THE DAWN OF THE NEW WORLD

Chapter 348: Soft Hearted

"What is your decision?" Hao Xuan stood in front of them as composed as he could be in a situation like this, but as expected, the Orc teenagers had a wide range of emotions coursing through them.

Some of them couldn't believe what Hao Xuan was saying and simply looked away, some fell down to the ground and some had tears in their eyes. A young girl of about 14 years of age walked forward. She was the smallest of the entire group.

She raised her shaking hand, "E-Excuse me b-but what about our families?"

As she asked the question many of the others looked at him expectantly. Hao Xuan faltered for the first time and didn't know how to answer the question.

"They..." while he was fumbling about trying to find the right words, the white-haired man spoke up for the first time.

"They're all dead, all of them. This is all that's left of our clan," his cold voice poured a bucket of cold water on these younglings.

"Father...brother.."

"Mama!!"

"Sister!"

Many of them broke out crying for their loved ones, all of their family members that were now gone forever.

Hao Xuan looked at the man with a great many emotions bubbling inside him. He knew better than most what he was feeling right now. He left the crying children where they were to give them some time to come to accept this new reality and he walked towards the man.

But as he got closer, the rightmost door in his mind palace opened by itself. Hao Xuan looked at the door and then at the man, deciding to go visit Hyde first.

He stepped through and the door closed behind him. The inside of the room was exactly the same. The cozy fire, the snow outside the window, the comfortable chairs. He couldn't help but relax a little bit and take the left seat that was always empty.

But as he sat down he felt a warmth like someone else was sitting there just before he came. He looked at Hyde who had his eyes closed while sitting back. Hao Xuan had a lot of things to ask but he knew time was limited, so he decided to satisfy his own curiosity first.

"Why was it him that came to fight that beast? I thought he died."

Hao Xuan was referring to the figure that had taken over the white-haired man's body and asked Hao Xuan to save the Orcs.

Hyde's eyelids quivered slightly as he let out a deep sigh.

"Just a foolish man who didn't want to vilify his son."

"Can you tell me what really happened back then?"

Hyde slowly opened his eyes and stared at the fireplace in front. Hao Xuan followed his line of sight and a scene started playing back in the flames. It was the same scene he had seen in the tablet underground, of Orion's birth.

It was moving much quicker this time but Hao Xuan was still able to keep up with it. The scenes changed over and over and it was the same as he had seen, until the one where Orion was fighting three other kids played out.

The start was the same but the ending was much different than what he had seen. Here, using the wooden sword Orion first defeated the three young men in a matter of seconds and but he didn't stop there. He shoved the blunt wooden sword through the head of one of the boys while he was laying on the ground trying to catch his breath.

Then he proceeded to kill the other two in a similarly gruesome manner. Orion's parents who were watching from a distance had a change of expression.

The beautiful lady looked away while tears streamed down her face.

"He scares me. Sometimes I find him standing over the beds of his brothers and sisters just staring at them for hours. Something is not right with the boy!"

The old king shook his head, "It is only natural. He is a god among men. People like him are born different. Once he gets some real experience, he will calm down."

The scene changed and it was Orion standing in front of an army of trillions. There was a severed head in his hand which he raised over his own.

"This is what will happen to all those who stand against the Kingdom of Zodenheim! Leave none alive, do not give our enemies a chance to counterattack. Burn it all to the ground!"

"HO AH!

"HO AH!"

Countless soldiers raised their weapons in solidarity. The old king sat on a throne a few dozen meters behind Orion with a deep frown.

The scene changed again. It was the same battlefield where the old king had died, but here he was alive and well. He was standing against Orion while millions of dead bodies surrounded them. All of them belonged to Orc soldiers.

"Stop this madness, Orion! This cannot go on any longer!" the old king shouted.

Orion's lips arched into a cold smile, "Father, this is the sanest thing I have ever done. Why should we offer our prayers to beings that will never care about us? But Ra will. You must see that as well. With him, Zodenheim can reach the apex, no, I can reach the apex!"

The scene kept changing like that, each one worse than the last. Orion killed his entire family including his own mother while the Old King was away, which led to this fight.

In the last scene, it was the Old King and not Orion that stood against Ra's and Orion's armies. But even after everything Orion did, he was not able to kill him when the time came.

He used his last technique to seal the abyss gate and send the remainder of his tribe to another planet, but even then Ra was able to get to them and curse them.

Hao Xuan opened his eyes with a light of understanding. So this was why it was the Old king that took over Gavril's body and not Orion. Before he could even open his mouth, Hyde spoke up.

"That old man was one of the strongest beings of his time, a fact even Orion didn't realize until it was too late. His peace-loving nature caused the death of an entire race. But he loved his son so much that even after everything he couldn't let him become the bad guy and left behind that tablet with false memories."

"This is his technique, don't learn it unless you want to use it. It shatters the user's soul in exchange to bring about miracles. You will be erased out of existence forever when you use it. The only reason the old king was able to survive was because of his unique constitution. You, will not survive it."

Hyde said while throwing a small brown book towards Hao Xuan, which he caught.