The Dawn of the New World

"There are a few people I want you to meet", Dai Zhi finished his speech with the charisma fit for someone of his position.

Micha had stopped crying and all his attention was directed towards Dai Zhi by now. The myriad of emotions welling up inside him could barely be contained.

All he had done was run a few errands, kill a few people and participate in a handful of battles that posed no threat to him at all.

He had to do all these things to secure enough points for himself to enter the academy and even without Dai Zhi's order he would have still done them. But to think that would be enough to land him such an opportunity, he was no fool.

Micha hadn't done anything extraordinary and he was well aware of it. The ONLY reason he got into Order was because of Dai Zhi. His own hard work had nothing to do with it.

He fell to his knees and almost kowtowed.

"I will never forget this opportunity that you have given me, my lord."

Dai Zhi who watching with a wide smile and this time he didn't pick him up, allowing Micha to show his gratitude the best he could, by groveling at his feet. Dai Zhi's eyes shone with a bright crimson light for a short moment before returning to normal. This change was accompanied by a surge of power feeling of control that was intoxicatingly addictive.

He closed his eyes and allowed the strength to pass through him before ordering Micha to get up.

"On your feet now, come on. We don't have a lot of time until the last battle and you still need to bond with the relic," he said referring to the silver ring, "From what I know, all the remaining forces have banded together to create one army, their last paltry attempt to fight back. Gather all of our forces, I will be leading them myself when it's time."

"Y-Yes," Micha wiped the tears with his sleeve and walked out with large strides, leaving the prisoner and Dai Zhi alone in the room.

Dai Zhi watched him fumble out of the door and close it behind him, chuckling lightly. But this lighthearted mood was cut short by an unexpected interruption.

"Your words have no value to them, empty, just like your lives," the prisoner spoke up in the beast world's native language.

Dai Zhi had completely ignored his existence until now but after hearing what he had to say, his curiosity took the better of him and he obliged the man.

"Whatever do you mean?"

The prisoner was thrown straight to the floor and was still laying there. But seeing as Dai Zhi had responded and opened a dialogue, he picked himself back up with some effort and sat crosslegged on the floor.

Half of his face was swollen to twice its size and the other half was covered in bruises and wounds, making it impossible to tell his identity. Only his left eye was still able to see properly which was locked onto Dai Zhi.

He spat out a mouthful of blood along with a few teeth before answering.

"Exactly what I meant. Everything you said to the boy was false. Empty words without any meaning behind them."

Dai Zhi's interest was peaked. He stood up and walked a little closer, "Oho, what makes you think that?"

The prisoner smiled, or at least it should have looked like a smile but it was hard to tell with so much damage to the face.

"Hmph, when you have lived as long as I have, you can tell who is honest and who isn't with ease. Something children like you are too young to understand."

Dai Zhi's lips curled into a mischievous smile before he unwittingly broke out laughing, "Hahahaha, child?! Me? Hahaha!"

He genuinely couldn't stop himself. Dai Zhi was close to 70 years old in standard earth years, although not many people knew this about him. It was just that his bloodline was awakened when he was barely out of his teens and he was stuck with this body. But he had most certainly seen a lot more moons than the man across from him.

Stifling another bout of laughter, Dai Zhi spoke up again.

"Well, at least you got one part right. Yes, I was lying," he admitted it outright, "I told him what he needed to hear. With his skills and background, there was no way he could get into the Order by himself. But I need some trustworthy people on my side so I pulled some strings."

The prisoner scoffed, "Even before that. All that talk of justice and order, those were all lies too."

"Indeed they were," Dai Zhi nodded without any hesitation, "I have no interest in the Order but as long as they continue to support me, I will say whatever they want me to."