The Dawn of the New World



The world fell silent as the battle came to an unexpected end.

The bald man's broadsword was embedded halfway into the golden warrior's chest while he was cut cleanly in two pieces. His legs still stood rooted to the ground while his upper body scrambled left and right in a panic, dying itself in a beautiful shade of ruby red.

The silver warrior who had seen the last moments unfold knew exactly what had happened but he had neither the spirit nor the mindfulness to do anything about it.

His legs gave way under him and he fell back in a daze while shaking his head maniacally, "No no no that's not possible. No one looked into his eyes so how could it-it doesn't make sense!"

His gaze was pulled towards the stone doors where Hao Xuan still stood with Princess Ceni in his embrace...completely unharmed. His mouth fell open, "From the start...everything we saw was an illusion. We were just fighting each other."

Hao Xuan strode towards the dying brothers, pausing momentarily to look at their confused expressions before they took their last breaths.

He then turned towards the silver warrior, "Not an illusion. I allowed you to see what you wanted to see, you did all the work. It's what comes next that will be painful...for all of us."

"You're a demon...a MONSTER!" the silver warrior shouted, both in awe and fear of the power that could take lives without him having to lift a finger.

Hao Xuan walked over to him, passing through the rain as if it wasn't even there. He stopped at his feet, looking down at him with cold emotionless eyes.

"A monster? Not yet, but maybe after this," he mumbled. It sounded like he was talking to himself and the silver warrior just happen to be nearby.

But it was his foreboding words that irked the silver warrior the most.

"What more do you want? You already have her, just leave already!"

Hao Xuan raised his head to stare at the cloudy sky, "The price must be paid for your sins. You live atop a mountain of corpses but expect nothing to happen? What about all the souls that linger beneath your feet?"

The X-shaped configuration began rotating within his eyes while tears of blood ran down his face. Once, twice, thrice, for a total of nine times they spun around, withdrawing every ounce of power from his body to power the final fantasy.

His body shook and trembled making him stumble backwards but he managed to stay on his feet at the end. And all this time his gaze was fixated on the nightly sky.

Finally, he uttered, "Third Gaze: Heart's Requiem!" and closed his eyes. The rain came to an abrupt stop.

When Hao Xuan opened his eyes again they looked normal, at least to the silver warrior who was expecting something terrible to happen.

"W-What... did you do?"

Despite seeing Hao Xuan's slumped figure he did not have the guts to try and pick up his weapon again.

'It could be another trick, I can't believe anything I see!'

Hao Xuan turned around and started walking away. His voice came floating in a second later, "Revenge, retribution...or payback....whichever you prefer. Just know that you caused it, all of you."

The silver warrior watched with bated breath as Hao Xuan's figure vanished from view behind the city streets. He only dared to stand up when a few emaciated figures came crawling out of the dungeon.

"The prisoners I freed..." he looked around warily but Hao Xuan was nowhere to be seen.

The rain had stopped and everything had returned to normal. He finally took off his helm and threw it aside. After taking a few deep breaths he mumbled, "Fuck this, I don't want to do this anymore," and ran down the streets.

He was sprinting at full speed while heading back home, feeling more alive than he ever had before. This experience had a profound effect on him.

'He let me live for whatever reason but there might not be a second time. I'll ask for standard guard duty away from all this danger. Even if it is a demotion as long as we are together everything will be fine.'

He passed through one empty street after another before finally arriving at his. But standing across from his house the man's smile froze upon not hearing any noise whatsoever. It was deathly silent- nay, even graveyards would have 'some' sounds.

But standing next to the busiest market of the outer city all he could hear was his own thumping heartbeat. No one, not a single soul in sight.

"I-IS ANYONE AROUND?!" he yelled but heard only his own voice echoing back.

His heart was in his throat as he ran to his house and kicked open the door, "YUNA! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

He shuffled from one room to another before stopping at their bedroom. There was a pool of blood in the doorway.

"Y-Yuna...darling..." he called out before walking in to see her laying on the bed. There was a pair of scissors in her hands which she had used to dig out her eyes and tongue before ripping open her chest.

It was fresh enough that he could still see the steam coming off of her innards that had spilled to the floor. They were arranged in a specific manner, spelling out the words, "You did this" in his native language.

His knees buckled and he fell to the floor while Hao Xuan's words echoed in his ears.

"I...did this..."