The Dawn of the New World

*Beep*

'Warning: The laws within the Webway are different as compared to the real space. You might face difficulty communicating and your senses might be off.'

Baracus gave one final warning.

**

Despite the never-ending waves of excruciating pain hitting his sea of consciousness, Hao Xuan braced himself for the worst as he stepped into the Webway for the first time. He held his breath and steeled his mind, on the verge of sanity itself.

But what he was expecting did not happen. Although the pain didn't subside for even a moment, it didn't get any worse either.

The moment Hao Xuan stepped through the gate it felt like he passed through a thin film of cold water that washed over his very soul, giving some much needed relief to his aching mind.

It was similar to being submerged deep underwater. His soul thrummed inside the mind palace and all of a sudden he was able to 'feel' the presence of the others behind him, or rather their souls.

It was like each of their souls were stronger in this place, no longer requiring the protection of a fleshly body to survive.

The surface he was standing on felt like nothing. He felt weightless and empty when he tried to move his limbs. There was no air pressure with most of the other senses being cut off as well.

Hao Xuan took a step forward but felt the rope pull back. He looked behind him and saw Isak looking around wide-mouthed with a dumbfounded expression, standing in one spot. Hao Xuan opened his mouth and attempted to call out to him but no sound came out.

In fact, there was no sound to speak of at all. It wasn't that there was nothing to make sounds, but that they simply could not exist in this hyper-dimension.

Hao Xuan pulled lightly on the rope to get his attention and mouthed the word "Come" but almost like spirit sense, his 'intention' was passed onto Isak.

Isak nodded back and Hao Xuan just 'knew' what he was trying to say without him having to actually say it out loud.

Hao Xuan could still see clearly even though the tunnel that looked like it was made entirely of fire sometimes pulsed like a living organism. Thankfully it wasn't harmful to him, well not as far as he knew.

Inside his brain, the mutated cells that had taken the 'rough' shape of a four-leafed clover started to absorb the fire from the surroundings.

The pattern got more and more distinct with every passing second and a brief moment later Hao Xuan's spiritual sense got clearer, as did his vision. The tunnel that looked like it was made of fire until a moment ago now looked a little different.

There wasn't fire underneath his feet but solid ground, a hard rocky surface like that of an underground cave.

With Hao Xuan in the lead, they continued to slowly trudge along the only path that was available to them. There were no exits in sight, only a twisting tunnel.

In less than half a minute each of the four clover leaves had absorbed enough 'fire' from the surroundings to finish their first evolution. The headache slowly abated, freeing Hao Xuan's right hand with which he was holding onto his skull for dear life.

And as soon as he removed his hand, with a sound-less pop each of the leaves suddenly sprouted two pearl-like solid growths. They were extremely small, barely 2-3 millimeters in size but they were glowing, pulsing along with the fire outside.

And with their appearance, in his mind, Hao Xuan could suddenly feel a new sensation. It was something he had never felt before. It wasn't anything physical but an extremely vague sense of awareness, of a new form of perception, almost like a sixth sense.

There was no way to even feel it under normal circumstances unless Hao Xuan completely focused his mind but in a place like this, it was so strong that he could feel it like air currents.

They had been walking through the tunnel for a little over a minute when Hao Xuan saw something ahead. It was another crack on the side of the wall of yellow fire.

Hao Xuan moderately increased his pace, dragging the barbarians along with him since they were all holding onto the rope.

He stopped right in front of the crack with a bright smile etched on his face, thanking the universe for finally giving them a way out but the moment his mind comprehended the images that were playing out on the crack's watery surface, his smile froze.

His eyes quaked saccadically, jerking left and right with an overwhelming sense of incredulity while his mind could not wrap around what he was seeing.

The crack showed a new world, a much different one than anything Hao Xuan's feeble mind could possibly come up with. It showed a ravaged landscape of a battle-scarred city. In ruins and devastated beyond recognition.

Numerous four-legged winged beasts flew amid the flames, many of them holding onto half-eaten human carcasses.