The Dawn of the New World

*Roaar~*

A muffled roar sounded somewhere in the distance, alerting both Hao Xuan and Jin Wang.

*Sigh*

"That can't be good..." Jin Wang mumbled while propping himself up using the wall behind.

"The hell are you doing?? Just wait here, I'll go check it out!" Hao Xuan quickly interjected. Jin Wang really wasn't in a position to move around too much, he was low on both stamina and Qi, not to mention wounded.

Jin Wang shook his head with a determined expression while grabbing Hao Xuan's arm for dear life.

"Hell no! You're not leaving me behind f*ckface!"

"Wha- I'm not leaving you behind, I'll be back you idiot," Hao Xuan tried to free himself but Jin Wang's death grip would not loosen. He looked at Hao Xuan in the eyes.

"Either we both go, or no one does, b*tch!"

Hao Xuan stared back at him in silence and knew there was another reason for his strange behavior, so he agreed.

"Fine, come. But stay back," Hao Xuan said while further into the tunnel with Jin Wang close behind.

Hao Xuan looked around, observing the new surroundings now that he had the time. The air here was indeed a bit strange. It felt like it had a lot more "mass". When Hao Xuan waved his hand in front of his face, it felt heavier, the air was offering more resistance. And it probably wasn't the air alone as Baracus mentioned earlier, there were a few other things mixed in with it.

Hao Xuan slowed his breathing and told Jin Wang to do the same, in case it was something harmful.

The Duo walked through empty tunnels that would sometimes expand and then contract suddenly. It didn't seem natural or man-made, unlike the ones before. Every now and then they would hear screams in the distance followed by a roar or two. But the interval between them was getting longer and longer.

Even though they couldn't see it, it wasn't hard to imagine the brutal fight that was taking place.

"Here," Hao Xuan suddenly stopped. His ears twitched and he could hear rough breathing a few dozen meters in the front. He signaled Jin Wang to wait there and slowly moved along the wall. Even with White's ability he could only see up to 6 meters around him, which was almost 3 times as much as other people.

He held his breath and clenched his fist, ready to attack or defend at a moment's notice.

*Drip*Drip*Drip*

The sound of dripping water came from just ahead. He squinted his eyes and bent down to minimize his frame and extremely carefully moved forward until he saw the source of the dripping water.

It was one of the hooded figures. He was laying beside a wall while purple blood dripped down onto the floor from his face.

Hao Xuan opened his fist ready to knock him out until he got closer and noticed that he wasn't breathing anymore. He had passed away while sitting there.

"What the hell happened to you..." he mumbled to himself while laying the man down on the ground. And as he did, the man's hood came loose, revealing his face.

"What the f*ck did that?" Jin Wang suddenly spoke up from behind Hao Xuan, almost giving him a heart attack.

"F*king make some god damn noise or tell me when you're coming. Jeez dude," Hao Xuan slapped Jin Wang on his abdomen, making it jiggle and him flinch in pain.

"Relax you p*ssy," Jin Wang muttered while bending down beside the man on the ground and turned his head to the other side to get a better look. The entire left side of his face was missing. It wasn't cut off or something, but it was just gone, bones and all.

Hao Xuan frowned, "Isn't this where Ra's mark was?"

"Yeah, it was. These f*ckers had the curse mark on their faces while the rest had it on their chest. Probably something to do with them being higher ranked in Ra's army of dumba*ses," Jin Wang agreed.

After examining the rest of his body they found out that there were no other wounds on him at all, not even a scratch.

"Look around for some clues. Maybe we can find out what did this to him," Hao Xuan said before getting up and going further in. The tunnel they were in currently was pretty big and it was starting to expand the deeper in they went.

"Here," Jin Wang waved at Hao Xuan. There was another body on the ground belonging to one of the vanguards. The first thing they did was open up his shirt and found the same type of wound there.

Ra's curse mark was gone, leaving only a bloody hole behind. It looked like someone had scooped it out with something. The only difference was that this one had a few other wounds as well. Several cuts that looked like they were made with something rather sharp, but it didn't match the weapon he was carrying.

There was black sludge around all the wounds that seemed to have dissolved much of the flesh. It was pretty similar to the black substance that burned Fortis's tentacle earlier, but still quite different.

While they were busy examining him, a scream and a plea for mercy came from a few dozen meters in front.

"AHH! Lord Ra, please forgive me! Please!"

*ROAAR*

An angry roar came in response and the screams disappeared.. Hao Xuan and Jin Wang looked at each other with the same question in mind. Was Ra here?!