Visions

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A tremendous pain in my soul suddenly woke me up.

The visions I saw, the imagery I saw…

I looked around me as I saw the skeleton struggle against father. His blade was not only stronger compared to the skeleton, but his flames were even burning through the skeleton's armor, consuming its magic.

Sometime later, he summoned a gigantic phoenix that cried loudly. It then looked at me for a split second before resuming battle.

The phoenix flames then began to explosively consume the entire surroundings as the skeleton's darkness began to be consumed.

After that, father coated himself in divine power as his blade slashed through the skeleton.

My mother suddenly summoned her two other familiars, the eye with wings and… what seemed to be a beautiful crane.

Both of them assisted father with healing as the skeleton began to be consumed by father's flames.

"KKKAAAAAA…!"

The skeleton groaned in agony as its entire body exploded into pieces.

Unfortunately for the skeleton, my father suddenly extended his blazing soul from within his body, clutching onto the phantasmal soul of the skeleton.

"I won't let you go back to your master!" he roared fiercely. At this moment, his entire demeanor was that of a tyrannical warlord!

"GRRYYYAAAAAAGGGHH…!"

The skeleton's soul cried in agony as it was burned alive by the purifying flames of father, turning into nothingness…

It died!

But… eh?

What did I see back then?

What… was that?

"Hahh… hahh…!"

"Sylphy, hang on!"

I heard the tender voice of my mother. I was so thankful she was alive.

"Sylphy!"

My father's voice resounded soon after as I felt his warmth encompass me.

Father… he's not dead… he's here…

I'm so glad. They're the most important treasures of my life…

I…

Ungh…

Eventually, the darkness pulled me back into unconsciousness as I fell asleep.

.

.

.

I began to slowly wake up. Once I was somewhat conscious, I noticed that my body was resting over a bed.

After some time, I opened my eyes as the interior of a tent greeted me.

The tent was made of beautiful leather decorated with many paintings. It looked tribal and rustic in my eyes.

Complementing that were several pieces of furniture roughly made out of wood all around me, as well as a lot of little wooden toys.

In fact, there was a little doll made of wood resembling Aquarina, with long silvery-white hair and a blue dress.

Where am I right now?

I looked around as someone slowly entered the tent.

"Sylphy, when will you wake up- ah? Sylphy!"

Suddenly, Aquarina entered the tent and rushed towards me, hugging me tightly.

"Aquarina?"

"Sylphy! Are you okay?"

Aquarina tenderly hugged me, rubbing her cute little face over my chest.

In response, I caressed her soft and long hair as her head had the scent of sweet flowers.

"I-I'm fine…"

She was so warm. On the other hand, for some reason, I was strangely cold.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes… W-what… happened? Where are my parents?" I asked.

"Your parents were here just a minute ago… they're currently eating…" she replied.

"I-I see… what happened to me? D-Do you know? It seems we arrived here…" I sighed in relief, resting over the bed while Aquarina cuddled me.

"Auntie Faylen and Uncle Allan told me you were hit with a Curse Spell provoked by the mere presence of a familiar… Fortunately, you got through it thanks to your mom's healing," Aquarina told me. It was hard for her to articulate so many complicated words, but she was surprisingly good at talking at such a young age.

"All… it was all a curse?"

So, it was all a curse…

Hahh…

My heart still hurts.

It seems that I was affected by some kind of curse spell thanks to me glaring at the skeleton for too long.

Mother had covered my eyes before I could look at it for too long… unfortunately, the spell had already taken effect at that point.

Aquarina then told me my mother healed me right away, but the few seconds I was trapped within this curse, I saw a horrible vision of everyone dying miserably, including me.

She told me this familiar had this type of power, given the ability to show horrible nightmares to disrupt a person's mind before killing them.

Thankfully, my father destroyed it at long last.

Sadly, the master of this familiar is still unknown.

Hahh… I felt so horrible while experiencing that.

I really thought it was hopeless.

I really thought… my parents had died horrendously.

I'm so glad they're strong… But even then, there's… always a bigger fish, isn't there?

With that in mind, this makes me ponder that even with their current strength, there could be something, somewhere… that could threaten their lives and kill them as easily as that thing in the nightmare did.

And that thought terrifies me. A lot.

Maybe if we were simply farmers, we wouldn't be worried about being chased down by these monstrous beings… but the mark of a Hero forces my parents to be persecuted by these demonic beings.

And they probably see me, their child, as a future hero of sorts.

Those demons probably want to kill me as well.

I've been living my life so peacefully through this year yet… it feels so hard to think about the future when I begin to think what kind of monsters might come after us.

You know? I don't even care if I were to die again… I've already died once.

But I love my parents so much already… I don't want to see them die a futile death.

It hurt me more to see them horrendously slaughtered than dying myself.

"Calm down… M-Mom said that when we feel bad… w-we have to think about those we love…" Aquarina said all of a sudden. She was trying very hard to make me feel better… she's such a treasure.

"T-Thank you…" I said, letting out a sigh soon after.

At some point, my parents suddenly entered the tent while Aquarina was petting my head, holding my hands tightly to calm down my sorrow.

"Sylphy!"

The two hugged me from each side and kissed me a lot. They squeezed Aquarina in between the sandwich.

"I'm so glad you're alive… I-I had such a horrendous nightmare… sniff… I love you… I love you two so much… sniff…"

"Oh, Sylphy…"

"We'll always be there for you…"

Embraced in the tender hug of my parents and Aquarina, I felt a bit better.

However, a blazing resolve like never before began to emerge in my heart, so strong and enormous that it began to encompass my entire body, filling it with warmth.

I will become the strongest… to protect all those that I care for.

…

…Okay, that definitely sounded weird. I better never say it out loud.

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