At first Eurig thought his ears were playing a trick on him but when he heard the sound of suppressed breathing it finally registered.
He slowly turned around to lay his eyes on a man hovering a few inches off the ground in the dead center of the room. He was looking up at the ceiling as if searching for something.
His figure was emaciated to the point that it was a miracle he was even alive but that wasn't what caught Eurig's eye. It was the feeling he got when he looked at him as if he was both there and not there at the same time.
If he were to put it into words then it would be like trying to describe an apparition.
The room fell silent.
The other demons were just as shocked and confused at this man's appearance since the only entrance was not only guarded but also in plain sight and no one had seen him come in.
Arnett even forgot his own sticky situation when he saw him. His heart started to beat faster and faster and a sense of awe overtook him.
But perhaps no one was more surprised than Wern who seemed to be vaguely familiar with the man. Although his own waning vision coupled with the figure's haggard appearance made it doubly difficult to properly make him out but only one person came to his mind.
"B-Brother Hao…Xuan…?"
The man suddenly turned in his direction. His eyes were strange, nothing any one of them had ever seen before.
There was a swirling mass of darkness inside his sockets with some specks of light mixed in. It made it look like one was looking at the night sky rather than into someone's eyes and Wern's heart skipped a beat when he met his 'gaze' directly.
He felt infinitely small which made him more nervous than happy for whatever reason but seeing his face directly he was a hundred percent sure now, that was definitely Hao Xuan.
"You…know me? Am I…Hao Xuan?" Hao Xuan asked in a hoarse voice, unsure of the answer himself.
Wern pushed down his own anxiety and nodded, "Y-Yes, we know each other. Don't you remember? My name is Wern!"
"Wern…?" Hao Xuan repeated as if he recalled something which gave Wern some hope.
"Yes!" he responded animatedly. But the next question threw him back into the pit of uncertainty.
"Tell me, Wern, am I dreaming?" Hao Xuan looked up at the ceiling before continuing, "I don't remember this sky."
It felt like someone had taken a hammer to Wern's skull.
"No…no this isn't a dream. Don't you remember how you got here?"
Hao Xuan's brow furrowed as he tried to recall.
"I…was somewhere else. Another dream, a great many of them. And then I heard a voice, it was so loud. Someone asking for help. I couldn't ignore it."
He spoke in short sentences, trying to explain it more to himself than anyone else.
"Then…forget it. It…doesn't matter how you got here but that you are. I need your help, we all do. The barrier is broken and-"
"The barrier, yes. I remember that" Hao Xuan suddenly cut in, "I saw it from the outside. It wouldn't let me back in. I was stuck and then the voice came. One little voice among a sea of sounds, so loud and anguished."
His head mechanically turned towards Arnett, both looking at him and through him simultaneously.
"It was you. So small but so damn loud. You called me here. Why?" he genuinely seemed confused.
Eurig who was only listening until now couldn't believe his ears. The words of the 'savior' echoed in his head at this moment.
'The child will lead you to the promised one.'
"It's…you!" Eurig exclaimed, falling to his knees at once. It all made sense now.
"My lord, we were sent here for you. We were the ones who destroyed the barrier, we were the ones who brought you back. That boy, he is also my kin!"
And it was only then that Hao Xuan acknowledged their presence.
"You?" he slowly floated towards Eurig.
"Yes! My master, the savior, he was the one who sent me to you, to the chosen one."
Hearing the line of empty rhetoric Eurig was going for, even the other demons got the gist of it, as dumb as they were. Both the brute demon and the masked demon got down on all fours, bowing in front of him without knowing why.
Seeing what Eurig was trying to do Wern threw up a mouthful of blood in anger.
"NO! He is lying brother, they are demons, all of them! Don't believe them! This man even killed Brother Henrik!"
"Demons?" Hao Xuan repeated slowly, looking Eurig up and down before shaking his head, "No, not a demon yet, just a simple hatchling. And Henrik is alive, I can feel his presence-" he absentmindedly commented before realizing who he was talking about.
"Henrik….I know him. ARGH!"
