The Dawn of the New World

The figure on the throne slowly lowered his head, meeting Hao Xuan's gaze. There was no sound nor movement from him.

The group behind Hao Xuan fell down to their knees one by one. They were already exhausted from the previous fight and now that the urgency of the situation had passed, the adrenaline wore off and it all came crashing down at once.

Zeng Wu hurriedly walked over to Zeng Yu and emptied the contents of the glass bottle in his mouth.

Zeng Yu really wasn't doing very well. There was a hole the size of a fist in his chest. The flesh around it was burned to a crisp with smoke still rising from it.

Black blood continuously fell from the wound as he struggled to breathe.

Hou Chin, Hyson, Shi Chun, Yin Da, all 20 or so people left alive looked at Hao Xuan expectedly. Hoping that he could pull off a miracle.

Hyson looked at the rift that was surrounded by the black barrier and sighed. The energy coming off it was enough to shred him into pieces upon contact.

There was nothing any of them could do anymore. It was all in Hao Xuan's hands.

The figure looked back at Hao Xuan for a good minute or so before raising his hand. A surge of Qi erupted from his body and a claw appeared out of nowhere, clashing with the electric field, making it slightly tremble.

Hao Xuan remained expressionless. He stood rooted in one place, staring at the figure.

"How much longer?" he asked telepathically.

"Soon!" Fortis's voice echoed in his mind.

"Hurry up, the rift won't last forever," Hao Xuan replied.

He then smirked at the figure, "It's not going to work. These batteries were made to power something much MUCH bigger than this little thing. You won't be able to destroy them anytime soon. Why don't you tell me why you're here?"

The figure relaxed and leaned back on the throne. It stared for a few seconds before a sharp voice echoed in the valley.

"Keusagf fheutghs Jhdraufgne."

Shi Chun peered at Yin Da but was met with a shake of his head. He was the chief science officer on this expedition and thus the most knowledgeable about foreign languages, but even he had no idea.

Hao Xuan's brow furrowed upon listening to the creature's words. Others might not know, but he understood it all.

It was one of the languages that Poriverse had implanted in his mind.

'Why are they here?'

Hao Xuan looked at the figure with a deep frown. He opened his mouth and vocalized the language according to the information in his mind. A similar noise to that of the figure came out, startling everyone around.

"Why is the tribe of 'Volucris' trespassing here?'

It was a mix of clicking and raspy gasping sounds. Like someone was getting choked to death. Hao Xuan's throat actually hurt just from speaking that small sentence.

The figure who was sitting on the throne without a care in the world suddenly straightened up in shock.

"You speak...our language. How?" it asked while leaning forward.

Hao Xuan shook his head, "That doesn't matter. This planet does not belong to you. It already has an owner according to your own laws. What gives you the right to trespass?"

The figure tilted its head in confusion before replying.

"This world has no owner, not anymore. There are no living beings left. The chaos and the darkness has already corrupted everything. By the laws of the void, after five thousand years of silence from the original owner, this world is fair game."

Hao Xuan guffawed at the statement. The figure looked at him in bewilderment.

"Why? Do you not agree?" its tone becoming more and more annoying.

Hao Xuan laughed for about 10 seconds straight before looking at the figure sympathetically like he was looking at an idiot.

"I am the owner of this planet. Who says it is ownerless?!"

The figure stood up abruptly, looking at Hao Xuan with clenched fists.

"Impossible. The planet's last owner was a recognized being. You....are nothing. How could you make such a claim?!"

"Of course I am! How else would I know about the laws of the Void? Or the planets history or...."

He mentioned one thing after another, making the figure more and more uncertain.

Right now Hao Xuan was just trying to buy time. Before coming here he already got the gist of the situation from the P.O.G. (Planetary Observational Grid).

This was just one of over 500 gates that appeared all over the planet. It was connected to another place and its inhabitants were spilling over like cockroaches. And it wasn't just undead either. On the other side of the planet, there were several other species.

The reason there were only undead here was because all the nearby gates connected to their homeworld.

This wasn't an uncommon thing in the void.

Powerful beings could own entire planets or galaxies and do whatever they wanted on them. But once the owner died or simply moved away, the alien races of the void would come to inhabit it for any number of reasons.

It could be because they wanted to expand and needed a planet that was habitable for them or just to sell it later on. These races were like scavengers.

To them, it wasn't anything odd. Just another day at work.

The undead here were like the mindless worker bees, released on this world to change it and cleanse it of any living beings still left.

Unfortunately, Hao Xuan's group was part of this cleanup process.

*BAM*

The figure punched the throne's armrest in anger.

"Enough! You have no evidence for your claims. How dare you waste my time!"

Finally having had enough of Hao Xuan's BS, it attacked.

It raised its hand and another claw formed in mid-air. It looked ethereal but was giving off a deadly energy.

It was several tens of meters in size, big enough to cover the entire electric field.

The figure closed its hand and the claw clamped down on the barrier, making it shrink several feet.

*Bzzzzt*

Sparks of electricity erupted from the barrier, leaving holes in the claw.

"Argh!" the figure quickly pulled back his hand and the claw vanished into thin air.

Hao Xuan smiled nonchalantly, "Is this your first time seeing electricity? What backward ass world did you come from? Your power can't do anything to this energy field. Just undo the barrier and we will depart. You can do whatever you want afterward."

The figure was now standing above the throne, glaring at Hao Xuan resentfully.

"Human, you are the one trespassing. You have destroyed many of my underlings. Who will pay for them? Do you really think I would allow you to leave so easily?"

