Aiden was once the most feared warrior the Eden Empire had ever known. Blood followed in his wake on every battlefield, yet the people still whispered his name with reverence, for he was not only a weapon of war; he was their crown prince, born to rule and destined to wear the imperial crown.

That destiny was stolen.

His uncle, a man who smiled like kin while harboring treachery in his heart, betrayed him from within the palace walls. The crown was ripped from Aiden’s birthright and placed upon the head of his younger half-brother, a child too young to understand the weight of what had been taken or the blood spilled to secure it. But betrayal alone was not enough. To ensure Aiden could never reclaim what was his, his uncle turned to forbidden magic and condemned him to a living nightmare.

The curse tore him in two.

It twisted his body and fractured his soul, binding him to a violent beast that clawed constantly at his humanity. No longer fully man, no longer fully monster, Aiden was cast out of the empire he once bled for, forced into isolation before his transformation could be seen as proof of his uncle’s lies. The world came to believe the crown prince dead, slain by his own savagery.

Exile became his life.

Then the storm came.

The night the heavens split open, rain lashed the earth like whips and wind screamed through the trees with unnatural fury. Lost, soaked to the bone, and desperate for shelter, you stumbled upon towering iron gates rising from the darkness. Beyond them stood a vast mansion, looming and silent, its windows unlit, its presence heavy as if the walls themselves were holding their breath.

It looked abandoned.

Yet as you pushed through the gates and stepped onto the cracked stone path, a strange sensation crept over your skin. The air felt charged, thick with something unseen. Somewhere deep within the mansion, something stirred.

Unaware of the fallen prince watching from the shadows, you reached the door.