The Dawn of the New World



The explosion was much stronger than any of them had expected, especially the Emperor. The 'Silent Chamber' could neither absorb nor offset the rampant energy in time. A section of the chamber was damaged and the balance broken, cracks appearing all around the sides.

This not only brought the chamber out of the hidden space but reconnected it back to the planet so it could stabilize itself.

With a loud buzzing sound the outer section of the chamber revealed itself in the physical world. It rematerialized on top of the pyramid just behind the previously empty gateway. And the plumes of golden light leaking from the inside could be seen from all around.

"What is that?!"

"Something just appeared on top of the pyramid!"

"It's a treasure!"

Dai Zhi and his men thought along those lines while Henrik and Rhisiat saw it as a sign from their so-called savior.

"Hao Xuan must be in there! Quickly, everyone get up there as fast as you can!"

The fighting continued on the stairway leading up, not leaving much room for Dai Zhi and Ensis to pass by.

'Why don't we just fly up there?' Ensis suggested but Dai Zhi was quick to shoot it down.

'As if it would be that easy. This has to be the burial site of a powerful being and those old guys usually don't like when people fly around and bypass their tests and trials. Also-' he lightly jumped, floated in the air for merely a second before falling back down.

'-As I suspected, there is something blocking my ability. We wouldn't be able to fly up even if it wasn't so risky. Come, we will have to get past them.'

Within the chamber, the shaking finally stopped and the damage was limited to the side where Jin Wang was laying.

The Emperor's tone of voice changed when he realized that the first layer of defenses had already been breached from the inside out.

[Look what you made me do. Now we are all within the reach of the 'Heavenly Extermination' he has sent for us]

Jin Wang coughed up a mouthful of blood while trying to control his breathing but he still laughed through it.

"Haha...ha...let's see you...get out of...this one...when you have...to fight at both...fronts..."

The Emperor looked up, seeing through the walls at what was happening outside.

The Silent Chamber's emergence was exactly what the 'All-Seeing Eye' was waiting for. With a deafening low rumble the entire top half of the cavern was ripped open with unprecedented speed.

The earth shook forcefully, throwing almost everyone off their feet. A few unlucky souls that were too close to the edge couldn't hold on to anything in time and fell into the empty space between the pyramid and the cavern.

"AHHH!"

"HOLD ON!"

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"

The ground continued to shake as more and more of the cavern walls fell. And then a strong pressure appeared within the space that slammed the rest of the people into the ground.

If even a fraction of it was focused on them there would be nothing left behind but all of it was centered around the chamber.

With another defeaning boom a spark of ebony flame shot through the eye of the great storm above, giving birth to a maelstrom of jet-black lightning that started to get bigger and more intense by the second.

All the color immediately flushed from Dai Zhi's face. He was one of the rare few people here that could identify this phenomenon and it made him rethink every decision he had ever made in his life.

'We're dead...we're all dead...' he hopelessly muttered, falling to his knees and breaking the spell that was hiding them.

He immediately kowtowed, "Almighty Heavens! Please forgive this servant for his many sins!"

His soldiers looked back at him in shock and confusion before unwittingly following his example without even knowing why.

"FORGIVE US!" they shouted.

Ensis thrust his blade into the ground for support to stand upright, looking at Dai Zhi in utter contempt.

"The very fact that you could ever stand in the way of my master is laughable. Pathetic..."

He walked past him, pulling himself along up the staircase that had suddenly fallen silent.

Too much had happened too quickly. The chamber revealing itself, the great storm and the dreadful lightning dancing within its eye, and the golden light that was somehow cutting through all of that darkness. They were caught in something much bigger than themselves.

No one really knew how to react but for a select few like Ensis, it didn't change much.

"He is waiting at the top," Ensis told Claudia while walking past her, "Come, our place is up there."

Obviously she didn't trust him at first. He was Dai Zhi's right-hand man and everyone knew that. It was not until Princess Ceni vouched for him that Henrik, Rhisiat, and Claudia had a change of heart.

"He is with Hao Xuan. It was he who told me that Hao Xuan would come for me," she told Claudia.