“YOU!” I angrily shout at the top of my lungs. My magical gears kick into full power. I might be in a younger body, but my mind is still that of a somewhat experienced arcane mage. Even if I can’t cast a Gravefire Cataclysm here, I’ll make sure to kill Sulva Vera.
Leaping at an incredible speed, I tackle the man who put Albo in a coma. Mid-air, I use my Physical Strengthening to shift my body weight, making it feel like I’m heavier than three boulders stacked together.
He can’t handle the weight or the momentum. His back arches and his feet kick forward as his body starts lunging backwards. Meanwhile, the world around me turns into a deep blue. I finally let my Soul Sight take control, as I see this man’s magical gears, soul, and even Birthmark.
There’s a loud thud, followed by the gasping of my parents. They’re too stunned to even stop me. I’m sorry Mom, Dad, but your daughter’s changed since the last time you saw her. I really wanted to savor this moment as much as possible, but I can’t let go of this opportunity at all.
I’m not sure if the Sulva in front of me is the real deal. For all I know, it could just be an illusion, similar to how my parents are being portrayed. I was hoping my Soul Sight might have been able to give me some answers, but he looks the same as everyone else.
He makes a confused and shocked face, probably unsure how such a little girl managed to get a jump on him. He looks a decade younger, that’s for sure, but his eyes and posture are the exact same as the one I met back in Kala.
Grabbing his collar and pulling him toward my face, I angrily shout at him, “TURN ALBO BACK RIGHT NOW! TURN OFF YOUR DAMN CURSE!”
The demands I make immediately snap his mind into place, giving him a great idea of who I am. I’m sure he didn’t recognize me because I’m so small. It’s likely that he even might have had trouble recognizing me as Saya.
But with my Soul Sight, there’s no doubt in his mind that I’m the one mage that he lost to in a grand span of one minute. To him, he isn’t seeing the daughter of Mark and Joy Idlansil, but the unstoppable mage, Oktavia.
I raise a fist and slam it down against his face as hard as I can. My entire body is being reinforced with magic, so even if he tries to shove me off of him, the sheer amount of weight centered around his chest is too much for him to handle. Besides, I’m going to make sure to knock him unconscious if he tries anything.
“—Gnh!”
He grunts while I draw back my arm for a second blow. Each punch sends small sprinkles of blood across the pristine oak floorboard. I can feel his bones cracking each time my knuckles connect with his thick skull. I shouldn’t be, but I’m enjoying finally beating up the person who brought me so much torment and hardship.
“UNDO IT!”
I punch again.
“—Gah!”
And again.
I’m glad I can’t see his face. If I could, there’s no doubt I would have killed him by now. I don’t necessarily need him alive, as Viera did say that if I kill him, the curse automatically becomes undone. But I don’t want to take any chances. There’s no known cure for a curse, so if I kill him and it doesn’t undo it, then there’s a high chance Albo might be asleep forever.
“Honey, stop!” my mother wails. She tries to get close enough to pull me back, but my relentless violence pulls her back in fear. There’s hesitation in her eyes and body language, stepping a micro step forward, and another one backward.
Just let me be, Mom. I deserve this. After that, we can go back to eating huaraches together. I just need to kill this man in front of me. No, I can’t kill him, I need to stop wanting to kill him. I need him alive.
But…
I don’t necessarily need him to be complete. Maybe if I damage his brain enough, he’ll be too stupid and non-functional to give me what I want. Or maybe by beating him and threatening his life, he’ll finally give in and undo the curse. There are so many options I can take, maybe I should start betting with myself on which one he’ll do first.
“SNAP. YOUR. FINGERS.”
“RELEASE HIM!”
“DO IT!”
His cheeks are completely swollen, and his eyes are barely open. Not so snarky now, are you? All that confidence you had at Kala, all that composure you tried so hard to carry, where is it now? Come on, try to cast a curse, cast a barrier. I’m waiting.
“—Gnh!”
Do something. It’s not fun if you don’t fight back. Come on, let’s go, isn’t this what you wanted? A real fight? You couldn’t finish three students and a single knight, and now you’re being beaten down by a child? How pathetic are you guys?
“Saya!” my dad yells out behind me, but I don’t care. All that matters to me right now is making sure I get an answer from this bloody guy in front of me. It’s a shame I had to ruin his good-looking face too.
As the adrenaline in my body reaches an all-time peak, I loosen my grip on his collar, letting him plop back down onto the ground, as a stream of blood drools out of his mouth. Within that puddle, bits of shattered white teeth fragments are cluttered around.
