CHAPTER EIGHT
> "There are laws beneath this world," she continued. "Ancient laws. Blood must answer blood. A king must lose what still anchors him to mercy."
Mako stepped closer, his shadow stretching unnaturally along the stone walls.
"Who ordered it?" he asked.
She swallowed hard.
"Not your mother's people," she said quickly. "They would rather burn the world than harm her."
Mako already knew that.
"Your father's blood," she whispered. "But not all of them."
The gate groaned, impatient, as if listening.
"They feared you," she went on. "Your stepbrothers wanted the throne after they learned you survived their first attempt. They sought help where power sleeps hungry."
Mako's hands clenched.
"The underworld," he said.
She nodded slowly.
"But I was not the blade," she said, her voice breaking. "I was the door."
Silence struck harder than any blow.
"You gave them access," Mako said quietly.
"I gave them a path," she replied. "I believed Linah's death would break you. I did not know they wanted to erase her across lives."
The words echoed in him.
Across lives.
---
The Warning
The underworld gate roared now, shadows clawing outward like living things.
"There is one who stands above me," the woman said hurriedly. "One who feeds on broken kings. He wears no crown and answers to no bloodline."
"His name," Mako demanded.
She shook her head violently.
"Names are summons," she said. "And he listens."
A low laugh rolled from the gate — not loud, not clear, but aware.
The woman stepped back.
"If you go further," she warned, "your father's bloodline will rise in fury. War will follow."
Mako stepped forward anyway.
"Then let the world remember why my mother's bloodline crowned me Demon King of the Sacred Forest."
The gate swallowed him.
---
Beyond the Gate
As Mako vanished into the underworld, the forest trembled.
Rivers reversed their flow.
Ancestral drums began to beat without hands.
Far away, in a land of old bones and royal greed, his father's bloodline felt it — the awakening of the king they had tried to bury.
And in the shadows between worlds, the unseen watcher smiled.
> "The war has begun," the voice whispered.
As Mako moved deeper, closer to the lion's den, he felt the eyes upon him. He did not turn back.
A voice laughed.
"Welcome, dear brother… or should I say, Demon King of the Sacred Forest."
Mako turned sharply.
His enemies surrounded him, waiting.
His stepbrother Lloyd stood at the center, laughing — his face twisted with cruelty.
In that moment, Mako knew.
This is her killer.
"Why did you kill her?" Mako demanded. "She never wronged you in this life."
Lloyd sneered.
"You mean that irritating human?" he said. "You were supposed to die by the river. That's why we abandoned you there. No charm in the human world should have saved you."
He laughed darkly.
"But that witch doctor's daughter saved you. Later we discovered her hidden power — and worse, that she was your soulmate. United, the two of you would have ruled worlds."
His eyes burned with hatred.
"She was your strength… and your weakness. Killing her made you abandon the throne your mother's bloodline crowned you with."
Mako's voice trembled. "I never wanted our father's throne."
Lloyd laughed harder.
"You existed. That was enough."
He gestured sharply.
"Kill him."
Two men rushed forward.
They were no match.
Within minutes, Mako destroyed them. He fought every man Lloyd had brought. When Lloyd saw defeat closing in, he vanished into darkness.
Mako stood alone, breathing hard.
If they want war, he thought, I will finish what they started.
---
The Human World
For one month, Linah felt unbearably lonely.
Her mysterious man no longer visited her. His presence — the warmth, the comfort — was gone. Fear crept into her heart.
Then she noticed something else.
Boss Mako had disappeared too.
She asked the butler about him and was told he had traveled abroad on a business trip. The answer did not comfort her. He had not said goodbye.
That night, Linah dreamed.
She stood on one side of a river. Her mysterious man stood on the other, pale and weak. She tried to cross, slipping again and again — until she finally reached him.
He lay in a pool of blood.
She screamed.
Linah woke up shaking.
She clutched her bracelet tightly.
"Are you okay?" she whispered. "I miss you. Please… communicate with me. I'm scared."
From that night on, sleep abandoned her.
At last, she made a decision.
She would return to her village.
She would seek a witch doctor.
She needed answers.
---
The Captive King
As Mako followed the path toward the palace, his brothers ambushed him.
They accused him of still being a threat — of carrying their blood even after abandoning the throne. They revealed their plan: to imprison him and use Linah as bait.
They attacked with dark charms.
Mako fought until his strength failed.
Surrounded by his wife's killers, he fell.
They seized him.
---
Deep within the sacred forest, the ancestors of Mako's mother's bloodline felt it.
Their nephew's suffering shook the roots of the earth.
They rose together.
> "If his father's blood seeks his death again," they vowed,
"then we shall rise."
For the first time in centuries,
the forest prepared for war.
END OF CHAPTER EIGHT