I was Darian, the Apex Vampire of the Nether Realm. A decade ago, nine humans willingly traded their souls, signing a pact with me to become my blood servants. They believed that if chosen as my companion at the Grand Embrace Ceremony, they would gain eternal access to my potent blood. Every single blood servant worked tirelessly, collecting soul fragments for me daily, showering me with flattery. All of them, that is, except for Seraphina. She alone disdained to fawn over me. Yet, she was the one I desired most. I even gifted her rare, powerful souls I’d hunted myself. I genuinely believed that by choosing her as my companion at the upcoming Grand Embrace Ceremony, my deepest wish would be fulfilled. But then, Seraphina, who usually showed me no emotion, *dared* to forcefully kiss Caleb, the human boy I had rescued. And Caleb? He was her own brother. They’d become my blood servants to save a dying Caleb. I should have realized it then. Yet, when I granted them their twisted wish, they were consumed by a furious regret.
“Oh gods, the Ceremony is almost here! What if the King chooses *me*?” “What are you scared of? The King despises our attempts at flattery. Just keep up your act, and you’ll be safe.” “Thank goodness for Seraphina. If she hadn’t caught the King’s eye with her aloof demeanor, we might never have been able to stay with Caleb!” “Shh, keep your voice down! She’s the unlucky one, stuck with the King’s attention.” “I’d rather *die* than be chosen by him. I have to marry Caleb. He’s my only light in this damn Realm!” I sat beneath the garden gazebo, my fingertips subtly tightening. So, all this time, their obedience, their excessive flattery, their pathetic attempts to appear inferior… It was all a charade. They were simply infatuated with Caleb, hoping to disgust me enough that I’d reject them as potential companions. Caleb, the one I’d saved a decade ago by sharing my blood, had never signed a pact with me. Naturally, his power couldn’t compare to that of my blood servants, and he couldn’t complete his daily tasks alone. My blood servants would regularly share their collected soul fragments with Caleb, Allowing him to submit his quotas to me. Vampires cannot fall in love with humans. I had always believed their actions were out of pity. It never once crossed my mind that it was *love*. Just then, a strange sound drifted from another corner of the garden. I followed the noise, my gaze falling upon a patch of ground where moonlight dappled through the leaves. There, the usually cold and aloof Seraphina was clinging tightly to Caleb. She kissed him with a desperate urgency, a burning passion I had never witnessed in her before. “Caleb, don’t worry,” Seraphina’s voice was urgent, yet firm. “I will *never* let him choose me.” “Even if he does, I won’t agree to the Embrace. I will *never* become his companion.” Caleb gently pushed her away, a perfectly feigned look of distress on his face. “But, Seraphina, to be embraced by the King grants you his purest blood, eternal life just like him. It’s an opportunity countless souls dream of.” “I don’t care!” Seraphina immediately retorted, cupping his face. “I have no interest in eternal life. I only care about you. I just want to be with *you*.” Standing in the shadows, a chilling realization washed over me. The blood servants I had chosen, the ones who had showered me with flattery… they *all* loved Caleb. I, Darian, the mighty King of the Nether Realm, had become nothing more than a pathetic joke. I was never short of blood servants desperate to be my companion. Since they were so unwilling, I decided to grant them their wish. The next day, I issued a new decree. “Effective immediately, all blood supply to my blood servants will cease.” My blood servants primarily subsisted on the blood I provided, supplied by human thralls. Cutting off this supply meant they would have to hunt humans themselves. “From this day forward, you will hunt for your own blood and soul fragments in the human world.” They exchanged bewildered glances, assuming I was simply in a bad mood. No one dared to object, accepting their fate. With this, they would be constantly busy, traveling between the human world and the Nether Realm, with no time left to coddle Caleb. Without Seraphina and his other admirers “feeding” him, Caleb’s tasks naturally went unfulfilled. He knelt before me, his face ashen, unable to even utter a plea for mercy. “Task failed. You will report to the Sun-Scorched Peaks of the Nether Realm for sun-desensitization training,” I declared, my voice devoid of emotion. The Sun-Scorched Peaks were the closest point to sunlight in our realm, a torture chamber, a living hell for us vampires. When Seraphina heard the news, her face went deathly pale. She raced there without a moment’s hesitation. I watched from a distance as she unfolded her not-so-broad bat wings, Straining every fiber of her being to shield Caleb from the scorching sunlight. The sun pierced through her wings, leaving her almost desiccated, yet she stubbornly held on. I averted my gaze, my heart untouched by a single ripple of emotion.
