The Fallen Curse

Ilkay's words made the young man open his eyes in surprise. Safwane didn't understand him, he had saved his life and now he was going to help him become stronger, since Safwane was born he had never received compassion or kindness. For him, those actions were something impossible, an unattainable illusion.

"What do you want in return?" Safwane asked hesitantly, he knew that in this world you never receive something without giving.

Ilkay looked away and began to look at the waterfall.

"Just don't die... I wouldn't want another subordinate to die." he answered with a voice that carried pain.

Safwane began to think that in this world, there were also kind people and people who had gone through more pain than him.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"It seems you have good skills in martial arts and swordsmanship... The training will consist of two parts: trying to reach mental enlightenment and amplifying your combat skills." Ilkay said as he walked towards a rock that lay in the center of the river.

Safwane was left speechless as he watched the man walk naturally through the water, it was a clear example of Ilkay's abilities.

"You will meditate on this rock, and remember, the enlightenment will test you with the memories you would most like to forget, what you have to do is try to reach a state in which it does not affect you." Ilkay explained lightly.

Safwane tried to reach the position where Ilkay was, but of course, he had to reach him by swimming. When he reached the rock, the young man climbed up, annoyed at not being able to do the same.

"Concentrate to the maximum and forget about the external" said the man.

Safwane got into a meditation position, and tried to concentrate as much as possible. But the seconds passed, and all he did was make faces of effort.

"...This is impossible" said Safwane annoyed.

Ilkay sighed.

After minutes of effort and dozens of attempts, he was finally able to concentrate. Safwane found himself sinking into the dark ocean again, but this time he couldn't move, he could only watch as he sank and the water filled his lungs.

"...Wake up...Safwane wake up..."

Safwane began to open his eyes slowly.

After blinking a few times, he could see that his deceased grandmother was in front of him, Safwane was confused, it was not only his grandmother but he was in the small hut of his village.

"Yesterday I told you to sleep early, you little rascal" said the grandmother angrily while she grabbed his ears.

The pain in his ear was noticeable, the atmosphere was warm and the birds were singing, Safwane couldn't help but be excited to be able to enjoy these little moments again.

"Huh?.. I'm sure they didn't used to hurt you" said the grandmother worriedly as she saw Safwane shedding tears.

The grandmother began to wave her hands in concern, and then wiped the tears from the young man's face, her hands were warm despite her advanced age, her silver hair shone brightly in the sunlight and her green eyes showed a great love for him.

Safwane knew that this was a simple test of his mind and that this was not real but, he wished it wasn't.

After a few seconds Safwane got up from the ground, but he realized that he had gotten up too quickly, he was quite tall but he was being outnumbered by his grandmother.

Safwane felt uncomfortable looking at himself, his small hands and his weak and small but beaten body, made him realize that he was of a young age.

After that short period of time, they finally arrived, the alcoholic men of the small village were troublesome, so they were sent to Safwane to beat him without remorse.

"Get out... You dirty little nightmare" said one of the men, while holding a bottle in one hand and with the other he grabbed the door.

The grandmother bit her lips in helplessness, she should not do anything, that was Safwane's request from the first day this started, after all the reason the young man let himself be beaten, is that his grandmother would die if she resisted.

When Safwane walked out of the hut, all the villagers looked at him with mockery and hatred.

Not intending to take the beating anywhere else, the man hit Safwane's head hard with the bottle.

The grandmother placed her hands over her mouth in fear as she trembled, while the villagers laughed and began to throw stones at the young man.

The man who hit him approached Safwane's ear.

"We told you we were going to be your nightmares, right?" the man whispered with a smile.

Safwane opened his eyes in surprise and turned quickly, but what he saw was terrifying, all the villagers were smiling madly and above all, a man had a knife at his grandmother's neck.

Safwane began to breathe rapidly, his grandmother was crying and trembling.

"I love you..." said the grandmother through tears before the man killed her.

Madness, hate, despair, anger... Safwane gritted his teeth as all those feelings were generated inside him. Meanwhile, the villagers laughed like crazy while watching the young man.

'My nightmares... you?' Safwane thought.

The little boy watched them while blood fell from his head, which directed a murderous intent towards them, Safwane had lost his sanity.

"I will show you what a nightmare is, I will torture you even after death." Safwane said angrily.

The little boy grabbed the man's arm and bit him hard.

Even though the man was bleeding, he did not stop smiling and threw a punch at the little boy.

Safwane, with no intention of dodging it, received the punch which did not do much damage, the little boy grabbed the pieces of glass from the broken bottle and squeezing it tightly hit the man's side.

