A nightmare

Chapter 3 A Nightmare

(Have not been proofread)

…

Village of Xir, the unique topography of the village protects it from the horror of the beasts inside the dark forest.

The village has a history of around 500 years since the first settlers arrived to establish it.

At first, the village was supposed to be an outpost for the kingdom of songs, Fenshin. But later, it was abandoned by the soldiers of the kingdom and the dwellers turned it into a thriving village of now more than 2,000 villagers.

Everything went well for the past centuries, but a few years ago while the war is raging at the borders, something strange started happening in the village.

The crops that the farmers have planted started to produce low-quality yields and most often they suffer failures.

Because of this, the village council decided to go to town and hire the help of the agricultural department.

After a year of experimenting and investigation, the people from the department in the town near the village of Xir suffered from one failure after another and they decided to give up.

Without a choice, the village council turns to the town's shamans for help.

They decided to go to a shaman because the agriculture department could not explain the situation in their village. Since science did not work, they decided on the pseudoscience of shamanism.

The town sent a shaman and after a day of investigation, he told them that the village was cursed and that they have to offer up their animals for rituals to chase away the evil spirit that is trying to curse their land.

Hence the villagers complied and the shaman began helping them by offering the blood and the carcass to the forest.

Days went by and slowly, the land slowly recovers like a slow miracle happening right before their eyes.

A week before the war near the borders and the return of the soldiers to their families, a miracle happened.

The land has finally returned to its fertile state. The villagers celebrated the homecoming of their young warriors and the visible greens in the forest.

Everyone was truly happy. The shaman was lauded by the people as their savior.

Although the village reserves are now almost empty, they are still celebrating with joy and happiness.

…

Inside a big house in the village, a person is lying calmly on a bed while two beautiful village maidens are massaging his feet and shoulders.

"Ahh… You two really know your stuff… This is arousing…" the man said while the tent on his crotch is already high up in the air.

But he is not doing anything to the two maidens as he knew his limits.

Though these women are beautiful, he would not lose his head to something that could cause him some headaches.

He has already learned his lesson as a few months ago, he took advantage of one of the maidens and now it becomes his burden.

He knew it was a stupid idea, but he could not run away from it. He did not want to lose the riches that the village is giving him by doing almost nothing.

He has already figured out the cause of the so-called curse.

Using his ability, he was able to find out what caused everything.

After that, he formulated a scheme to make himself rich.

No one knew that this village is actually a rich village. If one judges people by the way they dress and their actions, one would smirk at them and call them country bumpkins. But that is where they are wrong. These people are not country bumpkins, they are actually secret millionaires.

If one of these folks lived in the town, with their things and all, they would become one of the town's upstarts.

The source of this is the rich amount of rare stones in the village that the villagers are using as ordinary ornaments in their houses.

According to the village chief, 2 years ago, a villager discovered a cave with strange black stones. He took one from the cave and brought it to the village.

Since the stone does nothing and just looks black and all, they thought that it is only good for display. Plus, they could not break the black stone easily, so no one bothers to do anything to them.

After he discovered this, he has already begun his plan to become rich... rich beyond his imagination.

"I think one of the warriors knew of the Ether stones as I saw him holding one… I have to expedite my plan. If this spreads to the village, then everything is over…" he thought as he waves his hand to dismiss the two maidens.

While musing deeply, he could not help but look outside the window and have his mind wander to the vast green.

"Should… Should I just be contended… I think I have hauled enough to make me rich for a few lifetimes…" he suddenly muttered.

But thinking of those black Ether stones in that cave made him harden his heart as he could feel greed eating inside of him.

"No… I still more… More…" he muttered with an ugly expression on his face.

Unknown to him, a slight wisp of black aura rises from his head like a slowly dancing black snake.

…

It's been a few days since I was able to come out of that dangerous forest.

However, it seems that this world is far too vast that even after traveling for almost a month now, I still could not find any semblance of civilization.

As I pass by one place after another, all I see is the nightmarish scene where burned houses and corpses are everywhere.

The stench of death is far too demotivating and heavy in my heart that it made me unable to sleep for a while.

But after seeing far too many deaths, my mind seems to have adjusted itself to such a scene after seeing it for the tenth time.

Those gruesome scenes made me seem to be now immune to seeing dead people everywhere.

I knew that this is because of that so-called war that has enveloped this whole land in chaos. As I travel through this land of death and decay, my heart seems to slowly turn cold.

In my quest to get out of that dark forest, I have strengthened my resolve and experienced too much of my own death to actually be affected by such a gloomy scene.

But something deep inside of me is telling me that I am actually partly used to these kinds of things.

It was already late at night and I decided to sleep atop a tree outside another destroyed village that I just came into.

While looking at the stars, I feel a familiar tranquility that made my stirred heart slowly calms down.

"I hope I can meet some people soon…" I muttered to myself while looking at the dark sky filled with stars and two bright moons.

While musing on such things, my ears suddenly twitched.

I could hear some sound coming from afar, further than the range of my strange sight.

I quickly focused my attention in that direction and could finally hear frantic footsteps in my left direction.

I waited for a while and soon discovered several figures entering my strange sight.

I could see a woman wearing strange clothes while being chased by a few armored soldiers.

How could I not tell that those chasing after her are the enemies when they are wearing the same uniform as those that wanted to kill me from that battlefield?

From my experience in the forest, I am confident to take down those people that are chasing after her. But I also did not want to make any reckless moves that would expose my being and my current ability.

I jump from the tree branch I was lying on and quickly darted in their direction.

Using my sight, I was able to reach a place ahead of them.

As I sit atop the tree, I watch the group in secret.

To my surprise, the woman actually stops near the tree I was on.

She then quickly draws two short blades and holds them backhanded.

Seeing that stance, I somewhat could recall something familiar about her action.

"Cross stance…" I thought as this word appeared in my mind.

"She is going to fight them defensively…" my sight then saw the blood gushing out of her side.

She is out of strength… She wanted to take them down with her… I could not help but admire the bravery of the girl who is a bit older than me. She might be around 18 or 19 years old.

When the armored men arrive and saw her, they quickly moved to surround the young woman.

"Hehe… Give up now… You weaklings from the kingdom of Fenshin will not be able to defeat our army. Without the help of those bastards from the Kingdom of Steel, you guys are nothing. Hahaha…" a burly man who came down from his mount said with a grin.

He licks his mouth as if he is seeing something very delicious in front of him.

I could not understand such an action and I feel that it is a bit disgusting.

But then suddenly, something came to my mind. It was a bit of memory or realization or something. I somewhat suddenly have an idea of what these people would do to her.

Upon thinking about this point, I could not help but frown.

"She is wounded and is not in the best shape. Why would these people think of doing that to her?" is what I could not help to think.

But still, I have no interest to make a move and decided to watch more and see what will happen next. In a way, their battle has nothing to do with me.