The Dawn of the New World

"Little sheep...how...are you here...?"

It sounded like the voice was coming from every single direction all at once and no matter what she did there was no way to keep it out.

Leona was scared out of her witts, confused and completely lost but if there was one redeemable quality about her, it would be that she never lost hope. That's how she survived until now among the talented geniuses of her kind and even before that. .

Born an orphan, she had been alone from the moment she took her first breath but her will to live could never be outshone by anyone. She would do whatever was necessary to get out of here.

But trembling from the piercing cold she could barely stitch together a coherent thought.

"I...am L-Leona...w-who are y-you?"

"....Me? Who am I? I once had a name but...I cannot remember it anymore."

Despite the overwhelming urge to just lay down and slowly slip into eternal slumber, Leona forced herself to stay awake.

"C-Can you h-help me p-please? I a-am freez-zing..."

"Help? Should I? Why? Who are you? Why are you here?"

It sounded like whoever the voice belonged could not even remember what they just talked about. It was asking repeating the same thing again.

Sensing the end was near for her, Leona decided to stop trying to play nice with the voice and called out for the person that was supposed to be here.

"MASTER! H-HAO XUAN! PLEASE, HELP M-ME!!"

*Tremble*

Suddenly the ground started shaking as if something deep underground down was stirring awake.

The voice paused and then with a loud whooshing sound a figure of smoke and dust appeared in front of her. It had the same purple eyes that she saw in the sky before.

"That name...how do you know it?"

This time when it spoke she could tell the voice was coming from the smoky silhouette. And it wasn't one voice either but three very unique ones overlapping with one another. One belonged to a child, one to a grown man, and the last one to an old man at the end of his life.

And as the voice spoke the cold disappeared all at once, as if it was never there to begin with. Regaining some composure Leona met the figure's gaze and instantly realized it was someone she had never met before.

*Treeeemble*

The ground shook again followed by a sudden rise in the temperature. The air started to heat up and within seconds Leona was sweating.

The figure looked up into the neverending darkness before peering back at Leona a moment later. There was a strange kind of light in those eyes that was almost hypnotizing.

"You...should not have done that."

"Done...what? I didn't do anything-"

"Forcing him. You should not have done that. He was the one keeping the bloodlust in check and you sent him away. Go back now and tell your people to lay down their weapons. It will stop once there is no one left to threaten him."

The ground started cracking and tongues of red flame came shooting up. The smoky figure came closer to Leona and extended a hand.

"And thank you, for waking me up," he said before the smoke shot forward and swallowed Leona from top to bottom. She became smaller and smaller until there was nothing left.

The smoke was gone and so was she. The figure now stood alone and unconcealed. It was Hao Xuan, or at least someone that looked like him to a T.

He slowly felt his face, both the eyes, nose, and cheekbones. The only difference was the color of his eyes but it was significant enough that he looked like a completely different person.

"How...did she know my name?" he asked himself before the ground shattered completely and fire consumed him, returning everything to darkness once again.

Leona woke back in her body.

"What happened...?" she mumbled looking at Malina who was even more confused than she was.

"How long was I out?"

"Barely a couple of seconds, are you sure-"

All of a sudden the memories of what she had just gone through came rushing back and Leona's expression changed for the worse.

"NO! STOP!" she screamed towards Arthur and the others that were less than a meter away from Hao Xuan but it was far too late. Even if they wanted to there was no way to stop right now.

The blunt ends of their weapons shot through the dissipating dust cloud from either different directions and impacted loudly with Hao Xuan's body. Only, the reaction they were expecting was not what they got.

The ones who had attacked from the front were frozen in place while the ones at the back were sent shooting back into the walls.

Malina quickly brought up her wand and dispelled the smoke and dust so they could see what was happening.

Hao Xuan was standing in the same place as before, in the exact same position. Arthur had used the side of the glaive to hit his shoulder but it was caught within Hao Xuan's teeth before it could reach its destination.

He held the other two weapons with his free hands while the last one managed to connect with his stomach. Arthur tried to pull back but Hao Xuan was biting down so hard that he couldn't budge an inch.