The Dawn Of The New World

Chapter 705: Choices Galore

This door led to a new world, a much different one than anything Hao Xuan's feeble mind could possibly come up with. It showed a ravaged landscape of a war-torn city, in ruins and devastated beyond any recognition.

Numerous four-legged winged beasts flew amid the towering flames, many of them holding onto half-eaten carcasses resembling a humanoid species.

The few structures that were still left standing looked like they were once soaring skyscrapers but now only beasts and flames inhabited their shattered remains.

But none of this was shocking enough to leave Hao Xuan as stupefied and speechless as he was. It was the cloudy figure acting as the backdrop for this scene of utter devastation that he could not look away from.

It was down on one knee, a humanoid figure with two legs and arms. One of the arms was holding onto a curved hammer that ended in a pointed head. Its body looked like it was made from rock and stone, giving an overwhelming sense of robustness even for those watching it from another dimension.

Its face had two elongated tusk-like protrusions sprouting from the back of its jaw arching upwards, towards the flat plate that was its forehead.

To call it 'big' would be a trivialization of epic proportions. Even when bent down it was taller than anything else in the surroundings. It was a colossus. If Titans were real, this thing would most probably be one of them. (Image posted in Authors notes and discord)

The four-legged draconic beasts looked like flies compared to it but one glance was enough to tell Hao Xuan that all of them combined would not even be a match for a single of those beasts.

Hao Xuan felt a hand on his shoulder which woke him up. He looked towards Isak with a dumbfounded expression as if to say 'Is this even real?' and that 'thought' was sent to him even though he didn't mean to.

Isak's expression hardened as he looked left and right vigilantly but upon finding nothing he peered back towards Hao Xuan.

'What do you mean?'

Hao Xuan pointed right at the crack that acted as the doorway to and from the Webway, 'That!'

Isak looked exactly where he was pointing and should have been seeing the same scenes as him but his brow slowly furrowed a second later, 'There is nothing there....'

'You...can't see it?'

'See what?'

'The opening, the door-' Hao Xuan was in the middle of explaining when he noticed the expressions of the other barbarians that were nearby. They were all looking left and right in random directions instead of the fantastical scenes in the crack.

'None of you...can see it?'

'See what? What are you talking about?' Isak once again, getting more and more agitated by Hao Xuan's rambling. Hao Xuan reached out his hand and touched the crack's watery surface.

He felt the same old somewhat numbing sensation of cold water as soon as he came into contact with it. There definitely was a door here even though none of the others could see it.

He pulled back his arm and forced a smile, 'No...nothing, nothing at all, let's keep moving...'

He threw one last look full of doubt and uncertainty towards the crack before gingerly walking past it.

'Follow my footsteps exactly!' Hao Xuan warned Isak who passed the words to the person behind him and so on and so forth until they reached Burak.

Since none of the others could see the cracks, the chances of them walked into them by accident were much higher. All of the barbarians walked past the crack one by one and no one noticed anything different, well, almost no one.

The moment he was in front of it, Jarek's head jerked in the direction of the crack as if moved by an outside force. It was more of a knee-jerk reaction rather than an intentional move on his part.

His eyes narrowed for an instant before returning to normal and he walked past it like the others.

**

One after the other, they got further and further away from the starting planet. Hao Xuan came across three other cracks after that but each one of them had their own issues.

One of them was somewhere in the air. It showed a sea of clouds and a setting sun without any signs of life.

The second one was a rocky world covered in streams of lava. But there were things moving inside the lava which completely turned him off to the idea of entering it.

The last one, the one Hao Xuan was currently standing in front of was perhaps the strangest of them all in the sense that it was far too...ordinary. It showed what looked like a completely regular place.

Normal-sized emerald and crimson-colored trees surrounded an old abandoned city that should have been quite modern judging from the architecture of the buildings.

Its narrow and closely packed streets were covered in bright green plants, the buildings stacking on top of one another providing the city a much needed sense of verticality. There were even some birds and small animals moving around in there. (Image in Authors notes and discord)

Everything looked fine but for some reason Hao Xuan could feel a strange type of energy when he touched the crack's surface. It wasn't bad, only new.

He looked behind but couldn't even see where they had come from anymore. While trying to find a good place Hao Xuan had unwittingly wandered too far and he didn't want to risk going any further.

'Let's go!' he ordered before stepping through the door.

***

Authors Notes:

All images are posted in the Official Discord.

Link: https://discord.gg/AHdSBFQ

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Reference Image Link: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9e/e3/22/9ee3225333a349ab765b8dffdad9e2ea.jpg

Shortened Image Link (case sensitive): https://urlzs.com/mFttD

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Reference Image Link: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b8/0c/bb/b80cbb78683738f16db2dcf40b632147.jpg

Shortened Image Link (case sensitive): https://urlzs.com/p5HM7