Velkan

"My lady, what are we stopping for?" A vampire in the front of the group asked.

"Nothing much. I'm just here to kill you." Blood vines sprouted from underneath the vampires, latching onto their bodies as they drained their blood.

"What are you doing? We're your clansmen." A male vampire asked.

"We may be the same race, but that doesn't mean I'm on your side. Now just die already and become my source of blood."

Their bodies shriveled up, soon turning to ash as all their blood was sucked along with their souls, which went unnoticed by Layla as the souls gathered within Layla's Aether palace. (A/N: an alternative name for the Mana realm.)

Shadow figures that resembled Layla emerged from the shadows, bowing in front of Layla as they held up black bottles, extending them towards Layla.

"Thank you. You may go now, store the black bottles filled with blood within my shadow storage."

The black shadow figures entered Layla's shadow, storing the black bottles that were solidified shadows in her shadow storage before dispersing.

'It's nice to have shadow servants, but they have no sentience or intellect, so you have to order them around like a puppeteer controlling every string of their puppet.'

Leaving the scene, Layla headed towards the nearest underground city, where the small army was supposed to have attacked.

Meanwhile, above the location where Layla slaughtered the vampires, stood a vampire maid who was ordered to follow the small army in secret.

'I got to inform the queen on what transpired.'

Entering the shadows, the maid quickly made her way to Camilla's palace.

Arriving in the throne room of Camilla's palace, the maid bowed, saying, "My goddess, the small army has been massacred by the young mistress, Layla."

"I see."

"Would you like us to gather troops in order to bring her back?"

"No need, let her do what she wants, but"—Camilla squinted her eyes—"she seems naive of the dark side of humans. Once she breaks out of her fantasies and learns the painful truth, she'll come back to accept her true identity as my daughter."

"She seems to be a special existence with her memories of her humanity still intact."

"True, that is the case, but no matter how much she holds onto her humanity, it'll leave her just like everyone else who was once human."

"Yes, my queen." The maid bowed and left the throne room.

* * *

When Layla was a hundred meters away, she altered her appearance to make herself appear human, donning a beautiful white dress and changing her pointy ears to those of a human while keeping her silver hair since it wasn't that unusual for humans to have silver hair. Lastly, she formed a necklace out of shadow magic, giving it a realistic look as it hung around her neck.

'Now all I need to do is pass a few tests, which will prove to them I'm human. But I'm not, so this will be fun.' Layla sprinted forward, moving across the 100 meter distance in a short amount of time.

Layla approached the entrance to the city of Velkan, seeing four guards who quickly raised their guard, pointing their etheric firearms at her.

Layla stopped a few feet away from them and raised her arms, giving off a slightly frightened look since it would give them the impression that she was fearful of death.

"If you'd like to enter the city, you can either provide a Hunter's Card or you can take a few tests to verify that you are indeed human and not a vampire or demon in disguise," said the guard in front.

"I do not have a Hunter's Card, so I'll take the test."

"Alright, follow me, but just so you know, we'll keep our firearms pointed at you until we can verify that you are human." The guard in front walked to a sealed door.

Layla followed after him as the other three guards walked beside her, watching every step she took while pointing their guns at her.

As Layla entered the room, she noticed that it resembled an interrogation room somewhat but that there was a variety of equipment that she assumed was for the tests.