The Dawn of the New World



The siren's call went out and Hao Xuan answered.

As he turned the page its sharp edge dug into his iron flesh and drew blood. It was just a 'paper cut' but the pain was worse than getting stabbed by a sword.

"Hng!"

Hao Xuan flinched and when he looked back the booklet had doubled in size.

He was not sitting in the field anymore but surrounded by an endless white ocean with nothing else in sight. The sky and the ocean could not be differentiated and with just one look he knew that this was a place somewhere deep inside his mind.

It was just him and the red book here. He didn't even have to think about it for very long to realize that this was a test of his resolve- no it was a battle of wills and he had already been pushed back.

Hao Xuan stood up. He could feel every aching part of his body just like it was in the outside world.

The book opened and two thorny vines crawled out of its pages, snaking their way up Hao Xuan's legs. They easily pierced and tore into his flesh to draw streams of blood that began to seep into the tranquil ocean below.

But this time he was ready. The pain was much worse than before but he didn't move a muscle or make any noise. He waited patiently for the vines to surround him from head to toe. They tightened around him, penetrating deeper into his flesh with every second.

A few seconds passed and when nothing new happened Hao Xuan spoke up with a scrunched-up face, angered more by the audacity of this thing than its futile attempt.

"Is this it? Is this your plan? To make me submit with PAIN?!"

Ten-meter tall waves were created just by the sound of his voice as he pulled apart the vines with his bare hands, in the process tearing off chunks of flesh and skin that the thorns were hooked into.

He looked like a half-flayed corpse while walking over to the book as it sent out even more vines to block his path.

"YOU THINK PAIN BOTHERS ME?! How fucking DARE you degrade this place with your WEAK filth!"

With a wave of Hao Xuan's hand the ocean turned upside down, smashing millions of tons of water at the book and its walls of thorns.

The page flipped and out crawled a winged demon. Well, it was only halfway out when Hao Xuan appeared in front of it from the torrential water and grabbed it by the throat.

Utterly shocked by the strength behind his broken form, the demon's pitch-black eyes threatened to pop out of its skull from the extreme pressure. All it could do was helplessly stare into Hao Xuan's infuriated gaze.

"You come into MY mind, trying to take it over, and...all you brought was this? Did you think it would be that easy? I might be weaker than the likes of Dai Zhi out there but in here I AM GOD!"

His thundering voice immediately shattered the demon into pieces.

At the same time something 'similar' was happening outside. The booklet was beginning to rot piece by piece as its leather cover came to life. The pages turned pitch black and fell off one at a time but the cover was slithering along his arm towards the chest.

It reached the area over his original left heart and lept into his skin, becoming one with it effortlessly like two identical sheets of clay mixing together. But it didn't stop there, the innermost layer of the cover kept moving through the layers of skin, bones and flesh to reach his beating heart, where it wrapped itself around it and became one.

*FOOOSH*

An invisible air bubble popped around Hao Xuan's body as he opened his eyes and returned to the outer world. He looked down at his chest where the patch of skin over his heart was a slightly darker shade now.

When he ran his fingers over it there was almost no sensation whatsoever.

"It worked?"

*Beep*

"Unexplainable physical changes have been detected within the host body."

Baracu, as usual, spoke up with a well-timed reminder.

"I know...it is all under control-" Hao Xuan coldly replied. Not only the tone of his voice had changed but also his manner of speaking.

"-But since you decided to intrude once again, be useful and create another entry for the ability codex. It's called 'Regis Officium' or [The King's Burden], use both of the names."

"..."

"Affirmative. What would its use case be?"

"It's a passive ability that will stay active as long as this body is alive. It helps me think better, to see things that I was previously blind to. And makes me completely immune to all forms of misdirection and misconception."