The Dawn of the New World



There was so much energy flowing through Hao Xuan that every cell in his body was on the verge of imploding but to the Emperor it meant nothing.

Hao Xuan was moving back and forth through time with such excessive speed that nearly of it could not even be reflected within the chamber anymore. It was just a blur of slow beginnings and dreadful ends one loop after another.

Jin Wang could see Hao Xuan's body physically shrink and his muscles melt under the immense pressure, leaving him no choice but to intervene.

But just as he was about to strike the Emperor's apathetic voice floated through.

[His mind will shatter if you force it from the outside. Only he can stop it, do not be foolish]

Jin Wang had no choice but to believe him, it was too big of a risk to take. So he stepped back and allowed it to play out but his suspicions were already proven correct.

He looked over at Mr. Hyde, his voice echoing in his mind.

'He is planning something else, I am sure of it. We will have to step in when Hao Xuan comes out of this...if he ever does.'

'I agree. The man I called father would never agree to help someone like Hao Xuan out of the goodness of his heart. He always looks at the big picture.'

While the Emperor was focused on Hao Xuan, Jin Wang moved back to the wall of the chamber and started chanting a spell within his mind in preparation.

Time trickled by slowly and soon an hour had passed when things started to slow down.

The golden tendrils placed him in the center of the dial before slowly pulling back. He immediately fell to his knees because at this point it was just skin and bone left.

Jin Wang gave Mr. Hyde the signal as he closed the distance between him and Hao Xuan.

"Can you hear me? You still alive?"

But when he was about to step inside the dial an invisible barrier pushed him back. He looked to the Emperor, "What are you doing? He needs help!"

The sides of the dial opened up and two metallic instruments came out, one on either side of Hao Xuan. His hand moved by itself and was pulled to these stalk-like instruments by an invisible force.

Mechanical belts came out from the sides strapping him tightly to each side. The Emperor's golden figure finally landed in front of Hao Xuan and extended both hands towards him.

A low humming sound could be heard coming from the entire chamber as it resonated with the golden energy surrounding him.

Realizing that the Emperor had already moved on to the next stage of his plan, Jin Wang gave up playing nice and attacked.

"Fuck this," he held out his hand, "Dragon Breath!"

A magic circle materialized around his hand before a stream of blinding orange flame poured out but immediately fell to the floor where it was absorbed almost instantly.

At the same time, Mr. Hyde launched an attack from inside his barrier. Two green serpent heads materialized beside him. One of them spat out his barrier and the other at Hao Xuan's but the same as before, they were melted into goo and absorbed into the chamber floor before they could do any real damage.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Hyde shouted, unable to believe his eyes but Jin Wang seemed to be more aware of what had happened.

He bent down to brush his fingers across the countless notches in the floor, his expression immediately turning ugly.

"Nulls?!"

"Nulls? Here!? Impossible! Even with a hundred of them there is no way both of our powers were neutralized that quickly."

Nulls were people born with a single innate ability. They could completely cancel out any power that was close to them, no matter what. But not only were they extremely rare but to train even one would require countless resources and decades of preparation and even then they would have to constantly practice against new enemies.

And since neither Hyde nor Jin Wang had come across any, it was next to impossible for such a thing to happen.

Jin Wang shook his head, "No, not people. Nearly half of the floor is made from the frontal bones extracted from the skulls of living Nulls, the essence of their power forever sealed within them."

With a deep sigh he looked at the figure of his old friend, finally understanding that the man he knew probably never existed.

"It was a forbidden practice from an ancient civilization that has long since faded into the ether. But even back then we never did anything like this. Just...how many thousands of them did you sacrifice to create this place? ANSWER ME!" he punched the barrier between him and the Emperor.