The Dawn of the New World Chapter 1503

Wide-eyed and utterly baffled, all Hao Xuan could do was barely move his head a few inches. He was rooted in mid-air with absolutely nothing tying him down.

'?!!?'

He was just as confused as he was shocked. It made no sense whatsoever. Nothing had come into physical contact with him and yet his entire body was frozen in place.

He looked down at the rubble, at the spot he had previously seen something move towards him but there was nothing there...not that he could see that well to begin with.

'I definitely saw something move out of the corner of my eye so how could there be nothing at all?!'

Hao Xuan tried to move his head as much as he could to look around but could neither see nor sense anything out of place. Immediately closing his eyes, he spread out the spiritual threads once again but even with their help nothing new was showing up.

But perhaps the most puzzling part was not even this strange phenomenon, but the fact that nothing followed it up.

He was perfectly fine, just unable to move. Now would be the perfect opportunity to attack since he was essentially a sitting duck but he could not sense anything nearby.

No ill will, no killing intent, not even any signs of life. Although those would be odd considering where he was.

'Then what?! THINK! What could it be?' Hao Xuan's brain kicked into overdrive as he started going down the list of all possible explanations.

'Did I fall into a trap? Could this be an illusion? No, Regis Officium would let me see through it as soon as I came to the realization.' (Ch-1332)

This one little ability that even he forgot about most of the time had come in handy a lot more than just once or twice. Not only did it give him immunity against most forms of mental manipulation but it also allowed him to suppress his emotions, thereby greatly increasing his intelligence in stressful situations.

'Not physical, not mental, not spiritual either. That only leaves one-' his gaze shifted to the breach.

From this close he could 'see' and sense a lot more of it. Although visually it only appeared as two-dimensional, when inspected by the spiritual threads the third dimension came into view.

It literally looked like an eyeball. A fat, undulating mass of chaotic energies getting ready to erupt at any moment.

'-it has to be void-based. The entity that is keeping the breach open must have sensed the danger I posed. All it can do is stop me since its main form has not passed through yet but the question remains...how?'

Hundreds upon hundreds of scenarios went through his mind in a matter of seconds until he settled on the one that made the most sense.

'If every action we take is reflected in the umbral planes, then a creature powerful enough SHOULD be able to have some degree of control upon these actions. I acted to destroy these surrounding buildings and bury the breach, it acted to stop that action from the other side.'

It was highly theoretical but that was part of the process.

'I have observed and hypothesized given the relative information, all that is left to do is test it out. And if my hypothesis is correct, then the presence of a more powerful umbral entity should not only dissuade it but also limit its power,' he scoffed inwardly, 'However higher dimensional beings they might be, in their bare essence, they are astonishingly close to the most primitive of beasts- acting on basic territorial instincts.'

His choice was to fight fire with fire, and for that, he had an arsenal of nine supreme flames to choose from. That being said, there was only one safe choice, the one he had the strongest connection to.

'Come forth!' he called and the Crown of Darkness answered, revealing itself in its usual position atop his head like a halo tainted by the blackest night.

And immediately Hao Xuan felt the changes- nay, he SAW it!

It was for a brief moment- a mere fraction of a second that felt like an eternity.

He was standing in the void, on the other side of the veil. The light from the crown's purple flames was burning away eight roots that were wrapped around his body.

He looked up and saw a scene that appeared to have been taken straight out of a fever dream. Many of the surroundings still held the same shapes but it looked like there were dozens of things overlapping on top of one another to create an image that barely reflected the physical realm.

It was all of the colors all at once, if he thought about it then it began to exert its influence. One second the sky was burning with a bright yellow flame and the next second it was utter darkness.

In front of him, just on the other side of the breach was a creature that resembled a withered old tree. Its branches were full of gigantic auburn fruits- hundreds of them.

Its roots spread out as far as the eye could see reaching even the skies- if there was one. Some of the smallest ones were wrapped around him. It had no eyes to speak of but Hao Xuan could tell it was 'looking' at him.

*GASP*

His soul returned to his body, and his body continued in much the same momentum as before. It was as if someone had clicked 'unpause' on him.

*BOOOOM*