Those words echoed through the immense darkness and a white light began to penetrate quickly, the nightmares screamed in pain at the light and began to disappear.
"...We will return, Safwane" said what was once a villager before disappearing.
The young man woke up with force while breathing rapidly and sweat ran through his entire body.
'Where am I' asked Safwane looking around.
The place was incredibly beautiful, a green forest with animals eating calmly, behind the young man there was a river from which a waterfall came. The air was pure and fresh, in addition to the beautiful song of the birds as if the nightmares had never existed.
But what the young man missed the most was that in front of him there was a man sitting on a log while calmly watching the flames of a campfire.
The man looked young, he had pale skin and dark hair that ended in white tips, his eyes were gray and showed sadness.
"Are you okay?" the man asked without looking up.
Safwane hesitated.
"Yes... Who are you?" Safwane answered with a question.
"I am... the one who helped you escape from those enlightened ones." the man answered.
Safwane opened his eyes in surprise, he remembered before falling completely unconscious how he fell towards something dark instead of the ground.
"You are cursed." the man added, this time he looked at the young man.
"...What do you mean by cursed?" Safwane asked after a few seconds of silence.
The man sighed.
"Someone has cursed you, that is why you had that dream." the man answered as he stood up.
'I'm... cursed' Safwane thought worriedly as he remembered what seemed more like reality than a dream.
"That's the reason why you're not an enlightened one." said the man as he stood in front of the young man.
Safwane was someone who had surpassed the pinnacle of physical abilities, he was a unique genius in martial arts and swordplay, there are probably very few or no one who can compete with him when it comes to physical capabilities.
But to become an enlightened one had to reach the illumination of the mind, for Safwane that was something almost impossible, as if something prevented him from being able to reach it, every time he tries to meditate the only thing he reaches is absolute darkness.
"What do you want to do with your life?" asked the man as he looked at the young man with cold eyes, as if he expected a single answer.
Safwane noticed the man's intentions, the only reason he would talk about having a curse and then ask his goal in life: to end the curse.
The young man stared into space for a few seconds, he was tired of constantly fighting to live, he had done so since he was born.
"I will destroy everything that has to do with the curse" Safwane answered as he returned the man's cold gaze.
That was precisely the reason he had fought all his life, that was the only thing he knew and wanted to do.
The man smiled.
"I am Ilkay, leader of the Dark Dragon Clan" the man introduced himself as he walked towards the river after Safwane.
'The leader of a clan?' Safwane asked himself, still not understanding what was happening.
Safwane opened his eyes again.
The leader of the Dark Dragon Clan, was considered one of the most powerful enlightened in the world and his name was going to go down in history, the man has many nicknames but one of the most used was: "One man army."
This nickname was given to him because his powerful clan has the number of only one man, the leader.
"You know, in exactly two weeks a crack is going to open again after a hundred years. This could be the end of the world." Ilkay explained as he looked at the clear water of the river.
"And does that have something to do with the curse?" asked Safwane as he stood up in pain.
"It could be... after all your curse is linked to the abyss" answered Ilkay turning to the young man.
"In these two weeks I'm going to teach you two things: immersion and how to observe the energy of living beings." added Ilkay.
Safwane was excited inside, but he tried not to show it on the outside.
"The good thing is, you can learn both at the same time so it makes things easier." Ilkay said walking towards Safwane.
When the man stood in front of Safwane he handed him a bandana, it was completely black and had a red dragon decorated in the center.
"You will use this bandana to cover your eyes, this will be useful for training but also for when you go outside." Ilkay said.
Safwane put on the bandana and darkness invaded his mind and senses, he was vulnerable.
'How am I supposed to go outside like this?' Safwane thought as he tried to figure out what to do.
"Focus on your surroundings as much as possible, just like bats, you have to try to achieve echolocation." Ilkay explained.
Echolocation is about sending out a sound hoping it will bounce back, once it does you can determine the distance and size of something, but that...
