Thunder rolled over the blackened skies of the Nightshade Continent, where rain struck the roof of Crimson Manor like glass shattering on stone. At the heart of the manor, in a room sealed from both the living and the dead, stood Duke Adrien Valtas. He was not weeping. He was not allowed to. The corpse of a young man lay on a velvet altar-gold-threaded priest robes now soaked in dark blood, his face pale as marble. Elric. The human who had smiled at him like no one else. The one who once laughed and told him that monsters deserved warmth too. The one who had died shielding the Vampire Prince from an assassin's blade. The Prince lived. Elric died. And Adrien never forgave either of them. His hand hovered over the lifeless body, trembling. "You chose him," Adrien whispered, his voice cracking like dry leaves underfoot. "Even in your last breath... you chose him." He leaned down, pressing his forehead to Elric's cold chest. "But I will not forget you. I will not let you go." He summoned the Crimson Rite, a forbidden vampire ritual only those born of pureblood could access. It could not revive the dead. But it could preserve them. A curse of the body, defying rot and time. A body kept intact... waiting for the soul that would never return. Adrien sealed Elric inside a crystal coffin and placed it beneath his manor in the Shrine of Eternal Thirst. And then... he went mad. He stopped drinking fresh blood. He tortured prisoners in the same voice he once used to murmur love. He danced with corpses and laughed at funerals. Until he met him. Note: This story my own idea and AI help me creating this :)