Archive of Our Own

“We don’t know why the empire fell. To be honest we know mostly nothing about the whole damn culture.” Law explained as he passed through a thick mesh of roots on the jungle’s floor, the design pretty and distracting as it grew up from the dark black ground. “It's kind of frustrating to be honest. We know for sure that it spread over the whole continent, that it owned incredible technology, and prized art and beauty like not many other cultures, but one day, it all disappeared. Puff. Gone. As if it was nothing.”

Robin, walking behind him, right on his heels as they advanced through the dark and old jungle only hummed thinking. “Maybe they collapsed on their own. Many empires can’t sustain such large territories, internal conflict rises, they are easier to attack by enemies...”

Law shook his head. “No, no. I thought so too, but it doesn't match up with the evidence collected. You will see it at the ruin, it’s as if they just vanished. Food is still in cupboards, clothes neatly folded on drawers, just…no bodies left, no trace of life.”

Robin said nothing as both of them fell back into through. In silence they continued the slow descent down the mountains and into the little valley cradled between them. The terrain was tricky here as they went deep into one of the most remote places of the continent, inside a jungle that extended for miles and miles around into unexplored lands, covering mountains, valleys and even rivers. As if it was hiding something from the world. The trees were huge too, with thick branches and strange shaped leaves that no scientist had been able to ever date or understand. The local tribes that lived on its borders said that the place had already been old when humans had set foot for the first time in the world, and walking through it, Law could just agree.

It was hard to walk through it, the roots of the trees almost a wall at times, a labyrinth of raw nature and close by trees, eerie and beautiful at the same time. With greens so vivid and a scents so fresh it was a pleasure for the senses. The humidity however was a handicap. The thick clouds above created from condensation covered the sun at all times, and the fog that swept early in the morning, or the sudden rainfalls had made Law give up pretty quickly on being dry. It had been a miracle that the ruins were even discovered among all this nature and suffocating climate, an absolute coincidence, but one important enough for Law to inspect the whole deal.

The government Law served had always been curious and suspicious of the old empire that had preceded them. The hundreds of different wonders that still stood in their cities as a remnant from the past were a thing of beauty and a warning at the same time. People marvelled at the skill, at the perfection of every statue and sigil left behind, at the sheer beauty of the strange materials and shapes of the ancient constructions. No technology they had created could imitate what their ancestors had done, no scholar could explain how they had even created them, they knew almost nothing about that old and incredible culture.

It raised suspicion, wonder and panic all at the same time.

There were many theories about them and why they had felt, religion and science mixing with people’s imagination and sheer eccentricity many times, but no one could deny the usefulness of learning about them. The current government was spending a lot of money to study their secrets and fascinating technologies that could help their purposes. Anything to help fight their enemies. So, they had sent Law, their best archaeologist, to this remote place recently discovered by a local. For days, Law traveled the countryside, he talked with the tribes, he followed the trails with the man who had found it all, and what he had discovered hidden so far away had surpassed every expectation he had ever had.

The ruins in this jungle were not some old forgotten city, it was not just another discovery, another monument, another inexplicable construction, it was the capital of that old empire.

A discovery that could change history itself.

He had instantly asked for more funds, for more time, for Robin, his dear colleague, to help him with the huge task. His friend had arrived just that morning to the edges of the forest where Law had gone to pick her, then they had mounted on the horses and followed the local’s path until they hadn’t been able to go any further, and had needed to leave the horses behind. Four hours later, after walking through the impossible terrain and following the markings the locals had made for them, the travel started to weigh on them.

The tribes didn’t dare enter the forest, even less set foot on the ruins, they had guided him there once, and that had been it. No matter how much money Law offered them, no matter his threats or tantrums, he had ended up going alone into it, carrying equipment several times, and hating every step of the path with passion. In consequence, the camp set on the ruins was small. It actually held only four people, his two aides, Sachi and Penguin, Law and now, Robin. Not enough by far to explore the whole city and the huge discovery, but a start anyway. The government had promised to send more people in a couple weeks.

So, they kept on walking the now known path, ignoring the eerie silence of the forest, the constant rain over their shoulders and the aches of his muscles as they had to climb yet another humongous root. Robin was looking tired, her expensive shirt sticking to her body and her face one of concentration and frustration at the same time. Law had warned her about the remoteness of the place, but he knew it was always different to see things in person. He could even recognize his own frustration from that first time in his friend’s face now. They were both scholars, built for offices and institutes, not to climb mountains.

Law had always been lean and gangly himself. He had tried to fix up his weak appearance by covering himself in tattoos and piercings in his youth, but the result had not been what he had expected. Sachi had told him he looked like a mafia boss or a drug dealer when they met in college. The tattoos, his messy unruly black hair, his no-shit attitude and constant glares didn’t go along with the white rich boys in pristine suits and polished manners that worked with him at the museum. He had tried the suits once, when he had begun working, but people had started bowing to him in the halls while looking terrified, so Law had just given up.

He was simply weird, he had decided, but he still was the best in his field, and he was lucky enough to have friends like Robin who didn’t seem to care about his appearance. It would have been nice to have some muscle thought, if only for missions like this one.

It took them a couple hours more, but they finally arrived at the camp at noon, as the sun started to hide behind one of the tallest peaks and cover the jungle in a deep and total darkness.

“Where are the others?” Robin asked as they dropped their backpacks near the little group of tents and finally sat down to rest.

Robin’s thin shirt was plastered to her body from the sweat and rain, Law had just opened his own black one letting the little gust of air that moved through the trees touch his overheated skin in bliss.

“Probably out in the ruins.” he said, gulping down a bottle of filtered water from the deposit they had installed. “I gave them the day off since I had to go pick you, but you know them.” He said with a shrug.

Robin smiled kindly as she massaged her sore legs. She was pretty, with full curves and an open welcoming expression in her eyes. Many of his colleagues envied the relationship they shared, they called him lucky and made suggestive comments. They always forgot Robin’s sharp mind and wicked personality, or the fact that Law just didn’t swing that way. The both of them however, understood each other as people with the same background and passions always seemed to do.

“Wanna see them?” Law teased easily, putting the bottle down and signaling to the ruins.

Robin was up and ready the next instant, an eagerness in her face Law himself understood quite well. Laughing, and ignoring the tiredness he also felt, he picked up one of the torches they had for this purpose, the emergency kit, and guided his friend the last steps towards the gate to the ancient treasure.

“The capital was underground?” Robin asked as Law stopped in front of a hole on the floor a few steps away from their camp.

The hole was big, as if the ground had opened up to reveal its old secrets. A little ladder has been set up by Sachi and Penguin to guide the path down to the cave below, a space high and dark that disappeared into the blackness. It took them a while to climb down into it, the natural light that came from above, now slowly disappearing and making the darkness loom around them. Law lit the torch easily, used already to the process, he moved around so Robin could climb down easily too.

“We are still studying it, but I will go with a ‘no’.'' Law explained. “We have found many buildings above ground that could be houses, palaces or political constructions. The only building down here seem to be the temple I told you about. We discovered it by accident to be honest, when Sachi fell into the hole and found the cave.”

“That’s quite interesting.” Robin said with an easy smile. “I wonder why they built it here. No other culture we know about had ever built something below ground level.”

Law only looked at her frowning. “As I said, it’s too early to reach any conclusion. Many things have happened to this place, the forest had grown, earthquakes, the monsoons… maybe it used to be on ground level when it was built, but ended up buried over time.”

