On an elaborately fitted airship kept aloft by "astermite", the vampire Noé Archiviste is bound for Paris where he hopes to assess the true nature of a legendary grimoire for his teacher called The Book of Vanitas. He meets a woman named Amelia Ruth, who is revealed as a vampire. Consumed by bloodlust, she bites him, poisoning his bloodstream. A man called Vanitas bursts in and uses The Book of Vanitas to reveal her true name, Florifel, which returns her to normal. Vanitas reveals that the grimoire removed the malady which is corrupting the names of vampires and causing them to become "curse-bearers" and go berserk...