Those words were strange to hear for Safwane, after all the man had said that the last cry was a century ago.
"Rifts are terrifying, not only because they threaten to destroy the world, but because while the rift is open, all kinds of nightmares come to the world..." Ilkay explained.
"But didn't we enter the rift precisely to prevent them from coming?" asked Safwane, surprised.
"Yes, we prevent nightmares from coming from the rift, which are more powerful, but taking advantage of human weakness, the nightmares of the abyss invade." Ilkay replied with a sigh.
The young man knew that the future of this world hung by a thread, a thread that was more likely to break than to remain stable.
"That is why the most powerful enlightened ones will not enter the rift, to compensate for the enormous amount of enlightened ones who will go." added the man.
The cracks were huge wastelands that represented the domain of divine beasts. This caused the nightmares that inhabited it to be of a species with characteristics similar to divine beasts, causing the enlightened ones to basically enter death.
"...The last crack caused the loss of thousands of enlightened ones, because of that is why the number of enlightened ones is so low now." Ilkay explained as his face grew sadder and sadder.
"Because of that crack I lost my wife, my son and all the members who were in my clan..." Ilkay showed guilt in his words, tightly interlacing his fingers.
A few seconds of silence filled the place.
"...My wife was a dragon... Because I was about to die she gave me her remaining life energy, causing her to lose her strength and the divine beast to end her life." said the man, who seemed to be about to cry.
'I guess his long life is like a curse for him,' thought Safwane, showing sympathy to the man.
"The rift was sealed by Zephyr in his youth, but it was not destroyed, now the same divine beast is going to attack the world again and I... I will not be able to take revenge." said Ilkay, gritting his teeth in rage.
Safwane had some questions, who was Zephyr? What was the divine beast like? What were its abilities? But the only thing he could ask was:
"Can things be taken out of the rift?"
Ilkay turned his gaze to the young man with doubt on his face.
"Well... If you are lucky enough to be able to get them out, I will bring you a gift." added the young man.
Ilkay seemed to slightly understand his words and smiled.
"Come with me, I will give you a gift first." said Ilkay as he stood up.
The two walked in silence until they finally reached the waterfall, which the man reached by walking on top of the water and Safwane... by swimming.
The man snapped his fingers and the huge waterfall spread out to the sides revealing a cave inside.
Safwane finally reached the inside of the cave soaked.
"Hey, you could have made me levitate don't you think?" said Safwane annoyed.
"What does it matter if you swim a little?" replied Ilkay.
Safwane frowned.
The cave was cold and the words echoed, but this was a special place for the man, after all on the wall there was a huge portrait of what seemed to be his wife and son, a woman with white hair and beautiful blue eyes, the son had dark hair and blue eyes, the two seemed to be happy.
Under the huge portrait, a luxurious box was present.
"Come." Ilkay said as he opened the huge box.
When Safwane walked up to the man, he was surprised. The box had a black uniform and a black katana that looked like darkness itself.
"This is my gift, the clan's clothing and the katana my son used..." Ilkay said as he picked up the katana.
"And why aren't you wearing the uniform?" the young man asked as he held the katana that Ilkay offered him.
"I don't feel worthy of wearing it anymore..." the man replied reluctantly as he lowered his head.
"...Are you going to see me change my clothes?" Safwane asked, trying to lighten the mood.
Ilkay smiled and walked slowly towards the exit of the cave.
The young man stayed alone in the cold cave, thinking, trying to change his clothes, but he felt uncomfortable.
'I feel bad changing clothes with a portrait behind me...'
After a few minutes, the young man managed to change and stood at the edge of the cave, Ilkay saw him and made him levitate to attract him to his position.
"It doesn't look bad on you..." said Ilkay with a somewhat happy look.
The uniform was a kimono that fell above his knees and at his waist was held by a kind of belt which was also dark, underneath this he had a somewhat loose black pants that were tight above his ankles, the shoes were light and small leaving the ankles visible.
He also seemed to wear a scarf around his neck, which also had the design of a red dragon.
"It seems you're ready," Ilkay said with some nostalgia.
