The Dawn of the New World

Eurig's mind was like a lonely raft on a stormy night out at sea.

Just looking into Hao Xuan's eyes once left him absolutely powerless. It wasn't a matter of not trying hard enough but there simply wasn't anything he COULD do other than vomit the word "Yes".

The moment Hao Xuan's hand touched Eurig's body he couldn't gather an iota of spiritual energy, not even his own physical strength. It felt like he was about to melt into a puddle when Hao Xuan finally released him.

"Go."

No matter how bitter he felt on the inside about bowing to a man that was barely older than his own grandson, he sure as hell wasn't going to voice his opinions at this moment.

"Y-Yes my lord!"

When Hao Xuan pulled back his hand it 'separated' from Eurig's flesh and skin like water from oil. Rubbing his neck in shock and disbelief Eurig gave a quick bow and stumbled back into the city.

Hao Xuan watched as his figure disappeared behind the crowd. Just looking at his true form brought up a sour taste in his mouth, as if he wasn't supposed to see it.

And not only did it not help him but it made no sense either. In Hao Xuan's eyes Eurig was nothing more than a swarm of small snakes rolling over one another to create a humanoid figure.

And the worst part was that not only he could see it but also feel its existence which was starkly different from that of a human.

Where a normal person felt like listening to clean water flow, Eurig made Hao Xuan feel like he was sitting in a pool of his own filth which filled him with nothing but negative feelings towards him.

When Eurig was far enough away Hao Xuan's ugly expression somewhat returned to normal and he took another deep breath, repeating those same words he was told so long ago that had turned into a mantra of sorts.

? "Patience. Breathing. Focus."

Hao Xuan attempted to completely clear his mind but no matter how hard he tried those memories of other lifetimes simply could not be overlooked.

They were always there in some capacity, playing out in the back of his mind like a movie.

The only problem was that these movies were not pleasant to watch. Each one was worse than the one before, filled to the brim with all manner of violence.

"Patience. Breathing. Focus," he repeated again before a loud explosion from the city gates broke his concentration.

It was quickly followed by ear-piercing screams and a feeling of weightlessness for a very brief moment.

'Someone is dying,' he automatically thought and began moving towards it. Crossing a couple of the barricades he saw what had happened.

There was a large bat-like creature on the ground that was cut in half and around it were three guards with serious injuries. One of them wasn't moving.

Hao Xuan walked past the creature as its body disintegrated into ash and knelt beside the wounded guard.

The other two were scrambling around to pick up their weapons before swiftly returning to the frontlines without even tending to their injuries.

Neither of them reacted to Hao Xuan's presence but the last guard did. There was a six-inch-wide gaping hole in his stomach from which the internal organs were spilling out.

He was trying to close the wound when he saw Hao Xuan and ceased all efforts.

"I am...going...to die..." he spoke through laboured breaths.

It didn't sound like a question. As if seeing Hao Xuan somehow signaled his death.

Hao Xuan reached out and held his hand which was getting colder by the second. He tried to circulate some Chaos Qi into his body but it dissipated immediately.

He was.

"You are."

"T-Thank you...I...didn't...want to die...alone..." he threw up blood after every other word but Hao Xuan didn't seem to mind.

"Shh, it's okay. You're not alone."

Despite all of his own troubles, at this very moment, Hao Xuan's attention was unequivocally focused on the guard.

He was holding him in his arms as his soul slowly left his body but instead of the guard's face he only saw many of his own.

When he was once ambushed by his own group, all the times when he was left behind by his own comrades, so many different lives and ends but the feeling was the same.

He remembered it all.

He remembered that feeling of being abandoned, that loneliness in those final moments and the final acceptance that it was all coming to an end.

No matter how many times he experienced it, it never got easier.

The guard was looking up at Hao Xuan but he was seeing more than just him. In his eyes there were hundreds of figures around him, all watching over him in his final moments.

He trembled a couple of times before his body went limp. And just like that, it was over.

"Just like that...?"

Hao Xuan closed the guard's eyes and stood up.

"So much death," his memories were still playing as if he was going back in time. And then all of a sudden he remembered the first one, the one that had triggered it all.

He saw Salome laying on the ground in front of him while Tian Zheng danced atop his corpse.

"Ah, I almost forgot."

He looked up at the sky that looked like it was on fire. It was burning with an orange flame, all of it.

"Patience. Breathing. Focus."

😉