Prologue – The Return from Ashes
The night was devoured by flames.
The village burned—not as a tragedy, but as if fate itself had chosen to erase every memory, every soul. And beneath the charred remains… something stirred.
It wasn’t a child.
It wasn’t a corpse.
It was a return.
Bones cracked and shifted. Flesh regrew, sinew by sinew. Skin formed over muscle like a cloak of rebirth. He opened his eyes—not in pain, not in fear, but in hollow silence.
His right hand pulsed with a mark—black and alive, shaped like a seal of shadows.
His name? Royan.
And buried deep within the void of his forgotten mind, a single memory burned:
"The Book of Death… will rise again."
---
Chapter One – The Boy and the Seal
Scene 1: Ashes Still Breathe
The air still smelled of fire.
Royan walked through what remained of the village—if walking could describe the way his legs trembled, unsure whether they belonged to the living or the dead. His bare feet pressed against scorched earth, stepping over bones too fragile to mourn.
No screams. No survivors. Only silence.
And the whisper of the seal on his hand… pulsing, as if it had a heartbeat of its own.
He didn’t know who he was.
Not his mother’s name.
Not his father’s face.
Not even what burned the world around him.
But he remembered the mark.
He remembered the pain.
And he remembered the name carved into his soul:
Death.
---
Scene 2: The Voice Without a Face
He sat near the broken well—the only thing left standing. Wind curled around him like a ghost trying to remember its own name.
Then, it spoke.
Not from the sky.
Not from the earth.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
But from within the seal.
> "You should not exist."
Royan’s eyes flickered. He looked at his hand. The seal burned blue for a moment, then black again.
> "You saw what no one should see. And lived."
"Who… are you?" Royan whispered.
But no answer came.
Only the cold.
And the certainty that something was watching him.
---
Scene 3: The Demon Hunter
Night fell, and with it, came the first shadow.
It wasn’t shaped like a man. Nor a beast.
It was wrong—twisted, floating, cloaked in a fog that tasted like rust and screams. Eyes like melted gold flickered inside it.
Royan didn’t move.
The shadow crept closer, sniffing the air.
> “You carry the mark…” it hissed.
> “You belong to the cursed one.”
Before Royan could speak, the seal pulsed—and in a blink, darkness erupted from his back like wings made of ink and flame. His eyes turned glassy black.
The shadow recoiled.
But didn’t flee.
Instead, it smiled.
> “Then the hunt begins.”
---
Scene 4: The Girl in the Fog
Royan ran.
Not out of fear.
But instinct.
The seal on his hand pulsed with every heartbeat, whispering paths he didn’t know he could follow. The trees were crooked, like the bones of ancient giants. Fog crawled low, thick enough to drown in.
Then… he saw her.
A silhouette.
A girl, standing in the mist.
She held a blade of crystal—shimmering faintly with light that didn’t belong in this world.
> “You’re not supposed to be alive,” she said, not turning to face him.
Royan stopped.
> “Do you know me?” he asked.
> “No.”
> “But the seal does.”
She finally turned, and her eyes were silver—reflecting the seal on his hand like a mirror of fate.
> “If you don’t leave now… you’ll die before you understand what you’ve become.”
---
Scene 5: The Awakening of the Seal
Royan didn’t move.
The girl’s eyes narrowed.
> “You don’t feel it yet, do you?”
> “Feel what?”
She stepped forward, her voice dropping to a whisper.
> “The seal isn’t just a mark. It’s a door.”
> “And something is knocking.”
Suddenly—the world twisted.
The ground beneath Royan split like glass. The trees screamed. The fog thickened into claws. And inside him, a burning roar erupted.
The seal ignited.
Black flames spiraled from his arm, consuming his shoulder, his back, his chest. The veins across his skin turned black. His breath became smoke. His voice disappeared.
Then—
He opened his mouth, and something ancient screamed through him.
The girl raised her sword.
But it was too late.
Royan was no longer just a boy.
He was something… bound to death.
---
Chapter Two – The Black Pulse
Scene 1: After the Burn
The world was quiet again.
But not the same kind of quiet.
This time… it was the silence after a scream.
Royan lay in a crater of scorched earth, steam rising from his skin. His eyes were open—but not human. Black sclera. Crimson pupils. He didn’t blink.
He didn’t breathe.
Yet he was alive.
The girl stood at the edge of the crater, sword still raised, hands trembling. Her name was Evera, though Royan didn’t know that yet.
> “You’re not a vessel,” she whispered.
> “You’re a wound.”
---
Scene 2: Names of the Damned
Royan rose to his knees. The seal on his hand was no longer burning—it had merged into his flesh, like it had always been there.
His voice returned, raspy.
> “What… am I?”
Evera looked away.
> “There are names for what you are. None of them mean salvation.”
She dropped her blade.
> “If the demons find you first, they’ll try to claim you. If the High Seers find you, they’ll destroy you. But if the Book finds you…”
> “It will finish what it started.”
Royan looked at his hand. The seal pulsed.
Black.
Alive.
Waiting.
---
Scene 3: Echoes of the Book
The trees whispered as they walked.
Evera led the way, moving swiftly between the twisted trunks, her eyes scanning the shadows. Royan followed, silent, his body still adjusting to whatever he had become.
> “You knew about the seal,” he said.
> “I knew of it,” she replied. “But I’ve never seen it awaken like that.”
> “What do you mean awaken?”
Evera stopped.
> “The Book of Death doesn’t just kill. It chooses.”
She turned to him, serious.
> “Those it marks are either devoured… or transformed.”
Royan swallowed hard.
> “And me?”
> “You’re neither. Not yet.”