“Have you dated any of this?”

“Yes.” Law said with a smirk at the question.

“And?”

“Ten millennia old.” He said with a wink. “Could be even older, since we haven’t explored everything yet. Especially the temple.”

Robin looked at him surprised. “Oh, dear. That’s…”

“The oldest archaeological site to date?” Law said, still smirking smugly. “Absolutely. But, let’s go. I want to show it to you.”

He guided her through the cave system down here, over the little few paths they had explored until they had found the temple. The silence down here was ominous, even more than in the forest, with few drops of water that fell from the ceilings and walls and their own breathing as the only things interrupting it.

Everything was wet here too, the humidity of centuries and millennia suffocating. Robin stopped walking as they passed several of the huge, tall walls, studying the pictures and little reliefs that covered them all. The whole place was a work of art, with a realism striking for a culture so old and remote, and a language that had taken their own culture centuries to decipher. They both discussed a few topics depicted on the walls as Robin stopped again and again, they marbled at this old forgotten city, and in general, Law just let his colleague admire this place knowing exactly what she was going through.

After a few more turns and passages, the strange tunnel opened up into an even bigger cave of natural origin, and the path they were walking turned into a thin bridge with no railings. The brittle construction crossed towards the other side of the cave above a pit of pitch black from where stalactites emerged.

Robin, behind him, gasped.

“This is amazing.” she said as she stared ahead, across the little bridge.

Law had to agree, because despite the cave being poorly illuminated by his little torch, they could still see it. A huge skull was carved in the opposite wall, the one to which the bridge led too. It was ominous, of huge proportions, like a giant coming out from the mountain itself and opening up his mouth towards them in a silent scream.

The sculpture was perfect, like the many others that laid on the rest of their kingdom, with no mark of a hammer, with no scratch on its polished surface and an incredible focus on detail. From this far away, the skull looked even real, as if made of actual bone and flesh. It was until he had gotten close that Law had confirmed it was just another statue made of solid rock.

The entrance to the temple lay under it, on its throat between the vertebrae that acted like a portico. Another passage opened up on the natural cave and painted a vivid red as it disappeared into darkness.

“Many cultures worshiped death on their religion.” Robin muttered after a while, whispering in the eerie silence of the place.

Law shook his head as he carefully started to advance over the brittle bridge. “Not like this.”

It almost felt like entering into another world as they walked below the huge skull and into the red passage in silence. A strange kind of pressure hovered over them, a presence who watched them closely. This was the place Law had wanted to show Robin. This little spot in the old city, that made no sense to his archaeological mind.

The passage turned taller, arched, the architecture morphing into one Law had not seen before, until it opened up again into a huge room of tall ceilings and elegant columns. Light from the jungle filtered into here through some holes in the tall walls that had opened up with time, but the little natural light from outside did nothing to hide the horror within.

Skulls covered every surface from floor to ceiling. Millions upon millions of them. Male, females, old and young, all lined up and matched to create the bricks of this cathedral of death that rose high into the mountains. A shattered cranium was parted halfway to accommodated a corner, a skull leaned against another smaller, all perfectly matched and arranged to create reliefs and decorations in a gruesome mosaic. The floor was dark here too, the color of rusted blood and dead things, creatures ran over it, insects and things Law didn’t want to think about. The smell of it was pungent, like decomposing things or rotten food, like death and horror given flesh.

But the worst thing was the cold. After hours spent in the jungle outside, with its humidity and heat, this place was frozen. Law’s skin pebbled under his still opened shirt, his breath starting to be seen in a phenomenon he just couldn’t explain with the holes in the wall.

“Maybe it’s a crypt, maybe they buried their people here for some reason.” Robin started as they looked around. Suddenly whispering in hushed sounds as if she also felt the ominous presence looming. “You have seen catacombs before, haven’t you? in the old cities.”

Law shook his head and signaled to the nearby wall, to a group of little skulls who were darkened and more broken than the rest. Robin approached them and instantly paled.

“Oh shit.” she said.

Law nodded. “We have analysed as much as we could from this place since we discovered it. The floor and the walls from the passage are painted with blood. Real human blood. We also found out that the skulls from this room here all have a significant number of traumatic injuries. All pre-mortem and made with incredible violence.”

Robin was silent as she regarded the little skulls. “Even the infants?”

“Yes.” Law whispered. “Especially the infants.”

Robin stepped back from the little group and turned again to face the room. “The architecture is also different.”

Law nodded. “This temple is exactly under the tallest mountain in the system, a peak the locals call the ‘Center of the World’. We think it’s why it could be built so high and with those sharp arches and angles. Penguin thinks this room is at least fifteen meters high, which would involve around ten million skulls to be built. He also thinks there might be more rooms like this under the other mountains in the system.”

Robin looked at him horrified. Law just signaled ahead to the only wall not covered by death. Robin followed his gaze and quickly moved towards it, following Law and entering into the room even more.

In this wall, the death had been substituted by a painting in muted old colors half faded by time. It showed a carnage, a creature of red flaming hair and golden eyes devouring people and spreading a dark shadow over the land. As everything in this place, it was incredibly realistic, with the fangs of the beast tearing another throat in half, and blood and entrails gushing out of the wound and falling down. People kneeled in front of the creature, their posture pure adoration as they offered themselves up to the monster, baring chest, offering up children, hugging death as if it was an old friend.

There were scriptures on the borders around the creature, the writing looked wrong and crazed, but it didn’t resemble any other scripture Law had seen before.

“This is not from the same culture,” Robin said slowly. “This is another thing.”

Law had to agree. “From my point of view, this might be a ritual room of some kind, maybe even sacrificial. That table there could have been some kind of altar where the victims were executed. We have spotted little canals on its border that might collect their blood, as well as a set of tools to crave or inflict pain.”

They approached the high table. It was the size of a bed, tall and wide, and made of polished obsidian stone that seemed to eat the light of Law’s torch. On top of it lay the tools Law had mentioned. He picked the long knife made of an unknown metal that shone red, and turned it around on his hand as he held the torch with the other.

“You mentioned other rooms.” Robin said.

“Yes,” Law said, distractedly as he turned the knife around, his eyes in the eerie room. “Penguin hypothesized that this might be a complex from the size of it, with secret passages and rooms for the priest or…whatever the monster was, but we haven’t gone deeper into it, this place…”

Law didn’t want to say it scared him, or that none of them had even gone in here alone, as if instinct told them it was dangerous, that some evilness remained even after all these years, but…

Robin nodded still. “I understand.”

Law turned the knife again in his hands without really paying attention to it, his thumb testing the sharpness of the blade after all these centuries, tracing over the edge. He instantly dropped it with a gasp as it cleanly cut the skin of his thumb.

“Damn it.” He said quickly, licking at the injury and the little sting.

The cut however was deeper than he had expected, and a few drops fell on the altar before he could lick them clean. The stone sucked the blood in a second, like water on parched soil instead of polished stone.

Something instantly changed in the air.

An awareness, an awakening, a sudden presence observing them way more attentively. The presence who had been observing them wearily now completely awake and alert. The silence became oppressive, choking. The light from the torch Law had seemed to flicker and grow weak, and even the ground shivered under their feet as if a monster was rumbling awake under it.

“We should return.” Robin suddenly urged, looking around at the millions of skulls over them who now seemed to stare at them accusingly.

Law nodded just as startled.