That night, I led my elite vampire guard in a brutal raid on the human Templar Knights. The battle raged on through the night. Only as dawn approached did we finally claim victory. I had expended a vast amount of blood and dark energy, leaving my body weaker than it had ever been. Even the faint glow of the rising sun on the horizon felt almost unbearable. I stumbled back to the Sun-Scorched Peaks of the Nether Realm, where the intensifying sunlight instantly enveloped me. The rays seared my skin, piercing my very bones. The pain was so intense I could barely stand. Seraphina and Caleb stood not far away. She saw me, saw my agony and my weakness. But she didn’t come to my aid. She didn’t spread her wings to shield me, not even for a flicker of sunlight, as she had done for Caleb. She simply stood there, cold and unmoving, a cruel satisfaction gleaming in her eyes. “My King,” she sneered, “you look utterly pathetic right now.” “This is your karma for punishing Caleb yesterday.” I looked at Caleb, standing so perfectly protected beside her. Suddenly, the decade of favoritism I had shown Seraphina felt utterly ludicrous. While I was recovering, the special Blood Artifact Auction, held in preparation for the Grand Embrace Ceremony, began. Most of the vampires in the Realm would attend, either to choose suitable artifacts for their future companions or to bid on rare, powerful souls. I had no intention of choosing a companion, but I was still intrigued by the countless bizarre blood artifacts on display. The auction was held within a massive cavern, its walls embedded with glowing crystals. My eyes immediately fixed on a potent soul, sealed within a crystal vial. The energy radiating from it was pure and immense, enough to completely heal the wounds I’d sustained in the recent battle. Just as I prepared to bid, I saw Seraphina fiercely competing for that very same soul. “Seraphina, darling, let it go. It’s too valuable. Besides… the King is here too.” He glanced in my direction, his eyes devoid of any reverence. Seraphina shook her head stubbornly, gently patting his hand. “You were burned by the sun, Caleb. You need this to heal.” Then, she abruptly turned to me, her eyes filled with their usual contempt. “Unlike *some* vampires, who only fight a minor skirmish with humans and then need a powerful soul to heal. What a disgrace to our kind!” A vampire’s hearing far surpasses that of any human. Her words, every single one of them, pierced straight into my ears. Fine. *Excellent*. I raised my hand, announcing an even higher price. Seraphina, not one to back down, immediately countered. Whispers began to ripple through the cavern. “Isn’t she the King’s blood servant? Why is she bidding against her master?” “Bidding? She’s using soul fragments granted by her master to compete for an item for *another man*! Isn’t she publicly humiliating the King?” A cold sneer touched my lips. I triggered the final bid. It was the signal for the highest bid, meaning the item was mine. I thought I had won, that I had thoroughly humiliated her. However, as I prepared to draw on my dark energy, to retrieve the soul fragments from my spatial storage to pay, I found my power utterly blocked, refusing to obey. What in the hell was going on? The entire hall fell silent for a beat, then erupted into thunderous laughter. “Hahahaha, have I been out of touch with the royal family too long? Since when was the King nothing but a hollow shell?!” “He just fought *one* battle and now he’s this pathetic?” “Can’t even produce the soul fragments and still dares to trigger the final bid? How utterly clueless!” While they didn’t dare say these things directly to my face, out of respect for my title, My enhanced senses picked up every mocking whisper. The tide of their laughter still threatened to drown me. At that moment, Seraphina, holding Caleb’s hand, slowly approached me. A victorious smile played on her lips as she calmly paid for the soul fragments, claiming the powerful soul. Right in front of everyone, she opened the crystal vial and allowed Caleb to absorb the soul on the spot. Watching the unbridled, triumphant smile on her face, a chilling truth suddenly dawned on me. Last night, she had uncharacteristically delivered my tribute blood herself. She’d said it was the sweetest human blood she’d specially hunted, hoping it would help me recover quickly. She, who had always disdained to flatter me. That sudden warmth, that tainted blood… it was all for this auction. For Caleb, to publicly humiliate me, she had been willing to cast aside her dignity and play me like a fool. “My King, thank you for your generosity.” Caleb, his strength restored, walked up to me, a taunting smile on his face. “If you hadn’t generously gifted Seraphina so many soul fragments before, we really wouldn’t have been able to afford this precious item today.” A sharp, searing pain suddenly tore through my heart. The dark energy within me began to surge uncontrollably. This was… a sign of my transformation into a demon. I couldn’t be bothered to endure their petty, gloating faces any longer. Under the confused and wary gazes of the crowd, I rushed back to my castle. I needed to seclude myself immediately.
