⚠️ Content Warning:24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwAWxKH6lA0
This story contains mature themes, including violence, sexual content, and emotionally intense scenes. All characters depicted are 18+. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
Note: If you are under the age of 18, it is recommended that you refrain from reading this story.
"I knew them both. Benjamin and Seven Six. Two men who changed everything, though they couldn't have been more different."
"Benjamin was the storm—raw, unrelenting, inevitable. The system created him, then feared him, then tried to destroy him. But Benjamin is not so easily destroyed. He was power bound in chains, waiting to break free. He was the system's fury made flesh."
"And then there was Seven Six. He wasn't the storm. He was the scar. The consequence. The predator left behind by the system's violence. Where Benjamin burned, Seven consumed. He was the system's failure, its aftermath."
"And me? I was caught between them."
My voice fades, and the oppressive heat of the slave market takes its place. The air is thick, suffused with the metallic tang of blood and sweat. Every breath feels laborious, heavy with the stench of rot and despair. The golden God Chains glint under the harsh sunlight, their weight bowing the backs of the enslaved, their clinking echoing through the stillness.
Kiaran stays close, his sharp eyes scanning the crowd, but my attention is elsewhere. Drawn to him.
He was massive—easily 6'3", his broad shoulders and powerful build making him tower over the others. His skin, a rich, deep brown, gleamed in the golden light, its warmth a stark contrast to the cold, unyielding gold of the chains that bound him. His dark hair was shaved at the sides, the rest pulled back into a sharp, regal ponytail that only accentuated his angular features. Tattoos spiraled across his arms and chest, intricate and sacred, their lines interrupted by the brutal marks of his enslavement.
But it was his eyes that held me.
They were bottomless voids, black and unyielding. They reflected nothing—not the light, not the world around him, not even his own suffering. There was a quiet defiance in his gaze, a strength that felt otherworldly. And yet, beneath that strength, there was something else. Suffering. Endless and unfathomable.
"He was impossible to ignore. Towering over the others, bound in chains that gleamed like trophies, he stood silent, still, but his presence filled the market like the promise of a storm. A storm waiting to break."
The Duenio's voice boomed through the marketplace, his arms wide as he addressed the gathered crowd. "Behold! The Aztec prince of death! A weapon forged for war! Stronger than any god, deadlier than any man!"
Benjamin didn't move. He didn't need to. His silence was a weight, heavier than the chains that bound him, and I could feel it pressing against my chest.
"The Duenio called him a prince of death, a force of nature. But all I could see were the scars—etched into his skin like the system's signature. The system didn't just break him—it created him, then discarded him, like it does with all of us."
The Duenio stepped closer to Benjamin, his grin spreading like a crack in glass. His movements were too fast, too eager, his hands trembling as they reached for the golden chains.
"Let me show you perfection," he whispered.
The chains hit the ground with a deafening clank, a sound that froze the entire market. It wasn't just loud—it was final. It felt like thunder, heavy and foreboding. My breath hitched as the atmosphere shifted, the heat pressing harder against my skin.
"The sound of the chains falling was like thunder in the stillness. It wasn't just a sound—it was a promise. A storm was coming."
Benjamin moved in a blur. One moment, he was standing still; the next, his hand was around the Duenio's throat. The man didn't even have time to scream before Benjamin crushed his windpipe, his body crumpling like paper. The crowd erupted into chaos.
He grabbed his obsidian club and swung it with bone-shattering force. Screams filled the air as bodies fell, the sound of breaking bones mingling with the wet splatter of blood. Benjamin was destruction—raw, unrelenting, unstoppable.
"He moved like lightning, faster and stronger than anyone could stop. The system had tried to destroy him, but they only made him more dangerous. He wasn't just a man. He wasn't just a god. He was the system's fury unleashed."
His eyes found mine in the chaos, dark and unreadable. His gaze pinned me in place, my breath catching in my throat. There was something magnetic about him—terrifying and impossible to look away from.
My body reacted before my mind could catch up, my hands raised as I summoned a barrier of wind. The air whipped around me in a desperate attempt to hold him back, screeching and howling, the sound sharp enough to cut. The force of the barrier kicked up dust and debris, the energy vibrating through my bones.
Benjamin grinned, his sharp teeth flashing as he raised his club. His dark, unyielding eyes locked onto mine, and in that moment, I knew—he wasn't going to stop.
The moment he struck, it felt like time slowed. The barrier cracked, thin spiderwebs of energy spreading across its surface. The cracks deepened, and for one heart-stopping second, it held.
Then it shattered.
The force of the blow sent me flying, my body twisting through the air before slamming into a tree. The impact drove the air from my lungs, pain radiating through my body as I crumpled to the ground.
"I've killed gods, little girl." His voice was low, mocking, as he loomed above me. "You think you're any different?"
My vision blurred, fading into darkness. I barely registered Kiaran's voice, screaming my name, and the deep, echoing laughter that followed me into unconsciousness.