Quickly, without even looking back, they retreated their steps and crossed the red entrance and the little bridge over blackness. Law kept feeling a presence behind them, as if something was following them like a predator chasing prey as they traveled through the corridors. Before he knew it, he started to walk faster and faster until he was running as fast as his legs would allow. Robin gasped behind him but ran just as quickly, never ever daring to talk, to look back, to stop and face whatever it was.

They returned to the main cave, and quickly, almost desperately, climbed outside through the little ladder.

Outside the cave system the world had fallen into darkness. A storm was roaring above them with lightning illuminating the whole forest who shook with the harsh winds and rain. Law found himself trembling, shaken as he hadn’t been shaken since he had been a toddler. He took a deep breath of the jungle air, but it wasn’t enough, it will never be enough with that humidity and that oppressions.

He found himself getting angry. He was a famous archaeologist. He couldn’t be scared because of this. Because of a few bones, and a little cut, and a strange place. He was better than that!

“What was that?” Robin asked next to him however, panting, pale, looking just as terrified as he felt. “That…feeling, that…”

Law shook his head frowning. Trying to fight the fear inside him, the little voice saying there was a reason for him to be that scared. “I don’t know.”

He turned towards the camp instead expecting to see a light, and familiar welcoming faces. Sachi and Penguin should be back already, bright and warm, joking and laughing as they cooked some horrid dinner. No one was there however. The camp was in darkness in front of them, the bags and provisions they had taken into the jungle right where they had left them.

The other two had not returned. 

…oOo…

Law woke up with a silent scream in his throat. He tried to breathe as he looked around himself in panic, searching for something that wasn’t there. It had been a dream, his mind finally provided, making him relax, and the panic partially subsided, only a dream. He passed a hand over his sweat drenched face.

By the darkness still covering the world Law knew he had only slept for a few hours, definitely not enough to calm his restless and tired mind. Robin was sleeping next to him in her own sleeping back, looking just as restless as himself in her own dreams. The rain was pouring outside, on the other side of the tent, as the storm from last night continued and continued through the night, hitting the jungle in anger.

The tent was not a big one. They were unable to carry big bulging things as they had to cross the tricky jungle. They had needed to prioritize, and the equipment was more useful than a big tent. In consequence, this little one barely fit the two of them lying asleep next to each other, as well as a couple boxes filled with the provisions and documents that were vulnerable to the rain. The whole thing felt cramped as Law looked around, too full, too small, with the humidity still pressing around them and making falling asleep even harder.

It still soothed Law away from the weird dream he had been having, probably some kind of psychological issue due to the tiredness, pressure, and his insomnia.

He had been in the strange temple underground. The one with the million skulls, their empty eyes, and the walls painted black from old ancient blood. Penguin and Sachi have been there right in the middle of the horror. Immobile, with their eyes vacant and empty, with their pulse calm and unaware, as a thing from pure darkness and evilness finally appeared next to them hidden in black smoke and darkness.

It had circled around them in the dark shadows of the temple, its eyes shining, its steps a whisper. It had been so hungry. So eager but weak after so many centuries of laying asleep and still. The last time it had lived it had eaten too much, it had killed it all, and had had to rest and sleep it out. But now it was awake once more. Because of the blood, and because of the call.

The monster approached Law’s friend while still submerged in shadows.

Raising a pale hand whose fingers ended in sharp black claws, the monster cut a perfect line down Sachi's throat as if it was the sharpest blade. Blood bloomed instantly. Pretty, vivid red, and intoxicating. Sachi didn’t even move, didn’t even flinch at the injury as it bled over his shirt and down his torso in a perfect river. He just continued staring down into the abyss. A prey snared and completely weak before the predator.

Hunger still spiked at the pathetic sight and at the utter submission. So famished it was. It tried to resist, it tried to be civil, show manners to its mate, but there was no use. Not after so long. It lounged, mouth opening and closing over the other’s throat in a movement that was utter desperation.

It ate, and ate and ate.

Tearing arteries and muscles with its sharp fangs, it chewed on meaty chunks of warm flesh, gulping down blood and sinew alike, swallowing it all without even properly paying attention to it. Bones crunched as it went deeper, the head falling forward as the vertebras of the neck snapped. The body fell to the ground a second after and it followed it not wanting to stop feeding.

Its claws found the ribcage and using its strength, it dug his fingers into it, gripping into the bones and opening it up like a butterfly with pretty wings. The lungs felt spongy under on its tongue as it scooped it and pressed it into his mouth with glee. The liver went next, rich and metallic, warm and vibrant, and filling in the best of ways. The esophagus was crunchy and tender with muscle and tendons, the stomach slippery. It kept on eating and eating. Filling the hunger. Finding bliss in the warmth of a fresh kill, delighting in the way the life dyed under its teeth, the crunching of bones and the oozing fat.

It left the heart for the last. It wanted to give it to its mate. The most important and strong part, but it was so hungry it ended up devouring it too before it noticed. It was okay however. There were more, all more powerful and filled with more life than this one. Its mate will forgive him. That’s what mates did.

It turned to the other male then, Penguin, who looked just a healthy, just as young, and pretty as the first one had been. He had also laid immobile and meek as it teared down its tasty friend. That was fine. The mess of blood and guts it had left of the first one was cooling down at a fast pace, no life left to give, no more food to fill him, it needed more.

Standing up, it opened it mouth over the living male’s throat, ready to tear it down too and feast again.

And Law woke up. Terrified. Disgusted. Confused. He could still feel the taste of the blood on his tongue, the flesh of his friend giving up under his teeth, the bones digging into his chin as he tried to reach the beating delicious heart under it all.

Law shuddered.

It had been such real nightmare, so vivid and alive. But still a nightmare, he assured himself. This was probably due to the visit to the strange temple last night, and his tired subconscious playing tricks on him. The whole place was as terrifying as it could be. So, he ignored it all, stood up from his own sac, and went to prepare some breakfast as he waited for the light of a new day.

Robin woke up a little after, looking as pale and ruffled as Law himself felt.

They didn’t comment on it, they were friends, but not ones who shared problems.

Sachi and Penguin had still not returned. But it was okay, Law repeated himself for the tenth time since he had woken up. One of the tents was missing, the ruins were huge and wide, they had probably gone to explore another part and got lost in the storm. They will find them out today as they continued exploring the place. This has happened before, they were fine. No one had died. There was no monster or strange creature lurking behind them, that was just his imagination. That was just paranoia and stupidity. He was beyond that, Law was one of the best scientist of the kingdom.

They still ate in silence, their words about what to do today hushed, as if they were scared of being found out.

They decided to explore the part of the city that was on ground level today. None of them wished to go back into the tunnels and the weird temple in there, so instead they picked up a couple of things from the equipment and once the rain finally stopped as the morning mist dissolved in the heat of the day, they walked among the jungle checking the little houses and building that could be seen,

Robin checked scriptures and the paintings on the walls as they went by, all depicting different gods of a mythology or a rich prosper culture. There were no tombs or skeletons in this part of the town, no bodies of even aminals, nothing that could explain why the huge culture had ended so tragically. Law was currently painting a rough map of the city, marking important looking buildings or paths that could mark old avenues, but the whole place spread so wide in every direction that it seemed to be as huge as the immense jungle itself.