"Don't you think that's impossible to do in two weeks?" Safwane asked indignantly.
Ilkay clicked his tongue.
"I thought I was going to train an incredible genius, but this is what I get..." Ilkay replied as he looked away in disgust.
Safwane still had the bandana on but he could see the clear disgust in the man.
"Okay, okay... But how am I supposed to do it?" Safwane asked.
"First of all, I'm behind you and second of all you have to reach immersion, concentrate as much as possible on only your surroundings, it will also help you in fights." Ilkay explained as he raised his finger.
'Looks like I get it, I feel like I'm floating' thought Safwane proudly.
What he didn't know was that he was indeed floating, Ilkay had lifted him up and was taking him deep into the forest.
"I'm not really good at training people, so you'll stay in this forest until you master those skills, and you'll eat what you manage to hunt, using the new skills of course." Ilkay said as his voice seemed to fade away little by little.
Safwane felt the ground again and his belly growled with hunger.
'What is this guy saying?' he thought as he processed Ilkay's words. But a growl interrupted his thoughts, this time it wasn't his belly.
Safwane slowly hugged his knees and waited for whatever was there to attack him.
Safwane sighed after a few seconds.
'I can do it...' he thought as he stood up.
If he couldn't see he had to try to make his other senses better, the young man went barefoot, he did this so he could feel the vibrations of the ground better.
He began to walk without a fixed destination, he simply walked, the ground was cold but soft. The more he walked the more he became aware of his surroundings despite not being able to see.
The young man noticed that near the trees the ground rose slightly, near the bushes the leaves and branches were more present, he could know this thanks to the special creaking.
He also slowly began to notice the looks of the animals and how they escaped from his presence, thanks to their footsteps he could know the direction in which they escaped and thanks to the strength of these he could more or less know the size.
Safwane had been going through difficult times, but this was making him feel free, a tranquility formed in himself and he could concentrate on what he was doing without thinking about being insulted by people.
Safwane felt happiness for the first time in his life.
After a long walk, the young man seemed to have arrived at what seemed to be a small lake. Safwane could tell because the ground was wetter the closer he got.
When the young man's feet touched the water, he felt the water flowing calmly, the freshness of the water made Safwane's feet feel relief.
Meanwhile, behind the young man, Ilkay watched him leaning against a tree, his eyes showing empathy towards Safwane.
"Were you worried about me, Ilkay?" the young man asked.
Ilkay opened his eyes in surprise, then showed a smile.
"It seems you didn't need it..." Ilkay replied as he walked away between the trees.
The young man had understood that energy flows through the body just as water flows through this lake.
Safwane was able to understand the importance of the senses only when he lost his sight hours ago.
Everything has a smell that characterizes it that could be known through smell, everything pumps energy inside the body that could be known through hearing, everything has a texture that could be known through touch.
The body is perfect.
The training continued in the same way for two weeks, Safwane tried to know himself, not through enlightenment but through the experience of his body.
The young man could now know his surroundings without needing to see. Now he walked through the forest knowing each step he took and where each thing was.
Safwane used his own steps to send a sound through the ground and thus know his surroundings, also now in his mind he could observe the energy of things flowing, like blood flowing through the body.
"Are you done?" asked Ilkay as he watched the young man appear between the trees of the forest.
"Yes... I would honestly like to stay longer," the young man replied, full of nostalgia.
"Fuck, you killed a lot of animals to be able to eat." Ilkay replied, somewhat angry.
"It's not my fault, you're the one who told me that," the young man replied, somewhat annoyed as well.
Ilkay raised an eyebrow.
"So now you're answering too, huh?" Ilkay said.
Safwane smiled.
"Come sit down, I'll tell you something before you leave," Ilkay said again while patting the trunk.
Safwane sat down next to him, the man slightly bent his body and moved closer to the bonfire.
Although the young man could see where he was and how he was positioned, he couldn't tell what his face looked like, but one thing was certain and that was that he was sad.
"I'll tell you about my experience in the rift..."