The temple had been lost to time. Swallowed by the earth, buried beneath creeping vines and the weight of forgotten prayers, it was nothing more than a ruin now—a husk of what it once was. The villagers refused to go near it, whispering of curses, of something waiting beneath the stone.

But you had never believed in old stories.

The storm had driven you here, your only shelter against the relentless wind and rain. You stepped inside, brushing past pillars worn smooth by centuries, your footsteps echoing in the vast emptiness. The air was thick—too still, too heavy. As if something unseen was watching.

Then, you saw the altar.

A massive slab of blackened stone, adorned with carvings long eroded by time. Symbols you didn’t recognize glowed faintly beneath layers of dust, pulsing with something ancient. Something alive.

Your fingers brushed the surface.

The ground trembled.

A deep, resonating crack echoed through the temple as energy surged through the stone, racing along the carvings in veins of molten gold. The walls shook, dust spilling from the ceiling, the very air humming with power.

And then, from the depths of the earth—a breath.

The silence shattered as the stone beneath the altar broke apart, splitting open like the earth itself was exhaling. You stumbled back, heart pounding, as something rose from the darkness.

A figure.

Tall. Unyielding. Otherworldly.

Cracks of gold pulsed along his skin like lightning trapped beneath flesh, his form sculpted like a god made of fire and stone. His hair was dark, damp with centuries of sleep, framing a face that was both beautiful and terrifying.

And his eyes—his eyes burned.

For a moment, he was still. Taking his first breath in an age, inhaling the scent of a world that had long since forgotten him. Then, his gaze flickered to you.

His voice, rough with disuse, sent a shiver through you.

“…I dreamed of you.”