The Dawn of the New World

He grabbed Princess Helena by the one good hand she had left and dragged her out of the room without giving her any time to even compute what was happening. The door opened and they almost materialized out of it before closing it behind them.

A soft rumbling noise snaked through the walls making it seem like the entire mountain was crying and moaning for some reason.

Dust fell from the ceiling and even a few chipped pieces fell to the ground.

Princess Helena held the broken hand close to her chest but she was too worried about what was happening to even consider the pain right now.

"Did it go...well?"

Jin Wang waited a few seconds until the rumbling stopped to respond with a light shrug.

"Yes and...no. More no than yes if I'm being honest about it."

"Why did that happen just now? Everything got so much more...powerful..."

"That's how Chaos is. It depends more on what's happening inside someone than out. It draws power from emotions, all kinds of them. But there is no emotion stronger than pain, resentment, anger and sadness, as much as I hate to admit it. I wish I could say 'love and friendship' are the tools of the trade but no one that was truly happy ever did something terrible."

"And right now he is filled to the brim with all these ugly and negative emotions. And the more chaos there is the more unstable his emotional state becomes, especially since he can't consciously control it. So it has turned into a vicious cycle of emotional duress turning into Chaos and that Chaos fuelling his negative side, not that it needed any help in that aspect."

Jin Wang was about to turn around when he saw Princess Helena's troubled expression. It looked like she wanted to say something but was holding back.

"What? If you know something then you need to be upfront about it. This is a very sensitive matter and his life could be in danger."

She let out a deep sigh, "I felt something, there at the end just before my arm broke. I didn't mean to look inside but it was just so strong that I accidentally caught a glimpse, I swear," she explained earnestly and it didn't look like she was lying.

"That's fine. There is no use talking about what could have been. Just tell me what you saw."

She tried to find the right words but it was difficult.

"There was someone...looking back at me. When I looked into his soul there was someone there, someone else."

Jin Wang's frown deepened, "Someone else? Did you see who?"

"No. Their face was covered by darkness but the eyes, I can't get them out of my mind. Wherever I look I can see them staring back at me, those crimson eyes."

"Eyes? Red?"

Jin Wang mused inwardly and came to the most obvious conclusion.

'Hyde was it? Is it him? Did he have something to do with this? It has to be, there is no one else that can access his mind with such ease. I can't let him wander around in there however he wishes. If I can open the final door I can find my original spellbook and conjure up something to help...'

He quickly turned towards her, "Do you know where the other cultivators are?"

"Yes, down the stairs to the left."

"Oh, yeah I forgot, thank you," he extended his hand smilingly and when Princess Helena awkwardly reached out to shake it he grabbed the other hand, the one attached to a broken arm and jerked it forcefully.

"AAAH!" she fell to her knees from the sudden pain on the verge of tears.

Jin Wang patted her on the head like one would a child, "There, it's back in the right place now. Just cast a few healing spells and it will be right as rain in a few hours," he threw out the words before sprinting out of the room.

***

Back inside the room strands of white light were crawling up the walls and into the ceiling trying to escape. The Chaos energy was seething and with so much of it packed in such a confined space it was like a ticking time bomb that could go any moment.

The space bent and stretched under its influence and numerous scenes played out in unison all over, everything that Hao Xuan himself was experiencing.

He was still hunched over in the same exact spot but there was something different about his body, or rather his hair. One by one they were changing colors between black and white as if both colors were fighting for supremacy.

Each one was coming in waves trying to force out the other color.

But inside his mind palace it was eerily calm.. Of the three only one door was open all the way, the one on the extreme left that would usually be always chained shut.