They went into several of the temples on the upper part of the city too. None of them however, looked like the horrific one below ground. The ones here depicted gods both Robin and Law knew about, there were altars too, and beautiful arts about legends, myths, and the people who worshiped the gods, but no skulls or creepy paintings, no more strange architecture of tall arches and ceilings that disappeared up into the darkness.

As night started to fall once more, they decided to return to the small base and try to work on the findings of the day. Robin went away to bathe on a nearby river as Law prepared some heated food. And still, the ominous silence reminded, no birds, no animal calls, no wind rustling the leaves, just that feeling of being watched and assessed, of something having woken, of darkness and evilness spreading at the corner of his eyes.

They went to bed that night tense, looking around, closing the tent completely to the outside even though the confinement of it felt oppressive. When Robin pressed her body against his, Law said nothing, understanding her terrified look.

Sachi and Penguin didn’t return that night either.

…oOo…

Law dreamed about horrors again. About shadows and screams and old old creatures that roamed on an even older forest. After the feeding from the previous night, he had gained enough power to get out of the temple and into the world again, but he was still incredibly weak compared to the past. His food had been smart in that regard. There was no one around in the old city he could feed from, not even the corpses had been left behind, there was only the tall sleeping trees and the rocks poking out of the ground like the bones of the world.

However, the one he had been waiting for, the one he had dreamt about, was here.

That was the only thing that mattered.

He had woken up thanks to him, to his offering and sweet call, and after years and millennia, he had answered to his summoning like it was meant to be. He could feel him so close now it numbed his mind, it made him get eager, and restless, a pup jumping excited and crazed.

He approached the little construction that hid his dear from the heavy rain and darkness, and slipped inside with a thought. And there he was. So beautiful, so soft, tender and warm flesh. Full of life and innocence, untainted by darkness and his. He was his, and he wanted him. He wanted him so much he felt his own mouth salivate and his body harden. He had been so patient and had waited so long, that it was hard to not claim him just like this, as he slept so vulnerable and unaware of it all. His surprise would be so sweet once he met him, once he touched and claimed him.

But it wasn’t yet the time, he repeated himself. He was still weak, so damn weak. He couldn’t present himself to his mate like this. He wanted to impress him, show him how good he could be to him. He needed to tempt him into the darkness first in the way courtship dictated.

There was another sleeping next to his dear, however. A female. Pretty and lush. A gift. Of course. His mate was so smart. The pretty offering didn’t scream as he kissed and punctured her throat with his sharp fangs. She didn’t scream nor trash in panic and pain as he drank and drank and drank her sweet life away. He was not a beast after all, he knew control and manners despite how he had acted the previous night. Yesterday he had been just hungry. But now he could control the hunger and choose when and how to kill, and he will keep this one alive. He might need her for later, for his mate, for his sweet weak mate who was still so pure.

He turned towards him, unable to help himself.

He traced his fingers over the delicate caramel skin of a check, purring as it felt warm and soft as a feather under his fingertips. He delineated and explored the paintings and black swirls on his neck too, the patterns hypnotizing as they slipped under his clothes. He was so different from any other he had seen, so perfect and tempting. He traced his soft plush lips as he slept, restless in a beautiful nightmare, he pulled at the golden pendants decorating his ears, he kissed his forehead in a last horrible goodbye.

He had to go. He shouldn’t have come here in the first place, but had been unable to resist. He went back underground, to the darkness he ruled, to the temple he called home. He had left a present there for his mate to find, but his mate was still playing hard to get. Maybe…maybe he needed to lure him, make him unable to resist him. He liked a playful mate, but he had waited way too long to indulge him now.

Law woke up as the monster in his dreams finally went to sleep surrounded by death and horror in a room filled with screams.

He was half naked over his little sleeping back, his skin full of goosebumps as if someone had been tracing fingers over his chest and hips, and up his throat and lips. But Robin, at his side, was still in her sleeping bag completely asleep, moving and unaware.

He refused to think about what he had sleep. He refused to acknowledge it because it will be stupid and impossible. Getting out of the tent, he rearranged his clothes and made himself a coffee with trembling hands and a quick breath. The nightmares were getting weird. Maybe his subconscious was warning him of something. They should have brought a doctor here, someone specialized in tropical sickness. It was too late to think about it now, however.

As the night was still covering the world, Law flickered a little lamp on, and went back to read his papers and findings as a way to kill time. The rain had finally stopped, but the oppression and the feeling of being watched had only intensified and gotten worse. It was making him jumpy; it was crippling his nerves and sanity hour by hour until he kept looking around into the dark looming forest like a scared deer. The darkness seemed even blacker beyond his little circle of light, the silence almost a ticking bomb.

Maybe the nightmares were a consequence of this, of the tension, of the weird things he had seen in the temple, of his bad sleep.

Thankfully Robin woke as light began to appear over the clouded sky putting an end to his paranoia. She looked pale. Incredibly so, and had covered herself up with a high turtleneck that was way too hot for the jungle’s climate. Law worried about the doctor once more. Maybe they should go back, check themselves, and then come back with more people to continue searching. Penguin and Sachi were still missing, and Law couldn’t keep that dream away from his mind even though he knew better than to trust a nightmare.

“I wanted to explore the west side of the city today.” Law commented as he drank his now cold coffee, his appetite completely gone. Robin only stared at him with an expression that was just wrong on her face. “Penguin and Sachi were there last time I checked, maybe we can find them or a clue about what had happened to them and why they hadn’t come back.”

Robin shocks her head a loving expression appearing in her face. “The temple. The black temple. I want to go there.”

Law frowned. Dreams of monsters and death and a hundred eyes looking at him coming back to his mind.

“…I think we would be better…”

“No!” Robin screamed at him, suddenly standing up with a grimace of furry “The temple! I want to go back to the temple!” She pressed a hand against her mouth, the movement nervous and unlike her usual refined self. “I need it, the temple, the temple.” She whispered.

Law frowned, feeling a little creeped out. “Robin, are you okay?”

“Yes, yes.” She looked at him with big distant eyes. “I just…please, the temple.”

Law nodded slowly, hating the idea already. “…Okay.”

He still gave her a couple of pills before they did anything. Her paleness and her behavior were worrying on themselves, but Law had nothing else at hand to give her or treat her with, and she kept insisting she was fine and ignoring Law’s attempts to make her rest in the tent. They picked the equipment easily after that, the little maps and theories they had written down, and the tools and brushes any archaeologist ever needed.

Again, they went down the leaver and into the cave system below.

Robin kept looking around as they walked, tilting her head into this or that direction as if she was hearing things and whispers Law could not hear himself. She kept scratching at her throat and head with nails broken and bunt, the movements twitchy and nervous. Law watched her closely, worried, and prepared to turn back and put her to sleep at any moment. The idea of returning to civilization was starting to gain power in his head the more they advanced.

Finally, they arrived at the cathedral of skulls. Law tensed unconsciously as he stepped into the creepy frozen place, then had to suppress a shudder as he stared into the round room.

It seemed to have changed since they had been here. Thanks to the heavy rain of the last few days, the walls were dripping with a black liquid from the openings and ceiling. Water probably mixed with the old blood and giving it all an eerie look and a viscous texture as it dripped down the walls and pooled on the ground. The scent of metal filled the silent space now above the rottenness from before, the harsh smell suffocating in its intensity. But what was more stunning was the millions and millions of skulls looking at them with empty eyes, that now had symbols and markings appearing over their white surface as the blood slowly dripped over them.

Markings they had not noticed before.