I turn my head slightly to see my parents’ reaction. As expected, they’re absolutely horrified. They’re nice people, so I hope they don’t blame themselves for having such a psychotic daughter, but I’m sure as adults, they understand better than anyone that sometimes, people change for the worse.
All I need to do right now is cure Albo. Once I do, I can do whatever they want. I can be their perfect daughter.
My breathing is heavy. As my body slowly runs out of the initial adrenaline, so does my magical energy. I haven’t felt this tired even when firing a literal beam of light into the sky, but for some reason, I feel like I’m about to just collapse and take a long nap.
“Sorry Mom, Dad.”
“I’m sure you like this guy as your guest.”
“But I’m telling you now, he’s a dangerous man.”
“He’s the one that put Albo in a coma. He’s the one that attacked the academy. I need to make sure he turns my best friend back, or else, I’ll truly have nobody else in my life.”
I speak to them as if they’re not real. A part of my heart breaks when I say it, but for some reason, I can’t bring myself to believe that my parents are truly alive. I can see them with a soul, a Birthmark, and even magical energy flowing through their bodies. Every bit of evidence demonstrates that they are real.
But I just can’t bring myself to believe it.
Any moment now, they’ll cast me out of this house. They’ll probably shout something along the lines of “you’re not our daughter.” Hell, I’d probably say that if my kid, who I thought was sweet and innocent, nearly murdered someone.
There’s a flood of regret rushing to my chest. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so fixated on whether or not this was an illusion and just enjoyed the moment. Well, I guess I was enjoying the moment, until this maggot entered the house.
“—Ca…”
Before I can wallow in self-hatred for any longer, I hear Sulva struggling to get a word out. Still on top of him, I look down at him, staring daggers into his closed eyes. I want it so that the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes is my hatred for him.
“Can’t…
His breathing is frantic, and there’s barely any strength in his voice. Despite that, he pushes through to try to answer my demands. I’m not sure if it’s because he feels intimidated, or because he finally realized the sins of his actions.
“here…”
“We’re… stuck… dream…”
I let out an audible gasp. “What did you say? We’re stuck in a dream?”
If what he’s saying is true, then my assumptions were somewhat correct. Regardless of this world being a dream or illusion, there should be ways for me to break free eventually through the use of my Soul Sight.
Unlike the barrier back in the real world, there isn’t a pitch-black dome hovering around the city. Even if there was, I’d know how to deal with it at this point. Which means the source of power has to be nearby, I just need to find it.
But then that also means that Mom and Dad aren’t truly real.
I’ve been saying it over and over again to eventually get myself ready to face the truth, but when I’m actually confronted with the truth, it doesn’t make the news any less heartbreaking. At this rate, if it was going to turn out this way, I should have just not said anything.
My parents continue to look at me in shock. They’ve been that way ever since I started my beatdown on Sulva, and I don’t see them letting go of that expression anytime soon. Tears start to well up in my eyes, releasing small streaks down my cheeks.
Summoning whatever energy I have left in me, I get up from Sulva’s chest and start making my way towards the door. My magical gears kick in faintly, letting me use a small portion of Physical Strengthening to bust open the door.
My parents call out my name, but I sprint as fast as I can towards the town until I can’t hear them anymore. The world around me has changed completely. The once blue, clear skies are now painted with black, rainy clouds. If this is a dream, then I need to get out as quickly as possible and reawaken in my real body.
I take turns I’m not familiar with, going from one district of the city to another. One minute I’m at that familiar market, now devoid of the mass crowd it once held, and the next, I make it past countless homes, which are clearly part of a residential district.
Maybe I’m too spoiled, having lived in Kala, but the roads in this city are far rougher. The stones lining the streets are much more uneven, and I can feel the cracks every time I step on one. I wish I didn’t throw away my sandals in that alley. Even that uncomfortable thing would have been far better than running barefoot.
A sharp rock, or maybe a stray piece of wood, cuts through my foot. I react, almost falling forward, just barely managing to catch myself before I completely lose my balance. It feels like it’s the world’s way of telling me to slow down.
But still, I push onwards, despite my lungs begging me not to.
The strange homes, the people walking and going about their day, it all feels so real. I wish it was real. Because if it was, then every moment I had with my parents would have been real too. But I blew it, like I always do.
As I run through the city, drips of rain splash against my head, and then the rest of my body. It’s not enough to drench me completely, but it still makes my clothes damp. Since I’m wearing a white dress, I look around for any kind of shelter.
Leading away from the residential area, there’s a grass road, cleanly cut to allow people of all ages to walk through, leading to a small, circular pond. It’s slightly bigger than the fountain I saw back in Atrila. But what really catches my attention is the wooden chair right next to it, with a simple roof overhead to shield it from the rain.
