Strange dream

It started with roaring and searing flames. She could hear people in the background.

The'her' in the dream seemed so injured and tired, and she could see people flying and smashing things around.

On her hand, she supported her seemingly weak body with a sword.

The ominously black sword seemed to be feeding off her own soul and the misfortunes around her.

'How did I know that? No wait, who are these people? I had never seen them before...'

'Are they my enemy?'

She felt herself stand up and hit those people, who seem hell bent into subduing her.

"HOW DARE YOU!"

what seem like her voice, flowed out and immediately, everything swirled and changed scenery.

This time they were inside what seemed like a Palace and she was having tea while in the middle of a meeting.

She loved tea, especially tea Mrs. Lu would give her.

"The Northern Gods have taken a step. We must stop them before anything else."

'Northern.... I must've been watching too much TV these days I'm having a weird dream...'

The talk was about death and artefacts, she seems to understand and not understand at the same time.

'Is this my hands? It looks so strong covered in leather gloves.'

Suddenly the whole place shook, and from above, the ceiling collapsed.

Everyone saw a huge, Dragonic creature looking at them from above, its beady eyes deep and red, and for a moment no one moved.

They just stared with wide-eyes, too afraid to move or speak.

The beast also seemed to be waiting for one of them to f*ck up, and when one did, the beast's loud, earpiercing roar tore down and it raised its front legs to smashed them into pieces.

That's when AhSu woke up, sweating and breathing heavily. She washed her face with her hands, and covered them for a moment.

That fear, it seemed so real as well as the last screams of terror from the others with her. Something in her seemed to feel despair for them, but it was just a dream, she couldn't do anything.

AhSu began having these dreams every night that she started to loose sleep, and grew even more tired every time she dreams of it.

A young girl like her, whose brother hadn't been home for a month now, had to resort to caffeine and energy drinks.

Today, she can see the dark lines under her eyes had worsen as well as the drowsiness that plagued her and finally, decided that she had enough.

Whatever these dreams are, they must stop. She must get some sort of help.

She knocked on Mrs. Lu's door, the only place she could turn to, and the old woman opened her door with a smile.

"Hello AhSu I haven't seen you in- Oh my goodness what happened to you?! Dear, you look dead!"

The already irritable AhSu who lacked sleep frowned. It took her a lot of effort to not get an outburst since the older woman didn't do anything wrong.

But she was really easy to trigger these days, so it was so hard to hold it in.

" Can I talk to you over tea Grandma Lu?"

The old woman led her into their house, and she sat down in the living room.

"I will make the tea, sit down and have some fruits okay?"

Mrs. Lu placed a basket of grapes and bananas in front of her, and smiled in worry.

"Yes, thank you."

She slowly made her way to the kitchen, and AhSu opened her smartphone to check if Reom made a call or something.

This wasn't the first time he went to work for so long and didn't call or message. But he would leave her some voice mails if he could.

But this time, there was none.

AhSu ate some grape.

While chewing, she suddenly remembered a part of her dreams that was so disgusting she had to swallow the grape in her mouth with a dark face.

She did not pick any fruit from the basket, because she was being reminded of the limbs and heads she chewed in her dream....

The sound and texture of the grape made her rmemeber the sound and vivid texture of the bones and flesh the dream her had....

No, let's try not to remember.

"AhSu, you can tell me anything that's bothering you."

She looked at the older lady, and took a sip of her calming oolong tea.

"I came here to burden you, I'm sorry."

"No dear you're not a burden at all.. Are you worried about Reom?"

"I am worried about him but that's not the case."

She placed her tea cup down and sat back into her seat, looking out of the window tiredly.

"Is someone bothering you? Grandma will beat them up for you!"

"Haha no, I just keep having these strange dreams..."

"Oh, is that so? I see. Do you want to tell me about it? It might help."

The warm smile on her face softened AhSu quite a bit.

"Alright..."

The dream was summed up by AhSu to Mrs. Lu the way the older woman would understand.

It started on a scene where she seemed to be in her early 18 years. She's been dealing with life alone as if her brother did not exist or hasn't come back home.