Law took a second staring at the strange phenomenon. At the dripping, at the floor now covered in black water, at the marked bones, and at the paintings of people being ripped and devoured by darkness behind the altar.

This was wrong. This was so incredibly wrong. He went to turn again, change his mind and return to the base camp, but before he could stop her, Robin walked straight towards the altar where the strange knife Law had taken last time laid untouched. She screamed as she picked it, the sound a mix of furry and despair.

Law ran towards her instantly, worried for his friend and how she was acting today. This place was not good for her in her state, she needed to rest. This had been a mistake. He however stopped short as he approached. Because there, at the other side of the altar, right where his dreams had placed them, laid the bodies of two people.

Sachi was still wearing his stupid weird hat, all bright colours and soft shapes, a beacon in the jungle of greens and blacks, his sports pants he had insisted on wearing for his mission were intact too, but a shoe missing. His ribcage also laid open and spread out. The bones of his ribs snapped carefully outwards one by one to expose the entrails beneath, as if someone had been carefully unwrapping a present. A hole, almost grotesque in the between the ripped lungs and bloody viscera pointed to where the heart should be but was missing. Veins, fat, and muscle were torn out with no care and patience. His throat had also been shredded. The marks of claws or teeth vivid in the other’s pale skin, as if the flesh had melted under them, and the carnage left was a gore spectacle or bruised flesh and ripped skin. A puddle of dark red blood surrounded his immobile body, and mixed with that of the other body.

Penguin. Law’s best friend.

Law couldn’t even look at him. Turning away from the sight, he doubled over and vomited his little breakfast on the floor.

He started to tremble. Shock, he was in shock. Yet the image had been imprinted in his head and couldn’t be erased. Broken, shattered, killed just like in his dreams. Sachi hadn’t even screamed as the monster ripped into him, he had just crumpled on the floor as his throat was ripped out and his life left him. Law still remembered the monster gloating in the warm flesh. The texture as he chewed on the meaty parts and licked at the dripping blood. His stomach groaned again, and Law gagged on the floor as reality and dreams mixed into an incomprehensive mess.

Oh god. Oh god. What had happened? What was happening? Had he done it? Sleepwalked and killed his two friends? Was this the reason of his nightmares and paranoia? No. He would never hurt them. He had known these two boys all his life, he had known their families, their dreams and hope. Penguin was planning on declaring to his boyfriend and starting a new life. Sachi had wanted a cat. But now they were gone. Something had killed them, something that lived in this place, that had killed two people as if they were nothing.

An animal, Law told himself, his rational mind trying to take control, trying to protect him from the truth. They were in an unexplored jungle and there had to be wild animals. It was the logical conclusion. The only conclusion. But deep down, very deep down, Law remembered the dream, the monster, the skulls who now looked at him with dead eyes, with strange shapes and weird anatomy, and doubted.

They needed to get out of here.

This place was dangerous, Law didn’t know why, but they needed to get out.

Standing on uneven footing, ignoring the still expanding puddle of blood, or how the dripping on the walls was increasing, Law approached Robin who was now sobbing as she gripped the knife. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away by force, ignoring the two bodies.

He hated to leave them here in this cursed place, but there was nothing more he could do. He hadn’t brought anything that would help him bring their remains back into civilization. And with the new threat and the new situation, taking them with him might put them in danger too. He needed to keep Robin alive, they needed to go back.

They returned to the calmness of the outside world still trembling and unsettled. Robin stopped crying, but she kept staring into nothingness while still gripping the knife towards her chest, sometimes nodding and mumbling as if she was answering to someone. Law checked her temperature and made her eat a couple more pills, he made her laid down and sleep, but there was nothing else he could do for her.

He started to pack the things back into the bags. He would have to leave most of the equipment here, but he would bring the food, a couple of sheets and the tent in case Robin needed to rest. The returning trip will take them half a day, but it could still be done. Tonight, they would sleep with more people, in a village, safe and protected. They would leave this cursed place behind.

He would need to call the people from the government after, explain the disappearances to Sachi and Penguin’s families too, but that could wait. It will be fine. They just needed to return.

Just as he was about to help Robin put on a little bag with the provisions and start the trail back, it started raining. Not the wild flash of lightning and roaring sounds like last time, but something worse: monsoon rain. The villagers had explained them to him in great detail. A heil of rain. As if a dam broke and water poured from the sky in a waterfall that wanted to submerge the world. It caused the ground to move, the rivers to flood, it was the most dangerous thing that could happen in the jungle.

It made it impossible to return before night came.

“Tomorrow” He whispered nervously, hating to have to spend another night in this place. “We will return tomorrow.”

He mounted the tent again with trembling cold fingers under the pouring rain. The trees around them were completely unable to guard them from the hail as wind rose, the ground trembled and the world seemed to be about to end. They took refuge under it the moment Law finished, and for the first time since they had set foot on the temple and seen his two friends there, Law stilled. Took a breath. Sat down.

Instantly the image appeared in his mind. Blood, death, gore. Two lives ended under his care and watch, because he had brought them here. The tears started to slip before he was conscious of them. He hid his face in his arms, ashamed of it, hating the little weakness, but once he started he couldn’t stop. He cried for his friends now gone, for Sachi and his smiles, for Penguin and his bad ideas. He cried because of this strange place that was slowly devouring his sanity. Because he didn’t know if he had been the one to actually kill them or if it had truly been some animal. He cried because Robin was still talking to the knife, and he could do nothing to help her. They were trapped. He had condemned them all.

They were all going crazy and they were going to die.

The rain persisted through the day and even as the night started to set, quickly flooding the floor and making them fumble to keep things and themselves dry. Law stayed in the tent unmoving through it all, waiting for it to end, his mind a constant circle of worry, fear, and bloody corpses. Of memories of a monster and death. Robin however, stopped talking to the blade at one point, and rummaged through the equipment until she found the dating powder.

“What are you doing?” Law asked, his voice sounding raw and weak after the tears and pain.

“Just checking.” She answered, her eyes focused for the first time that day as she started to annotate math equations in a book.

Law observed her, the process known, one he had done a hundred times himself. When Robin frowned and started the process again, and then again, Law approached her until he was seated closely to her, their bodies touching and sharing warmth, distracting him from the situation they were in.

“What’s the matter?” he asked looking into her notebook.

“It's inconclusive.”

“That’s impossible.” Law said checking the operations himself, trying to see something she might have skipped. “That would mean…”

“That it’s something that can’t be dated.” She interrupted him. “Or that it’s something so old, that the technique can’t measure it.”

Law looked at her, she looked back at him, and her eyes again lost that sharpness, that focused quality, as if she was staring into something out of their world Law could not see. Law again shivered despite the oppressive heat and humidity inside the tent.

Crunching bones, tearing flesh, dripping blood. Always dripping blood. Staring at him from the darkness, between the hundred skulls and dead eyes. From behind the eyes of his dear friend.

“Robin, are you okay?” He whispered in the silence of the tent.

“No.”

…oOo…

Unsurprisingly, Law dreamt with the bloody chapel again that night, but like it happened each time, the whole place seemed to change and sift as it was alive and growing. It was still submerged in darkness, the room barely illuminated with the light of the little fire burning around the altar, and the light of it reflecting on the dark water that now covered the floor to his ankles.

