The Dawn of the New World

As Princess Ceni fully ascended and the cascading sunlight fell on her body, three halos of iridescent light came into being behind her, each one bigger than the last.

Whatever magic it was that was projecting the hologram could not completely capture the full extent of her charm because the people that were able to lay their eyes on her in person quickly realized just how magnificent she looked.

If she were to claim to be a goddess, no one would have any reason to say otherwise. Even Hao Xuan fell into a stupor for a moment.

Princess Ceni's gaze rose and sorted through the numerous faces, both male and female, that were staring at her in abject admiration before stopping on the one she wanted to see all along. Her and Hao Xuan's gazes met and all of a sudden the world came to a standstill before turning dark.

A snowflake landed squarely on Hao Xuan's cheekbone bringing him back to 'reality'. He blinked and found himself in another place.

'What?'

It was the same thing that had happened with the Abysswalker.. He was unable to move but could see the scene play out from someone else's perspective.

He was sitting at a table with a child across from him. The child was maybe 3-4 years old at most, cute as a button, and dressed like a fairy tale princess.

But in complete contrast to her looks the scene was quite a dreary one. It was a partially lit room completely empty other than two nondescript maids that were standing behind the girl. They had these vacant looks on their faces as if they weren't even alive.

The table had 26 seats and Hao Xuan was sitting on one end while the little girl was sitting on the other.

The girl sat in her seat, barely able to reach the spoon and the small bowl in front of her. She struggled at first as if it was her first time picking up a full-size spoon and managed to drink a couple of mouthfuls while spilling the rest on her dress.

None of the maids came forward to help. Hell, if their chests weren't moving up and down every now and then Hao Xuan would have thought they were puppets.

The spoon was obviously too big for her and quite heavy from the looks of it. She gave up a few minutes later and tapped on the chair lightly.

One of the maids came forward and pulled back her chair before moving back to her position. The girl toiled with the seat and barely got down in one piece before trodding towards Hao Xuan.

As she got close he realized the difference in their size. She picked him up in her embrace and waddled through a maze of dimly lit rooms and hallways before arriving in front of a bedroom. Along the way she walked past some other maids but they were all the same.

None of them spoke even a single word while moving about robotically doing their duties.

Inside the bedroom was a single bed, a chair and a table with a small vanity mirror and a hairbrush on top. Nothing colorful could be found there. It was as gloomy as it was empty.

She went up to the chair and pulled herself up. Hao Xuan finally saw his own reflection. He was a small stuffed animal, a dog from the looks of it. Missing an eye and torn in various places with the stitching coming loose, it looked like it belonged in the trash rather than here.

The girl sat in her little chair in complete silence for close to an hour staring at the mirror expressionlessly until the sound of laughter came through the window.

She was stirred awake by the noise. She went over to the window but it was too high up for her so with quite a lot of effort, she dragged the chair and stood on top of it to peer outside.

There were rows upon rows of buildings just outside the boundary of the mansion she was in. The source of the laughter was a small group of children near one of the gates, daring each other to go touch the steel bars.

Hao Xuan could only spectate from the point of view of the stuffed dog which was still in her embrace. He didn't have to think about it for very long to figure out this little girl was Ceni.

If the same thing happened with the Abysswalker applied to this situation, this was one of her memories. Although he still didn't understand why.

The passage of time quickened but Hao Xuan was still able to see and most importantly, understand most of what was happening. Day after day the young Ceni followed the same routine.