The laughter faded. The heat of the market gave way to something colder, damper. The world grew quiet, suffocatingly so.
If Benjamin was the storm, then this was the scar it left behind. The consequence. The predator born of the system's failure. This was Seven Six............
As I entered Seven Six's world, the damp taste of rot brought me back. I flinched as water dripped onto my lips, bitter and sour, gasping as my lungs fought for air. My chest ached, the pain from Benjamin's strike radiating through my ribs, my back. Every breath felt heavier than the last.
The forest was wrong. The shadows shifted around me, twisting unnaturally, and the air pressed down like it wanted to crush me.
When I opened my eyes fully, I froze.
He was crouched right in front of me, so close I could see the sharp points of his long canines when he grinned. His mismatched eyes—one blue, one golden—adorned with thick black lashes, gleamed with quiet amusement, and his head tilted slightly, studying me like I was something to be toyed with.
His chest heaved against his muscled, rich tanned skin, his arms blacked out and his back covered in designs representing mangled thorns and flowers. The smiley tattoo on his left arm laughed in my face, as if my pain was its life force. His dark hair covered his beautiful face, and the smoke from his cigarette and his breath pulled me from my slumber.
"You're awake," he said softly, his voice carrying a quiet mockery. "Good. I was starting to think you wouldn't get up."
My pulse quickened, my body frozen. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but I couldn't look away from him. His presence was suffocating, his grin sharp enough to cut.
"You smell like fear, princess," he said, his voice dropping lower, almost a purr. "I like it. Makes the hunt... more fun."
He stood slowly, his movements deliberate, predatory.
"Go on," he said, his grin widening. "Run. Let's see how far you'll go."
My legs moved before my mind could catch up. I bolted, the forest closing in around me with every step. Shadows twisted unnaturally, curling and stretching like hungry, living things. Branches scraped at my arms, tearing through my cloak, while roots snatched at my feet, threatening to drag me down. I stumbled, gasping for air, but the ache in my chest only grew heavier.
I couldn't breathe. My heart was pounding—no, shaking—but it didn't feel right. It wasn't there.
I ran, but it didn't feel like running. The forest swallowed me whole, its shadows curling around my limbs, its roots clawing at my feet. And then I felt it—his hand, cold and unyielding, reaching into my chest. There was no pain, only the suffocating emptiness as he ripped my heart free.
My knees buckled, and I collapsed, clutching at my chest. My pulse was faint, distant, like it wasn't even inside me anymore. The forest fell silent around me, the only sound the ragged pull of my breaths as my head lifted slowly.
And then I saw it. He was looking up at me, smiling, holding my heart in his arms. Each drip drained me of my life. The forest twisted unnaturally, the shadows curling toward him like they knew him, feared him, worshipped him. The air grew thick, heavy, suffocating. And then I saw him.
All I could do was stare at him, clawing at my neck for air.
"Looking for this?" Seven Six said, examining my heart with intrigue, as his sheer presence overwhelmed me.
A few feet ahead, Seven Six embedded my heart in the bark of a twisted, ancient tree. It glowed faintly, its rhythm steady and slow, pulsing in perfect time with the weak thrum inside my chest.
It wasn't possible. It couldn't be real. But it was. My heart—mine—was there, stolen and pulsing in the hollow of a tree. And I couldn't breathe without it.
My trembling fingers dug into the dirt as I stared, my mind racing for something—anything—that made sense. But before I could move, before I could even try to reach it, his voice cut through the silence.
"Checkmate, princess."
My body froze.
Seven stepped into the clearing, his movements slow, deliberate, and horrifyingly calm. His mismatched eyes gleamed with amusement as they flicked from me to the tree, then back again. He leaned casually against a nearby trunk, his grin sharp and predatory.
"You can claw at it all you want," he said softly, his voice laced with mockery, "but it won't matter. The forest already decided. You belong to it now." He pushed off the tree, taking a slow step closer, his shadow stretching unnaturally across the ground. "You belong to me."
My breath hitched as his presence closed in around me, suffocating and inescapable. He crouched beside me, his voice dropping lower, softer, but no less deadly.
"That's the thing about hearts, princess." His grin widened, his canines glinting faintly in the dim light. "They're fragile. So easy to take. So easy to break."
I couldn't move, couldn't breathe. All I could do was watch as his smile faded into the shadows, leaving me alone in the clearing. The tree loomed before me, my heart still pulsing faintly in its bark, and the weight of his words settled over me like a noose.
Benjamin was the storm—violent, unrelenting, impossible to ignore. But storms pass. What they leave behind... that's where the real danger begins. Seven Six wasn't the storm. He was the scar. The predator. The consequence.
To understand them, to understand any of this, we have to go back. Back to the beginning. To the storm, the scar, and the girl caught between them. For now, let's begin with Act I: Seven Six and my heart.
24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc7ba6sNBoC
