A tree and it's fruit

"Do you know why I gave you your mother's dagger?"

Aapep asked. Nolamine tried hard to think and all he could come up with was that Aapep wanted him to master it, but for some reason, he was having doubts that it was the only reason. So, he shook his head.

"I can read your thoughts, remember?"

Aapep said, as he could hear everything he was thinking.

"You are right. It is a weapon that will grow stronger as you grow stronger, so you needed to get used to it. But, just like your eyes, you needed to grasp the balance between the two, a dagger and a long sword. Two weapons at their extremes, as fighting using them is like day and night, as they need two different mastery."

Nolamine got his point. If he was going to use a dagger and the long sword that he needed to get from his bloodline home that was destroyed, he needed to master both of them.

"First and Fourth did not bother teaching you their sword techniques but only polished your movements. That is because they had less time to teach you but that was what I wanted. As you rise through the levels of power as you cultivate in both your Noble's eyes, you will get the techniques you need in order to fight."

Nolamine nodded, and he knew that Aapep was just giving him the basic layer of how things worked and he would need to find and learn more about the power rankings as he traveled the world.

"Put your mother's dagger and wand in front of you and sit down next to the tree of light over there, it is time to make your wand. After that, I will tell you how it works and tell you more about your eyes."

Aapep said. Nolamine gulped. He did as he was told and then sat in a meditative pose.

"That tree in front of you is the reason I was put in this place. It was to guard and nurture it as it grew. It takes about 2000 years for it to mature. This one took 2432 years as in some years there would be less cursed who come to seek for my help."

Aapep said. Nolamine wondered how he could stay in one place for such a long time. He was also fascinated by such a tree.

"14 years ago, your mother helped me to reach its maturity as the only thing that was left was the blood of the one who would wield its power, which was your blood since your father was no longer going to inherit it..."

Nolamine remembered Mi-sun telling him about his mother spending 17 days while in the pool and wondered if the two events were connected.

He also asked himself how much blood of his they took from him while he was in his mother's stomach. First was his father, so he could activate his curse and now it was Aapep for the maturing of a tree. He hoped that they did not stunt his growth, as he dreaded the day Son-join caught up to him.

"Come on child, we only took a little of your blood. Try and look at the fruit of the tree."

Aapep said as he read his thoughts. Nolamine was surprised and again remembered that he could read them. He leaned forward to look at the fruit of the tree that looked like a cherry and saw a small red dot that was too small to see if you were not looking for it.

"Pick it and swallow it, then the process shall begin."

Aapep said. Nolamine tried to gulp but he had run out of saliva. He had no choice as he had to do this so he could become stronger. He threw away any reservations he had about eating his own blood that had been out of his body for years.

He picked the fruit as delicate as he could, snapping it from its branch as sparkles of light floated into the cursed waters.

He then opened his mouth wide and swallowed it whole. He felt a cool breeze in his mouth, traveling down his throat, then down his stomach. He felt it reach his bellybutton and then stayed there. He had never felt so wholesome in his entire life.

"Boom, boom!"

It felt like his heart was beating loudly, but it was the place where the fruit had stopped, behind his bellybutton.

"BOOM!, BOOM!"

The water started rippling as the beat intensified. He felt the whole of his body heating up and in an instant he felt pain so indescribable that he did not know what to do and started to scratch his own skin and face.

He screamed but no sound could be produced in the water.

"BOOM!!, BOOM!!"

He floated up in the water like he was possessed as a black goo-like substance left his body from the microscopic pores in his skin. It mixed with the cursed water and after that, a brilliant light escaped from every orifice on his body, his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears.

It was so bright that it even escaped the dark cursed waters. The Grand Witch, Nala, and the five masters all looked at where the waterfall was. They felt something was happening there.

They left their huts except for the Grand Witch and looked at each other as if confirming that each one of them had felt it.

The light stopped coming out of Nolamine and he dropped down on the pool's floor gently. He felt no pain anymore but was very tired. He felt light and had an unexplainable feeling like the world had just opened up to him.

He looked around and his eyes went wide in shock. He could see everything now. He looked up, down, and around him and was amazed at what had happened.

The cursed water were not dark anymore, like the curse in the water had been stripped from it. He had never seen such clear water. The only part that was still dark was Aapep's cave though. He did not mind not seeing him as he had thought he was going to die from the pain he had felt a moment ago and so he only celebrated, thinking it was all over.

On the ground were many skeletons of dead people, animals, and beasts. They looked white and well reserved. He looked around for a bit and that is when he saw it.

He stopped moving as his whole body cranked up. He had not stopped and thought about where all the curses went if the water was clear now.

He was looking at the small tree that used to be the only source of light in the dark abyss that was of cursed water.

It now was the darkest, most malevolent, sickening, and terrifying thing he had ever seen. It was something that he knew was never meant to exist on the planet.

He came out of his fear and wanted to say something to Aapep but as he was about to, the tree moved. He knew something was wrong and his instincts told him to swim away. He looked at Aapep's cave and even though he was afraid of him, at that point, he seemed like a lesser evil than the tree from hell that just moved.

He looked at it again and he panicked. He was a swimmer, but at that point, even the greatest swimmers on earth would not have caught up with him.

He was heading straight for Aapep's cave. When he had looked at the tree a moment ago, it had pulled itself from the bottom of the river bed and like a horrible snake creature with gruesome tentacles all over its body, it was swimming in the clear waters and gunning for him.