The skulls were there. Ever present. With dead eyes and empty mouths. Only they weren’t skulls anymore, but the severed heads of the people they had been. Women with lush lips, males old and young, but all of them were wrong. There were faces with too many eyes. There were mouths with too many rows of teeth. Some were still broken, smashed inwards, their skin putrid and violet from the bruises and cuts. Limbs and torsos climbed up the edges of columns, some were long and sleek, like the arms of some huge creature, others looked human but had more fingers and nails that should be possible.

The place had turned into a grotesque spectacle of anatomy and impossibility.

Robin was there too with him this time, kneeling on the reddish water, the blood soaking into her clothes and making her look ethereal here. Another part of the cathedral, perfect, proportionate and beautiful. She was so beautiful. She was trembling madly in the frozen atmosphere of the place, the red knife clutched in her hands as she stared into the shadows behind the altar.

“Please.” She begged with a sob. “Please, spare me.”

Something moved on those shadows before the reliefs that told the story of the dark god. A man. Tall and huge like the warriors of old. He advanced towards his friend, making the water ripple at his feet and a new kind of silence fill the place. He was a mighty creature. A predator in a lamb skin. He was dressed in a black tunic that showed a naked torso covered up with scripture-like tattoos and hard muscle. The design of his wardrobe was simple, almost plain, but it helped accentuate the raw strength and powerful physique of the man.

Law could not see his face, still engulfed by shadows, but his eyes seemed to glitter as if rejecting the light of the fire. Golden. Unnatural.

He extended a hand towards Robin.

Robin sobbed, her body rocking back and forwards, but she still extended a hand up, offering the ancient dagger to the man. The man took it, his nails long and black as they gripped the hilt that seemed to have been done just for him. With his other hand he then gripped Robin by the hair, with no violence needed, not for this. The new grip made Robin still her rocking, her body turning still, paralyzed by terror as he pressed the little dagger against her delicate and elegant throat.

“Please” Robing begged a last time, tears falling down her blue eyes as he stared up at the monster.

There was no use.

The man moved the blade, sectioning her head from her body in a clean quick cut that seemed impossible with the little blade. Her body dropped down instantly, without even being able to scream or spasm, completely lifeless in seconds, while a gush of blood sprouted from the head still hanging from the other’s hands by the hair.

The face of his friend, forever frozen in a rictus if panic, stared up at Law with vitrified eyes.

He wanted to scream, he wanted to run, but he did nothing. In the dream he could only stare as the man dropped his friend’s head to the ground as if it was nothing, and then, slowly, turned towards him getting out from the dark shadows.

Law averted his eyes from the man as they filled with tears. He was sitting in the altar, he realized then, his chest bared like that of the stranger, and a red tunic over his shoulders that he had never seen before. He still couldn’t move. He still couldn’t scream. He still could do nothing as the monster approached.

His heart beat madly in panic as the stranger stopped before him, standing between Law’s parted legs while still gripping the now bloody knife.

Law was going to die. He probably deserved it after all that had happened. He couldn’t understand it yet, but he was certain he was going to die. This monster had killed his friends and now he was the only one left. Law shuddered at the other’s cold presence between his legs. He was trembling and crying, and unable to fight back or scream or even move.

“Such a sweet pure soul. Untainted and so full of life and compassion.” The stranger whispered as he raised a bloodied hand to Law’s cheek, with a care and tenderness that didn’t belong here, in this palace of death. “How beautiful you are, but tell me, sweet one, why have you given yourself to me so willingly? What is it that you want from me?”

Law tried to swallow from a dry mouth, realizing he could suddenly talk. “I-I haven’t given anything…I don’t want anything.”

The man chuckled. Then he lowered down until he was at level with Law’s face and could whisper into his ear. “Lies.” The other said with a dark smile, with a dark promise in his low hypnotizing voice. “You have seeked me as much as I have been waiting for you.”

The hand on his check lowered down his throat, to his collarbone, to then palm at his pectoral and the taut nipple there under the tunic. Law shivered under the cold hands and the possessiveness there, at such an intimate touch with a monster. He tried to pull away, but he still couldn’t move that much. “I haven’t sought you. I don’t know who you are!”

“Lying pretty mate.” The other whispered again, his mouth lowering from his ear to Law’s neck, to start spreading little kisses and touches there. All frozen, all making Law incredibly aware of what was happening. “You have studied so hard to get to me, looking into the past so desperately, into the bones and stories, coming into my forest, bleeding for me.”

The hand that was still gripping the dagger laid it on the altar, and instantly circled around Law’s lower back pressing his body even firmer against that of the stranger. Law whimpered as their groins came into contact, his body was starting to react as the other touched him like that. So possessively, so desperately and hot. Law was a scholar, he had never indulged in sex, he had always considered himself celibate, devoted only to his job. Yet as the man started to mouth at his neck, as he pinched a nipple and groped his ass raising him from the altar, he couldn’t help but start feeling it all.

“No” He still tried to razon in the dream. “T-that’s not it. This is a mistake.”

The other pushed him down and laid him down on the cold black stone beside the dagger. Law noticed the red hair then, a hair so red as the blood that had dripped from his friends’ bodies, as the one from the beast on the picture. The other was still covered in blood too, he was spreading it all on Law as he touched him, as he groped and petted and licked at him. Yet Law didn’t care. He even enjoyed the feel and the aesthetic of it all. With the usual detachment from dreams covering his mind, he only moaned openly as the other palmed him over the thin pants he was wearing along the tunic.

In bliss and in confusion, he let the other bite at his neck and leave marks over tattoos. He let the other caress and map his skin under the tunic and over the thin pants with cold hands that left him trembling and wanting something more.

“Admit it.” The other kept whispering against his ear. “Tell me what you want from me.”

Law sobbed conflicted. The confusion of this whole new experience, the fogginess of the dream, the desire burning in his veins, it was all leaving him speechless and at the other’s mercy. He wanted…he wanted things he could not understand. His hips thrusted upwards into the other’s skilful hands, and moaned loudly as the other bit at his neck over his rapid pulse in exchange.

“Please,” he begged, unable to resist this. “Please.”

“Yes.” The other said against his neck, his thumb insistently rubbing the wet head of his dick over the pants. “Such a good boy. Tell me sweet mate, tell me.”

Law sobbed as his hips rocked into the other’s hand wildly now, his hands raising up to grip the strong physique of the other, a rock among all the new feelings and sensations. A need surged inside him, something he didn’t understood, something that made no sense, but one that made him turn his head to the side offering his neck up to the stranger in a suicidal last gesture.

“Please” he whispered one last time.

And with a grunt of victory, the other bit him.

Hard.

Flesh tore. Veins were pierced. Blood bloomed. And the pain of it all shock Law awake from the stupor of the dream. With a scream of hurt, he woke up from the dream and back into reality, his hands pushing into nothingness and flailing around as he tried to defend himself.

He patted at his body terrified, checking if it was still whole as his neck throbbed with a telling pain. He instantly raised a hand to the spot, and it came down covered in warm red. Law gasped in horror as he stared at it disbelieving. No, this couldn’t be happening. His hands began trembling, his pulse to beat crazy and his whole body to sweat with fear and the disappearing last traces of lust.

What had he almost done? What was happening? He could still feel it. The cold hands in his body, his own desire in his veins, the mouth on his neck, the whispers, and promises and his own dark instincts. But it had been a dream, right? Only a dream. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t have happened. But then, why was he bleeding?

