Chapter 2

Seven years had passed in the blink of an eye. While the world continued to flow through the river of time with various developments as usual, a dynasty in the south sustained its isolated existence from the world. Everyone thought that the Phasnis dynasty, which once wielded immense power that shook the entire world, was no longer as strong as it used to be. Whether they were right or wrong, they would see in the future...

In the early morning, before the sun had risen, a small child in Phasnis's annex gazed out of the window. The child's dawn-colored eyes shimmered as if they wanted to be a part of the dawning day. As the sun slowly rose, the crimson hair became more striking under the sunlight. The little child, slightly dark-skinned, touched the window with tiny fingers. He wanted to go outside... He had been confined to this small, four-walled room for as long as he could remember. Even being allowed to leave his room didn't happen more than a few times a year. Moreover, today was his seventh birthday. If he was lucky, he might at least be allowed to spend some time in the garden. Despite trying to console himself with this thought, he couldn't lift his low spirits, knowing well that it wouldn't happen. A tear rolled down his cheek as his eyes welled up. He quickly wiped his eyes with his hands. The door would be knocked on soon, and it wouldn't end well if they saw him crying. Flaws like him were not allowed to cry, to be afraid, to be happy, or to show any emotion. The only thing permitted to show on his face was a smile, a mask of happiness. If he smiled and behaved well, even if he made a mistake, life would be a little kind to him. That's why all he had to do was to keep smiling. Everything would be fine.

A few minutes later, as expected, there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for a response, the person who knocked burst in, as if a response was not possible. The person who entered was one of the servants who looked after him. She had short, light brown hair and eyes of the same shade. She placed the tray on the table and was about to leave when Hadeon tugged at the girl's dress. The girl sighed and turned back to look at Hadeon with cold eyes.

"What is it now?"

As Hadeon pointed outside through the window, he looked at the girl imploringly. How much he wanted to be able to step into that garden just once... However, the servant girl didn't seem to warm up to the idea. She wrinkled her face and, ensuring that Hadeon let go of her dress, said,

"I can't be bothered to take a little brat like you outside. I have so much work to do, so leave me alone and go eat your meal or something."

As the servant left the room, the smile on Hadeon's face faded. He felt sick to his stomach. He already knew he would get such a result, so why did he feel so bad? He climbed onto his bed and sat down, trying not to cry. Why weren't they allowing him to go outside? What was he doing wrong? He was aware that he wasn't welcome here, but he couldn't understand why everyone seemed to hate him so much. What had he done to deserve such hatred?

Tears began to flow down his face as he lay in the fetal position, accompanied by silent sobs. He hated crying, but right now, he wanted to cry so much that he couldn't stop himself. He wasn't sure how much time had passed as he cried. As he drifted off to sleep, he could have sworn he felt a hand caressing his head...

Hadeon woke up feeling terrible. His stomach still churned, and his chest ached. He found himself feeling somewhat teary. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and as he did so, his gaze fell on the window. That's when he realized he had slept the entire day. It wasn't such a big deal, really, because he had a limited number of activities he could do, and he usually spent his time watching the animals pass by the window in the forest. Most of the time, these observations resulted in a friendship. For reasons unknown to him, the animals seemed to like him much more than they liked humans, and he loved the animals in return. Especially, his fox friends who visited him frequently were his cherished companions. Although they couldn't speak, they often seemed to understand Hadeon and played various games to make him smile. It was also important not to forget the owl that occasionally visited in the evenings. This was the best way to spend time in this room.

Hadeon, a mix of curiosity and dizziness overcame him, and he got up to go to the window to see if the owl was there. As he had hoped, the owl was there. When it saw Hadeon, it hooted more cheerfully than any ordinary owl could. Even though Hadeon couldn't see the owl well in the darkness, knowing that he wasn't alone at least made him happy. When he pressed his hand against the window, the owl tapped the place where his hand was with its beak a few times. This gesture caused a wide smile to form on the face of the boy with blood-red hair. Hadeon crouched down and sat where he was. Despite the difficulty, he could now see the owl making different movements in the air. He watched these movements for minutes without getting bored, but it was time for the owl to leave. This bird, which fell into a deep sleep in the mornings, needed to strive to feed itself at night. Thus, Hadeon bid farewell to the owl but chose to sit there for a while longer. Soon, the moon would come to a position where he could see it and its light would illuminate both the garden and a part of his room.

