Arch let out a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "That damn furball... always wandering off when there's loot to be sorted."
He didn't hesitate. With a mental command, the System digitized the massive treasure chest it into the system inventory in a flicker of some olde door opening and some tentaclesgrabbingthe treasure chest storing it. Then , extending his palm, he felt for Foxxy's unique signature deep within the rock.
"Shambles."
The air folded. In a blink, Arch was no longer in the damp entryway. He was standing in a massive, hidden sanctum where the air was thick with the smell of dry calcium and ancient dust. Foxxy was standing nearby, his golden eyes wide, staring at the center of the room
Arch's breath hitched. He reached into his the system inventory and whipped out his phone with a speed that blurred, the camera app already open.
"Now this... this is what I'm talking about," he whispered.
In the center of the cavern sat a Throne of Bone. It wasn't just a chair; it was a macabre masterpiece. The headrest was a massive, weathered human skull—far too large to be normal—with hollow sockets that seemed to stare into the soul. The frame and backrest were constructed from the fused vertebrae of a colossal serpent, curving upward like a striking cobra. The seat and armrests were a lattice of interlocking femurs and ribs, polished smooth by time.
Around the throne, the floor was a graveyard. Thousands of bones—human, beast, and things that defied categorization—were arranged in spiraling patterns, creating a literal shrine to death.
Arch moved like a ghost, his finger tapping the shutter button rapidly. Click. Click. Click. He captured the shadows, the texture of the bone, the way the light hit the giant skull's brow.
"The composition... the lighting... it's peak," Arch muttered, his heart racing. He looked at the throne and felt a magnetic pull. Every instinct he had from his eight years in the underground screamed at him to claim it. He wanted to sit there, legs crossed, chin resting on his hand, looking like the King of the Underworld.
But then, he caught his own reflection in the phone screen.
"Fuck... fuck!" Arch hissed, his grip tightening on the phone until the casing creaked. "I want to sit there so bad. I want the most legendary photo of all time. But with this face? With these 'pretty' eyelashes and this 'perfect' skin?"
He imagined the photo: a terrifying throne of death, and sitting on it... a guy who looked like he belonged on the cover of a romance novel. The contrast made him want to breathe fire.
"I'd look like a doll sitting on a mountain of corpses," he growled, his red slit-eyes flashing with genuine fury. "It ruins the whole aesthetic! I should look like a nightmare, not a daydream!"
frozen in his hair. His red, predatory eyes locked onto a pile of bleached-white skulls scattered near the base of the throne. Some were human, some were giants, and some belonged to beasts with tusks that curved like scimitars.
"Skulls... right... skulls..."
"Skulls... right... skulls..."
A slow, twisted smirk spread across his face—a look that definitely wasn't "pretty." It was the expression of a man who had spent eight years learning how to survive by being the smartest predator in the room.
"Gurarararara! That's it! If the face doesn't fit the throne, I'll just change the face."
Arch's eyes scanned the floor of the shrine, moving past the generic human remains and the broken ribs of forgotten beasts. He wasn't just looking for "a" skull; he was looking for the skull. His photographer's eye was searching for a specific silhouette, something that balanced the "Beauty" he was cursed with and the "Terror" he felt inside.
Then, he saw it.
Tucked away in the furthest, darkest corner of the bone-shrine, half-buried under a pile of ancient vertebrae, was a structure that stood out like a diamond in the dirt.
"Gurarararara... coincidence? Or is the universe finally giving me a break?"
Arch walked over and reached into the shadows. He pulled it out, and even the dust couldn't hide its majesty. It was a Ram Skull, but unlike any common animal. This bone was thick and reinforced, and growing from the temples were two massive, jet-black horns that swirled in a perfect, aggressive spiral.
Gorgeous... intimidating... absolutely perfect for my liking," Arch whispered, tracing the curve of the black horns. It was the missing piece of his aesthetic puzzle.
He turned back toward the center of the room, where Foxxy was sniffing at the base of the throne.
Hey, Foxxy. Wait for me here," Arch commanded, his voice echoing. "Don't touch anything, and definitely don't eat anything. I'm going to go make this look like a masterpiece. I'll be back in an hour."
Foxxy let out a small, bored huff and curled up at the foot of the bone throne, resting his head on his paws.
Arch didn't waste another second. "Shambles."
In a flicker of blue light, he vanished from the dark shrine and reappeared outside, the thunderous roar of the waterfall hitting his ears once more. He stood on the mossy rocks, holding the dirty skull like a treasure.
"System," he muttered, opening the interface with a swipe of his hand. "Open the Necessities Tab. I need the high-grade kit. I'm not putting a dirty bone on this face."
He bought the 5-piece professional cleaning set. For the next hour, the "Goddess-faced" warrior was gone, replaced by a meticulous restorer. He scrubbed, he polished, and he bleached, working with a focus that would have made a surgeon jealous.
When he was finished, he held it up. The white bone gleamed like ivory, and the black horns looked like they had been forged from the night sky itself.
"Now," Arch smirked, his red eyes reflecting off the polished bone. "Let's go show the King of the Underworld how it's done."
Arch appeared in the bone-shrine with a soft zip of displaced air. Foxxy looked up, ears twitching at the sight of the pristine, ivory-white skull in Arch's hands.
"Hey, Foxxy... just like before. Be my honest photographer," Arch said, his voice echoing with a mix of excitement and command. Foxxy let out a small, tired snort—clearly done with the "pretty boy's" vanity—but he did as he was told. The beast sat perfectly still,holding the phone steady with a focus that only a trained partner could manage.
Arch set the timer and checked the framing. "Don't move, Foxxy."
Arch stepped back, the Ram Skull now firmly settled over his head. The black horns curved back like a crown of obsidian, hiding his face but emphasizing the grace of his form.( image here )
He didn't walk like a warrior heading to battle. He didn't stomp like a conqueror. Arch moved with a supermodel's elegance, a slow, rhythmic gait that turned the cavern floor into a high-fashion runway. Even without his face visible, his body spoke of a divine, "unrealistic" beauty. Every step was a display of pure poise, his silk-white hair swaying behind him like a royal cape.
The phone recorded every second. To anyone watching the footage later, it wouldn't look like a King reclaiming his seat. It looked like a Mysterious Goddess venturing into a mortal hell, claiming a throne that once belonged to a demon. It gave the vibe of a silent victory—as if the previous occupant had been erased by her sheer presence.
Arch reached the throne. He turned slowly and sat. His posture was perfectly straight, his legs crossed in a way that highlighted his lean, graceful silhouette. He rested his hands on the armrests made of human spines, the contrast between his white-silk attire and the yellowed, jagged bone creating a visual harmony that was almost overwhelming.
The Ram Skull sat tilted slightly forward, the black horns framing the "Goddess" figure. It was the ultimate contradiction: a terrifying symbol of death worn by a being of celestial grace.
"This is it," Arch thought, staring through the eye sockets of the skull at the phone's lens. "This is the image."
He wasn't the King of the Underworld. He was the Deity who had conquered it.
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[ y'all want image? It's on the comments section ]
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--------- to be continued-------
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. [ Hey I just fucking discovered how to post the image in the paragraph as a comment..hahahaha...fr..]