It raised its hand above its head as soon as it was done talking. Another surge of Qi came from its body and something started taking shape in the dark sky.

A claw, a wrist, a forearm, an elbow joint, another extension of the forearm, another elbow joint. Within a few seconds, a hundred-meter long insect-like arm appeared in the sky. It had three joints, was completely black, and had a hard carapace on the outside just like the figure itself.

Hao Xuan's expression hardened. He knew exactly what that was.

The tribe of Volucris he spoke off was the race this figure belonged to. It was one of the species that was most common in this part of the universe.

Back when Poriverse acquired this planet, he had a few run-ins with them. They were a type of insect species that had the ability to control the undead. Their true forms were massive, thousands of meter long creatures that could traverse space itself.

The figure in front of him was probably not very strong. It had only entered the profound realm not too long ago and wasn't able to summon his entire body here at once, otherwise, that would be the end of Hao Xuan.

"Hurry up, we don't have a lot of time!" he said to Fortis.

Fortis's tentacles were currently underground, trying to break through the barrier around the rift.

Fortis couldn't break it in one go so he split his tentacles into hundreds of smaller ones, like the tendrils that first entered Hao Xuan's body, and slowly broke down the barrier from inside out.

"Can only open for few seconds!" Fortis's anxious voice replied.

Hao Xuan turned around and shouted at everyone behind him. "Get up! The barrier will open for a short time, you all have to go through quickly!"

Their haggard faces lit up like Christmas trees as they all got up and formed a line in front of the rift.

Ma clans people were at the front. Ma Yu's guards were carrying her stretcher, ready to leap into the rift at a moment's notice.

Behind her was Hyson's group followed by the Shi Clan, the science team, and then the Red Legion soldiers.

Zeng Wu was holding up Zeng Yu who could barely even stand on his own.

*BOOOOOM*

The gigantic insect arm came crashing down onto the barrier, making it shrink by about two meters.

*BOOOOOOM*

Hao Xuan's expression turned even worse because of what Fortis just told him. He could only hold the barrier open for a few seconds at most. There would not be enough time for everyone to go through because the electric field would collapse before that.

Hao Xuan looked at the worn-out people standing in line with glistening eyes. They were hoping with all their hearts that this would work, no, they believed it would. Because Hao Xuan had said so.

*BOOOOOOM*

The arm struck again, weakening the barrier once more.

Hao Xuan looked at the figure standing in the night sky, staring down at them. He couldn't see its eyes, but the aura it was giving off was more than enough to tell him what it was feeling.

Utter disdain. For him, for the people that died there.

More than a hundred people died here. Rong Li was only a teenager, so was Kramson. What did their deaths mean?

"System, initiate self-destruction sequence," Hao Xuan mumbled while taking out his glaive.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Sequence Initiated."

Hao Xuan went up to Zeng Wu who was at the back of the line and patted him on the shoulder.

"Hey, when you get back, relay a message to First brother for me. Tell him to....keep an eye on Xu Qing and Yun Wentian for me. I'll be away for a little while."

Zeng Wu looked up at him in confusion, "What do you mean Captain?"

Hao Xuan smiled, "Just tell him that will ya?"

Zeng Wu nodded hesitantly. Zeng Yu who was breathing heavily beside him also raised his head with some effort and looked at Hao Xuan.

"Don...t...you...must.....go..back...the Jia...."

Hao Xuan winked back with a grin, "I will. It shouldn't be more than a few years at most."

"Few years??" Zeng Wu repeated with a deep frown. But before he could inquire further, Hao Xuan had already walked out of the electric field.

He stood under the massive insect arm and looked up calmly, "I haven't used this combination before so be careful little bug."

"Weakling!" the figure retorted.

Hao Xuan's smiled softly, "I am...aren't I?"

The figure raised his arm and the giant insect arm in the sky followed his movements.

"CAPTAIN!" Zeng Wu shouted from inside the barrier, bringing everyone's attention over to him.

Hao Xuan looked at the insect arm and mumbled something under his breath as he raised the glaive over his head.

Sparks of black lightning covered both his arms as he activated Infernal Rapture's level two.

Six red arms came out of his back and gripped the glaive. A total of eight arms were now holding onto it.

Assault of the Mad God was activated as his own arms changed color and doubled in size.

Emperors Qi thrummed inside his body as he activated its effects on himself and the figure in the sky.

The figure's expression slightly stiffened. It could feel the air getting thicker around Hao Xuan. Out of instinct, it took a step back.

Fortis's voice ran inside Hao Xuan's head again, "It's open!"

The barrier opened halfway like a vertical eye. Just enough for two people to pass through at a time.

Hao Xuan turned around and shouted, "GO!"

"But-"

"NOW!"

The figure felt the change in its barrier and punched down towards the electric field, trying to smash it open and stop them from leaving.

Hao Xuan looked at the incoming insect arm that was getting bigger and bigger by the second and chuckled.

Closing his eyes and he took in a deep breath and whispered, "Last Strike of Samsara" before bringing the glaive down diagonally and then swiping horizontally from left to right, leaving a white afterglow in '∠' shape.

A pale light covered everything in a radius of 10 meters and nothing could be seen. There was no explosion, no movement of any kind.

The light slowly receded and the only thing left in its wake was a massive hole where Hao Xuan once stood.

The figure looked down speechlessly. It stared at the spot for a good little while before walking back into the black gate with its head hung low.

The rift had disappeared, along with all the humans.

Several seconds later, the five bases situated around the planet exploded, wreaking havoc across its surface in the shape of massive earthquakes that overturned everything.