not physically but spiritually instead. It began as a pit in her stomach and turned into a soul-crushing sense of doom.

She fell to the floor as alarm bells began to ring out in her head, a feeling no one shared since they were dancing in new-found delight upon escaping a most certain end.

"I-I can't breathe!" she tried to speak but only a hushed whisper escaped her lips.

Princess Ceni didn't know what to do because she had never experienced anything even remotely similar in all her life. It felt like the entire world was crashing down on her, trying to bury her as deep as possible.

It felt like all hope had been stomped out of existence. And then it finally hit her.

'Is this...what dying feels like?'

She clutched her chest in hopes of causing enough pain to perhaps numb the feeling but nothing could push it down.

In this moment of despair, her gaze was attracted by the third dial of the medallion which would occasionally pause momentarily in the left direction before continuing to spin again and she noticed only then this terrible sensation dulled ever so lightly.

'Ah, I get it. He is the one that's dying, Hao Xuan is dying and I can feel it.'

Where the remainder of the 'crew' rejoiced and celebrated upon taking the very first steps of their new lives, Princess Ceni could only shed tears in silence while waiting for the end.

But for some reason, the tears weren't for herself.

"Is this what you felt like...every time? I can't...even imagine it..."

Back on the other side of the undersea portal things were going exactly as she had envisioned.

Hao Xuan was impaled to a massive stone slab that looked strangely out of place jetting out of the ocean like that. Most probably an ability of one of the handful of figures that still remained in one piece.

The seventy-plus brave warriors were now left with just over thirteen and most of them had serious wounds that showed no signs of healing.

In the lead were two people, one male and one female. Their appearances could now be clearly seen since the concealing aura had dissipated.

The female had her face covered with a blue veil but no doubt she was shockingly beautiful underneath. Wisps of white and golden light shot out of her palms and attached to the wounded men behind her, keeping them from falling apart.

The male looked like a kid. Perhaps sixteen or seventeen years old at most with an innocent-looking face. Yet his unwavering gaze was stronger than any of the others.

His expression was twisted in both anger and sadness as he glared at Hao Xuan.

"JUST.STOP!" he screamed in obvious frustration.

"Do you not see the folly of your actions? Why are you so hell-bent on dying?! You and me, we could achieve so much together, do you not understand that? Are you truly so vengeful that you won't even give peace a chance?"

The female's brow furrowed deeply as she finally spoke up, "ENOUGH! We have tried it your way and look what it has gotten us. Most of our forces have been wiped out by a half-dead fool and you continue these futile attempts to talk some sense into him. Do you truly not see it? He WANTS to die!"

Deep down he also knew it but hearing it from someone else finally put the last nail in the not-so-proverbial coffin.

"I don't...understand it. The kind of power that you have, the strength that you have shown us today should not simply be wasted away!"

He looked behind at the soldiers of the new republic, well, that were 'supposed' to be the faces of his new Republic but if they could even survive for the next 24 hours was now a mystery.

"Look at what you did. Teetering on the edge of death you still managed to lay waste to these proud sons and daughters of Ancient Clans. Did they not receive a hundred times better care than you? Did they not have access to knowledge far beyond your reach? But look at them now...look at me..."

He paused and peered at his own shaking hands, "Ha...haha...look...isn't this funny?" before meeting Hao Xuan's flickering gaze.

There were four swords impaling Hao Xuan to the stone slab. He was missing his left arm and was being held up by grasping onto the very blades that were constantly trying to rip him into pieces.

"Even now I dare not come close to you. Just thinking about it makes my body scream in terror. It warns me to stay away from you, that if I got closer it would be the end of me. Aah, how shameful it is, how utterly pitiful that I could not see you at your full strength. I can only imagine how terrifying it would be."

"But I guess...it is better this way. If you won't join us then this is the only end."

He stepped back and the female crossed her hands. Golden light poured out of her body blinding Hao Xuan and by the time it dissipated there was no one else there.

Hao Xuan's body finally relaxed. He knew what was coming, although he still wasn't used to it.

Raising his gaze to the sky it fell on the star-shaped object in the far distance. But it looked a bit different now. The central part of its body was much brighter than the rest. It had shapes and indentations within that made it look like-

'An eye!'

The moment he saw its true form his body began to splinter and break away into pieces as if it was made from rock and dust.

'You cannot tame that monst-'

Before he could even finish that thought his body was turned to dust, along with every other living creature on the planet.

😉