But she instinctively knew she had been alone for some time.

Her life was like every other girl. School, side jobs, friends.

She made some friends, but she could tell they weren't so close. Just casual buddies. AhSu remembered that she went to this middle class Highschool after finishing her primary education and she met a group called Talisman.

They were students interested in super powers and artefacts, and one day AhSu received their club pamphlet and became interested. There, she spent her time researching and stuff.

Then she found out in another dream that her brother hasn't come back home from the said two day work he did overseas when she was eight. She's still trying to find him, always so obsessed about anything that has to do with Jade Dragon.

The her in the dream mentioned in her thoughts how she went to find him in the Jade Dragon's building but they threw her out, even banned her after she went to ask them everyday.

For some time, people would look at her in pity. Only Mrs. Lu took the time and effort to settle her down, and sometimes console her.

At age 20, she awakened an ability. The happiness it brought her was indeed immeasurable, and she was eager to show her skills.

The goal was then to enter the Jade Dragon, and find her brother.

After all the hardships, she finally got a license from the Jade Dragon as a power type. Her strength became useful in conquest, so taking the opportunity, she advertised herself through sheer strength and was noticed by the higher ups.

She was then assigned as an inner guard for one of the higher ups, a man who had long grey hair and fair skin.

They called him Master Su, but his family name was Asher. They were known for their ice abilities and among them, Master Su was the most skillful.

She was now doing modular schooling at night, and working for Jade Dragon at day. The pay was good as well as the information source.

After 2 years of tracking down her brother's marks using the network of the Jade dragon, she found the most recent place he had been in.

The Sun God Temple.

So at one point she managed to get into the team travelling to the Sun God's territory overseas. She was assigned with the defense team.

They arrived there after some time. At first she did not see her brother, only those annoying Sun Cult people.

But she was adamant, day and night she kept her eyes and ears open.

And it payed off.

Her brother, who looked like he changed a lot, came back with a group of people from some type of mission. Then, at a burst of emotion, she ran up to him crying.

Reom seemed so glad to see her, and they spent a whole week catching up with each other. When asked why he did not come home or communicate, her brother sighed heavily.

"Alot of things happened, Alot of things changed. I'm just glad to see you well, AhSu. I definitely missed you. I'm sorry, I broke our promise to stay together forever..."

AhSu in the dream, although she has Alot of question, received and forgave this brother she loved so much and even offered him her assistance.

" It's too dangerous. I can't risk your life. "

Even as she insisted, her brother said no.

AhSu was a stubborn person, it was hard to decline her if she wanted to really do something so in the end, she had to say good bye to Jade Dragon and her acquaintances in there.

The first thing her brother told her after she settled down is that he is the son of someone really important and he had a fiancé amongst the girls tailing him around.

The shock of this took long for her to process and she definitely felt betrayed. But nonetheless she felt that he also deserved happiness... But she never told him she was happy for him, as expected of AhSu.

Still keeping up with the tough and unreasonable sister attitude.

Her brother threaded carefully around her, getting her accustomed to everyone in the Sun temple.

She did her best to fit in, but even as years passed she felt like she did not belong in there.

She accompanied her brother and his group through thick and thin, wanting to become useful and more powerful to be even more useful. She strive to become better than the girls around him, better than the so called little brothers, better than the so called Family.

But deep within her she felt that everything she does was all meaningless, that even if she became strong and useful, she would never be close to her brother like she used to.

The warmth of the home became colder and colder as time passes, threatening to collapse and bury her under.

Alot of bad things happened, some of them were blurry. But Alot died, Alot happened.

But the most important thing was that her brother rose to power. He was above anyone else and she was one of those who helped him ascend. She was happy for him and proud of herself.

Although he seemed cold and emotionless, he was still her brother. Just that, his burdens made him like that.

As long as she can stay beside him, nothing else matters.

That is until he had a son and then after a son there's a daughter, and another daughter.

She became second, third and then last priority. For an affectionate sister, she felt so bitter.

She became farther and farther from her brother to the point they only exchanged greetings a bit as he was busy both publicly and privately.

