After a few minutes of waiting for Aiden to wake, Jayden looked around the room, feeling uneasy. His eyes locked onto a closet with an old lock.

“Hmm, wonder what’s in there…” Jayden muttered to himself. He raised the strange scepter in his hand and swung it against the lock. To his surprise, the lock shattered with a loud crack.

“No way…” he whispered, amazed. Opening the door, Jayden found an ancient-looking book. The cover was worn and torn, with strange symbols etched into the leather. The title, written in an ancient script, caught his eye: 𐏂𐎧𐎤 𐎬𐎠𐎦𐎨𐎢 𐎮𐎥 𐎣𐎤𐎠𐏂𐎧, with a ∅ in the center. Weirdly enough, Jayden could understand it.

“The Seal of Null? What the hell is this?” he muttered, picking up the book. He opened it, flipping through the brittle pages. Time seemed to slip away as he got lost in the strange text, until finally, he landed on a page marked with a heptagram inside a circle.

“Well, this can't be good,” Jayden said under his breath. Despite the pit growing in his stomach, he couldn’t help himself and started to chant the symbols aloud, “𐎨 𐎽𐎧𐎠𐎫𐎫 𐎽𐎧𐎠𐎣𐎮𐎼 𐏂𐎧𐎨𐎽 𐎤𐎠𐎱𐏂𐎧 𐎼𐎨𐏂𐎧 𐏂𐎧𐎤 𐎮𐎫𐎣 𐎯𐎮𐎼𐎤𐎱 𐎮𐎥 𐎣𐎤𐎠𐏂𐎧!”

The room shook violently. A loud rumble echoed through the walls as the lights dimmed, shadows crawling over the space.

“Huh?” Aiden stirred, barely conscious. “Jay? What’s going on?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Before Jayden could answer, a glowing iris-colored heptagram appeared in the middle of the room. An alabaster arm, covered in iridescent, diamond-shaped tattoos, emerged from its center. The hand opened wide, radiating a dark, shadowy aura, and with a flash, a massive bone scythe appeared. The moment the scythe materialized, the hand clenched it tightly.

Jayden’s eyes widened as the rest of the creature began to pull itself free—first one leg, then the other, each marked with the same eerie tattoos. When the head finally emerged, he wished it hadn’t.

“What the… hell… is that thing?” Jayden gasped.

The monster’s head was grotesque, with a single glowing purple eye in the middle like a cyclops. Its mouth stretched unnaturally wide, filled with rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth, like a shark’s. Thick strands of saliva clung between them, dripping to the floor as it breathed heavily.

Jayden didn’t waste time. He grabbed the golden scepter and swung it with all his might, aiming for the creature’s chest. But the beast was fast—it blocked the attack with the hilt of its scythe. In the blink of an eye, it lashed out, gripping Jayden by the throat.

“Ugh—!” Jayden gagged, gasping for air as the creature’s grip tightened around his neck. His vision blurred, panic setting in. Desperate, he slashed the scepter across the monster's body. To his shock, the scepter passed through it as if it wasn’t solid.

The beast screeched and released him, staggering back. Jayden didn’t hesitate this time—he swung again, aiming for its neck. The scepter sliced clean through, and the creature let out an ear-piercing scream as thick dust poured from the gashes in its body.

With a final poof, the monster disintegrated into a cloud of dust, leaving behind only its scythe and a severed hand.

Jayden collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily, his heart racing. “Crap…” he muttered, rubbing his neck.

He reached for the scythe, hesitating for a moment before gripping its handle. With a grunt, he ripped the severed hand off of it.

At that moment, Aiden finally snapped awake, sitting up with a start. “Wha—what the hell is that?” he stammered, eyes wide in terror as he spotted the scythe.

“Yeah,” Jayden said, catching his breath. “No clue. But it’s not dead… unless you count disappearing in a puff of dust.”

Aiden’s eyes fixed on the scythe. “Is… is that a scythe? Where’d you even get that?”

Jayden gave a shaky laugh. “Long story, man. And trust me, you don’t wanna know.”