Am I a Healer? You'd Better Think So!-Chapter 1: The Curse

It was a cloudy, grim night. Once, this place had been the heart of the greatest country on Earth. Today, not even its name remained.

The sky was heavy, hiding any sign of the stars. Not even the moon dared to appear.

On the ground, the ruins of a forgotten city were swallowed by darkness. Crumbling skyscrapers, roads overtaken by greenery, concrete silhouettes consumed by time.

At the start of the 21st century, this metropolis had been teeming with life. Now, all that remained was silence. There was no war. No catastrophe. People simply left.

On the balcony of a crumbling building, a young man lay still. He was very, very thin—so much so that he looked pitiful. His short hair had a subtle greenish tint, and his eyes were slightly red.

His name was Darian Wube, and those features were an inheritance from his father, a man born in the Aeternum Atlantis Empire of Earth.

Aeternum Atlantis—one of the three continents that, inexplicably, had risen from the oceans in the 22nd century, permanently altering Earth's geography. At first, humanity hesitated, but that place was too strange to be ignored. Its fertile lands and vast mineral wealth made it impossible to resist. People colonized these new territories quickly, and life moved on.

Over time, those born on these continents began to show slight physical differences compared to the rest of the population. No one ever knew why, but it was just another peculiarity—something that, in the grand scheme of all the transformations the world had already gone through, was easily accepted and forgotten.

After all, by the 25th century, the impossible had long since become routine.

Darian lay in the darkness, flat on his back, eyes locked onto the clouds and the vast emptiness of the sky.

He let out a calm sigh and murmured, his voice so faint it was almost powerless: "On my last day... I won't even get to see a little light..."

He tried to move his body...

But quickly gave up. He was too malnourished, too weak for that.

The only sensation still lingering was the feeling of his right hand gripping an old, somewhat thick book. He could no longer open it or read it, but he remembered its contents in perfect detail.

His mother had given him that book when he was learning to read. It was a fantasy novel he had read countless times—for some reason, he was absolutely fascinated by that story, even though it had never been all that popular.

He had tried to understand his obsession with it many times and had come up with two reasons. The first was that the book's opening took place on Earth at the start of the 21st century. That era fascinated him—a time when technology was rapidly evolving, and Earth was divided into hundreds of countries.

The protagonist of the story was the son of a hidden emperor who controlled nations from the shadows. This son turned against his father... but was brutally killed right at the beginning of the plot. After that, the story unfolded across multiple fantasy worlds, following a classic hero's journey where the protagonist fell into darkness, redeemed himself from his sins, and, in the end, defeated an unbeatable enemy.

And that led to the second reason for his fascination. Darian felt an odd familiarity with certain aspects of the fantasy world described in the book. It was something he couldn't quite rationalize—he just liked that story. Even now, it was still on his mind.

Darian sighed, letting his imagination wander, but his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by something urgent:

The sound of vehicles approaching the building, surrounding it.

He scoffed. He had no strength left to run or hide. Soon, images of a few faces flashed through his mind.

'M-Mom... Lucy... Lucius...' he murmured. The image of his mother brought nothing but pain, but there was also a certain relief at the end. 'Who would've thought... a worthless cursed bastard like me ended up being worth something in the end...'

He grunted, barely holding on, as he heard the sound of people entering the abandoned building in an orderly manner. Relief washed over him. Finally, he could die and be free of the guilt he carried.

His father died the same year his twin siblings, Lucy and Lucius, were born. Darian was only eight at the time and had no memories of him. His mother, alone and with no support, did everything she could to provide for her three children in a ruthless world.

But three years ago, she was brutally murdered. She worked as a maid for the son of an influential man, and her body was found days later in a nearby forest. The signs of what had happened to her before she died were obvious, but no one dared to investigate. The police just made up an excuse and closed the case.

At the time, Darian was eighteen, and his siblings were ten. Strangely, they had no relatives to take them in. They nearly ended up on the streets and went hungry more than once.

Two children depended on him to survive. And that's why Darian chose to sacrifice himself.

His only weapon...

Was his curse.

It first appeared when he was ten.

That morning, as he locked eyes with a random person on the street, he saw a dark, sinister aura surrounding them. A chill like no other ran down his spine.

He tried to run, but then he realized—everyone around him had the same aura. Almost always black, like a demonic cloak, and rarely gray.

Just seeing it was terrifying enough, but he could also feel it. A cold in his bones, a strange scent, something no one else seemed to notice.

When his mother, worried, placed a hand on his head to calm him down, he froze.

