THE DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD

"What...what in the fuck just happened?!"

Hao Xuan wasn't even able to sense what was happening let alone try and stop it. A second ago he was standing above the stuffy pyramid and now he was back outside.

"JIN! JIN WANG! SAY SOMETHING IF YOU CAN HEAR ME!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice carrying for hundreds of meters in every direction but no response came even after a couple of minutes.

"Fuck, I knew some weird shit like this was going to happen!" he cursed over his breath while sprinting back into the ruins, following the exact same they had taken before.

He found the same house that had the basement leading to the underground structure but he didn't have the green flamed bone torch that Jin Wang always used to light his way.

The last time they came there were two flights of stairs. After descending into the first one it became dark enough that they needed the green flame to light the second one.

Hao Xuan jumped down the first set of stairs in one go but instead of the second set immediately after, it was just a slope going straight down. And because he was in such a hurry thinking that something had happened to Jin Wang he didn't even notice that little detail.

He ran through the tunnels at full speed touching the ground only when he needed to turn, and soon the surroundings began to change. He came out into the same identical hallways that decorated the entirety of the underground structures, be it inside the pyramids or outside.

He still roughly remembered every turn they took but after a few minutes of running he came to a slow stop.

He was standing in front of a wall with two hallways going left and right. It was a three-way junction but-

"This wasn't here before. This was supposed to turn right," Hao Xuan mumbled while recalling the path he just took and comparing it with the one before down to the centimeter.

He looked back and saw the 20-meter-long dark hallway, "This one should have been 5 meters shorter."

He backtracked for several hallways and each one was a little shorter or longer, not too much, but enough to lead him somewhere completely different.

"Fuck! Are they moving like in the other pyramid?" was his first thought but he would have noticed that. There was no sign of movement, even the dust was still there.

And if magic had been used he would have at least sensed it at some point.

"Damnit!" in his anger he punched the wall in front of him breaking it into pieces.

"Wait, I can just break through with force!"

But if only it was that simple. He spent the next 10 minutes putting holes in every place he thought could lead back to the correct path but it was useless.

There was only dirt and rock. It looked like there was only one system of hallways and if there was another, it was separated by several tens of meters of unstable ground in an unknown direction.

He would have a higher chance of finding a needle in a haystack while blindfolded.

And while he was trying to come up with a different idea another tremor shook the ground. This one felt weaker and its epicenter was obviously much further away.

Hao Xuan ran back outside and upon exiting the ruins found the source of the commotion. There was a giant floating red star above the city of Argham.

He squinted hard as his lycan bloodline was automatically activated with full force. Even his heartbeats had increased, which was not an easy feat to achieve.

Blood rushed through his veins making him flex out of instinct. Hao Xuan felt like he was standing in front of an old enemy.

p The longer he stared at the red star the clearer its shape became. The halos of iridescent light surrounding it were slowly stripped away one at a time until he could see what the object at the center was..me

A four-sided cross. At first glance it looked remarkably similar to the crucifix from earth but this one was obviously different.

One straight vertical line but the other was lightly tilted to the right and constantly moving, rotating anti-clockwise like the arm of a clock.

But its design was very peculiar and didn't take long for Hao Xuan to remember where he had seen it.

"Dai Zhi!"

It had the same exact design as the earrings Dai Zhi always had on.

And when he came to the conclusion everything started to fall into place because the red light being emitted by it wasn't that simple, there was a spark of the 'divine' within it, albeit very very small.

It blanketed everything in sight and there was a sort of awe one would be instilled with if they looked at it for too long.

😉