The Dawn of the New World

'Let's go!' Hao Xuan said before he took a stride through the doorway and entered first, not realizing that in there only one person could hear your thoughts at a time.

And since no one else could actually see the cracks, to them he seemingly disappeared into the walls of yellow fire that surrounded every side without saying a word. Those that were near him started to panic seeing that but Isak swiftly relayed Hao Xuan's words to the person behind and told him to do the same.

When he felt the rope go taut Isak went through as well, followed by each of the others one at a time. At this time many of them thanked their ancestors for the rope because otherwise, some of them would have surely gotten lost during this crucial last step.

When Hao Xuan appeared on the other side, he finally realized what this new 'sense' that he could now feel so strongly in this place was.

It was time.

Although everything looked and felt unquestionably normal from within the Webway, the moment he actually landed in this world Hao Xuan saw a vision, if it could be called that.

He could physically feel the flow of time with his body and see its effects in the sky when he raised his head. It was just an instant, barely even a whole second but it 'felt' like an entire lifetime.

The plumes of thick white clouds that were casually drifting along the blue sky overhead suddenly jerked forward. It looked like he was watching the scenes play out at several times the normal speed as if someone was fast-forwarding the world around him.

And this change affected his body as well. He could not move for that brief moment when he saw this strange scene. It was only his mind or rather his 'consciousness' that could perceive this change. But by the time he blinked, everything returned to normal.

If someone asked him how much time had passed since he first entered this world, Hao Xuan would say 'A few days at least'.

"Is everything alright?" Isak's voice woke Hao Xuan from his daze. He turned around and saw the other barbarians still coming through one by one.

"Hmm, kind of," he absentmindedly replied in the beast world's language which Isak obviously did not understand.

'Time is faster here, much faster,' he thought inwardly.

Hao Xuan moved to the side and silently observed the barbarians. None of them had a similar reaction as him, at least not from what he could tell. Only one of them, the one named Jarek acted a little weird.

His face was completely expressionless as usual, not giving away any secrets but his body did. He moved his arms back and forth as if freeing himself from some invisible restraints. He attempted to rapidly open and close his hands and with each attempt getting a little faster than the one before.

From slow motion to normal speed, he got used to it within a few seconds as well. But then he suddenly stopped and raised his head mechanically, bit by bit, meeting Hao Xuan's gaze.

Hao Xuan gave a light nod as a form of greeting followed by a gentlemanly smile but Jarek simply stared back at him, unblinking and unfeeling for all that was around him. Hao Xuan's gaze became focused and sharper the longer he looked into his eyes and all else melted away.

Physically, he appeared to be completely normal. But Hao Xuan could not help but feel a strange feeling of rotten dread crawl up his spine. It didn't feel like he was looking at a person, or even something alive. There was an otherworldly emptiness about him.

Nothing he had come across so far gave had him such a feeling, not even the demonling Puer (CH601). The demon felt evil, vile in a sense, but looking into Jarek's eyes it felt much different, very bad different.

Hao Xuan didn't even realize but Burak had walked up to him and was talking loudly. Only when he shook him did Hao Xuan wake up from the stupor.

"You're not dying, are you? Why do you keep staring into space like that?" Burak asked with a deep frown.

Hao Xuan read the translation and shook his head, "No, I was...looking at..." he pointed towards Jarek but realized he had already moved away. He was casually strolling along with a couple of other Barbarians as they talked amongst themselves in hushed voices.

"..him."

"Him?" Burak followed his line of sight and saw the group of three.

"Be careful of that guy....something is...off about him..." Hao Xuan warned in a low voice.

"Hmm..." Burak scratched the back of his neck which for some reason started to itch terribly.

**

Hao Xuan left the barbarians to their own devices for the time being and took a minute to survey the surroundings.

The crack had opened up on top of a building, or rather a sea of buildings that went on for as far as the eye could see. They looked similar to the densely packed urban apartments from earth, where each one was built on the other, crammed together to house an exorbitant number of beings. (Image in Authors notes and discord)

Each building was connected to the ones around it with narrow wooden and metal bridges, many of which had decayed over time. Hao Xuan bent over the side of the structure they were on and looked down to see hundreds of similar bridges on each level.

As to how many floors each building had, he couldn't tell from the roof as there was no light at the bottom.

Trees and numerous plants growing all over the place. In fact, they had taken the entire city for themselves. There were no signs of human life anywhere. This place had been abandoned for probably decades at this point but at least it wasn't dangerous.

The sun's soft rays fell through the floating white clouds that cruised along with the gentle gusts of wind. The world was alive with the sounds of animals coming in from all directions.

He could even hear flowing water underneath, the pitter-patter of small rodents, and the flapping wings of small avian creatures. For all intents and purposes, this world was a paradise, or so it appeared to be at first glance.

***

Authors Notes:

All images are posted in the Official Discord.

Link: https://discord.gg/AHdSBFQ

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Reference Image Link: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/61/be/b2/61beb2c9068b3407bacfa604b34f290b.jpg

Shortened Image Link (case sensitive): https://urlzs.com/TjAp1