President's Daughter's Bodyguard-Chapter 108: The Serpent’s Corridor

Chapter 108: The Serpent’s Corridor

Argash entered the inner corridor with the slow poise of a predator who knew every stone was beneath his command.

Even the torches along the walls flickered when he passed, as though the flames bowed to him.

He wasn’t handsome in any gentle sense...his face had no softness or any visible warmth, but there was something inhumanly compelling in the symmetry of his face.

A sharp jaw, eyes dark enough to swallow candlelight, and a mouth that suggested patience only because he enjoyed breaking it.

He looked like a man carved from devotion and violence, someone impossible to ignore, impossible to look away from.

And he knew it...

The air in the corridor turned warmer as he walked deeper, toward the chamber no Helena dared to approach.

The walls here were carved with spirals, symbols looping back into themselves like serpents eating their tails. Each symbol glowed with heat, radiating a pulse like a living heartbeat.

But it was no magic...

The moment he stepped inside, the room responded.

The great bronze serpent statue at the center warmed, as if waking.

Argash inhaled deeply and lifted his head back.

"Your presence honors me, my lord," he murmured in a voice that was so deep like devotion, and something disturbingly intimate. "I feel you in the air."

Argash drew off his cloak, letting it slide from his shoulders in a slow motion.

Even alone, he walked as though the world watched him, and he deserved their eyes. The shadows clung to the lines of his body like worshipers desperate for contact.

He stepped barefoot onto the ritual circle, its stone felt so warm beneath his feet.

"Tonight," he whispered, "the true Helena finds her path. I have seen it."

The flames hissed as if answering, but once again-it was no magic.

He began to pace within the circle, each step was so measured, every gesture looked ritualistic. His voice dropped to a murmur, hypnotic and fervent.

"She resists the call. Good. All great vessels resist. It tempers them. It strengthens the blood."

His fingers brushed the tattoos carved along his ribs...marks earned through years of rituals, scars that shined like black metal under torchlight.

"She thinks she has a choice."

A sharp, humorless laugh. "She does not."

He lifted a small vial from the altar and held it up to the fire. Inside, a dark red liquid shivered like a restrained heartbeat.

"For years the cult has waited. For years we have nourished fools who could not carry the sign. Worthless vessels. Empty wombs. Hollow promises."

His smile grew sharper.

"But she is not empty. She is not hollow. She burns."

He traced a finger down the vial, almost tenderly.

"Danielle... You do not know the honor I will give you."

The serpent statue glowed brighter. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Argash’s eyes half-closed, the kind of expression men wore only in moments of pleasure, but for him, pleasure was devotion, and devotion was madness.

"When she arrives," he murmured, "I will not need to command her. She will understand. They always do, in the end. Some come crying. Some come screaming. Some kneel."

His voice softened.

"But she will come trembling. She will come glowing."

He pressed the vial to his lips but did not drink it. Instead, he let the glass linger against his mouth, savoring its chill.

"And the man who stands beside her..."

A slow, dangerous smile spread like snake’s poison.

"The one who thinks he can guard her?"

Argash moved his head up, as though addressing an unseen audience.

"He will learn devotion too. One way or another. Even the strongest can kneel if you remove the ground beneath them."

He stepped out of the circle, retrieving a long strip of dark cloth embroidered with gold symbols. He wrapped it around his hands, pulling it tight until the embroidered sigils pressed into his skin.

Then he lifted his face toward the serpent statue.

"Prepare yourself, my lord," his hushed voice trembled with wild delight. "I will bring her tonight. I bring the vessel. I bring the bloodline you lost."

The flames surged, and once again it was no magic but an old trick made him believe it was.

Argash’s facial muscles twitched, but it was not with fear, but with exhilaration. The firelight danced across his features, carving him into a fiercely and crazily devoted servant.

And this was something almost beautiful to him.

"She is coming," he said again, reverently.

And then, softly...

"Let the world tremble."

He left the chamber with steps that almost floated, like a man walking toward a lover he had waited lifetimes to claim.

Argash was forced to make people believe he was their messiah.

Once his father- Mixush died, Argash had to take over the cult’s responsibility.

He was only twelve years old, and now...he was a fully grown adult...

To his beliefs, they are here to do good and bring glory to the world. Even in this age, they all were forced to believe that the magic is still alive and they are the ones who can wield it.

However, there was no magic but an old-ancient trick forced with heat...the hotter it was-the higher their flames went up.

But in their society, people were too brainwashed and uneducated to understand it, and no one dared to question the power of their lord...since it only led to death.

Men here were worshipped and women were tortured, assaulted and forced to perform acts just to give birth to a girl who would be worthy to get sacrificed.

When Asteria was in poverty and had no rain and tourists, the men were blaming women and some were burnt alive out of that anger.

When Asteria finally got the attention from the tourists because of its beautiful landscape-they kidnapped potential and beautiful women...

Their fake government was not allowed to get involved since this worked for them very well too.

So there it was again, the new ideal sacrifice...ready to be killed just because Danielle was a woman who survived the bomb attack.

"She’ll bed me first, and then will go into our lord’s flames."