It’s better than nothing. I quickly run over, the mud splashing all over my ankles, with some reaching up to my knee. My already tainted dress gets even dirtier. Once I make it under the protection, the rain starts to fall slightly faster.
Finally having a moment to breathe, I take in as much air as possible. I swallow hard to quench my dry throat, while my eyes scan my surroundings. Being so fixated on finding nearby shelter, I barely took notice of the place surrounding the pond.
There are trees not too far from where I’m standing, arranged in a semi-circle shape. If I had to guess, the half with the trees eventually leads to the forest, like the one I saw just before entering Yucu Saa in the real world.
Around a dozen fish inhabit the pond, with a small metallic container labeled ‘fish food’ close to the water. To prevent anything like trash from accidentally rolling over, the innocent pond is surrounded by a wall of mismatched rocks.
The rain tapping against the wood above me relaxes my muscles, like a sweet lullaby lulling me to sleep. My body releases all the tension I’ve been holding, eventually making me take a seat on the slightly damp bench.
Since the roof is more meant for protection against the sun, there are a few gaps that let the water through. Despite my muscles finally easing, my heart is another story. No matter how hard I try, it doesn’t stop racing like I’m still running.
It feels like at any moment, my chest is about to burst open, revealing a spear running through my skin and bones. My breathing isn’t any different either, as it keeps shaking under the guilt of my actions.
I don’t feel bad for doing what I did to Sulva. Frankly, I don’t exactly care about that. If anything, he did the right thing and told me what the situation was. Sure, his answer was far from satisfactory, but at least I can be at ease, knowing that there’s a chance to save Albo once we get out of here.
Since he didn’t say he couldn’t save Albo, period. He just claimed he couldn’t since we’re in a dream. Or, at least, that’s how I interpreted it.
No, what I really feel bad about is treating Mom and Dad the way I did. I’ve only been with them for maybe half an hour, or perhaps a full hour, but I’ve done things no parent should ever witness their child doing.
Not only was I cold to them, but I also beat someone into a bloody pulp in front of them. If anything, I should have waited to do that later on, either when they’re asleep, or by luring Sulva into running an errand with me and finding a secluded spot to get answers from him.
They kept calling my name while I was running, but their voices were so shaky. I wonder if they’re scared of me now. I bet they’re helping and treating Sulva right now, without knowing what kind of pain he’s caused me the past month.
I lift my legs onto the chair as I curl up in a ball, burying my face in between my knees. My eyes are fixated on the rhythmic splashes the rain makes upon hitting the surface of the pond. The fish move calmly, unaffected by the outside world of humans.
“Must be nice,” I mumble.
“I wish I could be that unbothered.”
Impatience slowly crawls from the bottom of my spine. My greatest desire right now is to run back into the city, despite the rain and despite the annoying rocks in the street, and find a way to escape this strange dream.
I would hit myself, but judging from the amount of pain I inflicted on Sulva, that probably means he’s not awake either.
“Wait.” I lift my head slightly as a realization pops into my head.
“Mom and Dad didn’t tell me that this was a dream, but Sulva did…”
Does that mean that the Sulva I met was real? Which would mean that we’re both stuck in the same dream together, affected by what I can only assume is the same magical spell. I’m not sure how we got into such a predicament, but it makes sense.
Maybe that gray monster has something to do with this. I literally can’t find any other suitable answer as to why this is happening to me. The last thing I remember is being beaten in a fight and getting carried away. So by that logic, if for some reason I was put under a spell, then that means Sulva’s physical body is probably nearby too.
“I need to leave this dream as quickly as possible,” I say to myself. But before I can spring into action, before I can even uncurl myself from my pathetic pose, I hear a sweet voice in the distance, calling out to me.
“There’s no need to hurry.”
I turn my head slightly as a tall silhouette with a large hat approaches me. She’s holding a large umbrella to shield her from the rain, while also casting wind magic around the rim to make sure not a single droplet gets on her clothing.
“Mom…”
While walking towards me, she forms a kind smile, like what had just happened a few minutes ago was nothing but a lie. Why is she acting like this towards me? She looked like she was about to cry, but now she’s just the same carefree mom that I’ve always known.
As I uncurl and stand from the bench, she points her right palm at me. Her Birthmark glows a bright red, a magical circle forms instantaneously, and a thin string of fire shoots out from her hands.
Startled, I take a step back, falling back down onto the bench.
She catches up to me, now towering above my small frame.
“Don’t move, Saya.”
“I just want to talk.”