Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women

Lyara was at his side in an instant. "Jude?"

He blinked, trying to clear the remnants of the vision from his mind. "I saw it," he said, his voice hoarse. "This place… It wasn't just destroyed. It was erased."

Her eyes darkened. "By who?"

Jude swallowed, the image of the man in silver and black burned into his mind. "I don't know. But I think he's still out there."

Lyara exhaled sharply, glancing around as if the ruins themselves could hear them. "We shouldn't be here. If this city was meant to be forgotten, then we're not supposed to find it."

Jude clenched his fists. "Then why were we brought here?"

She didn't have an answer. Neither did he.

They pressed forward, deeper into the ruins. The air grew heavier the further they went, the weight of unseen eyes pressing down on them. The broken streets led them to what had once been a grand plaza, its center dominated by a massive structure, half-collapsed but still standing. The remnants of columns lined the entrance, their surfaces etched with worn symbols Jude didn't recognize.

As they approached, a low hum resonated through the air. Jude felt it more than heard it, a vibration in his bones, a pulse beneath his skin. He exchanged a glance with Lyara, and she nodded, sensing it too.

Cautiously, they stepped inside. The temperature dropped instantly, and the air thickened with the scent of old stone and something else, something ancient. The chamber stretched wide before them, its walls lined with faded murals, their details lost to time. But one remained intact, its colors still vivid despite the decay.

It depicted a figure standing at the heart of a great fire. His silhouette was unmistakable.

Jude's stomach tightened. "It's him."

Lyara studied the mural, her fingers tracing the edges. "If this was a city of knowledge, there has to be more. Something that tells us who he was."

They moved deeper into the chamber. The walls bore more images, scenes of prosperity, of rulers standing before their people, of battles waged in defense of something unseen. And then, the shift. The figure in silver and black appeared again, standing alone before an army that bowed before him.

Jude's breath caught. "He wasn't just a destroyer. He was a king."

Lyara's jaw tightened. "Then why erase him?"

The answer lay at the end of the chamber. A final mural, hidden in shadow. Lyara raised a torch, and as the light washed over the surface, the truth revealed itself.

The man in silver and black stood before a vast gateway, his arms outstretched. Beyond him, something loomed, a darkness that had no shape, no form, only presence. The army that once bowed before him was now turning, their faces contorted in horror. And at the very bottom, etched in desperate strokes, a single phrase in a language Jude could barely understand.

He read the words aloud, the syllables unfamiliar yet natural on his tongue. "He opened the gate."

A sudden wind tore through the chamber. The torches flickered, and the hum in the air turned into a roar. The ruins trembled, as if the very stones had awakened. Jude grabbed Lyara's arm, pulling her back.

The darkness in the mural began to move.

It seeped from the wall, stretching like ink spilled in water, tendrils reaching outward. The chamber grew colder, the air thick with something unnatural.

And then, a voice.

"You were not meant to remember."

It was not loud, yet it filled every corner of the space. A whisper that carried weight, pressing against their minds, their very souls. Jude's vision blurred, the world tilting.

Lyara's grip on his arm tightened. "Jude, we need to go. Now."

He fought to steady himself, forcing his legs to move. They turned, running toward the entrance as the darkness surged behind them. The walls cracked, dust raining from above.

They barely made it outside before the chamber collapsed, stone crashing into stone, sealing whatever lay within. The air around them stilled, the ruins returning to their eerie silence.

Jude stood there, breathing hard, his mind racing.

They had found the truth.

And now, it knew they had.

Jude and Lyara stood in the ruins, their breath coming fast as they stared at the sealed entrance of the chamber. Dust and debris still settled around them, filling the air with the scent of ancient stone. The weight of what they had uncovered pressed against them, thick and suffocating. The city had not just been lost, it had been buried, erased, hidden from history by something or someone that did not want it remembered.

Lyara turned to him, her expression unreadable. "That wasn't natural."

Jude nodded, wiping a layer of dust from his sleeve. "It was protecting something."

"The darkness moved," she said, her voice quiet. "It reached for us. It spoke."

They both fell silent, the memory of that voice still lingering in their minds. You were not meant to remember. The words carried an undeniable finality, but they had already seen too much.

Jude's pulse still pounded in his ears. The murals, the vision, the destruction, there was something here that connected to everything they had been searching for. He had come looking for answers, but what he had found was something else entirely.

Lyara scanned the horizon, her shoulders tense. "We need to leave. Now."

He understood. Whatever had spoken to them, whatever force still lingered in the ruins, it wasn't going to let them walk away without consequence. He didn't need to be told twice. They turned away from the collapsed chamber, moving quickly back through the ruined streets, their footsteps echoing against the broken stones. The sky above had darkened, heavy clouds rolling in as if responding to the disturbance they had caused.

As they walked, Jude felt something shifting in the air, a sensation crawling up his spine like unseen fingers. He glanced at Lyara, who moved with purpose, her hand never straying far from the hilt of her blade. She felt it too.

The city had changed.