He looked around himself, and felt his whole body grow still as raw blind panic took control of him. He was in the temple. The same one from the dream. With the heads looking at him, with the blood on the floor, with the altar under him, his tunic messed, and red blood all over his skin from where the monster had been touching him.

Robin’s body was next to it all too. The head severed. The body crumpled and broken.

“No. No no  no no no” He raised his hands to his face as he tried to gasps for air. His body started to rock back and forwards, all his limbs trembling. Only a dream. This was only a dream. He couldn’t lose her too. This was only a bad dream. A nightmare, he still needed to wake up. He had to wake up.

“It’s okay Law.” Said Robin’s head, still separated from her body, laying on its temple and looking up at him. “You will be okay, he won’t hurt you, dear. He has been waiting for you.”

He was going crazy.

That was the only explanation as Robin's body twitched and slowly stood up from the red soaked floor, her whole clothes now tainted red too and dripping wildly as it went to pick up her head as if it was nothing. She faced Law with a smile on her pale white face, blood still dripping from her neck and staining her hands.

“He will take care of you.” She told him. “He is gonna make you so strong, Law, the strongest among us all. He had already begun, you see. It won’t take long from now. But you need to cooperate, Law, don’t play it hard. And don’t worry about him, you will like him, I know you will.”

She started walking towards one of the walls of the cathedral, the ones covered in broken faces and empty eyes. Law’s mind stopped working then. Overwhelmed from this dream and reality, he just went with the flow and with the absurdity of it all as his breathing continued irregular and painful.

“What do you mean?” he asked the monster before him.

“The ritual, silly,'' Robin told him as she stopped right before a hole in the wall of skulls, right between the two new heads already there. Sachi and Penguin’s. She put her head there, completing the wall as if that had been her duty from the beginning. “You started it, remember, with the dagger. You have given him blood two times already. Willingly and unwillingly. You need to finish what you started.”

The body then turned and gripped one of her arms, and as if it was made of paper, she tore it away from her body. No blood dripped this time, there was no echo of pain or sobbing, but Law could still hear the bone breaking and the tendons snapping just as revoltingly.

“I don’t want to.” He told her.

“I know,” The head on the wall told him with a smile. “You have always been a stubborn one. But you can’t escape now. He wants you so much.”

The body approached one of the columns of torsos and legs. The one who had another hole in its midst. She put its arm there, the flesh sifting, growing, until it had another elbow and it could bend enough to fill the gap. The last gap of the death cathedral Law noticed. All the holes and patches from where the rain and light had poured were now sealed with the fresh pieces.

The whole place seemed to grow and breathe as it fixed itself, as it became alive once more.

“I’m sorry.” Law told the head between gasps for air.

“It’s not your fault,” Sacchi answered him.

“We were the ones who decided to accompany you, remember? It was our decision.” Penguin added, always trying to put him at peace.

“We love you, Law. Always.” Robin said as farewell, as she and the other’s closed their eyes forever. “Now go. He is waiting.”

He was mad. He was asleep. He was dead from some jungle fever and was in another world. So Law stood from the altar, he picked up the bloody dagger, and went out of the temple and away from the monster waiting for him in the shadows.

Law walked for hours. With the rain plastering the strange tunic to his skin and washing the blood away, with the mud trapping his feet and sinking him deep into the frozen ground, and the deep darkness of the forest preventing any real advance. His mind was in chaos. Fear, loss, and anxiety mixing all together. He screamed at the sky with impotence, he punched the trees he passed by trying to focus his mind, trying to overcome this weakness by mere will, but there was no use.

He always came back to the cursed ruins.

No matter what direction he took, no matter how long he walked into the forest, the turns he took or the paths he followed, the ruins always appeared before him as if the whole place had turned into a labyrinth of trees and rain, designed to trap him. The fourth time the known rocks and structures of the old civilization appeared before him, engulfed by nature and true darkness, he just fell into the muddy ground exhausted.

He was beyond tired. Both physically and emotionally. He didn’t know what was happening anymore, what was reality and what was a nightmare. Maybe he had been the first one to die. Maybe this was just a joke. His mind had gone mad. His dreams were going wild for some untold reason.

But then, why did it feel so real? The mud under his legs, the rain cold and harsh over his heated skin, the pain in his neck, the smoothness of the dagger, the feel of those eyes always over him. Lustful. Hungry. Just waiting for him to surrender and be eaten.

His imagination wasn’t so skillful to come up with the temple and the whole dying scenes, no matter if he was mad or drugged, Law had never had such vivid dreams. This had to be real. Law couldn’t understand it yet, the deaths, the monster, the temple, the dreams, but it had to be real. He had to accept it as real. This was his only solution to this problem. He had awoken something when he had come here, something that had killed his friends and now was asking for his blood.

Law was no fighter. He was a scholar, the only muscle he had developed had been from walking through the jungle these last months moving the equipment around, but they would do nothing against the monster he had seen in his dreams. Not against that mountain of raw muscle and power. He still had the dagger though. The dagger was always there, it had started it all, maybe…maybe he could use it. If he killed the monster he could go back, the insanity would stop, he would be able to bury his friends the proper way. He couldn’t run away anymore; he needed to fight, become the hunter himself.

Standing from the muddy dark ground he took some calming breaths under the heavy rain. If he failed there was only death waiting for him or something even worse, but if he won, he would be free. He could go back to a normal life.

He started walking the path back to the temple. The night seeming never ending now under the thick mantle of clouds, the harsh winds, and the deep shade of the trees. There were no bright colors anymore in the jungle, no vivid green left, only black, and gray, simple and calming like death. The tunnels underground were easy to navigate too, even with no light to guide him, something inside him knew where to step and where the path was even in plain darkness. Law reached the brittle bridge and crossed it confidently, until he faced the huge skull with sharpened fangs. Light was coming from the passage under it, right from the temple where the monster was still waiting for him.

The walls were vibrant red now as he approached the cursed room, no more old blood covering them, but fresh one from the recent sacrifices that were renewing his power too.

Law gripped the dagger strongly, until the old metal dug painfully into his palms and his fingers turned numb and cold, but finally, he stepped into the room. The cathedral of death looked the same now that it was completed. Wicked faces, dripping blood and black death.  All mixed into the space to create the macabre piece of art.

The monster was waiting for him. Dressed in the black open tunic and with the tight fitted pants embroidered in rich gold, he looked as gorgeous and huge as Law’s broken mind remembered. He had both hands resting wide apart on the altar, his body leaning down slightly over it. He raised his head as Law approached and smirked knowingly, finally revealing his face.

He was handsome, a piece of art in the flesh, a god descended into this world to destroy it and paint it red. Deep scarlet hair touched his high cheekbones and reflected the golden light of the fire in a spectacle of light and gold. Wide shoulders, ripped abs, and pectorals that moved under skin so pale that it seemed to never have touched the light of the sun. His eyes were the deep golden hue from Law’s dreams, his features elegant and strong, a face made to be worshiped and fantasized about.

He was the missing part of Law’s soul. An illusion. A way to lure his prey into a false sense of security. The ultimate predator.

The creature stepped from behind the altar, his movements fluid and careful like those of a feline, but also speaking of a power that could not be denied. He was all that was left. The peace after a last breath. He ruled darkness and shadows. He could not be fought.

He stopped in front of the altar, in the middle of the fire, the blood, and the death that bowed to him, and raised a hand with his palm up towards Law in an offering.