Suddenly, a howl tore through the forest—low, inhuman, and close.
Evera’s hand shot to her blade.
> “We have to move. Now.”
---
Scene 4: The First Hunt
The forest cracked.
Branches snapped behind them—too heavy for any natural beast. The shadows twisted as something emerged… crawling, dragging, breathing like smoke given form.
Royan turned. He saw it.
A creature with no skin.
Only muscle, bone, and a head shaped like a torn mask. Its mouth opened vertically, splitting up to its skull, revealing rows of black, jagged teeth.
It sniffed.
Then screeched.
Evera shouted, “Don’t let it touch you!”
She leapt, blade glowing, and slashed through the beast’s neck—but the wound hissed and closed in seconds.
Royan froze.
His hand burned.
The seal awakened.
> “Not now…” he gasped.
But the black flame had already returned—flooding his arm, his chest, his eyes.
And when the creature lunged—
Royan met it with a scream that shook the leaves from the trees.
---
Scene 5: Blood and Memory
The creature writhed beneath Royan’s grasp.
His hand—now covered in blackened skin—dug into the monster’s throat as if it were paper. Shadows twisted around his arm like serpents, devouring the demon from the inside out.
It didn’t bleed.
It evaporated.
Gone.
Evera stared, wide-eyed.
> “You just… erased it.”
Royan collapsed to his knees.
Smoke curled from his lips.
His veins, still pulsing with black fire, began to fade.
> “What… did I do?”
Evera knelt beside him.
> “You didn’t kill it.”
> “You unmade it.”
A pause.
Then—
> “There’s more than death in that seal. It holds something else.”
> “Something older.”
Royan looked at his hand again.
And this time… it stared back.
Chapter Three – The Demon’s Price
---
Scene 1: Scorched Breath
The forest was dead silent.Not the kind of silence that brings peace—but the silence that follows something unholy.
Royan knelt beside a scorched patch of earth, black veins faint on his skin.The girl—Evera—stood back, watching him like a storm struggling to remember it was once human.
> "You were supposed to die," she said.
Royan didn’t answer.He didn’t know how.
The seal on his hand no longer pulsed.It watched.
> "What happens now?" he whispered.
Evera turned away.
> "Now… you pay the price."
---
Scene 2: The Pact Beneath Silence
They found a cave—or perhaps it found them.
A hollow in the crumbling hill where air felt still and fog refused to enter.Evera lit a small flame. Shadows danced warnings across the walls.
Royan sat opposite her, the seal hidden beneath torn cloth.
> "There’s something inside it," he said."I know," she replied."It’s not just power. It thinks. It remembers."
> "That’s why the seal is forbidden.Because what’s sealed... isn't asleep. It’s waiting."
Royan asked:
> "You said I have to pay. How?"
Her answer chilled him:
> "With what makes you human."
---
Scene 3: Memory Without a Name
Royan dreamed. Or remembered.
A room without doors.Walls carved in scripture only he could understand.In the center—a mirror of black glass.
He stepped closer.His reflection blinked before he did.
It spoke:
> "I wore your skin once. You wore mine."
Royan staggered back.The seal on his hand burned.
> "Who are you?""A question for later," the reflection whispered."For now… run."
---
Scene 4: Marked in Flame
Royan woke with a gasp.The cave was gone.So was Evera.
He stood in a scorched circle, ancient symbols glowing faintly at his feet.
The seal was alive. It pulled.
From the trees, whispers rose.A ring of faceless shadows emerged—each bearing the same mark.
> "One of us," one hissed,"Or one who will be hunted."
---
Scene 5: The Whisper Pact
The shadows circled him—whispering, chanting, remembering.
Each voice was a pain not his... yet known.
One shadow stepped forward, cloaked in smoke, crowned with broken bone:
> "There was once a king who defied the seal.Now he kneels in silence.You too will kneel."
Royan's eyes burned red.
> "I’d rather burn."
The shadows vanished.Only the flame remained.And the seal pulsed, hungrier than before.
---
Chapter Four – Beneath the Burned Crown
---
Scene 1: Ashes of the First King
The flame led him—
Through a forest that no longer breathed.Toward a throne broken into seven jagged pieces.
On one stone knelt a crowned skeleton—pierced through the skull.
Evera's voice echoed:
> "That was the first.The first to carry the seal.The first to break."
Royan asked:
> "Then why is he still here?"
She answered:
> "Because some curses don't end in death."
---
Scene 2: The Seven Pieces
Royan scanned the shattered throne.
Each piece bore memories—wounds carved into stone.
He touched one.
A scream filled his mind.
Evera said:
> "They thought the seal was a gift...Until it started taking."
> "Taking what?""Names. Faces. Time. Self."
She pointed to the shattered circle.
> "Sit."
---
Scene 3: Throne of the Nameless
Royan sat.
The world fractured.
The forest vanished.The sky folded.
He floated among seven throne pieces whispering names he could not remember.
One throne pulsed louder:
> "Yours."
The seal on his hand burned white.
From the darkness, a shadow stirred—wearing his face.
---
Scene 4: The Mirror Flame
The shadow moved.
It touched Royan’s chest, over the seal.
> "You are the flame.And the one who burns."
The shadow plunged into him.
Royan screamed—And the world exploded in light.
---
Scene 5: The Crown That Chose
Royan awoke amid smoke and falling ash.
Only one stone remained, crowned by black metal and bone—humming with life.
Evera whispered:
> "You survived it…"
Royan’s seal shimmered with black and white light.
> "What is this?" he asked.
She answered:
> "The first chose rebellion.You were chosen by the crown."
Royan looked at the jagged crown.And the crown looked back.
He whispered:
> "Then the story changes now."
