Hero or Villain, Both

Once the pureblooded Malphis had been contained, it wasn't as if the other vampires could do anything.

Without Malphis supporting them, they didn't even have a way to stop the scythe that was looming over them.

Just a single swing of that scythe was enough to kill them all, especially since they didn't even have a way to fight back.

They looked like they were rats that had been trapped with how they just awkwardly stood there without knowing what to do.

But then the leader of the attackers from the blood factory said, "Surrender and we'll spare your lives."

The vampires were completely caught off guard when they heard this, but they didn't waste any time in raising their hands as they announced that they would surrender. If they could live, it didn't matter if they surrendered to their attackers.

After all, there really wasn't anything else that was left for them now that the pureblooded Malphis had been captured.

It was better to survive now and find a way to live through the punishment that they received than to die now.

So with that, all of the vampires were caught and brought away.

After they were brought away, the leader of the group from the blood factory said, "Vargas, what do you think you're doing? If it wasn't for you, then we wouldn't have had to do something as risky as this! It's all because you got in the way that we had to charge out to save you!"

By now, the smoke had already cleared and it revealed the young scythe wielding demon that had challenged Val Zahad the other day.

Even though he was being yelled at, he didn't seem to mind it as much as he slowly turned around to say, "My instincts were telling me that something was off, that was why I made my move."

"Your instincts? How could that be a good enough reason?" The leader became even angrier when he heard this.

"Alright, that's enough of that."

When this voice rang out, the expressions on their faces immediately changed.

Even Vargas no longer seemed as casual as he was before as a trace of fear appeared in his eyes.

All of them turned to look in the direction of the ball of blood that held Malphis and they saw that there was a figure that was standing there. When they saw this figure, they didn't hesitate to lower their heads to bow to this person.

That was because this person was the one that they served.

This person was the Demon King, Val Zahad.

"Your ma…Master, I never thought that you would show yourself already." The leader said after realizing his mistake and quickly changing the way that he addressed me.

I gave a simple nod before turning to look at Vargas.

When he saw me looking at him, there was even more fear that appeared in his eyes and he quickly turned away as if he was afraid to look at me.

I didn't mind as I said, "Though I agree with you that what he did was impulsive, his instincts were on point this time."

Everyone revealed shocked looks when they heard this, including Vargas who seemed confused that I was supporting him.

But I didn't care that they looked at me like this as I tapped the ball of blood that was beside me. When I did, there was this ripple that ran through that ball of blood before something came out of it.

This ripple soon became something that came out of the ball of blood.

I grabbed that item and held it up for everyone to see, but there were confused looks that appeared on their faces as they looked at it.

So I explained, "This is a special artifact that the pureblood elders gave to this kid. If he had actually fallen into the trap, there's no doubt that it would have ended poorly."

They still had confused looks on their faces since they had no idea what I meant by this.

"This thing is a special artifact that would have amplified their power by several dozen times. Even If I suppressed their blood powers, they would have still been able to do major damage to you."

Looking at the place where they fought, I added, "It's only because of the wide open space that you fought in that they didn't get to use it in the end. Or else if he had buffed everyone that showed up…well, it would have been bad. You still would have won, but there would be far more casualties."

They all trembled when they heard this.

There wasn't a single one of them that doubted what I said since they could feel the power that was coming from this pendant that I was holding. Though they did look at me with a surprised and confused look as they were trying to figure out how I had gotten this thing from Malphis.

I didn't explain any further than this as I turned back to look at the factory before asking, "Did you receive the reports from the other locations?"

The leader was caught off guard when he heard this before saying, "Please give me a moment to check."

He quickly turned around and tapped his ear before saying a few things.

Instead of saying anything else, he just nodded along as if he was listening to something.

When he was done, he turned back to report, "All the spots have been cleared out without any problems."

I gave a simple nod in response since I had already expected this to be the case.

With how the plan had been laid out, it would have been hard for them to fail unless there was something unexpected like this amulet. That was why I had come to watch over the fight with the pureblood vampire just in case.

"Go and prepare for the next step. The next wave will be much harder to deal with."

"Yes master."

With that, they all headed off to take care of their matters.