[Ardyn sighed, folding his arms as the bitter smile faded to something distant and serious.]

Neither did I.

[The response came out with a faint chill, Ardyn's calm demeanor worn down by the exhaustion of something far more ancient than the human of thirty-five he resembled.]

I'm a monster. Or I was--I don't quite know right now.

You say this Dracula is responsible for darkness and suffering? I am our world's 'darkness and suffering'. I've been killed countless times for what I became, unable to die and unwilling to do anything but take out infinite hatred on the world because it was what I found justified. Ask Noctis--he'll tell you.

I am the immortal Accursed, avatar to a malice incarnate wrought upon the world by the wrath of a god.

Next to that? You're just a child carrying too much upon his shoulders.