They walked through the twisting labyrinth of never-ending hallways for more than an hour before coming to a gradual standstill. In front of them was a room, or would it be more appropriate to call it a separate space?
"Is...this real...?" one of the barbarians whispered in disbelief.
"What do you see?"
"A forest! An actual forest with white trees! But...how can it be here?"
Hao Xuan heard their incredulous whispering before reading the translated meanings to figure out what was happening. He was almost at the very back and the girthy silhouettes of the Barbarians in front of him blotted out almost everything in sight.
The hallway got wider and wider until it could hold half of the barbarians standing side by side. It was only then that Hao Xuan finally saw what everyone was talking about.
The hallways they had walked through so far looked like they had been chiseled out of stone without any breaks. They were smoother than your average stone but still rougher than most metals.
But now the sidewalls looked like they were made of cavernous rocks you would find on the side of a mountain. They got wider and rougher until finally, instead of walls it all just looked like the entrance, or perhaps an exit of a natural cave.
And when they ended, a different space welcomed them. The ground beneath their feet felt springy. The air was still a little dry but it was much clearer. The foul odors were all but gone, and a new scenery replaced the previously empty void.
As others had mentioned it was a forest of white trees. They were quite tall, each one separated by a few meters at least. But there was not a single leaf anywhere in sight. Neither on the ground nor hanging by the dead branches.
It was still night inside this space and a lot colder as well. Hao Xuan could see a white trail every time he exhaled.
The first three Barbarians took a few steps into the forest. They poked the trees with their weapons and even tried peeling off the bark and breaking some branches. It all 'seemed' completely normal from a first glance.
A moment later the remaining Barbarians slowly moved in as well. When it was Hao Xuan's turn, he trudged in along with Burak who was keeping a watchful eye on him.
He had only taken one step into the forest when both he and Burak knit their brows upon noticing the irregularities. Hao Xuan's ears twitched and his narrowed eyes swiveled left and right in search of something ANYTHING to prove him wrong but, there was nothing.
Meaning there was nothing alive. There was no sign of life at all in the forest. No animal droppings, no beast prints, not a single thing growing out of the ground nor any sound.
Isak who was at the front looked back and exchanged glances with Burak, assuring each other that they were both on the same page.
A ghostly breeze blew through the trees, bringing with it a cold prickling sensation. When it brushed past Hao Xuan's skin, every single strand of hair on his body stood straight up.
His heartbeats quickened, vigorously pumping blood to every corner of his being in preparation for what was to come. His body temperature rose by several degrees but could not heat up the air around him even by a single point.
A peal of thunder boomed in the sky above. It should have been loud enough and bright enough to send every Barbarian down to their knees upon hearing it but...the sound dissipated before reaching the surface.
Only a weak flash of yellow lightning cast a momentary shadow on the ground, which was enough to grab Hao Xuan's attention. He raised his head to see a wide-open sky.
A churning sea of dark grey clouds hanged above, pregnant with awful lightning. For a moment Hao Xuan got lost staring at them, his eyes glazing over.
The lightning bolts intertwined with one another in such a way that any onlookers would lose the will to look away.
The lightning bolts struck one another creating even brighter flashes of light. They almost seemed alive, attacking each other in a desperate bid for survival. As if consuming the other one would make their own existence last longer.
Unknowingly, a strand of Chaos Qi within Hao Xuan's meridian slowly slipped out and started circulating on its own.. It was reacting to something, calling for it.