The little boy removed the bite and grabbed the man's arm with both hands, with a strong knee he broke it, but the man returned the blow with a strong kick.

Safwane had been sent to the ground and when he tried to get up he could see how all the villagers were staring at him.

The man recovered from the break in his arm, and everyone kept a wide smile, the villagers had several weapons with which they began to hit the little boy, the physical disadvantage was clear.

Safwane was being tortured by the villagers, while they seemed to enjoy it.

'Because I can't do anything again' Safwane thought as he cursed constantly, tears of despair coming out of his red eyes, which were the same as the sky he was looking at.

"Dissipate" said a cold and familiar voice.

The villagers and the landscape began to disappear.

Safwane opened his eyes again while breathing uncontrollably, he was on the rock he was meditating on and his body returned to normal, behind him was Ilkay.

"It seems you have a curse..." said Ilkay as he calmly observed the young man.

"A... curse?" asked Safwane exhausted.

Ilkay nodded.

"Have you done something to the villagers?" asked Ilkay curiously.

"I killed them out of revenge, but they have hated me since I was born so I don't know if that is the real reason" replied Safwane with his head down.

"You didn't do anything to them before killing them?" Ilkay asked again.

Safwane shook his head.

"Then the hatred was generated by someone else, from what you said you took revenge for your grandmother, your parents abandoned you so they could be the cause" said Ilkay as he walked towards land.

Safwane was surprised, not because he deduced that his parents were the cause, but because at no time did he say that the revenge was for his grandmother or that his parents abandoned him.

Among the sea of ​​doubts that Safwane had, Ilkay looked at him and with a gesture of his hand he lifted him from the rock and pulled him towards him.

"How did you do that?" asked Safwane excitedly.

"That doesn't matter, now we will begin with the second part of the training, after seeing that it will be difficult for you to reach enlightenment, this will be the main training" said Ilkay seriously observing the young man.

"But if I don't reach enlightenment, will it even be possible to fight enlightened ones or nightmares?" asked Safwane with a slight disappointment on his face.

Ilkay looked down and grabbed a bandana, which was black and had a golden dragon drawn on it.

"It's possible... You just have to overcome your physical limitations as a human" answered Ilkay as he handed him the bandana.

Safwane grabbed it with confusion.

"You will put it on your eyes, your training will be to try to master immersion, and that bandana will help you when you go outside again." explained Ilkay.

"I understand, but what is immersion?" asked Safwane.

Ilkay explained how immersion is a process in which a person achieves maximum concentration on an activity. If Safwane manages to master immersion, he could even predict attacks and defeat people much more powerful than him, but to achieve this, he needed an understanding of the entire body and, above all, superhuman physical abilities.

"...You have great knowledge in martial arts, but you don't know how to apply it in battle. It's better to master one martial art than to know hundreds of them. It's not just about not seeing. It's about letting go of the senses, learning to hear what can't be heard and see what can't be seen." Ilkay added.

Safwane put on his bandana, his vision became submerged in darkness, and suddenly he began to receive constant blows.

"Stop!" Safwane shouted desperately as he tried to protect himself from the attacks.

"In a week you must learn to see what surrounds you without needing to have your eyes. Remember, you're going out into the outside world with that on." Ilkay said, with a certain desire to hit Safwane.

Hours passed and the "training" was over.

"You've only been getting hit..." Ilkay said indignantly as he watched the flames of the campfire.

"And what did you expect?" Safwane said in disbelief.

Silence filled the place.

"Do you know the cracks?" Ilkay's voice turned sharp, tinged with old rage..

Safwane denied with his head.

"...They are the portals to the domain of the divine beasts, since the seal of the abyss was broken more than a century ago, only one crack reached this continent, that served to end practically everything" Ilkay explained while clenching his fists.

Safwane was surprised and not because of how fearsome the cracks are, but because the man who was always calm and cold, was now full of hatred and anger.

But, as Ilkay's explanation grew longer, the young man understood why he hated the rifts and why he was such a cold man.

Ilkay was a man of more than a hundred years of life and the reason was that when the rift opened hundreds of enlightened ones attacked it to close it, but it was a massacre, not only almost all the enlightened ones of the entire continent died, but his clan, which led the attack was completely annihilated.

His son had died in the process and out of anger he desperately attacked the divine beast, which practically ended his life, his wife strangely was a dragon, which out of love for Ilkay gave all the vital energy that she had left, causing his wife to die and Ilkay to end up living a life full of sadness.