The day of the Grand Embrace Ceremony was also destined to be my day of transformation into a demon. All I needed was to infuse my lifeblood into the ancient Blood Artifact, and I would shatter the shackles of my current power, becoming the first true demon in the entire history of the Nether Realm. I sat on my throne in the center of the ceremony hall when a raven descended from the sky, landing on my shoulder. It carried a message from the Divine Realm. It was Astraea. That woman had been stuck to me like glue for centuries. Knowing she was coming, a headache immediately bloomed behind my eyes. I was just about to announce that no companion would be chosen at this ceremony. Suddenly, a violent tremor of dark energy erupted from deep within the castle. Someone had breached the barrier I’d set for my seclusion. The backlash hit me, my dark energy spiraling out of control, forcing the demonic transformation ritual to begin prematurely. Beneath my skin, power surged like boiling lava. “Quick, bring the Blood Artifact!” Seraphina, seeing my state, immediately commanded in a loud voice. A blood servant rushed forward, presenting the ancient Blood Artifact to her. I struggled desperately to control the raging power inside me, cold sweat beading on my forehead, reaching out to take the artifact. Just as my fingertips were about to touch the Blood Artifact, Seraphina suddenly lunged into my arms. Something cold, something radiating a divine aura, plunged violently into my heart. Blinding pain erupted. I shoved Seraphina away with all my might. Looking down, what was impaled in my chest was no Blood Artifact at all. It was a gleaming silver cross—a holy relic of human priests! She had conspired with humans, swapping out my artifact! My dark energy, as if finding an outlet, was being violently siphoned away by the holy relic. Strength drained from me. I crashed to my knees. The hall erupted into chaos. Meanwhile, my nine blood servants, as if on cue, swarmed me, pinning my limbs and body down. Just then, a human priest in white robes appeared before me, seemingly out of nowhere. He chanted arcane words, casting a spell that steadily transferred the dark energy siphoned from my body directly into Caleb. “My King,” one of the blood servants whispered, pressing down on my shoulder, “when you were poring over ancient texts in your private chamber, you must have overlooked that tattered scroll in the corner, didn’t you?” “It records that a vampire’s bloodline and sufficiently powerful dark energy are the keys to becoming a demon.” “Ten years ago, you used your own blood to save Caleb, so your bloodline flows through him.” “Now, by transferring all your dark energy to him, he can take your place and become the Nether Realm’s first demon!” Caleb greedily absorbed my dark energy, while excitedly calling out to the priest, “Father!” Father? It clicked. They had been deceiving me from the very beginning. This wasn’t some impulsive betrayal. This was a ten-year-long conspiracy. “Did you really think we *wanted* to be your blood servants?” Seraphina pressed down harder on my profusely bleeding chest, twisting the holy relic deeper. “You are the most powerful vampire in the Nether Realm, the King of all our kind. To utterly destroy the vampire race, we had to start with you.” “That’s why we orchestrated that pact a decade ago.” “Once Caleb becomes a demon, his power will transcend yours, and our soul pact with you will be null and void.” With my dark energy completely drained, I collapsed, my consciousness fading. Seeing my power gone, the vampire forces below descended into chaos, scattering in a frantic flight. The blood servants, along with the priest, slashed my flesh, broke my bat wings, and gutted my insides. They dragged me to the human world, throwing me into a grand cathedral, where they strung me up high with chains. The skylight above, completely unobstructed, was aimed directly at the scorching sun. They intended for me to hang there, exposed to its relentless rays for ninety-nine days. After hoisting me in the center of the cathedral, they busied themselves attending to Caleb, who was adjusting to his new demonic bloodline. This, ironically, gave me a chance to breathe. I don’t know how long passed. The scorching sun finally receded, and a full moon slowly ascended. Its cold, clear light filtered through the skylight, bathing my broken body. A melodious female voice, laced with a hint of schadenfreude, echoed softly in my ear. “Only a few months apart, and the Nether Realm has fallen so low?” “Tsk, utterly pathetic.” Astraea, the crazy woman who had chased me for centuries. She slowly walked up to me, raising a hand to brush against the chains binding me.
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