What happens when one holy being pursuing salvation meets a corrupted creature of darkness

More often than not there would be conflict, a battle to prove whose beliefs are correct, an unsolvable rivalry between the two factions

Dwellers of the Infidome would disagree however, for in such a world where views are different in every world, good and bad cease to exist, unreasonable conflict over race prove to be futile, though they remain as ever present sparks of conflict

"You've been gone for quite the while, what have you been up to?"

"Something real special"

"Is that so? Pray tell, what ambitious things have you snuck your interests into"

"Wouldn't you like to know, the time is not right however, wouldn't want a certain goodie two shoes to mind someone else's business"

"Haha, I'm not so free as to offer you help anyway, times are tough right now, the beasts in the nearby region have been running rampant for some reason"

The red eyed Mia smiled at the comment, knowing that their recent huge battle might be the real cause behind this phenomenon

"Anyhow, if you are not here to ask for assistance from me then what's the occasion?"

"Can I not meet my dear Sofia for no reason at all?"

"Come now, it's not like we met yesterday, your the last person I would expect to waste their time, especially when our settlement is just getting a foothold back on earth"

"Hmm, now that you mention it I did come here to speak about the settlement"

With a light smirk Sofia looked on at the comrade turned vampire, expecting some good news from the ever helpful friend of her's until she noticed Mia's face turn grim

"What's going on?"

With her own face adopting the same grim look she asked

"There have been attacks at a few nearby camps"

"There are such attacks happening every day, If you're mentioning it however, there must be something special?"

"The camps were wiped"

"!!!"

One had to know that for a camp to exist there had to be some strong humans guarding it, not necessarily as strong as the one's in their settlement but above mediocre for sure, yet many such places were wiped? Concerning news indeed

"Do we know who did it?"

"Yes…."

Expecting the answer she waited yet all Mia did was keep quiet after affirming

"And, they are?"

"....Bats, to be more specific, blood bats"

"...."

Now it was clear why there was some reluctance in revealing the attacker's identity

"They cant be part of the few under your command right"

"Of course not! What do you see me as?!"

She huffed out in frustration

"They seem to be under the control of someone with great intellect, an evolved beast, perhaps another vampire even"

"How can you tell?"

"Because they aren't falling under my command"

"I see"

Sofia heaved a relieved breath in her heart, though she didn't want to think that Mia could turn against humans her biased opinion as an Angelic Apostil made her doubt the ever loyal comrade from time to time, much to her displeasure

"Then we need to find the culprit of this planned attack to solve the issue"

"If it was that simple would I have come here?"

That's right, she didn't need help in reconnaissance with her skillset

"The problem you see is, whatever that creature is they aren't sending out the commands in person, instead they seem to be using bats to commune the order, with how many bats there are leaving and joining the groups every hour it would be impossible to track the right one down"

"How do we go about tracking it then?"

"We don't, as things stand our only choice is to kill the bats, they can't be endless and they aren't as terrifying in small groups, that's why me and my thralls will be using guerilla tactics on them"

A reasonable and easily executable response, as expected from the sharp minded Mia, that left one question in Sofia's mind however

"Just what are you here for then?"

"Simply put, to warn you, the next target of the bats seem to be none other than our settlement"

Taking a deep breath Sofia thought about what this meant for them

"If the number of bats number in the hundreds, and they aren't highly evolved, then we can easily deal with them on our own, if they were in the thousands however...we would have to move again"

"I am unsure of how many there are"

"Hmm, then let us send for the Roaming Eyes, they must have more clues to the situation"

"Good idea"

Seeing Mia nod to her suggestion Sofia was relieved, knowing the prideful vampire that she was Sofia thought she would try to solve everything on her own, just as she did every other time

'Not that she has failed us yet...I could ask for no better comrade, no better friend'

Looking a little warmly at those red eyes she thought to every time her butt was saved from imminent peril, every time the survivors were spared an untimely end due to the thrall's intervention, and most importantly every time she shouldered her weight of leading the people to the next dawn, all while hiding in the shadows while she herself basked in the glory of victory

'There will come a time when you can show your face with pride Mia...mark my words'

The two then said their farewells, promising to meet once the messenger from the Roaming Eyes briefed them of anything new

"Haah, why must I deal with this soft hearted fool?

"You're enjoying it more than you show"

In response to her rude comment after Sofia's departure YuJu called her out as he shimmered into sight, still clad in smoke

"It's not her company that I enjoy" "But the easy success of your schemes?" "Master knows me too well Master"

Acting a little touched gave an alluring smile, sadly Sofia's far back seemed to be the only thing occupying his eyes

"What exactly allowed her to acquire that Title?"

"Well Master~ How about a secret for a secret~?"

Her coquettish way of asking gave her no advantage, all she received was still the same old observing gaze, one that awaited the answer to its question

Clearing her throat and taking a professional look she returned to her normal self and started explaining

"It was a month after Master's departure, at the time there had been a fleet of angles passage through our lands unexpectedly, said fleet met some trouble on the way and they fought a strange massive rock, getting wiped out except for a single member escaping and hiding among human ruins, it was when I first knew of their existence"

Nodding his head he linked the fight to the gravely injured angel who recovered miraculously and established her own forces among humans

"That angle had some sort of ruling feeling to her, upon closer inspection however I noticed the feather adorned behind her ears was exuding most of the unique power"

Yes, that was indeed the very same angle in his memories

"Seeing that I recalled Master's description of Titles in the first blood message, that some Titles are obtained through unique actions or circumstances, others by being in a certain position or by heritage"

She paused for a second, a sneaky smile plastered on her face before continuing

"Others by holding certain objects of power"

He could see where this was going now

"Of course, my guess wasn't on point, similarly the angle's power was not within my expectations, still, with a bit of trickery after a sore loss I managed to not only escape but even had the angle pass on both the Title and feather onto Sofia, granting her power far more quickly than her peers"

That was new, a Title requiring both heredity and an object, it wasn't anything surprising however, in fact he was more interested in what Mia did to trick that angle into passing something so precious, it was a story for another time however

"What of the angle"

"Dead, right after she passed everything to Sofia her body disintegrated into light, not even a drop of blood was left"

Licking her lips she answered ruefully, how she longed to take a bite out of that white smooth neck filled with powerful and pure blood

"....."

A piercing gaze awoke her from the dreamy daze, not knowing what she did wrong she locked eyes with him only to see an exacerbated expression

"Master?..." "Haah…"

Only a sigh came out, otherwise what could he say? That angel and her devoted group would protect humanity from being wiped out in the not so far future? Even going as far as to sacrifice themselves?

'Why did that idiot not heal herself instead, why pass the torch on'

He could feel another headache coming his way, one more great problem to solve

'One thing at a time'

Thinking back to his current plan he decided to focus efforts on it, forgoing other matters for now