Adrean alucard's Arc

Chapter 1 of 28

Adrean chose the alley behind the butcher's shop to die. He was seventeen, and he had not eaten in six days. The slums smelled of rot and wet stone. He pressed his back to the cold wall and watched fat men carry meat past him. None of them looked down. He had spent his whole life invisible, and now he would die that way too. His eyes closed. His heartbeat slowed. Somewhere far off, a bell rang for a feast he would never taste. Then the alley filled with light. A small old man stood over him. His beard fell white to his knees. His robe glowed gold, and thin flames curled around his sandals. Adrean knew the face from the temple carvings. This was Yahweh Christ, the god the priests begged for bread that never came. "You are dying, boy," the god said. His voice was hard, not kind. "I offer you a choice. Die now and rest. Or live on as something men will fear." Adrean's cracked lips moved. "What thing?" "A vampire. You would drink blood. You would never grow old. You would never starve again." The god's golden eyes narrowed. "Most who choose it come to hate the gift." Adrean thought of the fat men and their meat. He thought of his mother, buried in a pauper's pit. He had wanted one thing his whole life: to stop being weak. To stop being ignored. "I choose the vampire," he said. The god's mouth tightened, as if the answer displeased him. He touched two fingers to Adrean's forehead. Fire poured in. Adrean screamed. His bones cracked and reset. His teeth grew sharp against his tongue. Cold flooded his veins where warmth had been. Then the god was gone, and the alley was dark again. Adrean opened his eyes. He could see every crack in the wall. He could hear rats breathing three streets away. His hunger was still there, but it had a shape now, and the shape was blood. Then something the god had not mentioned appeared before his eyes. Glowing letters hung in the air, seen by no one but him. SYSTEM AWAKENED. HOST: Adrean Alucard. CLASS: Vampire, Level 1. HIDDEN PATH DETECTED. Adrean reached toward the words. His fingers passed through them. The god had given him immortality. But this, this the god did not know he had. A power meant to grow. A power meant to climb. A new line burned brighter than the rest. QUEST: Feed. Grow strong. Seek the seat of your bloodline. Beneath the words, a faint image formed: a castle of fused bone and dark red blood, towers crowned in shadow. It waited somewhere beyond the slums, and it was calling him. Adrean rose. He was not weak now. He would never be invisible again. He wiped the grime from his face and walked out of the alley, toward the meat and the men who had ignored him, and toward the throne the system had shown him.