The Dawn of the New World

"DO IT!!"

"Affirmative."

Hao Xuan felt a tongue of sharp pain go up his spine but before it could come back down, he was already out. His vision went dark and his consciousness had left the body.

*Shoooop*

Light once again returned to his eyes as he opened them to a new scene.

'Am I back in the webway?' he mused looking at the surroundings and experiencing the same sensation of nakedness again.

It was like looking at the world through a glass bottle full of a blue liquid. Everything seemed washed out and people and shapes were slightly stretched. It similar to when he was in the webway but still much different.

Hao Xuan was hovering in the air looking down at a familiar scene. It was the barbarian camp.

None of the buildings could stop his gaze as he saw and heard everything that was happening inside as clear as day.

Princess Helena and Na'im were sitting at the table discussing something behind a barrier while all the others were huddled up in front of the fire.

In Hao Xuan's eyes they looked both familiar and somehow foreign at the same time since he was could see various colors and shapes surrounded each person.

Burak was sitting across from Princess Inara talking to her quite passionately about a number of different topics but she paid no heed to his words. He kept smiling at her but every now and then another ethereal face would pop out from behind his own with a much different expression than what he was wearing.

Sometimes it would be worriedly asking if she was okay while other times it would be anxiously yelling at her to look at him.

'Are those his true feelings or inner thoughts?'

Hao Xuan no proof that they were, it was just a feeling.

Ma Jiang was sitting with Uri some distance away chatting about something when she suddenly paused and looked up, almost at the exact spot Hao Xuan was in the air.

'Can she see me?!'

There was a dark bright aura brimming with vibrant lifeforce surrounding her. While all the others looked washed out, she was the only person that looked the most like her usual self, minus the aura of course.

Hao Xuan was pulled away by an unknown force and was sent hurling towards another area.

'Woah, what..." he tried to control himself but soon realized he was just along for the ride, 'who?!'

It was much more clear this time. There was some sort of intent attached to him. Some 'being' was doing this. He could feel its existence like it was holding his hand and dragging him along even when there was nothing there.

It felt angry but the anger wasn't directed at him.

The world slowed down and came to a stop. Hao Xuan looked around and saw two groups of people below him.

Almost all of them were unknown faces other than one.

'Stasa!'

He was the Third guardian (or protector, used interchangeably) of the Hall.

'So they are here too!'

Hao Xuan hadn't felt the Ensis's presence down here so he just assumed the Hall hadn't found out about it yet but from the looks of it, they were several steps ahead of him.

The third guardian was supposed to protect the walking city and had to stay within or near it at least, which obviously wasn't the case. They had send out one of the big guys personally, but for what?

'Who are they?'

Hao Xuan directed his attention towards the people he was meeting. It was just a bunch of kids.

'Hmm?'

But the moment he focused on them he noticed something peculiar. The ethereal faces that occasionally popped out from behind these kid's faces were much, MUCH older.

'Shapeshifters? Spirits inhabiting other bodies? What are they?'

The copious amounts of dark red and black aura that was surrounding them made it pretty clear their intentions weren't noble.

The world started spinning again and when it stopped Hao Xuan was above a makeshift camp somewhere in the woods. He recognized a lot of the faces here. It was the people from the Academy.

Henrik, Hazel, and Fulke along with a bunch of others whose names Hao Xuan couldn't recall were all merrily sitting around a large bonfire drinking and eating. (CH 388 'Training Buddies')

'It looks like they are camping, without a worry in the world.'

The scene started to change once again and by the time it stabilized Hao Xuan was hovering above a small town. There were makeshift huts, shacks, and small shelters all over the place. It looked more like a slum than anything else.

Tens of thousands of locals living in some of the worst conditions Hao Xuan had ever seen. And there were rows upon rows of new people arriving constantly. Many of them injured and covered in various wounds with a fair few even missing a limb or two.

Holding onto whatever belongings they still had on them, they marched like mindless drones, hungry and thirsty. Packs of wild beasts followed closely from the sides, dragging any unfortunate soul that couldn't stand on its own two feet into the surrounding forests.

Some of them fought back while others simply closed their eyes and accepted their fate as the beats tore them limb from limb.

Hao Xuan could see and feel what they were feeling, the hopelessness, the pain, and the heartache.

The scene quickly changed five more times to show identical slums stretching across the lands, a total of six of them.

Each one filled to the brim with much of the same people. Broken, homeless, despairing individuals.

This was what was happening to the natives of this world.