This brother of her, matured and weathered, she understood well how hard it was for him to even meet her in his busy schedule.

So she silently swallowed all the complaints, and kept her heart.

Kept her heart even after she was assaulted by his wives.

Kept her heart even if she felt alone even in the peak of power.

Kept her heart and continued to fight.

Fight for her brother, fight for herself, fight for the greater good.

But eventually, she began asking herself.

What was she fighting for? Is it really for her brother? Herself? Greater good?

She felt like she has to find it, in order to feel sane.

In order to continue being useful for the ones she loved.

Focus on the job, the things that did not matter and does no do good for her job was disposed of.

Things like love.

She fought and killed, fought and killed, fought and lost a lot of familiar faces, burnt and killed both good and bad.

She could hear herself in a moment of hesitation, asking herself if this was right while looking at the leather gloved hand, clad in armour and sword body of hers.

She could see all the destruction, all the misery.

And she became numb as she got stronger.

This must how he must have felt.

But unlike her, whose willing to save her? Her screams of help are drowned by the expectations of others, it was a lot of pressure but up and pent up with nowhere to vent.

She has to hold on, think about her brother, think about all the hard work they have all put into this, think about the new tomorrow.

It's okay, she wasn't that broken yet. She can still go on.

Push everything in and stop breathing, otherwise she'll just crumble into a pool of disappointment. That can't happen, she can't be useless..

This is the only way for her to stay.

Then, there was this great Draconic creature which destroyed and killed alot of people from the Sun Temple right in front of her.

Their dying screams and their crushed bodies, everything was so vivid.

She remembered that one person who, in the last moments of his life, tried to shield the others, especially AhSu from that beast, taking the beast on even if he knew he wouldn't be able to come out alive.

She remembered needling near his body, feeling empty and nothing.

That one person, who might have been the only one who would openly tell her how much he loved her, without worrying about any consequences, died due to her negligence.

That was, what started all of it.

She began to feel even more incompetent. If it was before, this AhSu would stand up from the ashes and avenge her comrades. But this time, this time she just let the darkness sink in bit by bit.

She vowed to avenge him, but her brother, the one to whom he dedicated her whole life to, told her it was no use. She was not that strong, she could never defeat anyone in this state.

She was forced to resign her position after consecutive infightings with others and developed a choleric-melancholic personality.

She spent her days in her mansion, alone, drunk, and depressed.

Her brother tried to come and visit but after all of it, how can she face him?

She disappointed him, she embarrassed him. His sister, who should be strong and just, became someone unable to even control her temper and caused infightings, resulting to alot of damages and failures.

She was also embarrassed to see her comrades with her current self.

She just thought of slowly wasting away in her mansion, at age 34.

But on one dream, somebody came to mock her for being a stupid cattle.

"Hey, you spent your bug life serving a selfish man. He does not care about you at all, if that's what you're thinking. If he did, he will not do so for long. Me and my children, along with the others will replace you. You're not worth of the worries and the affections, you're just trash he picked up from an orphanage, someone who has a lowly background. A God like him, how can he mingle with you? A human? If you leave now he might still spare you. If he gets bored with your insufferable attitude, then off with your head! "

She did not believe it, dare not believe it.

But at some point, she was forced to believe that he had changed.

The home has crumbled down and now she was exposed in the darkness, all alone and helpless.

She let it sink in and all hell broke loose. After that was chaos, people feeling righteous blamed her for things she did not do.

Schemes and sins, that's what drove them apart and just like that she was consumed by the darkness, fought with no reason, became a big villain and drove herself to her death.

It replayed again and again for a month, feeling more real each time.

Mrs. Lu's tea had gone cold. The dream was horrible, and she felt the burden it had put in the young girl's body, mind, and heart.

"This had been repeating? So you really aren't getting much sleep."

"Yes. I'm afraid, so afraid. What if it becomes real? I don't Want it to be like that!"

"Calm down, AhSu. Do you want to go somewhere with me tomorrow?"

She looked up, and saw that the older woman had a calm expression on her face. Whatever it is, made her calm down too.

"But where?"

"A friend of mine."

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