After those bats flew into the dark alley, they immediately transformed into mist and seeped underground. In the sewers below, a group of vampires had already been waiting. The bats that had turned into vapor soon reverted to humanoid form before the vampire leading them.
"My lord!"
The leading vampire was named Pestilen. He was already nearly thirteen hundred years old and had once been the leader and progenitor of a vampire clan. However, after Alfred emerged, this vampire chieftain had brought his descendants under Alfred's command.
Like nearly all younger vampires, Pestilen had grown weary of the vampires' long-standing lifestyle of hiding and skulking. They believed themselves to be higher lifeforms than those short-lived races and felt they deserved power commensurate with their strength!
What were humans? Livestock! Only exceptional humans had the chance to become one of them, while the vast majority of humanity was fit only to become food.
However, things were far from as wonderful as these younger vampires had imagined. They had indeed gained their first divine vampire, and this divine vampire even possessed the potential to become a god. But they had overlooked the gods' reaction—and the gods' resolve!
Thus, the vampires' living conditions quickly worsened. Countless vampires hidden among human society were discovered and then hunted down. Vampires had too many weaknesses; once targeted, they became incomparably fragile. Before long, vampires were nearly hunted into an endangered species.
Many vampires began having second thoughts. They had supported Alfred because they believed that following him would grant them greater power and let them truly become the so-called nobles of the night. Put plainly, they only wanted benefits.
Now, not only had they seen none of those benefits, but the situation had become even worse. It had even threatened the survival of the entire vampire