The Dawn of the New World

The muzzle of the energy pistol expanded by three times and the remainder of the barrel doubled in length. The changes stopped after a couple of seconds and by then it looked more like a shotgun with a large heavy barrel.

Meanwhile, the changes to the blade were the exact opposite. Its length halved to approximately 0.8 meters and serrated pins came out from the edges before they began to move in an anti-clockwise fashion.

A light green liquid was excreted from minute openings along the pins covering the entirety of the blade.

At this moment Hao Xuan pulled the flap down and exited the tent.

There was an old broken wall behind him that gave some cover from the billowing wind but everything else was covered in layers of sand that kept piling up because of the sandstorm.

Hao Xuan took a couple of steps before stopping. He looked around and from the corner of his eyes saw similar figures standing to his left and right as well.

His helmet caught the outline of each figure and highlighted it against the surroundings so it would be easier to pinpoint their location in the heat of battle.

He waited for a few more seconds but they didn't make a move so he inquired as to their intentions.

"Speak. Why have you come here?"

The shadowy figure to the front hunched forward as if it was trying to get a better look at him, "You are...him," it hissed. Its voice sounded like the whispers of many children.

"The one to walk out of the battle of the Red Sky."

Rather than a question it sounded more like a simple statement of fact, and that it certainly was.

But Hao Xuan's heart skipped a beat upon hearing that. There were no survivors from the battle of the Red Sky, not officially.

No one knew he made it and he had made sure of it by buying a new identity and not keeping in touch with any of his old acquaintances. But he was indeed the only survivor of that dreadful battle, the one that claimed the lives of his entire legion.

Tightening his grip around the shotgun he inquired further, "Who- No, WHAT are you?"

The voices laughed in whispers, "It is you, it is him! The one that lived!"

They sounded happy.

"Long have we searched for you. Through countless worlds and planes of existence we stand before you now to finish what was started on that fateful day."

The figure straightened its back again and somehow it looked even bigger than before. Two curved horns now jetted out of his head and a pair of wings fluttered behind its back.

It spoke up again and this time the voice was much different. It was more guttural and much deeper, almost like an animalistic growl.

"It is time to meet your comrades, human. Your soul shall finally complete the ritual."

Its clawed talons raised towards the sky birthing a ball of flame atop its head.

"On this day the last of the Alpha Legion succumbs to the Champions of Maymūn! Behold th-"

Before it could finish its long-winded tirade Hao Xuan raised his left hand and pulled the trigger.

*BAANG*

A four-inch wide explosive round impacted against its head, effectively shutting it up.

"I don't know how you demon filth found me but thanks for giving me enough time to load the special ammunition, might have been a bit troublesome otherwise. Saves me the trouble of looking for you scum."

The next moment another explosion rang out from somewhere behind Hao Xuan. He glanced in its direction musing, "Looks like paying for those mines wasn't such a waste after all."

The two figures to his left and right lunged forward simultaneously. Their extraordinary speed barely gave enough time for him to react.

Hao Xuan's knees buckled as he fired another shot to the left and swung the blade to the right.

The green substance coating the blade sparked and caught fire right before the movement of the pins accelerated. It would look like a chainsaw if the chain was made of fire.

The blade melted through the attacker's body severing it into halves while the other one took the full brunt of the shotgun to its face.

With adrenaline coursing through his veins Hao Xuan stood up and inspected the bodies. It looked like they were created from a great many other corpses since patches of different skin colors and body parts were sewn together with a steel wire.

The second corpse was the same. They didn't even have tongues and their mouths were sewn shut.

What he thought were tails were parts of other animals stitched behind their bodies.

"Well, this is new," he muttered out loud before looking toward the first figure that was speaking to him.

He walked over to the hole that was left in its place and other than some flesh and skin there was not much else left.

"A demon would not have disintegrated like this. Were these just some...bizarre experiments? But how did they know about the Red Sky?"

Authors Notes:

Summer is starting and for some reason regular power outages are back in my area. With 6-10 hours every day without power it has put a real strain on the barely existing writing schedule so apologies in advance, I'll try to be consistent but it really isn't in my power.