Eight somewhat peaceful days later the two thralls, under YuJu's painstaking purification and evolution as well as Subrina's supply of the advanced bat's blood essence, were kneeling with an all new look, one that wasn't an abomination to witness

"What splendid thralls Master, I dare say the two of them could even contend with my dear Sofia"

"Power isn't what I am hoping for them to pack, I still need them to keep their wits about to make this raid a success"

Turning to the first one to evolve his eyes registered the mostly beast like appearance

It wasn't atrocious but certainly a little scary if met at night, especially the extra large wings extending from the back and their single nail popping from the top making the wings look a bit too similar to a dragon's

One might even think some dragon blood was injected during the purification but it was actually the dire bat's which brought about this change, after all one couldn't start with a strong bloodline lest it dominates the original one

Apart from the wings which could give everyone a good scare the rest was actually pleasing to the eyes, large puffy ears sat on top of the thrall's head to compensate for the lost eyesight as the red and white took each other's place, ending up with a blind white iris in the middle of a red sclera, and blue fur spread over the main body and legs sparing only the arms and face to retain a furless yet still blue state

"How do you feel"

The thrall's ears rose in attention, no answer further beyond that

"Can you not understand me?"

No response still

"Speak"

"Que"

The thrall's clear voice came, it wasn't anything human however and merely soft clicking

With the first barely able to understand the simplest of words he moved his eyes to the second one, hopefully she wouldn't disappoint

"How do you feel"

"Kie"

Another weird sound, it didn't discourage him however for the woman nodded her head seemingly replying to his question

"Can you speak?"

"Kie"

That was a no

"Hmm, then can you read?"

"Kie kie!"

Excited the thrall shook her head up and down in obvious agreement

"Good, then you shall lead the rest of your kin into battle, I want the place devoid of any creatures whatsoever by the time the humans move to settle in, now go"

Handing her a map with the needed land marked in red he ordered

"Kiee!!"

Unfurling the light wings nestling on her back the thrall gave a battle shriek before taking off into the air with the other three transformed thralls in tow as well as a camp of newly recruited bats

"That is one beautiful evolution Master, I wish all the thralls end up the same"

Looking at the leading thrall fly out of sight Mia couldn't help but admire, even after evolution there was only an addition of wings to the back and the change of her legs into bent long ones, otherwise she remained the same

YuJu did not voice out a comment since only the research results concerned him, only Ika by the side nodded, really hoping the other three would turn back into a more human look, not that she held much hope for the matter

"Now with the land on its way to our clutches what should we do Master?"

"Increase the number of humans in the settlement your building, the more people you have the better our chances are in controlling the flow of future events"

"Then, the man we turned into a thrall the other day, was he for this part"

He nodded while Ika flinched a little recalling how she had to enthrall a man, a man whom she didn't know at that, what an unpleasant experience it was

"Call for him"

"Yes"

She sent the recalling message with a bat, since he was a bit far however they had some time to kill allowing time to put forth the questions in her mind

"Master, I would really like to know why we can't just send the vampire controlling the thralls to battle as well, with their control through blood it wouldn't matter if the thralls could understand or not"

"Sure, you can send them to babysit the thralls for this battle, perhaps the next and the one after, eventually however there would be strangers enemies that require the vampire's full attention, in that case who is to lead the thrall's battle with the remaining foes? There has to be an intelligent leader among the bunch, one strong enough to be acknowledged as well"

"I see, Master's foresight is far reaching indeed"

The praise seemed to put an end to the conversation as the wait continued in silence

No more than an hour later the darkly clad man was kneeling before them with only red eyes proving his new alliance

"Dag, how fares your scouting group"

Mia asked with a little sarcasm, her attitude still somewhat hostile towards this man whose name mismatched his appearance

"As you know we have been a little down on luck lately, once the beasts discovered the ruling bat of the mall went missing they started to invade the place in droves, their migration causing a few casualties and even some camps saved by us to relocate"

"Perhaps it's time your people stop acting like saints and shore up on strength, I believe our settlement would more than welcome some good watchers"

To this Dag kept quiet, his heart still settled on helping people even though he was a thrall now

"Leave him to his own devices Mia, his amicable connections would serve us well"

Sure enough YuJu was the savior of this pitiful man

"Now, I need you to mark all the temporary camps you've saved so far and estimate their numbers so we can allocate enough bats to raid them"

Nevermind, this guy was a devil

"But my lord, these humans have done nothing wrong!"

"So?"

"Why must we feast on their blood and treat them as cattle, are the beasts filling the earth not enough to satiate everyone's hunger"

Mia's figure leaned forward in an act of lunging but Ika beat her to it, jumping forward and grabbing him by the hair before smashing his head into the solid earth

"Speak when you're spoken to thrall"

She warned, a clear look of anger plastered across her face

YuJu raised a hand to have her let go of him, looking at bloody yet still unconvinced face lifting itself from the ground he nodded

"Your as foolishly kind as I hoped you'd be, good, as for the humans you seek to defend you shouldn't worry too much, I don't want to harm them, merely scare them into leaving the camp and seeking a more stable environment where safety isn't as lacking"

"If there was such a place they would already be crawling to it"

"There isn't one here yet, but it's in the making"

Hearing that there would be a safer settlement Dag couldn't help but widen his eyes, imagining what it would be to the humans who roamed the earth in fear and trepidation every day

'Wait'

Suddenly a thought crept into his mind, before he could voice it out however Ika seemed to catch on and plunged his face down into the earth once more

"Least you could do is thank the Lord for his mercy"

Her sudden action and strange attitude brought confusion to the two watching this happen, after all Ika was usually unspoken and had a gloomy air around her ever since her precious thralls became lab rats and tools for war

It wasn't too big of a thing however so they just passed it off as her letting off some steam at the poor Dag's expense and watched as she dragged him out of the hall to draw the map

".....You fool"

When the two were a good distance from the hall's entrance Ika couldn't help but comment, unhanding the man and giving him a handkerchief from her breast pocket

"Thank you"

"If you really want to thank me then stop getting yourself in trouble! Believe me when I say I just saved your sorry head from cracking, if mother really did take action instead of you'd be passed out by now"

Dag slumped his shoulders knowing how dangerous his rude behavior was, still he squared his shoulders the next second with a determined look about him

"It doesn't matter if she injured me or not, as long as I get my point across and then do my job right they wouldn't kill me for the small behavior, at worst I will live on as a beast that can kill scores of the enemies"

His words this time were not met with a reprimand, even though they sounded even dumber than his actions promoting him to look at the side, only to see Ika walking with her head down

"I..I'm sorry I didn't mean-"

She shook her head before he could explain

"I don't need your apology nor your thanks, I need nothing more than a single request"

Turning her red, sad, and very tragic eyes toward him she spoke from her heart

"Don't turn into a beast"

"....I promise I won't"