Kapitel 7: Into the Temple of Endless Desires...

Adrian took a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest as he removed the flame torch hanging at the entrance and ventured into the foreboding temple.

The passage stretched before him, shrouded in darkness, and he proceeded cautiously, the flame in his hand casting eerie, dancing shadows on the cave's ancient walls.

The temple revealed itself slowly as he moved forward.

Stalactites hung like menacing icicles from the ceiling, their sharp points glistening ominously in the torchlight.

The walls bore strange, intricate carvings of gods, goddesses and humans; hinting at a history long forgotten.

The floor was uneven and treacherous that it seemed to shift beneath his boots.

As he moved deeper into the cave, his thoughts turned to a comment Lorian made about this place filled with booby traps.

'I thought this place was said to be booby trapped,' he mused to himself, his voice barely more than a whisper.

Just as if his thoughts were some silent premonition come to reality, he suddenly felt a shift beneath his boot.

He glanced down in alarm, realizing that he had stepped on a false tile on the floor.

Panic surged through him as he froze in his tracks, 'Seems like I spoke too soon.'

Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he swiftly moved the torch to his left hand, drawing his sword with the other.

In one fluid motion, he leaped backward, his heart pounding.

As his foot left the trigger, a deadly barrage of metal filled the air.

Knives, hidden in the recesses of the cave, were unleashed with deadly precision, hurtling straight toward him.

With split-second reflexes, he tossed the torch ahead, casting a fiery glow that illuminated the chaos about to unfold.

With both hands gripping his sword, he summoned fiery chains from his back, a total of eight of them, and formed a protective shield in front of him.

The sound of the knives tearing through the air was deafening, but Adrian stood his ground, his chains intercepting the deadly projectiles one after the other.

Any knives that managed to slip past his fiery barrier were quickly deflected by his sword, their deadly edges harmlessly ricocheting off the walls.

The passage fell into silence, and Adrian stopped to listen for a while.

When he heard nothing else, only then did he relax.

He extended one of the fiery chains to retrieve the torch from where it lay on the cavern floor, keeping the other chains in place as a precaution.

With the torch once again casting its wavering light, he pressed forward into the depths of the cave, his hand never leaving the hilt of his sword.

Eventually, he reached the far end, where an ancient colossal door loomed before him. He willed the chain holding the torch to move forward, revealing the door's intricate details.

The sides of the door bore the unmistakable marks of the concealed knife holes from which the deadly projectiles had emerged earlier.

They were clearly meant to stop anyone from reaching what lay beyond.

But it was the door itself that held the most fascination and dread.

It was adorned with ancient, complicated engravings that seemed to writhe and pulse with an otherworldly energy.

In the center, a striking image depicted a sexy goddess, with so many men beneath her Adrian couldn't count, all looking like they were in some kind of enchantment.

Lilith, the Goddess of Lust.

This was the entrance to her temple, the Temple of Endless Desire.

Examining the door more closely, Adrian noted five distinct keyholes, each one unique in shape and size.

Without hesitation, he extended his fiery chains, their spear-like ends resembling keys of their own. With precise control, he inserted all five chains into the keyholes simultaneously.

The fiery chains trembled with power as they worked their magic on the locks.

The cave seemed to hold its breath as the chains turned, clicked, and finally, with a satisfying mechanical sound, the locks gave way.

The massive door groaned as it began to swing open, revealing a chamber bathed in a very bright light. In the center of the chamber stood a pedestal, beckoning to him like a beacon.

Between where he stood and the pedestal lay a narrow walkway of stone, suspended seemingly by nothing. It connected the chamber's entrance to the pedestal, leaving a dark abyss below.

Adrian swallowed hard, reminding himself that this treacherous path was the price to pay for his revenge.

With a deep breath, he approached the edge of the walkway, peering down into the inky blackness. "I must do it to get my revenge," he whispered to himself.

He cautiously took a step, testing the stability of the path.

"It seems solid enough," he muttered as he continued forward, one step at a time.

With each careful stride, the ground beneath him seemed to hold. However, when he was nearly halfway across, the earth trembled beneath his feet.

Panicking, Adrian drove one of his chains into the stone walkway, its spear edge digging in and dislodging a shower of pebbles into the abyss below.

After regaining his composure, he pressed on but stopped abruptly when an eerie sound filled the chamber, followed by silence.

He spun around, scanning the shadows, but there was nothing to be seen.

The eerie silence was broken again by another ear-piercing screech from below, and then another, and another, until the entire chamber was filled with their unnerving cries.

As he took a few more cautious steps, the source of the terrifying sound emerged from the abyss beneath.

A monstrous creature, half dragon, half bat; a dragon-bat, its leathery wings outstretched, soared toward him with deadly intent.

Reacting with lightning speed, Adrian shot one of his chains toward the approaching creature, but it deftly dodged the attack.

With a swift maneuver, he redirected the chain, ensnaring the dragon-bat and squeezing the life out of it.

More dragon-bats flew up, and Adrian's blazing chains met their dangerous figures.

One chain went through a creature and cut it in half, sending a disgusting rain of green slime into the darkness.

Another dragon-bat came dangerously close, so Adrian bent backward and hit it with his sword, cutting it in half.

Adrian steadied himself by driving two chains into the ground, which lifted him slightly above the collapsing path.

Taking careful steps forward, Adrian grabbed another dragon-bat and pierced its wing, sending it hurtling down into the abyss below.

Despite the relentless onslaught, he kept his balance in order to avoid missing a foot.

After slaying the last creature, Adrian retracted his chains, but his mistake became painfully clear when the ground gave way. "Shit..." he mumbled, adrenaline rushing as he ran towards the pedestal.

Only a few steps stood between safety and doom.