Suddenly, brutal images flooded his mind—from the perspective of a woman drenched in the blood of countless people.

Were they some kind of hallucination? Fragments of a past life? Was he going crazy?

He didn't know. He just ran from her. And little by little, he realized that anyone who touched him made horrifying visions invade his mind.

He tried telling people, but no one believed him. Soon, they labeled him insane.

His mother cried, desperate for help but too poor to afford a doctor. Seeing that, Darian shut up and pretended it had all passed.

But as he grew, his curse only got stronger. A single glance was enough to bring visions of someone's past. And they were always horrific.

Fear consumed him. He stopped looking at people. Shut himself away from the world.

His siblings and mother were the only ones who never abandoned him. Over time, he got used to their pasts and learned to endure them.

Years passed, and Darian lived locked away, unable to face the outside world. But at least he had a roof, food, and a family.

Until his mother died.

And then, everything collapsed.

He watched his siblings go hungry, pretending they were fine. His sister, who never asked for anything, nearly begging others for help.

It was like a poisoned blade piercing his heart.

And then, everything changed.

The world was cruel?

Then fuck the world.

Fear, cowardice... he buried all of it.

If he couldn't live normally, then he'd use his curse to make sure his siblings had a future.

He sought out and looked directly at sinister, powerful people. He saw everything they had done. Wrote down every detail.

He hid himself, using intermediaries to send messages, and then he reached out to the underworld. Darian asked for a lot of money. Those people could blackmail the powerful and make a thousand times more from his information. But...

He knew he wouldn't make it out alive. But that didn't matter.

His siblings would live.

His little sister, Lucy, was incredibly smart and sharp. He arranged everything with her, hiding only the part about his sacrifice. After exchanging the information for money, he ran alone, leaving sums in strategic locations for her to find.

Obviously, Lucy would only take the bare minimum to avoid drawing attention. He ran for days.

Then, he did everything he could to lure them away. Those people didn't know his name or who he was. Fortunately, he had always lived in isolation, and even his neighbors barely knew of him. But if they ever found out his identity, even if he died, they would go after Lucy and Lucius.

Footsteps echoed, growing louder.

And so, the moment arrived, and he was ready. You couldn't outrun the underworld for long. It only took fifteen days for them to corner him. The only solution was to end it all.

Darian clenched his teeth. Inside his mouth, a small capsule of magical toxin lay hidden.

It burst, flooding his throat with an unbearable bitterness.

He had a brief, sarcastic thought as he waited for death to take him. The 21st century had always fascinated him. Technology advanced at insane speeds, so fast that even young people struggled to keep up. But halfway through the century, everything changed, and technological progress nearly came to a halt.

If someone from that time traveled to the present, they wouldn't find any mind-blowing advancements they hadn't already seen coming. But in exchange, strange things—things science couldn't explain—started appearing out of nowhere. The planet itself had changed, and no one knew exactly how or why.

This toxin was one of those anomalies. Something from the black market that Darian had bought the moment he got his hands on the money. Just a tiny amount was enough to corrode a body beyond recognition—down to the DNA.

"THERE!"

The shout rang out inside the abandoned building, bouncing off broken walls overtaken by nature.

Heavy footsteps rushed forward. A dozen hooded figures appeared at the entrance, moving in formation. Their flashlights cut through the darkness, illuminating the cracked concrete floor as they crept closer and closer—until they found what they were looking for.

The beam of light revealed Darian's body.

For a second, no one spoke.

Something was wrong.

The unknown young man they had been chasing... wasn't there anymore.

What lay before them wasn't human. His grotesque form writhed on the ground. His skin had turned a sickly shade of purple, his body swollen and deformed, like something was eating him from the inside out.

His fingers clawed at the cracked floor. Small, involuntary spasms ran through his limbs.

But the worst part—was the eyes.

They were still moving.

And when they locked onto the hunters...

A low, muffled laugh escaped the abomination's throat, choked by the venom eating away at its insides. It wasn't a natural laugh—it was the sound of something that shouldn't be alive, a whisper laced with mockery and malice.

The nearest man took a step back, a chill running down his spine.

"W-What the fuck is that...?"

"He—he took something..." another one stammered.

Silence was broken by a subtle sound.

A wet crack.

Darian's body convulsed violently, like something was breaking inside him. Small fissures started appearing on his bloated skin, and a dark, subtle gas leaked out, slowly dissolving into the air.

The group leader's eyes widened. He knew a magical poison that could do this. But that gas—it was just as lethal, just as terrifying.

"Son of a bitch! RUN!"

But no one waited for him to finish the order—they were already gone.