He waited, waited, waited... At some point, he lost his sense of time and stared out the window without caring about the passing minutes. And finally, the moon began to enter his field of view. Indeed, this moon looked very different from what Hadeon had expected. The silver rays shining on the window were replaced by red beams as red as blood, forcing everything it reflected to take on a frightening appearance. At this point, Hadeon was not sure what he should think or feel. When the moon took the form of a full moon in a position where Hadeon could clearly see it, he felt a stir inside him, something he had never felt before. It was as if someone had planted a seed inside him when he was just a baby, and now these blood-red beams were sprouting that seed, forcing it to break through the soil and reveal itself. An unbearable warmth spreading from his chest spread throughout his body, and crescent-shaped, blood-red moons appeared on his cheeks, just like in the sky. With the increasing heat, Hadeon brought his hands to his cheeks. It was starting to hurt, but he did his best to endure. Perhaps this was one of the occasional fever attacks he experienced, and it was quite severe.

After a while, the heat became so unbearable that Hadeon couldn't help but shed tears. As his world blurred with tears, his whole body began to tremble slightly, and he could not prevent it. Suddenly, he felt the fire reach his heart and burn it. This was the final straw, as his vision completely darkened, and he collapsed to the ground...

When Hadeon opened his eyes in a weary state, he realized that it was almost morning. As he got up from where he had fallen, he blinked a few times. He seemed to be seeing some kind of hallucination. A transparent, bluish thing was floating in the air. It had strange markings on it that he could somehow understand without knowing how it was there.

[Synchronization with the system completed.]

[Status Window is being created...]

[Status Window]

[Name: Hadeon Caelum Phasnis]

[Title: The Blood Moon's Simurg]

[Current Status: Karaş's Curse, Primal Fire, Physical Weakness, Mana Restriction, Batur Han's blessing]

[Abilities: Fire Flower, Rubah's Perception, Simurg's Wrath]

Strength: 5

Agility: 8

Endurance: 15

Mana: 2

Spirit: 4

Perception: 29

Anger: 20

Hadeon was frozen for a few seconds by what he saw. Being only seven years old, he had difficulty comprehending these things. Then something even more surprising happened.

'Damn, are you kidding me! Did he really choose a brat like this!?'

Hadeon was startled by the voice echoing in his head. The voice was almost scary because it was almost shouting.

'Oh, how sad. It seems our little brat has lost his tongue. How unfortunate.'

"..."

'Wonderful. You don't even know how to respond, huh? Well, it's making this a bit boring. Here's a hint for you, brat; I can hear your thoughts as long as you want me to.'

"..."

'You can... Hear me?'

'Wow, you're quicker than I expected. Well, that still doesn't change the fact that you're a useless brat.'

'Who are you?'

'Aww, How polite of you. It will be enjoyable to play with you, little brat. I am Karaş Han, the son of Erlik, the king of the Underworld, the strongest of the Nine Dark Sons, and the master of Darkness and Anger. I am the most powerful god you can see and perceive. So, you'd better kneel down already.'

'A god..?'

'Are you lacking in understanding? Ahh, anyway. I don't have time to deal with an insignificant brat like you. Let's see, you must be quite an easy prey for me.'

Just as Hadeon was about to ask what Karaş Han meant, he felt the darkness that penetrated his soul. The child's mind, struggling against the terrifying, cold, and unknown darkness, could barely withstand even a few seconds, which was quite impressive.

[Karaş's Curse detected!]

[Simurg's Wrath activated!]

[Resisting Karaş's Curse...]

A few seconds later, Hadeon felt the darkness attacking his soul recede. But that was all. The child could feel that the darkness was waiting for the right moment in a corner of his soul.

[Congratulations! You resisted Karaş's Curse for the first time.]

[+7 points added to the Spirit attribute.]

'What is this now!? You, brat... How dare you!'

While Karaş continued to grumble, Hadeon didn't know what to do. Should he say something? Or should he mention this 'status window' thing to the god? His mind was perplexed...