The Dawn of the New World

Hao Xuan went through the portal and following the same feeling of vertigo, came out in the exact place he had gone in from.

But this time he was a little more prepared and kept his balance. He could feel the change in the air pressure and that vague sense of being watched vanish.

The first thing he did was call for Baracus.

"Baracus, wake up!"

But unlike all the other times it took almost ten seconds for a series of notifications to pop up followed by the iconic startup noise.

[Sensors Activated]

[Initializing Boot Sequence]

*Beep*

"You good?"

"Affirmative. All systems are up and running."

"Thank god," Hao Xuan turned around relieved that nothing bad had happened but faltered upon seeing a bloody figure resting not too far from him in a corner.

He ran to her and checked for a pulse, breathing another sigh of relief upon finding some signs of life.

"Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me? Claudia!"

There was blood pooling underneath and she was barely breathing.

"Why is she burning up? Fuck sales!"

And when he tried to carry her the reason became clear. Half the skin on her back was missing in a big "U" shape. There was some kind of red flame eating away at her flesh.

*Beep*

"Foreign energy detected!" Baracus warned.

Hao Xuan felt his stomach churn and an emptiness took hold of him. He brought his hand over the flame and felt an extremely potent energy draw close to him.

"It's demonic energy but a little different," he muttered, "It feels a little similar but still very different from the Puer. This is much more concentrated...older, more pure."

He could feel his stomach grumble in anticipation while Claudia's skin sizzled making her pull back even while she was knocked out. She had lost a lot of blood already and if it continued any longer it could be life-threatening.

But even so he didn't want to absorb an unknown energy especially considering his current situation.

Hao Xuan knew it probably wouldn't work but he still tried to douse the flame in some drinking water that he took out from his storage space.

The water hit her bare flesh and trickled down but passed through the flames as if they weren't even there.

"Damn it. I guess there is only one thing left to do."

He pulled her into a hug and moved his hand in a circular pattern over the edges of the flame before muttering, "Devour!"

This time it worked perfectly and every morsel of red fire lifted off of her skin and went straight into his hand. He felt a sharp stinging sensation in his palm as the energy entered his bloodstream.

It felt like there was lava moving through his veins and when it reached his shoulder something unexpected happened.

The ground cracked and suddenly disappeared from where he was sitting.

Hao Xuan's soul left his body and fell straight down into that dark hole.

[Huh!?]

He was sitting in the same exact position but everything else around him had changed. It was like he was watching the world through a water-filled black bottle.

[What is this?] he slowly stood up to inspect the surroundings.

He was standing on a narrow rocky path between two towering mountains on either side. The rubble on the ground was shaking with some distant noises coming from the front.

Hao Xuan followed the noise and after walking for a few meters he came to the only exit which opened up into a wide battleground.

There were two armies fighting in the middle but Hao Xuan couldn't see their appearance at all. One side appeared as bright figures of pure white light and the other as muddy and dark forms.

The white side seemed to be winning with overwhelming strength. Both their numbers and positioning was far superior to the dark side. They looked like an actual army that was mowing them down without remorse.

Any normal person would side with the white figures in this battle that was also the winning side but to Hao Xuan, it felt unnatural. Looking at them he only felt disgust and rage building up inside of him.

Within a few more minutes the battle was over. The white figures had decimated their opponents with barely any losses.

[This isn't right...] Hao Xuan mumbled to himself.

*TREMBLEEEEE*

An earthquake erupted from the far side of the battlefield as several small mountains were crushed under the weight of a giant bipedal figure that walked over them with ease.

There were was a small city on this creature's back with rows upon rows of people standing in the front watching everything from a safe distance.

Hao Xuan could see these people a lot more clearly and even recognized a few of them. They belonged to the Hall.