The Dawn of the New World

Without wasting any more time Princess Ceni got in position in front of Hao Xuan while Ma Jiang circulated her mana before slowly feeding it to the formation disk.

It began to glow as numerous hair-like roots made from Ma Jiang's nature energy came out from the sides and went straight towards Hao Xuan's body. He jerked once but nothing else changed.

All Ma Jiang had to do was keep her mana going into the formation disc while it basically did all the work in her stead.

There were already two spells inscribed on its body that were both activated simultaneously. The first one was on the surface and it was meant to facilitate Princess Ceni as she ventured into the depths of Hao Xuan's soul.

The second one was inscribed on the bottom of the disc and its purpose was to separate the alien existence from within Hao Xuan's mind palace, one very specific existence that was named Mr. Hyde.

The roots entered Hao Xuan's body and went directly towards his head without disturbing anything along the way. They completely wrapped around his brain before entering the Mind Palace.

The Mind Palace itself was shrouded in the same chaos that was in the chamber outside, only it was much denser and a lot more pure in here.

The nine torii gates continuously revolved around the main structure spewing out even more chaos as they went along. It was constantly being absorbed by the central structure and parts of it were beginning to change.

The roots appeared from every corner and snaked their way towards the rightmost door.

All the severs were dead asleep, almost as if under a spell, so there was no one to stop the roots either. One by one they reached the door and began to climb along its surface to make extremely complex designs that looked like thousands of circles and semi-circles intersecting in various ways.

In less than a minute every inch of space was covered by the roots until it became next to impossible to tell if there ever was something else there.

The roots only stopped moving until the door was completely sealed. Once that was done they slowly began to retreat but shockingly, the door was not there anymore. Instead it was just a gaping hole that went nowhere.

The roots began to shrink while withdrawing from the mind palace but not the body as they still remained wrapped around the brain stem.

At the same time, a miniature door inscribed with the same designs appeared on the bottom of the formation disc. It was somehow transported from inside the Mind Palace to the disc outside without alerting its occupant, at least until that moment.

Mr. Hyde was sitting in the same old chair with his eyes closed when a tremor woke him up.

"Hm?" he stood up and went over to the window but could not see anything out of the ordinary, "What did he do now?" he grumbled with a frown before walking towards the door.

He opened it without much forethought and stepped outside but the familiar scene of Hao Xuan's mind palace that was meant to be there was replaced by something entirely different.

"What...is this?! How is it possible?" he uttered with no small amount of disbelief as a gust of warm summer breeze brushed past his hair.

The smell of freshly dug earth accompanied by a slight stinging sensation reached him, reviving a memory he had not thought of in a very long time.

"This was...the day I met them-" he muttered as a lump formed in his throat before quickly looking around.

And this time he saw exactly what he was expecting. There was an old tree atop a small hill a short distance away to the right. A few kids were playing in its shade although most were gathered around the swing fighting over it.

"Hey come on, it's my turn now!"

"No, it's not, it's my turn!"

"Liar! You already had your turn!"

"No I didn't! I didn't even get to go once!"

"I'll tell Praesul!"

"Hah! Go ahead, he will agree with me!"

Two of the boys ran towards a figure standing on the edge of the hill. It was a teenager with a shaved head.

"Praesul! Brother Praesul they won't let me have a turn on the swing!" the first boy shouted while the other rebuked from behind.

"That's not true at all!"

Mr. Hyde's gaze was locked onto the teenager and when he turned around to reveal his face he couldn't help but stumble back from shock.

"Older brother..." he muttered through teary eyes.

The only hair Praesul seemed to have was centered around his eyebrows which were extraordinarily thick. He had a wideset body which was obviously very muscular and coupled with his stern expression it made him look quite unapproachable.

But the moment he saw the boys his expression lightened making him grin widely.

"And? What do you want me to do about it? Go tell father," he shrugged.

"Ha! Father isn't even here, how are you going to tell him?" the second boy laughed but Praesul grabbed his head and turned it to the side.

"He is right there!"

"Huh?" x2

Both the boys turned towards the other side of the hill from where another figure was walking up.

"FATHER! FATHER IS HERE!" they shouted in unison while sprinting towards him.