"Yes..." Safwane replied, not knowing how to say goodbye.
The two seemed to have it in common, neither knew how to say goodbye properly.
Ilkay smiled as he closed his eyes.
Without saying a word he lifted him up. The man began to stop smiling little by little as he watched Safwane get further and further away.
'I'm back in solitude again... I just hope this time my student doesn't die, please' Ilkay thought as he entered the forest.
On the other hand Safwane reached the surface, unlike what he had been experiencing below, here the world was desolate. There were hardly any trees and if there were any they were dry, the vegetation on the ground was poor and the earth was reddish, implying the immense amount of blood that had been spilled.
Safwane had been sent close to the empire, so he didn't have to walk far to get back to the huge doors he once desperately tried to leave through.
'To think I would come back...' Safwane thought with disdain.
The doors were guarded by two huge men, both of whom seemed to be over two meters tall and were burly, and they were also illuminated, so it seemed the empire wasn't going to let anyone escape again.
"Identify yourself." said one of the men in a deep, threatening voice.
Safwane turned his attention to the man.
"I am a student of Ilkay, leader of the dark dragon clan."
The man was surprised, the red dragon was the symbol of the clan but he understood they had no limbs.
"How can we know if you are telling the truth?" asked the other man.
"Do you want to prove it?" replied Safwane.
The two men couldn't see each other's eyes because of the bandana, but their instincts warned them, it's dangerous.
Safwane was at a level where despite not being an enlightened one, he could even defeat an avatar. Still, it wasn't enough for the rift.
"...No need... We don't want problems with your clan, come in." said one of the men nervously.
Safwane walked into the city without answering, which was full of enlightened ones and citizens.
The atmosphere was tense and the opening of the rift was imminent, people were terrified.
Meanwhile, the young man walked calmly down the avenue.
'I guess it's normal that they don't feel as imposing as Ilkay...' Safwane thought, but something made him react.
"Don't turn around" said a voice behind him.
Safwane noticed a strong presence behind him, but after those words the young man couldn't turn around.
"Follow me without saying a word," he said again, this time walking ahead of Safwane.
The young man clearly did not want to pay attention to him, but his legs moved to obey the orders of those words.
As he walked forcefully behind the man, Safwane could notice how his clothing and voice were familiar. It was the hooded man who saved him when he tried to leave the city.
Finally, they entered an alley where there was no one.
"You can move now." said the man as he took off his hood.
He was a young man who appeared to be the same age as Safwane, he had blond hair which fell over one of his gray eyes, he also had two small black earrings, one in each ear.
"What do you want?" asked Safwane angrily.
"I just want to help you, Safwane," said the man as he raised his arms.
"I voted against your execution and helped you escape, why would I do that if I wanted to do something bad to you?" he asked with a shrug.
Safwane immediately knew that this was the prince of the empire.
"Then why did you do it?"
"I've heard a lot about you from your sister, I feel like the two of us would be good friends." the prince replied with a smile.
"My... sister" Safwane murmured with his head down.
His sister was someone very talented and beautiful, thanks to that she was able to attract the attention of the empire to arrange a marriage with a prince. In the short time she was in the village, she was always curious about him and asked the grandmother about his condition. Even so, they never talked.
"Aren't you too old to marry her?" he added with some anger.
"Relax, it's not me, it's my younger brother" he replied with a laugh.
"But she always told me about you with joy, that you were very strong or that people envied you for your face" added the prince
'I guess she is too young to realize...' thought Safwane.
All the children in the village were curious to know what he was like and why they hated him, but their parents only pushed them away making them hate him when they grew up too.
"I'm sure she will be happy to see you..." said the prince.
Safwane remained thoughtful.
"By the way, I am Kaiser" he said extending his hand towards Safwane.
But before the young man could return the greeting, the earth began to shake strongly. The sky darkened and the clouds ran in the same direction.
The two young men quickly headed towards the alley's exit.
"Hey... Isn't it too big?" Safwane said nervously as he gulped.
"Average size I guess..." Kaiser said ironically between nervous laughs.