Thirty seconds had passed since Darian ingested the toxin. He felt the dark curtain of death wrap around him completely. There was no pain—the poison destroyed all his senses.

He simply closed his eyes. Now, his mind and imagination were all he had left, but not for long.

'That strange, magical world... why do I feel like those people from that mediocre clan at the beginning of the book are familiar?' In his final thoughts, he still remembered the story from the book.

Strangely, in that story, there was a young master who harassed his maids in a criminal way, even killing some for pleasure. It was disturbingly similar to his own life. In the book, the fat young master died quickly, and no one felt sorry for him. But why, now, did he have to suffer as the oppressed one?

His heart stopped.

'Fuck it... if there's another life, I'll get my revenge.'

*Thrumb! Thrumb!*

Then, something strange happened—his heart beat one more time, as if using the last of its strength and will to resist.

'Shitty world. If I was born among these people soaked in sin... am I really different from them? What was I afraid of? Fuck... a demon is always the best specialist in dealing with other demons... I had everything in my hands and threw it away.'

His eyes lit up with an unbreakable will. At the same time, something deep inside Darian's essence pulsed. A faint light emerged from within him, spreading across his body.

Suddenly...

A gaze from a place far, far beyond Earth turned directly toward Darian.

As it happened, on that swollen, disfigured body, two marks appeared on his fists: one black, one white. They looked like tattoos, glowing like stars on opposite poles.

Quickly, his entire body shone in sync with those marks. But he didn't see or feel any of it—his consciousness had already faded.

***

The sunlight hit Darian's face, and he opened his eyes abruptly.

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It took him a few seconds to process, stunned, that he was alive. When it finally sank in, his heart raced. With a single thought, he shot up.

First, he looked around, confused. He was in the same place as before and, worse... he was perfectly fine, full of energy. His body was restored—no poison, no signs of malnutrition or the weakness he had before.

"What the hell..."

*Buzzz!*

A loud buzzing sound cut through his thoughts. Suddenly, he turned to the sky—and saw something unbelievable.

"!"

A pair of blue-gray eyes landed on him, freezing him in place.

It was a woman of magnetic beauty, her golden hair flowing in the wind like a luminous cascade. She wore a flowing white robe, adorned with golden details that enhanced her imposing presence. Her rosy lips, mature and regal posture, and well-defined feminine curves gave her an aura that made his heart pound.

The sunlight reflected off her in a way that seemed almost magical, almost sacred. She was floating, dozens of meters above him, staring.

On her back, Darian caught sight of a pair of golden wings. But as he looked at them, they felt like shadows connected to his body. As if they weren't real, yet at the same time, they were right there, softly beating—but that wasn't what was keeping her in the air.

"What is that? Some kind of superhero?"

Darian muttered, dazed. It looked like that, right? Those stories of people with superpowers that could fly and all that shit... He had read plenty of fantasy stories, but he knew they were just fiction, without scientific logic. Now, seeing a woman flying in front of him, that was the only phrase he could spit out.

She observed him for a few seconds, evaluating him with an unreadable gaze. Then, she scoffed softly and waved her hand.

Instantly, something connected to Darian.

He felt it.

It was like invisible threads weaving into his mind, pulling him toward something bigger—something he didn't yet understand.

Then, a woman's voice echoed directly inside his head: 'You felt the change, didn't you?'

Darian's eyes widened.

'I can't explain much, but you've been chosen to become something you never imagined. But the choice to accept it is yours.'

She spoke slowly, and his heartbeat quickened even more.

'You can pretend nothing happened and go on with your life. That way, you'll die never understanding what lies beyond the veil. It's a natural, peaceful path; to me, it's even a little enviable.'

The heroine paused, her eyes flickering in the morning light.

'Or you can come with me. But if you do, you'll wish there was an easier way.'

A chill ran down Darian's spine. He didn't understand, but it felt like he had been waiting a long, long time for this opportunity.

He felt like he could finally restart his life for real. He could change everything, fight for what he wanted, and most importantly... become someone who could protect the ones he loved.

'Think carefully—your awakening was just the beginning. If you go back to your normal life, nothing will change.' She tilted her head slightly, watching him as if testing something. 'But if you come with me, all the rules you know will be rewritten. Calling your life hell would be an understatement—not even death will be a relief for you.'

Silence.

Darian felt his breathing grow heavy. Whatever was happening, it wasn't a dream.

The heroine raised an eyebrow. Before she could even ask the final question...

"I accept."

He didn't hesitate. Something pulsed inside him. Something new. Something inevitable. At last, he could truly live.