Law was moving before he knew what he was doing, his legs forcing him forward, until he was approaching the monster like a lamb about to be sacrificed. He couldn’t even fight him, his whole body a puppet, his mind trapped in the sharp smile of a beast.

He stopped in front of the other, joining him in that circle of blood, fire and silence.

The monster looked into his eyes for a long moment there, his golden eyes way too intense and full of things that made Law shiver and feel hot at the same time. He just couldn’t look away. Not from him. When the monster raised a hand to caress his check again like he had done in the dream, delicately and adoringly, Law did nothing even though the frozen caress made panic surge again. He was paralyzed, petted dumb, the beauty and horror of the other was so blinding it was hard to look him and continue thinking.

The monster stepped towards him invading his personal space after that, and his body bent down over Law’s until he touched the hand in which Law was still gripping the dagger. The little touches against his overheated skin were a shock every time. A rush of pleasure. Something that was incredibly wrong. The monster however only took the dagger from him this time, Law’s fingers releasing it into the man’s hands as if that was where it belonged.

“You have given me your blood, innocent one. You have willingly taken my bite.” The other’s whispered against his throat, his huge body still curled over Law’s, with his mouth right over the spot where his teeth had punctured him in the dream. “I will repay your offering with my own. I will accept you as mine.”

The monster drew back slightly after those words. Law shivered at the loss, hating himself, hating his reaction to this beast but being unable to resist the other’s voice and touch. He wanted more. He wanted to be caressed again, bitten, and taken by this monster. The beast however, only raised the dagger to his own neck and cut a little line on his throat with it, right over where his pulse should be.

Blood poured out instantly from the cut. Black, sweet and heady.

Law’s mind blackened further as he saw the blood drip down the other’s collarbone and pale chest. His mouth turned dry suddenly, his teeth ached, and he felt the sharp pain of hunger overwhelming him and turning him stupid. It was so intense and sudden it hurt and made his hands spasm.

He tried to step back, he tried to walk away, regain his sanity, but the other only released the dagger and followed him, hugging him tightly against his body, angling Law’s head so it rested right over the still bleeding wound on his throat.

Law panted. Impossibly hard and terrified. This was wrong wrong wrong. But his mate smelled so good. He had been waiting so long for this, for him. But this was wrong. He was so hungry. He was so lonely and angry and afraid. His tongue licked over the blood timidly before he was aware of it.

Bliss filled his whole body.

He trembled in his mate’s arms as his whole body reacted to it and he moaned loudly and happy against the neck before him. His arms rose to grip the other’s back, a hand raising quickly to the other’s hair so he could tilt his mate’s head just right and drink. He just drank. It was raw power, it was freedom, it was what he had been looking for his whole life. Rich, filling, and his. The most delicious thing he had ever tasted in his life, and the only thing he would ever be able to drink from now on. He loved the idea. This was wrong, a part of his mind supplied, blood was not supposed to taste like this, no, of course not, but this was better, this was what it was meant to be.

His whole body burned, feverish, aroused beyond his comprehension, but his mate was there to take care of him. He took him into his arms sweetly, murmuring encouraging words in his hair as he petted him, making him stop drinking. Then he turned them around towards the altar where a body was now lying down.

“Such a good boy,” The other whispered as he picked Law up and sat him down on the altar next to the body. Law growled, hating to be apart from him, but the other insisted and Law obeyed. He would always obey his mate. “I need you to do one last thing for me, sweet boy, will you?”

Law nodded numb. He will do anything for him. His mate, his missing piece. Kidd smirked at him again, and Law noticed the sharp fangs his mate had. So long. So pretty. He wanted to kiss him, feel them against his tongue, piercing his flesh again as he had done in the dream. He was about to do so, when his mate again pushed him into the altar and gave him the dagger.

“For you to be with me for the rest of eternity, you need to let go of the last of your humanity, my sweet mate.” He said with so much love towards him that it hurt. His fingers caressed his bloody chin, turning his face to face the body with no head and no arm. “You need to finish the ritual.”

Law understood it then. His mate had shown it to him as the caring lover he was. The hole in his friend’s chest on that first dream. The most warm and powerful part of the body, the one where life lived. He needed the heart.

No.

That was his friend, a person he loved, this was wrong.

His hands halted as he straddled his friend’s body on the altar, but his mate was there for him again. Cold hands tracing his overheated skin, soft kisses over his nape, encouraging words in his ears as he guided his hands and the dagger over his friend’s chest, her breast exposed now as she had been stripped to facilitate this.

“Do you want to be with me?” The monster asked, licking into his ear, biting at his lobe playfully and making Law’s whole-body melt as he felt those fangs on him.

“Yes.” Law mumbled with a voice that didn’t sound like his own.

“Good.” The other said with an impatient growl. “So good. I want you so much too, Law. I have been waiting…”a heated breath against his neck. “..so long. Please, Law, just take it, for us, so we can be together. Please?”

His mate was worried. He was asking him a favor. Law couldn’t dare to disappoint him, he was so good to him, he had done so much for him. Law needed to make it up for him.

The tip of the dagger dug into the thin flesh of a ribcage. No blood poured, not after so long, but that was okay. He snapped the ribs one by one with the blunt force of his fingers as he had seen his dear mate do in the dreams, and then dipped his hand down, down down, into the wet cold meaty parts below. It was hard, tricky even as it slipped and slipped again and again creating a whole mess and dirtying his clothes and the altar. Yet, despite his awkwardness, his dear mate said nothing, he just continued petting him, letting him learn, eager but so patient and nice for him.

With the help of the knife, Law finally pierced the blackened heart out of his friend’s chest. He stared at it. Full of fat and muscle and life. His mind snapped again as hunger took control, as something dark and unnatural grew inside him, and as he took the flesh to his mouth.

“Yes” His mate said, his caresses turning heated over Law’s body, palming him, scratching his black nails over Law’s chest with raw lust. “Yes, yes!”

Law took a bite, the meat hard and tasteless in his mouth, nothing compared to his mate’s blood, but also exactly what he needed. He took another bite and the void that had opened up in his mind, and in his soul filled up with something dark, with something ancient, with something hungry. He gorged himself. Shallow after shallow. With no finesse, with no care in the world for anything else but eating this. He ripped into the flesh, snapping the muscles and cartilage with blunt teeth and fingers, juices and fat dripped from his chin and below as he chewed and chewed on the meaty parts, until there was nothing left and he stared at his blackened hands, at his blackened nails, his skin paling by the second and the coldness spreading in his veins.

It felt so good.

His mate was panting at his back, his desire clear in his mind as his lust for him clouded Law’s own mind.

They were whole. They were one. They had done it.

Law turned in the altar with a victorious happy growl erupting from his throat, and pushed his beautiful mate down into the black stone. He straddled his hips eagerly, feeling him as hard and as desperate as he was himself. They kissed with no patience, hands ripping into clothes, fingers fondling between their bodies and leaving marks and imprints that instantly faded away.

They were free. They were strong once more. There had been a beginning and they were the end. Civilizations had felt at their feet before and they would do so again. People will search for them, the forest will grow, and they would feed, as they had always done.

Kidd sank his fangs into Law’s throat once more, and Law rolled his hips with a deep wild moan, his mate’s cock finally buried deep inside him, his own nails leaving marks on the other’s pectorals as he rode him wildly and fast. The faces around them stared at their mating with no eyes, their blood dripping over the floor, the darkness expanded all around them stronger than ever.

And Law, the new king among it all.