The Dawn of the New World



"Their souls are...trapped here?" he repeated in a daze.

Despite Baracus's crude phrasing, Hao Xuan's mind raced upon hearing that last sentence.

'Will it work? Can I still save them somehow? What if I use the power of the constitution to transplant their souls into different bodies like I did with Ensis? Can't I save all of them then? I have- NEED to try.'

With his emotional state somewhat returning to normal the effects of the lycan bloodline began to slip back into the lifeblood.

With just a tiny sliver of hope Hao Xuan had regained all of his mental fortitude in the blink of an eye. There was a new reason to continue, to keep going.

"Maybe their sacrifices won't be for nothing. I have to get in there, is there another way in?"

"Negative. The only exit was located below the statue."

"There has to be, think! A service entrance, an air duct, or something like that."

Hao Xuan's vision flashed and the blueprints for the control room were pulled up for him to see. There were four different layers all superimposed on one another.

"What's in this place?" he pointed towards a small chamber beside the main control room. It was more than 20 meters away from it with only a narrow vent connecting the two.

"A device that regulates and reuses the cooling liquid for the central matrix."

"Why does it need a dedicated cooling device? How hot does it run normally? It looks like I could dig straight down and reach that chamber since it is under one of the buildings. From there I can crawl into the main chamber."

"Without the cooling liquid, the internal temperature of the central matrix would exceed 4,500 Celsius in approximately 3 minutes and 40 seconds before reaching critical mass. The structural integrity will fail followed by a full system-wide failure within the next 30 seconds."

"...."

"What if I reconnect the cooling system before it reaches critical mass?"

"As long as the structural integrity is not compromised it should be fine."

"So I will have 3 minutes and 40 seconds to get it back up and running. That's doable."

Hao Xuan marked the exact building the cooling chamber was under and immediately jumped over to it. It was abandoned like all the others and since all the shadows were focused on breaking open the hatch, he was able to discreetly make his way to the basement level without getting noticed.

Unfortunately, the peaceful working environment he was hoping for did not last for very long.

Seconds after Hao Xuan had lept away the orc skeleton climbed up from the side of the building and followed after him without making a sound. It followed him down into the basement and watched from a safe distance as he tore open the concrete floor with his bare hands.

The light in its eyes became increasingly brighter the longer it stared at Hao Xuan. Its fingers twitched and the rest of its body became jittery as faint echoes of long-forgotten memories began to resurface within its mind.

It remembered standing before the statue for the very first time that bore Hao Xuan's exact likeness. 'He' had just learned to walk when his father brought him to visit their 'master'.

He could hear how much his father loved that figure and see that love manifest in his fervent gaze.

'You will meet him one day soon when we are ready. It is because of him that we can stand here today, breathe this fresh air and enjoy this beautiful scenery. He was a stranger but chose to become our savior even though it put him in a dangerous position.'

'You must remember your duty Lucious, never forget it for as long as you live.'

"Lu...cious..." he tried to speak his name but the horse voice that crawled out of his gullet acted as a stark reminder of the events that followed after.

Hundreds of years of suffering, decades of starvation, beseeching, and prayers that fell on deaf ears. It was all because of the man that stood across from him now.

The light in his eyes swirled and turned darker until it could not be distinguished from the shadows that created him.

He opened his decrepit maw and let loose a roar that shook the entire settlement. But it could not be heard by any of the weaker shadows.

Hao Xuan paused mid-strike to look up with a frown.

"Woah, what was that? Did you hear something just now?"

*beep*

"Negativ-"

Baracus was about to answer when he was cut off by the row of automatic notifications.

[Extraplaner Energy Source Detected]

[Danger Close!]

[Proximity Warning!]

Hao Xuan jumped out of the hole just in time to see a skeleton manifest out of the shadows.